Chapter 1

A dry wind blew over the once snow-covered mountains; a drought killed off the life of the great circle of life. The barren plant life was shriveled up, the streams were dry, and the snow had turned into dead grass. Nothing was the way the Great Kings had planned for their sons and daughters, but they could do nothing but watch the suffering from their eternal resting place.

A beautiful young lioness sighed while staring up at the stars on a usual dry night. Dust clouds usually covered up these heavenly bodies, but tonight was a full moon, and everything in the sky shone brilliantly. The white lioness stared into the moon-lit sky, wondering to herself if anybody was watching over her and the pride that she held to her so dearly. She prayed every night that the rain season would stop delaying and fill up her once-magnificent land with life and hope.

Sighing once again to herself, she ended her praying and walked silently back to her home. There was no snow to crunch underneath her paws, but instead dirt and rocks. She missed the cool chill of snow, and throughout the long dry season almost forgot what it felt like. Thankfully, she kept her memories very close to her, although some, in fact most, were painful.

Suddenly, she heard a noise coming from a shriveled up bush. Probably just a fox, she thought, and continued walking. Although she knew she was alone, she felt an ominous feeling that something was stalking her. She paused for a moment to sniff the air, and the strong scent of lion shocked her. Nobody comes out here but me, she growled to herself. She crouched down, prepared to attack, but a shadow jumped out of the bush and landed on her back.

The white lioness snarled and threw her attacker off, but the challenger pounced into the air again. She tried to run away, but the opponent landed on her, pinning her to the ground. "Gotcha, sis." The attacker smirked, and got off of the white lioness to sit down.

"What are you doing, Adia?" the white lioness snarled to her younger sister. "I came out here to get some peace and quiet away from you!"

Adia, a teenage golden lioness, grinned and laughed. "I came out here to make sure you didn't get any peace and quiet, Nyimba. You're such a loser, wandering around alone at night while real queens are lying asleep in their dens. Oh wait…that's because they're not stupid, like you!"

Nyimba growled, "Well you're just jealous that I was chosen to be the next queen. You may have pretend friends, but nobody loves the second best!"

Adia roared and unsheathed her long, black claws. "Everybody loves me because I'm simply better. Mum and Dad must have had some sort of accident when they chose you to be their heir. I'm prettier, smarter, stronger, and not a stupid loser!"

Nyimba unsheathed her claws, but slid them back in, not wanting to start a fight. "You're none of those things, Adia. Your jealousy is going to be the death of you one day, just wait and see." Nyimba snapped with an ominous tone, and began to walk away from her angered sister. Unfortunately, Adia had no plans of letting her sister walk away without a fight.

A tan lioness jumped out from the same bush Adia had hidden in, and blocked Nyimba from escaping. With a laugh, she said, "What's the matter, oh-so-wise Queen Nyimba? You can't get past a lowly lioness like me?"

Nyimba calmly spoke, "I don't want to fight you, Jamali, or you, Adia. Just let me go back home."

Adia stalked toward her sister with a menacing smile on her face. "There's no way you're going home in one piece unless you apologize."

"Yeah, apologize to the true princess!" Jamali repeated in a cool tone.

"I'm not going to apologize for what you started!" Nyimba protested. The two evil lionesses were now circling the white princess, claws extended and teeth glistened as they formed into snarls.

"Fine, have it your way!" Adia roared and raked her claws across her sister's face. Nyimba extended her claws and pounced at the golden lioness, anger and hate spreading through her body like a wildfire. She dug her claws into her sister's pelt, ripping fur from her body, but Adia's sidekick Jamali knocked the white lioness off of her. Nyimba flew through the air, and landed on a sharp rock, which cut into her side and opened a bloody gash.

Nyimba attempted to rise to her paws, but fell back down. "You're a monster, Adia! Even hell doesn't have a place for you!" she growled softly.

The two teenage lionesses stood over Nyimba, and Adia chuckled, "I'll go up to the Great Kings when I die, because I'm so much better than you. Our parents may be blind to it, but everybody else, even the Great Kings see it." She looked at Jamali and ordered, "Go back to the dens and tell everybody that our dear little princess had an 'accident', and needs assistance."

Jamali nodded and sprinted to the Great Rocks, where the Northland pride's dens were. Adia sat down and began to lick the blood off of herself quickly to hide the evidence of her attack.

"Why don't you just kill me? You've tortured me since you were old enough to do it. If you want to be the next queen so badly, then why not take me out of my misery?" Nyimba coughed.

Adia continued licking her blood-soaked paws and didn't answer the question until she had finished. "Two things dear sister: firstly, I'm far too lazy to be a queen. Second, torturing you is my hobby. If I killed you, I'd have to be responsible for our pride and wouldn't have a fun sport."

Nyimba nodded and closed her eyes, letting tears run down her cheeks. Someone please kill the evil witch, she prayed silently before sinking into unconsciousness.

Hey guys! This is my first story to publish on this website...I hope I get some reviews!

I DON'T own The Lion King, but I own all of these characters.

~Skyy