Chapter 10

I do not own Lion King or any of its characters

The only characters I do own are as follows:

Kali : Fierce

Usafi: Purity

Maji: Water

Nurisha: Shine Light Upon

Hafsa: Sound Judgment

Ufisa: Mischief

The following characters belong to my friend Nala-Nay who gave me permission to use him:

Hiassen

Cire

The Plains: From the Eyes of a Prince and the Heart of a Queen

Kimba sighed looking at his soggy fur from the sweat caused by the hot blazing sun. "It's so hot." He whined wiping his forehead with his paw.

"Why did you say that?" Kopa glared walking as well but had the misfortune of being the one the with a mane tuft that was so sweaty that it kept getting in his eyes which aggravated him causing him to keep pushing it out with his paw.

"The more you Cubs complain the worse it will get." Nala, one of the queens said as she looked back at them chuckling and then raised an eyebrow at the dirty looks they shot. "Kopa what did mommy tell you about glaring at her?" She said sending her son a stern look

"Not too." He said maintaining his mother's own glare in her direction.

"So why are you doing it then?"

"Because…." He fumbled

She looked at her son having lifted a paw to stop the group from moving forward and walked up looking down at him even more sternly. "Well?"

"Sorry, just.. could you please carry me?" He said in a whisper letting go of his pride.

"Spoiled only cub." Maji grumbled next to him as he walked aside him.

"Hey!" Usafi scolded her boy. "what did I say about picking on others?"

"Only pick on those you know you can beat?" He said cheekily.

"Then why do you pick on your sisters?" Nala said with a smirk as she gave her nephew a little push on his rear.

"Because they're girls. Girls are easy to pick on according to Uncle Simba. He got you a lot right Auntie?"

"We shall see if you still feel that way by the end of today." Tama said with a knowing glance into his innocent eyes.

"Pshaw." Kopa said slicking his soppy mane back. "We're Prince's. We can handle a few antelopes."

"Your father thought the same Kopa." Nala thought sadly thinking of the stampede before shaking her head to get that off her mind and smirked.

"That means you won't need my help carrying you then." Nala said as she started walking backwards to face her son.

Kopa grinned. "Exactly. See mom now you understand. I knew you'd catch on that we can do this better than you." He said puffing up his chest, until he realized what he had just done. At least my paws would not be burning much longer he thought. It can't take that long to catch one, right?

As steps turned into miles the small pride caught a glimpse of a herd of gazelles.

Kula grinned. "Sweet. Plenty to go around." She said licking her chops ignoring the eye rolls from her friends.

"You said it mom." Babu smirked shaking with so much excitement she almost thought the herds were moving from the ground shaking so close.

"Ok boys, watch and learn." Said Kula as she and the other mothers headed into position.

"Oh we'll watch Miss Kula but I doubt we will learn much." Maji shouted after them getting the other boy Cubs to laugh.

Maji not knowing much about the details behind stalking set the herd on alert, causing their mothers to freeze until the settled back down.

"Why are they not doing anything?" Babo asked impatiently scratching on the ground and gnawing on his quickly jumped in.

"You don't want to start a stampede or we will all lose our lunch so everyone please settle down!" He said in a frustrated whisper. One of the perks of being an only cub was occasionally knowing stuff the adults thoughts at a younger age. That or Having Nala as a mom. He still hated the sight of those panic attacks she would have resulting in her eyes and body to become frozen.

Tama growled making the Cubs go quiet. Despite not being her cubs, they knew enough from the stories their fathers would tell them that would send shivers down their spines or almost made Kopa feel he would be a maneless King one day.

Tama smirked before stalking forward slowly. Her tan fur perfectly blending with the tall dead grass. The boys' gazes each directed their own mothers like sap on Rafikis tree. Before they knew what was happening, they were spotted and the herd was off in a mad dash. Tama and Fuwele spring into action as almost as fast as a cheetah, redirecting the herd towards the river nearby. Their growls could be heard even above the chaos.

Kula then suddenly appeared and wedged herself between one of the larger gazelles and the rest of the herd. "Oh, no Mom is going to be squashed" her son yelled and felt the urge to look away but he would not allow himself to. Then she leapt onto it's hind quarters as the rest of the pride caught up to the rear.

Tama unsheathed her famous claws and the boys, though they were far away, could swear they heard it before she swung them at the beast's legs tripping the animal. Then the pride started to slow. "No! we can't lose dinner." Maji and Kopa paid no attention to the noisy group surrounding them as they lost the sight of their mothers in the excitement of it all. Then all of a sudden the dynamic duo of queens reappeared from within the grasses and pounced. Usafi landed on its back bit down on its scruff to keep it from thrashing too much while Nala bit down on its jugular and held her jaws there till the thrashing stopped. Removing her jaws, she roared followed by Usafi and her sisters celebrating a successful hunt.

As if on cue all the cubs ran to the site of the kill, each bragging about their own mother's skills.

"Did you guys see that? My mom totally out-ran those gazelles. She was like the wind." Kimba Said smugly grinning at his mother.

"Please my mom was the real hard worker." Babu said poking him in the chest. "She's the one who had to run between the herds and drive it away. Your moms just sat back and watched compared to her."

"Hey what about mine?" Kopa glared. "My mom made the kill. Didn't see yours move her hungry lips to take the bite now did we?" He said stalking towards him

"Please, My mom not only hid herself but held onto it until your mom finally made the kill. It was bucking like a charging Rhino." Maji added.

"Children," Sarabi said breaking the arguments as she and Sarafina walked up after finally catching up. "It's a team effort. The pride must work together as one to accomplish it's goal, no matter the situation. You must always remember that."

"Yes Grandma." Kopa and Maji said in unison.

"Ok now that you've seen us do it," Tama said smirking. "Why don't you boys give it a try?"

"After we eat of course" said Sarafina before giving Kula the nod to rip open the carcass so the cubs could get to it.

Kula and Babu are the fastest as they almost literally had a tug of war over a leg of meat.

Kopa rolled his eyes watching them as he walked up. "Surprised they don't crush Uncle Chumvi with all they eat." He said under his breath before digging in.

"You say something dear?" Sarabi asked with a knowing look, the familiar impish grin on her face that always told him and Maji that they were in trouble.

He chuckled nervously. "No Grandma of course not." He said after swallowing the meat in his mouth.

Maji chuckled watching them and then sighed looking at each of his friends with their mothers and sighed sadly.

"What's wrong honey?" Usafi, his mother, asked she bent her head down and poured her violet sunrise eyes into his shining leaf green ones. He knew when those eyes were on him he couldn't try and shrug something off.

"I'm ok mom. Just…." He fumbled his paws trying to think of what to say.

"Just… What?"

"I'm just a little jealous of everyone else."

Usafi's eyes widened in surprise at his statement. Jealous why would you be jealous? She thought to herself once more in her head but then she realized she too had felt the same way when she learned she was adopted and again when she had a larger litter of her own that caused her to lose the same quality time with each cub. Their were never enough hours in a day. I'm a fool.

Minutes she could keep track of how often a herd moved or when a herd would be where she needed but she couldn't remember one hour to spend time with her son alone, and not just during his baths but true quality time in the past couple weeks as the dry season came upon them. She hung her head. "Is it… Is it cause I don't see you a lot?"

Maji sniffed hearing her ask and looked at her trying to stifle the tears threatening to fall. "Maybe it is…wh-why would you feel it is?" He asked the last part low almost in a whisper like tone obviously afraid of he answer which made her heart pang worse than when Kali had gone missing.

Usafi shed a tear and tried to find the words but felt upset enough that she couldn't move her lips enough to make words. She laid down and pulled her son close to her and nuzzled him sniffing. "I am so sorry my dear little boy. I didn't mean for you to feel lonely."

He sniffed against her chest feeling the familiar yet strange comfort of her paws wrapping around him. "I almost forgot how this feels without a bath." He said looking up at her letting the tears fall like dew falling from the leaves of a baobab tree.

Usafi looked at him her paws shaking from his words falling from hers as well before she laughed and felt relieved when she heard his join in with hers. She took a deep breath to regain her composure. "So what can we do to fix this?"

Maji looked at her puzzled and shrugged. After a moment he responded, "I don't know how to fix this."

"Well when things don't go as planned on a hunt we improvise. I am sure we can think of a few creative solutions." She said with a smile before messing up his hair tuff that finally re-established the smile upon his face. "Let's think, what is something the two of us can do when your sisters are not around?"

Maji tapped his chin. "How bout we could watch the sunset every morning?" He asked eagerly.

"It's called a sunrise." She said with amusement. "I was thinking maybe… I could take you with me once a week when I go scouting to see where the herds are, or even to Rhino Valley."

Maji grinned eager about the chance to come along to scout the herds but tilted his head curious about the other part. "What's Rhino Valley?"

Usafi chuckled thinking back at the memories of that place and all the mischief she and Kali had gotten into. "Rhino Valley was a place where me and your dad would get into trouble a lot when we were you age." She snickered watching his eyes almost seem to pop out of his head.

"You two got into trouble?"

"Oh we were far from perfect cubs, no matter what anyone may think." Even our faithful followers.

Maji grinned from ear to ear almost seeming like the moon was out too early. "I can't wait!"

"Ahem." They were interrupted as Fuwele got their attention. "I know with Kula here we need to hurry with our meal but seriously you guys are like the herds grazing."

"Oh thanks Fuwele that makes us feel the need to pick up the pace." Usafi smirked as she countered.

"Glad you agree now get up." Fuwele said smirking back not fazed by her retaliation.

"I am your queen, we'll finish up quickly and then I say we give the boys their chance to catch lunch for the girls and their Dads"

"No way! Boga gets nothing!" Babu said firm in defending his food. That remark quickly earned him a light smack to the head from his mother. "Haha, sorry mom. Sharing is caring." or whatever phrase you like

Usafi shook her head groaning. "A chip off your surprisingly lightweight block Kula." She said taking a few bites of what was left ignoring the dirty look coming from her friend. After a moment she turned to her sister with a nod and returned her gaze to her son, "Ready?"

Maji nodded as he joined his fellow boys into the plains.

As Sarabi watched this, she felt a nostalgic scent on the wind, the scent of her sister Naanda. She smiled sadly. "Your memory still lives on sister." She said as for a brief moment the boys changed into Simba Kali Usafi and Nala when they tried hunting under Naandas direction. She was so proud when they worked together to end the suffering of that poor deformed calf. Perhaps if she had more time with them they would still work together half as well. "Naanda, Mufasa, please help me."

We interrupt your regularly scheduled chaos for this mayhem:

"You two got into trouble?" Nala-Nay asked flabbergasted as she looked at the two authors after reading the latest chapters from their two works.

"Oh we were far from perfect cubs, no matter what anyone may think." Tron chuckled as he leaned back in his chair eating the last box of Thin mints. Even our faithful readers.

"But did it!" yelled queenlionesses

"The imaginary frog?" Tron asked skeptical while she has a smug look on her face

"He's real!"

"Yeah as real as the likelihood I'll shave my mane." He said sarcastically

"You don't have one yet silly." She replied as she flicked her tail at him.

"Kings above I sometimes hate 5 year old cubs, when will she be a young adult again?" Asked Tron annoyed but in his 7 year old form with his adult mind still intact.

"I ask that all the time whenever Malka or Tama walk into my office to pitch ideas." Nala-Nay said as she gnawed on a pizza in her adorable 3 year old cub body.

"And don't get me started on her believing in Santa Claws. Seriously, there's no magical animal delivering Christmas to the wildlife kingdom." Tron said grunting and dodging a book queen threw at him.

"You're just mad because you lost your mane. Besides it will come back once someone hit's play on the VCR to restart this movie." queenlionesses replied as she searched for her stuffed puppy.

"Who on the savanna uses a VCR in 2016?!." Tron yelled at her before gripping his head trying to relax. "Seriously even Asante wasn't this bad."

We hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into my friend and editor's Queenlionesses now I'll hand over the reigns to her to wrap up her presence here. Queen?

Ok fine. As some of you may recall queenlionesses is my favored beta reader and one of the first authors to draw my attention on fanfiction. The same goes with those mentioned. Nala-Nay and Asante and their amazing works. Please read and review them.