birth, as parents often do with new-borns: names such as Fluffy, Giggles or Squirm; intending to give him something more fitting later. She had simply never got round to finding another name for her little Scar.

Scar's conception, as was suspected of Sarabi's, was shrouded in speculation. He was a son of Ahadi, at least Ahadi said so, and then again he said that about Sarabi too, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Only the two mothers knew for sure. That much was known by all the lions on Priderock, what was less well known was that they each knew the truth about the others cubs. Immue had only been with the pride for a little over three months, for most of which she had been with cub by Ahadi, before that she had scratched out an existence as a lone and lonely lioness who had failed to join any of the many prides she had encountered.

Her hold in the Pridelands pride was tenuous at best and many of the lionesses could not understand why Ahadi and Akase had accepted her, let alone honoured her with his cub. Ahadi made a big fuss of treating Scar as his son and tried to treat him just as he did Mufasa. The pair were brought up as full brothers, at least as far as Immue would allow. She kept Scar very close to her and would not tolerate any interference with what she felt was her right and duty in raising her son. No one quite understood what was going on. Immue would never talk about it and would tell anyone who asked to "go and stick your nose into someone else's business, my dear." She had spent years alone and now treated any inquiry, no matter how friendly, as an intrusion. Those years of isolation had started when she had been released back into the wild after four blissful years as little more than an overgrown house cat. She count not remember her natural mother, she had always regarded her owner as her mother, and even now it was her that she dreamed of in the few moments that she allowed herself to sleep.

Her lonely years had finally ended when she happened across a lioness alone with a dark brown, somewhat elderly lion with a full but well-worn mane that was streaked black over his shoulders. His ears were fully black and blended into his mane. There was no doubt about what they

were doing and no doubt that neither would be have tolerated Immue's presence had they known she was there. Immue did not recognise either the lion or the lioness. She supposed that he was one of the long deposed pride heads that roamed around the savannah taking whatever opportunity came their way. Opportunity had come his way in the beautiful form of a well built but sleek lioness who, when not otherwise engaged, would prowl with a rare grace. Immue watched for some hours, the pair not roaming more than a hundred metres from the spot where she had first seen them.

Later, a little after sunset, she left the couple unseen by their eyes which were only for each other, and began to wander alone once more. She felt an emptiness and hunger that even the fattest of warthogs would not satisfy. She knew that there was little chance of it being sated, she knew she had little chance of joining a pride and bringing up cubs of her own, she felt herself to be destined to wander over the ridges and valleys of the uplands and never to feel the heat of a lion's breath on her back or the comfort of a cub nuzzling for her milk. She tried to sleep but the image of the lioness as the fatherly lion had taken her kept coming back to hold her close to wakefulness. She lay in the open, in grass barely tall enough to hide her. She paid no heed to her safety. As she dozed fitfully she failed to notice that she too was being watched for a time. Had she known she would not have slept at all; had she known she would have taken her chance then and there; had she known that her life was about to change she would have seen the lion who crept close, so close that he could have reached out and licked her, so close that he could smell the scents that told of her hunger. She rose out of her dream and opened her eyes a little.

"Er, excuse me, but have you seen Narala?"

She lifted her head and struggled one eye open and focused it on the voice. It was too close to see clearly but she felt the warmth and moisture of its breath that had clearly eaten recently.

"Wh..." she tried to open both eyes and focused again in vain. "What? My dear, who's Narala?"

"Ah......" said the voice which carried warmth and strength and felt friendly and engaging. ”You're not who I thought you were." The voice changed, growing slightly tense as its owner backed away hurriedly. "I'm sorry to have bothered you. Must run," he called urgently as he turned away, "I gotta find Narala."

"No, don't go, maybe I've..." but it was already too late. The lion had already put a couple of lengths between him and Immue. She saw the couple in her mind, but now she saw that the lioness was herself, and the lion kept on calling her name, over and over as he nipped her scruff with his worn and browned teeth:

"Narala, oh Narala. it's you Narala, it's you, you."

"No, No, NO! NO!!" Immue roared, the running lion stopped instantly and turned to face Immue holding his head barely above the level of his shoulders, his ears held back and his eyes forward as he tried to fight the voice of his mother that rang through his head. "NO!" Immue roared again at the vision. "It’s not Narala, it's Immue. You have to know it's me!"

"You do know her...."

"You have to it's me! It's me - Immue."

"Yes, Now I know you are, er, Immue, but where's Narala? I must find Narala." His voice lost power as spoke, it tailed off to leave him as no more than a cub. "I must find Narala. The pride expects me...." he could not finish and lay down and frantically swished his tail, while his ears remained held flat on his head. He closed his eyes and shook his head desperately as if to rid himself of a host of painful biting flies. Immue saw his pain but did not run to his side to comfort him but stood for a moment and watched this pathetic cub of a lion. He would never be a king she thought, he would never even be worth talking to. He would never be the father of her cubs.

"The pride? Your pride? You - you have a pride?" asked Immue, her curiosity driving her to reconsider. The lion, some fifteen metres away, said nothing but carried on ignoring her, he was almost crying. No, he was crying. "Did you say you had a pride?" She insisted, regardless of his vulnerable state. He sniffed and raised his eyes to the Immue without lifting his head.

"I had a pride. Once."

"Oh, I thought you said the pride expects you to... to what, my dear?" She said 'my dear' but it had little meaning, this cub had little enough endearing features, and he certainly was not Immue's in

any accepted sense, except in her power and that she realised soon enough. "Oh, my dear, you mean that... Narala was meant to be yours?"

 He picked up his head suddenly, his ears rising with it. “So you do know her. Why didn't you say? Why?"

"So how exactly was she 'yours'? Hmmm?" Immue was warming to the intrigue.

"I..." he tried to look away but his mother's voice forbade him, "I, she, we, well..."

"Come now, let Immue hear it? yes, yes?"

"She and I were - 'together'."

"'Together'?" Immue thought for a moment then the truth fell upon her - this was not just a cub, this was a big cub and big enough to be with a lioness. "Oh you mean you were mating with her. Oh yes, yes, yes!"

"We still are when I find her."

"Oh, my dear, I don't know if I should be the one to tell you this." Immue fell silent, knowing the lion would not be able to resist her invitation. For a while he seemed surprisingly likely to prove her wrong.

"Tell me what?" He got up and walked very slowly towards Immue who sat back, seemingly content to let him make all the running. "Well, what is it?"

"My dear, my dear, you should find out for yourself. I mean this is not a thing you want to hear from a stranger. No, no, indeed no." Immue shook her head forcefully. Her tail remained straight behind her, except the tip which bent off a little to one side. The young lion, looking a lot older now he had regained most of his composure, drew closer. Immue felt a strange force flowing in her that set her tail tip twitching erratically, she was not sure whether she wanted this feeling or not, though it grew strongly as he approached. She resisted its call and remained sitting, however much she liked these feelings she liked the power she had over him much more. He came within a length of her and sniffed at her.

"Who are you? What are you doing here. How do you know Narala and what do you know about her?"

"Well, you seem to know I'm Immue and I'm not doing anything. It's your Narala who's doing it, hmmm?" She raised her head as she finished to emphasise that she knew more, much more, than she was telling. "And anyway my dear, shouldn't you be telling me something about you. Yes, yes, yes that would be best - yes?"

The lion paused, and realising he was not going to get anything more out of Immue he decided to tell her everything. That was to prove to be the costliest mistake of his life but now all that mattered was to find the lost Narala. But it turned out she wasn't so much lost as bored.

"My name is Ahadi - and yes I was mating Narala but she wandered off."

"Oh my dear, that