Fast forward about eighteen months. Kiara padded between two rows of lionesses, who murmured corny words of encouragement.

Queen Mother Sarabi and Nala's mother Serafina hung back, virtually invisible. They kept to themselves most of the time, reminiscing about old days good and bad. Often they tried to coax Zazu out of his depression, and today the majordomo smiled and puffed out his chest, but he stayed silent.

"My, how you've grown!" one of the lionesses commented to Kiara.

The princess arched her eyebrow. "We just saw each other, like, a few minutes ago."

From the other side of the aisle, Pumbaa said, "Knock 'em dead, Kiara."

"Yeah, kill somethin' and drag it back to the cave." Timon swung his fist in the air.

Kiara shook her head reproachfully. "You really shouldn't say that. It's disturbing."

She continued her stroll to the end of the line, where her parents waited. "Dad," she said in a low voice, "Please don't embarrass me today. You have to promise let me hunt on my own."

"No problem," Simba said with a teensy smile.

"Um, Daddy, 'no problem' isn't the same as 'I promise.' C'mon, say it."

"Oh, all right. I promise."

Kiara cracked a grin and head butted his chest. "Thanks, Daddy, you're the best. Well, not the best, but, y'know. You are what you are. Later!" The lion princess loped away to harass a herd of gazelle.

Simba walked to the smaller ledge of Pride Rock and stared after his daughter. "Hmph. I was never like that when I was her age."

"Are you kiddin'? You used to be da king of playful banter," said Timon as he and Pumbaa sidled up to Simba. "Remember those gloatfests after the eating contests? Oy!"

Simba turned to his friend. "So you've given up the cowboy twang?"

"It comes and goes."

After glancing over his shoulder to check that no one was watching, Simba lowered his head and whispered, "Go keep an eye on her for me."

"No problemo, pardner. We'll stick to 'er tighter than bark on a tree."

Simba rolled his eyes. "Get outta here."

As Timon and Pumbaa slipped out of sight, Rafiki crept alongside the lion king. "As Lioness Number Seven keenly observed, Kiara has grown. Yet you do not seem to notice dat she is bigger dan your warthog friend."

"What do you mean?" asked Simba, with a cat's perfect imitation of innocence.

"Rafiki is old, but he is not senile. Tell me, Simba, if your daughter is attacked by an Outlander, what can Pumbaa and Timon do about it?"

"Well…" Simba bit his lip. "Jeez, you're right." His eyes widened. "You'll go help watch her, won't you?"

Rafiki tightened his grip on his staff. "Dat is not where I was going."

"I know you can handle yourself," Simba continued as if Rafiki hadn't spoken. "I've seen you use that stick. I've felt you use it."

"I only meant she can take care of herself!"

"Shhh!" Simba glanced at the turned heads. "Please, I couldn't stand to lose another family member."

The mandrill sighed through his nose and dropped his voice to a whisper. "I will watch her, but I will not interfere. De Circle of Life must run its course."

Despite his clattering prop, Rafiki was the master of stealth, tailing Kiara with much less effort than Timon and Pumbaa. In a way, he was more catlike than Kiara, who snapped a twig as she stalked the herd of gazelle.

"It's the IRS! Hoof it!" yelled a terrified buck. They ran a fair distance before Kiara even leapt from her crouch. She gave chase, trying to make up for their considerable head start, but stopped dead when she saw Timon and Pumbaa cringing between her and her prey. They laughed sheepishly under her glower.

"My father sent you, didn't he? That's it – I've had it! Father has lied to me for the last time. I'll never show my face in the Pridelands again!" She darted into the tall grass.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Simba fretted so much that Zazu offered words of comfort, resisting the urge to wince at the sound of his own voice.

"Don't worry, Simba. She'll be fine. What could happen?"

Later, after some reflection, Zazu was secretly pleased with his ironic question, unintentional though it was. He had thought he was no longer capable of irony. But now, who knew? Perhaps it was a sign that his sense of humor would eventually recover.

When he flew toward the raging fire, however, he thought only of finding Kiara and of how long his little avian lungs could withstand the smoke. He soared over the burning grass for a few moments before checking the river. Zazu gasped when he saw a strange lion swimming with Kiara's limp form in tow.

"I must tell Simba! Why am I talking out loud to myself? I'm losing my head!" Clapping his bill shut, he flew back and led Simba to the part of the bank where the fire had not reached. A now-conscious Kiara was kibitzing with the stranger when Simba charged toward them, roaring his disapproval.

"That tears it, young lady! No more hunts for you – not ever! I mean it – I'll get Pumbaa to sit on your legs if I catch you hunting again!"

Kiara let out a frustrated roar of her own. "Father, you are like the most unfair king ever! You broke your promise, and now you want to treat me like a cub forever! This is so embarrassing. I was doing just fine, even before Kovu-"

"Kovu? The snotnose?" Simba snarled. "What the blazes are you doing in the Pridelands?"

At this point, sneaky Rafiki chose to reveal himself. "Hey, you! How dare you rescue de king's daughter?"

He had witnessed the whole thing, even the arson. But he couldn't tell Simba about that, because then the king would never let Kovu join his pride. As it happened, Simba did let Kovu in on trial basis, but he made sure everyone knew he wasn't happy about it. Zazu supported Simba, making use of his posh voice to call Kovu riff-raff.

As for Timon and Pumbaa, no one seemed especially concerned about their absence, nor did anyone ask them why they were so late returning to Pride Rock that night. They had a charming little adventure in which they rescued a baby songbird from the inferno, but the lions ceased to care about the fire and its potential victims once they found Kiara safe.

The next morning, Kiara unknowingly saved Simba's life by asking Kovu to teach her to hunt. She wasn't about to let her father's ridiculous ban stop her.

With his acute hearing, Kovu located a small mammal, but for some reason he warned his target with a roar in mid-pounce.

"Don't eat me! I never met your tyrant!"

"Woah! Hey!" Pumbaa rushed forward, thrusting his tusks in Kovu's face. "You mess with Timon, you mess with me!"

Kiara, however, was less than sympathetic. "Timon, are you following me again?"

"Kiara! Ain't this a fine howdy do. Me n' Pumbaa was just mindin' our own business till this dagblame varmint almost gave me a heart attack."

The princess suddenly smiled, relaxing. "Oh, well, since you're not watching me, I guess I'll hang out with you guys for awhile."

Kovu wore an amused smirk. "Dagblame varmint?"

"So, um, what are you doing?" asked Kiara.

"Bowling for ugly hornbills."

"Ugly yourself, meerkat," squawked a female. "You look like you caught the business end of a scorpion."

"Who said that?" Timon whirled around and ran to the nearest hornbill. "Was it you?" When the bird gave no answer, Timon said, "Not so tough now, are ya – ow!"

As Timon held his throbbing nose, Pumbaa observed that the birds weren't afraid of them, and wondered if the big lion could get the birds going. Timon rejected this idea and stole it in the next breath. Soon Kovu found himself roaring down the hillside with Kiara, the hornbills zooming into the air in front of them.

"What's the point of this? Are we supposed to eat them? 'Cause I can-"

"No! This is just for fun."

"Fun? What's that?"

Kiara was so surprised that she almost stopped running, but she was having too much fun to do that. "Are you telling me you don't know what fun is?"

"Not exactly."

Pumbaa galloped past them and explained, "Fun is when you do stuff you enjoy for no reason at all."

"Yeah, like this." Timon grabbed a bird by the legs. "Yee-haw! Git along little birdie! Yew know yer misfortune ain't none-a my own."

"We'll see about that," said the grey hornbill under his breath. Flapping with all his strength, he lifted Timon high above the ground and shook his legs violently to make the meerkat lose his grip. Timon plummeted, but Pumbaa zipped underneath and caught him before he could smash into the ground.

"Yee-haw!" Timon thought the whole thing was a lark, and was all too happy for a reason to use his designated catchphrase.

"Yee…Haw," Kovu echoed experimentally. "Uh, git along, varmints."

The four of them ran laughing into a narrow gorge until a crash of angry rhinos blocked their path. The chasers became the chased as the rhinos stampeded through the gorge, but the fun-loving four squeezed into a niche in the wall, letting the rhinos thunder past them.

"So let's see if I've got this straight," said Kovu. "Fun is when you tease birds and almost get trampled to death by rhinos." He broke into a wide grin. "Awesome!"

Pumbaa smiled. "I guess it's never too late to teach 'em," he said to Timon.

"Yep," Timon agreed, jumping on Kovu's head to give him a noogie. "I reckon yew ain't such a blame fool varmint after all."

"Simba never does this kinda stuff with us anymore," added Pumbaa with disappointment. "Boy, Kiara, if he knew you were chased by a stampede of rhinos, he'd go balladic."

Kiara shot him a look that was half warning, half pleading.

"The word is ballistic, Pumbaa," said Timon. "And let's keep this little episode to ourselves."

"Okay. No harm, no foul."

Never one to miss a burlesque pun, Timon chimed, "We sure didn't harm no fowl!" He guffawed, but no one else found it funny.

Then they all pried themselves out of the niche, and Kiara's lips accidentally touched Kovu's.

"This is so embarrassing," murmured Kiara, "but, y'know, in a good way."

Kovu chuckled. He liked Kiara a lot. When he took over the Pridelands, he would make her his queen, and she could do whatever she liked. Then Kovu frowned. His dear adoptive mother would never let Kiara be queen. He'd be lucky if he persuaded Zira not to torture her.

The young lion spent the rest of an otherwise pleasant day troubled by these conflicts of interest. As he and Kiara stargazed that night, Kovu was so torn that he couldn't bear to talk with her anymore. He got up to be alone with his thoughts, but a baboon's arm popped out of the grass in front of him like a zombie clawing out of a grave. A voice spoke directly below the arm.

"And where do you think you are going?"

The arm disappeared, and the grass rustled around Kovu. Wide-eyed, he turned to Kiara and asked, "Who was that?"

Kiara gave an embarrassed chuckle. "Friend of the family." Then she glanced up and grinned. "Kovu, when are you gonna get the monkey off your back?"

"What?" Kovu turned his head and saw the baboon reclining on his back, tickling himself with Kovu's tufted tail.

Rafiki cackled. "Good one, Kiara." He hopped off Kovu's back and tugged on his tail. "Come on! We haven't had a musical number in twenty minutes. Rafiki will show you how it is done."

His song was intended to be a cross between "Can't Wait To Be King" and "Hakuna Matata," but it more closely resembled "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid. The hippos swung from the jungle vines and the rhinos rumbaed in a conga line.

An ostrich found himself congaing behind a tubby little animal with grey fur, tiny ears and no tail.

"Not being rude, but what are you?"

"I'm a hyrax, birdbrain."