need to follow them long to find their owners. Well, the lions found them.

Just as they were about to lose the paw prints and scent again, a voice came from on top of a rock.

“Hey,”

Everyone turned to see a lion with golden fur and a red-ish brown mane standing on the rock, looking down on them almost timidly. Two more lions came up from behind him, and some of the lionesses braced themselves for any violence. One lion had a black mane, brown tail tuft, peachy coloured fur and tufts of mane on his ears, though they were hard to spot. He looked as old as Simba, and had amber-red eyes. The other was darker than the others, but not as dark as Kovu, and he had dark brown eyes.

Simba stepped forward with the usual pridelander pose of pride, strength and wisdom. The other lions recoiled slightly. “Good day, and to who am I speaking? I’m afraid that rogues have to ask permission from the resident pride for passage through the lands.” He said, firmly but without any threat in his voice.

“We’ve come a long way, in mind more than distance, and we do not wish to simply pass through these lands.” said the black-maned lion, being as polite as he could to the king, though his statement still aroused some disturbance among the lionesses.

“What do you want to do with the Pridelands then?” asked Kovu, obviously raising his guard a bit. He hadn’t said it as kingly and grand as Simba did, and the rogue that looked a bit like Simba eyed him slightly, almost suspicious and confused. Then he lifted his head high, climbed down and looked Simba straight in the eye. “We wish to come home, father.”

These few words caused such amazement amongst the pridelanders that many shook their heads and wondered if they’d heard wrong. But Nala held her gaze and stared at the lion, who smiled back at her. Something about that smile and those adventurous eyes seemed familiar… so familiar…and then it clicked. She gasped and stared harder, her blue eyes set only on the lion, ignoring everyone’s eyes turning towards her.

“Kopa…?” she whispered, and at the nod of the lion’s head she threw herself at him, hugging him and crying with joy and emotion.  He hugged her back, licking her with affection and on the verge of tears too. She broke away from him for a moment to look at Simba, a long lost happiness finally being restored to her eyes.  “Simba, he’s alive…our baby…!”

Simba grinned, completely astounded and unable to believe his eyes. Their Kopa, whom they thought Zira had killed…

He jumped up and joined in the hug, followed by Kiara (Who could only vaguely remember having a brother, but could clearly remember her parent’s grief.) and the pridelander lionesses that had known Kopa, including Timira, who was good friends with him. More than that, they were betrothed. Kovu and Vitani stood awkwardly to the side, puzzled.

“But how can it be..? Zira confessed that she’d killed you!” cried Simba, though part of him had already accepted the fact that Kopa was alive. After all, didn’t everyone think he was dead when he ran away?

“It’s a very long story, dad. It’s not important right now.”

“So, who are your friends?” asked Nala, looking at the other two lions that had just climbed down too.

“I think you’ll remember them,” smiled Kopa, stepping aside.

“Yeah, I do…” muttered Simba, trying to think of who they might resemble.

The black-maned lion stepped forward, then spoke as if he’d known Simba and Nala since forever. “Hey you two, we haven’t seen each other in a while… I can’t remember the last time I came to visit you!”

“Malka?!” cried the king and queen. “It’s been ages! What happened? We could never contact you since Scar took over, and then...when he was defeated…your pride had gone somewhere!” Malka was their cubhood friend, who lived with the pride next door. They met when he got lost into the Pridelands, and Mufasa let him stay until they found his pride. Even though Simba was jealous of him at first, they soon became friends, and after he got picked up by his mum, Malka often came to visit. However, when Scar came to the throne, he didn’t want the two prides communicating with each other, kept Zazu in a cage and made sure that hyenas patrolled the borders as much as possible.

“Well,” said Malka, a sad smile on his face. “I think I’ll explain that afterwards, when the whole story is told.”

“It’s good to see you again, Malka!” beamed Simba, then turned to the last lion, which had been staying back a bit until now. “And who may you be?”

“Well, I-er…” stammered the lion, then pulled himself together. “Is Kula here?” he asked, glancing around.

“No, and how do you know her?” asked Nala, though she was pretty sure she knew the answer by now.

“Just thought it would be nice to greet my mum, y’ know…”

“Afua…?” breathed Timira. “Wow! I thought I’d never see you again!” She was about to jump up on him with joy, but restrained herself shyly.

“It’s good to be back, I suppose,” He beamed.

Then almost all the lions gathered in a group, greeting each other, laughing, smiling, great losses lifted from their shoulders. Vitani also ventured in a bit, she was unusually intrigued by the golden lion, interested in who he was and what his past was like. Kovu stood circling the crowd, confusion showing in his eyes. Suddenly he caught Kopa’s eye, and they both stared at each other, each with the same weariness and uncertainty. Soon the crowd started to break up.

“Sorry Simba, but I’m still not quite sure about who they are… who’s Kopa?” questioned Kovu uncertainly, almost taking the same question out of Kopa’s mind. Simba chuckled, then moved out the way so that Kovu and Kopa could see each other face to face.

“Sorry, Kovu! I forgot all about explanations! Kopa’s my son, he was born before Kiara, but a long time ago he disappeared.” He cringed slightly at the memory. “We found Zira, with blood on her paws… she confessed that she had killed Kopa…We thought he was dead…” Kovu sighed, another terrible deed his own mother had done! Simba remembered the devastation, the anger, the grief. He now knew what Nala had felt like when she found him in the jungle.

He then explained who Malka was, then Afua. He had also disappeared at the same time as Kopa. Though Zira said she didn’t know where he was and didn’t care, everyone had assumed that he was dead too. Then Simba remembered that Kopa also had no idea who Kovu was.

“This is Kovu, Kiara’s mate. They’ve also got a story of their own, but that should wait until later. Come on, we’ll head back to Pride Rock. There we can share our tales.”

So with one last hug, the lions and lionesses headed back to Pride Rock, where Afua was reunited with his mother, Malka met Tama and Kula (Whom he had also played with as a cub.) And Kopa was reunited with the pride, and met all the others he didn’t already know.

As soon as this was finished, the whole pride sat down to listen to the story the three lions had to say.

Chapter 4:

By combining many lions’ points of view, the pride managed to pull together an explanation for all that had happened, and, with a bit of description, it went something like this:

Kopa bounded out of the cave, with Afua following hot on his heels. Joyfully, he stared over the kingdom; it would be his someday! But now he had something else on his mind. Earlier on he had seen a cub with scruffy fur and bright blue eyes. The young prince had only had a glimpse of him or her, as the cub had disappeared into the bushes the second he accidently cracked a twig. A few days later he thought he saw two cubs, the same one as last time, and a tiny glance of a darker one that looked slightly older than him.

The two cubs were actually Kovu and Vitani. When Simba claimed his rightful throne, Zira attacked him, and the other lionesses loyal to Scar threatened to join in too if it wasn’t for Nala and the lionesses who supported Simba. Then, with the advice of others, Simba decided to send them away because of his fear that they might cause trouble in the pride. They were still allowed to hunt in the Pridelands, but only at the outskirts, as he was merciful towards Zira’s two new-born cubs, only two days old. But they were not to communicate with his pride or hunt near them. They were to live completely separately. Zira vowed she’d get her revenge for her beloved’s death, which concerned Simba when Kopa was born.

Often, Kopa ventured a little further than allowed to by his parents, and Vitani and Kovu slipped out a little further when looked after by Nuka. Infact, he sometimes went with them. Kopa now wanted to meet these strange lions and perhaps make friends with them. He had woken Afua up, and they got out earlier to find the cubs and explore while the others were asleep.

“Come on, slow snail!” laughed Kopa, gambolling down Pride Rock, then into the tall grass. Afua followed him, and they tumbled together through the grass, pouncing on each other as they went.

“Should we get Timira and that…?” wondered Afua out loud, but Kopa shook his head.

“Girls are boring. She’d tell us to stop and go back, or get someone to come with us.” Kopa and Timira thought of