Word of the event that happened the previous day had spread amongst the pride. Dumaka felt horrible, everyone was seeing him as the bad guy. But what was worse was that most of the pride had the same thought that Simba expressed to Kovu the previous night. They didn't dislike Amadi, in fact, the lionesses loved his gentle nature to the fullest. But most agreed that even the noblest king had to be able to hold his own in a fight so he could defend the pride. Amadi couldn't understand this. No one said these things directly to him, but he overheard many whispers. Was it really so bad to be so gentle? Everything in the world was beautiful in some way, so why did these beautiful things need to be combated and conflicted? Did he really need to kill and play with lifeless field mice for the sake of sport? He did not understand these things.

Away from pride rock, laying somewhere in the tall grass, Amadi kept to himself; away from the whispers of the pride. To make matters worse, Dumaka was avoiding him. Amadi worried that his brother was angry at him, but in reality Dumaka was too ashamed to be near him. As for Dalia, she was out with Nala and Kiara taking hunting lessons; so he was left alone. He thought about visiting Sarabi, but Simba had told him that she was very tired.

He had been warned about wandering too far from Pride Rock alone, but he didn't care. There was not too much danger, he was relatively close. He also figured that no predator of the Pride Lands would dare kill a cub of royalty; which was quite a smart thought. The pride would defiantly go after a creature if a prince was killed, and most predators understood this.

Sighing, he rolled onto his side, letting his head rest against the grass. He watched a few bugs fly around, but then something in the grass caught his attention. Perking his ears forward, his eyes became really alert. Rolling onto his stomach he got into a crouching position. The creature was small, smaller than him. He slowly crept, putting the hunting skills that Dalia had taught him to the test. His eyes set on a little field mouse. It was instinctive when he pounced on it, trapping it gently benieth his paws. As he heard the terrified squeaking of the mouse he realized that he did not want to cause it harm. He lifted up one paw, but used the other to gently pick it up.

"Hey there little guy, I wont hurt you." He said, sitting down as the mouse crawled over his paw. The mouse did not jump from his paw, it was afraid it might hurt itself; it was very small after all. So the mouse looked at the cub, obviously frightened.

"Please do not hurt me!" the thing squeaked pathetically, trembling up at the cub. "I have a nest, with babies that need me to take care of them. Please have mercy."

How sad it was, Amadi thought, that this creature was so terrified of him. It was because he was a lion, because he pounced on it. "I wont hurt you. My name is Amadi." He said, surprised that he was having a conversation with such a small creature.

The mouse was not happy to talk to the lion, but it figured that it was its only way out. "I am Tilly." The mouse squeaked in response. "I was out gathering food."

"Oh, I am sorry. Did I make you drop it?" he asked with apologetic eyes, his eyes scanning the ground. "How about I make it up for you."

He placed the mouse on his head, where it clung desperately onto the little tuft of mane. Amadi then looked around until he came to a berry bush. He began to pluck many berries into his mouth. "now, where is your nest?" he asked, his speech slurred from the berries.

With the mouse's help, he got back to a small hole in the ground. He bend down so the mouse could hop off, then dropped the berries by the hole. The mouse looked up at him, not as afraid anymore.

"Thank you. You are a very strange, but kind lion." The mouse said, bowing his head. "I wish all lions were like you."

Amadi smiled, the mouse's words had made him much happier. "Thank you. That is one of the kindest things anyone has said to me." He said with a smile.

He then lay by the hole, watching the mouse scramble in and out of the den, bringing in a berry at a time. Once she was finished she went up to Amadi and hopped up onto his paw again. "Thank you." She said again, bowing her head respectfully.

"Your welcome." He said, but then he heard something come up behind him. It was Dumaka and Dalia.

"There you are!" Dalia said, letting out a relived sigh. "We've been looking for you everywhere, everyone was very worried about you."

Amadi didn't know what to do, he felt the little mouse begin to tremble in his paw. The other cubs spotted the mouse and instantly tensed into predator mode.

"Look, Dalia, Amadi finally grew the claws to hunt." Dumaka teased, walking around Amadi to the front of him, eyeing the mouse. "Well, are you going to kill it, or just sit there?"

Amadi glared at Dumaka. "No, I am not going to kill her." He said, standing and backing up, moving his paw protectively to his chest.

"Her? It's just a mouse. Your suppose to kill it." Dalia said, looking over Amadi's shoulder, eager to have a go at the mouse.

"Why? I'm not hungry? Why would I kill something I am not going to eat." He said, his ears back and claws extended.

"Were lions, that's what we do." Dumaka said, getting frustrated. "Why do you care so much?!"

Amadi looked down at the little mouse. "Why shouldn't I care? The first thing Grampy Simba ever taught us was that we should respect all creatures, even the ones we eat."

Dalia softened slightly, but was still confused. "but its just a mouse."

"She is not just a mouse. Look at her." He said, holding his paw out slightly. "She has the cutest little whiskers, and her fur is such a beautiful sandy color. And besides, I like her. I helped her, she is my friend. I can't eat a friend."

The mouse was still trembling, now clung to Amadi's hand. She was afraid of the two new cubs; Amadi was her only hope. She also worried about the nest full of babies right at Amadi's feet.

Dumaka rolled his eyes slightly. "Why would you befriend prey?!" He asked, it didn't make sense to him.

"Why not? You can learn a lot from those you don't understand!" Amadi shouted, his teeth bared now. "And besides, Rifiki is a baboon, and Simba tells us stories of a meercat and a warthog he was friends with! Why can't I have a friend mouse?"

Dumaka did not know what to say to this, he just rolled his eyes and walked past Amadi. "Your such a freak." He grumbled.

Dalia was more curious in the mouse now. She had listened to Amadi and what he said made sense. She was a very logical being, so long as something was explained in such a way that made sense she would accept it.

"She is kinda cute, but I best suggest you not let Dad catch you doing this, or Grampy Simba." She looked at the mouse. "Sorry we scared you, little mouse."

The mouse nodded, still afraid, but feeling better now that Dumaka had gone away. "Would you let me down now?" she asked politely.

Amadi nodded and let his paw down. "Good bye, Tilly. Nice meeting you." He said with a smile. "Be safe."

The mouse nodded, bowed, and then scampered back into the hole. Amadi sighed, hopeful that he may meet the mouse again some time. He turned to Dalia. "You wont tell Daddy, right?" He asked, a little concerned.

Dalia smiled and playfully pounced her brother. "No worries, I just hope Dumaka is as kind." She said with a laugh.

Amadi giggled loudly when he found himself on his back after being pounced. "Hey, get off me, stupid." He said, swatting her with gentle paws.

"No way, weirdo. Your gonna be king one day, you gotta learn to fight." She said, looking down at him with a smirk. She saw how he got uncomfortable at the mention of fighting and being king. "You know, you could protect all sorts of creatures, like your mouse friend, if you learnt how to fight."

This gave him a bit more motivation, he never really thought about it that way. "I can fight perfectly fine, thank you very much!" he said with a laugh, pushing her off.

Laughing, he pounced his sister, and the two cubs rolled around. Eventually Amadi hopped off and ran off. Dalia laughed and ran after him. But she stopped when she saw Amadi standing on a log, staring off into the distance.

"What's wrong?" She asked, hopping up onto the log to peer over the tall grass. A hundred yards or more away, three lionesses were walking in the direction to pride rock. There were five young cubs walking with them. "Who are they?"

Amadi shook his head. "I don't know." He said, studying the lionesses. "C'mon, we should go tell Daddy."

And with that, the two cubs hopped off the log, and ran quickly home; making sure they beat the new lionesses to Pride Rock. Dumaka was already back at Pride Rock. Kiara let out a sigh of relief when the two cubs returned.

"Where have you been?" She asked as Kovu, Simba and Nala approached.

The cubs told their story, leaving out the part about the mouse. They told the others about the strange lions approaching Pride Rock, and about the cubs. Simba and Kovu exchanged curious looks. They decided a curious welcome was in order. If the lionesses were traveling with cubs they were probably peaceful.

And so the pride went off Pride rock, meeting up with the pride of lionesses approaching the rock. The lead female, a darker colored lioness with eyes of gold, bowed her head when Simba approached.

"My name is Zahra, My Lord." She said gently. She could sense that the pride was friendly, a welcoming clan. Perhaps they would find refuge here. "We come from the west, the presence of man brought fire to our land. Half of our pride was destroyed, our king died with them. We are looking for refuge until my son, Ayo, comes of age. Then we can return with him as our king. We are proud, you see, Sire. We do not want to be taken over by a rogue, we want my husbands legacy to live on."

"I'm sorry to hear about what happened." Simba said, nodding slightly. "You and your cubs are welcome here, until he is older and then you must leave."

Zahra nodded, she understood this. There could be no other males in the pride unless they were the offspring of the royal pair. All prides were this way, and she respected it. "Thank you, M'lord. We will serve you well. We are good huntresses, we have been alone for a while, and we have surprised. We will be very useful, I can promise that."

Simba was slightly taken back by how submissive the females were. But some prides were much more reformed than others. He smiled and nodded. "Alright, I accept your service. But please, call me Simba."

"I am here with Lulu, her daughters Zalika and Ada, Tenesha, and my son Ayo." She said, pointing to all of the members of her pride individually.

Dumaka, Dalia and Amadi looked at the new cubs Salika, Ada and Ayo. They had never been around cubs outside of the pride. Dumaka and Dalia were excited. Amadi just saw this as more people he would not fit in with.

Simba took time introducing the pride, Nala, Sarabi, Kiara, Kovu and the three cubs. Amadi saw Zahra's eyes rest on him; he did not understand why. Was it because he was not what she would expect from a king to be? That's what everyone else thought, so why not them? Simba eventually finished off introductions, then guided everyone back to pride rock.

The new cubs showed hesitation when it came to meeting Amadi, Dumaka and Dalia. But Dalia quickly broke the ice, happy to see some girl cubs. "Hi!" She said with excitement, walking right up to them. "I'm Dalia!"

The cubs shyly smiled. "I'm Ada." The smallest of the lion cubs said. She was a yellowing color, with orange eyes.

"I am Zalika." A older, slender cub said. She was a reddish brown color with the most stunning blue eyes. "I'm the oldest!"

"Hardly! Only by a few months." The little male said with a chuckle. He was also a larger cub, his mane a bit more full than Dumaka's. "I'm Ayo. Nice to meet you guys."

Dumaka naturally felt the need to show off in front of the larger, new male. "I'm Dumaka, but you guys can call me Du." He said, holding his head up and chest out.

Ayo thought it was a little weird that the younger brother showed so much pride. "What about him?" Ayo asked, looking at Amadi who had not approached the new cubs with his siblings.

"That's Amadi." Dumaka said, his tone a bit off as he rolled his eyes. "Just ignore him, he's a bit weird. He couldn't even be bothered to come say hi."

Amadi shot a glare at his brother, then stood up and walked over. He had had enough of this. "I'm Amadi. And I'm the future king, though my jerk of a brother likes to forget that." He smiled at the new cubs, then shot Dumaka a glare who was quite surprised by the sudden, and unusual outburst, then looked Ayo in the eye. But he didn't hold his proud form for that long after that. He let his stance fall, and he went back to his usual passive self. His eyes dodged away from the other male cub. "Sorry…I..I'm usually not like that."

"Yea, now that's the pussy-cat of a brother I know." Dumaka said, rolling his eyes, pushing past Amadi. "What do you guys like to do for fun?"

The cubs started making plans about what games they would play, mean while Amadi slinked outside to sit on the point of Pride Rock. The cubs eventually bounded out of Pride Rock, all but Ayo completely ran past Amadi to go play.

"Hey. You know, the way you stood up to your brother was really cool. You shoulda seen his face." He said, noticing the younger cub seemed a bit depressed and was determined to cheer him up.

Amadi looked up at him, nervous at first, but then he smiled. "Really?" He asked, his voice rising from the encouraging words.

"Oh yea! He totally didn't expect it." He said with a laugh, playfully swatting at Amadi. "How about you and I go play? We'll let the others do their own thing. Besides, us future kings best stick together!"

Amadi smiled and stood up, not standing nearly as tall as the older cub. Amadi was taken by the kindness; he felt like friendship was instant with this new cub. Giggling, he jumped into a sprint, racing off the rock. "Race ya!"

Ayo laughed and ran after him. "Your on!"