The Human Pride lander

A/N: Hey everyone! So here's chapter 2 of 'The Human Pride lander'! I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Once again, shout out to my best friend Tenni for helping come up with ideas and for pretty much proof-reading my work to make sure it makes sense (because most of the time I'm working on my fanfics at night or during/in-between classes when I'm still tired). Without further ado, on with the story!

Jem Boy: Don't hate me for this, but I actually am not very fond of The Lion Guard so the characters from the show will not be appearing in this fic; it's just the characters from the films and any OC's I create for the story. (Sorry!)

EDIT: After a lot of consideration, I decided to re-write the story a bit and include The Lion Guard characters this time around. After seeing the "Lions of the Outlands" episode, I started to kind of enjoy the show.

Disclaimer: Again, I don't own The Lion King or its Characters or songs; they all belong to Disney.

-SerenaBlackmore98
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Chapter 2:

It's been a year since Alanna was welcomed to the pride landers, and the young princess was anxious to go explore the pride lands with her best friend, Tiffa today. As she was about to go down the stone steps of Pride rock, the five-year-old was stopped by her father.

"And where are we off to?" he asked.
"Tiffa and I are going exploring!" she replied.
"Alright, just be careful." Kovu warned.
"I will, daddy." Alanna smiled, burying her face in her father's mane briefly before heading to the watering hole where she was to meet Tiffa.

As their daughter went off into the Pride lands, Kiara emerged from the den and nuzzled her mate.

"That girl is going to give me a heart attack one of these days," he sighed.
"I think you handled that rather well; better than my father ever did with me" she replied.
"I resent that," Simba's voice replied as he emerged from the den.
"Face it, daddy, you were way worse with me than Kovu is with Alanna." Kiara stated.
"I was not," Simba retorted, his daughter shooting him a look.
"Kiara has a point, dad" Kion, Kiara's younger brother shimmed in.

Kion looked almost identical to Simba but has a vibrant red mane while his father's was much darker. Kion was the leader of the Lion Guard; a group comprised of Kion and his friends who protect the circle of life. He and the guard were away on a mission when Alanna joined their pride, but from the moment he saw the child, Kion vowed he would protect her from any harm.

"It's not my fault I worry about her." Kovu exclaimed.
"And I understand that; trust me, I worry about her too, but you need to try to relax a bit, Kovu." Kiara replied, nuzzling her mate.

At the water hole, Alanna and Tiffa, a tan-colored lioness cub with deep dark brown eyes, met up and attempted to decide what they were going to do today. As they were trying to determine where to go, Alanna heard footsteps; bipedal footsteps; these steps were heavy and fast approaching. Suddenly, the source of these steps approached the watering hole; it was a human man. Fearing the worst, Tiffa ran to Pride rock as fast as she could; she needed to warn Kovu and Kiara!

"A child? What are you doing all the way out here?" the man asked. Alanna remained frozen in fear.

The man was tall and muscular; he wore tan colored shorts and a matching shirt as well as a pair of hiking boots. This man reminded her of someone who was on a safari. She noticed he had something slinged behind his shoulder. It was made out of both metal and wood. After a couple moments, Alanna realized it was a gun the man was carrying. Still frozen in fear, Alanna heard a familiar roar approaching the area; it was her father's roar! Kovu appeared on the scene, teeth and claws bared. In a flash, the man had his rifle in hand, ready to shoot.

"Come now little girl, get away from that thing before it kills you!" the man exclaimed, aiming his weapon at the lion.
"No! Please don't shoot! Don't shoot my daddy!" Alanna pleaded, putting herself in the line of fire.
"Your daddy? That's a lion, kid; he's not your father." the man laughed at the child's claim.
"Yes he is!" the child argued as she clung onto her adoptive father.
"Dustin! What on earth are you doing?" A man asked as he approached the scene with caution.
"Well, I was going to take down this lion, but this little brat is in my way!" Dustin replied angrily.

The man wore similar attire to his comrade, but unlike him, he was slim and of average height. He was pale with fair hair and eyes the color of the sky. While he may have looked similar to the hunter, this man had no weapon. The man quickly noticed the little girl in which Dustin was referring to, clinging onto the dark-furred lion before him. The lion did not look menacing, in fact, he appeared to be protecting the child.

"Just leave them be, Dustin." The man attempted to convince his friend.
"Why should I? Have you forgotten what that is? It's a lion! A carnivore! And you want to leave the kid with it? He'll end up eating her if we do that!" Dustin yelled.
"What? No! Why would my daddy want to eat me? Besides, eating humans is forbidden in these lands." Alanna exclaimed, surprising the two men.
"How could you possibly know that?" Dustin asked drily.
"Let me handle this: what do you mean it's forbidden, child?" the other man asked calmly.
"It's the law; my mommy's great-grandfather passed it a long time ago." She explained.
"Your mother?" he asked once more, always keeping his calm and collected tone of voice.
"Yeah," she affirmed.
"Is she also a lion?" the man asked.
"Technically, she's a lioness, but yeah." The child smiled.
"That makes no sense." Dustin remarked.
"Who told you that it's forbidden to eat humans here?" the man questioned.
"My mommy," she replied.
"But didn't you just say that your mother is a lioness? How could she have told you?" he asked.

Alanna pondered for a moment; what could she possibly say? She couldn't tell them the truth; they'd think she was crazy and definitely take her away from her parents. After a couple minutes, the five-year-old answered:

"I…just understand what they're telling me. I can't really explain how it works…"

Looking back and forth from the little girl and the lion, the man couldn't help but feel like she was meant to stay with him; as if this lion really did accept her as one of his own. It felt somewhat wrong to him to separate them.

"Well then…come on, Dustin, let's go" he said, grabbing his companion by the arm.
"But Ed…" Dusting whined.

Once the two men were far enough, Kovu relaxed. He couldn't help but be proud of his daughter for standing her ground, and using her words to get out of that mess.

"Are you alright, Alanna?" he asked his daughter.
"I'm fine, daddy." she affirmed.

With that, the young princess climbed onto her father's back and the two headed back to Pride rock.

Later on that day, Kovu and Kiara finally had a moment to themselves. Laying on large rocks at the base of Pride rock, the royal couple was alone at last.

"You know; our daughter is very brave." Kovu remarked.
"She must take after you," Kiara chuckled lightly.
"Or you; I've seen your bravery in action, Kiara." he replied, nuzzling his mate.
"You know, for a while, I was afraid someone would come and take her away from us. After Tiffa told us about that hunter, I was starting to fear the worst." the lioness confided.
"Tell me about it, but Alanna's stubborn; she wouldn't have let him take her unless she wanted to go with him." he smiled.
"That's true," Kiara replied.
"I'm pretty sure she gets it from you." he laughed, Kiara joining in as well.

In the great plains of the Pride lands, King Simba patrolled his lands, with his human grand-daughter sitting on his back. Simba enjoyed spending time with Alanna, and after the events of this morning, he thought Kovu and Kiara could use a little break. While she may be human, everyone in the pride accepted the little girl as one of their own.

"Hey grandpa," Alanna said, bringing Simba back from his thoughts.
"Yes Alanna?" he replied.
"How many kings have there been in the Pride lands?" she asked. Simba did enjoy when she would ask him questions in regards to the history of the Pride lands.
"There have been countless kings, Alanna, but not all of them are remembered. The first king was King Mfalme, who found the Pride lands for his pride to live in after a horrible drought hit their homelands. King Mfalme and his mate; Queen Malkia had a son who became the next king after Mfalme passed and joined the stars. And the blood line has continued like that ever since." Simba explained.
"Oh, so that means your daddy was king before you, right?" she asked in clarification.
"That's right," Simba smiled.
"But who's going to be king after you? Mommy can't be king; she's a girl." Alanna asked, making Simba chuckle at his grand-daughter's innocence.
"No, but she will be queen of the Pride lands and your father will be the next king" he explained.
"Oh, that makes more sense." She exclaimed.

Alanna wanted to ask the lion who was going to rule the Pride lands after her parents, but thought it would be best to save it for another time. She enjoyed learning about the Pride lands from Simba. He had already told her a few great tales from his father and grandfather's time as king. It was an equally enjoyable time for Simba to teach her the history of his lands and its rulers. The princess's thoughts returned to the events of earlier; that hunter wanted to take her away from her family—he wanted to kill her family! What scared her the most, was the man's gun. She hated those things ever since she's witnessed the damage they are capable of first hand. She was thankful to Tifa who went to find Kovu and Kiara when she did. Surprisingly, her parents weren't even upset with her; they were just relieved that she was alright.

"Grandpa, can I tell you something?" Alanna asked after a moment of silence.
"Of course, Alanna." he replied.
"I was really scared when that hunter appeared today." the child confided.
"That must have been quite frightening. I think that hunter gave all of us a scare." Simba exclaimed.
"Really? Even mommy and daddy?" she asked innocently.
"Especially them; they thought they might lose you. We all did, but you proved yourself to be very brave today." Simba praised.

Reflecting on the event, Alanna beamed with pride for her actions; she stood her ground and attempted to talk things out before resorting to violence. One of the first things her parents thought her was to use violence as an absolute last resort, and to try to talk through any conflicts she may have.

By the time they returned to Pride rock, the sun had set and the five-year-old girl was starting to doze off on the lion king's back. Arriving to the den's entrance, Alanna thanked and hugged her grandfather, then went off to the back of the den to find her parents. Cuddled up next to her parents, Alanna fell asleep swiftly, thankful to have her family surrounding her.

A/N: Well there you have it! This was chapter 2 of "The Human Pride lander", and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it! This would have been posted sooner, but school assignments were kind of starting to pile up, so I had to put my writing on the back-burner (being a university student is though!). Also, chapter 3 is in the works, but I'm not sure when that will be posted… anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I'll do my best to get chapter 3 done and posted!

For your information, 'Malkia' means queen in Swahili and 'Mfalme' means king in Swahili (Thank-you Tenni for actually going on Google Translate for that during Classic Myth class!)

-SerenaBlackmore98