Thanks for the last reviews - and I'm happy to tell you all, it appears like the fanfic-writers-block is over. Here is another chapter, and I'm already writing the next one. Hope you like how things are going - please do review, if you feel like it. Atrice

Part 15 – Heirs?

To Scars luck, the accident didn't prevent Sarabi from becoming pregnant again. After a good long time, when she wasn't doing well, she finally recovered. Scar tried to get close to her, talk to her about what happened; but she was always around other lionesses or Mufasa – or that strange monkey shaman who had become friends with the pride. And he never dared to ask her to speak alone, for what would the others think? Somehow he thought, that she did it on purpose; stayed near the others, so they could never be alone.

"You got lucky." Mufasa one day startled Scar, who had stopped by the waterhole on his way back from a meeting with the hyenas.

"May I ask why? And please, don't sneak in on me like that again…" Scar continued to drink like he could care less about his brother. He just had a fine and optimistic talk with his hyena friends, and didn't feel like being put down by the king just now.

"Don't threaten me, Scar…" Mufasa growled, annoyed by how his brother acted. Scar finally stopped to drink and walked up to the bank again, looked at Mufasa, ignoring the last sentence.

"So, why am I lucky?" he held his head high with pride.

"Sarabi is pregnant… the fall didn't prevent her from becoming that." The king said, with words telling Scar that Sarabi never told Mufasa about the first pregnancy. That made Scar smile to himself; she was nothing more than a lioness, she didn't even dare to tell her mate that she had been pregnant before.

"I see… well, congratulations – daddy." Scar left Mufasa alone, turned his back to the king to get back to Pride Rock.

"Scar… do not…" Mufasa began with a growl.

"… turn my back to you? But really, even how hard I try not to do it, the day will come when it happens." Scar turned around with a smirk and began to walk backwards to their home; just to let Mufasa know how stupid it really did sound. And Sarabi was pregnant again; he didn't even know if he wanted her to succeed this time. Not with how she acted towards him after the accident – and after all, if she did have a cub, he would be one time further away from the throne.

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Yes, lionesses did become pregnant and gave birth during Mufasas reign. He had several cubs, but only one with his queen, Sarabi. Scar never had a queen, and yet one day – only a few days after Nala left, the lioness who wanted to become queen came to him. She had finally given birth to his first cub – a cub that seemed weak. Now the cub had become a few weeks old, she wanted him to meet his father for real; Scar hadn't paid much attention to the cub, but now it seemed like Zira wanted that to change.

"Zira… what is that?" he stopped and looked at her as she came closer; she had something in her mouth. Scar smiled as he saw what it was, hoping that she wanted him to see the cub because it had become stronger. She let the little furball in her mouth down on the ground, before her paws.

"This, Scar… is your son." Zira smiled too. Scar forgot all about formality and bent down to take a closer look. The cub woke up from the sleep it had been in, and looked quite frightened when it discovered the scarred face of a grown male lion starring at it. The little one quickly crawled behind his mothers paws to hide.

"There there… don't be afraid of him. He's your father, dear…" Zira said to the cub, and looked up at Scar, who took a step backwards.

"He's a scared little one… and… isn't he very small?" Scar asked as he tried to get a closer look at the cub hiding from him.

"He will get stronger, I promise – he's your heir, remember?" The lioness didn't look very pleased with how Scar looked at the cub. And he wasn't really pleased when it came to that. Of course, it was nice to see a cub that was his; the first male born during his reign, the first who was not Simbas or Mufasas. Clearly another sign of good times ahead – but a weak, little and scared cub? Such a son could never become king, Scar knew that much. It would never be strong enough; just like himself, it would have to fight for the throne. And he didn't want anyone else to get the life he had. No, Scar decided as he went back to his cave. Ziras firstborn son would never be king.