Chapter 5

The joyous sounds of laughter carried out loud and clear throughout the grasslands, irrupting the quiet peace of a lazy afternoon as the great circle hung over head, shrouded in the wisps of clouds that were lazily carried upon the light breeze that blew throughout the lands, ruffling the grass. The source of the sound was found with four young cubs, each months apart, bounding happily through the grasslands, the tall grass hiding them from view while they chased each other in an innocent game of tag.

They weren't alone; watching them from outside the tall grass was two lionesses who laid themselves out on the large flat rocks which warmed them from the amount of heat they had absorbed from the sun that morning.

Zuri and Nala, one with her head resting on her paws, the other sprawled out on her side, had their eyes closed enjoying the day all the while listening intently as the cubs played in the grass.

The two volunteered to watch the cubs, though Nala thought she had rather be somewhere else, Nuka, Vitani and Kovu had arrived at their den that early morning, they claimed that Zira had let them out to play. But Nala, much like her mother, had her suspicions about all of it. Why would Zira suddenly let her cubs out to play?

But Zuri didn't question it at all. Kopa was excited to be able to play with cubs around his own age. And the Queen never did have a problem with the three cubs. They didn't treat her any differently, so Zuri thought why should she? That and she loved the cubs, she thought they were sweet, especially little Vitani whom she had a soft spot for since the beginning. The cub wasn't anything like her mother, something that would come in handy in the future when she became an official member of the pride and hopefully didn't follow the views of Zira. Not if Zuri had anything to do about it.

Nala lazily lifted her head from her paws and stared at the long grass catching a glimpse of brown and brownish-gold fur streak by, the colour of their coats signified Kovu and Kopa. The brown one was chasing the prince. "Are you sure this is wise Zuri?"

The Queen gave a yawn, her eyes blinking open while she turned her head to the right to look at her friend. She then looked at the grass as it rustled and then out jumped Kopa laughing while Kovu gave chase, shortly followed by Vitani and Nuka. The cubs ran around the small grassy plain trying to use the rocks to hide them as they played.

"Of course I'm sure this is wise Nala, look how happy they are, this is how cubs should be. Happy, playful and carefree…" Zuri looked at Nala who scoffed and she gave her an apologetic look.

Nala looked away for a few moments; her eyes watching the cubs run around, happy, playful and carefree as Zuri said they should be. Yes, it was the way cubs should be, they shouldn't have to worry about the troubles that plague the adults. They should only have to worry about when they get to play or when they get to eat. Enjoying life to the fullest.

She was once like that. Before Mufasa's death and Simba's disappearance.

She was carefree; she had a best friend, a loving mother and Pride. There was bountiful food to eat that the Hunting Party always managed to bring back. There was nothing she really had to worry about…

Then Mufasa died and Scar became King. And from there things went wrong. It had stopped raining, the clouds came but no rain fell, but it blocked out the sun, the plants died and the water dried up. The ground became nothing but a shadow land. And with no plants or water the animals moved on, so it made hunting more difficult and they started to starve.

Nala had to grow up pretty quick.

More so when she discovered that her mother was expecting another cub, which she gave birth to, a male cub, by the name of Mheetu. Nala felt tears come to her eyes as she thought of her baby brother, he never really got much of a chance at life, with lack of food, and Sarafina was unable to produce as much milk as she could have to feed him. They had resorted into killing buzzards just so Sarafina and the others could eat, and so that Sarafina had enough milk, just enough that Mheetu wouldn't starve. By some miracle they managed to keep the cub healthy.

But that made no difference in the end. Nala, though she did everything she could to defend her baby brother from the hyenas, who looked for anything they could eat even if it were one of the cubs and lionesses, there was one she never been successful in keeping him safe from.

Zira was always paranoid. More so then Scar was. No one really knew why Scar didn't kill Mheetu. Maybe it was because if he killed the cubs, the lionesses wouldn't follow him. The cubs were never brought near Scar, kept away and always with another lioness or two to watch them. And for some reason…as months went on Scar seemed to suddenly take an interest in the young male cub…something that made many of them uneasy. Why would he have interest in Mheetu when he already had a son by Zira.

But one morning, Mheetu had wondered off before they had even awoken. Most the pride was gone, out hunting; they had been gone for three days. Nala and Mheetu had been left behind with Aufa, and Kara. All were asleep when it had happened. It was the screams of the young cub that had awoken them. But by the time they had gotten there it had already been too late.

Zira in an act of greed had killed a cub. To reassure the survival of her own cub that she had bore to Scar. Nala still remembered her words;

"Weak cubs must die for the strongest to survive!"

Nala closed her eyes and sighed, but that simply wasn't the case, Nuka became malnourished as well just like Mheetu had been. There was no need to kill the cub. Every cub was an importance to the Pride, and for their future survival. No, Nala knew the real reason, Zira was afraid. Afraid of what would happen if Scar chose a stronger cub over Nuka to be his heir. And if she didn't bare him a strong one, then he would choose another mate….

Nala shuddered at the thought.

"Nala?"

Nala's eyes opened and she turned her head to find Zuri watching her with a look of sympathy on her face. "Forgive me; I shouldn't have said that, I know you had a rough…"

Holding up her paw to stop her, Nala gave her a hint of a smile, "Don't worry about it Zuri, it's in the past. Just sometimes…cub hood isn't that all it's cracked up to be!" she turned her head again to watch the cubs then lowering it down closing her eyes to get a small nap in.

Kopa ran fast to get away, casting a look over his shoulder he stared at her pursuer. Kovu had long since given up on chasing him and had tagged Vitani instead and now the she-cub, with a look of determination, was chasing him down. "You can't run away forever Kopa!" she called after him with a giggle. "I'm going to catch you!"

"No you won't!" Kopa called over his shoulder, he laughed and picked up pace but wasn't watching where he was going when his paw caught in a hole making him loose his balance and sent him tumbling. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Whoa!" he felt the ground disappear beneath him.

"Kopa!"

Nuka, Kovu and Vitani stopped running to watch Kopa tumble across the ground until he disappeared out of sight. Looking at each other then hurried over to where he had disappeared and stopped staring down the hill that Kopa was now rolling down, heading toward a pond. There was a loud slash the moment he toppled into the water.

They waited a moment for him to come back up, when his head popped up and he climbed to shore. The three wasted no time in sprinting down the hillside to him, "Are you alright?" Vitani asked.

Shaking his head to get the excess water out of his ears, Kopa nodded "Yeah I'm okay…" he checked his paws, and then turned to check his tail, yeah everything was attached and besides the bruising he was okay.

He turned around when he heard laughter and glared at Nuka, "What's so funny?"

"You look like a drowned rat with the water hanging off your coat!" Nuka laughed, slapping the ground with his paw. Kovu was the next to join in laughing.

"I do not!" Kopa argued but it only fuelled their laughter. Growling, he spread his paws and with a leap pounced on Nuka causing the two of them tumble about on the ground. Each trying to push the other one off as they rolled around in the mud around the bank of the pond splashing it on Kovu and Vitani.

"Hey!" they whined as they two jumped into the scuffle, mud flew in every direction as they wrestled, laughing.

"Cubs?"

The cubs all froze, Kopa with Nuka's tail in his mouth, sprawled across his stomach where Vitani had pounced on him, and Kovu's hind leg in Nuka's jaws. Each cub was covered from head to the ends of their tails down to the bottom of their paws in mud. They all lifted their heads to look up at the two lionesses on the hill above them with sheepish smiles, "Hey mom!" Kopa called up to Zuri when he dropped Nuka's tail out of his mouth.

Nala and Zuri who had first discovered the cubs missing had begun to panic when they had heard laughter and had followed it to the hill to see the cubs wrestling about in the mud. Both were smiling and laughing inwardly at the sight the cubs made, when the cubs had looked up they all had antelope caught in the predators eyes look to their faces.

The two made their way down the hillside toward the cubs that scrambled to get out of the mud; they stood in a line as the two lionesses reached them. "Look at you, you're all filthy!" Zuri chuckled; reaching out she wiped some mud off of Kopa's face.

"But now my fur matches yours Mom!" Kopa said with a cheeky grin he had inherited from his father.

Lowering her paw, Zuri raised an eyebrow and smiling said "That you do. But I'm afraid we're going to have to clean you before it gets caked in your fur!" she bent her head just as Kopa was about to ask how she was going to clean him, he didn't think mud would taste that good. He prepared himself for a tongue bath that never came, instead he was picked up and carried into the pond where Zuri lowered him down into the water and began using her paw and the water to get the mud off of him.

Nala did the same with the other cubs, one by one carrying them into the pond and washing them and then carried them back out to avoid them getting dirty again.

Once all the cubs were clean again, the lionesses helped them all climb up the hill again. Zuri using her nose to push Vitani up when the she-cub started to slide down again when her paws lost their footing. The she-cub gave the Queen a sheepish smile in thanks in which Zuri returned.

Once at the top, Zuri looked around and then up at the sky, "We should be heading back to Pride Rock…" she was cut off by the groaning of the four cubs in front of her, she chuckled and smiled. "Now, none of that. You all have been out here playing since the great circle had risen, it's time to head back, you all must be hungry!" at that the sounds of rumbling stomachs could be heard and the cubs stared at their stomachs and then back up at the two lionesses with sheepish grins.

Nala grinned, "Now no more arguing, off you go!"

Vitani nodded and suddenly remembered and reached over and pushed Kopa in the arm with her paw. "Tag! You're it!" she laughed and took off running again with Kovu and Nuka following her.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Kopa whined as he gave chase to them.

Zuri smiled as she watched them go, ah, what it was to be young again, she thought while she and Nala followed after the cubs that chased each other in the direction of Pride rock.

None of them seemed to be aware of the two figures on a distant hilltop watching them. A tanned lioness and a large dark golden brown, gray mane lion stood watching the group as they made their way across the grasslands back to Pride Rock. They had watched them all day, but no one noticed them, no one ever did. Unless they wished to be seen, than they were invisible to the world.

"He has grown," the lioness spoke. "Quite well, I must say!"

The lion nodded his head, "Yes, but he is not quite ready yet…"

"He will make a fine King," the lioness smiled as she watched the young prince suddenly give up on chasing the other cubs and ran back toward his mother and tagged the unsuspecting lioness. The Pridelander Queen suddenly started giving chase to the cubs whose laughter could be heard across the Savannah.

Her smile then faltered to be replaced with a one of sadness. "Is this wise…"

The lion turned his head toward the lioness and grunted, "It is his destiny!"

Sighing, the lioness hung her head, "But why must it be awakened in great sadness!"

"Because destiny is tricky and never fair!" the lion took one last look at the group, then turned his body and started to walk away. "Come Zakia."

Zakia watched her daughter and grandson as they move further away into the distance, her eyes sad and yet happy at the sight before her. This was all she ever wanted for her daughter, happiness. And to think she had found it in a stray prince that they had unsuspectingly taken in. But sad because she could not be apart of it, not in the physical, nurturing way she could have been if destiny had not taken her that day.

"Zakia!"

She looked over her shoulder and then at the group, yes destiny was tricky and unfair, she thought, then with a heavy sigh she turned and followed, "Coming Mansa."