"What's wrong with your friend?" Kovu asked Kiara as the two lay together beside a pool of water. Kiara's meerkat friend, Timon, was sitting in a rock a few feet in front of them moping. Vitani was hiding in the background, and Kovu was thankful that neither Timon or Kiara had developed enough as hunters or scavengers to be able to sense her presence.

Truth be told, Kovu would have had a difficult time figuring out that she was watching them if he hadn't heard her stomach growl.

The lioness had been eating less and less over the past few weeks, the small amount of food that she did eat would be vomited back up a few minutes later. It hurt him to see the lioness who he loved suffer as much as she was. He needed to help her, but he wasn't sure what he could do to help her

"He's just upset that Pumbaa disappeared, but he'll be back, I hope," Kiara seemed to hesitant when she said the last part of her sentence. Kovu looked away from the lioness and said nothing. He knew that lionesses like his mother were known to hunt in the Pridelands for food when they got desperate, and the last few weeks the lions and lionesses had gotten extremely desperate.

A low growl was heard from where Vitani was sitting in the grass, and Kovu saw Kiara's ears perk up. Kovu hoped that she would dismiss the sound as something other than the growling stomach of a starving lioness.

"What's that noise?" Kiara asked, and Kovu started to panic as Kiara moved towards the location of the sound. He hoped that Vitani would have the sense to run away from the lioness.

He hoped that she could run away from the lioness.

"There's a lioness sleeping in the grass!" Kiara called, and Kovu gasped and ran towards Vitani, pushing Kiara aside as he did. Kiara appeared to be surprised at how quickly Kovu had ran towards the lioness.

Kovu nudged Vitani's body with his paws, yet he wasn't able to get much of a reaction from his sister. Her breathing had slowed to the point where it was difficult to determine if she was even breathing at all.

"Speak to me, please," Kovu begged the lioness who seemed unable to answer him. Kiara appeared to be worried about both the male lion and female lioness. She gently put a paw on the distraught Kovu's shoulder as he continued to nudge the body of his sister in a futile attempt to get her to move.

"We can take her home, i'm sure that somebody would be able to help," Kiara suggested, and Kovu shook his head.

"Nobody will help her, she's an outlander," Kovu whispered to Kiara. He sighed, before he leaned in to kiss the mouth of his sister.

He tried to savour the taste of his sister's mouth as he explored it with his tongue. He knew that this might be the last time that he would ever get to kiss his sister, and he wanted to enjoy the moment as much as he could. However, it was slightly difficult to gain pleasure from the kiss as his tongue explored the inside of her mouth, gently rubbing the toothless gums and rotting teeth. He knew that his sister was sick and suffering, he just didn't know how serious the situation was.

Kovu released his mouth from the kiss, and tears started to run down his face. He turned his gaze towards Kiara who appeared to be shocked by what he had done.

"If you think that you can help her, do whatever you think you need to do. I've done all that I can do to help her," Kovu said to the lioness, who seemed to be confused.

"But, you haven't done anything to help her, all you've done is kiss her," Kiara said to Kovu, who turned his head away from her.

"Exactly. I've done all that I can do."