Well I finally got this chapter out and done...I don't think it's the best chapter but we'll just have to see. Sorry it took me awhile, well awhile for me. I just couldn't sit my lazy butt down and write it. :)

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is not mine, everything else is...that's pretty self-explainitory...don't you think?

Kudoos!

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Chapter 6

Shalu stretched and walked out of the cave, relishing the warm sunlight that touched his nose. He opened his mouth wide and let out a loud yawn before looking around the clearing. His eyes came to rest on Lia, who sat near a clump of blue flowers, licking her front paw. She stopped in mid-lick to meet his eyes and dropped her paw to the ground. Shalu felt something hard stop in his throat as her green eyes met his. He swallowed to relieve himself of the uneasiness.

"You decided to wake up." She smirked at him.

"It happens every so often." He told her. She grinned in amusement and Shalu smiled back at her. "Where's your father?" He questioned.

Lia nodded her head to one of the paths that lead out of the clearing. "Off walking. He goes off by himself a lot and does that." She smiled at him. "You'll just have to deal with me until he gets back."

Shalu considered the idea as she watched him. "Besides," She continued. "It's not like you have anywhere to go."

Shalu blinked at her. "Oh, and why do you think that?"

"Know that." Lia corrected, smiling at him. "You just came from the Pride Lands, where they obviously didn't want you since someone was trying to kill you." Shalu felt a sting at her words. "You can't go into the desert, there's no food or water and you'll become some buzzards breakfast. And you don't know your way around the jungle yet, so you can't go roaming all over it." Lia continued.

"Maybe I'd prefer to be some buzzard's breakfast rather than sit here talking to you." He was still smarting from her earlier words. "And besides, you said I didn't know the jungle yet, what makes you think I'm going to stick around long enough to learn it?"

Lia cocked an eye at him. "Do you want me to name all those reasons again?" She asked smartly.

"No thank you!" Shalu snapped at her, his mind spinning. Somehow she always managed to fire his temper somehow, a temper he hadn't even thought he had.

"Why was someone trying to kill you?" Lia suddenly asked. "That's the reason you can't go back to the Pride Lands. Why would someone want to you dead? You don't look like you could be much of a threat."

Shalu was halfway through trying to figure out whether she had just insulted him or not when she added. "You must have made someone very mad, or madder than you would normally make them."

Shalu quickly came to the conclusion that that time she had indeed insulted him. "I don't know why anyone would want to kill me, and if I did I wouldn't tell you. That is none of your business."

Lia wrinkled her nose at him. "Well you could be a little nicer, I was just asking."

"Prying was what you were doing." He told her angrily. "So stop it already. I'm not going to tell you. It doesn't matter anymore anyway, as far as I, or anyone in the Pride Lands, is concerned who I was before is dead." He started to turn away.

"You sure have a depressing outlook on that." Lia's voice drifted over. Shalu rolled his eyes and looked at her.

"I'm glad you see it fit to share your view on the matter." He replied sarcastically. "But if you don't mind, I'm going."

"Where are you running off to?" Lia's voice stopped him. Shalu turned and looked at her.

"Anywhere but here." Shalu replied.

Lia snorted at him and Shalu glared at her. "You'll get lost before you go five feet." She informed him.

"I'll figure it out."

"Why don't I come with you and show you." It wasn't a suggestion, it was practically an order.

"Why don't you butt out?" Shalu asked her spitefully. Didn't she realize he wanted to walk around on his own? Sitting here arguing with her was really making him exhausted, and it didn't help that she was breathtakingly beautiful. Why couldn't some nicer lioness have gotten her looks, wondered Shalu. It would make arguing with her much easier, without half the time worrying about avoiding her pretty eyes, so as not to get lost in them.

The pretty eyes were now glaring daggers at him. "I saved your life." She reminded him. "At least you could tell me who you were before."

"I already said thank you." Shalu returned the glare. "Now leave me be!" He turned and left. Lia sniffed loudly and stalked into the cave.

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After bumbling around the jungle for what seemed like hours, finding himself in the same mud hole twice, running into a low hanging branch, and disrupting a fire ant hill, Shalu managed to break through the trees and come upon a huge open field. As far as he could see, he couldn't see any trees, a hill or two, all with green, wet grass. In front of him, bordered by long ferns, sat a large lake. It glittered in the sun that was perched in the sky, reflecting the sky in perfect detail. Shalu glanced once at the jungle behind him and then trotted up to the lake. He bent his head to take a drink and stopped.

His red mane looked slightly rumpled in the reflection, his eyes downcast. Shalu blew a gust of breath, slightly shaking the bangs. He sat down and stared at his reflection. His appearance, from his fur, to his mane, to his eye color, had always mirrored Simba's, though he'd been told his fur was so golden that it looked like Mufasa's. Certainly his messy mane wasn't even close in regal comparison to the Great King, maybe not even to Simba's. True he had muscle, and had grown, but Lia was right: He didn't look as if he could be a threat to anyone. He certainly didn't look as a future king should. "It's a good thing I won't become king." He muttered to himself. "How would I defend the pride looking this pathetic?" He could just imagine how Talo would've looked. His black mane full and regal, his dark fur perfectly smooth on his large body, his muscles rippling under his skin, huge paws pressing into the earth, eyes greener than Lia's, and sparkling with untold mischief.

That's right, an inner voice told him, keep comparing yourself to your brother, even though you know the two of you were like the sun and moon.

"The sun and moon." Muttered Shalu.

"Yes this is the best place to see those two cosmic beings." A deep voice rumbled into his thoughts. Shalu turned his head quickly and his eyes settled on Palini, walking up to him. "The stars are also quite lovely out here at night." The old lion added, smiling and sitting down beside Shalu.

"I wasn't-never mind." Shalu let the comment die on his lips.

Palini looked at him questionably, but whatever he thought stayed hidden behind his dark eyes. "Why are you out walking on your own?"

Shalu smiled slightly. "Someone once told me that walking clears the head." Shalu looked at the older lion. "So far, though, it only seems to bring trouble."

Palini shrugged his large shoulders. "Sometimes trouble isn't as bad as it first appears. Every bad moment comes with a hundred good ones as a result. It makes life worth it, to fight against failure, and then revel in success."

Shalu didn't think what he said made any sense, or pertained to his life at all. "What if the bad moment prevents you from ever having any more good moments?" Shalu asked, not putting much faith in the coming answer.

Palini smiled knowingly. "Sometimes, death in itself is bad, but it's result on those close to the victim, how they must gain strength and fight, is the good that comes of it."

Shalu shook his head. "Nothing good can come from death. Just more pain."

"Doesn't it impress you how people can speak so truthfully and sure about something only when that very thing has affected them?" Palini replied, not looking hurt at all the Shalu didn't rest any consolation on his words. Palini then smiled warmly at him and got up, preparing to leave. As the lion began to make his way back toward the jungle Shalu had a fleeting thought.

"Hey!" Palini continued on, not hearing Shalu's call. "Hey!" Shalu repeated as he ran toward the jungle. Palini's form disappeared into the brush. Shalu ran after him, breath hard and calling out to the older lion. Shalu stopped and looked around him, green trees and bushes rose up around him, all looking like their neighbor plants.

"Great. Perfect." Shalu muttered angrily. "Now I'm lost." Lia's laughing green eyes came to his mind and Shalu groaned again. He began walking forward, trying to tell if any of the brush was crushed, or any scent of Palini was evident among the plants. Shalu's growling stomach reminded him that it was late in the morning and he hadn't had breakfast, much less lunch. Shalu finally stopped. "This is hopeless and pointless." He said aloud. "I can't find a trail, or a scent, or any sign of life!" He yelled out to the silent jungle."

The wind brushed by his face and Shalu sneezed. "Go away." He muttered. The breeze blasted him full in the face and Shalu backed up a step. "Okay, okay I'm sorry!" Shalu said loudly. The wind pressed against his left side, blowing his mane right. Shalu looked to his right shoulder and saw a dark trail-like opening in the trees. The breeze ruffled the trees, creating even longer and darker shadows in the jungle.

"No way!" Shalu said, blinking at the path chosen for him, that looked anything but appealing. "I refuse. I absolutely, positively-" The breeze hit him again in the face. "Are you crazy?" Shalu yelled to the sky. The breeze ruffled his face fur and Shalu rolled his eyes as he looked back at the path. "Apparently so am I." He mumbled as he stepped into the overhang of trees.

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Shalu shut his eyes slightly as he crashed through more low hanging limbs and tall brush. The path was even worse than it looked. Besides the creepy appearance, there was all sorts of plants that were thick and more pointed than anything he'd ever encountered before. Shalu yelped and fell through a bush, landing hard in the dirt and…

Right in the clearing outside the cave. Shalu blinked and looked over his shoulder at the bumbling path he'd made in the jungle. He glanced up at the sky. "I bet you thought that was really funny." He said to the clouds.

"Just who are you talking to?" a feminine voice asked him. Shalu sat up quickly, trying to brush out any brambles that had caught in his fur. Lia was descending an embankment that seemed to crawl up the side of the cave and out of sight. She jumped down the last part of the path and stood in front of him.

"Who were you talking to?" She repeated, curiously.

"Just….just the Great Kings." He told her shortly

Lia raised an eyebrow. "Rrright." She said, turning and walking toward a large growth of trees.

"Hey, where are you going?" Shalu asked her.

"Hunting." She replied, just as shortly as he had. And with that she disappeared into the cover of the trees. Shalu blinked at her exit, part of him wanting to follow her. Besides, as much as he hated to admit it, he would eventually need her to show him around the jungle. She had been right when she said there was nowhere else for him to go, there was death in the Pride Lands, and death in the desert. Here at least he could survive…as long as he didn't get lost too many times.

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Yes the ending is corny...but i like corny endings so you all will have to deal. Sorry it's short(er), and my next chapter will be much better. The people(lions) at Pride Rock will be coming back into the picture, don't fear. Oh, thank you very much to my reviewers (most of them new ones which was quite exciting). I don't know if I'll get a chance to work on the next chapter tonight...since I'm going out with my friend and mom to buy the "Wicked" soundtrack and this really cool book called "Once Upon A Stilettos", so I don't know about timing...but I'll try to get the next chapter out soon. Please read and review...again :) :)