Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Ice Age or Lion King characters. The Ice Age characters belong to Twentieth Century Fox, and The Lion King characters belong to Disney. All lines in bold are either from any of the Ice Age movies, any of the Lion King movies, Bolt, The Wild, either Brother Bear movie, or from a song that will be specified at the beginning of the applying chapter.
Chapter 37
Pumbaa's P.O.V.
I hear Nala yelling for Simba. Somehow I escape from whatever that monster is, and now I am running for my life. Seeing Nala, I put myself on full speed. I jump over a log and find myself a few feet away from Nala.
"Pumbaa, can you get Simba? The cub is coming!" Nala shrieks.
"I don't think there's enough time," I say.
No sooner than I say these words do I hear a cub cry out. I hand it to Nala, and she cleans the cub's small body gently with her tongue to help him or her breathe.
"Congratulations, Nala," Timon speaks up.
"Don't congratulate me yet," She pants.
"What do you mean?" Simba nervously questions.
"There's still at least one more cub," I say.
An hour later, five cubs are curled up by Nala, all of them drinking milk.
"I'm so proud of you, Nala," Simba whispers.
"We're the first parents to have more than two cubs in one litter," Nala realizes.
I wipe a tear out of my eye as I watch my new nieces and nephews. There are three boys and two girls in the litter.
"Have you picked out names for them yet?" Diego asks.
"Yes, we have. Well, for four of them at least. The two of us have decided to let Pumbaa name our youngest cub," Nala smiles.
"You're letting HIM name the youngest? What about ME?" Timon jealously replies.
Simba's P.O.V.
I nuzzle my mate as she grabs our tiny son by his scruff. She passes him over to me, and my heart swells in pride. In my jaws is my first-born of the second litter, and my first son. My son is an exact copy of what I looked like as a cub. He has golden fur like I do, but he is a little bigger than I was at that age. I instantly know what I am going to name our oldest son.
"His name is Kopa," I smile as my son lets out a yawn.
"Simba, you remembered," Nala breathes.
"Yes, Nala, I did. I know you have always liked that name for a cub," I say as I place Kopa back beside Nala.
Before Kiara came into the world, Nala and I came up with several possibilities for names. Since we didn't know if our unborn cub was a girl or a boy, we came up with two possibilities: Kiara or Kopa. When our baby girl was born, we instantly named her Kiara.
"Did I miss something? Why is it so sweet that you named your son Kopa, Simba?" Timon asks.
"Before Kiara was born, we found out from Rafiki that I was carrying a single cub. Therefore, Simba and I came up with two names, one male and one female. If we had a son, his name would be Kopa. If we had a daughter, her name would be Kiara," Nala says as she lovingly looks at our cubs as they nurse.
"I know how it plays out from there," Timon reminds.
Our next cub is another male. Nala passes him over to me, and I hold him by the scruff as I look at him for the first time. He has my color fur, with Nala's color underbelly. As I pick him up, he lets out a yawn. My son bats a paw at Timon as the meerkat walks over to us.
"His name is Askari," Nala reveals as Timon backs away from my cub's outstretched paw.
"There are some people who don't understand Swahili," Diego speaks up.
"Askari means warrior," I say as I sit my son back with his siblings and mother.
Askari instantly begins to drink more milk, and is calmed by the warmth of his brothers, sisters, and Nala. I give Nala our new daughter, and I look down at them with a smile on my face. Our second daughter, for she was born after Kiara, looks exactly like her mother and I instantly know what I am going to name my precious cub.
"I'm naming this one after Nala. This will be my little Cali," I affectionately say while looking into Nala's eyes.
"Simba, you shouldn't have," Nala purrs.
"The name fits. Cali means most beautiful, and both my daughter and her mother are both beautiful," I answer.
Our next cub is also a girl. This is going to be hard, because she's a perfect balance of Nala and me. We can't base her name off of her eye color because they aren't open yet.
"What should we name our little daughter?" I inquire.
"Let's name her Sapphire."
"Why Sapphire?" I question.
"I think she is going to have beautiful sapphire eyes. Don't ask me how I got that information, because even I don't know where it came from," Nala tells me.
"That leaves our youngest cub, our son, for Pumbaa to name," I say.
Pumbaa comes over to our little one. He watches as our small son tumbles over Askari to get in a position to nurse. A few minutes pass, and Pumbaa is still watching our cub.
"Any day now!" Timon complains.
"Since Simba named his daughter after Nala, I'll name his son after him," Pumbaa announces.
"His name's going to be Simba Jr.?" Timon skeptically replies.
"No, his name is going to be Jerome. It means lion, just like Simba," my warthog friend tells Timon.
"It's perfect, Pumbaa," Nala and I praise.
"Well, we better get a move on," Diego suggests.
The cubs are finished nursing, for now, and are peacefully sleeping. I grab Askari by his scruff and prepare to carry him. Nala grasps Cali in her jaws. Diego gently picks up Sapphire, while Pumbaa carries little Jerome. Jerome is lying on one of Pumbaa's tusks, similar to what I did as a cub. Somehow, Buck is able to carry Kopa in his arms. We hear a scream coming from Kovu and Kiara's cave as we approach the herd's clearing. Not my precious Kiara!
Kiara's P.O.V.
"Zazu, get Kovu!" I yell in agony.
Of course the cubs pick now to arrive. Kovu's hunting, and both of my parents are trying to find Uncle Pumbaa.
"Get Kovu? Yes, of course!" Zazu yells as he flies into the woods.
"Somebody help! The cubs are coming!" I roar.
"Don't worry, Kiara! Uncle Pumbaa's coming!" a familiar voice calls to me.
My parents found Uncle Pumbaa! My happiness is cut momentarily short, when a pain goes through my stomach. I grip the floor of the cave and attempt to steady myself. My claws go into the soft earth, and I wish that someone will hurry up and help me. Then, a red snout appears in the doorway of the cave.
"Don't worry, Kiara. I'll help you through this," Uncle Pumbaa coaxes.
Kovu's P.O.V.
"Sire, it's Kiara!" Zazu's voice interrupts my hunt.
All of the antelope stampede away.
"What?! What's wrong with Kiara?!" I impatiently ask.
"Your cubs are coming!" Zazu shouts.
I run into Diego on the way back.
"Diego! What do I do to help Kiara?" I panic.
"This? Not good," Diego mutters under his breath.
"What's not good? Is Kiara okay?" I yell.
"She's fine. What I mean is the fact that you're getting so worked up over this," Diego answers.
"Well, since you're so experienced, what should I do?" I nervously ask.
"Don't you EVER say I'm experienced. Shira's pregnant with my first litter of cubs. I've NEVER had cubs of my own before, because I never found someone I cared enough about to ask them to be my mate!" Diego snarls.
"I don't have time for your life story!" I yell.
"You started it. Look, I may never have been a father before, but I was around when my half-siblings were born. If I know one thing about women, it's that you have to respect their boundaries. Some women want their husbands around when their child is born. Others want their husbands to stay a distance until the child is born and cleaned up. It all depends on the female," Diego tells me.
"Thanks, Diego. We seem to be at each other's throats quite often, but I'm glad to know that you still would help me."
I then race back to the cave to find Kiara. By the time I reach her, she is already licking a cub clean. It is a beautiful little girl, who looks exactly like Kiara. I nuzzle my wife and our newborn cub.
"Where have you been?!" Kiara demands.
"I was miles out, and I freaked out as I came back," I honestly say.
We are interrupted by a cub's cry, and Pumbaa passes a male cub to Kiara. She gently licks our son with her tongue to get his lungs working.
"They're beautiful, Kiara and Kovu. You have a perfect family," Pumbaa sobs.
"Our son looks exactly like you, Kovu," Kiara breathes as our small son begins to nurse.
"What are we going to name them?" I ask.
"You can name our princess, and I'll name our little prince," Kiara softly says.
I watch my little girl as she places her paw against my mate's stomach to ask for milk. I know it's customary for cubs to do this, but I have never understood he process. I look down and study my daughter's every move.
"Layla. That's my little Layla," I coo as I nuzzle her tiny head.
Our son is finished nursing, and he lets out a giant yawn. It is going to be eight days before their eyes and ears open. Kiara curls her body around the two tiny bundles before speaking.
"The cubs are a product of the merged prides. Lt's name our son after that. His name will be Ari, which means pride. It will always remind us of how our love saved many lives," Kiara yawns.
"Someone other than Ari is tired," I tease.
"Being a new mother is hard," Kiara drowsily replies before wrapping a paw around the cubs.
I settle down behind Kiara and wrap a paw around her stomach. This is the first time in four months that my paw can actually wrap around all of Kiara's stomach. I hear the light breathing of Layla, Ari, and Kiara, and I know my life is going great.
Author's Note: Yeah, the cubs were born! I want to point out that I am one of those people who don't believe that Kopa was born before Kiara. I'm sorry if that makes anyone mad, but that's just the way I think. I still put Kopa in the story, but he is younger than Kiara. I will admit that I haven't read many things about Kopa, but I will try to keep his character as close to his original personality as normal. Thanks for reading!