Chapter XI: Cat Fight

Nala ran her paw over the grass. It felt strange against her paw, though she had been living on it for so long. She scowled at a trio of hyenas scavenging for food. They returned the frown.

Nala continued to walk aimlessly. Zira had announced that she was two weeks pregnant with the future heir the previous day. Wonderful. Zira had also swooned some of the lionesses from her old pride to join. Followers of Scar and Zira, they were, alright. She frowned and stared up at the gloomy sky. It gave her as much hope as the herds did. Almost all of them were gone now, but a few lost wildabeast or gazelles would be an easy meal now and again.

"You okay?" came a voice from behind her. Nala turned her head to see Lisani approaching her. She grinned at him.

"I'm fine," she sighed. Lisani's mane was nearly full now. It was smoothed down, except for a few stray pieces dangling in his face. He was definitely handsome.

"That's good," he said, grinning back. "Sarabi wanted me to fetch you," he said.

"Oh," she replied. "I'll go see what's up." Nala took of, but after she had traveled a few feet, she looked back at Lisani. "C'mon," she said, smiling.

Lisani smiled back and followed her, the two frolicking back to the kingdom. The laughing stopped once they reached Sarabi and Sarafina collapsed on top of each other outside of the main den.

"Mom!" Nala yelled gently, running over to Sarafina as Lisani made his way as well. The two lionesses looked up at them and struggled to get up, Nala helping her mother and Lisani assisting Sarabi. "What happened?" Nala demanded.

"Scar got a little too angry with the hunting party," Sarabi mumbled. "We were the ones who ended up with the punishment."

Lisani growled. "It should have been the hyenas who got punished, it's their fault that everything is so empty, those greedy, careless minds they have."

"It's Scar's fault for letting them in," Nala murmured.

"Now, Nala, you can't blame everything on me, now can you?" a voice said from behind her. She knew it was Scar.

"Actually, I can," she said back, more to herself but to him anyway.

"Now, that's not a way to speak to your king," Scar said with that evil smirk on his face. "And I hope you won't talk to your future king that way, either."

"Trust me, if I were speaking to a king, I wouldn't be using this tone," she growled, her eyes narrowed, and her mother rolling her eyes at her daughter's rebellion.

Scar snarled at Nala but restrained from striking her. "You're just like your mother and her friend, aren't you? Always thinking that their way is right. Always saying that it's the hyena's fault, not theirs." Scar glared at the two lionesses behind Nala. "The hyenas are eating all the food, you are starving us if we stay here, we need to do this," Scar mocked. "You two simply aren't searching hard enough!"

"They're doing the best they can!" Nala shouted back. "And they're the only ones worth following around here that I see."

Scar's anger launched his paw in the air to strike Nala across the face. The force caused her to nearly fly to the side, but her paws caught a grip of the ground before she could fall. She stared at Scar's conceited smirk through slits, and she could feel the pain in her cheek.

But no one hit Nala and got away with it.

With a roar, Nala rose and struck Scar back, swiping him across the face. He tumbled to his side, and remained there for a small amount of time in shock. He glowered at Nala and then leapt off of his haunches and tackled Nala with a roar. Determined, Nala kept them tumbling until she knew she could pin him. Staring him from above, he was still strong, and managed to push and kick her off of him. Nala lied on the ground, turning her head to see where Scar was. He was slow getting up and able to jump on her, giving her time to be able to turn of the ground and watch him dive into the ground.

Just as she was about to leap on top of him, a strong force from the left of her sent her and the other lioness rolling. Although Nala hadn't been expecting it, she was not surprised when found herself staring Zira in the eye.

"Don't you ever touch him, ever again," Zira shouted at Nala.

"Then you teach him his manners!" Nala yelled as she kicked Zira off of her. Zira, enraged, charged at Nala, whom was charging back. The lionesses collided, Nala on top, feeling teeth bite into her right front leg. After roaring in pain, she found it easiest to clamp down on Zira's ear, taking a chunk out of it.

The other lioness roared in pain, then pushed Nala off of her with great force. Nala laid on the ground on her back, feeling the blood slipping out of her arm, when suddenly she saw Zira flying above her to finish it. Nala was quick, though, and rose her bottom two feet, kicking Zira off, right in her stomach.

Nala slowly got up and saw Zira lying in front of her, motionless.