A/N: Sorry it took so long! School has seriously been nuts, all the teachers are behind so their pushing homework on us in like every class. And now I've been scrubbing the house spotless and cooking and stuff for Thanksgiving. And THEN I go to upload and fanfictions.. I dunno... broken? lol. Well, thanks for the reviews, keep it up!!

Also, cannibals in this does not mean human eating human, it means lion eating lion. Yeah.

Chapter Four: Journey To Pride Rock

"ZURI!" screamed Sabili, still chasing her in the opposite direction of Ubaya Ridge. Her sister didn't stop. "Fine! Then don't hug me goodbye! Because I'm never coming back! I'm going to Pride Rock, to find this mother of mine!" Zuri came to a halt so quickly she almost fell on her face. She ran to her sister. 'Yes, I will still call her sister,' Zuri decided, 'It's not her fault that our, I mean my, parents told us lies.'

"Sister, please, don't leave me. You're the only one here that I truly can talk to!"

"I have to, Zuri. Don't you understand? Besides, you have Ruia."

Zuri rolled her eyes, her ears pinned back. "You don't even know, do you? The only reason he hung out with us two is because he /likes/ you, Sabili! He's going to be devistated if you leave!"

"Please. Ruia doesn't like me, we're just friends!"

Zuri sighed. "Believe me, Sabili, the way he looks at you is not a 'friends only' look." Sabili thought for a moment, realizing it was true.

"It doesn't matter. I'm still leaving."

"Then I'm going too." Sabili looked at her, startled. "What? You expect me to stay here with my parents? They lied to me just as much as they did to you."

"Zuri, are you stupid? They'll be searching the whole continent if you leave! You're the heir to the throne!"

"So? Your second." The stood in silence for a moment.

"Fine. Let's go. Do you have any idea which way Pride Rock is?" Sabili looked in all of the directions, seeing nothing.

"No. But we'll just walk, uh," she pointed to a east, "this way until we find someone else who can point us in the right direction. It's not like we can ask anybody from the pride which way it is. I think they would know what was happening."

"Okay. Let's go." And the duo left, quietly marching, on a quest for Sabili's parents whom she knew not the name of, and right now, which direction to head.

Sarabi had just told all about Sabili to Simba. "So, pretty much, you sold her for meat?" Now she was not only upset, but angry.

"Simba, you weren't there! If you had been, this mess wouldn't have happened!" He took a step back, acting almost as if she had swiped him across the face with her paw. She was not regrettful, however. What she felt he needed was a dose of reality. "You don't really get what went on here, do you? Not even after rescuing us. There hadn't been any quality meat for a month. Nala, me, Sarafina, Sabili, Kali, all of us were skin and bones except for Scar. Even the hyenas. There was not even field mice anymore! We could find the occasional sleeping bird, but do you know how hard it is to scale a tree trying not to wake a bird? Nearly impossible. We were all waiting to die when you came back. Did you not notice how skinny we were, how our unfattened flesh and fur drooped from our rib bones?" she paused. "You just don't understand how Sabili and those two other cubs' trading was neccessary for surviving. If we hadn't, by the time /you/ got around to coming back, you would have found us all dead, or most of us, the others becoming cannibals. I, I-" Sarabi broke into to tears. "I can't talk to you right now." She leapt off of the tall rock they had been sitting on and went, alone, in the direction of the water hole.

Simba sat, stunned at his mother's harsh words. "Mom, I didn't mean it in a demeaning way!" he called to her. "I meant, you sold her for meat for the pride's survival!" Sarabi turned around, not making a step toward him.

"I know, Simba. I just needed to blow some steam. Sorry you were a victim," she said quietly, turning back to the waterhole. Simba didn't know what to do, so went to the usual spot where the lionesses usually sunbathed, finding just Nala.

Nala heard the paws on the rock and opened one eye lazily. "Hi Simba."

"Hi," he sprawled himself out on the warm rock, stretching. "How's your day going?" Nala also stretched.

"Okay. You?"

"Okay." There was a moment of silence. Then Simba spoke up. "Nala, do you ever think about what really happens to the dead? I mean, we all know what happen to the Great Kings, but what about the rest? I mean, I guess the Great Queens would be with their mates, but what about the common lioness?" he started up at the sun, about to set.

Nala sat up, pondering this. "I don't know. I mean, maybe they're up there too, just in a different section, or maybe-"

"Nala!" came a deep voice calling from somewhere below where she was on Pride Rock. Her ears instantly distinguished the voice as Kali's.

"Up here!" she called back, looking over at Simba briefly.

"Hi, dear," Kali said as he tried to lick her cheek, but she backed away.

"Hi Kali," she said, looking at the two lions as they glared at each other, once again she saw the look of competition in their eyes. She rolled her eyes. "So what did you need?"

He broke his look from Simba. "I came, because I needed to see you," he smiled. He sounded so sickly sweet, that she actually winced.

"Oh," was all she could think to answer him to. Kali shifted nerviously, then cleared his throat.

"Simba, could you, um, excuse us for a bit? I need to talk to Nala privately. Simba eyed him, then Nala, who smiled at him encouragingly.

"Sure," he said slowly, walking away. When he was out of hearing distance, Kali turned to Nala.

"Nala, I've been waiting so long for you to make up your mind for so long..."

"Kali..."

"... and, I mean, I thought you loved me..."

"...Kali, listen to me..."

"...You and I agreed, we were going to start a pride of our own..."

"...Kalllii..."

"...and remember when you..."

"...KALI!" Kali's muzzle froze in mid-word. "Kali, listen to me. It hasn't been 'forever', it's been a full moon. You've been so pushy, but when I was at that other pride as a spy, you barely visited. I'm starting to think this is a contest to you, a see-if-you-can-get-Nala-to-marry-you-and-not-that-Simba-lion kind of contest."

Kali shook his head feverishly. "No Nala. Never. I just love you, and want you to be my mate." He looked almost hungrily at her, and she took a step back.

"I know Kali. But I still-."

"Haven't made up your mind."

Nala nodded. "Exactly." Kali sighed.

"Well, if you do ever make up your mind, you know where to find me," he gave her a smile. "Love you." He no longer expected it back, and walked quietly away. Nala sighed, laying down to watch the last of the sun set, alone, but her mind's conversation with itself filled up the lonlieness.

"Sabili, maybe we should go back. We've walked for two days and haven't run into anything, not even a antalope, not that they'd stick around for us to ask them," Zuri said, her paws still walking on rhythmically, like a robot.

"We'll find someone soon, I'm sure," Sabili reassured her sister. She scanned the landscape again. Her ears perked up as she saw something move. "Hey, there's something moving over there." Zuri looked also, seeing it.

"Let's go!" they ran toward the moving figure, then finding it to be a lone lioness, who now was facing them, claws unsheathed.

"What do you want?" she called from where she crouched in pouncing position, ready to strike at a moments notice. She was young, younger then themselves, just now fully grown (Sabili and Zuri have been full grown for a year, there 2 years old). She had a light creamy, almost white, fur and piercing olive green eyes that just caused you to stare into them.

"Do you know the way to Pride Rock?" Sabili asked bravely, stepping forward. The lioness stepped back.

"Why?"

"I'm looking for my mother."

"What's her name?"

Sabili hung her head low. "I don't know."

"Ha, your just trying to attack our pride aren't you, or just trying to become a spy. I'm not showing you the way."

"I'm serious! All I know was that I was adopted while some lion named Scar was king. Is he still king?" The lioness said nothing. "Please. I have to find my mother, my father!" The lioness stood up slowly, dileberatly, and looked at her for a moment. Finally, she sighed.

"I'll help you."

A/N: What'd ya think? To full of fluff? Not fluffy enough? Tired of hearing the word fluff? Lol. REVIEW!! Thanks, love ya!

Alyssa