What a beautiful fall day! Trey thought to himself as he walked along the bike trail, marveling at the many colors of the oak and maple leaves and the tall evergreens. He thought about how it had become somewhat of a tradition to go on a walk every morning since he had moved to this part of town. Just a few months ago he was living in a crumbling apartment complex in the industrial district, but he had managed to find a place right on the riverfront with ample access to bike paths and nature areas, with a sizable yard to boot. As he had become distracted by his thought he nearly fell over as he tripped on a crack in the asphalt, but managed to steady himself. Eventually he came to a bench, and took a seat so he could observe the nature for a bit. As he sat there relaxing he noticed something rustling around in the bushes, he only caught a glimpse of beige fur and assumed it was a dog chasing a squirrel or a rabbit. He looked around to see if anybody was nearby who could be it's owner and when he didn't see anybody, he got up and began to approach the bushes. He knelt down as he approached the still rustling bushes so he wouldn't appear as much of a threat to it. He was almost to the bushes when suddenly, a small lion cub jumped out towards him, chasing a butterfly but stopping in it's tracks when it saw the person kneeling in front of her. Trey was also very startled at the sight of a lion cub, especially in America but he quickly regained his composure. He didn't want to scare off the cub, after all.
"Well you're not what I was expecting to find." He said aloud, giving the lion cub a small smile.
"Who were you expecting?" The voice of a small child said, seeming to come from the lion cub as it cocked it's head at the man.
Trey fell backwards in surprise, the lion cub reflexively taking a few steps backwards as the soft grass broke the man's fall his fall. He quickly sat up but couldn't hide the look of amazement from his face.
"Did you just talk?" He asked, a worried tone in his voice as he questioned his sanity in his head.
"Ummm... Did you?" The young cub asked, not sure if this was some game.
"I did, I'm just not used to lions talking. I'm not used to seeing lions at all actually, but I'm pretty sure it's not normal for them to talk." He planted his hands on the ground behind him to support himself as he spoke with the young lion, still not sure if he had gone insane or if this was actually happening to him.
"Well it is normal where I'm from..." The cub raised her head, seemingly in pride at the statement. "Although I am a bit lost, I haven't been where I'm from and I don't really know how to get back." A look of worry appeared on the cubs face as she spoke these words, as she remembered her family and her friends. "My name is Nala. I'm from Pride Rock, do you know where that is?"
"I'm sorry, but I haven't heard of that before. I can look it up and see if it's anywhere that we can get to though." Trey said as he pulled out his phone from his pants pocket, searching for 'pride rock' in his search app. The only results that popped up seemed to be from some lgbt rock fest that was almost certainly unrelated to what the Nala was talking about. "Hmm. It doesn't seem to be coming up. I'll have to look it up on my computer when I get home."
"What does... Any of that mean?" Nala had a puzzled look on her face as she questioned Trey. He chuckled, realizing that he'd have to explain this all to her at some point.
"I can tell you about it later. Would you like to come back to my house? It's warmer in there and I can get you some food if you want." He began to stand up, dusting off the small amount of dirt that had gotten on his pants when he fell over.
The young lioness hadn't realized it until he had mentioned food but she was suddenly very hungry, her stomach growled as she stood up from where she had been sitting. "That sounds great! Do you have any zebras?"
Trey laughed at her response. "No, we don't have those around here. I do have plenty of meat though, I work in a butcher shop so I'm sure I've got something you'll like. C'mon, I live this way, it's not that far."
Nala smiled as she began to follow him, glad she was going to get a meal and get out of the cold. "What's a butcher shop?" She asked him as she followed him on the bike trail, skipping happily as she went.
"It's a place where people go to get their dead animals cut up so they don't have to do it themselves. Most people don't like having things like fur or horns on the things they eat. Now it's my turn to ask you a question. How did you get here? What's the last thing you remember doing at Pride Rock?"
She thought for a few moments before replying. "Well... It was a regular morning and I was playing with my best friend Simba..." The tone of her voice saddened as she remembered her friend "We started playing hide and seek and I was hiding behind a rock, near a puddle. But I accidentally fell into the puddle, and it felt like I was falling for a long time, so long I fell asleep while I was falling. Then when I woke up it was night time and I was in those bushes, I curled up to stay as warm as possible but I was still really cold. Then in the morning when I woke up saw a butterfly and was playing with it, then I found you." Her explanation broke Trey's heart, he knew what it was like to be away from all your family and friends and in a new place. But he could at least call his, she had no way of knowing if she would ever see them again and it made him feel sympathy for her all that much more.

When they arrived at Trey's house he unlocked his front door and let the lion cub in, following her and locking the door again after closing it. It wasn't anything impressive, but he was still proud of his home. It was a single wide mobile home with a kitchen, a living room, a bedroom and a smaller room meant to be an office, but Trey had mostly just been using it for extra storage. The kitchen had everything you'd expect to find in it, a fridge, cupboards with mismatching dishes, a half stocked pantry, a toaster AND a toaster oven, a regular oven with gas range, a rather large sink and plenty of counter space. He had considered getting a dishwasher but never pursued it because he it wasn't that much extra effort to wash the dishes normally. The living room had a 3 cushion couch with a coffee table a few feet in front of it, a non-smart 48 inch TV on top of a small book case which was full of various blurays and DVD's. On a slightly smaller bookcase next to that one sat a small laptop with an HDMI cord plugged into the TV, the shelves of the bookcase also filled with DVD's and blurays, mostly old TV sitcoms and cartoons. There was also a small table with some chairs around it, presumably where he ate his food. There was also a hallway that led back to his bedroom, the office and the bathroom.
Trey flicked opened up his curtains after he had shut and locked the door, then began to wash his hands before he started to make Nala some food. He opened up the fridge and pulled a few different meats out onto the counter. He had decided he was going to give Nala a few different meats to try, and let her try them both raw and fresh so he could find what she liked best. He turned the oven on and began to pull out several small baking dishes, a cutting board and a knife. He began to chop up small portions of each of the various meats, putting half of what he prepared into the small dishes andhalf back into the fridge to wait until the food was fully prepared. He began put the dishes into the oven and closed it, then realizing that Nala was staring at him with a very curious look on her face he began to explain what he had done. "Humans like to cook their meat by applying heat. This is called an oven, it gets really hot, like fire, and when we put our foods in there it makes them taste better. I decided to give you a few different types of meat to see which one you like the best."

The scents of the cooking meats began to waft into the young lioness's nostrils, making her stomach growl again. Trey laughed again as he pulled the food out of the oven, putting them into individual dishes and setting them on the ground. He also gave her a dish with water in it.
"Here, I made you beef, pork, turkey and salmon. If you like any one of them more than the others let me know and I can make you more if you want."
"Thanks!" Nala nuzzled his leg before she began to try the different meats. Her favorite was the steak and she didn't like the pork at all, and she told Trey as such.
"Do you want any more? I've got a bunch more, and I can make it with seasonings which will make it taste really yummy."
"Yes, please!" Nala exclaimed as she began to rub against his legs again. Trey pulled the rest of the steak he had cut up out of the fridge and began cooking it on the stove top, tossing in a pinch of salt and a little bit of pepper for the lion cub. When it was cooked enough he transferred it to one of the dishes, picking up the rest and washing them as Nala began to eat the rest of her food.
"Yum!" She said after her first bite, and finished the food almost seconds later.
"Do you need anymore food?" Trey inquired as he dried his hands on a kitchen towel, then began putting away the dishes.
"No, I think I'm good for now." The young lion cub replied as she began to explore his living room. "This ground is so soft. Can I take a nap here?" She asked as she walked around on his living room rug, squishing her footpads into the soft material. Trey let out a soft chuckle in response.
"You're pretty dirty. Why don't we get you cleaned up and then you can nap on the sofa, it's much comfier than the floor." Trey began to walk down the hall to his bathroom.
"Sure! It's so much warmer in here than outside, too, you're so lucky ot have such a nice cave." Trey laughed again, hoping she didn't feel bad at how funny he thought her various misunderstandings were.
"It's actually not a cave, it was built by other people and moved here. We call that a house. Mine is actually called a mobile home because I can move it if I need to, I just need a big machine to help because of how heavy it is." They were in the bathroom now and he had begun filling up his bathtub with warm water. "Can you put a paw into the water and tell me if it's too hot or too cold?" He asked as he began to look under the bathroom sink for the dog shampoo he had from when he had used to have a dog.
"It's just fine." She said to him as he laid a towel down on the bathroom floor, taking a seat on the edge of the bathtub. He took his shirt off so it wouldn't get wet and set it on the bathroom counter next to the sink.
"I'm going to pick you up now, okay?" He said, placing his hands on her chest under her front legs. He gently lifted her and set her in the shallow water, turning it off as he wet a washcloth and squeezed a bit of soap onto it. He used a cup to scoop up warm water from the tub and began to pour it onto the cubs fur, scrubbing her with the washcloth afterwards. He gently washed the dirt out of all of her fur, scrubbing her whole body. After she was totally clean he drained the tub and turned the water back on, using the cup to rinse the suds out of Nala's fur.
"That was nice. I really like the warm water. Where I'm from it's always cold." The young cub smiled up at Trey and he smiled back at her.
"It's time to dry off now." He closed the shower curtain so she could shake off before he took her out of the shower and began to dry her with a towel, then began to use a blow dryer to totally dry the rest of her fur. Trey then picked up his shirt off the floor and put it back on. He rinsed off a hairbrush he had in one of the bathroom drawers and began to brush the cubs now dry fur as he carried her into his bedroom. The room was almost entirely empty, outside of a full sized bed with few blankets and sheets on it and a dresser with some of his stuff on top of it. He set the cub on the bed and finished up brushing her fur.
"You feel better now?"
"A lot!" Nala leapt onto his lap and began to nuzzle his cheek. Trey gently pet her fur, starting at the back of her head and going to the base of her tail. She purred as he did this and then yawned, curling up on the bed next to him as she purred. Trey kicked off his shoes and laid down under the covers, holding them open so Nala could curl up close to him. As the midmorning sun shone through the window Trey held the young lioness close, the both of them falling asleep to the rhythm of her purrs.

A/N Idk if this is a one shot or if I'll continue it. Had fun writing it though.