Thanks very much for those reviews, Iam glad You think I capture Scars personality so well; I guess it's because I'm oftento find on his side... hehe...I am updating as fast as possible - all I need is time to write and to feel the chapter is finished...

MorpheusDreamer, I loved that phrase... so Scar-like... "I'm more sinned against than sinning" - thanks for the review :)

Here it is, I hope you like the way this is going... remember to review! Atrice

Part 7 - Heading for Pride Rock

Kovu was the first one to wake up, feeling a little cold by his right side – this was where Kiara usually lay, nesting against him. At first he had forgotten where he was, and was confused. Then he noticed the two lions sleeping against the rock – Nala closest to the rock, Scar on her other side like he was protecting her… 'or keeping her?' he thought. Kovu got up and quietly he walked down to the waterhole to get a drink. The sun was only rising, it was dawn. Soon he returned to the rock, where Scar too had woken up – he was now at his usual stretching and yawning just after a good nights sleep, and Kovu jumped up onto the rock, looking in direction of the Pride Rock. Before long Scar joined him up there.

"I have to return today…" Kovu said, a somewhat sad tone in his voice.

"I had a feeling you'd say that…" Scar answered with a rejected sigh, and Kovu looked at him and smiled, he just had an idea.

"Scar… I want you and… Athari, to return with me." He said and Scar looked amazed.

"But what about Simba, who seems to think so highly of you? And quite the opposite about me… it would never work I'm afraid…" the elder lion said along with a miserable voice, and Kovu felt sorry for him. It had to work, this idea.

"I'll talk to him about you… he can't let you die out here, Simba is not like that! No, we will return to Pride Rock together, all of us." Kovu sounded so firm and determined on this, that Scar was astonished. He seemed to contain a lot of honesty, but also a will to make things happen the way he wanted them to. Scar liked that, it was so much like himself – Kovu just had a very different manner of handling a thing like that.

Below the rock, Nala had opened her eyes too, and listened to the conversation between the two males above her. How would Simba react, when he saw Kovu return with her… and Scar? Nala was not the same either, as she had been just two days ago when she left Pride Rock. She had 3 scars across the eye, and would be called a different name by Scar. Would Simba accept those scars, or simply fly at his uncle to revenge what he'd done to Nala? No, for Kovu would be there; and Simba would not want to act in such a line of attack with the young lion present. She saw Scar land in front of her, facing her.

"Athari, so nice to see you awake… care for a drink?" Scar said with a very playful and content voice, and she got up and stretched too, then nodded to him. Why not? They left Kovu alone by the rock, and went down to drink together.

"So… Kovu wants you to return with us." Nala said after a few sips of the water and looked up at the lion next to her. From her half lying point of view, he looked very noble standing up next to her, looking down upon her.

"It appears so… I look forward to meet his fiancée…" Scar said with a happy smile, but Nala didn't trust him at all.

"Kiara loves her father… if you hurt him in any way, she will kill you!" she snapped after him, and Scar jumped a step back - with a grin though.

"Why would I want to hurt Simba? Really Athari, I thought you'd know better by now…" he said overbearingly and turned his back to her, walking back towardshis rock.

In silence they all began to walk back to the Pride Rock – it would take half a day in this pace, they would be there around noon. Nala sent hidden glimpses up to Scar, who walked next to her; on her other side walked Kovu. 'Am I to trust him? I want to trust him, he's changed… and there really is a chance for things to be alright again, also for him…' she thought whilelooking at him. Kovu held hishead straight, looking at the rock far away from them, towering over the savannah. Scar too held his head high, but in a different manner. He didn't really look at the Pride Rock – or perhaps he did, but in a very unique way. She couldn't decide… she wanted a chance to talk with Scar, make him understand the danger he put himself in. Simba expected him to be dead, that he was part of the past only spoken off. But Scar was very much alive, and with the company he now had, he seemed stronger than ever before; 'one last struggle' Nala thought – this was his last chance to prove himself, he was not young anymore, and one day he might die of age. But as stately and noble as he looked now, that didn't seem close by.

The rock moved closer and closer, or they moved closer to the rock. One way or another, they were getting there, and the look in Kovu's eyes seemed less powerful now, than when he just decided that Scar should go with them. Scar heard something whistle in the wind above them and stopped to look up. A blue bird was flying in the sky over them, looking down. The other two lions stopped too, and looked at the bird, who now flew down towards them, landing in front of Nala. Scar sent him a superior glance, and the bird seemed to take a few steps to the other side, towards Kovu. Nala smiled to the little bird in front of them.

"Zazu… what are you doing here?" she asked, and he looked up at Scar, a bit frightened.

"Ehm… the king sent me out to look for Kovu and you, and I finally spotted you! But I never expected to find… this…" he stuttered in the end, sendingScar a glance -the lionlooked very gloomy, yet not unhappy. Then he smiled...

"Zazu, so nice to see you again… been singing any songs of coconuts recently?" Scar said with a smirk, but the bird sent him a pair of evil eyes, now making a jump closer to Scar again.

"Simba does not ask me to be his... entertainer!" he jumped back again as the black maned lion snapped at him with a smile in the eyes. 'Just like old times', Zazu thought, very annoyed by that fact – but he did not dare mention it.

"Tell Simba,Kovu and Iwill be home soon… but please, do not tell him about our companion – Kovu wants to do it." Nala explained to the bird, who nodded and flew up, away from where Scar could reach him.

"I would not dare to tell him that! But I fear for your homecoming, with that rogue following you!" Zazu disappeared towards the Pride Rock and both Nala and Kovu sent Scar a strange look, eyebrows lifted - but he just kept smiling that peculiar smile he had gotten when he first saw Zazu land in front of them.