curiosity getting the better of his fear.

"He'll be stuffing himself somewhere. You know, don't know where he puts it. Me? I can't eat anything in my baobab without wondering if I'll get stuck for days. You know, it will get him into trouble, sure it will. Ehh-heey." Rafiki put his arm around Scar as he chuckled, holding the warm cub and lifting him gently to his paws. For a few moments Scar luxuriated in the comfort of Rafiki's warmth then he pushed him away, remembering his mother's warning: "Never let anyone touch you my little one, you never know what they want from you, it could be something terrible.". Scar was uncertain as to what Rafiki might want, yet he could see no harm in this closeness. Indeed there was no harm: Rafiki held Scar out of genuine concern and unconditional friendship. The young Scar had no understanding of his mother's fear of adult's 'terrible' intentions. Before he was able to give much thought to his confused feelings he was distracted by a glimpse of something brightly coloured; a transient flash of blue and orange high above him. He turned his head skywards towards the flash. For a few moments his eyes were flooded with the unaccustomed brightness of the savannah sky, even though it was partially shaded by the canopy of acacia tops. As he squinted upwards the blueness resolved itself into the unmistakable form of a hornbill flying steadily, scanning the ground below. For a moment the bird flew on without spotting the unlikely pair of cub and mandrill through the tree tops. Rafiki drew a hand up to his forehead to shade his eyes from the glare as he too, in response to the minute sounds of the bird's flapping, turned his gaze to the sky.

Zazu opened his eyes wide and added an extra forward turning flap to his steady wing beat, causing him to slow in flight. Moments later he swooped down to the pair and alighted, absurdly small, on the ground in front of Rafiki. Turning to Scar, he said with a deliberate nod of his beak:

"So, there you are. Your father's been looking all over for you my boy."

"Tell the king he's with me. You do that. Go on, off you go!" Rafiki rushed forwards, grabbing his stick from where it lay on the ground and waving it wildly at Zazu. In a flurry of feathers and a couple of loud squawks, Zazu shot upwards to fly off indignantly towards the dark shadow of Priderock. "Go and report that. Ha, haah!" The mandrill jumped up and down laughing and waving his stick at the receding bird. "Hah! Gets him every time it does! Haah!"

      ***

Ahadi was not very keen on wandering all over the Pridelands looking for wayward cubs. He knew it was his duty and he performed it with diligence and due care, however he could not have been said to enjoy it. His mate, Akase, had been asked by Immue, at very short notice it must be said, to look after her son Scar while she went off hunting. No other lionesses had gone with Immue as the heat and humidity were oppressive. The young cub seemed unaffected by the heat of the day and had played with Akase's own cub, a male just a little older than Scar, for a while until a dispute blew up which escalated with the unsuspecting and substantial Mufasa taking the full force of a vicious claws unsheathed swipe from Scar. Akase never found out who or what had initiated the incident, no doubt some petty jealousy she assumed, however she thought it best if they were separated for a while.

For a time peace seemed to have been restored and Akase allowed herself the luxury of a doze with her son draped over her forelegs. She felt the body of Scar settle at her back; when she awoke

Immue's son was nowhere to be found. He had obviously wandered off somewhere by himself as there were no tracks or any other signs to show that any animals: friend, foe or prey had approached during their sleep. Scar's tracks, faint and faltering, lead off westwards for a short distance then disappeared into thick grasses in which the smells of fresh growth masked all scent of the cub. Akase knew he had to be found and quickly; the hyenas that frequented these parts had already shown themselves capable of taking a cub. Indeed Mufasa, then not even three months old, had been rescued from an opportunist hyena attack only by Ahadi taking drastic measures. He had had to cut down the bold hyena female as she tried to drag off the helpless cub. It was no time for reason and argument - the hyena had only released Mufasa; Ahadi and Akase's first cub; with her last breath. Mufasa was to remember that incident for the rest of his life; the hyenas were to prove to have similarly long memories.

Scar had no fear of hyenas; indeed he had hardly any fear of anything. His mother kept on telling him that he had nothing to be afraid of while she was around to protect him and protect him she did. However her method of protecting Scar from the hyenas was unorthodox for lions to say the least - She had followed a mother with three pups, a female and two males, back to her lair one day and cornered her. Immue had not killed them, she had no need, and indeed she wanted them to stay very much alive, for the time being at least. Immue did a simple deal with them - they would leave her son alone and Immue would leave them alone. Immue told the hyenas that her offer extended to all of the pack.

They were free to harass any of the other lions, but touch her little Scar and they would all die at Immue's paws, regardless of the fact that Hyenas were at best unpalatable and at worst totally inedible.

It was soon noted by Ahadi and his new personal assistant Zazu, that the hyenas seemed to act most courteously to Scar, sometimes verging on uneasy friendliness. Zazu found this to be 'Most odd Sire.'. Immue was careful not to reveal to anyone what she had done, but it certainly protected the small and weak Scar until he was old and big enough to fight back effectively for himself; and in time he began to respond in kind to the hyena's occasional 'Hello Scar.'...

Ahadi sat and looked around. All around his great paws were definite signs that a lion cub and ape, presumably the mysterious but friendly Rafiki, had recently been at this spot. Rafiki was something of an oddity. He had wandered over to Ahadi one morning, totally unafraid of the great lion and tapped him gently on the head with some kind of stick:

"Eh? Anybody at home?"

"What are you?" asked Ahadi somewhat distractedly, wondering what this ape might taste like.

"Lunch?" the grey-blue ape said as he gazed peered fascinated into Ahadi's flowing mane. For a moment Ahadi was at a loss, then he burst out laughing as the ape started to pick into his mane for ticks and other more juicy insects.

"No," Ahadi managed to get out between great mouthfuls of laughter, "no, no, what kind of animal are you? Hey, don't tickle!"

"What? Like this you mean?" said the ape jovially as he reached behind the king's ears. "Yes, like that.... I'm Rafiki, the mandrill."

"Get off!" However Ahadi was clearly not being so serious and he rolled over on to his left side as he laughed while waving all four of his paws in the air, barely missing the mandrill who kept on scratching the great lion's ear.

"No, no way. Much too much fun.... Who are you?"

"That's Ahadi, king of the Pridelands," said a smooth and gentle voice from behind Rafiki, "and you're messing up his mane. I spent ages sorting it out this morning".

Ahadi jumped up, dumping Rafiki in the dust beneath his paws. He shook himself, filling the air with a cloud of choking dust. "Hey, watch it, what are you doing covering me in that stuff." The lioness rushed forwards and tussled Ahadi, the pair ending up rolling together in the dust once more as Rafiki looked on.

"King eh? Well, now you don't look much like a king to me." He said as he moved his head to one side then the other trying to work out which bit of lion was which, pulling back suddenly as a tail swished past within an inch of his nose.

"Keep out of this, Rifaka. Hey Akase, that hurt!" Shouted Ahadi as he again found himself rolled over and under his playful mate.

Rafiki decided that enough was enough and that the moment had come to separate these two overgrown cubs with a combined weight of almost 1000lbs. He jumped around to the head end of the squirming pile and shouted: "STOP!" as he held up one of his hands to a lion's face. He felt the moist warm breath of the male on his palm as he looked into his eyes.

Ahadi closed both eyes and shied away, "Hey, don't do that!" He said.

"Yeah, stop that, you never look into the eyes of the king," said Akase as she let her hindquarters slide to the ground from her mate’s back.

"The king eh? Well now, do you live in the cave on the rock? No. Have you been presented? No. Do you behave in a dignified way befitting the king? No. So what gives you the right to be called king Eh?" Rafiki ran back hurriedly to collect his stick as Ahadi lay looking puzzled, "And the name's Rafiki." No answer came so Rafiki jumped back and holding the middle of the staff tightly in his right hand swung it at the unsuspecting lion's head. It made contact firmly, causing Akase to jump at Rafiki, her claws fully extended.

"Oowww! Hey, cut it out you two." Ahadi shouted as Akase bowled Rafiki over onto the dust and raised her left forepaw to strike.

"My pleasure dear," she said as she brought it down on Rafiki's neck. It struck something hard that shot up painfully into her right foreleg just