Until you were gone
By
James95
Happy Novel writing month guys! It's me with another chapter... Today's music is a two part. The first part is "Broken" by Seether and Amy Lee but when Mlinzi sees Kovu and Vitani as cubs for the first time it changes to the English version of the Fruits Basket theme song... I just thought it was so fitting. Anyways, back to the story...
Chapter six: Kovu and Vitani, last links to the past.
The wastelands were quiet today and spring had become summer...the dry season was upon them. It was clear food would run out soon and the old cub wandering the plains agreed. The lack of food made those tufts of already wispy black mane grow all the more scraggly. True it was natural for older cubs to be like this but the prince was a little jealous of his best friend in not only this aspect.
That was when a slightly smaller lioness cub pounced at him, trying to get at his leg before he lightly shuffled her off much to Neema's chagrin. "Aww, Nuka...I just wanted to get you" she pouted.
"Keep dreaming kid" the prince smirked as he turned to the bushes to see Mlinzi arrive. The months had done well for his friend. He was at least twice his once small stature with a slightly better kept mane of deep brown, "so, the presentation of my younger hairballs is gonna be tomorrow and after that you start your first day being their nanny huh Mlinzi"?
"Would a nanny be able to kick you to from one side of the kingdom to the other?" the stronger lion joked as he sat by his friend, "so, are you going to the presentation ceremony tomorrow"?
"Oh, so I can see the little hairballs who've taken my rightful place as future king?" Nuka sighed as he rolled his eyes.
"They're barely newborns Nuka" Mlinzi sighed.
"Yeah but mother and father will spoil them and leave me to rot" the older of the two growled.
"You know that's not true, they still care about you"
"Well they have a funny way of showing it" the prince huffed.
"Nuka, your parents want us to protect our siblings" Mlinzi sighed, "we can teach them how to pounce, to fight, they might think of you as a role model than trash"
Nuka thought for a moment and closed his eyes. "I'm scared Mlinzi" he replied, "I don't think I'll always be able to like them. I don't want to fade into the background"
"You won't, I'll do my best to stop that happening" the odd eyed cub sighed as he patted his friend on the back with one paw.
"Okay, okay, I'll go" Nuka sighed, "maybe you might be right...wait, where's Neema"?
"Gotcha!" the littlest cub cheered as she pounced on her big brother and started tugging his ear with her teeth.
"Oh, you're going down" Mlinzi chuckled as he went to wrestle with his sister. Nuka just sat there smiling to himself. Maybe it might not be so bad...as long as those termites weren't going to be brats.
The next day came and went with Nuka and Mlinzi sitting in a nearby cave as they saw a somewhat sorrowful Rafiki hold a cream and a russet furred cubs to display in front of the masses that were Scar's hyenas with the king, queen and eldest prince smiling at the scavengers below but Mlinzi could see the darker furred cub had a red juice on his forehead in a crown, that had to be Kovu, his baby brother, the future king.
Days passed with little occurrence happening until one day Scar and Zira were called out for separate duties and they had requested Mlinzi to look after the cubs. "If anything happens to either of them you'll be joining your father in the hyena's stomachs" the red eyed Queen Zira growled at the new guardian/half brother of the infants as she slinked off with Mlinzi resisting the urge to swipe at her. So then he went inside the cave.
There were bones littering the floor where he walked, Zazu the old major-domo was asleep in a rib cage as a troubled Nuka sat by the crib of bark with one paw in it for the infants to play with. "Thank the kings you're here" the grey furred cub sighed, "these guys were tiring me out".
"Well it's my job now" Mlinzi replied as he looked into the crib to see them. They were very small, no bigger than maybe his tail but he could pick out some things. He saw that the cream cub with the blue eyes that was playing with her brother's grey paw was Vitani but the other one with the red-brown fur was sitting, looking away in the corner, "hey Kovu, I'm your brot-protector, Mlinzi"
"M-m-Mlini?" the infant asked as he turned around showing his secret brother eyes of a forest green like his father's and Milinzi's but looked very nervous.
"Close enough" Mlinzi chuckled as he offered his own paw for Kovu to wrestle with, despite the infant's tiny claws and teeth being sharp he smiled and started to cry a little, only for Nuka to pat him on the back.
"Maybe it can work" the grey furred cub smirked at his friend.
"Yeah" Mlinzi replied as he dried the tears and the two continued to play with the twins.
Memories, precious memories that flashed around Milinzi's mind as he followed Vitani up Priderock. He had only found out about his best friend's fate a few hours ago and he knew that he could fall to pieces any time now. That was when he saw him, his not so little brother Kovu sitting proudly on the edge of Pride rock as the prince he was.
"Hey Kovu, I got a surprise for you" Vitani shouted, causing the prince to turn his head, smile and run over to his sister and big brother.
"Milinzi, welcome back! I missed you so much! Kiara and I got married and..." he continued before noticing tears running down his brother's face, "what happened"?
"I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to him" Mlinzi said before crying, "I just hear about Nuka"
"Oh" Kovu replied with a guilty took before sitting up to hug the larger lion, "we'll get through this, don't worry. We're here for you"
Okay guys, this chapter is done. Next time Mariah and Amani return, we watch as Simba becomes King, Kopa's here too and we see a Meerkat dress in drag and do the hula! Read and review guys!