Hours later, after the fight had finished and Nala and I had been to the waterhole to clean up, the two of us were again walking together round the border. In time, caught in our discussions over some of the moves we'd made in our mud fight with Pumbaa and Timon, we found our way to the Eastern Border again. We stopped and looked out into it.
"Just think," she said, "somewhere in there, my father lives. Probably."
"Do you ever wish you'd known him?" I asked, in seriousness.
She looked thoughtful. "I don't know. Perhaps he would have been a terrible father anyway. I mean, it's not like he had much to teach me is it? And besides, Mufasa was like a father to me… He always had a kind word and a tickle round my ears as a cub."
"He did?" I'd never known. Or perhaps I'd just never noticed as a cub, being preoccupied with so many other things.
"Oh sure," she explained, "he used to talk to me a lot when you weren't around. Explained all the traditions, and how a Queen was supposed to behave, that sort of thing."
"Like my lessons then," I noted, "I wonder why he never did them together."
Nala looked at me astounded. "You think we would have paid attention to him?! We would have been mucking about and pouncing on each other the whole time!"
"I suppose you're right."
Musing through my thoughts I watched the edges of the Riverlands from where I sat. After a while came a screeching which sounded like two lions fighting. Nala looked at me, alarmed. Then out of a clump of trees, came rushing another lioness. When I looked closer, I realised it was the same one I'd seen that morning with Zazu. She had the same markings around her ears and a deep gash across her nose.
She came running towards us, fearfully, then slowed down and stopped when near the border, and she saw us looking at her. She padded over, silently.
"Pridelanders," she whispered.
"Yes, we are," I replied, taking in her looks and in particular the gash on her nose.
"I don't see many of your kind here, are you lost?"
Nala laughed, but I shushed her, realising that might not be the best tactic to take at this moment.
"I'm a Riverlander, and I've seen you before," she said, looking at me. And so she had. "You saw me, the day I was given this," she said it with distaste, pawing the mark on her nose.
"I – er, yes" I said feebly. Was she chiding me for not helping?
"Nasty fellow, that lion who gave it to me. You don't want to cross him. That was my mistake, and look what it did to me. He forced me to make amends later, in the cruellest way."
"He did?"
"Oh yes, but I will not speak of it."
Nala spoke up, "What were you running from?"
The lioness stared at Nala, sizing her up, "another lioness. They don't like me here. They feel I don't pull my weight, and that my loyalty does not lie in the pride."
"Well, does it?" asked Nala.
"Of course not!" she snapped back. "What use is there pledging your allegiance to a King who is more concerned with his lands than his Pride's life and safety? Safety first, that's what my mother always taught me! I learned the trade well. Came in useful in my life as a rogue it did."
"You were a rogue? Why join a pride with the attitude like you had?"
"Cubs," she said simply. "You can't bring up cubs without a pride. Just wish I'd chosen the right one, this leader won't let me leave," she spat.
She seemed mightily angry. "But what's to stop you leaving?" I asked, "couldn't you leave any time. Right now, even?"
"What, over this border? With you standing there? You'd kill me, you Pridelanders don't get on well with the Riverlanders. I know. Especially after last time." She said it coldly, with malice. I wasn't sure whether it was towards her own pride or ours.
"You see the position I'm in?" she growled. "I can't leave this pride. They'd hunt me down, and they know I want out. They're just waiting for me to try and then they'll be down on me. What chance have I?"
She was right. She was damned, whichever way you looked at it.
"I lost faith in anyone but myself the moment my father abandoned my mother and I when was a cub. No one can be trusted. NO ONE!"
Nala fidgeted on the spot, as if she posed an immediate threat. But she plucked up the courage to say, "What happened to your cubs?"
"You're genuinely interested?" She seemed surprised. "One of them died of starvation when I tried to make it on my own as rogue. One of them ran away when she was still small and I never saw her again. And the other…"
She never finished. From the bush she had come from came rushing out another couple of lionesses.
"Thinking of escaping dearie?" one of them grinned wickedly.
"And so soon? Won't Jimbala be pleased? Throwing it back in his face again! After he took you in. Made you one of his own! This is how you repay him? By plotting escapes with these," she turned to Nala and I, "Pridelanders". She spat on the ground in front of us.
"I don't plot with anyone. I am my own," said the rogue quietly.
"That's right. No plot," I said, thinking she might appreciate someone sticking up for her. To my astonishment, she looked at me in surprise, speechless. I sensed anger behind her glassy blue eyes.
"You keep out of this, Pridelander!" said one of the other lionesses. You keep to your business, we'll keep to ours. And stay on your side of the border," she finished, her eyes narrowing. The three of them departed through the grasses from the direction they had all arrived.
Nala and I looked at each other in shock. "Well, that was unexpected," she said.
"Absolutely. I'm just glad none of them knew I was King or we could have been in real trouble."
"Oh, I don't know. I think you could have… scared them off," replied Nala, somewhat seductively, rubbing her body against mine.
Giving her a knowing smile, I followed her back into the undergrowth and inland towards Pride Rock.
On the way over, we met Rafiki, who was, as usual, in prophetic mood. "Ah, I see you two young uns have de situation under control," he smiled a toothy grin, "and so you should do. We are depending on you, young Simba, good luck my friend. The winds state dat you will be a great leader. And I have faith!"
The baboon carried on towards his great tree, and left me and Nala looking at each other, slightly puzzled. "Does he ever speak normally?!" she asked me.
"I would guess not. And do I wonder where my father met him?!"