Three: Scar and War
Zira's pride had located a small system of caverns surrounded by termite mounds and dry brush. There was a small spring that ran behind it; the scat near it was fresh, indicating some game would come to drink from the spring. They moved into it, grateful for the shield from the relentless sun and even moreso for the water, murky as it was.
It had been a few weeks since Zira had been visited by Scar in her dream. She had kept her eyes and ears peeled since then for any news of a visiting male, or rumors of a male somewhere in the lands. Despite the small voice in the back of her head that repeated, 'you're crazy!', she had a feeling she would find this male.
And she did. One morning, while drinking from their watering hole, Nuka saw a dark shape limping toward him. The little cub rubbed his eyes and whispered: "Father?"
The lion collapsed before he made it to the stream. Nuka scrambled across, water flying from his tiny paws. He inched closer to the lion and saw his flanks heaving; his ribs protruded from a coat almost as dark as Nuka's. His mane was thick, full, and nearly-black. Nuka could see the lion's eyes were blue; they were clouded over in pain and delirium.
"Help me," the lion whispered, voice rough with exhaustion. "Please."
"You're not my Father," Nuka said solemnly. "Who are you?"
The lion closed his eyes against the rising sun, teeth gritted in pain. "Please."
Nuka thought for a moment, then backed away from the lion. He found a small leaf from a shedding tree with a dying trunk, gathered a small amount of water from the stream in it, and dragged it carefully to the lion.
"Here," he whispered, afraid that if his mother or another lioness heard, he'd be in trouble. After all, he'd been taught to never talk to strangers. "Drink it."
The lion grimaced and pulled himself upright. He gratefully lapped at the water Nuka had given him, then he chewed the leaf, grinding every bit of moisture from its fronds. Once he'd swallowed, the lion sighed in relief.
"Thank you, little one. To answer your question, my name is Giza, and I come from far away."
"I hope my son hasn't bothered you."
Both Nuka and Giza raised their heads, surprised; neither had heard Zira's silent pawsteps. She'd clearly been observing their interaction.
"Not at all," Giza said, lowering his head with respect. "He might have saved my life."
"Well done, Nuka," Zira said, nudging his rump with a paw. "Go get Kenya and Damu. We'll help this lion inside, out of the heat. And see if there's anything to eat."
"I don't think there is," Nuka said, but he scampered off obediently.
Zira turned her attention to the rogue. Giza thought he saw something like pleasure in her eyes, though he didn't know why. He evaluated her in turn: thin body, pelt like damp sand, blood-red eyes that burned with feelings Giza himself had never felt before.
After the lionesses had helped Giza inside and brought him a rat caught earlier that morning, he found himself strong enough to speak to Zira. And speak he did.
He told her of the bitter war his father's pride had faced with an opposing band of rogues. He told her, face blank, of the casualties both sides had suffered. Giza's father, the pride leader, had been one of them. Though he had planned to ascend the throne and continue the battle, one of the rogues had kidnapped his mate while she had gone into labor.
"Sharina," Giza said, face blank. "They told me they'd kill her and the newborn if I didn't leave and never return."
Zira had felt pity for the dark lion at this. She felt even worse when he said, "And moons after I left, I found another who'd been exiled after me... she said they killed my mate and my son, right in front of everyone. Executed her. Said it was to keep my blood out of the new reign and bless the new king."
"My gods," Zira stuttered. "Oh, you poor thing."
"It's been several moons now." Giza turned his head. "I've just been traveling endlessly, keeping my paws moving... anything to put distance and time between me and what happened to my pride and my family."
Zira, in turn, told him her story: how she had been granted life in the Pridelands by King Scar and had borne his son, only to be exiled to a wasteland by his usurper.
Giza was silent after Zira had spoken. "You still love him, don't you?" Referring to Scar, of course.
"I always will."
"I know how you feel." Giza nodded. "I'll never forget Sharina."
"Don't you want revenge?"
"Revenge won't bring her back," he said, laying his head on his paws.
Zira seemed to ponder this.
"Perhaps not," she said. "But it would bring her justice."
"Justice without her is as cold as injustice without her."
The lioness shook her head, but smiled. "We are different beasts, then, you and I."
Giza looked at her and returned the smile. "Perhaps."
As the days passed, the two became closer; Zira made sure he was brought a portion of their hunting spoils, and they shared tongues while speaking of their past lovers. Before long the dark lion found himself desiring Zira. Despite her thin body and her hard heart, Giza thought he saw something of himself in her -a kind of persistence, the ability to go on after her world had been destroyed. He admired her strength, even if she went about it differently than he would have himself.
On the night he was set to leave for the northern stretch of desert beyond the Outlands, Zira stopped him.
"Give me something to remember you by," she whispered.
"Like what?"
"Your son."
Giza blinked, but he could not deny that he wanted it too. "I can't stay here," he said, regret creeping into his voice.
Zira lashed her tail. "I don't need you to! I'm a good mother; you've seen it. I need a son to rule this pride, after all... and it'd be like putting a little piece of Sharina and Scar into the world, wouldn't it?"
Giza met her eyes, and all at once they seemed more like roses to him than blood droplets-full, floral, inviting. He nodded, and the two padded off towards the shadows, away from the eyes of the lionesses and the ever-watching eye of the full moon.
When Giza left, Zira felt herself wishing fervently for any signs of life inside of her. She had felt as though the gods had hand-chosen the strange rogue to father her son, and she felt it only too convenient that he could not remain and had not insisted on being her mate.
Within a fortnight, Zira's prayers were answered: she became sick early in the morning, the way she had with Nuka. An older lioness in the pride, the gray-pelted Aliah, felt Zira's stomach with a practiced paw and gave her a knowing smile.
"Twins," the old lioness promised. "A boy and a girl, if I had to wager."
Zira could hardly believe her luck. Though this pregnancy was rougher on her near-emaciated body, she chalked it up to the cubs coming from a stronger lion. Her first pregnancy had been brutal, and she'd become sick during it, causing two females to be stillborn and Nuka to be weak. But even Zira could admit that Scar and Giza were quite different... and Giza's cubs were sure to be heartier.
Like the first time, her body swelled to impossible sizes; her belly was round and full, while her legs and chest remained weak. She found herself growing weary from small walks, and Nuka wore her already thin patience to nothing in mere seconds.
But when the cubs came, on a night that teased rain, Zira realized dreams came true after all.
Aliah, attending to her, gasped when the first cub slid from Zira's body.
"A boy," she whispered, cleaning him with a rough tongue. "Oh, gods, he's perfect."
"Let me see," Zira gasped, and sure enough, he was the exact cub Zira had seen in her dream. Strong-looking, bigger than any cub from her first litter, dark brown with black spots. Zira cleaned his face, feeling something akin to motherly love, but fiercer, wilder.
She was so preoccupied with her newborn son that she barely felt the second cub's birth. Aliah pressed this one closer to her as well, cleaning as she did so. The second was female, as predicted. Her fur was paler, like Zira's, though slightly more golden in color.
"They're beautiful," Aliah purred, watching Zira bathe the two and guide them toward her teats. "What do you think you'll call them?"
"Kovu," Zira said, looking at the male cub. "He's the spitting image of Scar, wouldn't you say?"
"Well- I thought-"
"And the girl... Vitani."
Scar and War, Aliah thought. Zira's plans were embedded in the names she'd chosen for her children.
A small, tentative shadow hovered nearby. Nuka. Aliah turned to look at the boy, though his mother did not acknowledge him at all. His mane had begun to come in, just barely, and it was an unscrupulous, holy mess. His face, shaggy and thin, was set in a wondrous expression as he peered over his mother's bony shoulder.
"Wow," he said, sounding vaguely impressed. "Whatcha call 'em?"
"Kovu is the boy," Zira said. "Vitani is the girl."
"Huh." Nuka sat, peering at his new half-siblings. "They're funny lookin'."
"No more than you were, when you were born," Aliah teased, giving the young cub's thin 'mane' a playful ruffle with her paw. "Why, I remember how shaggy-looking you were! You're coming into it, though. Right handsome, you are." Her lie was said so easily, so smoothly, that neither the mother nor the son detected it. The entire pride knew how Zira felt about Nuka. She loved her son- well, in the best way that she knew how- but it was no secret that she'd always preferred him to be different.
In Aliah's opinion, Nuka was exactly the sort of cub Scar should have sired. She imagined the former king had been very similar as a cub, although perhaps more clever.
"Go now, son," Zira said, voice flat. "I'm exhausted and don't have time for your meddling right now."
"Can't I sleep with you tonight?" Nuka's ears drooped.
"What did I say?" Her irritation showed with a sliver of sharp white fang. "Go."
"Come, Nuka," Aliah said, nudging the cub with her nose, "let's go find Kenya and see what she's up to!"
"Okay." His tail dragged the dust. For just a moment, the old lioness's heart felt as though it'd broken. No cub deserved to be treated like Nuka was, and Aliah feared his sweet nature was soon to be buzzard meat. How long before a bitter, angry lion grew in his place?
She cast one last look over her shoulder at Zira. With the weak starlight just glazing her eyes, and the way she gazed at the cubs at her side, Zira looked almost serene with her new motherhood.
But Aliah knew the lioness better than that. She'd seen Zira grow into an adult herself. She had followed Zira when they left the first pride, Ushandra's pride... and she'd followed her this time, despite her doubts.
Aliah twitched her ears. Ushandra had once been a kind and sweet queen, but... before long, they'd all been forced to leave. And leading the way had been Zira, Ushandra's headstrong daughter. She'd always been ambitious, fierce, and cunning, though those traits had evolved into something darker altogether once she'd made her union with Scar. And since his death...
Aliah could detect the light of insanity in her dark red gaze. Even as she loved on those newborn cubs, Zira was seeing them as objects- as potential for whatever schemes she'd cooked up inside her brain.
Nuka coughed impatiently near her feet.
"C'mon, 'Liah," he said.
She smiled indulgently at the scraggly cub. "Coming, dear."
After the birth of Giza's cubs, the other lionesses- like Aliah- began to realize something had changed in their leader. They adjusted quickly, resigned to their lives at this point, but it was noted just the same.
For instance, Zira had erased all memory of Giza. If someone brought him up to her, she would almost act confused, as if she wasn't sure who they were referring to. It was as though Zira thought she had brought her children into the world with only the help of her phantom Scar. She referred to tiny Kovu as "Scar's heir" and "Scar's chosen," which confused the other lionesses.
After all, how could Scar have chosen Kovu to do anything? He was dead, and he had been dead before Kovu had been even conceived or thought of.
Zira would not listen to this; in fact, even the suggestion would send her into a haughty rage.
But it was Nuka who was affected the most. Nuka had always savored the tiny scraps of attention Zira threw him, but now all of her time and energy was spent caring for her new cubs—particularly Kovu. She began to treat Nuka as an afterthought—or worse, a pest—and began to refer to Kovu openly as the successor of Scar in front of him.
Nuka made the mistake of voicing his anger only once when this occurred.
"Scar isn't even Kovu's dad," he said, fur bristling. "Why is he the 'chosen one' when I'm the one who-"
He couldn't finish his sentence before Zira had risen, the cubs falling from her side and squealing in protest. She had smacked him so fast and so hard across the face that his head swirled. Luckily, her claws were not drawn, but the sting to his face and pride were utterly devastating.
"I never want to hear that come out of your mouth again," she had snarled. "Do you hear me? Those are your siblings. And I will need you to help me make sure Kovu is exactly the kind of lion Scar would want him to be."
Nuka had lifted his own paw to his face and winced. Tears had brimmed in his eyes, but he would not let them fall; he was afraid it would only anger her further.
So, all he said was, "Yes, Mother," and walked away from her.
He sought the comfort of friends, of family, of a real pride, but that did not exist for him. The other lionesses were perpetually busy scavenging for their food. If Nuka tried to interrupt one of them, she would say something like, "What, you don't want to eat today? Then get out of my way!" He had stopped trying to get any of them to pay attention to him, with the exception of two lionesses.
The first was Aliah. She was the oldest lioness in the pride, gray-furred and more soft-spoken than the others, though her tongue could be biting as well. Aliah was kind to Nuka and tolerated his presence more than anyone else did, including his mother.
The second was Damu, his mother's righthand lioness. She was not necessarily kind to Nuka, but her daughter was.
Maiti was the only other cub in the pride, besides Nuka's small siblings. Damu herself was a tough lioness and strict disciplinarian; Maiti had not inherited her mother's serious nature. The only things they shared were the speckles under their eyes and their lean bodies. Maiti aspired to be a great huntress one day; she'd told Nuka many times.
The two of them would talk, quietly, at night amongst themselves, airing grievances and sharing secrets.
"I hate Kovu and Vitani," Nuka confessed to her. "But don't tell, please... I'll get smacked again."
"I won't tell," Maiti said. She had squinted at Nuka, moon-pale against his darker gray-toned pelt. "I hate it here. I wish Mother never followed Zira out here. I want to be able to live somewhere nice... don't you?"
"It wasn't that nice there," Nuka said. "It was only a little better than this place when I lived there."
"But now it's nice," Maiti argued. "There's grass again, and the herds are back. I can always smell prey when I'm close to the border. I'll bet the Pridelanders are all fat."
Nuka giggled, then became serious. "We will go back someday," he told her.
"How?" She snorted. "We're banished, remember?"
"Mother has a plan," he said. "She'll make sure we get to live there again, and have food, and water that doesn't taste like mud..."
"Meat besides rats," Maiti said dreamily. "I'd sure take it."
"Well, we just have to keep hoping," Nuka replied. "One day, we'll both live there, huh? Together. And it will be great."
Maiti nodded. "It's a deal."
It was around this time that Nuka found he had a crush on his only friend in the pride. She wasn't necessarily a beautiful lioness cub... she was thin as he was, and her coat was pale with a greyish cast. But her amber eyes were sharp, and so was her mind. He found himself wanting to be around her all the time, and that worried him.
Nuka then decided to never, ever tell her or anyone else that he was in love with her. Good things did not happen for Nuka; he had slowly but steadily been learning this his entire life. If he were to tell her, he was sure she would run from him... and he didn't know if he would be able to bear it.
"What's that look for?" She'd asked, and he only smiled at her.
"Nothin'."
"Okay, weirdo."
"Look who's talking," he fake sneered. "You're the weirdest girl I know."
"Yeah, bird brain... I'm the only girl you know." She initiated a game of wrestling, and all his senses were flooded with her.
Oblivious to her son's feelings, Zira lie awake, staring into empty darkness. Scar had not come to her in her dreams since the first time, and she worried she'd done something wrong. But what? She'd found the rogue, born the heir, and was keeping them safe and healthy as she could in these damnable lands. She hadn't lost any of her devotion... in fact, she had only felt it intensify since her new litter had been born.
A cub squeaked at her flank. She nosed Kovu, who was quieter than his noisy sister, and licked him gently across the face. At this point, he opened his eyes for the first time. They were a startling green color.
"Like Scar's," she whispered, surprised. Nuka had her own eyes, brown-red like dried blood; Vitani had opened her own eyes days before Kovu, and her's were blue, like Giza's had been.
But Kovu...
He was truly Scar reborn.
"Beloved," she whispered solemnly, kissing the quiet little cub again on his face. His sister squeaked again beside him, so she gave her daughter a quick kiss as well.
That night, her sleep was restless... a pair of green eyes winked at her from endless shadows, following her every move... but they never spoke to her.
But he was there.