***Chapter 3***

***Acceptance***

No words describe a mother's tears

No words can heal a broken heart

A dream is gone, but where there's hope.

Somewhere something is calling for you

Two worlds, one family

Trust your heart, let fate decide

To guide these lives we see.

-Two worlds by Phil Collins

The next several days passed in a dim fog that only vaguely resembled reality. All members of the pride struggled to come to terms with the loss of Mufasa and Simba while dealing with the introduction of the hyenas. It made grieving quite difficult for them all, but they did the best with the hand that they had been dealt. The dog-like animals quickly instated themselves into the daily life of the Pridelands despite the efforts of the lionesses. They harassed the herds and ate far more than their share of the kills. Scar spent much of his time secluded in his own space, usually sending out his hyena cronies to communicate any orders. he had for the pride.

One of his first decrees as king was to change the balance of work. After several botched joint-effort hunts, it became clear that the hyenas were inferior hunters and that the lionesses would have to supply them with food. No one but the hyenas were very happy about all this, but what could they do? Inevitably the change put a sharp strain on the pride's hunting party and soon required more hunters to hunt more frequently. At first, Alex had been a bit concerned with his status as a guest with Scar as the new king. The dark lion didn't seem to like him very much, and the hyenas already held a bit of a grudge against him for his prior actions. However, it soon became apparent that the new king was indifferent to Alex's presence. As long as the young man helped to maintain a steady flow of meat into Priderock, he seemed to be safe.

Despite his first success with the zebra, Alex did not achieve any new trophies. He helped his teammates to get some kills, but the glory that he had felt after his first hunt was gone. The hunters no longer congratulated each other, as most of the kill would likely go to the hyenas. The pride usually sent out three hunts a day, and Alex took part in one or two. When he wasn't hunting, Alex spent most of his time in his cave, working on basic creature comforts to help him live in this new wilderness. Nala usually joined him, but little was said. She just watched him work, deep in her own thoughts and secluded from the world. Alex enjoyed her company; it was better than being alone, and he assumed she felt the same way. Besides, most everywhere else was overrun with hyenas so there weren't many other places to go.

One day Nala looked at his formerly injured arm, now free of bandages and padding. "It healed." She observed.

"Everything does in time." He replied, trying to give her hope against the deep and prevailing malaise she seemed to be in. However, her icy glare told Alex that she would not be quite as receptive today as she had been in the past.

"So I've been told." She countered bitterly before turning away and sitting in the cave's mouth.

Alex sighed, Nala was definitely depressed, and to be fair, so was he. He set down the dried grass he was weaving into string and walked over to where the cub was sitting. "Is... Is there anything you want to talk about Nala?" he asked awkwardly.

"No." she stated stubbornly, giving little effort to hide her true feelings.

Alex only looked at her forlornly; he had no idea how to handle this. He could comfort people and make them okay about the little stuff, but this was big. Nala had lost her best friend to a violent stampede; she was justified in her grief and Alex didn't know how to help.

"Nala..."

"What?" her tone was harsh and cold, almost daring him to try cheering her up.

He shook his head, changing his mind. "Nothing, never mind." She clearly didn't want to talk about it at all.

The evening sun caught his eye after a few moments of awkward silence. "I've gotta go on the next hunt." He said. "Are you going to stay here or go back to your mom?"

"I'll stay here." the small cub muttered, putting her head back down onto her paws. Then after a minute, "Bye."

"Okay... bye." he said as he rose to his feet. Nala was a small cub, but she had matured greatly over the recent days. Far less play, and far more quiet days of solitude. It was concerning to Alex and to the other lionesses. Cubs were supposed to play and have fun all day, but Nala was being so reclusive. Even her voice had changed; she sounded months older and spoke with an tone befitting of a young adult.

Alex exited his cave and began the walk down the path to meet up with the hunting party, playing with the lashings on his newly made spear as he went. He knew he should be focusing on the hunt, but his mind stuck fast to Nala. She was young, but he doubted that the issue would disappear if he just ignored it. In fact, it might really damage her if it pestered her for a long enough time. Alex remembered a friend of his in middle school; whose mom died in a car crash. The changes weren't instant, but in a few years the the young boy went from a carefree troublemaker to a dark, depressed, and withdrawn teenager. Alex regretted how they grew apart, but the kid's personality was changed. He didn't want Nala to go through the same thing but he had no idea how to stop it. People went to school for years to learn how to care for people coping with traumatic events. He was no therapist; he was way in over his head.

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The hunters moved slowly through the long tan grass towards the nearing herd of antelope. They were closing the hundred yards at a steady pace, freezing at different intervals so as not to disturb the skittish animals. Alex crawled with his stomach gently grazing the dirt. He kept his figure low, not even peeking over the top of the grass for fear of attracting the prey's attention. He knew he was going the right way by the distant sounds of movement; rustling grass, cracking sticks, snorts of the antelope themselves. He didn't need to look.

Suddenly, silence gripped the grassland. Alex and the other lionesses froze in their steps and listened closely, but could not even hear the usual noises of their prey. He locked eyes with a nearby lioness, and the two slowly raised their heads above the grass to see the herd staring nervously off to the side.

"Who did we send over there?" whispered Alex, still unsure of the newer huntresses that Scar had forced them to recruit.

"We didn't", responded the other hunter in an even quieter voice than Alex's. "Everyone else is off to the other side."

"Awww hell…." Alex sighed in an irritated tone.

As if on cue, the grasses in the direction the herd was looking burst into motion as a handful of hyenas clumsily jumped into action. The beasts tripped over each other's feet as they ran towards the herd, laughing wildly from the thrill of the chase. The antelope bolted away far before the hyenas had even neared them, hardly even afraid of the poor hunters. They made their way through the savanna, easily dodging the emerging lionesses as they scrambled to make an effort towards the kill. Alex bolted from his position with all the nearby hunters, but he knew it was too late. A successful hunt required careful coordination and tedious attention to detail. The hyenas had ruined it all by scaring the herd, their element of surprise was gone.

Alex slowed to a walk as the antelope trotted off to some other distant slope and turned angrily to the hyenas who were panting, yet still cackling in between breaths.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" he demanded.

The infuriating creatures only exchanged glances and laughed that much harder at his anger.

Sarabi stepped up alongside him, clearly just as aggravated. "You ruined the hunt! That was supposed to feed the entire pride, including you!"

They all just kept laughing as the rest of the hunting party approached them with their breathing still heavy. One of the hyenas managed to quell his laughter for a moment to give a few parting words with a devious grin. "Better hurry up and find that herd, Scar probably won't be too happy if you come back empty handed." he said, completely ignoring their earlier remarks.

With that, the dirty animals turned back towards Priderock, still laughing their heads off.

Alex felt his rage boil up inside him at the sheer disrespect of the intruding creatures, and took a step towards them, his hand curled tightly around his spear. He wanted to make them pay for what they had done.

"No," Sarabi told him sternly as she stepped in front of him. "You know Scar would choose them over us any day of the week. You'd be kicked out into the prairie, or worse. It's not worth it."

Alex sighed angrily, his heart beating three times its normal speed. He wanted to punch something, make something hurt. He clenched his fist around his spear's handle hard enough to turn his fingers white. She was clearly right; Scar would never punish one of his loyal followers over a huntress, let alone a stranded human.

"You're right... sorry." he said softly. "They just-"

"They make us mad, too." she agreed. "But fighting them will only make it all worse."

He nodded darkly, forcing himself to relax his grip on his spear. "So are we going to start again, or what?"

Sarabi shook her head. "No, it's too late and the herd is skittish. There's nothing more to be done tonight, let's go home."

The group quietly started walking back to the massive stone. No one said anything, there wasn't much to say. Alex slowly recovered his mental stability with the walk. Normally he was a very calm and rational person, but the stress of the past few days mixed with the stupidity of the hyenas was putting him over the edge. He sighed, things were getting difficult.

They neared Priderock in due time and the group went their separate ways. Alex was just about to start up towards his cave when he caught sight of Nala heading off to bed, head hung low. He figured that he was going to have to deal with her sooner than later, and it would probably be better if he did it sooner.

He searched the nearby area for a familiar face, quickly finding the lioness he was looking for. "Sarafina," he called as he caught up to her. "Would you mind if I took Nala for a while tomorrow morning?" Sarafina looked towards the main cave just as Nala disappeared into it. The look on her face reflected her weary mind.

"No, go ahead. She's been so out of it lately, it would be good for her to get up and do something."

"Great, thanks." he replied.

"Just stay out of trouble." she added with a tinge of worry.

"Of course." he assured her. "We won't go anywhere dangerous."

She smiled and nodded softly before turning away. "I'll let her know you're coming." Alex watched her walk up the rocks to where her daughter had gone, hyenas chuckling at her from the shadows.

Alex suppressed his anger towards the unwanted beasts and started up his path, turning his mind to Nala. He didn't know what he was going to say to her, or how she would react to it all, but maybe if he took her to the right spot. Maybe he could help her.

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It was a difficult night to sleep; the humidity was high and the bugs were out, but Alex awoke early the next morning an headed out to find Nala. She hadn't been much of a late sleeper since the accident, so he was sure she was already up.

Sure enough, by the time he neared the base of Priderock, she was already atop her usual rock overlooking the area. She caught sight of him after a moment or two and lifted herself from the ground. Hyenas were laying about everywhere, as was their stench, causing her to grimace as she jumped down the rocks to meet her friend.

She cut right to the chase, clearly not wanting to chat. "My mom said you wanted to take me somewhere?"

"Let's just walk and get away from them." he answered, gesturing darkly towards the hyenas. Although he really did want to avoid the sleeping hyenas, he was really just stalling. Even with a full night's worth of deliberation he still hadn't figured out what to say that would snap her out of whatever she was going through.

They walked for a good half-mile before the smell went away. The birds were waking up from their sleep and had begun their daily chatter. The sun was starting to rise and all the green foliage seemed to be shining of gold in its bright light. Alex looked down at the cub, only to see her staring at the ground; oblivious to the beauty that surrounded them.

"Nala, what's bothering you?" he started, realizing the foolishness of the question as he asked it. She glared at him. Of course she was upset about Simba, who wasn't? "I mean specifically," he corrected himself. "Is there anything you want to talk about?"

"No."

He tried again, this time with a softer voice. "This isn't healthy; you need to come to terms with this whole thing."

"Don't tell me how to feel!" she responded sharply.

He sighed, "I'm not trying to; I just can't stand to see you doing this to yourself. You can't change what happened, you need to move on."

"NO! Simba was MY friend and I'm not going to just get over him! Everyone's telling me to move on! I don't want to forget him… he was my friend!" By this time, tears were streaming down her face. She leaned against a large rock on the side of the path and bowed her head. "I'm not going to forget him…." she muttered meekly.

Alex was caught off guard by her outburst, unsure of how to proceed "Moving on doesn't mean you have to forget him." he began softly. "It just means that you accept what happened and learn from it. All you're doing now is beating yourself up for something that wasn't your fault."

"Simba is dead... And it is my fault. I should have done something, I could have told him not to go… I…" She started sobbing and turned away. "I didn't even get to say goodbye."

"I know what you're going through Nala, I know it's not easy an…." She cut him off before he could finish.

"How could you know what I'm going through? she demanded angrily. "You hardly knew him!"

Alex sighed and looked calmly into the cub's glaring blue eyes. She was surprising him with her argument. He wasn't expecting the anger that was now directed at him. Although now that he thought about it, she did kind of skip that stage in the grief process.

"My best friends were killed, and there was nothing I could do about it." He stated bluntly.

"What?" Nala raised her head out of confusion. "When?"

"The day before I met you." Initially he had wanted to protect the young lion from the brutal tragedy that he had experienced, but now he realized that it would probably help in her understanding her own problem. "There was a terrible accident and I was the only one who lived…. Everyone else died. They were my friends, m-my best friends…" He trailed off, the images of the crash returning to his head. His friends broken bodies, their shattered lives. They were all so vivid in his head despite his attempts to smother them. Now, as he spoke about them and remembered the event, he felt his eyes begin to well up with tears.

"Sorry..." he muttered quietly, wiping his eyes as he took a seat on a nearby rock. "I haven't really talked about it much."

Nala looked at him with sad eyes, her anger gone. "T-they died and you didn't?"

He nodded, the memories flooding his heart like a sharp knife. Hiding his feelings had only strengthened their effect on him. He missed them dearly and only now did he realize how much he had been hiding it, even from himself.

He felt fresh tears slide down his cheek as the realization hit him. He was really alone out here. His friends were dead, leaving him as the only human being within any reasonable distance. He was an alien in a foreign land, left at the mercy of nature. He missed his friends... he missed his parents... He was alone.

"I'm sorry..." Nala said in a near whisper, clearly a bit embarrassed for her earlier statement. "I didn't know."

"It's o-okay..." Alex choked out, hardly even hearing her as he wiped his wet eyes. "I really didn't mean to do this now." His silent tears weren't silent anymore as his throat seemed to close around itself. He couldn't stop the overwhelming wave of despair and loneliness. There was no comfort here, not among the hyenas. The one light of kindness he had seen here in Africa was in Mufasa, and now he was dead along with his young son. He had hardly known the king, but his death seemed to take the idea of the great lion with him. If the hospitality and nobility that was afforded him was only rewarded with his own demise, then what justice was there in the universe?

He had pushed his emotions aside when his friends died, he had done it again when he realized he wasn't going home, and then again with the tragedy at Priderock. Now it all came at once, one massive overflow of emotion that was breaking him.

A broken sob cracked through his trembling lip as he sat down on a nearby stone, his legs threatening to collapse him to the unforgiving ground. With his head in his hands, Alex felt hot tears pour down his face and his breathing grow ragged. The dam had burst, suddenly and violently and now there was nothing more he could do but let it out. He only wished Nala wasn't seeing it all, this was his own baggage to handle, not hers.

"I'm s-sorry, Nala..." he said forced out. "This wasn't supposed to be abo-"

He was cut off sharply by a sudden mass of fur that rocked into him with a bit of force. He felt as the young cub crawled up to his side and leaned into his side under his arm, shaking slightly as tears and sobs racked her own body. She was hugging him...

Alex hesitated for a moment, somewhat shocked at her sudden openness. Then he understood; she was hurting in the same way that he was, and only now did they both realize it. He shoved aside his inhibition and dropped his arm over her body, pulling her tightly into him. He could feel her broken breaths and shuddering body as her sadness revealed itself. He felt her grief, and she felt his. They were each other's reflection, but also their inspiration.

In the back of his mind, Alex noted the strangeness of holding a crying lion cub, but that was his mind, not his heart. Something drew him to her like nothing he had ever felt before. Granted, they were different creatures from different worlds and different personalities, but he felt a connection with her that seemed to transcend all that. She was somehow his responsibility, and he wanted it to stay like that.

After many minutes of embrace, Alex felt his breath begin to return even as Nala continued to sob. "I'm sorry, Nala."

"I'm sorry t-too." she replied softly, her eyes still wet with tears. "I j-just miss him so much."

"Me too." he said softly, pulling her tight. "But there's nothing we can do about that anymore. We have to move on."

"But I want him here!" Fresh tears fell off her muzzle, staining the dry dirt around her paws.

"I know, and you should, but we can't let that get in the way of living our own lives. We won't ever forget him, but what would he say if he saw you spend your whole life just thinking about him?"

"He wouldn't like it..." she said sullenly. "He'd want me to go do... something stupid." at that, a small grin cracked across her face, the first Alex had seen in days.

"There we go, you get it." he said softly.

She looked up at him with clear eyes. "What about you?"

"What about me?" he asked with some confusion.

"Are you okay?"

Alex sighed deeply and looked away as he thought of how to word his response. "I'm alright... not great, but alright. I just never let myself react like I should have; I miss my friends and family."

She nuzzled up alongside him. "At least we've got each other."

He chuckled slightly at her words. "That's very cliché."

"It's very true." she countered, surprising him with her forcefulness. "I... I don't have anyone else."

He nodded slowly, realizing the truth of what she said. "Me niether. I guess we'll have to take care of each other, then."

"We can do that." she answered with a smile, her eyes radiating a maturity that surprised Alex.

"Come on." Alex said as he rose to his feet. "Let's go back to Priderock."

She nodded and stood alongside him. "Okay... I think I'm ready."

Alex noted a concern in her voice, and he guessed what it was. "Don't worry about the hyenas, Nala. They aren't worth your time."

She shuddered; clearly he had guessed her fears correctly. "But they're freaky."

"They're also stupid, dirty, and don't know what they're talking about."

Her tone suddenly turned dark. "If they say anything about Simba," she said seriously, "I'll beat them to the ground."

Now it was Alex's turn to laugh. The mental image of the small cub wrestling a full grown hyena three times her size to the ground just was too funny. "Alright," he said through his smile. "Just don't hurt them too bad, we don't want Scar to have to protect his loved ones.

"I won't." she said with a smile.

The friends walked on in a comfortable silence for some time; all of what needed to be said had been said and the dense fog of grief had been lifted, at least a little. By the time they had returned to Priderock, the sun was at a decent height and a group of lionesses were gathering out in front.

"Are you hunting this morning?" Nala asked him quietly, clearly hoping that he wasn't.

He nodded. "Yea... we have to make up for yesterday's botched one."

"When will you be back?"

"I don't know." he replied. "But when I do, we can do something."

"Like what?" she asked, a slight tinge of excitement in her eye.

"I don't care, whatever you want."

"Tag?"

He laughed openly at the simplicity of her request. "Sure."

"Promise?"

"Of course."

She smiled up at him, a brilliant sight compared to the dreary glares she had been shooting him lately. "I'll find you later, then."

"Yea, I'll see you." He watched the cub walk off, a noticeable spring in her step. She wasn't over her friend's death by any means, but this was a start. Hell, he knew that he himself wasn't even over his own troubles, but having her there... it just made things easier. He had brought her out to help her, but she had ended up helping him. Unexpected, but not unwelcome. A grin spread across the teenager's face as he started over towards the other hunters. The day was already looking up, and he had no intention of letting it fall. They were going to get some kills, no matter what the hyenas did.

***Author's Note***

So... here's the thing. I've got 2 weeks to finish this. That's a lot of work, and I'm not sure if I'll get through all the chapters. I'll do my best, but no promises. Also, more reviews! I went from 11 on chapter one to like 4 on chapter 2! I know you guys are reading, give me some feedback! (Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment)

Thanks for reading, hope to get the next update up soon!

-Ben