For Better or For Worse

Summary: Asya has known from the moment she was a cub and adolescent that she was meant to rule in her father’s place as the next ruler of the Jangwa Pride as its first Queen. An elderly father who could die at any time forces the Princess to make a choice: Accept the throne when it’s her time or give it to one of her inexperienced sisters. Reluctantly, she accepts the throne and her father’s last request: That she take a Prince of the Pridelands as her King and mate. When she suffers a fever her mind flashes back to the times she spent with her now deceased father. But the surprising presence of her ‘mate’ in the royal chamber, the words he speaks to her in her fever induced sleep and the days that follow make her realize that though she did not choose her future she can make it bearable for herself and the son of Pridelander royal blood.

Rating: PG although there really is nothing serious, but better safe than sorry.

Disclaimer: The character Malka is the property of the Walt Disney Company. Fan made characters such as Chaka, Penda, Nuala, Jelani, Asya, Themba, Mila and Tosca belong to Namacub95. Other fan made characters like Aricin, Mohan and Jyotika belong to Claire Cooper.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Queen Asya of the Jangwa Pride had never been sick a day in her life. Yet sometime during her sleep she felt her body grow hot and weak. She had no idea what was happening but somewhere within her she had the feeling that she was suffering a high fever.

Whether he, her King and mate, was in the chamber with her she did not know – because she had her eyes closed – and she found herself not caring. With her unable to perform her duty to the kingdom – keeping it safe by sending the young males out to patrol with Aricin – he was on his own. Maybe it would help him, if only a little, but that was wishful thinking on her part.

As her body slowly started to suffer the effects of what she believed to be a fever, her mind, meanwhile, filled itself with thoughts of her past, her cubhood and growing up in Jangwa under the care of her parents, the King and Queen.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

When she was young, no one saw her as a sickly cub. In fact she was, as the elder lionesses liked to playfully call her, “a fluff ball of non-stop energy”. And she was. She simply could not help it. It was as though she had been born with an energetic spirit that never seemed to slow down, even when her parents commanded it. From the day she could walk and talk she had proved herself to be quite the cub no one could really settle down for anything, not even for a catnap in the sun or in the shades of the trees beside the waterholes. And unlike her sisters, Themba and Mila who were the quiet and reserved types, she was loud, hardheaded and stubborn. Neither of her parents knew where she inherited such traits but she had them.

Asya was a lioness cub with a feisty spirit but her sisters Themba and Mila were not. And as much as Asya loved her sisters, she wished they were more adventurous but since they weren’t she would often play by herself, pretending to hunt when she was six moons old, or when she was younger than that, trying to chase her father’s tail or her mother’s.

Her cubhood was quiet and peaceful, but even when she was young she knew that her father, King Malka, who looked way older than her mother the Queen, would not live for a long period of time. She knew that he would die and when he did, the throne of Jangwa would be thrust upon her, the heiress. Oh one of her sisters, either Themba or Mila could take over but they were inexperienced.

It was she, the eldest of King Malka and Queen Tosca’s only litter who had been born for the leadership. She was the one that Malka took on his patrols through the kingdom, the one he lectured about how important it was to keep her home safe from foreigners, from lion rogues who took what they wanted by the shedding of innocent blood.

“As much as I love your sisters,” she remembered him saying. “They do not have that spirit of ruling a kingdom in them. They are lionesses of the Pride. I know that they prefer hunting to the duties of a ruler.”

Malka had shaken his pitch-black mane at that, not because he was disappointed in his two quiet and gentle mannered daughters, but because shaking his mane was something he did. Whether it was to prove a point no one knew. Not even his beloved mate.

Asya had been two years old when she and her father had that conversation out in Jangwa’s plains, away from the kingdom’s caves where their pride dwelled.

Malka looked down at her and smiled gently. “You are the only hope Jangwa has, Asya. You were born to be its next Queen. There is no one else, not even the few male cubs that were born to some of the lionesses.”

Asya slightly flinched at that and wondered if her father had seen it. When he continued talking she knew he didn’t and found that she was grateful for it. “Father,” she heard herself say, “I…”

“When you were a cub you were highly adventurous. I know you’ve changed since you started growing up, but I’m not going to be around forever…” He looked downward and muttered softly, “as much as I would like to be.” Then he spoke aloud again, intently. “The way you behaved as a cub can be put to bigger strengths. It can be used to protect this kingdom. You can become a strong and capable leader, if you wish.” Then he stared at her. “Asya, my daughter, I love you, and I do not wish to see this kingdom suffer uncertainty when I die.” He bowed his elegant head. “Uncertainty befell this pride when your grandfather – your mother’s father – died unexpectedly.”

Asya nodded. She knew that story well, and she knew that what her father was saying was the truth. Not that he was one to lie. He wasn’t. So… all this time I’ve been denying it to myself, she thought. When you do pass Father it really is all up to me… Must I? I wasn’t born male, which, somewhere in me, I know that’s what you and probably Mother wanted. But I wasn’t so the kingdom will fall to me, a lioness.

She then remembered the way she would try to play rough with her sisters. They would quickly tell her to stop or run to their mother, who, in turn, would lecture Asya about how it was wrong to be rough with her sensitive siblings. It was those moments Asya wished that her mother had borne at least one son, if not one then two that way she would someone to play rough with. Those moments, however, passed quickly as she grew up, but now, walking with her father and hearing his words, she wished that she had one or two brothers. One to take up the kingship, and the other to protect the pride, with her alongside that said second brother, because if she was honest with herself, she would be better at the protection detail than he.

But there were no brothers. It was just her, her sisters, and the young male cubs who weren’t even her father’s children, yet he accepted them into the pride.

Her ears tipped backward then forward. So… it really is all on me, she thought, her mind spinning. I guess it’s not Mother’s fault that she and Father had no sons. With such a thought in her head she was amazed that her father wasn’t disappointed that he had no sons. Instead he had chosen to love his daughters and to train her, his eldest, the ways of ruling. How many fatherly kings would do that? The answer was simple – none that she knew of. Not even her mother’s father, the last king, would have done so.

Asya believed that she was incredibly lucky, she and her sisters. Her father never showed favoritism to any of his children – those that were his and those not, the children of the pridal lionesses who mated with rogues that lingered on the borders. Everything he was saying now… Was he asking too much?

Yes… I think he is, but… Her heart pounded in her chest, knowing he was right. No one lived forever, especially a lion like her father who had endured many hardships of his own. He was tough, strong but he was not immortal. Everyone had to die at some point. Her father was reaching his but she hoped it was a long time from now. She still needed him, so did her sisters and the young males of the pride. She heard him speak again.

“Asya, not now, but soon, the sun will set on my time not only as King, but as a living creature. In time I will join the stars and when I do the sun will rise on you as Jangwa’s new ruler, its Queen. When that day comes the pride will look to you for guidance and leadership, to keep it safe from the kind of rogues who mean the realm and the pride harm. As my daughter, my first born, my heiress, it’s up to you to protect and defend this land with everything you are. Everything the spirits above made you out to be.”

He stared at her and she stared back, his light orange red eyes meeting her dark red eyes. She was beautiful, his precious Asya. Just like her mother… He swallowed. “Asya, I know I am asking an awful lot of you, but no one else can lead this kingdom. You can, I know it. You just have to want it.” Malka smiled gently, maybe even lovingly at her, nuzzled her briefly, and continued walking.

Asya could only stand there and run her father’s words over in her mind. Then, after a long moment, she trotted up to him and the two, father and daughter, King and Princess/Heiress, walked side-by-side and Asya knew – as much as she hated to give it mental admittance – that her father was right. His time was getting shorter, the sun now beginning to set on