Finally! I am so sorry for the delay, but things have been really busy the last week. It's hard becoming a year older ;) anyway, here it is, hope you like it. We're back in the past again. Please do review if you feel like it. Atrice

Part 5 – A reason to stay

A week had gone by, and it was evening; everyone had a good deal of meat for dinner. Scar lay on top of Pride Rock, from where he could see the entire kingdom. That would maybe once be his? At least in his dreams...

"Scar… once again on your own?" Scar heard his uncle's voice say behind him. Aloku came to him and laid down too, next to the young lion.

"That's what is best now… being alone." Scar explained to his uncle.

"But I thought you made friends with Sarabi?" Aloku asked curiously.

"I did… she's a fine lioness. What any lion should dream of mating with – but she doesn't understand me. Nobody does." The young lion said with a sigh.

"I am sure someone does. I had the same part in the family, like you now. And although they seem to be best friends, Sarabi and Sarafina both know one thing. That Sarabi is the oldest, and Sarafina will always be second best. Don't get me wrong, son, I love them both. But you also have to accept the realities like they are." Aloku stood up again and stared across the savannah. The sun disappeared behind the place in shadow, far away…

"You suggest I should do more about Sarafina? But I don't know her yet…" Scar also got on his paws, now seeing, that he was almost as tall as his uncle.

"Get to know her… I am sure she won't mind." He left the platform, leaving Scar alone once again, to think about things. He decided that Aloku was right, although Sarafina had told her sister, that she preferred the future king, not Scar.

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"Hey, Sarafina…" Scar caught her sniffing around the leftovers from the meal yesterday. A lot of bones and chunks of meat lay here and there.

"Oh… Scar, right? Are you already hungry again too, like me?" she asked with her soft voice, and the male moved closer.

"No, not really… how can you be hungry, after all that meat?" Scar said with a grin, but she didn't answer him right away. "So… how do you like Pride Rock?" he then asked.

"I like it a lot… must be nice, to have a real home like this. I can't believe father chose to leave." Sarafina said.

"Maybe he thought it wasn't that fun to be around, when his brother got all the females, and he got none? It's hard to be the second one…" Scar licked a bone and felt the taste of blood on his tongue. Enough to make him remember, how full he became the night before.

"I guess that is so… how about you, you're the second too?" Sarafina said and took a taste of the same bone too. She seemed more free-spirited than her sister, he thought.

"So are you, Sarafina… I don't know about me, I don't feel like staying, or leaving for that matter." He said and looked out across the lands. So huge, and yet sometimes like a prison to him. Sarafina came to stand by his side. She suddenly felt that she knew what Sarabi meant, when she said she felt sorry for Scar. He remembered the conversation between the sisters too; how Sarafina said she wanted Mufasa. What washe doing here anyway, when she didn't really want him?

"You know what, we should stick together… we're in the same situation. Except for the fact, that I can become something and…" Sarafina stopped herself, realizing that she wasn't being very nice to him right now. She saw how he looked down into the ground now, clearly hurt by her words. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that… not that way, anyway. Scar, if I ask you to stay, will you?" he looked up at her, surprised by her sudden proposal.

"I… I guess I will… but why? You can have my brother, and forget all about me." Scar asked, yet he wanted her to tell him, that she wanted him. He could pretend, that she was Sarabi, the one he liked even more…

"Because I think you need a friend… so, will you stay?" Sarafina said, her eyes looking so serious.

"Yes, if that is what you really want, I will stay." He felt a little stinch when he said it, since he right away thought about Sarabi. She would definetly stay too, if he stayed. Two sisters, and two brothers. Right now he felt they both wanted him, but thought it wasn't so bad after all. He could use more than one lioness if he wanted to start a pride of his own.