"Frika? You home?" Hakuna yelled out, scanning the small cave in the middle of the undergrowth.

"You realise, I'm on a tight scheule? This better be good, Hakuna." A female voice from behind spoke, startling the lions. Adilah turned around, squinting in the morning sun. "Who are these outsiders?"

"These are my friends, and they need your help." Hakuna, explained, looking in the trees.

"Help? And why should I help a lion?" The female in the trees scoffed, sharpening her claws on the bark.

"Because you helped me-"

"That's different!" The female shoutes, leaping out of the trees.

Adilah gasped, seeing the spots. "A leopard.." The princess whispered in wonder.

"How?" The lion asked, ignoring Adilah.

"Because you helped my babies..." The leopard responded, sniffing, she faced away from the lions, wiping her eyes with her paw.

"And now this baby needs your help." The leopard turned around, gasping when she saw Uzuri hanging from Adilah's jaw, Hakuna turned to Adilah, "May I?" The princess nodded, giving him the cub, "She needs to be fed. Please Frika, if not for me, for the cub herself." Hakuna placed the cub by the leopard, who shifted so the cub could get milk.

Frika smiled at Hakuna, "For the cub herself."

"That's all I ask." Hakuna nodded, he then turned around to smile at Adilah and the twins.

Kopa, who like his siblings had never seen a leopard before, peeked around from his from his position behind Almasi. "What's your name?"

As much as the leopard hated lions she couldn't hate a cub, of any kind. "Frika." She smiled at the small prince, "And your's is..?"

The small cub puffed his chest out proudly, "Kopa."

"What a fine name that is, means 'heart of gold' eh?"

"Yep. What does yours mean?"

"Oh it doesn't have a meaning, my mother just liked the name." Uzuri had fallen asleep, full from her drink of milk. The leopard turned to Adilah, "She's finished, where are you headed?"

"Across the Eastern desert."

"Two days journey. Hm, let's see what I have.." Frika said, getting up and going to a corner and going through leaves, berries, fruit, rocks and whatever other junk she had. "Well, it seem's I had run out of the things I've needed. I'll give her another drink then you'll have to leave. The deserts that way," She pointed her nose in a direction, "Keep crossing it and you'll have a jungle. From then on its your choice." The leopard picked up the cub.

Adilah nodded, "Thank you, your a life saver."

"Yeah well, I did it for the cub, not you." Frika gently placed Uzuri by the lioness's feet, smiled at Amasi and Kopa before retreating back in the trees.

~O~

"Well.. That was interesting." Adilah said, walking next to Hakuna, Uzuri in her mouth, with the twins ahead fighting.

"She hates lions, it's understandable, though I must admit, she was rather nice to you." Hakuna laughed, sitting down in the grass watching the twins wrestle in the grass, "If I may ask, why are you headed to the jungle?"

"I'm meeting some family friends." Adilah said, sitting down next to the rogue, Uzuri, asleep in her paws. The couple sat in silence watching the two cubs wrestle and growl at eachother.

"Do you ever miss your pride?" The princess asked, breaking the silence.

Hakuna looked at her, surprised before signing, "All the time, my mother the most. I often wonder what would have happened if I had made her come with me..."

"Mother!" A young lion, just entering the stages of being a adolescent, shouted, scanning the area for his mother.

"Hakuna! Run!" A light brown lioness came into view, her beautiful face was worn with age.

"Mother! Where's the prince?" the pre-teen Hakuna asked, his honeycomb eyes looking into his mother's honey coloured ones. The lioness stayed quite, looking at the ground.

"I...I don't know." Hakuna's mother whispered, her eyes tearing up. "The invaders said they were going to kill the king and prince and banish the other males."

Hakuna's eyes went wide for a second, before he closed them, letting the tears fall freely, realizing that his king and longtime friend, the prince, was either dead or dying. hearing a roar in the distance confirmed his fears. His mother, seeing the tears wrapped her son in a hug, fearing what would happen next.

"Let's go, Mum." Hakuna said, his slightly growing mane blowing in the wind.

"I can't, I have to help you escape-"

"Well what do we have here?" A pale cream coloured lion asked, his grey eyes narrowed.

"A lioness talking to her son, is that evil?" Hakuna's mother snarled, baring her teeth at the lion with the grey eyes.

"Oh no," Another two lions appeared, "I smell treason."

"Treason?!" Hakuna scoffed, stepping in front of his mother, "Your not my king."

"Oh really?", The lion stepped closer, "The law says that whoever challenges the current king and wins, automaticlly gets the top stop."

Hakuna's mother stepped in front, "Leave him alone!"

The lion looked at the light brown lioness with little interest, "Brothers, take this one back to the caves, I need to have a talk with her son."

Hakuna's eyes shot to his mother who was being pushed away, "Mum!" He tried following her, only to have the leader step in front of him.

The lioness fought against the two lions, though it was no use seeing as she was half the size of both of them. "Hakuna!", She snapped her jaws at one, "Let me go, you brutes!" The lioness continued thrashing, clawing and biting as the two lions dragged her away.

Once they were out of sight, the rogue turned to the adolescent, smiling, "Well that took longer than expected."

"What do you want?" Hakuna, wanting nothing more than to run to his mother, asked, getting straight to the point.

"I want no competiton."

"Competition?"

"For the throne, I killed the prince, the princess, who shall be my queen, is with her mother."

Hakuna winced when he heard the lion say he killed his friend, straightening his back and squaring his shoulders, the lion looked the new king in the eyes, "What do I have to do with this?"

The lion chuckled darkly, "I want you gone, so the lionesses don't get any ideas about a new king. I want all their hope crushed." Smirking the lion turned away and began walking back to the caves Hakuna's pride lived in, "Oh, and your banished," The lion called over his shoulder, "If I ever see you here again I will not hesitate to rip your throat out. You have two minutes to run before I kill you."

Hakuna had turned and ran before the lion could finish his sentence. The young lion could hear the grey-eyed lion calling him back.

"Hakuna, Hakuna, Hakuna..."

"Hakuna!" Adilah said, shaking the lion with her paw, gaining his attention. "What happened?"

"I had flashback...of the day I was bani-" Hakuna whispered, his eyes wide.

"Adilah! What's wrong with Hakuna?" Almasi asked, laying next to Adilah with Kopa behind her.

"Nothing." The rogue growled, getting up and walking away from the lioness and cubs.

Adilah stared after him, frowning when she heard Almasi mutter, "Was it something I said?" The little lioness asked, her ears flat against her head.

"No, of course not 'Masi. Hakuna just... remembered something that made him angry." Adilah nuzzled her sister lovingly, letting her know it wasn't her fault. "Come on, I'll go get you something to eat." Adilah grabbed Uzuri, while the twins followed her to a patch of grass.

"You stay here while I go get us something to eat." Adilah looked at Almasi, "Watch your brother and sister. I'll be over there hunting." The oldest princess kissed the tops of their heads before turning away.

~O~

"Mother, if your in the sky, tell me if I'm doing the right thing. I don't even know these lions and I've welcomed them into my home, shared some of my story with one." Hakuna was lying in a field with his head on his paws, waiting for something to happen.

"I knew it," The rogue sighed, blowing a strand of his mane out of his eyes, "There's no such thing as 'the star lions.'" With a sigh, lion pulled himself up and made his way to his cave.

~O~

So in my story every pride has their own names for the dead, in the Pridelands they call them 'the great kings of the past', while in Hakuna's pride they called them 'the star lions'.

Thank you mob for the reviews, visits, viewe, favourites, followings and whatever else yous do :) yous inspire me to write more 3