A/N: *sighs* I'm the worst. I'm very sorry this chapter took a long time. I didn't know how I wanted to end it, but there's only so much you can do with a lion cub that's bleeding to death. Anyway, to answer your question Lustig: Jackals can't eat lion cubs, they're too big for them. Plus that'll end the series too quickly. Anyway, sorry for the wait, I can't promise I'll get the next chapter out sooner, but I'll try. I also apologize for grammatical or punctuation errors.

My eyes snapped open when I felt something peck at my foreleg, which was now really numb (the pecking was more annoying than painful). I turned my head to the side and saw a little bird. I growled and swiped at the bird. The bird squawked at me a couple of times, but just flew off and left me alone. I groaned as I slowly lifted myself off the branch and noticed that the sun was just starting to come up. As I watched the sunrise, I thought back to when my dad was showing me the kingdom. I was so excited to hear that everything that was within the Pride Lands would be mine one day. I sure wish I can go back to the past and tell my dad what was going to happen to him. Or even better, go back to the past and tell myself not to go to the Elephant Graveyard like an-

Crunch

What's that sound? I turned my head around and saw the part of the branch I was on was breaking off! I gasped and trued scooting back as far as I could, but-

Crack! Boom! Squelch

"AAAAAAHHHHH!" I fell of the tree branch and ended up hitting the ground, blurring my vision. Unfortunately, the tree branch ended up landing on my leg, which only made it worse than it was before. I clenched my teeth down, so I wouldn't scream too loud. As quickly as possible, I pushed the branch off of my leg and limped away into a bush. When I was inside, I grabbed onto my foreleg and pressed down to stop the bleeding. Not surprisingly, the gash on my leg just kept oozing blood. My breath started to get quicker and my heart felt like it was about to explode. What am I gonna do? What…am…, I couldn't think straight at all. Everything was starting to look all fuzzy and everything was getting darker. No, I have to…I can't…

I slowly woke up feeling really dizzy, my head was pounding, I was barely awake, and cold for some weird reason. I gently picked up my head and slowly moved it around to check where I am at. From what I could see, I was-possibly-deep inside a cave. I mumbled, "B-But, I don't r-r-remember-"

A female voice said from the entrance, "That's because I brought you here."

I tried turning my head to look at her, but a vicious, unbearable shot of pain went through my head and spine. I yowled and used my right foreleg (the good one) to grab my head, when I pulled my head down, I noticed my left leg was wrapped up in some leaves and vines*. Before I could ask, I heard paw-steps behind me and the female said, "I found you underneath a thicket of bushes and felt so horrible leaving you there. So, I thought it'd be best if I brought you in here to patch you up, also not many predators come around, so you're safe."

I turned my head so I could thank her, but then I stopped dead cold when I saw it was another jackal. I felt myself tense up in fear, but I also wanted to just start running. She tilted her head at me, looked like she was confused. I asked, "Y-You're not gonna h-h-hurt me, are y-y-you?"

At first she looked shocked, and then after a couple of seconds she looked kind again and she shook her head. She walked closer to me and laid down to get to my eye-level, which only made me stiff up even more. She comforted, "No. I will not harm you. I'm guessing you asked is because my husband attacked you. Am I right?"

I wasn't sure if it was her husband or not, but I slowly nodded anyway. She rolled her eyes and whispered something, but I couldn't hear her too well. After a while, she apologized, "I'm sorry for his actions; he can very territorial-"

Before she could finish, I interrupted, "No! It's my fault! I was stealing food away from him! I'm sorry…I didn't mean to."

She placed her paw on my shoulder, but backed off after I flinched. She sighed, "Trust me; it's perfectly fine little one."

"Simba."

"Huh?" She asked. I looked down kind of embarrassingly and repeated, "My name's Simba."

She giggled, "Haha! Well, forgive me, Simba."

I smiled with her. It was kind of stupid to interrupt her like that, but I thought it was best for her to know me, since she's going to take care of me, right? Wait, is she staying? Before I could ask her anything, we both heard yelping outside of the cave. I heard her mumbling, "What? That can't be!"

I asked, "Are you okay? What's going on? What's-"

She got up, ran outside the cave, and I heard her growling a bit. I was really confused to what she was doing. I heard more low growling noises…at least, I think that's growling. She came running back in and quickly informed, "I'm so sorry, Simba. But, I have to leave you."

I got up on all fours really quickly, but ended up falling back down because I was too weak. I asked, "You're leaving!? Why!?"

There was loud booming noise coming from outside and after that a male voice shouted, "Farijika! Come on!"

Farijika instantly looked at me, but then said, "There's a bad storm coming, and my husband wants to look for shelter away from the forest, so that we don't get hurt. I wish I could take you, but Hodari would instantly know who you are and harm you or worse," she paused after the disturbing thought and continued, "Please, just stay in here and you'll be safe."

After saying that, she instantly ran towards the entrance of the cave. The thunder from the storm got louder and from the entrance all I could see were bits of tree branches falling from the wind. My head started pounding from the noise and I started panicking, I can't be alone again!

I shouted as soon as she was near the entrance, "Farijika! Please tell me you'll come back!"

She just gave me a saddened look and ran outside of the cave. I tried my best to get to my feet, but it only ended up making feel even dizzier. Once I tried getting up to my feet again, a branch that got blown off by the storm came shooting in here. I ducked just to make sure it didn't hit me, but luckily it stopped right in front of me. I started crying and I curled up into a ball. This is my fault that I'm stuck in cave and possibly about to die! I wish I was never in that gorge, I wish my dad didn't come to get me, and…I wish I wasn't here at all! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…

Welp, that escalated. Again, I apologize if this chapter sucked. I just didn't want it to feel like i abandoned this story. Also, I may end up bringing Farijika back, but I don't know. By the way, just in case you're wondering, Farijika mean console and help. And Hodari means strong and powerful. I felt like it fit them. As for the *, I know wrapping vines and leaves around a wound is bullshit, but hey if they can make lions british and have a monkey shaman, then I can some BS too. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review!

The end of Simba's cubhood (Yep, I'm doing this again).

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the TLK franchise. All I own is Farijika and Hodari.