Notai walked along through the grass, her two younger brothers, Sefu and Enu at her heels, Yunhee beside her. She looked over at the white lioness longingly. Ever since her mother's death, she hadn't had much time at all to spend with her heart's desire. She'd wanted to cry into Yunhee's fur for a while now, wanted to be allowed to show her own frailty in this time of grief, but she wasn't able to. She had to take care of her brothersㅡ the younger two anyway. Ever since her mother's death her father had been taking Zuberi with him everywhere he went, training the cub for a future as king.
Technically, Notai was supposed to be ruling right now. She was supposed to be the regent, having royal blood unlike her father. But she didn't really know how to rule, and she didn't want to, so she'd let him continue doing it. He called himself the king and she was fine with that. She was certainly too grief stricken to rule even if she'd wanted to.
Sefu darted ahead of the lionesses suddenly, springing onto a bug with a laugh. Notai smiled at him. He looked like a cub version of her grandmother, but with a tuft of backward-swept brown fur atop his head, the beginnings of a mane. Hoping to catch what his brother had found, Enu pounced forward as well, the dark tuft upon his head bouncing with the movement.
"I wanna play too, Sefu!" he called, tripping on his own feet and sprawling onto his face. The cub quickly returned to his paws and darted off after his brother, the two chasing after a grasshopper. As the cubs pulled ahead, Notai glanced over at Yunhee.
"I wish Mother was still here," she whispered. Yunhee immediately rubbed her head against Notai's in a comforting manner.
"I know, I wish that too..."
"It's so difficult to watch over my brothers all the time when I just wanna lay down and cry," she mumbled as the two continued walking, keeping the young princes within their line of sight. Yunhee's face contorted into one of pain at seeing Notai like this. Of course, she come to like the late Queen rather well herself, but she couldn't imagine how hard this must be on her love.
The running cubs stopped suddenly and cried out excitedly.
"Hey look! There's Dad and Zuberi!" Sefu shouted.
"Maybe they can play!" Enu echoed, running after his brother. Notai suddenly had a bad feeling and hurriedly raced to catch up with her little brothers, Yunhee following after.
"Stay close, there could be dangers in the grass," Notai said to the youngsters as she got close enough. At the sight of her father, her jaw dropped. His mane and face were painted red, his paws socked in the same crimson of death. Blood. So much blood. She knew it wasn't his, but there was so much that she was concerned all the same. The dark look etched into his face was also foreboding.
"Dad..?" she called over to him. Her oldest little brother, Zuberi's face lit up as he scampered out from between Kovu's legs and galloped over to his siblings.
"Guys, Dad was so cool! He ripped those hyenas apart, like WHAM!, POW!, ROAR!!!" the cub explained, demonstrating on the air. They'll learn not to come around here anymore! Well... except Awiti. But you guys should have seen him!"
As the golden cub kept talking, Notai, her eyes wide, stared at her father. He looked back, his gaze cold. She'd never seen him like this, and it scared her.
"Dad..?"
He snarled.
"...did... did your patrol go well?" she asked.
"We found some hyenas in our land, but there were only about six, so I took care of them," he said darkly.
"They... didn't try to surrender?" she asked.
"They wouldn't have. Six on one? Those are some odds they like," he droned. Then he stepped past her.
"Zuberi! I heard there was a rogue on the borders from Zila, I sent her to fetch some lionesses and we're going to go take care of it. You need to come along and observe," the king shouted.
"Coming Dad!" the cub beamed, obviously greatly idolizing his father, while Notai's heart clenched and she worried.
"Sefu, Enu, we should be getting back to Pride Rock. I need to speak with Grandma Nala," she said.
"Aw..." Sefu whined, "We were having fun."
"You can have fun later," Yunhee said firmly, "For now, listen to your big sister. We go back to Pride Rock."
---
The Matriarch stood on a precipice overlooking the Pridelands on the mountain her kind stayed in these days. Her underlings had reported something highly infuriating. The lion king, the one who looked oddly like Scar, had attacked and killed six of her scouts. Not just scouts, but some of them had been females. Dedicated females, smart young females. She growled deep in her throat.
"Refgar, Ngiito," she called out, and two males scampered up to her as the rest of the clan stayed back. Matriarch turned to face her followers, her face stern.
"Their so-called 'just' king slaughters our kind for stepping into their lands. He does so with no knowledge of whether or not they were part of the attack all those months ago or not. Some of them weren't. We have been building up our numbers since that defeat, but we shall not be foolish enough to strike head-on again. We need to infiltrate, and turn them against each other while we continue building our forces. I want you two," she said, indicating Refgar and Ngiito, "to seek out Awiti, appeal to her, and gain admittance into their dwelling. Befriend some of the lionesses, as disgusting of a thought as that is, and befriend Awiti's lion. If the king treats you unjustly, they will come to dislike him."
"But... uh, what if he for some reason doesn't mistreat us?" Refgar asked.
"If he doesn't, they need not know it," the Matriarch replied gruffly.
"I don't.... ooooh I get it. Make it up, play them. Fool them," the male said with a sly grin as it sunk in.
"Yes, you will deceive them if it is necessary."
"And how are we supposed to get close to Awiti with that king running around killing any hyenas he sees?" Ngiito queried.
"Be sneaky and travel by night," she growled, "The rest of you, we will continue building our forces here in these mountains. We will do what we must to take back what those lions cheated us out of. What was given to us and then taken away."
---
Zuberi grinned as he tagged along behind his father. He could see a handful of the pride's lionesses surrounding a scruffy looking lioness who was very slim and obviously worse for the wear. She looked weak, and sick, even scared and sad, and the cub was a little concerned that the other lionesses were all growling at her. He hadn't felt for the whimpering hyenas and their looks of distress, he'd been taught that hyenas are bad. They attacked the lion, without cause, and they were at war. Only Awiti was different, and she had come here to try and stop the war. She had spared Zuberi's other older sister, the one he had only vague memories of.
"Dad," he whispered, "why are they all growling at her?"
"Because she is a rogue, son. She could be dangerous," Kovu's response was monotonous and cold.
"But... what exactly does that mean?" the cub asked, an eyebrow raised. Kovu stopped and looked down at him, a stern look on his face.
"It means," he started softly, "Well, I know a lion had something to do with your mother's death. Vitani was the only one from our pride with her, and we both know your aunt didn't kill your mother. So that means it was a lion from another pride, or a lion without a pride. We call prideless lions rogues, and they are the ones most likely to stoop to such evils."
Zuberi's face fell.
"Oh. So she... she might be the one who... the one who... killed mom?" the cub choked quietly.
"Indeed. And it is for that reason that we can't trust her. Some lions are better off becoming grass sooner than others, especially murdering rogues," the regent said darkly, his eyes flashing. Without another word, he stepped into the circle of lionesses, facing the rogue. Zuberi kept close to his father's hind legs and watched carefully. He shrunk down as Kovu let out a loud roar and glared down at the lioness.
"Why have you come here? What do you want from us?" his dad snarled in one of the coldest and meanest voices Zuberi had ever heard. The cub shuddered but tried to keep his strong face on. Little did he know, he looked almost like a miniature golden version of his father, a deep frown etched onto his little face.
"Forgive me, I was just looking for food and shelter, the desert winds are so unkind, please just a little water, at least and I'll be on my way," the rogue lioness pleaded.
"Water?" Kovu growled, "You dare come here and ask for water?"
The lioness cowered, her ears flat and her stomach against the ground. "I-I'm sorry... I won't ask again..."
"No, you won't, because I'm going to give you water," the regent declared in a menacing tone. Zuberi shrank back as he watched his father jump forward and grab the lioness by her scruff and start dragging her away. He ran as he dragged her, causing the rogue's body to scrape against the earth and slam into it multiple times. She cried out in pain and the cub watched tears streaking down her face. He felt disgusted and sick, but he ran along after his father, just like the other lionesses did. They came to a stop by the river he'd been told had taken his mother's life.
Thinking of the water, he reminded himself, 'this lioness could have killed mom. Dad's only doing what is necessary.' Still and yet, the lioness's cries for help and pleas for mercy tore at him and yanked at the cub's heart. He watched, dismayed, and his father ruthlessly forced the stranger over the ledge and into the waters below.
"There's your water! All the water you need! A murderer like you earned your fate!" he called after the falling form. The cub ran over to the edge and watched as the river engulfed the lioness and the roaring waters drowned out her screaming, his heart pounding. He looked up meekly at his father and made a mental note to never get on the regent's bad side.
___________________________________________________________________
Whew, it took me over a month to write this one chapter... well anyway it's an important chapter as it sort of sets up the rest of the story and builds up to the end, which we are finally starting to approach. The story has gotten longer than I thought it would be. Anyway, something I just wanted to add in here because I don't think I have yet, is an image of the newest set of cubs. I used bases, so sue me.
the cubs: show
Bases by Kisini.
And it's such a short chapter, too, so to do so much in it really takes some precision crafting, nice.
