Author's note: Thank you all for your reviews! And again, if you find that my chapters need to improve, please tell me in your review! It really does help a lot! :)

Chapter 6: A Mother's Pain.

"Nafsi… Her name was Nafsi.."

Tama was staring blankly into space again, so she didn't notice the shocked expression on Simba's face. Here he was, sharing a cave with the lost daughter of one of his babysitters back at Pride Rock. Simba stared at Tama, and he suddenly realized that he couldn't deny the resemblance. Those orange-red eyes, the light brown fur, and that characteristic tuft of fur on her head… Tama looked almost exactly like her mother.

Simba suddenly realized something else. Tama was desperate to find her mother, and would do anything to meet her. And he knew where she was! Simba opened his mouth to say something, but quickly stopped himself. Realisation hit him hard, and he was plunged into burning indecision. He was an outcast. He realized that if he told Tama about her mother's whereabouts, she would instantly catch on to him. His lie would be exposed, and he would be taken back to Pride Rock. Simba was trembling, trying his best not to give away the mental battles raging on in his head. The least he could do for Tama, who had been so kind to him for nearly a month, was tell her where her family was. But in doing so, Simba knew he would have to face his past. And that was something he did not want to do. Ever.

He decided against it.

He felt an incredible pang of guilt wash over him, yet again. He was used to this emotion now, but it still cut him deep. He knew he had to help. He owed at least that much to his adopted sister. One way or another, he would make sure Tama found her mother. And her brother…. Simba was surprised yet again. All this time, his foster sister had been one of his best friend's sisters? Small world, Simba thought with a smile.

"So, Wivu seems to like spending time with you, doesn't she?" Tama said, snapping Simba out of his thoughts.

"Yeah." Simba said tiredly.

Tama chuckled. "Don't worry, Kopa. You'll get used to her."

"I hope so." Simba said, looking into the distance. There was a certain lioness cub he couldn't stop thinking about.

"There was someone else, wasn't there, Kopa?"

Simba was taken aback. Did she really know him so well? "What?...No..no..I mean…" Simba stopped stuttering and looked at Tama, who was staring back at him, eyebrows raised, a sly grin on her face.

Simba sighed. "Yes. There was." Tama smiled.

"Her name was Nala." Simba suddenly stopped talking. Did he make a mistake by telling her his best friend's name? Or should he have made that up, too? Simba became a little worried. 'It's all right..It's not like they'll ever meet each other, will they?' Simba thought. He knew Tama deserved to know at least a part of the truth.

"She is..was my best friend. We did everything together. I can't remember a time when she wasn't there with me. And now.." The tears started forming again. "Now I'm never going to see her again!" Simba cried into Tama's fur, and she patted his back. It did feel good to share his feelings with someone else. But Simba knew that Tama already knew too much, and he did not want her to know anything more about his life.

"It's late, Kopa.. Will you be alright?" Tama asked.

"I will now." Simba said with a smile.

"All right. Oh, I almost forgot. In a week, you'll be ten months old, and you'll need to get out of the den a bit more. So Tojo and I will take you out of the Grasslands. Maybe we'll even teach you how to hunt, while we search for my mother. Come only if you want to, though… Good night, Kopa!"

"Of course I'll come, Tama. Good night."

After Tama left, Simba began to think. He needed to take Tama to the Pride lands. It was the least he could do for her. Tama had asked him to accompany her on her quest to find her family, so he knew that there was only one way to do it. It was a huge risk. He had grown quite a bit in a month. An auburn tuft of fur had grown on his head and it made him look quite different. He was near adolescence. But he still couldn't let anyone see him. Not yet, at least. But it was a risk he was willing to take for Tama. In a week, Simba would have to go back to the Pride lands.

Nafsi was exhausted. She had been running for days. They had managed to find a temporary shelter to the south of the Pride lands, but the recent storm had made the entire area completely uninhabitable. The group ran around the border of the Pride lands, towards the north. They were on the move for days now. It was clear as crystal that Scar saw Chumvi as a future threat, and had even sent some hyenas after them. But the lions had easily managed to evade them, time and time again.

Nafsi had taken care of Chumvi very well. He was eleven months old, and had a small dark brown tuft of fur on his head, that went perfectly well with his chocolate brown fur. But Nafsi knew he had a long way to go before he could pose any sort of an opposition to Scar. They had been travelling through the desert for days. They desperately needed a place to stay. They had been walking in the sand and beneath the scorching sun for days.

Sabini noticed something. A slight change in the weather. It was barely noticeable, and she had just about felt it. She walked ahead of the group, and gradually began to quicken her pace. She was sure now. The winds were changing, the dunes gradually morphing into yellow savannah grass that was velvet to her paws. She was the first to race atop a nearby mound. Her eyes nearly popped out of her skull.

"Nafsi!" came her voice. It was filled with excitement.

Nafsi quickly got onto to the mound where Sabini was standing, and scanned the horizon.

At first, she thought she was seeing things. But then it became clear to her that she was only a few minutes away from sprawling grasslands.

Hasira and Sabini yelped in joy and raced off to a nearby waterhole. Chumvi looked around in amazement. But Nafsi's thoughts were very clear. They needed a place to stay before it got dark. They needed shelter before the hyenas got to them.

"All right. This looks like a nice place to stay. Drink your fill. We must keep moving." Nafsi said, in a clear, determined voice. As they walked through their new-found paradise, Nafsi couldn't help but feel that the place felt incredibly familiar.

"Hasani?"

The scents. The scenery. The landscape. She knew she had been here before. Suddenly, she stopped. And she saw it.

"Hasani, where are you? Tama?"

Nafsi felt a huge lump forming in her throat, refusing to go away.

It was a cave. A mere cave was sufficient to send shudders rippling through Nafsi's body. She found that she was silently crying, and she couldn't help it. She saw Chumvi staring at her in confusion.

'Of course he won't remember. He was just born.'

Nafsi fell to the ground, sobbing. She never wanted to come back here.

"No! You can't leave me like this, Hasani! It isn't over!"

To her, this place was haunted. Images of a large dark-furred lion, cradling a tiny, little lioness in his paws, came into her mind, and she cried even harder. She knew her husband was dead.

"I need you!"

She remembered stumbling upon his mutilated body. She remembered pulling a tiny, confused Chumvi against her chest and crying into the remains of her deceased husband's fur. But she hadn't seen Tama since. She had waited there for an hour, but there was no sign of her. Nafsi was barely ever the most optimistic lioness, so she only assumed the worst. The thought of her pretty little daughter being ripped apart by hyenas still made her squirm in sheer agony. She had run away with her newborn son, fearing for his life. She always woke up every morning, thinking that she would see her daughter come running back to her. All she wanted was to see her again. There was still hope. But that hope was diminishing every day.

Choking back sobs, she asked Sabini and Hasira to go hunting.

"What's wrong, Nafsi? Are you okay?" Sabini had a concerned look on her face.

Nafsi sighed. "I'm fine, guys. This place just….. brings back some memories."

Immediately understanding what she was talking about, Sabini and Hasira set out to search for some badly needed food. She took Chumvi inside the cave, and touched the walls tentatively. She could almost feel her husband talking to her, and her daughter playing with her. Thoughts of her daughter's angelic laughter brought a smile onto her face. She remembered something she had told her daughter a long time ago. She stepped out of the cave.

And she roared into the sky.

It was a loud, heartfelt and hopeful roar. She hoped that her daughter was alive. She hoped that her daughter was happy, wherever she was. She hoped that she would see her daughter again.

Nafsi felt Chumvi rubbing against her side.

"Mom, what's wrong?" Chumvi said, tears filling his own eyes. "I've never seen you this sad before."

"I'm not sad, Chummy.. I just remembered something." Nafsi sighed. Chumvi knew nothing about his birth. To him, the only family he had was his mother. Chumvi seldom asked about his father, but when he did, Nafsi just brushed it off, changing the topic quickly. It hurt her too much to talk about it. But Nafsi knew she didn't have a choice now. She had been hiding it from him for long enough. He deserved to know.

"Chumvi. Sit."

The dark-furred adolescent did as he was told. He saw a hurt look in his mother's eyes. "I'm sorry," she said, her voice barely audible.

"What are you talking about, Mom?"

"I've kept a secret from you for a long time, Chumvi. It's about time I tell you."

Chumvi nodded and she continued. "Chumvi, you have always thought that you had never met your father. That is not true. Your father was there for your birth, Chumvi. And….and.." Nafsi stopped for a second. "And so was your older sister. You were born here, Chumvi."

Chumvi's eyes widened. He looked around the cave, and felt an incredible sense of déjà vu. He hadn't expected this. He felt rather hurt that his mother had kept this from him for so long.

"Why didn't you tell me, Mother? And why did my father run away from us?" Chumvi felt a single tear roll down his cheek. "And where is my sister?!" Chumvi's voice was rising. But Nafsi, on the other hand, was shocked.

"Who told you that your father ran away from us?" Nafsi was crying again.

"I just thought-" she cut him off.

"That's not true, Chumvi." Her voice was filled with pain. "Your father loved me very much. And you… you were his whole world." Nafsi fell to the floor, weeping. Chumvi now felt terrible that he had been angry with his mother.

"Your father was killed, Chumvi. He was killed by hyenas. I don't think you remember. You were so tiny that time. After he was killed, I ran away and took you with me. I couldn't let anything happen to you, Chumvi. You were all the family I had left!" Nafsi was crying hysterically, and Chumvi found himself in tears, too. He knew it was the wrong time to ask, but he just had to know.

"And…. and what about my sister?"

"We never found her."

"But that means she could still be alive, right?" Chumvi said, hoping that this possibility would make his mother feel better. But it didn't.

"I've been searching for months now, Chumvi! I haven't found a sign of her! Tama probably isn't alive anymore. There's no hope! My daughter is dead!" Nafsi began crying even harder. She expected her son to be furious at her for keeping this from him, so she was rather surprised when he pulled her into a hug. Nafsi hugged him tight, and cried into his shoulder.

"Don't worry, mother. I promise we'll find her."

Nafsi was still crying. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Chumvi."

"Wait and watch, Mom. I'll keep trying. I know she's out there somewhere. And when I find her.."

"If you find her…"

"When I find her, we'll be the happiest family in the world." Now that Chumvi knew he had a sister, he had a feeling she was alive. It was like a sixth sense. And Chumvi always trusted his instinct. All he ever wanted was a complete family. And now that he knew he had a sister, he would do everything he could to find her.

After an hour or so, Sabini and Hasira returned with a large zebra they had killed. Sabini was relieved to see Nafsi asleep, a smile on her face, with her son wrapped up in her arms. They gently woke her up and they tore into the zebra. They hadn't eaten for days.

"So.." Hasira said, a mouthful of meat in her mouth, "where do we go from here?" There was an odd glint in Hasira's eyes, but the lionesses ignored it. Chumvi, on the other hand, tilted his head, thoroughly intrigued.

"We could always join another pride.." Sabini suggested.

"No." Nafsi was clear in her decision. "The nearest pride is King Bahati's. It's a two hour run from here. He's extremely generous, so he won't mind us staying here." The others stared at her, waiting for her to continue. They were extremely confused by her decision.

"The king is a very good friend of Sarabi's. And we're only a day's run away from the Pride lands. If we do join his pride, there is a very slight chance that Scar may find out." Nafsi sighed, and continued. "I'm not going to take a chance with Chumvi's safety. We're better off here," she said, the firmness clear in her voice.

Sabini nodded. She completely understood. Chumvi was everything to poor Nafsi. And this place wasn't so bad, was it? The four lions continued to gorge on the zebra, pleased that they were finally safe.

Little did they know, that hidden in the grass, a pair of blood red eyes were watching them from the distance.

Author's note: Aww.. that was a cute chapter, right? It was a little painful, but Chumvi's resolve is pretty heart-warming, eh? Too bad this chapter had to end the way it did… Nah, it isn't a bad thing! I warned you before! I like ominous stuff in my stories.. So who do you think the blood-red eyes belong to? It won't be too hard to guess… Let me know your thoughts in a review! The next chapter will probably be up some time in the first week of June.