shrugged.

“Is that so?” Nala smiled.

“Yeah! Where should I go?”

“Whatever you do,” Nala suddenly grew serious, “do not go to the Outlands border. It’s too dangerous since we banished Zira.”

“Zira?” Kopa looked confused.

Nala blinked. “Didn’t your father tell you about them already?”

Kopa’s eyes brightened. “Oh. Yeah! He said she followed great Uncle Scar. So he—”

“So you do know,” Nala chuckled. “Good. You can explore—just don’t go near the Outlands.”

“Fine,” Kopa muttered reluctantly. “See ya.”

“Come home soon!” Nala called after her son as he trotted away.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Don’t go to the Outlands,” Kopa grumbled, kicking a stone with his left front paw, head down and ears flat as he walked. “Puh! She’d never even notice I was there.”

He stopped. Where am I?

It was dusty and sort of cold here; dry with no grass and a lot of mist. The ground was dirty and cracked. The trees were like skeletons with no leaves and dark roots. There was a rank stench in the air.

Kopa glanced around, feeling timid and scared.

Something snapped behind him. He whipped around, tail drooping, ears flattened. “Wh-Who’s there?” he stammered. “C-C-Come out.”

In seconds a brown-black bundle flew at him, snarling. Claws gripped Kopa’s golden fur. He and the other lion rolled in the dust, Kopa desperately trying to break free.

The other cub pinned him, claws digging into Kopa’s creamy chest fur. “Trespasser!” he hissed in a sort of high-pitched growl.

His fur was brown and matty and he had fleas in the black tufts on his head and down his back. He seemed older than Kopa.

“Hey, get off! Lemme up!” Kopa snapped, now unafraid of the Outlander.

Another cub came out from behind a rotting tree. She had a violet gaze and a bushy clump of head fur stretching out halfway over her eyes. Her fur was tan-brown, but sort of creamy in a dark way. She seemed to be about Kopa’s age, much, much younger than the dark lion that was holding Kopa down.

“Let ‘im up, Nuka,” She rolled her eyes.

Kopa gazed at her.

Nuka, the cub still pinning Kopa to the ground, jerked his head and scoffed indignantly at her. “Ugh! Let him up? Vitani, Do you know what this is?” Nuka turned his gaze back to Kopa and leered down at him. “A Pridelander!”

Vitani’s eyes opened wide. “You’re sure?” she trotted to Kopa’s side.

“He’s well-fed, isn’t he?” Nuka pointed out, sneering.

Vitani leaned down and sniffed at Kopa’s head, disturbing the red-brown tuft between his ears. She drew back, wrinkling her nose. “I hate to say it, but you’re right. Ugh, that smell!”

Kopa finally shoved Nuka off when the darker lion was least expecting it and sprang to his paws. “Hey!” he spat. “I don’t smell half as bad as him!” he jerked his head toward Nuka.

Vitani snorted a very short laugh. “Yeah, Nuka,” she smirked at him.

Nuka raised his head, picking himself up off the dusty ground, and glared at her. “Y’know for a sister, you’re kind of a pain,” Nuka grunted in his cowardly whine. He shoved past her, nudging her roughly, and faced off with Kopa.

“Look, I just wanna get home,” Kopa snapped. “Lemme go.”

“Forget it!” Vitani joined them, avoiding Kopa’s brown gaze. “We’re takin’ you to Zira.”

“Yeah?” Nuka snorted, rolling his orange eyes. “What’ll mother want with a Pridelander?”

“Mother?” Kopa looked at each of them in turn, staring.

“Zira’s our mom.” Vitani explained.

“One of us, anyway.” Nuka muttered.

Vitani simply reached out a paw. Nuka tripped over it and fell head-first into a sticky, half-dry mud puddle.

Kopa grinned.

“What’s yer name?” Vitani asked, circling him.

Kopa followed her with his eyes, turning his head to look at her. He gave a crooked smile. “Kopa.” He stood up on all-fours, not sitting down any longer, and puffed out his chest. “Future King.”

Vitani and Nuka exchanged glances.

“Future King, ‘uh?” Nuka drew out the last syllable, looking excited.

Vitani’s violet eyes flashed with some greedy emotion Kopa couldn’t read. Then it faded and she looked at him again. Then she looked at Nuka. Then at the ground.

She finally looked up again. “You know what?” she glanced at Nuka again.

“Yeah?” Nuka asked.

“We’ll let ‘im go.” Vitani smirked.

Kopa grinned, tail rising. “You will?”

“We will?” Nuka complained.

Vitani nodded. She smiled, eyelids lowered, at Kopa. “We will. But you gotta promise something.”

Kopa nodded vigorously. “Anything!”

“You gotta come back here every day.” Vitani circled him again. “And bring us Pridelander food.”

“Food?” Kopa stammered. “From the Pride Lands? No way—Dad would kill me!”

“You said anything,” Vitani sneered. “Or don’t you want to leave?”

Kopa glanced at each of them in turn and then rolled his tangerine eyes. “Oh, all right, fine. I’ll get the food every day. Happy?”

He turned to go.

Nuka slid in front of him.

“Hey! You said I—” Kopa began indignantly.

“How do we know we can trust you, huh?” Nuka snarled.

“Y-you can,” Kopa swallowed hard. “I-I promise. And a King never breaks his promises.”

“Yeah,” Nuka muttered to himself, “but you’re not King yet.”

“Hey, shut up, Nuka, let ‘im go!” Vitani snarled.

Nuka narrowed his eyes at her. “You can’t tell me what to d—”

“Watch me.” Vitani strutted past him and nudged Kopa with her nose. “Get moving, Your Highness,” she growled. “And don’t forget to come back. We’ll be waiting.”

“You aren’t gonna tell Zira…are you?” Kopa gulped.

“Forget it,” Vitani dismissed the idea with a wave of her tail. “Don’t worry about her—I won’t tell. And neither,” she bared her teeth at her brother, “will Nuka.”

Nuka rolled his eyes and whined under his breath but didn’t protest.

“Okay—see ya!” Kopa turned and bolted from the scene, anxious to get out of the chokingly dry heat of the Outlands and the glares of Nuka and his sister. Actually, Vitani didn’t appear to be glaring at him at all, just Nuka. When Kopa glanced at them over his shoulder as he ran, Vitani instantly looked away as if self-conscious. Kopa fought back a grin at her.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Where have you been?” Nala growled.

Kopa winced, trying to get past her to where the other lions were eating a zebra that had been successfully hunted earlier. “Nowhere.”

“You smell…different.” Nala leaned her large head down and sniffed at his brown tuft of head-fur. She sneezed. Drawing back, Nala exclaimed, “There’s dust all over you! You’re filthy, Kopa.” She rolled her eyes in scornful exasperation.

“I was just—”

“You’re getting a bath after you eat,” Nala warned. “I won’t forget.”

“Yeah, right,” Kopa muttered, annoyed. She always forgot, ever since she’d announced she was going to have another cub. Wonderful.

Kopa didn’t eat much, remembering that afternoon to take the food to the Outlanders. He shuddered. How was he going to sneak past his parents?

But it wasn’t hard. Simba and Nala were both consulting Rafiki, the wise old baboon with that weird stick thing he always walked around with. Rafiki made rare appearances to Pride Rock, so Simba and Nala always took great care in having the monkey to themselves for advice.

Kopa crept past his parents and slunk into the tall grasses of the plains at the base of Pride Rock, zebra leg clamped in his jaws. It tasted mouthwateringly good as he held it in his teeth, but Kopa refused to take a bite until delivering it to Nuka and Vitani as promised. A King kept his promises, after all.

The young prince finally made it to the same spot he’d been in hours ago. He waited, sitting down and dropping the zebra leg to the ground.

Suddenly Vitani exploded from the bushes, tumbling Kopa over and smirking in his face.

“Brought the meat?” Vitani sneered. “For us—you shouldn’t have!”

Nuka prowled out from the undergrowth. “Yeah, right.” He frowned. Then his eyes lit up unattractively when he saw the meat and lunged for it. He and Vitani scuffled over the food for a moment, Kopa watching.

When they were done actually scarfing down the meat, Nuka circled Kopa.

“Told anyone you were here yet?” he hissed.

Kopa raised his head proudly. He was a King. He wasn’t afraid of this mangy teen-cub. “Nope.”

“And you’re not gonna, right?” Vitani prowled toward him. She wasn’t growling or frowning, but she wasn’t smiling anymore