The Outlanders

The young lioness was lucky. When she returned to the lair everyone was still asleep. Silently she made her way through the pride trying to reached her before they would wake up.

"Hey Tani!"

Anxious she ducked between the sleeping lionesses and looked around. Right next to her a cub of the same age had raised its head out of the cover of her mother's front leg. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Kiraka. Are you crazy? Be quiet!"

"Why should I?", the cub asked and looked at her challengingly. „Could you get in trouble otherwise?"

A second head rose right next to the first one. "She definitely is in trouble if she leaves by night for an adventure without asking us to join her, Kira." Despised her a little scruffier fur the only difference between her and her sister were the spots in her face being under the right eye instead of the left one. Together they jumped over their mothers' leg and cornered the blue-eyed cub.

"Your mom is gonna be so angry if she figures out you were straying by night."

"Hah! As if you were brave enough to tell her, Athari!", Vitani responded unimpressed.

"Maybe we aren't", Kiraka aided her sister. "But if Nuka knew, I am pretty sure he wouldn't keep his mouth shut. He's desperately trying to win back your mother's trust after his failure with Kovu."

"Don't you dare telling him!", Vitani growled and extended her claws.

"Want to bet?" The sisters came closer. „But we will give you a chance. Tell us what you were doing and no one has to know."

"Are you challenging me? You know I can beat both of you!"

"Come on Tani! Time is running!" Athari nodded in Nuka's direction. As usual he was laying a few steps beside his family. He was still asleep but his movements indicated that he would wake up any moment.

"Ok, ok, I'll tell you", Vitani hissed. "But later and only if you'll be quiet already!"

Grinning the sisters looked at each other. "You choose wisely", Athari whispered.

"And don't you dare to forget our deal!", Kira reminded her friend before they jumped back into their sleeping mother's embrace.

"Filthy blackmailers", Vitani mumbled angrily while she continued her way. Without any further complication she reached her family and laid down next to her mother. Now all she had to do was to wait for everybody to wake up.

Luckily there was no need to be patient. Just a few moments later her mother stretched her legs and yawned loud enough to wake the whole pride. She got up, shook the dirt out of her fur and looked up at the sky. "Damn it! We overslept", she snarled. "Get up, everyone!"

With a suppressed scream Nuka awoke and jumped up. In an instant he reached his mother and lined up next to her. "I'm up. I'm up", he panted. "Wake up, Vitani!" With his paw he tried to poke his sister. He squeaked like a mouse as she snapped at him. "Argh! Get her off! Get her off!", he screeched and jumped around, his sister dangling down from is foreleg.

"Stop that you idiot!", their mother yelled and gave her son a strike, which sent him right into the dust.

Just before the impact Vitani let go of him. In a fluid motion she landed and rolled over. Within a second she was back on her legs, ready to mercilessly laugh at Nuka. The young lion literally shrunk down under his mother's words.

"Is there anything else instead of whining you are capable of?", she asked with rage glowing in her eyes. "The only thing you are able to kill are mice! You can't watch after your brother and now you're crying because your little sister bit you!" Aghast she shook her head. "One should not belief you are the son of Scar."

"I-I am s-sorry, mother", he promised fearful. "I'll improve, I swear!"

"Oh, I hope so! Vitani is halve your age and a mightier warrior than you are. So, listen to me. If you will not prove, you are useful for one single thing at last, you'll get in some real trouble, that's what I swear to you!" With this last cheering words, she turned around to the rest of the pride. "The show is over! We've got work to do! Kopesa, you will teach the cubs today, while I train Kovu. Ibura, take the rest of us and swarm out. There has to be something to hunt in these damn wastelands and if it's just a few lizards!"

While Zira was running around, giving orders to her pride, Vitani snuck towards Kovu, who was still laying where their mother had left him.

"Hey sis", he greeted her with a helpless grin. "Guess it's going to be a rough day for me huh?"

"Well it's not that bad", she replied. "But if you want to swish places, I'm in. I'd love to spend some time with mom instead of Lazy Eye and her brats. Wish she'd still let me train with you."

"What's wrong with Athari and Kira? I thought you were friends?"

"We are, but they're annoying today. And none of them is challenge for me anymore. Not even both of them together." A soft noise made her look around. "Speaking of the devil…"

Accompanied by their mother Kiraka and Athari made their way through the leaving lionesses, seemingly in the best of moods.

While she was looking at them, her mother came back and grabbed Kovu by the neck to take him to his lesson. A desperate smile on his face he rose a paw and waved goodbye. With her family gone and the rest of the pride leaving for the hunt, Vitani had no other choice than to join her friends and their mother.

Kopesa must have noticed her displeasure. She looked as grumpy as always with the dark frames around her eyes, one of them halve closed. Despite her look she seemed to be in a relatively good mood. "What's up little one?", she asked. "Something wrong?"

"It's nothing", the cub quickly said. "Ready for training, boss!"

. . .

"So, if you're alone and get into a fight against a stronger opponent, what do you do?"

"Attack first! Be quick, aim for the eyes and retreat!", Athari answered, slashing at an imagined target.

"Or throw sand in her eyes", Vitani added.

"Both answers right." Kopesa nodded. "And after you have blinded her, what's next? Kiraka?"

"Go for the neck or the throat, use the chance!"

"Exactly. Vitani, it's you against two enemies. What must you never do?"

"Get between them. Always keep them in front of me. Form a triangle or best, line them up."

"Very good. One last question. You're in a battle. You've won your duel but one of your pridesisters is still fighting. She and her opponent seem to be equal. What do you do?"

"We intervene. We sneak up from behind and overwhelm the enemy."

With a smile on her face Kopesa looked down on her young apprentices. "Right answer once again, Vitani. I think this should be enough for today. You have done very well. All of you. The fighting was excellent and so is your knowledge of tactics. Zira will be satisfied with your progress." She yawned and laid down, the cubs still lined up next to her. Her good eye opened once again and blinked at them, as if she just realized, the cubs were still there. "We're done! Go playing or something, I'm your teacher, not your babysitter."

They didn't need to be told twice. Without wasting any more time, the young lionesses turned around and ran off.

"So, what are we going to do now?", Kira asked innocently.

"We could play tricks on Nuka", Vitani suggested, trying to spot her brother. "Sure, he around here somewhere…"

"Ha, nice try, girl!", Athari laughed. "You know what to do."

Vitani looked at her moodily. She had hoped, they forgot about their deal. "Uh. Ok fine. But you mustn't tell anyone."

Both of them nodded. "Stop torturing us. Spit it out!"

"You remember the lion lurking around in this area Ibura told us about?"

"Yeah. That's why she told us to stay away from the river", Athari replied. "But mom said that's rubbish. He is not real, but we still aren't allowed to go there."

"Because of the crocodiles", Kira added.

"Well, guess what I did last night." With a superior smile Vitani witnessed her friends' reactions.

"Damn it Tani! You should've told us!", Athari hissed angrily. "We wanted to see those crocs too!"

"I wasn't there for the crocodiles, idiot." She shook her head about her friend's silliness. "I wanted to know, if the lion was real, so I snuck to that small cliff your aunt told us about."

Impressed, Kira gasped for air. "You're braver than you look like Tani."

"If it's true", Athari pointed out. "There's no prove she really did it."

"Oh, shut up sis!", Kiraka snapped at her. "Tell me more, Tani! Did you find him?"

"Well, I found someone. He was laying right at The Last Nightmare's spot. But unfortunately, he was the wrong one."

"So, there was a lion!"

"Sure."

"Stop that, Athari!", Vitani growled angrily. "I'm not lying! He was there, but he wasn't the one Ibura told us about. He looked way to young and weak. But he also knew about the Nightmare."

"Wait, you talked to him?" Kira's eyes grew bigger.

"Yup", she confirmed, enjoying her friend's admiration.

Athari on the other hand was harder to impress. "Prove it", she demanded. "How did he look like?"

It was easy for Vitani to remember. "He was slender, had dark fur and a poorly grown mane. I guess he was around my brother's age."

"You're sure it wasn't Nuka himself?", Athari kept maddening her.

"He was so not Nuka!", she yelled back.

"No? So, what was his name then?"

"He… I don't know, we haven't introduced ourselves, but the crocodile, who tried to eat him was called Njaa!" She took a deep breath to shout down every attempt of Athari to attack her. Surprised she exhaled, when her friend remained silent. "What? Have you swallowed your tongue?"

"You… you know the name of a crocodile?", Athari asked. The mockery had disappeared from her voice.

"Well, at least the lion called it like that, after it tried to get him." Pretty sure she finally convinced them, she saw from one sister to the other.
Her friends exchanged some promising looks and turned their heads in every direction to make sure, no one was watching them. Then they came closer to Vitani. "Ok", Athari said quietly. "We belief you. Now lead the way."