Here's the next chapter, as always please leave honest reviews and let me know your thoughts. Enjoy

-The Future King-

A tiny mouse scurried out of the hole in the stone, sniffing around. It looked around and ventured forth a bit, suspecting no danger. This judgment was mistaken, however, as the mouse quickly learned when a massive paw slammed into the ground around the mouse, before it pick the tiny creature up by the tail. It looked up to see what was holding it; an unusual looking lion. His fur was brown unlike the typical yellow and he had a black mane. His eye was blue, but the look he had in them made it seem as cold as ice. Yes, eye… for his right eye was shut permanently and there was a scar running from his eyebrow down to right above his cheek. He had a black mustache, wore a green shirt and at his side was a silver-hilted rapier in a sheath. The lion spoke to the mouse in a bitter voice, "Life is unfair, little mouse. For example, I will never be king… just as you will never see another day."

The mouse thrashed around trying to free itself but the lion's paw held its tail firmly as he opened his mouth, prepared to consume the creature. As the mouse looked into the black abyss of the lion's mouth, sure of its demise when the lion was stopped upon hearing from behind, "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with your food?"

The lion sighed bringing his paw down to the ground looking behind at the blue fairy servant of the king, asking impatiently, "What do you want, Navi?"

"I am here to announce that King Mario is on his way," Navi announced, before adding accusingly, "So you'd better have a good excuse for missing the ceremony this morning!"

The lion paid this no mind as he noticed the mouse had freed itself and was sprinting back to the rock and inside, out of sight as the lion said nonchalant, "Now look there Navi, you made me lose my lunch."

"You'll lose more than that when the king is through with you!" Navi warned, "He's angrier than a hippo with a hernia."

"Oh," the lion gasped with sarcastic concern, "I just quiver with fear…"

Navi backed away, noticing the lion's eyes narrowing on her as she said fearfully, "Scar don't look at me that way!"

She took off trying to fly away, screaming, "HEELL-"

Her words were cut short as Scar pounced forward, closing his mouth around the fairy. Just a second later, he heard a disapproving warning from the side, "Scar!"

Scar turned to see King Mario standing there, eying him intensely as he ordered, "Let her out."

Scar obeyed and spat Navi out hard into the ground. Navi gasped and heaved for air as she got up flying to her king's side, saying, "Impeccable timing your majesty."

Scar put on a fake smile as he approached the king. He was a bit taller than the king, but not as muscular or well-built. He said condescendingly, "Why if it isn't my dear brother ascending from on high to mingle with the commoners!"

Not in the mood to deal with his attitude, Mario got straight to the point, "Peach and I didn't see you at the presentation of Link this morning."

"That was today?" Scar asked, playing dumb, adding sarcastically, "Oh I feel simply awful! Must have slipped my mind…"

Navi moved forward towards the lion, "Yes, well, slippery as your mind may be, as the king's brother, you should have been first in line!"

"Oh I was first in line," Scar said, unthreatened, focusing his cold eye on the fairy, causing her to move back as he continued, "Until that little hairball was born."

"That 'hairball' is my son," Mario said bluntly, moving in front of Navi to meet Scar's gaze, "And your future king!"

"Well, I'll just practice my courtesy then," Scar smiled sarcastically, turning around and beginning to strut away as Mario barked, anger rising, "Don't turn your back on me Scar!"

"Oh no, Mario," Scar replied calmly, "It's you who shouldn't turn your back on me…"

Mario roared running around Scar, jumping in front of him as he drew his mighty sword, pointing it at his brother's chest, now on the very edge of lashing out as he hissed, "Is that a challenge?"

"Temper, temper," Scar said with a tsk as he nudged his brother's blade away walking past him, "I wouldn't dream of it…"

As he walked away, Scar looked back at his brother Navi as he finished his statement with thinly veiled condescension, "You see when it comes to brains I got the lion's share, but when it comes to brute strength, I'm afraid I'm at the shallow end of the gene pool…"

Scar held his head with fake shame as he went off. Mario sighed deeply, sheathing his sword. He shook his head, asking, "What am I going to do with him?"

Navi flew up to near the king's head as she suggested jokingly, "Well, he would make a nice throw rug."

"Navi!" Mario exclaimed with amusement at the fairy's attempt to lighten the mood as she continued, "And just think; whenever he's dirty, you can drag him out and beat him."

Mario shook his head smiling as he walked back to Pride Rock to be with his wife and son again.

That night, as twilight neared, storm clouds gathered over the kingdom. This was soon followed by thunder as a mighty rain poured over the land. In a lone and mighty open canopy tree in the savannah, Toadsworth was at work drawing on the huge branch as he saw lightning bolts strike the ground in the far distance, followed by roaring thunder. This did not at all surprise him, as he remarked, "Ah, the circle of life continues…"

In his thoughts, he could still hear his old mentor saying to him, "On the day the one destined to be the next ruler is presented to their people, at dawn there will be a sunrise unrivaled in beauty by any other save the sunrise of the previous presentation. At twilight a mighty storm will come and produce great rainfall to relish the land, but the storm shall harm no life on the savannah."

Toadsworth smiled as he finished drawing a lion that was at the end of a long line of lions (and some lionesses). To distinguish from the lionesses, Toadsworth drew a lone line across the forehead of the lion he just drew, for the lion was not yet king but would be one day. He smiled and said to himself, "Link…"