Title: Kiara

Author: Queen Serenity

Fandom: The Lion King

Chapter: Five

When Mufasa introduced Kiara to the rest of the pride, the other lionesses were delighted; she was such a cute little cub, and she was all of theirs to teach and to take care of.

One of the lionesses, Sarafina, showed Kiara her own newborn cub, which had been born just over a week ago. Looking down at the cute little pale-furred cub, she grinned. "Hi, little Nala. So glad to meet you." She looked up at Sarafina. "She's intended to be Simba's mate when they're grown, isn't she?"

Sarafina gave her a startled look. "How do you know all that? And her name, too. I didn't tell you yet…"

Kiara just smiled cutely and winked. "Call it a lucky guess. She looks like a Nala."

Later, once Mufasa's mate had awakened, he took her to Sarabi.

Simba lay at the beautiful lioness's side, suckling. Sarabi looked serenely, tired, at Kiara, and then looked to Mufasa. "Who is this, Mufasa? A visitor to greet the new prince?"

Mufasa went over to nuzzle her briefly. "Sort of. This is the newest member of our Pride, Kiara. She's an orphan who has journeyed from afar, and I have agreed to take her in. She is to be Simba's guardian as he grows."

Sarabi gave her a surprised look, then smiled. "It's a pleasure meeting you, Kiara."

Kiara bowed her head. "And you, Sarabi."

Sarabi tilted her head. "So you will be Simba's new guardian… you'll keep him out of trouble, will you?"

Kiara blushed. "I can't promise anything, but I'll do my best."

"That's all we can ask."

One of the first problems Kiara ran into was food. That first day, a couple of the lionesses dragged home a zebra for food, and Kiara had felt sickened at the thought of eating the bloody meat from the poor animal. The other lionesses looked as though they were confused by this, so Kiara had simply stated that she wasn't feeling well at the moment. They nodded and said they'd leave some for her. As the others started to rip into the dead zebra, taking their shares, Kiara felt her stomach turn over, so she moved into the back of the cave to rest so that she would not have to see it.

Later that night, however, she woke feeling miserable; she wasn't just a bit hungry now. Her stomach twisted in knots upon knots as she thought of food. Creeping quietly over the sleeping lionesses around her, she moved to where the zebra had been to see that they had left her some meat there, but had dragged the corpse away to somewhere else, most likely so they could come back and chew on the bones and stuff.

Looking at the meat lying there, she came to a decision… she'd have to eat, as disgusting as it was. Moving over to it, she closed her eyes, then forced herself to take a mouthful, swallowed, then another, and another, and another, discovering that it wasn't all that bad as long as she didn't look at it. That little problem of looking she'd have to overcome later…

Another problem was Scar. With how unused to this body as she was, and how big he was, she took to avoiding him… even if he wouldn't kill her outright, she was sure that he'd have no problem with setting up a little 'accident' for her if she angered him too much. She'd deal with him when the time came, but, for now… she had to learn how to stop being Whitney the human and fully be Kiara the lioness.

QS: This chapter wasn't centered around any movie events, but oh, well. It's showing Whitney having to deal with some stuff, you know?