Alright : Next chapter! I think at the end of this, we will be at the halfway mark.


Chapter 8: changes

The next day arrived in the 'dawn of a great and glorious future' and the still young lion cub Nala woke up from her sleep. The events of the last night were still a huge blur. With dreamy eyes, she glanced around the cave and found the spot in the middle of it which was reserved for the king and queen of the pride lands. But much to her disappointment, it was empty. Usually, the royal family would have stayed in that place until the rest of the pride had awakened. But not today.

It was true that king Mufasa and prince Simba had had passed away. Nala once again reached out to seek the comfort of her mother. But instead she found a small head which she was leaning against. The cub turned its head and looked straight into the orange tinted fur of her friend Tama, who had snuggled up to her mother Subira. For a split second, her mind went crazy on her and she panicked. Did mom die too? But that was just a silly thought. She remembered that Sarafina had gone to rest together with her daughter last night. And Nala remembered Ni joining them later on while she pretended to be asleep. Maybe she's outside having one of her recent moods again. She yawned and moved to her feet.

Usually, her first action was to go get to Simba and wake him up from his sleep in the most annoying way. But that was not going to happen anymore. With leaned on ears, she padded over to where she spotted Kula and Chumvi had settled down side by side while they were surrounded by various lionesses. There was nothing to do with either one of them since they were fast asleep. Might as well check on mom and Ni! And so, with quick but silent and careful steps, the cream cub moved out of the cave and now stared into the distance where the sun was dawning far away. To her surprise, the pride lands seemed rather noisy for this state of the day.

And it was in that moment that she realized the second horrible thing that happened last night. The hyenas had entered the pride lands. They had settled down all around pride rock as they too were still slumbering. If Nala would get caught out here alone, she would be dead on the spot with her pride only realizing the situation when it was already too late. For a split second, she thought about going back inside and wait for the missing adults to come back to the huge rock formation. But then she spotted two lions walking as careful as possible back into her direction. Still cautious but determined, Nala ran down the path leading into the direction of the elder lions. She couldn't just scream out to them through the jungle of grey bodies which lay spread all over the place.

By now she could make out who the two lions were even though in that moment they had there backs turned towards her. Nala was certain that it were indeed her mother and the former queen Sarabi. She sprinted the last few meters and quickly got in contact with her mothers right back leg and nuzzled it gently but intense.

"NALA! What in the great kings name are you doing out here this early?" She said half yelling and half being completely taken aback. This was something she could not poke up with in this moment. Not in her condition and after the events of last night.

"I… I got scared. You haven't been around this morning. And then there were all these hyenas and… I… I just wanted to find you!" She mumbled not really that sure if her mother was upset or not.

Sarafina gave her a nudge with her nose and got down on the same level as her daughter. "Promise me one thing Nala. Never ever run off like that without being guarded by somebody else with you when I'm not around. And that goes double at this early when nobody else is awake or with you. With all this hyenas around, you have to tell at least somebody where you are going." The lioness said with concern.

The cream cub sobbed a little. "Sorry for running out like that again."

Sarabi and her friend were surprised by the sudden apology and sobbing that had won the cub in front of them over. Sarafinas tone may have been a bit harsh towards her daughter and she pulled Nala closer with her paw and padded her back. "It's alright sweetie!"

Nalas eyes then wandered over both of the older lionesses as she realized something and opened her muzzle. "Where's Ni?"


Simba had been wandering around for the whole night, escaping from the hyenas, his feelings of guilt and his past. Everywhere, the golden furred cub looked at; he saw nothing else but sand and dust in a barren wasteland. The accident with the stampede of wildebeests and the chase the hyenas gave him afterwards had driven him all way to the borders of the pride lands. After what Scar had told him and what was possibly waiting for him back at home, he decided it was the best to choice to leave his former kingdom forever.

What will your mother think? It wandered through his mind. Since he left Scar, he did not really think about what his friends and family would say about him causing his Mufasas death. But since the sadness of his father not being there for him anymore was making room these feelings. He started to think. It was all due to him trying to act kingly, brave and cocky once more. I'm so disappointed in you Simba, what has your father ever done to be betrayed by you like this. Did you learn nothing from the thing with the elephant graveyard? You are no longer my son. His heart was empty as he ran through the various versions of how Sarabi would react.

He was then pulled back to the first day; he got shown around the pride and the other cubs. He remembered when he approached Tojo and Chumvi for the first time. He remembered how the prince was rejected from them because he played the king card and being an arrogant cub.

Simba could hear the two male cubs giving him statements like… you had to play the king again. We told you once how you should keep it low if you wanted to stay out of trouble. How do you expect us to follow you as king since you caused Mufasa to die? His thoughts then came to Tama. I knew one day you would do something stupid. But I never expected you to kill our king and leader. How could you?

And then there was Nala! His best friend, or rather said, former best friend. How could there be any way for them to trust ever each other again. She was supposed to be his wife later on. They were supposed to be king and queen. But none of that was going to happen anymore. They would never see each other again. And in a strange way, he was glad that he didn't have to hear her version of the reproaches she was shooting at him. He didn't even want to think about it.

And so, Simba kept going through this endless land of sand and dust.

As long as it was night, the exiled prince made really good progress. But now that the sun was filling the land with her light, the heat was constantly slowing him down. Since he escaped the hyenas, he hadn't come across anybody. No animals crossed or tangled his path. Simba found himself in the middle of the desert. The wind blew the sand all through the air. The sand was getting into his fur and his eyes, making him barely able to see. His steps got shorter and shorter. And then… he tumbled and dropped to the ground exhausted.

If it hadn't been clear to him by now, it sure was after he fell. He was all alone and by himself.

But as miserable as he felt at this point, he was far from giving up and lay down for good. Simba pushed himself back onto his feet and continued. In what direction he was going, he had no idea. But at least, he wanted to get away as far as possible from his former home.


The pride had finally awoken. It was then when the new king Scar had given his first order as leader of the pride. Since there were so much more muzzles to feed because of the arrival of the hyenas, he ordered the lionesses to go hunting right from the start of the day. The only ones which Scar kept staying back at pride rock were Sarabi and Sarafina. It wouldn't be a wise move to have the former queen put in her place from the beginning. The pride was still loyal to her and the red/brown lion wasn't able to gain their full trust. Even with the hyenas on his side, a rebellion could mean the end of his fresh gained leadership.

And then there was Sarafina, having her go on a hunt in her stage and just one night after he shattered her life once more. Sarabi would have gone full force hatred on him, which again could have ended in a rebellion. Plus, even he didn't want to admit, she still held a soft spot in his heart going back into their cub hood. Of course, Scar was never going to announce that in the open. And of course, Ni had told her of their conversation the other night. There was no chance of getting something out from the cream lioness.

Right now the king rested inside his den and had lain down on his stomach. For the first time in his life, Scar felt satisfied and at peace. That was until he sensed the appearance of a shadow blocking the light of the sun shining on him. The new king opened his eyes and glanced into the face of his partner in crime. Zira!

"What is it?" He asked emotionless.

The tarnish brown lioness smirked and settled herself right beside the red/brown lion on the ground. Right away, the king moved a few inches back in tiny annoyance as both their furs came in contact. "Since I didn't have the chance to congratulate you last night, I want to do it right now." She answered and closed her eyes while resting her head on his shoulder.

Scar did not wait for her to get comfortable and right away went to his feet. "Thanks!" he said cold. He understood the signals which Zira was sending towards him. But he never spend time to react or even give back some of it. Yet, the lioness was a worthy and reliable follower and partner. "If you came to my chamber just to seduce me, I don't have time for that now. Is there something else you want to say or do?"

Zira sat back up and looked into the direction of the mouth of the den with disappointment and slight anger. She better change the subject to not upset the male. "I notice that the pride acted very reserved towards you last night. The same happened This morning. I fear them to not accept you as their new king. We need to discipline them as quickly as possible."

A few feet away from her, the male lion rolled his eyes. "I have only assumed the throne for one night. And already you are paranoid with them overthrowing me!" Even though, he had the same thoughts just a few minutes ago, he knew than to not push the pride into a position where they were pushed against a wall. Not in this stage. "Once again my dear, handle these things with ease. Just going out there and have them pay for any wrong move is not going to tame them. We have to be patient and careful to break their bond."

Suddenly, both of them could her growling and rumbling in the distance and Scar walked up to the opening. In the distance he spotted a beige furred cub yelling towards a dark brown one with bared teeth and extended claws. His eyes settled on the behaviour of the cub and smirked viciously. "I think I just had an idea." With determination and enthusiasm, he padded out of the den into the opening.

"Where are you going?" Zira called after him.

"I'm having a little chat!" Scar said without looking back at her as he wandered with fast paced steps over the pride lands.


At this point, Simba was worn down by the heat of the sun, the sand been blown into his face and eyes, and the fact that he couldn't count how many hours he had been out here without anything to drink or to eat. The only thing positive about his situation in that moment was that the sandy ground had been replaced with dried out and porous earth. At least he didn't have to worry about tumbling and falling down by every step he took. But other than that, there was nothing left in him.

From out of nowhere, the former prince could feel the light and heat coming from the sun vanishing as he felt a shadow laying over him. Simba glanced up and saw a black vulture circling above him in the air. That's encouraging! He thought. The cub was surprised for the small amount of sarcasm that escaped his mind for a second. But that vanquished when he spotted a second vulture landing just a few feet away from him. Of course, Simba knew that the black feathered bird were scavengers and would never go out and hunt a living animal, not to say a lion cub. Yet these birds had a sense of dying meat and that was what made the golden furred cub even more nervous.

"Goin' somewhere?"

The young lion heard a voice asking but did not have the strength to look in the direction where it came from. "Not really!" He answered weak and defeated.

"Now that's great. Cause it'd be better for ya' to just lay down let us do the work." One of the vultures said and smiled only to make his appearance even uglier. Simba ignored him but the black feathered bird continued. "Y'know! Things are not lookin' good for ya'!"

Simba growled weakly. "Go away!" He came back blandly.

The single vulture landed and stepped right beside him and put one wing on the lions shoulder. "Ya' might as well give up kid, we gonna' eat ya' anyway!" Within seconds, the bird was accompanied by three other vultures. "Great ya' could join us Marvin!" He greeted one of his friends who landed right beside him.

"Glad to be here Larry!" He answered.

In the middle of them, Simba stood dead in his tracks. Are these guys nuts? He asked as he glanced around. At this point, he was unable to tell if he should be frightened or not.

"Well… as we set up the 9th round. We have to take a look at our contender here Marv. What do you make of it?" The first one said, or rather asked the one called Marv while he shifted his head from glancing towards the lion and his buddy in exchange.

"To be honest with you Larry, he doesn't look that good to me. These past minutes sure had him in the ropes. I think at this moment, it's just a question of will and determination. But it's gonna take a lot of motivation from his corner to get back into the game." Marv replied with a light voice. Simba had never heard animals talk this way. And by god was it annoying.

Larry turned his back towards the golden furred cub. "Do ya' think, he still got a chance in this?"

"Well only if he changes his way of play. The way he's doing right now, he doesn't stand a chance."

At this moment, another vulture joined the scene and padded right away towards Simba and greeted him with a smile. The cub glanced at her with blurry eyes and noticed that this one seemed to be a female. "Are you ready?" She said and padded Simba on the back.

"For what?" Simba grunted through an immense pain coming from his head due to all the chattering and yelling from the ugly looking vultures.

"Ah… I see that Sue is ready for a ringside interview… Sue?"

"Right you are Larry! I'm here with your number one contender and I must tell you these past minutes have really chewed on his endurance. But anyway, how are you willing to proceed." That did it. With a quick swing from his right paw, Simba lunged at the female bird to knock the grin out of her beak. He was definitely not willing to have these creatures mock him like this. Not now.

"Leave me alone!" He snapped at them.

The female vulture called Sue spread her wings and leaped into the air as she avoided being hit by the claws of the young lion. Right away the others did the same and flew into their position circling the golden cub from above. Simba felt relieved to get rid of them for the moment. But how long would it last? The outburst had caused him to invest a lot from the left over energy. For a short moment, he lost his balance and fell to the ground. He landed on his side but had his eyes sided into the distance.

Suddenly, the cub spotted a dark spot emerging in the distance and getting bigger and bigger. The blur which was created by the uprising heat, made it hard for him to see who it was. Judging by the silhouette, he soon was sure that it was a lion which was padding towards him. Simba rubbed his eyes to see if he wasn't dreaming or hallucinating. But he was sure by now that it was a lion… no… a lioness.

As the figure came closer, its colour changed slowly from black to cream. Simba glanced up and his eyes and mouth opened wide as he realized who was staring at him. "Nala?" He gasped out of breath.

"Get up!" She said cold. Her voice was blurry, almost unreal.

"I can't… everything hurts." The former prince muttered while glancing towards the ground.

"Please… we need you… I need you!"

"Nobody needs me." He turned his head away once more. Even though, he didn't look at his best friend, he could feel the disappointment written in her face.

"Than I suppose… you really killed your father!"

In an instant, Simba gazed back up and stared into her direction. But nobody was there. It was a hallucination after all, except for the part about him killing his father. Worn out from the past hours, and the guilt that still filled him, Simba dropped even more to the ground. Exhausted, he closed his eyes and immediately lost his conscious.


What made the king of the pride lands so special? For starters it was the position of being king of a rich and grassy country which showed a great variation of vegetations and landscapes. Then there was the rather unusual constellation of lions living in the pride lands. While the king and his pride lived close to pride rock, there a whole of three other prides of lions living inside the kingdom. All of them had their own leader who for his part was still taking orders from the king at pride rock. Yet it was rare that all prides lived a rather independent live and meetings with having all pridelanders participating being unusual.

The news of king Mufasa dying filled the prides with great sorrow. Nearly all of them held their special mourns and blessings to the kings' family and pride. Yet the news of the hyenas now inhabiting the kingdom was a huge shock. They all had their own incidents with the grey animals invading their kingdom before. But they had been driven out by king Mufasa and the other pride leaders. But now, the hyenas had fair game of wandering around the pride lands and causing all sorts of trouble inside the borders.

But for now, life went its way and the pride living at the giant rock formation which was called the castle dealt with the new circumstances. It was a surprise to all of them that there had been no memorable incidents between the lions and hyenas during the first weeks of Scars reign. The situation was so relaxed that the lionesses could afford to have their cubs playing on their own again away from pride rock. It was a chance which Nala, Chumvi and the others took gladly.

The group decided to run down the waterhole to have a little relaxing time along and inside the cooling liquid, a measure that was needed. It hadn't rained in the pride lands for the last weeks, something which was unusual, especially in this time of the year. But right now, the cubs didn't think about that and instead enjoyed their time.

In that moment, Tojo and Chumvi were once again enjoying a little match they held at the edge of the waterhole. The dark brown cub had his male companion pressed his friend to the ground with his paws as the ochre cub was half inside the water. Both were watched by Kula, Nala and Tama who had settled down on a small boulder right aside. All of the cubs had grown immensely since they were born. It was kind of funny to see the females trying to find their usual spot on the boulder and notice how the space up there had gotten rather rare.

In that moment, Nala had directed her nose towards the sky. Normally she would have enjoyed a little breeze of wind which was streaming across the landscape. But even that was different by now; another thing that wasn't the same anymore.

"What's wrong?"

She heard Tama asking right beside her and turned her head towards the tarnish/orange cub. "Everything is different now. The grass, the air, ever since Simba died the pride lands are changing. Mom is acting even more strangely since she broke the news of our family getting bigger. There is so much going on, it… it kinda scares me." The cream cub closed her eyes and rested her head on her paws.

"I know!" Tama said and tried to comfort her. Of course she noticed her friend being rather depressed for the last weeks. She too felt a little hole inside her. But since the two young males were back to their playful selves, she decided to do her best to bring Nala back into to having fun. "But you know what Nala; let's just have some fun for today." She said and blinked with one of her eyes as she got up from the boulder. With quick but quiet paws, the female walked up to Chumvi and Tojo keeping her body low to not be seen by them. On the last second, Tama leaped up and slammed into both of them, sending them rolling to the side and falling into the water with their full bodies.

Tama and Kula both burst out in laughter and fell onto their backs. Nala on the other side smiled with closed eyes and shook her head in amusement. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The cream female thought and giggled.

"HEY YOU!" A voice interrupted the newfound joy. "Why do have to pollute the waterhole like that. We wanted to take a swim in it."

The lion cubs turned their heads to the side and glanced into the direction of a bunch of hyenas coming down around the boulder. They were not full grown, more adolescent, but they were still about a head taller than any of the lions. Kula immediately jumped down from her position and lined down with the others.

There were all around three hyenas, all of them were males and had cocky and arrogant gazes on their faces. They were gathered in a line and glanced down at the lions while they growled and mocked them. He tension in the air could be felt by anybody was walking by the scene. While neither of the cubs showed no fear, they of course were unsure of how to handle these three newcomers.

Nala stepped up in front of her lion friends and faced the new arrivals with angry eyes. "What do YOU mean polluting the waterhole?" She said and went into a fighting stance. She had encountered hyenas being kind of 'rude' a few times over the last weeks. And she had enough of falling back or have the adults get into the battles. She felt that it was time to act.

On the other side of the front lines, the hyena in the middle who seemed to be the leader of the group also made a few steps to the front until he was only a few inches away from the cream lion cubs' nose. Both animals looked deep into their eyes while the rest stayed behind and observed the other party. "You heard me! We call this our waterhole now. You little kids can go play your stupid games somewhere else." He answered in a mocking voice while grinning confident at the cream furred cub.

"We lived here first. You can't just walk in here and claim this place to be yours. Besides… there is enough room for all of us." It came from Tojo from the back. The ochre cub walked up with bared teeth and stood now right beside Nala.

The adolescent hyena was joined by his companions and all three of them tried to stare down both of them. Now it was Chumvis time to go in front and to position himself in line. "Telling us that WE pollute the water. That's really funny coming from you." The dark brown cub responded with a mix of confidence and joke in his voice. Ever since Chumvi had his first encounter with one of the grey coloured animals, he despised them with everything. He and his mother were talking a walk around the southern fields as one female jumped out of the bush and attacked him viciously. His mother fought her off but was having problems with walking for days. Chumvi never forgot that.

"The way I see it you can both run off and go back to your mothers, or you stay and we tear you apart." Another of the hyenas threatened them. His voice was deep and booming yet he looked rather tiny in his statue. He stood on the right side of the 'leader' of the trio.

"That something I would like to see." Again the groups were interrupted by another newcomer. All of them looked up and found the scarred pale cream coloured cub Mwehu jumping right in the middle of the two parties. He had placed himself right in front of Nala and Chumvi and held an emotionless expression. "I would really love to see you touch one of them… and then get ripped into little pieces by the rest of the pride. That'd be hilarious!" He called and moved his neck to make cracking noises appear from it.

"Uhm… Hello! Can I help you with something?" The last hyena that hadn't taken the word yet spoke up with a cocky smile.

"Yeah! Thirst thing you can do is go DIE and save me the trouble!"

"Oh, oh is this really happening? Cause I really hope it is!"

Both, the hyena and the older lion cub walked one more step closer. "Oh trust me; you don't want any of what I am right now!" Mwehu too was nearly a head shorter.

"Then come on! Bring all four feet of you! Should I count your stupid hair?" The hyena said looking at the little brown Mohawk that had started to appear on the cubs head.

"Pretty big talk, coming from a quadruped baboon!"

"Big talk, coming form a quadruped wussy!"

Mwehu and the hyena glanced at each other for about a second before the lion cub broke the silence. "Oh hoho-ho… I always knew that your species was kinda weird but, I never thought you were living dangerous." He answered with a vicious growl and changed his face from sarcastic and smirking to angry and bloodthirsty. The two animals brought out their claws and started to circle around each other.

The leader of the trio stepped in and lowered his head towards the lions. "I don't know where you got this guy, but you better tell him who's living dangerous here." He threatened. All of them never let their eyes of the newcomer while Nala and Tama stepped beside Mwehu.

"Ahem!" A coughing sound came from behind the grey animals and made them slowly turn around. All three of them let their muzzles drop down as they glanced into the face of a full grown lioness. Her fur was golden coloured with a pale underbelly. While she held a friendly smile on her muzzle, the adolescent hyenas knew right away that she was not here to greet them with politeness, "Is there a problem here?" She asked calm and relaxed.

Having an adult lioness around here, could mean a lot of trouble for the trio. Up to this point, they did not manage to memorize all the pride members. Which made them unsure of this lioness being part of Scars pride or not. Standing up to her and getting into a fight with a full grown lioness could get ugly and would have the rest of the pride being on alert and coming to her aid in seconds. And that would not end well for the hyenas. And then there were all these cubs that were ready to take a stand on them. "No! Not at all!" The leader said and with a quick growl towards Mwehu, they trotted away back into the direction of pride rock.

"Are you little ones okay?" The lioness asked with a concerned smile as she addressed Mwehu and the others.

Mwehu glanced after them disappointed. "Not really, I was looking forward to tearing them to shreds." The pale cream cub retorted cold as he growled and let his head hang frustrated.

"Oh my gosh! And I thought I was often getting into things way above my head." Two cubs appeared from behind the lioness and grinned towards the group. The first one was a male with a pale orange fur, a black hair tuft was crowning on his head as well as tufts of hair hanging on his ears. His expression was joyful and confident. The other one was female with a pale golden fur and blue eyes. Unlike the male, her face was filled with reserve and care as she stayed behind the male.

"MALKA!" Nala called out and darted forward jumping at the newest newcomer. Both fell into a friendly embrace as they rolled on the floor.

The lioness, which appeared to be Malkas mother, smiled happily at them and turned to the side. "I see you recognize each other; I think I'll go to pride rock to meet the rest. See you then you two!" She said and left the cubs alone beside the waterhole.

In the meantime, Nala had let go of her new friend and both of them got back onto their feet. They turned towards the rest of the group who had gathered in a half circle around them. "Well, let me introduce you to the rest of the gang. You've already met Tojo!" Nala said with her paw pointing at the ochre cub with blue eyes.

"What's up Jo-Jo!" The one called Malka greeted him with a wave of a paw which was answered by a quick "Malka!"

Then Nala continued. "Well, the dark brown chubby one over here…" She giggled a little as she said that. "… is Chumvi. Then we have Kula over here, the next one is Tama." One by one, she introduced each one of her friends to the newcomer. They all greeted back and Nala turned her head in the direction of Mwehu who was still in a fighting stance. "And over there we have…"

"None of your business!" The scarred cub snapped in his typical manner and gritted his teeth.

If they hadn't witnessed this behaviour for so many times, the cubs would be baffled at this point. Just a few seconds ago, the pale cream cub was about to stand up to a bunch of adolescent hyenas alongside with them. And in the next moment he changed back to being his usual prick type. Tojo and Chumvi were about to say something when Malka walked in front of them. "Nice to meet you 'none of your business'!" He answered dry.

For a split second, Mwehu was a bit taken aback at the comeback. But he quickly recovered. And with slow steps, he padded up to the new cub standing in front of him. "I've never seen you around here before! Might as well tell me who you are!" He replied still cold and but provocative.

Malka put on a cocky smile. "How about… no!"

"Uhm… Malka… you bet-." Nala and Tojo mumbled as they could already see both of them being all over each other with their claws. Both had seen the cub Malka being in action before. Their paths crossed a few days after she and Simba had become friends. Back then, Malka was about to get into the same kind of trouble as Mwehu did moments ago. She knew how he would react to threats and how he would call out the same.

But the pale orange furred cub put up a paw to silence them. "I mean I would… but I'm to busy staying out of 'your business."

Mwehu narrowed his eyes and a frown appeared on his muzzle. "Looks like we found ourselves a comedian." He mocked Malka with and shifted the weight on his paws from left to right and back.

The other cub of the arguing duo stayed calm and relaxed. "Well- In the pride where I come from, they call me 'the joker'."

"The joker? I would prefer to call you 'the joke', that'd be more appropriate!"

The other cubs were about to intervene seeing as both Malka and Mwehu had gone into striking distance. "Since we are now on the name giving game and I doubt you wanna tell me your real name, I think I'm gonna call you 'the cicatrizer'." The scene dropped dead immediately as Nala and the rest just waited for the volcano to erupt.

"You talk the talk. Can you walk the walk?" Mwehu answered with a complete shift in his tone. They were now only inches away from each other.

Malka put up a smirk on the right side of his muzzle. "Oh I talk, I walk… and I dance!"

"You should know better not to dance with me. Ask bird-boy over there."

"Jo-jo?" Yeah he is definitely NOT a dancer!" The pale orange cub replied as he winked into Tojos direction. The ochre cub frowned at the scene but kept his muzzle shut.

For quiet a full minute, neither Malka nor Mwehu took their eyes of each other, and then… Mwehu smirked and looked at the crowd of cubs as he raised his paw and pointed on the orange furred cub. "I like that guy, where did you hide him al this time? He's the first of you who can take the heat." He said and smashed his paw on Malkas left shoulder before he patted over and dropped right beside the waterhole.

The others were taken completely taken aback at how the scarred cub acted out of the sudden and how relaxed he was as he laid down right beside the rest of them.

It took a while before Tama and Nala decided to join him and the group settled themselves in a circle. Malka sat down right beside the cream furred female. All of them now glanced at the other female cub Malka brought with him. With all the hectic, they had totally forgotten of her. "Now finally. Guys this is my sister Sabini. My mother, she and I will now live beside pride rock from now on." Malka said as he put an arm around his sister.

"Hi!" She said shyly.

"What about your old pride? What happened to them?" Nala asked concerned seeing how the orange furred male had gone completely serious.

Sabini sobbed a little while Malka comforted her. "They, they left. Once they had heard of the hyenas wandering around the pride lands and the king being okay with it. They started to look for other lands they could settle down. Our mother decided to stay here… in OUR home." Just like a lot of the pridelanders, he held a grudge against the hyenas. "So… here we are. It's kinda weird how everything has changed since…" He didn't want to finish the sentence as each one of the other at once noticed what he was going to say.

Mwehu rolled his eyes without anyone notice before his gaze fell on Sabini. The pale golden female was glancing all over his body with wonder in her eyes. "What are you looking at?" He asked sharp and the female cub shrugged a little.

At once, Malka and Tojo were on alert and darted their eyes on the scarred cub. But Sabini found back her ease and continued. "Where did you get that?" She asked and pointed at the three marks that ran over Mwehus right cheek.

"Something that's…" He was about to yell another threat towards the much younger female. Argh… forget it. For once, just shut your damn mouth and keep it down. "Ach… it's just a present from someone I'm looking forward to meet in the future." He said while he rested his head on his front legs.

In that moment, a load roar emerged from pride rock and the cubs' head shook up immediately. It was once again the sign for them to return to the huge boulder. All of them got to their feet and marched off. Well except for Mwehu who padded back into the direction where Rafikis tree was standing. The way back to pride rock wasn't that long and the group of lion cubs soon stood at the merge of the kings' castle. Tojo and Malka got into a little race of who could get to the den first. Ironically, they all got beaten by Nala who stuck her head into the den first. But as she was about to enter.

"AAAAAAH!" That was her mother screaming at the top of her lungs. Immediately Nala shrug together in horror and darted right towards Sarafina. But she didn't get far as she was picked by the muzzle of Sarabi who carried her under protest out of the den.

"Come on my dear Nala! Subira, take the cubs away." The former queen ordered Tamas mother nudged the group to the side.

Sarabi dropped the cream female cub on the ground as she continued to protest "What's with her, what is going on?" She asked in panic. The beige lioness shoved her forward with her paw.

"You're mother is alright Nala, now is just not a good time to be with her. Come, sleep by me tonight." She continued to shove her forward as Nala took a last quick glance inside. The only thing she noticed was Rafiki standing inside and pressing his hand on her belly.


Authors note: once again credits go out to teamfourstar and dragonball Z abridged for giving the original dialog between Mwehu and the hyenas.

The vulture scene came from the blu-ray audio commentary of the lion king where the directors talked about having the vultures appear as characters as sort of jiddish and kinda radio moderator type. I liked the idea and found it really funny. So I tried to make it like a boxing/WWE broadcast type of situation.

The scene between Malka and Mwehu was inspired by a scene from Full Metal Jacket between Matthew Modine (Joker) and Adam Baldwin (Animal mother). Tell me what you think about those two scenes