As the moon set off back to the sky, the sun re-awoke itself from its slumber and shined its early morning rays on the Pride Lands. The flies made annoying buzzing sounds while the monkeys banged against the trees. Antelopes jumped around in the grass while the bees buzzed around in their hives. The elephants roared while most of the lions snored. The only lion that was awake was Kimba, who stood at the edge of the rock, studying everything that he could see. Excited and all, Kimba ran back into the cave, stumbled across other sleeping lions, and quietly walked to his father's side.

"Hey come on, Dad we gotta go, come on, Dad," Kimba said, "wake up Dad, come on! Get up!" He realized that his method of talking wasn't working, so he jumped onto his father's back and began to pull his ear.

"Son…. Awake…." Shujaa said in her sleep.

"Before the sun rises, he is your son to take care of." Kimba was so annoying that he even woke up all of his siblings.

"Kimba, what are you doing up so early?" Mheetu asked while lying down.

"Trying to get Dad up," Kimba replied.

"Good luck with that." Mheetu fell back asleep, ignoring Kimba.

"Hey white ball, will you just knock it off." Malkha quietly said. "Some of us are trying to get some sleep over here."

"Yeah," Tama and Kula said in agreement, "can just go back to sleep."

"No."

"Then at least don't make any noise," Tama said, "Okay?"

"Okay T." Kimba went back to annoying his father. "Dad come on, you said that you would take us out today."

"Come on, son, will you stop. It is too early to go out right now." Koba fell back to sleep but Kimba kept on trying to wake him up.

"Dad come on, get up. Dad, Dad!" Kimba lost his grip on his father's ear and was launched into the corner. However, that didn't stop him from bugging his father. In fact, Kimba put his head down and charged at his father with full force, hitting him in the jaw. Koba re-awoke himself. "You promised!"

"Alright, I'm up, I'm up." Koba lifted himself off the ground and stretched his legs out while making a loud yawn. He then walked up to all of his young cubs and woke them up by shaking them with his paw. "Come on guys, get up. We are heading out."

"Alright, this is going to be fun," Kimba excitedly said while jumping around in circles. He was the only one that had any sort of energy in the group.

"Yeah right, I am still feeling tired because of bug brain over kept waking everyone up," Malkha said in a negative tone while walking slowly towards the edge of the rock, where the rest of the gang were.

"Will you just quit your complaining Malkha," Tojo said in Kimba's defense, "you would've done the same thing if you were as energetic as he was."

"But I wouldn't have done it this early in the morning," Malkha responded, feeling offended.

"Oh sure you wouldn't have," Tojo sarcastically said.

"Will you two stop it please," Koba said, "we are out here to have a good time. Don't spoil it over such a small thing."

"Alright father," they both said. They sat next to their other siblings and father and looked over the horizon. Seeing everything that was moving in the lands.

"You guys, everything that the light touches is our kingdom, from the grasslands to the edge of the horizon." Kimba, along with Tojo and Mheetu, stood up and started looking around the entire area from Pride Rock. They were amazed at how big the Pride Lands were that when they saw a shadowy place, they asked if that area is their kingdom.

"No it is not part of our kingdom," Koba said, "You all must never, ever go there." Malkha soon noticed a blue hornbill that was coming down from the sky. It was Zazu, their royal servant.

"He is absolutely right," Zazu stated with disgust, "all that is there are backstabbing murderous outsiders."

"Zazu's right, you can't turn your back on those who live there."

"Why?" They asked.

"You guys will find out why later. But for now, lets go, I'll show y'all around the entire kingdom," Koba said as he got up and slowly walked down from Pride Rock. The kids followed his lead and quickly jumped down from Pride Rock. However, Kimba, being an adventurous cub and all, decided to look brave and jump down from the rock entirely, like not climbing down to the bottom, which is what the others did. Unfortunately for Kimba, his landing was kind of painful. To make a long story short, he got pie faced by the ground below, making him look like a fool.

"Hey guys! Look at what the big white rat brought in!" Malkha nastily said. All of them laughed at Kimba, except for Koba and Tojo, who ran quickly down to check on him.

"You okay bro?" Tojo asked, concerned about his youngest brother.

"Yeah, I am fine." Kimba struggled to get to his feet. Tojo tried to help him up, but Kimba told him to stay away.

"No you're not, my son." Koba said. "You are by far not okay. Come on, I'll take you back to the cave." Koba lifted Kimba by using his mouth and threw him onto his back. Once on his back. Koba ran back up the rock, without Tojo and the rest of them, and laid him down in front of Shujaa, who had a look of deep concern when she saw him come in. "He's hurt, badly."

"I see," Shujaa replied, "I'll take care of him while you guys are gone." Koba turned around and walked out of the cave. When he saw the cubs, except for Tojo, he gave them the "how-dare-you" kind of look as he noticed that they were mocking Kimba while he was hurt.

"Dad, I am," Malkha said, slowly approaching her father, "I am sorry. It's just that-"

"You thought that it was funny when he got hurt, didn't ya?" Koba said, "What would you think if the roles were reversed and you were hurt. Would you like if he was laughing at you?"

"No father," she said, feeling bad about what she had done. She walked up the rock and went into the cave. From there, Malkha slowly walked over to her mother and Kimba. When she saw Kimba, she started crying a little bit. "You okay bro?"

"Physically, yeah I am. However, emotionally, I am not," Kimba said bitterly. He had a mixed emotion on his face. Half of it looked like it was sad and the other half was angry. He was very mad at her for mocking him. Yet he controlled his temper and eventually calmed down.

"Look, I am terribly sorry for wait I did back there," Malkha shamefully said, "I didn't think that it would really hurt like that. Will you ever forgive me?" Moments passed, but no answer for as Kimba just stared at her between the eyes.

"Yes, I do forgive you. Make sure that this doesn't happen again, okay Malk?"

"Yes, I promise that this will never, ever happen again. You want to know something? As annoying as you are to me, you are a cool little brother." Malkha rubbed his head and then walked back out of the cave to catch up the group, who were already near the forest.

When she caught up with them, Koba took Malkha aside so that he could talk to her. "You know that took some mighty courage for you to go up to him and apologize for your mistake," Koba said, looking down upon Malkha, "Remember, it is never easy to admit for a wrongdoing, especially if it was caused by you."

She lifted her head so that she could meet her father's sky blue eyes. "Courage doesn't come naturally to someone, you've got to find it. For that one moment, you made your little brother a very happy boy just for admitting your mistake." Soon after, both of them rejoined the pack and continued walking towards the forest.

"Hey dad, where are we going?" Chumvi asked out of curiosity. To put it into perspective, Koba has never taken them to the Forest.

"We are going to visit a good friend of mine," Koba answered, "you guys will really like him."

They entered the Forest, only to see the luxurious ponds off in the distance and the lavish trees on each side of them. The air was quite warm and damp. There was a smell of mint that surrounded them. Koba also noticed that there was more life in the Forest since the last time he came. Before, there were fewer than 20 sloths, 10 boas, and only 50 spider monkeys, morpho butterflies, snails, toucans, and macaws each. Now those numbers have nearly doubled, making the Forest a bustling, yet beautiful place to be.

As they kept on walking through the Forest, the kids were appalled by what they saw. Most of the species that lived in the Forest they have never seen before. What caught their eye the most was the sloths, who were hanging from the branches above them. In fact, Kimba, Mheetu, and Chumvi tried to climb up the trees and act like them, only to be ratted out by Malkha and caught by their father.

"Oh come on Dad! Can't we just have a little bit of fun?" Kimba said while his father was trying to pull him down from a short tree. However, Kimba was no match to his father's strength. He was pulled down quickly and softly laid on the ground.

"No son," Koba said, smiling as if it was amusing, "we have to keep going. He is expecting us to be there shortly and we are on short time as is." Kimba, still feeling upbeat, remained by his father's side for the rest of the walk. He even mimicked Koba's movements, trying to be like him. His father noticed it, but did nothing else but smile and kept on walking. Meanwhile, the rest of the group decided to look at the blossoming flowers that were to side as if they were more amusing to look at instead of Kimba's mimicking.

After a long time of walking, they came upon this huge, pointy rock in the middle of the Forest. The rock was as dark as the sky during the night time. Its pointy edge looked similar to that of a butcher knife. Strangely, all of the sun's rays were hitting the area closest to the edge. On top of the rock was a medium sized cave with black and blue stripes on it. To the kids, the cave looked like a dark zebra.

"Hey Jozeus, are you in there?" Koba shouted. No response followed. "Hey buddy, are you here?" He asked again, but still no response. So Koba decided take the kids up the rock so that they could see the cave. There was no sign of Jozeus anywhere. Yet Kimba noticed something that was leaning over in the tree next to the cave. Because he is so curious, he decides to exit the cave from the back and climb up the tree to see what it is. However, by the time he exited the cave, the figure mysteriously disappeared. Disappointed and all, Kimba went back to the cave where he found his father sitting in the far corner with his brothers and sisters around him. He slowly walked to them and took a seat right next to Tojo, who happened to be the only one that noticed Kimba.

"Where have you been?" Tojo asked quietly. Koba was telling everyone else a story, so he didn't notice the conversation between Kimba and Tojo.

"I was just outside climbing a tree," Kimba answered.

"You should know by now not to sneak out like that," Tojo replied, "You know father doesn't like it when you don't tell him where you are going. You're lucky this time he wasn't paying much attention." Kimba just put his head slightly down and the conversation stopped. Nobody, not even the slick Malkha, noticed them talking to each other in secrecy.

After Koba was done with his story, he took the children back out into the Forest so that they could go to the pond and play. He decided to do this because he felt like his story might've bored them to death, plus he thought that Jozeus might be down there.

They arrived at the pond during the late afternoon. The sun's orange rays were reflecting off the water, making it a beautiful thing to look at. Mosquitoes were flying over the middle of the pond, making the annoying sounds that they make. Other animals, such as warthogs and Giraffes, were sitting by the pond while drinking its water. Other than that, not much was going on.

The kids were running carelessly around the pond, bumping into things left and right while playing tag. Everything seemed to be usual up until the moment Kimba, who was chasing Malkha, saw a big black creature moving around in the trees above. At first he thought that it was just a sloth and kept on chasing down his brothers and sisters. However, after a while, Kimba saw the creature again. This time he could see its entire body. He knew immediately that this thing was a black panther. The creature's eyes were looking straight at him as if it was the predator and Kimba was his prey. The creature swiftly down the branches of the tree it was on. Once it was on the ground, it started speed walking towards Kimba. Being scared for his life, Kimba turned and ran back to his father, who was relaxing at the edge of the pond.

"HELP ME DADDY!" Kimba shouted as he was running, "HELP ME!"

"What's wrong my son?" Koba quickly jumped to his feet. Kimba, who was still running, accidentally ran into his father, knocking him off his feet.

"Big Monster! Chasing me!" Kimba frantically said while trying to catch his breath. His face was pale and his body was shivering in fear. Koba, concerned for Kimba, looked around to see where this monster that Kimba was describing was. As it turns out, the Monster disappeared just before Kimba called out to his father. Strangely though, there was no trace of the creature. However, Koba called in the rest of them in case if this monster that Kimba saw was still lurking around the area.

When all of his children arrived, Koba did a head count to see if anyone was missing. All of them were present, so Koba took them back to Jozeus's place for the rest of the night. Once they arrived at the rock, Koba noticed that something was on top of the rock, almost as if it was in a praying position. "Jozeus?" he asked.

"Yes my King," Jozeus responded, still in his praying position.

"Where were you earlier?" Koba asked.

"I was doing my daily patrol around the forest. Why?"

"Why? We were here earlier looking for you!" He said in a stern voice. Koba gets irritated when someone is not on time, especially when it's a meeting.

"Geez relax dude," Jozeus said, trying to cool Koba down a little bit. After he was done praying, Jozeus took Koba and the kids into his cave for the night. Koba didn't plan on staying overnight, but decided that by the time they get back to Pride Rock, everyone would already be in there sleeping.