I am sorry for the delay, but things are becoming rather hectic around here. Thanks for the reviews so far, here is the next chapter finally. Please do read and review :) Atrice

Part 6 – A dawn like dusk

Scar woke up to a very dark chamber. A very lonely and dark chamber. He could hear someone breathe, and looked in the direction where Zazu sat in his cage – probably still sleeping. Why was it so dark today? The king went outside, and was met by a sky with clouds so dark, that it felt like dusk and not dawn. He had been king for quite awhile now, and things just grew worse and worse.

"There he is…" he heard someone say, and watched as three hyenas came towards him in the diffuse light of this day.

"Scar… we have a feeling that…" the hyena Banzai began.

"Schh, Banzai! I'm better at this… Scar, the lionesses claim that it's getting harder to find any game. We don't believe it, but they still refuse us… you must do something." Shenzi said and looked at Ed, who nodded happily.

"And what could I do about that?" Scar asked, as if he could care less.

"Talk to them! You're the only one they'll listen to!" Banzai continued, and Scar felt they had this conversation before. The lionesses wouldn't go hunt, the hyenas came and complained about it to him, he went and talked to the lionesses – who finally went out to hunt, but came home without anything. He rolled his eyes.

"If you say so… I'll do my best." Scar said with a sigh and left the hyenas alone. Today the lionesses had placed themselves down on the grass, near the rock. It was becoming windy too.

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"See, Scar is coming!" he heard the voice of Nala, still not filled with hatred towards him. Most of the other lionesses only spoke to him in cold voices. He had the pleasure to speak to the young lioness Nala several times, when he sent the rest to hunt. She was growing, but wasn't an adult yet. Scar smiled to the young one, and looked at the others.

"I hear that you still won't hunt…" he said to them.

"There aren't much left to hunt… we must let the beasts be a bit, so they can reproduce. Or else there'll soon be no food at all." Sarabi explained, but didn't stand up as she spoke.

"So you just feel that we should all starve, and die ourselves to let them live?" Scar said, annoyed. He hated their excuses for not going to hunt.

"It's the circle of life – and we can't hunt in this weather anyway." Another one said. He had to give her right though, and walked closer to see them all better.

"True… well, the next time there's a sunny day, you'll hunt. That's an order, to all of you!" the king said in a demanding voice.

"Or what, you'll kill one of us? You threaten to do so, but you never do anything about…" one began, but Sarabi interrupted her.

"Zira! Don't…" the former queen tried and looked Scar straight in the eyes.

"But it's the truth…" Zira stood up and walked to the king. "You say a lot of things, yet you never prove to us that you're right." She didn't look at him with pure hatred, it was more like she was daring him. Wanted him to prove he was fit for the job.

"You want to die?" Scar asked her with a more profound voice, curious. Zira stepped back, suddenly not looking so certain after all.

"I didn't say that… I just… Scar, I'm sorry…" she said with a very low voice, making him smirk. She was sorry – for real? He didn't believe it. Scar never believed Zira was sorry, especially since it wasn't the first time he heard her speak those words.

"So you don't believe in my worth as king? Dear Zira, you will…" he turned around and left them with those words. Zira – always the younger one, who wanted more, but didn't dare to get it all. She had always been like that. Zira, the little sister to Sarabi and Sarafina, but so very different from them both.