(A/N: Update time! And happy April 1st! Sorry the last chapter lost its section dividing line, btw. :/)

Time in the Pride Lands crawled slowly, and the dullness of Kovu's new life quickly wore on him. He definitely didn't like the passiveness of it all. There was no longer an epic battle on the horizon that he was in charge of initiating. He tried to find comfort and purpose in his daily routine, but he wasn't really sure what there was to look forward to… Well, he knew what his future was supposed to hold, but for some frustrating reason, but a peaceful retirement from his life of violence for some reason depressed him. He felt dead in the water.

After four moons, he took a lioness named Suki as his queen. She was almost his opposite, and young, but his mother insisted on the match. Suki was a former Outsider, like him, with dark fur and honey brown eyes. She had a meek personality that made her already blunt and rough aunts and cousins look even more like the heathen warriors that they were. Often his lionesses, including his mother, mocked Suki for her softness—mostly how she wouldn't fight for food at their kills, and how she sometimes fraternized with their hostages. At the same time, Zira praised the young queen for her dutiful obedience. Kovu was confused and unable to put his toe on why Zira had picked the runt of the pride to be his queen if she disliked Suki's temperament so much.

"We grumble. We talk back to Mother, test her until the claws come out," Vitani had to explain once while the two siblings were out for a walk together. "It would hurt Suki to displease Mother. To displease anybody."

Kovu didn't love Suki, but there was no doubt she loved him. Their conversations were often one-sided, and ended when Suki lapsed into a shy muteness. She tried to tell him about her day after she asked about his, speaking sweetly to her king, praising him. She brought him young animals that she'd caught especially for him alone, when he knew he should have hunted them for her. Because she couldn't help her adoration, she would tag along when he patrolled, but because she respected his routine, she would walk far behind and remain silent, and he never engaged her. He thought she was too cub-like in her curiosity and positivity. He wouldn't even sleep in the den next to Suki at night, and when she asked him why not, he lied and said he preferred to sleep under the stars. When she'd pressed further in a rare moment of boldness, he'd lied that he wanted to guard the entrance of the den. These were the lies, or rather, at least, partial truths, he told his mother, too.

His mother sighed loudly, late one night at Pride Rock. "Kovu, I hate that you won't come inside the den anymore."

"I'm perfectly fine out here." And he really was. If he wanted to sleep in peace, the last thing he wanted was to rest his head where Simba had slept.

"I miss having you sleep near your mummy…"

He looked away. "It's okay."

"I'll pray to Scar that Suki gives us an heir soon. And many more heirs after," she then remarked. "Tomorrow I'll show you some place you might like to sleep."

He nodded tiredly. "Yes, Mother."

Zira smiled, rested a paw on his back and nuzzled the top of his head like he was still her small cub—her precious young son. "Goodnight, my King." With a chuckle, Zira turned to the den to sleep.

Kovu laid his head on his paws and closed his eyes. After a moment, his brow wrinkled as discomfort settled into his limbs. Rolling to his side, he rested so his legs were sticking out and one shoulder was under his ear in an attempt to get comfortable. When that didn't work, he gave a tense sigh and rolled onto his back.

After only a few weeks in the Pride Lands, he had started to have strange, disturbing dreams as he slept where Simba and his queen had once slept. He couldn't even enjoy the den he'd fought for, and even when it rained he slept just inside the entrance. The dreams were dark, and muddled, full of disembodies screams for help. He'd woken four nights in a row, his heart hammering in his chest before deciding it would be best if he slept outside.

He remembered the first night he'd arrived at Pride Rock, and how Simba had barred him from sleeping in the den with a snarl. He wasn't sure if Kiara had seen her father's snub…

With Simba and the rest of the pride in the den, Kovu laid down outside in the dark, his head turned away, biding his time until morning. Kiara had padded up to Kovu, undeterred by the frown on his face.

"Hey, thanks for saving me today…" she'd said, good humor in a voice that sounded like a bird's pretty call to its mate.

She didn't deserve to even be alive. He'd sat up. "Some hunting, Princess," he'd spat, then muttered, "You almost got yourself killed out there."

Kiara snorted. "Umm, what?"

"You wouldn't last three days on your own," he'd shot back with a laugh. Three days was generous.

"Oh, and you could teach me?"

He'd scoffed, turning from her. "Yeah." He started to walk away, now thirsty and tired of talking, but he hadn't taken four steps before Kiara had leaped into his path.

"All right." With a mischievous gleam in her eye, she'd smirked at him. "Teach me to hunt. Impress me. We start a dawn," she'd ordered, to which he'd chuckled.

Princess…

Did she regret sleeping in? Missing their date at dawn?

For whatever reason, Kiara frequently intruded upon his thoughts, as if his mind were her playground… It was irritating, but almost… comforting… when otherwise his mind would revive old memories of his training or the occasional worry about Tojo's pride.

Since they'd met, he'd replayed his first meeting with Kiara uncountable times, remembering how as a small cub she'd leaped on top of the unhinged jaws of a crocodile to save him, after he'd dismissed her for being a coddled Pridelander. When she'd wanted to play, she'd stopped her silly game of "tag" to mock-fight instead. On their last night together, she'd dared him with such confidence to impress her, to teach her how to properly hunt, to learn how to take care of herself… Really, he had looked forward to it. But his duty to his own pride had taken priority if they had any hope of escaping their hellish squalor.

He pictured Kiara lying under the stars with Tojo's pride, kept awake by his injustice and duplicity, her eyes now dry and her heart filled with anger, wishing him an early death.

She was his enemy.

He was hers.

Why should he even think of her at all? She was just like the others. Nothing special for a Pridelander.

But for some reason her unquestionable pain brought him no satisfaction, like it did his mother or the rest of the family, no matter how much he tried to forget and harden his heart with the hate his mother had raised him on. Kiara was his victim. Killing Simba had been a means to an end, and it just so happened that he was her father.

He flicked his ear. Snapped from his thoughts, Kovu heard a noise, a strange whistle. He opened his green eyes and stood up to investigate the disturbance.

It came from below Pride Rock. He slunk down the side as he twisted his ears and looked around, stopping at Pride Rock's massive foot. It didn't sound like any other bird he'd listened to. Slightly unnerved, but unable to see anything, he glanced up at the sky. The stars twinkled above. The one thing he noticed was that they didn't seem to look as pretty in the Pride Lands; but, when daily life meant pain and going without, something as simple as starlight felt more significant.

"You are not like dem."

Kovu flinched and looked to his right. It was Rafiki. Sitting completely still on a tall rock at the foot of Pride Rock, Kovu had missed Rafiki with his long grey fur and long staff. Kovu guessed Rafiki had been making the noises. The shaman, frowning at Kovu, was close enough to talk, but far enough away that he had a chance to outrun Kovu to any tree nearby. Kovu doubted he could even reach Rafiki on the rock.

"Who? I'm not like who?" Kovu asked with a sneer.

"The Great Kings of de Past of course!" Rafiki narrowed his eyes and put one paw on his hip, studying Kovu. "Have you not heard of dem?"

Kovu shook his head.

Rafiki frowned. "I'll warn you like I warned de king you worship: no misdeed goes unpunished. Not when de Great Kings are displeased by de evil you have caused." He pointed at Kovu with an outstretched finger before his arm swung to the heavens.

"Are you trying to curse me?" Kovu growled.

Rafiki grinned. "I don't have to do any'ting. It is not I who has to worry about what I have shown to de Great Kings. I am happy with my true self. You save the king's daughter, and dare to kill dat very king. Who do you think you are? Do you think you are safe from them?"

Grinding his teeth, Kovu growled. He lunged at Rafiki, intending to frighten him, and the shaman bolted with a screeching laugh. Kovu chased him a short way before stopping, knowing it was pointless.

The Great Kings of the Past? I can't argue that it wasn't evil to murder a king, but what are some dead guys gonna do about it? And pfff, it's probably just mystical mumbo-jumbo.

Despite this, a chill ran along Kovu's spine as he watched Rafiki disappear into the night. Frowning, Kovu looked up at the stars, in earnest this time. He tried to let the strange confrontation go, but it stuck with him all night until he finally fell asleep outside the den, a few moments before his mother woke him for his morning patrol.


"Why aren't we helping him! Mother? Mother!" It felt like Zira's pounding heart was trying to gag her voice. "Mother!" All the lionesses watched from a thicket of threes as Kralj faced off with two young rogues. The rogues had come to challenge Kralj that morning while everyone had been trying to stay cool on one of the hottest days Zira had ever experienced.

The rogue with the blond mane was bigger than the one with a reddish mane, but what Zira noticed most was how their youth made their king look less terrifying. Then she noticed, for the first time, how grey her father's mane was. If the three lions had been hooved wildebeest, her mother and aunts would have selected and hunted her father.

"This is how it goes, Zira," an elder lioness said coldly. "Kralj's worth nothing to us if he can't keep us safe."

"But he's outnumbered! That's not fair—"

"Anyone with eyes knows it's unfair," the lioness snapped.

They all stood at attention when the two young lions again dove at Kralj and got in a few hits with their claws before they retreated. This had been going on for some time; Zira realized that the young rogues' goal was to tire out the old king. Before finishing him off.

"What much in life is fair?" the lioness continued.

Zira loathed that she was so small. "But if we all helped him, then they'd leave!"

One lioness pulled her two daughters close to her. These half-sisters were small and younger than Zira, and they looked on in awe. "Who said we can't help?" The mother dropped her voice. "I don't think Kralj has a chance…"

"Our compassion would bring shame upon Kralj," the elder argued. "Do you think he wants us to help him?" The elder then looked at the young cubs. Sadness turned down the corners of her mouth and caused her eyebrows to arch. She then looked at Zira. "If these rogues defeat your father, Zira, you must leave us."

"Huh?" Zira flinched. "W-why?"

"You're strong. You're young, but you might have a fighting chance. If these rogues exile or kill Kralj, they'll want to mate with us." The elder paused and gave Zira a hard look. "You aren't nearly old enough for that yet, and you aren't their daughter."

A roar cut through the air. The rogues' attack was more brutal this time, and Zira closed her eyes, snatching a glance when the roars of agony returned to a menacing rumble again. Kralj had a deep wound to his hip, which made it hard for him to rest his full weight on the leg. The flesh hung away partially from his body. The king lowered his head and snarled at the rogues, keeping his eyes on them at all times as they circled him and tried to get at his backside.

Zira's mother leaned down and whispered in her ear, "Zira, they always kill the cubs of the previous king."

Zira tensed and choked on her breath. Coughing, she was seized by the full severity of the threat the rogues posed. The lives of Kralj's cubs were at as much stake as his own.

All three lions were panting hard, and now the intensity and frequency of the rogues' attacks escalated. Zira watched. The two rogues barely had a scratch on them; it was easy to see why. When Kralj dove at the light-maned one, delivering a couple blows to his head, the red-maned monster sunk his teeth and claws into Kralj's backside, and the old king found himself trapped between the two. He struggled to break away to regroup. Kralj couldn't get a good attack in without taking twice the damage to himself.

"He's not what he was." The elder lioness shook her head. "Zira, you don't need to see this anymore. You need a head start."

"W-where do I go?"

"Any way but west. There's a bigger pride in the west—well, they're so big I don't really call them a pride—and I'm sure you'd fit in, but they don't like outsiders."

Zira looked around, hoping even one of her older sisters might come with her, but they all refused to look at their much younger half-sister, or the infants. When Zira had been born, most of her half-sisters were seven moons or older. They, and the cubs her mother had had before her, had all been born within days of each other. Zira's mother had lost all her young cubs and had to start over with Zira. She was tenderlessly wedged in the middle.

"You're not going to help me?" Zira squeaked, and embarrassment at her voice filled her cheeks.

Now nobody would look at her, and why would they? She sounded, and probably looked, pathetic. Zira's mother stood up, moved away, and muttered something to an older lioness. They were looking at Kralj, or maybe not him at all, but into their future with the two rogues. It was like they'd already decided to cross a river that was almost too wide for them to cross, and certainly there was no hope of swimming across without losing the weakest of them.

Zira lashed her tail angrily and turned around, hesitating for a moment. Anywhere but west? How vague and indifferent could they be? Over her shoulder she looked at her mother's back one last time. Trembling, and in a shrill voice she yelled, "You're all cowards!" The sickness in her gut was no match for the tightness and pain in her chest as she ran away with the roars of lions ringing in her ears.

Now there was no choice but to move forward into the darkness.

(A/N: No Kiara section this time, but we'll check back in with her next chapter. And Kovu doesn't seem like a very happy camper, but he is starting to reap what he sowed...)