Chapter 12
All the world is a stage, someone once said and right now Simba,Nala,Kiara,Kion, Sarabi and the lion guard had to put up a play.
A play that convinced the delegation from the tree of life that everything was alright.
The savanna sun hung high up in the skies zenith spreading it's blinding light in every corner of the pridelands like a flood of light.
The Tree of Life Delegation approached Sarabi who was waiting at a border tree.
From the outside it almost looked like a stand off.
High noon.
However neither party had come here to fight the other.
.
"Sarabi, It is good to see you again, and might I say you haven't aged a bit since we last saw you." Sahasi said as he approached Sarabi.
"It is great to see you too. But don't bother with needless compliments. I've learned to wear my age with pride." Sarabi replied with a smile.
"If you say so. Not disregard your status as the former queen but I would have hoped to talk to the current royal couple. Yet as your hornbill said,
the king and queen have come down with a severe and contagious case of savanna fever." Sahasi went on.
"Unfortunate isn't it ?" Sarabi said.
"Well I'm sure we will manage to negotiate a new partnership between our kingdoms with or without the king. It's more of a formality anyway." Ananda added.
"Indeed." Smiled Sarabi.
.
So Sarabi startet to show the Night pride delegation around the pridelands while discussing any political issue that needed discussion.
Unbeknownst to both Sahasi and Ananda, Beshte moved slowly with the group but half a mile apart with Ono was circling them overhead.
Everytime Sarabi didn't know what to say Ono would tell Fuli, who would relay it to Simba and Nala
Who, upon thinking about it for a few seconds would come up with a fitting answer and Fuli would get the message to Ono who would then tweet it out in zulu.
Everything seemed to be going as planned when suddenly ...
.
"What the devil?" Simba suddenly became distracted by a dark furred figure in the distance.
"What is he doing here?" Fury in his Voice, Simba went into a sprint towards what was now unmmistakably Kovu.
"Oh crap." Kiara said.
"What does oh crap mean." Nala inquired
"I'll explain later." Kiara said as she darted after Simba.
"Please just try and keep the information chain going. Don't let Sarabi down." Kiara quickly uttered before she went into full sprint.
Nala looked questioningly at Kion who tried to avoid his mothers gaze.
"Care to explain ?" She asked her son.
"Oh boy." Kion sheepishly smiled.
.
"Outlander, what are you doing here ?" A child like voice rang in Kovus ear.
"Huh?" Running towards him was an all too familiar looking cub.
"Get out of my Kingdom. Now!" The cub demanded.
"Wait, I remember you." Kovu stated.
"And I remember you, so I guess that makes two of us." Simba tried to roar but his infantile vocal chord didn't manage to produce any such sound.
"Last time we meet you were more in awe of me." Kovu said with a mocking grin.
"I was never in awe of you." Simba growled with condescention oozing from his voice.
Kiara had caught up with Simba. "Thank god neither of you has attacked the other one."
"Oh I wil kick this outlanders butt soon enough." Declared Simba once again completely forgetting about his diminished size.
Kovu chuckled in bemusement. "That I would like to see."
"King Simba has his memory back. I didn't tell him about the treaty." Kiara told Kovu.
"Treaty ? What treaty?" Simba asked.
"Oh boy. Dad, the outlander roams the pridelands under permission of Grandmother Sarabi." Kiara elaboratet, not calling Kovu by his name as to avoid suspicion.
"Mom allowed him to...she will have to explain this to me, right now!" Simba said, fuming with anger.
Before Kiara could explain anything, Simba was on the run again, this time heading for Sarabi and the Night Pride delegation.
"Ugh. Kovu don't take this the wrong way but your timing really sucks." Kiara said in a mix of jesting and severe annoyance.
Kiara went into a sprint to try and intercept Simba, leaving Kovu behind in a state of bemused bewilderment.
"I love you too Kiara." He chuckled and went back to his hunt.
.
"Dad, please wait. This is not a good idea." Kiara tried to tell Simba as she managed to close in on her father.
"I don't care. This was the one and only rule I insisted on never changing and my mother just breaks it as if it was thin ice."
Simba fumed.
"Do you wan't the delegation to see you like this ?" Kiara asked in the hopes that this would make the king reconsider his course of action.
"I don't care. My stance has always been clear. No outlanders in the pridelands!" Simba didn't stop.
"My own mother betrayed me." Simba growled as he kept running.
Kiara could swear that she heard some tears in her fathers voice.
"It is MY Kingdom! I am King! My rules are to be obeyed!" He yelled.
.
Then, much to Kiaras relief, Simba stumbled and fell.
Although Simba hadn't managed to actually get close enough to the delegation to interrupt the meeting but close enough to be plainly visible Sarabi.
Before Simba could get up again, Kiara had pinned him down.
Then she saw it in his face.
The king had tears running down his face.
Kiara had wanted to yell at her father for what he had almost done but now she didn't know if she had to anymore.
"I'm sorry Kiara. I just..." Tears kept rolling down his cheecks.
"...I just snapped when i saw the outlander. As if it wasn't humiliating enough to lose my mane, my roar and my body size
I also couldn't prevent an outlander from just walking into the pridelands." Simba said.
.
He was visibly angry and upset.
"I was about to explain it to you but you just ran off." Kiara said.
"Kiara, do you know how much it hurts to look into a pond and see that reflection?" Simba asked.
"I don't" Kiara admitted.
"To me being a cub means only one thing. Being powerless. Helpless. Do you know how many hours I spend in the jungle just looking at my reflection.
Asking myself just how much of a failure I was.
Sure, Timon and Pumba helped me to overcome most of my pain but there is only so much you can tell a kid who thinks he murdered his dad."
"I felt so happy when my mane finally started to grow. It meant I wouldn't have to see this useless reflection anymore." Simba finished.
"Feeling better now ?" Kiara asked as she got of her dad.
"I think i still need a second." Simba responded as he gazed at the clouds overhead.
.
A moment of silence passed, only interrupted by wind rustling through the grass.
.
"Are you two alright ?" Unbeknownst to both Kiara and Simba, Sarabi had stepped up to them.
"I told the delegation that I had to make sure the kings daughter wasn't bullying any smaller cubs." Sarabi said with a smile.
"It's alright. I was just getting carried away by ...kind of everything. I'm ok now." Said Simba, whiping tears from his cheecks.
"Alright. Kiara, the delegetion would like to meet the future queen of the pridelands." Sarabi said.
"You can come too but please watch what you're saying." Sarabi told Simba.
"I'm not an idiot. " Simba said drily.
End of Chapter 12