Thanks to my lovely reviewers! Mwah! I loveth yooooouuuuu... n.n This is another slow chapter, but eh... it's getting closer to the adventure of this story... :)
Kiara was the first to awaken. It was dawn, the sun having not even peeked over the edge of the horizon yet. Not desiring to wake her children, who slept between her forelegs, she did not rise.Rather, she gazed out at the horizon.
Just as the queen moved her head to place it back down and rest a little while longer sinceshe hadn't slept well last night without Kovu, she heard a sound.
First her mind wandered to the thought of trouble, then to the hope that Kovu may be home. Licking each of her children gently, she moved carefully so as not to wake them, though unsuccessfully.
Kri stretched as she felt the warmth of her mother leave her side, then slowly opened her eyes. She was followed closely by Tumba, who yawned softly as he opened his eyes, alerting their mother to the fact that she'd managed to wake them. "Stay here, my little ones." the queen told them before silently padding towards the exit.
Inside the cavern, Kri's gaze followed her mother. 'Like I'm gonna listen.' she thought with a light snort. Tumba's eyes had also followed their mother, but he didn't seem to have any interest in following her, unlike Kri.
Kri leapt to her paws and started weaving her way around and through leonine bodies.
"Wait, Kri! Where are you going?" called Tumba, maybe a little loudly. He flinched at the sound of his own voice, frowning.
Kri stopped mid-step and glanced over her shoulder at her little brother, her eyebrow lifted slightly at him. "Where do y'think?" she smirked, her voice softer.
"Following Mom? But Kri! Mom said to stay here!"
Kri merely rolled her eyes at her brother before padding away again. "Are you going to come or what?" she knew her brother would come eventually.
Not exactly desiring to be called "chicken",Tumba got up slowly and followed after his sister in a much slower and cautious fashion. Tumba was soon outside with Kri and his mother, following his sister's path carefully down the large rocks that lead off of Pride Rock.
Kiara had stopped at the base of Pride Rock, her eyes looking elsewhere.
When the cubs saw what their mother was looking at, they immediately stopped. Directly behind Kiara, the posture and expressions were nearly identical: eyes wide and maws wide open in massive grins, tails lashing with excitement.
"Dad's home!" the words tumbled from Kri's lips as she regained her composure slightly, her eyes sparkling merrily.
It was indeed Kovu. A light smile formed on his maw. He looked a little battered and bruised, but was otherwise supporting himself well. He let out a relieved sigh, 'It's good to be home,' he thought as he padded toward his mate. Only when he was about a pawstep in front of Kiara did he stop.
"Kovu! What happened! Are you all right?" the queen wrapped a paw around her love before looking toward the children with a look that seemed to say they were going to be in trouble for not listening, but at the same time was too filled with (maybe a little much) worry for her mate to let her scold them yet... she had feared something worse might've happened to her love! "Tumba, Kri. Go back inside the cavern. Now." Kiara's voice was suprisingly rough as she spoke to her children. The queen then looked back at her mate, whom she quickly moved to support even as the two cubs padded a little disappointedly back toward the cavern.
Kovu chuckled at Kiara, "I can walk fine, you know." he told her with a smile.
Kiara smiled faintly. "I know, I just... I was so worried!"
Kovu smiled warmly, gently nuzzling Kiara before pulling back, his eyes becoming terribly serious now. "Hyenas," he sighed softly, shaking his head. "They had a message: their clan wants war with the Pridelands."
Kiara's eyes grew wide, fear grasping her heart as she thought of what this might mean. "W-war?" '...this can't be' "But! Why? Did they say?" the Queen forced herself to keep her composure.
Kovu nodded weakly. "I found three," he said, "just three. I tracked them down most of the day. But just as I reached the borders, they turned on me. They must've known I was following them." his voice raised slightly as he spoke, the disguist in his words apparent. "They must be exceptionally skilled hyenas, to have picked me out..." he frowned, worriedly. "Well, back when Scar was king and he made the alliance with the hyena clan," said Kovu worriedly, "Several pups were killed without apparent reason. This happened before Scar was overthrown." he sighed. "That's what they told me."
Kiara's eyes widened, fearful. "Did they say more?"
"No." Kovu answered, a weariness entering his eyes. War was the last thing he needed. ...the last thing anyone needed. "...I think they are out for revenge. On the Pride, and..." he couldn't go on.
Kiara gasped as she grasped his meaning, her eyes widening further. "N-no! Not the children! Surely not our little ones!"
Kovu nodded sadly. "We must be prepared for any advances. I didn't manage to kill the three hyenas that tresspassed, but... even these three make me think we up against a lot more than we were in Scar's time."
At that very moment, Situ's mother and a few lionesses appeared, likely disturbed by the commotion that Tumba and Kri had brought to the cavern with their father's return. This was obvious, for as the lioness padded a little crankily out of the cave, the twins came bounding after, giggling and murmuring to one another with joy. Their father was home, and there was nothing greater in that moment!
Kiara didn't want the children to hear this! "We must tell the pride, then. Maika," said Kiara, addressing Situ's mother, though never turning her gaze from Kovu, "Would you please take the children to play? I'll tell you what's happening later, I promise." The queen's gaze finally left Kovu so she could smile at the lioness she had addressed, Situ's mother.
To this, Maika simply nodded. "Yes, your highness, I shall right away."
"One of you, please go get Zaru." said Kiara.
Zaru was the shaman now. Before Rafiki's death, Zaru had been chosen as an apprentice. He, like Rafiki, was a mandrill, and a wise one, at that.
"I will." a lioness volunteered almost immediately before darting out of the cavern and out in the direction of the great baobab tree that served as Zaru's home.
"Come children," called Maika suddenly. Immediately her own children including Situ, as well as the prince and princess, came to her, and soon disappeared outside the cavern, leaving Kiara and a few other lionesses to stand silently and watch the king.
Calling together those still around or sleeping, the King and Queen of the Pridelands explained the ordeal to the Pride. ...things were going to get rough.
Meanwhile, Outside...
Outside, Tumba, Kri, and Situ quickly found one another, then separated from the main group of cubs so the three of them could speak together.
"What's going on?" asked Situ softly.
"Dad's back," answered Kri softly, her eyes shining.
"Well, yeah... I know that!" said Situ with a grin. "I mean, did he tell you guys anything interesting?"
Tumba responded to this, shaking his head. "No." he smiled very faintly. "...I don't think I wanna know, though."
Kri swiftly batted her brother's blond mane-tuft, giggling. "Pffft! Yeah right! You know you wanna!"
As the three cubs went on with theirplotting, er... conversation, Zaru silently walked past them, his wooden staff held carefully in one hand.
Kri and Tumba looked toward him first, followed by Situ. "Oh, hiya!" greeted Kri.
Zaru stopped briefly to smile. His eyes glowed lightly with a strange sense of knowing, wisdom, and power. ...could it possibly be that the shaman already knew what he was being called to Pride Rock for? "'ello, little ones!" the mandrill answered in response to the greeting before going on.
"Y'know," Kri started whispering to her brother and Situ, "...mom and dad don't normally ask the monkey to come unless it's really important..." she grinned.
Situ looked at her knowingly.
Tumba looked dismayed. "Kri, we'll be in bigger trouble if we don't stay here!"
Kri's eyes looked smoothly at Tumba. "Scared?"
Tumba shook his head quickly, a scowl on his face.
Kri just grinned as she glanced at Situ. "Then c'mon! Let's find out what's going on!"
So, the prince, princess, and the princess's closest friend found their moment to slip out of Maika's sight... thankfully, it came quite soon. After all, the poor babysitter was swamped with cubs! Making their way as quickly as a cub could upPride Rock, all three silently peered into the cavern.
Kiara and Kovu were taking the time to explain the situation. 'War? What's that?' wondered Kri to herself. Her father kept mentioning it... it sounded fun! But, she didn't think hyenas were supposed to be fun. ...or were they?
'Uh-oh... sounds like trouble...' Tumba thought to himself. War? ...hadn't he heard that word somewhere before? Oh yeah! "Hey Kri, Situ," whispered the boy cub to his peers, "...Ummm, remember that story? The one about, uh, war?" he tilted his head slightly. "The one with Scar, and all the bad lions and hyenas? Mom and dad were talking about that war stuff. You think something bad will happen?"
'Just like Tumba to worry about something so stupid...' Kri rolled her eyes. "No!" she said, her voice a light screech. Tumba and Situ hissed, unconsciously taking a step back from the girl cub as the adults' heads all whipped around to look in their direction...
Kiara had just beenexplaining what had happened to her mate when she heard a familiar hiss... 'Kri!'There was no way of telling how much the children had heard! Kiara was horrified, but only anger shone in her eyes. "Tumba, Kri, Situ!" she called each by name, indicating she was really upset. Hardly noon and they'd already been in trouble twice!
"Be on your guard," Kovu told all the lionesses before dismissing them, as well as the mandrill, with a nod. With that, he and Kiara both approached the children, their glares hard.
"We told you to stay with Situ's mother," Kiara said, looking between the three cubs sternly.
Kri lowered her head, as did the boy cubs. "We know..."
"Then why are you up here?" asked Kovu.
"We just wanted to know why the monkey was here, too! He never comes, unless it's big!" explained Kri in one breath. She took a deep one before going on, "War mom? What's that? What's going on?"
Kiara sighed, shaking her head. "Come on," she told all three of them. "Don't tell the other cubs though, you'll scare them."
So, the king and queen now proceeded to explain what war was, and what was happening, to the three cubs.
"Oooh..." murmured Kri.
"I told you Kri! It was something bad!"
Kri just rolled her eyes at her brother. She hated it when he was right...
"You and the other cubs will have to stay very close to Pride Rock now, until the hyena problem is settled." said Kiara gently, "...and someone will always be watching you."
'Awww man...' thought Kri. War was really bad if they couldn't go on adventures!It would make escaping very hard now...