Chapter 4

Sarafina missed her daughter terribly. It did help that she was stuck with Mufasa, Sarabi, and... Taka. To her, he would forever be known as Taka. Not by that deplorable name from that terrible day when he'd earned that scar, but who he really was. Of course she kept this to herself, knowing that Taka was very unhappy about the relationship between her and Ni.

The ceremony was attended to by Mufasa and Sarabi as well as the rest of the Pride except for the brown lion who later dismissed the accusations by claiming he eas too busy. It hurt Sarafina that Taka didn't understood that she was simply in love with someone else. She cared about him and still loved him as a close friend.

She didn't have the time to do so recently. But ever since they have been shoved inside of their cell and then transported to another one, Sarafina thought about it. Since when was the brown-coated lion so cold, so distant?

Taka had clearly enjoyed mocking her friends, but she knew somewhere deep down that there was still good in them.

"I think we stopped moving," Sarabi pointed out the obvious, gaining both Mufasa and Sarafina's attention.

In the shadows, she saw Taka's tail flicked, but that had been it.

Sarafina knew he was paying attention.

"That's obvious, Sarabi, but can you make out what are the humans going to do with us?" Sarafina quipped.

Taka decided to speak at that moment. "Oh, it would be a shame if they give you all things that put you down permanently."

They all groaned, tired of Taka's quips. Sarafina felt some irritation rising in her.

"Scar, none of us cares about your jokes," Mufasa snapped. "You're lucky that you are over there so I-"

"So you can do what?" Taka mocked. "Strike out at me and attacking a lion of an unknown kingdom?"

"Unknown?" Sarafina repeated. "You are from the Pride-"

"Here we are in the unknowns," Taka interrupted, though his voice was full of victory. "This is a new start for me. No more having to listen to King Mufasa's great rule. It's time to move out from the Pride Lands!" he cackled.

"Brother," Mufasa grounded out, sounding like he wanted to tear his brother apart, "now you're pushing it."

Sarafina, quite frankly, agreed with him.

"You know, Muffy, you both ought to be the most embarrassing rulers," Taka taunted, adding fuel to the fire. "I mean, what type of idiots allow humans to enter their kingdom and capture four lions of the Pride?"

Sarabi snarled. "Mufasa did his rounds and me and Sarafina were leading the hunting party. It is not our-"

"Oh, admit it, Sarabi, you were overzealous," Taka said coldly. "You all know I'm right. If you wasn't stupid enough to get me captured, I may have been the king of the lands now. King Scar has a certain ring to it."

Suddenly, light came into the room, and any further mocking from Taka and their deflections came to a stop as they registered their surroundings.

Before they knew it, they were out again.

Sarafina groaned as she woke. She was really getting sick and tired of that.

Apparently, Mufasa and Taka was up already, the latter lounging on a tree and the former attempting to look around for escape.

It was none other than the cell that have served as their home.

"Why would the humans relocate us into the cells only to bring us back into this contraption?" Mufasa asked.

Sarafina added flatly. "It may be our only home now."

Taka simply remained on the ledge, and the lioness wondered what was wrong with him now. He should be trying to help them escape, for the Pride Lands were his home as well.

The fact that he seemed interested in slumbering away pissed Sarafina off. He hadn't even got involved with the hunting party when they could use his assistance.

He was envious of Mufasa's position, had been for a long time, but she always thought he would have gotten over it with age. So did Mufasa and Sarabi. Apparently, he did not.

He isolated himself, didn't even graduate them for the birth of their cubs. He moped around the Pride Lands, remaining the shadows. Sarafina felt pity for him, approached him a few times as an old friend, only to be turned away with silence or sarcastic barbs.

She didn't understood why Taka never realized the relationship between herself and Ni. They were all friends, and she still cared about him deeply. It just the feelings between her and Ni went beyond the feelings between her and Taka who she'd convinced herself to always see as a sibling.

She even invited him to see her cub's birth but it had always been about him.

"Anything to say for yourself, Taka?" The creamy lioness hissed.

Taka scoffed. "What happened to Scar?"

"I always call you that when you prove more and more that your cubish tantrums never ceased," Sarafina said, uncaring.

Taka laughed. "Good one, Sarafina. At least I don't betray my friends..."

Sarafina snapped. "I never betrayed you! I was hoping that you would understand!"

Taka remained unmoved. "You chose that pathetic excuse of a lion over me. At the end, it was a miracle. I dodged a tiger."

Sarafina bared her teeth and was about to say more when Mufasa interjected. "Peace brother, Sarafina, we mustn't turn out wraths on one another. At the end, we are stuck in this predicament, and while all of us doesn't get along," the lion's eyes locked onto Taka, annoyance coming to the surface briefly, "there is nothing that can be said that would change that."

Sarabi scoffed. "As much as I don't like my brother in law nowadays, I agree. Sarafina, don't like Scar get under your skin."

"Yeah, you better keep the moral high ground," Taka gripped. "Needn't start losing your claws over it."

Sarafina breathed out a sigh of frustration.