In the Pride Rock den, all the lions of the pride were sleeping. Kovu was leaning over his mate, a paw on her stomach. Kiara's head was pressed against his soft, chocolate mane.

Simba and Nala were sleeping side by side, with Nala resting her chin on his mane. Kion was snuggling next to his mother, his tail wrapped around himself in the shape of a circle.

Rafiki made his way to Pride Rock to tell the royal lions the news. He felt a great deal of sadness as he looked at the sleeping princess's peaceful face. He sighed before approaching them.

"Kiara?" Rafiki asked.

"Huh?" Kiara slowly opened her eyes.

"We need to talk." Rafiki said softly.

"Ok..ay?" Kiara replied, looking back at the rest of the Pride. She slid out from beneath Kovu, waking him up.

"Huh? Kiara?" Kovu asked, groggily.

"Rafiki said he needs to talk with me."

"Maybe it's best if you come too, Kovu." Rafiki said. Kovu nodded and followed the two of them.

...

The whole den of lions were startled awake when they heard Kiara's heavy sobs.

Simba's defensive father mode kicked in. "Kiara!" He ran to her. "Are you alright? Did you get hurt?"

"N-no daddy." Kiara sniffled. "I-I...I-I can't...I'm..."

Simba gave his daughter a nuzzle of comfort, before turning to Kovu for answers.

"She's...infertile..."Kovu managed to choke out.

The Pride murmured in remorse as they surrounded their princess. Nala nuzzled against her daughter's cheek and tried to dry her tears. Kiara pulled away and tried into Kovu's mane. He frowned and licked the top of her head.

"K-Kovu..." She sniffled.

Kion didn't understand what was going on. He slumped next to his big sister and tapped her leg. "Kiara?"

Kiara didn't reply and continued crying into Kovu. Kovu spoke up, "Kion, I think she needs some alone time."

"What's going on?" Kion asked, still puzzled.

Kovu was unsure what to do. Kiara pulled back and looked at her mate. "I-I c-can t-tell him..."

"Are you sure?"

Kiara exhaled sharply and nodded. She put a paw on Kion's back and started to explain. "I-It means...I-I can't...I-I...I can't..."

Her breathing increased and the tears rushed out. Simba, Nala,Vitani, and Kovu hurried to her side.

"I could tell him..." Kovu said. Kiara nodded and rested her into Vitani's neck.

...

Kovu had taken him far from Pride Rock and was silent for most of it. However, soon enough Kion demanded answers.

"Kovu? Why is everyone upset? What does infertile mean?"

Kovu exhaled sharply. He looked at the cub with sad eyes. "It means... it means Kiara can't have cubs."

Kion frowned and slowed his walk, feeling bad for his sister. "Will...will she be okay?"

"I think so...she just needs some time." Kovu said.

They walked for a few more moments when they came across a barren landscape. Kion's eyes widened in wonder as he looked around.

"This is the Outlands." Kovu explained.

Kion had heard of this place before, but was forbidden to go here. His father wasn't as much a stickler now, as when his sister was a cub (Or so he heard.) His fear of getting in trouble subsided when he realized it wasn't his intention to go to The Outlands. Kovu had been the one to bring him here.

Kion was distracted when he felt a small bite on his leg. "Ow!"

Kovu turned around and smirked when he realized what the problem was. "Don't worry, it's just a termite."

He laughed as Kion had started to bite his fur like his late brother, Nuka. Kovu tried unsuccessfully to shake that thought from his head. Every time he thought of him, his mother's accusing words came back:

"Nuka is dead because of you...You've killed your own brother!"

"I...I grew up here." Kovu said, putting Nuka aside for a moment. "Simba banished all of us who were loyal to Scar here."

"Why didn't you guys move?" Kion asked, using the claws on his back paw to scratch termites off.

"There wasn't really anywhere else we could go. Simba had told all the surrounding Prides about us and that we were a threat, then they told their surrounding Prides the news. Besides, mother needed to be close to the Pride Lands so she could overtake them."

"But, now we are one." Kovu said, attempting to brighten the mood. He brushed his paw against a termite mound, causing the bugs to scatter everywhere.

Kion became playful, and started to chase the insects around. Kovu smiled remembering one of his favorite pass times as a cub. Kion followed them into a giant termite mound.

Kion stepped through it carefully, examining it closely. This was the most amazing part of the Outlands to Kion. It looked as if a lioness had used this mound for her den.

"Nice, huh?" Kovu asked from behind, a slight chuckle in his tone.

"Did someone live in here?"

"Yeah. We used this as our den." Kovu put his front paw on top of a medium sized mound. "I slept here as a cub."

Kion crawled onto the mound and laid down. "This is very comfortable, how did you sleep in it?"

Kovu shrugged. "It felt better than sleeping on the ground."

Kion stepped out and looked to the sun. "We've been gone a while. My team's probably wondering where I am."

"Right." Kovu said. "We should probably head back now, so you can patrol."

...

"I found the tree so I get the fruit in it." Proclaimed a female monkey, grabbing for a dark purple fruit.

"Uchoyo, that's not fair." Squeaked her younger brother.

"Quiet, Ndogo." Uchoyo growled.

"Hey, what's going on here?" Asked a voice from beneath the tree. The two primates looked down to see: a lion cub, a honey badger kit, a hippo calf, a cheetah cub, and an egret chick.

"Ndogo thinks he gets a share of the fruit I found." Uchoyo explained, one again reaching for her food.

"If I find a bush full of fresh grapes, I don't eat them all." Beshte said. "I share them with the rest of the hippos."

"Yeah, and my momma shares the hunt she catches with all the other cheetahs." Fuli commented.

"But the fruit looks so fresh, and I wanna have it!" Uchoyo whined.

Kion examined the tree, abundant with fruit. "Have you ever eaten so many bananas that your stomach hurts?"

"Yeah, but-"

"It'll hurt if you eat all that fruit." Kion pointed out.

"Than I'll eat some of it later." She replied.

Kion looked around, trying to think of a new solution. He saw a herd of zebra prancing in the grassland and got an idea. "Wouldn't you get sick of eating the same thing over and over again? One time I had to eat zebra three days straight and I was sick of it."

Uchoyo looked at the fruit in her hand and frowned slightly. Sure it looked good now, but what would it taste like after say...five...of them. He looked at her little brother's innocent face and playfully rolled her eyes. "Alright, you can have some."

"Yay!" The little monkey cheered, grabbing a piece of fruit and munching it down quickly.

...

Kiara smiled as she watched her little brother from a tiny hill away. It had been a week since she found out she was infertile, and only now did she feel emotionally stable enough to leave the den.

Kiara always enjoyed watching her brother and his lion guard group help others. If he was born before her, he'd be a great king. Kiara got an idea and perked up.

The princess hurried to Rafiki's tree.