Chapter 3: A new life
The next day, at the temple where Kovu and Mamlaka raced each other and left the statue of Scar noseless, Mamlaka was standing on Scar's nose overseeing the slaves work to remove the sand and clear the ground for the main entrance of the temple, standing beside him were the hyena priests, Shenzi, Banzai and Ed. "Last night, the gods granted me a vision, not only i will make this temple bigger and grander. But also far more magnificent than others in our Kingdom." As Mamlaka continues his presentation about how he will make this temple superior Kovu was walking into the temple, he cringed at the sight of slaveries. He saw an elderly lion was bearring a sack of sands down the mount, the elderly lion was looking at Kovu, and the prince was speechlessly horrified at the slave's eyes. They were all tired, but still they work, they work hard because there was nothing else they can do. But still Kovu couldn't resist the feeling that they were waiting for him to join them, to admit that he is one of them. "Kovu! It seems that our little misadventure has granted us an opportunity. Here we'll cover the..." As Kovu's older brother discuss construction plan with him, the brown lion heard something, he turns around to see the source of the sound and saw a hyena task master was forcing Vitani to be his servant.
"Come now girl. Be my servant a higher position than here in the stones and bricks!" The hyena said as he continously pulling Vitani away from her work place, while her older brother Nuka was trying to hold her back. "No please don't! She is needed here more than anywhere else!" Appalled by the task master's desire toward his "Sister", Kovu ran up to the platform to save her. "Stop it! Leave that lioness alone!" Mamlaka suddenly heard Kovu's roar and the grey lion turn around and saw his brother ran toward the hyena, surprise and confuse he can only watch what was about to unfold before his eyes. Kovu quickly leap up and knock the hyena off the platform, down to the wooden scaffholdings and killing the hyena right away. The slaves and other taskmasters were speechless once the dust settled, "Who did this?" A hyena asked and the slaves pointed up at Kovu who was breathing heavily and started to ran away. "Kovu what happened?" Mamlaka asked his brother only to have himself being pushed aside by Kovu as the younger lion ran far away. Mamlaka soon give chase after Kovu to the exit gate of the kingdom where the grey lion stops Kovu in front of him. "Kovu what happened back there? What's wrong?"
"You saw what happened! i killed a taskmaster! I can't stay here!" Kovu tries to run away but Mamlaka ran after Kovu tried to reason with him. "I am the King of Africa, the Morning and Evening Star. Whatever i say is law, then we can work this out. And i say you are innocent!" hearring that he is innocent causes Kovu to distraught, he growls at his brother and admits something that was torturing Kovu from the inside. "No! All i ever know to true was a lie. I am not the lion who you think i am. Go ask the lion that you call father. Good bye brother." Kovu ran away as Mamlaka tries to call him back, voices turned to echo and echo turns to nothing, he was already faraway from sound reach. And so he went, far into the desert, walking aimlessly through the sands, never knowing where he will go. Not knowing what is his purpose to live but waiting for a moment to die. Underneath the scorching sun and on the burning sands, Kovu was exhausted, before him was a sand wall, the sand storm, it was closing in on him and soon he let it consumes him underneath the sands. Hours later, the lion was no where to found only a hair tuft on his mane was visible on the sand. Coming in from behind was warthog and riding on his head was meerkat, the two didn't know what they were running into when they saw the hair tuft sticking out of the sand.
"Hey Timon look! A piece of hair, in the middle of the desert! What do you think buddy?" The warthog Pumbaa asked his companion Timon, the meerkat took notice and out of curiosity he jump down from the warthog and inspect the object of interest. "Hmmm, let me see. Interesting." Timon then dig down, to see the source of the hair tuft, then he found the lion that was being buried underneath. "Jeez it's a lion Pumbaa! Run Pumbaa run!" Timon ran up to Pumbaa's head in panick and scream out to his friend to run for it but the warthog refuse. "But Timon, he's all alone and he looks lost. Maybe we can bring him back to the chief then he can help." Timon was half frighten by Pumbaa's suggestion, but soon he came to his thought then Timon agree to Pumbaa's suggestion. "Hey good idea Pumbaa, let's get this guy back to the pride, we're not so far out after all." then Pumbaa pick the lion up on his back and move over to a nearby oasis. There, Pumbaa lay the Kovu down by a pond and Timon splash some water on Kovu's face. The lion felt the cool cold water on his fur and face, he woke up from a long heat stroke able to walk. "So how do you feel stranger?" the meerkat asked the lion, "Tired, where am i?" Kovu asked looking around he noticed he was in an oasis with palm tree and bushes and next to him was a water pond. "A safe place you can say. Name's Timon and this here is my friend Pumbaa." the meerkat introduced himself and his best friend to Kovu. "My name is Kovu. And i'm pretty lost out here..." Before he can finished he heard a screaming sound behind the bush, he peers into the bush and saw a pair of jackals were bullying lion cubs.
"Get away. Give us back our water. My father is the leader of this pride and you're in big trouble!" a lion cub yell at the jackal who was still laughing at the helpless cubs. Suddenly they heard a loud male lion roaring at them from behind. They turn around and saw Kovu who was standing ready to fight, the jackals saw themselves weren't in position to do a lengthy battle and ran away from the oasis. Kovu glad that the goons were gone, but his moment of joy was cut short when he felt tired of the heat stroke he suffered from days of walking in the desert he fell into the lake next to him causing everyone to gasp. The lion cubs and Timon and Pumbaa quickly grab a vine and tries to pull Kovu out of the lake, struggling to use strength in number to rescue a full grown male. "What are you guys doing?" an older lioness asked as she came to check on the young cubs. "We're trying to get his funny looking lion out of the lake." A small cub explain, this made the lioness giggle, finding it hard to understand, when she heard bubbles rising up from the bottom of the lake and heard a voice underneath she soon realized that the cubs weren't joking. "Oh my goodness. There's a lion down there." She joins force and quickly pulls the lion up from beneath the lake. And how surprising it is, Kovu met the same lioness whom he help escaped from Scar's Kingdom. "You!" They both say in coincidental unison. Timon and Pumbaa were surprised that the two knew each other, the lioness gave a playful glee at Kovu and let him fell into the pool again. "This is why father said she will never get married." The cub commented.
Some moments later, Kovu was out of the lake and dried up, he was greeted by a large male lion with red mane. "Where is he? Where is the young brave lion? I want to thank him for his deeds." the male said as he went into shades of the palm tree and found Kovu sitting around and let Timon and Pumbaa clean himself. "There you are, thank you. Thank you so much for saving my daughter and the cubs of my pride." The elder lion joyfully greeted Kovu and introduced Kovu to his daughter, the lioness that Kovu saved from Scar's Kingdom. "This is my daughter Kiara, she speaks highly of you and your deeds. I am Mufasa, leader of this lion pride. Tonight there is a celebration for our pride. You are welcome to join in. After all you look lost." Kovu was finding it hard to denied and so he accept to stay for the celebration, nightfall, Kovu came to the camp fire with the lion pride, he was sittting with the lion cubs that he saved. "Gather around friends and families. Tonight i want to introduce you to our honored guest. A young lion who saved my daughter from Scar's Kingdom and not only that, he stand up and protect our youngs from thieving jackals. Kovu!" Mufasa points at Kovu who was half confused and half happily accept the warm welcome of the pride. "I thank you for the hospitality here. But, i didn't do anything to deserve this warm welcome." Mufasa saw reluctant and conflicts in Kovu's heart, and so the elder of the lion pride shows Kovu a new meaning of life.
From that night onward, Kovu was a new male of the pride, he lives and hunt with them, he learned a new lease for life, or at least, he found a new life, carefree and content. No worries, no fear, no responsibilty, what's more is that he has found his mate, Kiara. Their relationship started out as bumpy and hard to accept each other. But eventually they came to accept each other's presence and soon married to each other. To Kovu he could continues this life of freedom and paradise for the rest of his life, but there was one thing that will change his fate forever...