Sarafina opened her eyes and looked down her chest. Spikes were all tangled up in her fur and some even poked into her skin a little. She twisted her body and saw that all the way down both her sides looked very similar to her chest. She was in pain, but she knew it could have been much worse. She knew she was lucky, but what about Simba?

"Simba," she called, turning back around. He was lying there on the floor right in front of her. He looked frightened and concerned, but he hadn't gotten as tangled up in thorns as what Sarafina had. In fact, there were hardly any spikes tangled in his fur at all. Sarafina let out a sign of relief. "Simba, you're okay."

"I am?" asked Simba, looking over himself just as Sarafina had done. "I am!" he exclaimed, getting up to his feet. "Heh, and you thought you could get me to take a bath…"

Sarafina became slightly worried. "Simba…please don't…" but she couldn't stop him. Simba began to run away…but he only made it about two steps before he realized that he was in more pain than he had realized. He collapsed to the floor and screamed.

"Simba, are you okay?" Sarafina asked, worried. She was able to answer that herself quickly, however. In each of his four paws she could see four tiny thorns, making his feet hurt when he tried to walk on them. "It's okay, Simba," Sarafina added, getting to her feet. It hurt when she walked too, but she knew that she would be able to cope better with it than Simba could at his age. "You just have some thorns in your feet. I'll get them out."

"Thanks," replied Simba. Sarafina could tell by his voice though that he was still in pain.

"This may hurt a little, close your eyes," she advised, as she placed one of her paws hard down on his leg. Simba did as told, and then Sarafina got another one of her front paws and pulled the small thorn out. "That's one," she said as she heard Simba sniff and whimper. She then did the same on his second front leg. "That's two." Then the first of his back paws. "That's three." And then his last paw. "And that's all of them." Simba sniffed and whimpered for the final time.

"That's it?" he asked.

"That's it," replied Sarafina calmly.

Simba sniffed. "Thanks." Suddenly, he felt something warm, rough, and slightly wet slide over his back. Sarafina was giving him a bath. He began to get to his feet to run away again, but Sarafina already had one of her legs draped over his back and pushing him down, to prevent him for doing so.

Sarafina finished one of her licks and smiled. "I pulled those thorns out of you, Simba. I ought to get some reward for that."

Simba groaned, knowing that there was no longer any chance of escape.

"What happened to you two?" came a voice from behind them.

Simba lifted his head up and looked over to see his mom standing next to his best friend.

"Hi Mom! Hi Nala!"

"I'm not your mom, Simba," stated Sarabi. "You should call Sarafina 'Mom' for the day."

Sarafina finished another one of her licks on the cub and then turned to face the two visitors too.

"I finally got your cub to take a bath, Sarabi," she told her, pleased with her accomplishment.

"That doesn't surprise me. Simba usually hates baths from lionesses, not porcupines."

Nala giggled.

Sarafina rolled her eyes. "I may have…fallen into the brambles." She then looked back at Sarabi and continued: "Look who can talk though, Mrs. Hyena."

"Hyena?"

"Yeah. Your face is all black and the rest of your coat in covered in splotches. How'd you manage that?"

Sarabi shoved Nala forwards towards Sarafina and Simba.

"Maybe she can give you an answer," said Sarabi.

Sarafina looked down at her wide-grinning daughter, but then looked back at Sarabi.

"So my daughter really is hard to handle after all."

"Mom?" asked Nala.

"I wouldn't say that, Sarafina. Overall it's been a lovely day."

"It has," confirmed Nala.

"Mom! Why do you agree with Nala? You're saying she's better behaved than me?" asked Simba.

"Yup!" replied Nala for Sarabi.

"Don't worry Simba, I don't think that. Sarabi is a stricter of a parent than I am," said Sarafina.

"And look where that philosophy got you," replied Sarabi, walking behind her and pulling out a handful of thorns from her rump.

Sarafina winced in pain. "Ow…Sarabi…please…not so hard…"

"Face it Saffy, you can't handle Simba. You're not used to dealing with his level of misbehavior."

"Here! Here!" shouted Nala.

"Says Mrs. Hyena!" shouted Sarafina back at Sarabi. "Nala misbehaves too, I just don't punish them as much as you do."

"She's less strict," Simba rephrased.

Nala ran up to Sarabi and stood between her legs.

"Come on, Mom," she said to Sarabi, something that surprised Sarafina a little bit, "I've thought of something else we can do. And we can prove these guys wrong. I'm going to be well-behaved for the rest of the day, and when you get me back to Aunt Sarafina I'll be spotlessly clean!"

Sarafina suddenly remembered that part of the bet, and looked back down at Simba to remind herself of how well his bath had been going. She'd done well on his back. Now she just needed him to roll over.

"Simba, roll over please," she said.

"What?"

"Roll over."

"Why?"

"I need to wash your belly."

"Uh…no."

Sarabi smirked.

"Come on, Simba. We've got to get you cleaned if we're going to prove those two wrong."

"No we don't. If I'm a mess then that proves that you're just not strict enough to stop me from getting dirty."

Sarafina got cross and now placed her two front paws on Simba's sides, and she tried to turn the cub over herself. Simba squirmed and was able to break free. He began to run away back in the direction in which he and Sarafina had come. Sarafina began to chase after him…but only got two steps before she realized that there was a problem.

"Uh…Sarabi…" she addressed, turning to face her. She lifted her paw up and let the queen see the thorn in her paw, "could I hire your expertise again, please?"

(A/N: Don't worry. The two cubs will get some play time together later in the story. Review please! Expect Chapter 9 up later in the week. Happy July 4th!)