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Chapter 3
His day started like every other day: in inconceivable pain. Some may claim him to be lucky, would say that he may have lost the battle with his nephew, a fight with Shenzi and about a third of her clan but he walked away alive. Scar would have to disagree, however, he lived yes, but the price for his life was cruel: at some point Shenzi had gotten a hold of his right ear and torn it off completely, another hyena had snapped off half of his tail and a third had bitten the joint of his left hind leg so badly it had gone stiff.
The sad rest of his tail he had lost later on to a crocodile. He didn't know if it was hungry or just angry, those things were always hard to determine with these dumb beasts.
There were scars of claw and bite marks all over him!
Not to forget his tumble down the side of Pride Rock; he had had an unlucky landing and as a result he hurt his back badly. He was always in pain because of it, every move he made caused pain, it never stopped. Even lying too long in the same position was bound to wake him up from the pain it caused him.
To say that he wanted that pain to stop would be an understatement, but he knew the only way it would stop would be to die. And he didn't want to die. He wanted to live as long as he could, he wanted his kingdom back and to rule it again.
Reality clubbed him over the head in regular intervals however. Usually in the form of cruel pain waking up from his dreams of revenge or his ex-mates voice trying to persuade him into naming a cub that wasn't even his own his heir.
Oh, he knew of her cheating on him. He had never expected her to love him, he didn't love her either after all, but he had expected her to be loyal to him, to remain faithful.
Aushi – stupid, useless female that she was – was his, there was no denying that. Her pelt a reddish-golden hue he had last seen with his mother. The overly large muzzle – a trait she shared with her dead uncle and grandfather. Same with her rather muscular build, it might not be his build exactly but it stemmed from his side of her gene-pool. It was remarkably similar to his own grandmother's. Theoretically she could have inherited her eye-colour and the shape of her nose from Zira, but in his humble opinion the only thing his daughter truly got from her mother was the dorsal stripe that started at the back of her head and ended between her shoulder blades.
Aushi was a dead ringer for both Queen Uru and Queen Hashiki and that alone was the reason he had decided to give her training and tried to shape her into a lioness his mother and his grandmother would take pride in calling their granddaughter or great-granddaughter respectively.
Walking, talking and thinking like a Pridelander lioness, the Circle of Life and diplomacy was what he was teaching her, at least that's what he let the rest of the pride believe. The lioness in the moon forbid that Zira ever found out about the other lessons Aushi was getting! He would never hear the end of it! That female would yap and yell until he either gave in and started teaching Kovu or until he slipped up and gave away all of his plans. And truth to be told that might be his undoing: he was in no condition to defend himself against his former mate and her questionable obsession with him was the only reason he was still alive. Driving her into a mad rage simply would not do for his continued "health".
Teaching Aushi in secret had nothing to do with the fact that he wanted to have his only child capable of taking the throne once Kovu – the annoying little furball – had finally finished Simba off. Absolutely nothing!
The former king stretched carefully, trying not to overtax his muscles doing so. It was a shame, really, that Kovu wasn't his. The cub had his handsome looks and would surely develop the strength to make a fine king. He wasn't all that sure of the young-one's intelligence though, the cub had yet to show that he could think for himself. Zira yelling the boy into submission every single day would be of absolutely no help to that either, she was teaching him to follow and not to think on his own. That would not do for a king in training as for a king it was vital to think and make decisions of their own. His ex-mate was practically beating that out of the cub.
Not that he cared; the boy wasn't his and would never have the throne. Sure he let Zira and the rest of the pride believe that Kovu was still the one chosen to succeed him but that was to avoid the scheming of his former mate. If Zira actually put her mind to it right now she would be faster back in power than Scar could say "Buffalo". At the moment she believed that she was being punished for her infidelity by having Vitani removed completely from the royal family and her herself being stripped of her queen title.
He let her believe that if he saw that she trained Kovu properly for his role as king he would take her back and make her his queen again. That she would be back and that Hazina and Aushi would again be simple pride sisters once they served their roles as Kovu's mentors.
The black maned lion didn't plan on taking Zira back in any way, shape or form. She had given him Aushi, yes, but then she had gone behind his back and had gotten it on with her cub-hood-sweetheart. He would let her two brats live and the two would serve either Aushi and her sons or the boy-cub Hazina was sure to give him once he had ensured that Zira would never again get into a position of power.
That would take a while longer. The other lionesses had to get to the point where they would stand up to Zira themselves without fear and actually make her submit. That was also a reason he wasn't doing anything about the way she treated her own son. It was a small test to see whether or not he could denounce Kovu as his heir. Only if they had her under their paws would it be safe for him to do so and have another set of cubs with Hazina. The older female had already agreed to breed with him and he thought that she was even excided at the idea of having a couple of cubs to take care of. There was that glint in her eyes and a wide smile on her muzzle when she agreed.
He had also already heard her talking to Aushi about it and his child seemed happy. That lessened the probability of his then male offspring dying a horrible death at the paws of his sister at a great degree. She would also act as a shield against her own mother then. It would be perfect.
Carefully manoeuvring around the lionesses still sleeping in the cave the pride's lead male went outside. Cool mornings were like a balm to most of his still sensitive scars so he enjoyed them.
All he had to do now was wait, wait for his loyal subjects to become loyal to Hazina and Aushi and to disregard Zira as a potential pride-leader. If everything went the way he wanted them to go they would even cast Zira out themselves.
But it needed to happen soon, he was no fool his time in this world was limited. He might not feel it right now but he knew that he had perhaps another six to ten moons left and in that time Zira's influence had to be annulled, Hazina and Aushi needed to become the unquestioned leaders of the pride and he needed to sire at least one son with Hazina. Should he not manage the last point he needed to make sure that Aushi understood that she was only to lead until one of her own sons was old enough to do so, she was only a lowly female after all.
Perhaps it was time to step up his game and make sure that the lionesses started to defend the poor little twin cubs. The old lion smirked. The stinking little bastards had a use after all.
And done. I hope you liked it.
Your thoughts are always welcome.
BlueNightOwl out.
