sky.

I wanna live a day that never dies.

I wanna change the world only for you,

Oh the impossible I won’t do.

 

I wanna hold you close under the rain.

I wanna kiss your smile and feel the pain.

I know what's beautiful looking at you,

in a world of lies you are the truth.

 

And baby, every time you touch me I become a hero.

I'll make you safe no matter where you are

and bring you everything you ask for,

nothing is above me.

I'm shining like a candle in the dark

when you tell me that you love me.

 

I wanna make you see just what I was.

Show you the loneliness and what it does.

You walked into my life to stop my tears.

Everything's easy now I have you here.

 

And baby, every time you touch me I become a hero.

I'll make you safe no matter where you are

and bring you everything you ask for,

nothing is above me.

I'm shining like a candle in the dark

when you tell me that you love me.

 

In a world without you,

I will always hunger.

All I need is your love to make me stronger....

 

And baby, every time you touch me I become a hero.

I'll make you safe no matter where you are

and bring you everything you ask for,

nothing is above me.

I'm shining like a candle in the dark

when you tell me that you love me.

 

('When You Tell Me that You Love Me', by John Bettis & Albert Hammond, 1985)

 

By the time she had finished Scar was sleeping soundly and Immue, her evening's work done, she allowed herself to doze with him. She had eaten well, despite what she had said to Akase earlier that evening, and had no need to hunt that night.

 

      ***

 

The pride settled down over the next few weeks; Immue kept her distance from the rest of the lionesses and for the most part kept the growing Scar close to her. There was no repeat of the incident with Akase. Ahadi tried as best he might to spend time with both of his sons, Mufasa and Scar, but Immue never let him see Scar for as long as he felt he needed. He felt as though she was preventing him from being a real father. They slowly grew more and more apart between each meeting and

Mufasa and Scar, half-brothers though they were, rarely played or even saw much of one another. In time it got to be that when they did meet it was not as brothers nor even as friends but as distant relations who had a blood bond but little else in common, they were like cousins who had only ever seen each other at family occasions where there was little chance to get to know each other. Yet Mufasa was always told by Ahadi that Scar was his only and true brother.

"But Dad, when can he come and play?" He often used to ask, his father had no ready response, other than a vague; and to Mufasa, perplexing:

"One day. He'll come one day when he's ready."

To Scar Ahadi seemed to be more like an uncle than a father, he and his mother lived alone in the draughty cavern. All the time she told him that he would grow up to be her special lion: he would be a king, indeed he would be king of the pride when his father died. Scar liked his father but had never grown to love him. Ahadi was a distant figure of respect to Scar, a lion to keep a safe distance from rather than to snuggle up to, Scar could barely even remember his scent. Yet still Ahadi, the King of Priderock, was his father and Scar knew that one day he would follow in his father's great paw prints.

"One day," Ahadi told Scar on one of the rare occasions they had been allowed to be alone together, "You may be the king of a pride you know." Later, when Scar told his mother about the visit, she smiled broadly when she heard those words but said nothing further on the subject, hustling Scar off, protesting loudly that he wasn't tired, to curl up to sleep in the depths of the cavern.

Ten days later Immue was restlessly lying up in the cavern, wondering whether to hunt that coming night or to leave it until the next day. She kept on getting up and lying down, trying to find something to do to relax her. Scar lay idly to one side teasing one of the mice that lived in the darker cracks in the cavern walls. His mother laid a little way off trying to wash herself fastidiously.

Zazu alighted on the rock platform and, after a hurried check on his primaries, hopped cautiously into the mouth of the cavern. Immue saw him at once and looked towards him, noticing Scar's inattention.

"Scar dear, come on, we have company." Then she spotted the tiny tail poking out from under his left forepaw. "Well dear, if you going to eat it then get on with it and don't play with it. There's a good cub."

Zazu gulped nervously.

"Yes, well Madam, I have come with something from the King."

Scar's ears pricked up and he jumped to his paws in anticipation; the mouse scurried away to a safe crack.

"Hey Zazu, is it lunch?" said Scar hopefully.

"No, young master, it isn't. It's important."

"Nothing's as important as lunch? Yes mother?"

"Scar, now let's hear what Zazu has to say. Yes, yes... yes."

"Ahem, yes..." said Zazu retreating slightly, he was afraid that he might find himself unintentionally staying for lunch. "...The king has a very important..." he flapped and flew back to the ledge, talking mid-flight, "...announcement to make at sunset. It concerns the master here." With that he flew off altogether, leaving Immue and Scar to ponder on exactly what this announcement might be. Immue did not ponder long. She knew that this was the time when her son, Scar, would be proclaimed the future king over that overgrown plushie Mufasa. It was clear that Scar would make a much better king than any cub of Akase's, after all Scar had much more of the ruthless determination and refined cunning that would sustain him as ruler of the Pridelands for a very long time indeed.

Sunset drew close, hot and humid, and Immue; with Scar walking proudly close by her side, threaded her way through the waiting pride passing by the young, taut and lithe figure of Sarabi as she stood, alert and graceful, waiting for Ahadi to emerge from the cave. It was not common for all the pride to be together in such close proximity and the tension was beginning to create friction between some of the lionesses: a swatted paw here, a tail swished there, yet the seven month old Sarabi rose above it all and stood calm and self-assured in the red glow of the late sun. She was as serene a lioness as her father had once been a great king. Even in her cub coat, all spots and down-soft fur, it was evident that she was to grow into a unique and very special lioness, though as yet she had shown little inclination to hunt and precious little skill on the few occasions she had tried. But like her coat, there was to be plenty of time for all that to change. Scar however, hardly gave her a second glance and passed by silently as her eyes followed him from an unmoving head.

Immue wove her silent way to the foot of pride rock thinking that, if nothing else, Ahadi had a good eye for theatre.

‘Why all this? Hmmm?’ She thought as she sat and then lay heavily by a relatively flat topped boulder, ‘My son deserves the best but this is, well, a little over the top. Yes, yes.’ She lay and waited, barely turning her ears to the tense growls and snarls of a skirmish in the making some way behind her. The growls suddenly stopped as a shadow passed over the setting sun and flew down to the flat of Priderock. Zazu's voice was heard, but none could quite catch the distant words or see their speaker. The voice stopped to be followed by an almost audible but indignant: "What do you mean they can't hear me?"

Immue’s keen hearing picked up the scuffling of folding wings and skittering of avian feet on the hard rock. Zazu's beak appeared over the parapet. "Is this better?" he asked, glancing behind him before turning again to face the pride below. "Ahem... I have to announce King Ahadi wishes to speak to you on a matter of great importance to you all: The future of the Pride. Pray silence for the King." He bowed slowly, turned and walked off slowly, his voice being heard one last time: "There, and I hope that was good enough for you, sire!" Even Sarabi and Narala couldn't help giggling just a little.

 

      ***

 

Ahadi stood a little in front of the cave entrance, his shadow blackening the rock face behind him. He had been taking lessons from Rafiki and now felt confident enough to face his pride as a true king might. He had carefully prepared a speech, nothing fancy or long, just a few sentences of carefully chosen words; carefully chosen that is, by Rafiki. In the intensity of the rehearsals Ahadi had not taken the time to examine exactly what those words meant. There was no time for any last minute examination now.

Zazu turned from the peak of the rock and hopped back as gracefully as he could, he paused for a moment in front of the king, asking with raised eyes: "There, and I hope that was good enough for you, sire!"

Ahadi looked sternly at him for a moment before the sternness turned to a sudden emptiness in the pit of his stomach accompanied by the rapidly rising pounding of his heart. He felt he needed to rush off Priderock for a moment but forced himself to remember that he had already been three times that afternoon. He forced his ribcage forward and breathed in deeply, counting to three as slowly as he dared before letting the breath go again. Rafiki had

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