Meep! Next chapter! Lost count, which one are we on?

The pride lionesses were closing in on the herd of antelope. Sarabi and Sarafina would lead the charge and Zira, commanding a second group of lionesses, would block off the herd's escape route. They moved in. In a flash of teeth, claws, and hooves, two fat antelope were down. The lionesses moved back to let Mufasa and Sarabi eat. Mufasa had been watching from a ways off. They had just about had their fill when a cry rose from the south. Nala's cry.

"Nala!" Sarafina ran off. Sarabi, Mufasa, and a few other lionesses ran after her. Nala had to have been a mile away. The grown ups were horrified at what they saw. Nala was struggling to stay above water in the middle of a deep but calm river. "Nala!" Sarafina screamed again. The mother was going to dive in after Nala if it wasn't for one teensy weensy little problem…hippos. Everywhere. And they were not happy about Nala being there. A particularly large male continued to glare at the cub. It seemed to be deciding what to do about the encroacher.

Simba, far off on top of Pride Rock, heard Nala's cry as well. Zazu flew up besides him. "What do you think…?" Simba asked.

"I do not know, young master."

Simba looked out at the large river attached to the second water hole. There! Simba gasped. Something colored dull-tawny bobbed in the water. Nala.

Simba flew off his resting place down the backbone of Pride Rock. The lion skidded down the steep, rocky precipice. And he was gone. He did not even hear Zazu's orders to stop. It was at least a three mile run, but Simba was going at super speed. He was like a cheetah. Not even the wind was keeping pace with him.

Meanwhile, Sarafina and the others watched helplessly as Nala thrashed in the water. Everyone was screaming. Sarafina, desperate for her daughter, began to walk into the water. Of all the pride members, she was the most frightened of water.

"Sarafina, what are you doing?" Sarabi flinched as the water drenched her friend's coat.

"I'm saving my daughter." Sarafina said sadly, knowing both she and her daughter would die if she went out there. But no fate was worse than doing nothing to save her only child.

And then came Simba to the rescue. (A/N 'Rocky' theme!) Seemingly coming out of nowhere, the prince ran up to the river bank and jumped off a ledge without pausing once. Once beneath the water, he became a crocodile. Simba saw Nala's thrashing figure in the distance of the water world. And closer than that, was a huge hippo charging at her. Challenger #1! Simba skimmed through the water at the beast. He launched out of the water and on top of the hippo's face, digging all his claws in. The hippo whirled his head around, trying again and again to get Simba off of his face. Finally he stopped, and they made eye contact. Touch her and you die! Simba glared insanely at the creature and jumped into the air, coming down right next to the exhausted lioness. "Hold on, Nala!" Simba grabbed hold of Nala's neck skin and began to pull her to shore.

"AAAHHH!" Something had attacked Simba's left hind leg and was bringing him down. Simba breathed in water. BAD! Bad, bad, badbadbad! Whatever it was (it being the attacker), Simba didn't care. He knew what breathing water meant, and it was not good. He started clawing the thing furiously, taking in more and more water. He had to get to Nala.

Simba broke free. He swam up, up to oxygen. He took in more water. Air! Need air! Fifteen feet to the surface. Nine… three… Simba breathed deep his precious oxygen and finally, FINALLY got a permanent hold on Nala. Calmly, he brought her to shore, where they sat for a very long time while Nala coughed out all the water in her lungs. The grown ups began to run to them, none faster than Sarafina, who'd been up to her chest in water.

"You okay now?" Simba asked Nala as she finished her coughing fit.

"Simba? Simba, I…um…well…" But Simba didn't hear. Everything misted over, and he blacked out.

Nala looked inside the cave of Pride Rock, but couldn't see what she wanted to. Mufasa, Sarabi, Zazu, Zira, and Rafiki formed a solid wall, blocking her view to Simba. He had been terribly injured. The lionesses had tried to block her view of her friend in such terrible condition, but she had seen it before they even got Simba and herself on the riverbank. Simba's paw pads were completely raw from sliding down the rocky backside of Pride Rock, or so Zazu said. Rafiki had said Simba had breathed in lots of water, but you could tell that by how much he coughed in his sleep. Simba sustained a number of broken bones from his meeting with the hippo, mostly in his legs, paws, and one rib. But the worst was his left hind leg. Somehow, a massive chunk of Simba's leg was gone, revealing the white of his bone. Most of the pride that saw the wound believed it was a crocodile, but Rafiki had doubts.

Nala was near tears as she limped to her mother's side. She had been the reason Simba did this. She was the reason he might not live. It was all her fault. How stupid can you get? Nala beat on herself. How can you practically walk into an elephant without noticing? The elephant had charged, and she, blinded by fear, ran anywhere she could in order to get away. Because of her foolishness, Simba was like this. Most of the lionesses were on the main promontory of their home. Sarafina and Nala lay facing each other on one of the rocks that made the staircase to the cave.

"Mom, I did this to Simba," Nala cried.

"Nala, that was an accident. You did what any lioness, or lion for that matter, would've done. You followed your instincts," Sarafina cooed. Nala still blamed herself.

Mufasa appeared behind the pair. "Sarafina, Nala. Would you mind if I passed?" The mother and daughter moved out of the king's way so he could descend. "Rafiki needs some kind of plant," he explained, and trotted off into the night. Nala watched Mufasa and then looked up at the moon, wondering.

"Mother?" she asked.

"Hm."

"Who was my father?" Sarafina began coughing horribly. Nala had taken her completely off guard, not that Sarafina didn't expect this day to come, but that wasn't the point, how would she, why was Nala-

"Mom? You still in there?"

"Why do you want to know about your father?" Sarafina regained her cool. The lionesses who overheard looked at each other. They all knew about Nala's father.

"Simba and Mufasa, Taka and Zira's soon to be…it just makes me wonder."

Sarafina sighed. She could almost see his face in the stars… "What do you want to know?"

"What was he like?" Girl talk.

"Well, he was a real sweetheart. Warm, caring, a bit of a romantic… He was always there for me if I was in need… Your father-" Sarafina noticed some pride members eavesdropping. Pride members being Timon and Pumbaa. Well, more like just Timon. "Let's walk and talk, dear." she said. The pair went off for a river-side walk, just as Mufasa returned with a herb.

"As I was saying, your father was a gentleman. Very polite, but somewhat clumsy around lionesses," Sarafina and Nala lay in the green savannah grasses watching the moon rise. "He was shy around females, which just attracted them to him. I got lucky. But he was not very shy around other lions. He was very used to being the center of attention back home, and then coming here and finding a king who barely tolerated him, well, it took some getting used to for him."

"What happened?" Nala asked simply.

Sarafina sighed. "Your father was born far away from here, to a different pride, where he was the second-born prince, like Taka. It is not uncommon in other prides for the every male born there to leave the pride once they reach a certain age. We don't practice these sorts of things because our pride controls uncounted amounts of land and are directly descended from the first lion and lioness.

"When he came here, I was the first one he met. I was out hunting alone when we stumbled on each other. He was quite smitten, to be honest." Sarafina let out all she knew about the lion as if it were a guilty secret she no longer had to keep. "But his majesty did not approve of outsiders. No one born to this pride has ever left our borders at the beginning of the sand dunes. All our other borders are impassible. But anyways, Mufasa did not like your father. He did not seem to understand how to respect Mufasa, or how we treat the royals differently than he had been treated as a cub. Before Ahadi's death, he suggested to Mufasa that he betroth Taka to a lioness in the pride since he wasn't married yet."

"That lioness being you?" guessed Nala. Sarafina did not even answer.

"Neither I nor your father, or even Taka, could stand the thought of that. So, your father and I were secretly married by Rafiki. Sarabi was the only witness. She found out she was pregnant four days later.

"When Mufasa found out I was pregnant by your father, when he was leaning towards the idea of betrothing his brother, he went into a rage. Your father was banished to whence he came, never to return. I was heartbroken," Sarafina struggled to keep from crying now. She still wanted her mate back.

"Mufasa didn't know we had been married. If he did, he wouldn't have been allowed to banish him. I didn't dare tell him, though. To get married when you are already betrothed is…well, it isn't good. Your fate is worse than exile, and then your mate would suffer the same," Sarafina couldn't hold the tears back any longer. She let them stream down her face, a silent wish to the gods, if one existed. "I wish I had now…"

Nala was patient. She repositioned herself next to her mother, comforting her and licking away the tears. "It's okay," she whispered. "Don't be afraid to cry."

"You have met your father once," Sarafina struggled with the words.

"What?" Nala was so shocked, she nearly fell over while she was laying down.

"Right after you were born, I knew he was hiding in the Pridelands. I took you to him. I wanted to go with him, but I couldn't leave… You were betrothed, Sarabi would need another mother to console in. You were too young to travel anyways."

Nala nodded. "What did he look like?" she asked cautiously.

"Well, I barely remember his face," Sarafina lied. "He had a sandy colored mane. He was a little darker than us; his pelt was a light tan, I suppose. His nose resembled Taka's, if I recall correctly…" Oh, his face, thought Sarafina. She remembered every detail… She tried to paint the picture for Nala. She ended his elaborate description with, "He had the most gorgeous dark green eyes."

"That's hardly what I'd call 'hardly remember,' Mom," Nala teased. She hesitated with the last question on her mind. Did she dare ask?

"Mom?"

"Yes?"

"What was his name?"

Sarafina got lucky. She did not want to answer that question. And she didn't have to. At the exact moment Nala asked it, Simba's cry broke the silence of the night. Nala took off back to Pride Rock, leaving her mother to remember those few precious days she spent married with him…

Nala got to the cave just as the others were leaving the Prince. Zazu and Zira were out first, followed by Simba's parents. Sarabi looked worst. Rafiki came out last and turned to Nala. "He says he like do speek witch'u," he said simply (A/N yes, those words are spelled like that on purpose!), and went underneath the promontory. That means he wants to say close to Simba, thought Nala worriedly. She walked inside the cave.

Just her and Simba. Alone. She had wanted alone time with him. She was going to get a lot while he healed.

"Nala?" Simba's voice was raspy from screaming.

"Simba!" Nala sprang over next to Simba and lay down next to his almost-completely-immobilized body. She put her face into his mane and let out her guilty tears.

"I'M SO SORRY SIMBA!" Nala cried, although, because her voice was muffled by his mane and her own sobs, she sounded more like, 'EEM OO OARRI IMBA!'

"I'm fine, Nala," Simba said. Wrong answer!

"FINE?!"

"Oops."

"YOU CALL THIS FINE? LOOK AT YOU! LOOK AT WHERE I'VE GOTTEN YOU! YOU COULD DIE!" Nala yelled, away from his mane this time, but then began weeping in it again.

"Thanks for that thought, Nala. Geez, I've never seen you like this!"

Nala said something. It was very hard to tell what, at least for anyone other than Simba.

"I am not! I'm going to be fine! You'll see!"

More sounds from Nala.

"What are you talking about?"

"WHAT AM I TALKING ABOUT?!" Nala came off of Simba's mane again and, once again, screamed.

"Geez, make up your mind," Simba said. That got her. Nala stopped and looked at him, blinked a few times, and then broke down laughing. Simba smiled. "That's all that matters, Nala. So long as I see your smile, I'm happy."

"Really?" Nala asked between giggles.

"Really really." That was the first time Nala felt her heart flutter.

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