Hello, everyone once again! I'm feeling really good about my story, sooooo…I felt like writing my first chapter! XD Also I would like to thank author: Toxicswallow for being so kind about my story. It really made me want to continue. Sorry if there was any grammatical errors. So, once again as I said before: PLEASE! Don't be too harsh on my writing skills! So, anyways, let us continue with my first REAL. CHAPTER!

Chapter 1: "The Circle of Life"

'Did I die?' I thought. And if I did die, where was mother? How come she's not here too? It was then that I heard something. It sounded like…..humming. Humming? Who could be humming in the afterlife? The humming started to get louder and louder as it neared me. I then felt something wet drop onto my face and then more drops fell. Was it raining? I didn't know that it rained in the afterlife? The humming finally ceased, but the droplets did not. In fact, they increased. They dropped more and more onto my face until I opened my eyes. My vision was blurry, but I could definitely make out a figure. It looked like a…..baboon? Why would a baboon be helping a lion? I'm a predator and he's the prey. What gives? I blinked my eyes a couple of times and licked my dry lips.

"W-Who are you?" I asked the monkey. He smiled at me, now that I could see clearly, and giggled.

"The question is who….are you?" He answered with a smile. I gave a nervous, small smile to him.

"Umm…well….m-my name is….Anaya." I told him.

"A beautiful name, I am Rafiki." He said proudly. I smiled at Rafiki and then looked around at my new surroundings, while I sat on something hard. My eyes soon widened in realization when I saw leaves all around me. I was sitting in a HUGE tree! I looked back at Rafiki who was looking for something, I guessed.

"D-Did you….save me, Rafiki?" I asked timidly. He looked at me, smiled and nodded his head.

"Dere' is no need to be frightened, young one. Rafiki means no harm." He said, before he went back to whatever he was looking for.

"Rafiki?" I said

"Hmm?" He replied, as if I had pulled him from a train of thought.

"Why did you save me?" I couldn't help but ask that question. Ever since I was born, all the other lionesses and cubs said that I was worthless and that I would never be a good lion. They told me that every single day that finally, I started to believe them. Rafiki looked sadly at me and answered: "Rafiki save you from river, because Rafiki saw your tragedy." I gasped at his revelation and looked down at my paws. That means that he must have seen me running away from the two hyenas that killed my…my…I couldn't even finish my thought of 'her'. A single tear ran down my cheek and onto my paw, as I thought of my now dead, mother. Rafiki must have seen me crying because he came over to me and gently rubbed my head. I looked up at him with tear-stained eyes and he smiled sympathetically at me.

"It is alright, young one. You will be okay, very soon." He said softly, but with sincerity in his voice. I nodded my head at him and gave him a watery smile. Rafiki gently rubbed the spot behind my ears to soothe me, which elicited a small purr from me. He smiled again and went over to the end of the tree. I got up from my sitting position and stretched my arms and legs out and walked over to where Rafiki was. From where I previously was, it looked like he was leaning against the tree, but as I came closer, I heard him humming to himself, which solved my earlier mystery of the humming while he kept moving his fingers along the tree. When I looked closer, I saw that he was painting a picture.

"What are you painting?" I asked curiously. Rafiki looked down at me with kind eyes before rubbing that spot behind my ears again, making me purr once again.

"A new friend." He replied as he returned back to his painting. I looked up at the painting and gasped when I saw that it was a painting of me! I was mesmerized at how beautifully done and creative he made the painting. I gazed at the beauty of his painting of me, of my light golden fur, my ocean blue eyes, everything. To say that I was stunned was an understatement. It was then that I noticed another picture alongside mine. I walked over to that picture and just stared at it. It was a picture of a golden-brown lion cub with beautiful reddish-brown, kind of rusty-colored eyes. Rafiki came over to me and stared up at the picture too.

"Who's that?" I asked. He smiled and giggled at me.

"Dis' is Prince Simba." He said. I gasped and looked up at him. He actually painted a picture of King Mufasa's son!

"Do you know the Prince?" He nodded his head.

"I know da prince's whole family." He replied as he grabbed some kind of long stick from one of the corners of this large tree.

"And soon, you will know dem' too." He said. I looked at him with confusion on my face. What did he mean that I would meet them soon?

"Come, young one. It is time."

"Time for what?" He smiled.

"Time for Anaya to meet her new family." He said and then leapt out of the tree.

"Wait!" I called and then started hopping from branch to branch to get down from the tree. When I finally landed on the ground, I saw that Rafiki was looking out towards something. I followed his gaze and my eyes widened as I looked at what Rafiki was staring at. It was a huge rock, I guess, that looked like two big rocks smashed together. The top rock was pointy-looking and extended towards the sky, while the other was flat, but was propped up by another rock. It kind of looked…majestic, in a way.

"What's that?" I asked Rafiki. He was still looking ahead at the pointy-rock, thing and smiled.

"Your new home", was all he said before he hopped up on a tree branch and started to swing away. 'My new home?' I thought. I was going to live there? Could I really live in a new home and… like it? I had already lost my old home and someone really close to my heart. Could I really risk opening my heart up to new family or would they be taken away from me just as my mother was. I looked up when Rafiki called my name and started running towards him.

"Come, young one. It is time for you to learn." He said as he swung away again. I ran faster to catch up with him.

"Time for me… to learn…what?" I panted as I ran. He giggled at me and swung farther away.

"To learn…The Circle…of Life!" He answered. Just as I was about to ask him what this 'Circle of Life' stuff was, I saw the sun starting to rise on the horizon.

"NANTS…INGONYAMA…BAGITHI BABA!"

"SITHI UHM…INGONYAMA"

"What's going on?" I asked Rafiki, but he just smiled and kept swinging along while I followed and listened.

"NANTS….INGONYAMA….BAGITHI BABA!"

SITHI UHM…INGONYAMA"

"INGONYAMA"

"INGONYAMA 'NENGEW' ENAMABALA" - (Continuous)

'What are they saying?' I thought as I ran and listened to the words.

"From the day we arrive on the planet, and blinking step into the sun"

"There's more to see, than can ever be seen. More to do, than can ever be done"

"There's far too much to take in here. More to find, than can ever be found"

Animals started running past us, looking like they were enjoying themselves and heading towards where Rafiki and I were going.

"Rafiki, why are-"

"Shhh…Hush now, young one and listen to the words." He said softly and I stopped myself from asking anymore questions for the time being.

"But the sun rolling high, through the sapphire sky,

keeps great and small on the endless rounds."

I looked ahead, until I saw it. It was the huge-pointed rock that I saw earlier. We were here.

"It's the Circle of Life!"

"And it moves us all. Through despair and hope, through faith and love, till we find our place." "On the path unwinding!"

Rafiki and I looked at each other and I smiled at him. I now understood what the Circle of Life was. Rafiki motioned with his head towards the big-pointed rock, which indicated for us to climb up. We climbed up and up the rock until we reached the platform of the rock.

"Come, young one. Follow old Rafiki." He said and I followed him into the cave of the rock.

"In the Circle…"

"The Circle of Life"

As we walked into the cave, I noticed many lionesses were staring at us and I started feeling my nervousness creep up on me. A big older-looking lion stood up and walked over to us with a smile on his face.

"Rafiki, it's good to see you again." The lion said as he wrapped his arm around Rafiki's back, pulling him close and Rafiki hugged him back. I watched in silence and awe between the two of them.

"How are you, old friend?" The lion asked and Rafiki smiled at him.

"Rafiki is well, but I bring someone with me." That's when all eyes were directed towards me and my shyness became more apparent. Rafiki looked at me and motioned for me to come. I shyly walked over to him and he introduced me.

"Dis' is Anaya. Rafiki find her and save her. She needs a home." He explained to the lion. The lion looked sympathetically at me and smiled.

"Dis' is King Mufasa."He said and once he said that, my eyes must'vegrown to the size of the moon. THIS WAS KING MUFASA?! Has Rafiki lost his mind?! King Mufasa bent his head down to my level and I blushed at his action, but he just smiled at me.

"It is very nice to meet you, Anaya."

"It's nice to meet you too, Your Majesty." I said shyly.

"Please, call me Mufasa." He asked softly and I nodded at him.

"How would you feel about joining my pride?" He asked. I contemplated the decision for a minute before coming up with my answer, but first I had to ask him something.

"I would really like to join your pride, but are you sure you wouldn't mind me being a part of your family? I don't want to burden you." Mufasa smiled softly at me.

"No sweet child, you will not burden me at all. I just want you to feel at home and I would love to have another member of my pride." He replied sincerely. I grinned widely at him and ran over to one of his legs and nuzzled it until I realized what I had just done. I started to move away from Mufasa until he started to nuzzle me back and it made me smile. I pulled away from Mufasa a minute later and ran to Rafiki, nuzzling him this time. He giggled at my sweet gesture, and picked me up to hug me.

"Thank you so much" I whispered. He patted my back and replied: "Rafiki was happy to help you," and then he set me down on the ground again.

"Rafiki must go now, but Rafiki will visit again soon." He said as he gave Mufasa one last hug before leaving the cave. I was about to turn around and greet the rest of Mufasa's pride when something, or should I say someone, knocked me down from behind. I was about to ask who this was when Mufasa scolded it.

"Simba", Mufasa said, "Be careful"

"Sorry, Dad. Oops, I'm sorry! Are you okay?" He asked when he noticed me on the ground. I stood up and shook my fur out.

"That's okay. I'm fine." He smiled at me with relief in his eyes.

"Well, that's good to hear. Hey, I've never seen you here before. Are you joining our pride?"

"Yep. I'm Anaya." I said

"Nice name. I'm Simba." He said with a grin. I blushed at his compliment, until something hit me. I was talking to the prince!

"Hey, do you wanna see something?" Simba asked

"Sure" I replied.

"Alright, then follow me" Simba said as he raced out of the cave. When I caught up with him, I actually saw how big this land really was once we were on the huge rock platform. Mufasa came up behind me and gazed at the scene as well.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Mufasa asked and I nodded because it truly was a beautiful sight.

"These are the Pridelands." Simba whispered into my ear and then the animals cheered when they saw the three of us.

"It's the Circle of Life"

"And it moves us all. Through despair and hope, through faith and love."

It was then that the light from the sun started to seep through the clouds and shined on Mufasa, Simba and I. I looked down at the animals on the ground and saw that they were bowing down and kneeling before us.

"Till we find our place!"

"On the path unwinding!"

The whole kingdom was literally admiring us. So this is what it feels like to be of royalty. Mufasa bent his head down next to mine and whispered to me: "Welcome home." I sat on my hind-legs and leaned my body against his leg. Mufasa was right, I was home. Now and forever.

"In the Circle…"

"THE CIRCLE OF LIFE!"