Okay, so I can see on the front page, that I may not give "review replies" here anymore... so... but I like the new function where you can reply from the reviews-list...

anyway, along came an almost white lioness to stir up the mind of Scar. It's not a very interesting chapter (to me), but I hope you like it anyway... please do read and review. Atrice

Part 10 – Blanché

Scar shook his head, trying to understand the white lioness was the very same, who had been following him during the past weeks. And it seemed like she lit up the entire chamber, now she was visible – the green steam appeared to fade, and everything was bright. Scar didn't understand anything of what was happening, and without thinking about it, it burst out of him;

"Who are you?" just as he said it, he wished he never spoke. It had come out all wrong… but the lioness only sent him a smile.

"My name is Blanché, and I followed you from the Skylands… I guess you found out pretty soon. So, that's me – Scar, crown prince and leader of the hyenas with a strange one named Duchess." The beautiful female said with a cute smile, and threw him back to reality. Right, Duchess, that was the hyena he cared about… and he was Scar, crown prince of the Pride Lands. And he was leading the hyenas here, that was right too. Where did the last few minutes go?

"She's not strange, just different!" once again he wanted to take the words back, and began to wander about in the chamber, impatiently. Why did he act like this?

"I know… she lived with my pride, but before I was born. My father threw her out… because he didn't like oddities." Blanché spoke with a soft and calm voice, very unlike Scar and his uncontrolled behaviour – at least for now, he felt like that.

"I'm very well aware of that – he sent me away for the same reason. Why did you follow me?" of course Scar never gave it a thought, why he reacted the way he did. When he met the lioness, he could have chosen several ways of countering with it; he could be nice and friendly, welcome her. But he didn't do that; no, he was now defensive and not really trusting her.

"Because I was curious… I never saw anyone like you before. Scar – may I call you that? Please don't hate me for doing this, all I want is to know you." Blanché pleaded, but he sent her a look that meant he didn't know what to think of her. She followed him, like a shadow! Spying on him, he didn't like that thought at all. No, Scar chose to not welcome her with happy smiles right now.

"I don't hate you – but I don't like you either. What am I supposed to do? I have a life here, that I actually like. I don't need you here, a strange lioness from a pride that will never accept me. What do you think the hyenas will say? They usually don't like lions here…" he said, facing her with gloomy eyes. Blanché took a few steps backwards.

"Maybe it was a mistake then! I just wanted to find out who you were, and I came to like you… maybe my father was right anyway!" she now shouted back at him.

"I don't care, go or stay… I don't care!" Scar left her alone in the chamber; when he couldn't see the entrance any longer, he began to run. What was she doing here, why did she have to come? She was so beautiful, seemed so… sweet and soft, not like any other lioness he ever saw. He felt the tears in his eyes, this was too much for now. Although he tried, Scar was still nothing more than a young adult; with all the troubles that can cause in the mind.

x-----x-----x-----x-----x-----x

"I'm going after him!" Zarafa jumped the few rocks down to the savannah, and looked up at the lions still standing there; but Kiara didn't like it at all. She still wondered why Scar had to run away like that. The queen sent a look to her mother.

"He is our future king, but I'm afraid he won't return on his own." Nalathari said with a calm voice. How could she be so calm?

"But it's the Shadowlands! We swore never to return…" Kiara said with a tear in her eye. Nalathari shook her head.

"To me it appears, as if that dark place holds the fate of the Pridelands. Always." She said, thinking of the many times they had come there – and how all the times, something strange had happened. The two lands were bound to each other, in a strange sort of balance. She smiled to herself, sensing that she had been talking too much with Rafiki lately. Zarafa still stood below them.

"Let her go, Kiara. Your mother is right… and no matter what…" Kovu knew he wouldn't finish that sentence, for his mate knew what it meant, and finished it.

"Love will find a way… I know…" Kiara looked at her daughter, and nodded. A short moment later, Zarafa was nowhere to be seen in the tall grass on the savannah. The queen turned around and went back to the cave – she had been spending most of her time here the last few weeks. Her son was missing, and he had gone to the place where his namesake died. Scar… why couldn't he have lived on? Sometimes she missed him; his compliments, his different and scarred body – even his arrogance she missed sometimes. Kiara forgot her thoughts, when Kovu entered the cave and laid down next to her, looking at her with worried eyes.

"I am sure everything is going to be just fine – really, what could happen in there? There are no outlanders, no dead kings, only foolish hyenas. Scar is more clever than them; if he wants to, he can leave." Kovu said with a smile, and licked her chin. But to Kiara, that was just the problem; did her son want to leave the hyenas? He knew his namesake had ruled them once, and she knew he tried to live up to that. And she still wondered why he had run away…