(A/N): Chapter 7! I am so sorry that I didn't have this up when I said I would, fourth quarter gets hectic in college, plus being extremely sick doesn't help. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. It took me a long time to do, and I believe it is my longest chapter yet. Another thank you to Simbafan for letting me use his character/ idea of "Aiehu" and "Astra de Leo." So, on with the story!

_{Stephen}_

Jean had the cutest little confused expression on her face. It only stayed that way for a few seconds; it was quickly replaced by a look of pure wonder. "Stephen. That's amazing, can you teach me?"

I scratched the back of my head, "It's not really something that can be taught."

She just looked at me "Then how can you do it?"

"Well-," thankfully I was cut off my Dad's voice over the crowd of people.

"Hey, you two, get on over here; we have a whole lot more to see!" Jean reluctantly skipped over to my Dad after saying goodbye to Sandu and Ira who replied in thunderous purrs. I quickly yelled back that I had to make a few more notes for my biology paper, so he gave me an extra five minutes to finish. I had to make this conversation fast. Since Ira was closer to me, I decided I should wake him up instead of talking over him to Sandu.

"Hey, Ira," I whispered "What can you tell me about the lion?"

"Hmmm?" came his absent reply, "Oh, the new guy, Kovu, he keeps to himself most of the time; except for a couple days ago…" His voice sort of trailed off.

"What happened," I asked "Was it bad?"

"No, but he won't stop talking about it," he explained "Apparently he met a human that shared his same emotions, and who he could completely understand; plus he promised he could get him back to his pride."

I blushed a little, out of embarrassment, Ira didn't notice, "Did he say what the human looked like."

"Yeah," he looked right me when he said this, "Kovu said that the human had blue eyes, and a light brown mane, or whatever you call it, that went to about the nape of his neck."

I just stood there, smiling at him. It took him a few moments to get it.

"Wait," he paused, starring right into my eyes, "It was you, you're the one, I thought your name sounded familiar; does, does he know that you can talk?" I shook my head. He actually kind of yelled at me this time, "Well, what are you doing shooting-the-breeze with me for, go talk to him, and get him out of that crappy mood he's been in all morning."

I backed off of his cage, "Fine, fine, I'm going." He nodded his head at me and laid back down as near to Sandu as he could get. I turned around just in time to see the rest of my family come out of the dissipating crowd.

"Hey, bud," my Dad said "Are you ready to go to the next exhibit?"

I scratched the back of my head "Actually, I wanted to see if I could get a good look at the lion; could I stay here with the camera, while you guys take Jean to the rest of the zoo?" My Dad looked like he was contemplating his decision, so I continued, "Since this crowd is dwindling down I bet I could get some good pictures, plus seeing this lion might help me with my report."

He smiled at me" Okay," he said, "Just call us if you go anywhere else, and we'll meet at the car at closing time, sound good?"

I nodded my head "Yeah, thanks Dad, have fun."

"You too, Bud." I watched as the three of them walked out of the Cat Complex, and towards the aquarium. I turned my attention to Kovu's cage as the amount of frustrated people evacuated the premises Soon it was only me and him. Though he didn't look very happy, he actually looked to be the most apathetic animal there. He was backed as far away from the bars as possible, in a small shadow of personal space, the darkness hiding his features leaving only a silhouette of himself to be seen. It wasn't until I got close that I noticed two separate blotches of stained dirt underneath his face. Through the dim light I could see two lines forming from the corner of his eyes to his chin. He was crying, actually crying. I shut my eyes and let my other senses take over, it was only then I noticed a faint melody being sung through a voice choked by sobs of pure depression.

"Fatshe leso lea halalela (Our land is holy.)

Ndi ya ku khumbula mna (I miss you.)

Ndi ya ku khalela mna (I cry for you.)

Motswalle waka, ngivelelwe. (My dear friend, I'm in pain.)

Mfo wethu, ngi velelwe. (My dear brother, I'm in pain.)

Aiehu, we Baba, ngivelelwe. (Aiehu, my Father, I'm in pain.)

La la kahle. (Farewell.)

La la kahle. (Farewell.)

Fatshe leso Lea halalela" (Our land is holy.)

I opened my eyes; a single tear fell to my cheek. "That was beautiful." I said out loud.

Kovu didn't even bother to look up. "Go away, whoever you are. I've had to suffer the crowd of unrelenting humans; I don't need any more company.

"Kovu," I pleaded "if you would look up, I'm sure you'd reconsider."

A small growl escaped his throat as he slowly lifted his head to look at me "Who are you to think you can tell me how to act, you- Stephen?" He took a quick look around, and then wiped his muzzle with one of his paws."Hey, whoever you are, could you leave me alone with the human, we need to talk in private."

I facepalmed and shook my head, I couldn't tell if he just being ignorant, or if he really couldn't tell that it was me. So I decided to be blunt. "Kovu read my lips," I over-exaggerated so I could get through his thick skull, " I. am. talking. to. you."

His face contorted to the most incredulous look I've ever seen from an animal, and he started toward me at a calm pace. He stopped at the bars right in front of my face; green eyes swimming into my own blue ones; starring closer he analyzed me. With a short gasp he took a step back. "You were visited by a King, weren't you," pulling me into an embrace with one arm; he continued, " when did this happen, and when were you planning on telling me?" He let go of me and said "It's getting dark, come on in, I found this- he slid a key over to me- it fell out of one of the Keepers' clothes." He explained "I'm pretty sure it is for my- cage." I smiled back "Great, thanks." I didn't like how he said "cage" I really do need to get him out of here, or else he likely to end up like the tiger next to him.

As I walked around and through the doors that clearly said EMPLOYEES ONLY while texting my parents – Went to Village Pointe Cinema with a friend from school might spend the night at his place, not far from home. ~ Stephen. - I wondered if this was a good idea. I mean, yeah, I need to stay to talk to Kovu, and this was the best possible way, but what were we going to do when security did their rounds, and stuff? However, that was the last thing on my mind right then. I only cared about Kovu, and his problems, because the weight on his heart clearly outweighed the weight on my conscious. This crossed my mind as I heard the door unlock and open as I entered the den.

_{Kovu}_

He walked in slowly, very apprehensive, nervous, and he eyed me carefully. He stayed a few strides out of range at all times. It was so awkward; he didn't act like this outside. To break the ice I tried getting some answers out of him. "So," I laid down, crossing my paws over each other, trying to look as unthreatening as possible, "Do you want to tell me what happened since we met, or are you just going to stand there like a frightened wildebeest calf?"

After a quick stare-down he finally loosened up and sat down; though he was still several strides away. I guessed the whole "trust" thing would take some time. After taking a few deep breaths he looked back to me, wringing his hands anxiously. "Well, it all started after I went to bed after first talking to you." He stopped wringing his hands; apparently he just didn't know where to start. "I woke up and walked around my neighborhood aimlessly until I happened upon an open field and realized that I had no idea where I was." He looked up at me, and I nodded for him to continue, though I was confused at the word "neighborhood," I didn't feel like interrupting. "Looking up at the stars I began to think about my grandpa, and all of the things he had taught me; continents, constellations, animals-"

"Constellations, you mean like the shape that the stars make?" I had to interrupt; this all sounded all too familiar to something Simba told me after I was first accepted into the Pride.

"Yeah," he answered, anxiety in his voice, "and this is where it gets weird…" His voice trailed off, he looked away, and began awkwardly rocking back and forth; he was really nervous. While he was busy getting the frog out of his throat, and not paying attention I walked closer to him and slowly laid down to his eye level and put my paw on his shoulder to try to ease him out of his nervousness. He sort-of jumped at my touch, and shot a surprised glance my way. I smiled "Go ahead and say what you need to, I'm not one to judge."

"Well after working out some personal issues I looked to the sky to see the clouds swirling into what I thought was a tornado, but…uh…then… the clouds turned into a…a… -

"The clouds turned into a massive lion didn't it?" My face turned from concerned into a wild grin, this promptly scared Stephen near out-of-his-wits as he backed about as far away as he could from me.

"How did you know that?" He stared at me; his eyes were curious, curious and paranoid.

"Calm down, you humans are too excitable." I rolled my eyes "I guessed that's what happened because it happened to a friend of mine back home. I was told by others that his entire personality changed after his encounter with the spirit of his father – Late King Mufasa – is that who visited you?"

A weak smile returned to his face, "No, no I was visited by a-a King who called himself Ahadi; he said he knew my great-grandfather."

I looked to the sky as I spoke "Ahadi… He was the father of Mufasa, which I guess makes him my great-grandfather too." I looked back down to Stephen, "What did he tell you?"

He started out by letting out a long sigh, like he was waiting to get something off of his chest. "He said that in the same way my grandfather helped him; I must help you, because it was a part of who I was; because it was my Circle of Life."

He scooted closer to me as I asked in a slight chuckle "Was he really that straight-forward, I mean, I would expect a Great King to be all cryptic and mysterious."

"No," he said, "I think he knew that I was already freaked-out enough as it was; still it was pretty terrifying and completely amazing at the same time." I started to speak, but he looked me in the eyes with something still on his consciousness, so I shut up to let him confess himself. "Do," he struggled with his words," Do lions believe in God?"

I was taken aback I didn't really understand his question, so I answered it as truthfully as possible, "Lions believe in many things, but what you are asking is kind of vague, you might want to rephrase it, you know, speak lion, don't use so many human words." I smiled, and he mirrored me.

He gave a slight smirk and muttered "Who knew the Gift would be so complicated?" He looked back at me with a newfound look in his eyes. "Right after I was given my grandfather's Gift, the ability to talk to animals, Ahadi told me that he as well as our Lord would be listening, as always." I raised an eyebrow; I think I was starting to get what he was trying to ask me. "What I meant to ask was, do lions believe in a Creator a supernatural being above all others, who made the Earth and all who inhabit it, and who cares and watches over the creatures of the Earth?" He looked at me, hope in his eyes. I stared back as a wide grin spread across my own. The grin turned to a chuckle, and from there to an all out laugh that had me rolling on the ground in convulsions.

While I was busy laughing I barely noticed Stephen's head drop and the faint salty scent of tears that filled my muzzle. As soon as I fully noticed what was going on I sprung to my paws and strode over to my crying friend. Gently nuzzling him I calmly said to him, "Hey, quit that, I wasn't laughing at you, I was laughing at your question. I just couldn't believe that you were that embarrassed about asking. He looked up at me and wiped the remaining tears off of his face. He looked me square in the eyes and I saw where he was gonna go so I beat him to the punch "The answer is 'yes,'" I said, "Lions do have an Almighty King, who we look up to, and who we believe is the Creator and Protector of all life on Earth, he is said to be a great lion with a golden brown pelt and the wildest golden mane in existence, we call him by one name: Aiehu." I continued with my tale, pacing around my cage like a master storyteller, using as much detail as Simba did when he first told me of the Great King Aiehu. Stephen's seemingly tired frame drifted to the ground as he intently watched and listened to my story.

" I was told by the present king of my homeland that in the beginning There was only Aiehu and Astra de Leo, that is the star where all good lions go when they die, it's our own personal Heaven; Aiehu felt that he needed companionship, that something needed to be done about the vast nothingness that "existed" outside of Astra de Leo, and so he plucked a single hair from his great mane, throwing it not-too-far outside Astra de Leo he gave a great roar which caused the hair to expand until it exploded. The absolute center of the explosion became the Sun, and the other particles of the explosion the various stars. The brightest burning ember of the explosion was picked by Aiehu to be inhabited by creatures that he created in his own likeness, but before he made them he had to make the world he chose peaceful, beautiful, and pure. He cooled the ember my blowing a great wind on it. He used his great claws to carve the rivers into ember he now named "Earth." I demonstrated on the rocky ground of my confinement, Stephen looked mesmerized at my telling I smiled and continued. "In making the river, he piled the dirt into towering masses which he called mountains. He thought his work so beautiful he cried a single tear of joy, this one tear pooled onto the Earth, making all the rivers and oceans of the world. The moisture from the tear nourished the ground and created plant life, all sorts of grasses and trees. He then took an amount of soil from a place most abundant of plant life and formed it to two different versions of himself. He called this creature lion, after his home – Astra de Leo. He made one lion with a mane, like his, making it a male, he made the other without a mane his mate – a female, to be the male's companion and eternal partner for as long as they both lived. He created other creatures for the lion and lioness to live off of: the gazelle, antelope, impala, zebra, and as well as many others. Being the generous Lord he was he gave the other animals mates for themselves to populate the world and let them thrive for as long as he saw fit. And so he sat back and watched, and continues to watch from that star." I pointed a single claw to the Great Eye of Aiehu himself; to Astra de Leo.

I smiled probably the biggest I've ever smiled in this place. I couldn't believe that I had actually remembered all of that. I had actually been in the same tired state as Stephen when Simba told me. Speaking of Stephen; I had gotten so into my Creation Story that I hadn't even noticed that he dozed off right towards the end of my speech. I sighed and said to myself "I hope he waited until right at the end to sleep, because I am not doing that whole monologue again." I watched with curiosity as the human shifted in his sleep, as I walked over to my own sleeping spot I got more and more curious. I hoped that he believed me; I would have to ask him when he woke. I also prayed that he slept well, he needed it, and so did I.

_{Stephen}_

When I woke up I had the same mini-freak-out everyone has in this situation. You know the one where you open your eyes after sleeping in an unfamiliar place and your first thought is Oh, shit, where am I? But, then you figure it out a second later. My little freak-out lasted a bit longer than that. After the initial thought I sat up and waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. "Oh, yeah," I said out loud, "I fell asleep in a lion's den." And, I'm still alive! I sat there for a while and thought about the speech Kovu gave me about his God's version of Creation. Now that I was awake and alert I started to put pieces together, and if I remembered Genesis correctly, then there were a lot of similarities, between his version of Creation, and the humans' version. I even thought for a split-second about God himself. If He was both all powerful and all present, then who's to say he can't take different forms for different species? It made sense to me and I'm only a B- student.

While contemplating this I failed to notice the chill in the air, and the fact that my breath was visible. It was the middle of spring after all, and I was in a t-shirt over a long sleeve shirt, and jeans. I took a quick look at my phone to find that it was only a little past midnight, and I had received a text from my parents giving me the okay to stay at my "friend's place."

While I was inside my own head I lazily started stargazing. I looked directly at the constellation Leo, his eye, what I came to believe to be a piece of Heaven called Astra de Leo, seemed to wink at me. I am not a very observant person so I didn't really notice how terribly I was shaking until a tired, but familiar voice called to me "Are you okay, Stephen?"

Still shaking slightly I shot my head to my left. Kovu was laying down about six to ten feet away from me; a concerned look on his face. He exhaled a great yawn, showing off his large pearly white teeth. On that note I promptly remembered why I was so nervous before. I was inside the cage of a large, fully grown, adult, male lion, who had just been pulled out of the jungle. I almost literally felt my face flush of all color. My courage to the wind I replied with a shaky voice "Y-yeah, j-just a little c-cold, that's all."

He raised an eyebrow, this seemed to be a fixed, incredulous "I don't believe you," smirk. "Oh, really," he said "You wouldn't be lying to a lion, would you?"

I avoided eye contact, "No!" I said almost too quick, afraid of what would come next, the smell of my fear must've been radiating off of me.

He got up and walked slowly and calmly around me in, what I didn't know then, was his faux-stalk that he used to mess around with his non-predator friends. It basically just scared me even more than I already was. Kovu probably thought this was the funniest thing that's ever happened, because he knew that I was genuinely scared, and that he was completely bluffing. After doing a couple more circles for good measure, he sat down only about five feet away. He continued in a sly voice "Because it seems to me that you are as pale as the full moon, shaking like a newborn, and your lips are bluer than your eyes. That tells me that you are very cold, and you need warmth fast, otherwise you'll be in a great sickness, that I'm sure you don't want."

I thought on this for a second and he was completely right, I had pneumonia once as an infant, and almost died. It would be even worse if I got it now, but what was I supposed to do; like I said before: my long-sleeve – t-shirt set was the only warmth I had. Kovu gestured to me "Come here," he said. I stared straight forward, unmoving, too scared-cold, not thinking about the sanity of my situation. He stared back determination in his great, green orbs. "I will not have you getting sick and/or dying while under my charge." I barely heard him; I was too caught up in my own self-preservation against this great beast. I closed my eyes tightly waiting for the pain of his claws or teeth upon me as I saw him get up on all four of his legs in a huff and bound quickly over to me. But… it never came… I instead felt him tug on the back-collar of my shirt. I tried to say something while being dragged backwards, but nothing came out, so I made futile attempts for him to stop. I received a stern scolding, somewhat muffled by my shirt. "If you're gonna act like a stubborn cub, then I'm gonna treat you like one." He dropped me. My eyes were still tightly shut when I felt something very soft and warm against my back and arms. I rested slightly against it, the warmth relieving most of my tension. I ran my hands through the soft substance, whatever it was; it was amazing. I heard Kovu's voice immediately to the right of me; I could almost smell his breath. "Heh heh, is that better," he continued to try to conceal his chuckle, but I could tell he was up to something, "are you enjoying yourself a little more?"

"Yeah," I said, relaxation finally reaching my voice, "what is this?" I opened my eyes to look at Kovu.

His sarcastic smirk was the biggest I've ever seen. "It's me." I froze on the spot. I was leaning against a lion, and I couldn't be more afraid.

Adrenaline pumped through my veins as I began to stand up. However, I was stopped short when Kovu's front leg went over my lap, keeping me from standing. "Where do you think you're going;" he smiled a playful grin towards me that relieved some of my tension, "Sit down, we need to talk." I sat back down, defeated, knowing that I couldn't get away from him if I wanted to. "Stephen, look at me," I did; he had that concerned look again "Why are you so afraid of me, I thought we were way past that; is it because there's nothing between us, nothing to keep me from you?" He stared me straight in the eyes, right down to my soul. "It's not me who you're afraid of; not me personally, but because of what I am that frightens you so, isn't it?" I nodded slowly; he had hit the nail right on the head. His concerned look was plastered on his face "Why, why are you afraid of lions?"

I wrung my hands nervously, again, as I answered. I don't know why I had such a hard time talking to him. Even though I was so new to whole "talking to animals," thing I had talked to the cheetahs, just as I would talk to everyone else. With Kovu, though, something was different, and the funny thing was that he was right, I was afraid of his species not him, and I was afraid of being too close. Instincts are instincts and if I wasn't careful, I could enact those primal rages with a single mistake. I chose my words carefully, "Whenever I heard anything about lions, the only thing I heard about them was that they were man-eaters, and didn't think twice about attacking." I looked up at Kovu; his face looked like he was going to be sick.

"That's terrible; you make it sound like we're just mindless, killing-beings; like we do it for fun, or something. As far my pride is concerned we've never encountered man, until just recently as you might've guessed. The present king of my pride only told me stories that his father told him." He continued; he looked hurt, that I made such a ridiculous conception of his species, " In the Pridelands, where I come from, humans are the stuff of legends; stories that mothers tell their cubs to get them to sleep. The way I understood it before was that your kind were the "bad-guys," so to speak, but now I understand completely where you're coming from." I saw tears start to well up in his eyes. At this point I didn't care about the dangers of this. I had deeply upset someone, who I had become friends with, and I didn't want it to end the same night it was established. I lunged from the spot I was sitting at and wrapped my arms around Kovu's gigantic mane and neck, as I did I hoped he took this as a gesture of endearment and not an attack at his throat.

"Don't," I started crying myself, " I don't want to see you cry again, I understand, how much my kind has hurt you only in these short few days, and I hate it. I never want to see it happen again, and as long as I'm here, nothing – no one will lay a hand to stop us from getting you back home, where you belong." I started sobbing like a child, soaking the lion's great mane with my tears. I felt one of Kovu's legs go over my shoulders pulling me closer in an embrace.

"My dear friend," he whispered "Don't cry, I forgive you, I know how big of a change this must be for you; it had been for me, and believe me I know how it feels to have your whole world flipped upside down." He let go of me so we could look each other in the eyes, again, "We are both caught between two very different worlds, we have a history that spans four generations back," he chuckled, and took hold of a few strands of my hair in his paw toes, "Hell, we even have the same color mane." I laughed at this fact; I had just noticed it, as well. "A wise king, the present king of the Pridelands, said 'We are one,' when he told me this, I only thought of the relationship between me and my mate; two halves of a whole, as it was with the first lions." He smiled and I smiled along with him, "Now I see, that he spoke of more than just love between two lions, he was speaking of the connections we share through any sort of species boundary, as two who come together through a shared purpose, as a part of their destiny." He put his paw out and I grasped it with my hand. We fully understood each other, and now we could get down to what needed to be done.

I started to say something when I heard a voice coming from the cage next to Kovu's "Ahem, I hate to break up the bromance that seems to be blossoming, but I don't believe we've been introduced; my name is Yuddhaya."

(A/N): Whoo! That was looooooooong! Remember to r&r, please. Special thanks to Simbafan, again. A quick head's up, chapter 8 will not be ready for a long while, since we are getting up to the climax! But, do not worry; I am not done, not by long shot!

'til then,

~ The Puppet Master ~ SinxhetXXI

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