again. Rafiki had said that it would help but Ahadi was beginning to think that Rafiki was occasionally economical with the truth. Rafiki's voice echoed through his mind:

"It is time."

‘Yeah, but is it my time?’ Ahadi asked the ephemeral mandrill in his thoughts. ‘Come on Ahadi, this is it. Time to tell it like it is!’ He stepped forward, his foreleg felt soft and rubbery and he wobbled slightly. He looked down at it, it looked just the same as it had always been. He swung his tail round smartly. Its tip caught his side sharply, making both tail and flank sting. "Oww! That's another of Rafiki's tips I'll try to forget."

He considered giving up until he turned his head back to see Akase with Mufasa standing in front of her looking proudly back to his father. Time seemed to stand still as he turned to the parapet of the promontory of Priderock and stepped forwards. When he reached it and looked over there was no sound of greeting, no tumultuous cacophony of rejoicing animals; nothing but the sunset, the grass and himself, he felt almost as if he were alone and he could pretend to himself that he was standing in front of his pride announcing his son's succession. He felt he could say anything as there was no one there to listen:

"Ah, my friends - my pride. I have called you here this evening to tell you that one day; when I am no longer able to lead you all; I will give the honour, privilege and duties of King of the Pridelands to my son." Ahadi paused to let this sink into his audience. He thought he heard a lioness purr somewhere close by and his foreleg buckled again. Then he remembered to remember that he was on his own. "He will however not be alone. He will have someone to be with him and support him, to hunt for him and I hope to love him. He will have..." again Ahadi paused for effect, this time he heard nothing but the silence of the breeze over the grass below, "...a lioness of rare beauty. Indeed if I were five years younger I might... Ahem, well enough of me. She, who will one day be the queen of Priderock, is Sarabi." A murmur of low voices flowed and rippled through the lionesses below. Ahadi could make no sense of the hushed tones and whispers yet he knew with unwavering certainty that he had very much said the wrong thing. The murmur grew and formed into a short phrase: "But she's his daughter too!" Rafiki had said that the news would be warmly received, Ahadi felt as if the plain below him was on fire, the tongues of the rising flames licking at his fur. Suddenly Sarabi was at his side, there on Priderock, staring at him in disbelief:

"Tell me it's not true?"

Ahadi turned his head to look at her, and saw at once that she was indeed so much more than a cub. She left him as quickly as she had come. He was looking once more at Akase and his very own Mufasa. He turned back to face the crowd below.

"It’s not true. I have lied to you. I have lied to you all." The tumult died. "I have kept something from you, even from my Akase. Sarabi is..." no one said a word. Even Rafiki, sitting on a rock ledge some way off to the south, sat perfectly still with wide eyes and ears fixed on the king. "...not my daughter. I did not conceive her, she, and her sisters, are daughters of a once great king of a pride far from here." Akase smiled at her mate in a heady mixture of shock, relief and pride. She had often wondered, secretly when everybody else was asleep, just why Sarabi looked like she did. She also saw the pain on Ahadi's face that said more to Akase than his words could ever do; they said that he could not take Narala because she was Akase's older sister.

      ***

Sarabi stared at her father with wide staring eyes as he stood high above her on Priderock. She could not take in the simple fact that she was not the lioness she thought she was, that she was not the daughter of the king, but that she was just the daughter of a mere lion. She turned and for a moment seemed to her mother to be very likely to cry, but with Narala's steadying shoulder to lean into she managed to hold herself up with just a dampening of her eye that only she, and perhaps her mother, could have known about. Sarabi felt nothing for Mufasa, he was all very well to play with, chase and pounce on, but he was, well, he was a lion not a lioness, they were as different as zebra and crocodile.

"Mom," she said quietly, "do I have to be Mufasa's queen?"

"No, dear, not if you don't want to. It's all right. You forget that now, there's too much to think about all in one day." But, try as she might Sarabi could not forget about Mufasa and what she might have to do for him. She looked at Narala and thought about what this other lion had done to her and she could not understand any of it. She vowed never to grow up, never to be a lioness and certainly never to hunt as that way Mufasa would never want her as his queen.

Closer to the foot of the rock Immue lay seemingly unmoved by Ahadi's performance. She watched intently as Ahadi went on, his tone less formal and his manner less that of a king and more of a father.

"It's true, Sarabi is not mine and so she can be the mate of my son, Mufasa, who I intend shall be the next King of Priderock. He will be presented to all the animals in a few days when all the arrangements have been made." He paused again, the assembled pride, the whole strength of the Pridelands lion lay, sat and stood before him and all looked to him as their king and knew that in time they, or their cubs, would look to Mufasa as King. The sun finally set on Ahadi as he stood there on the rock, it was as important a moment as any since the pride's arrival. It sealed an unsettled time, after the long hard and dangerous journey from the marsh lands the pride could not be totally sure they were on the Pridelands to stay. Now they knew that this was to be their home for as long as there were cubs to grow into lions. The Pridelands were now truly the lands of Ahadi’s pride.

After Ahadi had bid them all good hunting and retreated back to his family the pride dispersed. The last to go was the silent Immue, still lying outwardly calm. Scar nuzzled her and called her to get up but for some time she ignored all her son's attempts to rouse her, she just lay looking at the rock where Ahadi had just crushed her hopes and dreams.

Eventually she got up sharply and with little more than a: "Come on Scar dear, we have to get home. Yes, yes.", she was gone into the night, leaving only four sets of three inch long parallel scratch marks deep in the earth, some stained by a few drops of crimson.

      ***

Ahadi felt that, all things considered, the announcement of Mufasa's betrothal and succession had gone smoothly. With regard to the betrothal it was really a matter of there being little choice.

Sarabi, or indeed one of her sisters, was the only possible choice as all the rest of the cubs of Mufasa's age had been sired by Ahadi. It had of course required the truth of Sarabi's parentage to be brought out into the open but there was really no alternative. Rafiki had known that when he had prepared Ahadi’s speech, but had evidently forgotten to warn his king.

So far at least Immue had remained silent regarding the details of Sarabi’s conception; however Ahadi had considered that probability and had told Akase all about it in the privacy of the cave after the announcement. On reflection it mattered little now his pride leadership was assured. In the early days, when a challenge had been more likely, though no challenger had even set paw upon the Pridelands, such a revelation would have severely undermined his position as king, now it was no more just a colourful incident in his youthful past. It was the matter of succession that troubled Ahadi now. Rafiki had warned him that trouble might lie ahead but could not be precise on how this trouble might manifest itself. Yet Mufasa's presentation lay just a couple of days away and nothing could be allowed to spoil this special moment for his son.

"So Rafiki, why is this so difficult to organise? For me it was all just there at dawn. What's there to do?"

"You think this is easy? Do you? Well I'll tell you this. You think I did nothing for your presentation eh? It took days and days, and all done while you slept. I had to call in quite a few favours for that you know. I have fewer friends now than I used to. I hope it was worth it! You, you don't know the half of what I do for you. You think this place runs itself? Eh?"

"Well, no, I know it doesn't and I know you do a lot and..." Ahadi tried frantically to guess what Rafiki might do but couldn't think of anything before the pause became obvious.

"See, you have no idea do you?"

"I do, I do! It's just that I can't remember it all right now."

"Eh? Come on, you can't hide from Rafiki. You know I know everything that goes on here."

"Really, I thought Zazu knows everything that goes on?"

"What? That little... He doesn't know anything. I'm the one. Me! He is just a pompous little feathered gossip. Eh? What does he know that I don't? Well, come on, tell Rafiki!"

Ahadi thought for a moment then said hopefully: "He says the average age of the seventeen male elephants on the Pridelands is twenty seven years."

"What? What use is that? And what is the average of the females eh?"

"He didn't say," said Ahadi with a shake of his head, sending a few