Vitani felt a strange crack in her chest as her blue eyes gazed sadly on the grey, dusty figure of her beloved brother. That rat Simba had pushed logs down onto Nuka and buried him under the fatal wood. His fall had most likely broken his ribs and punctured one of his organs. He may not have been her real brother, but he was just as good as one.

 As her mind pleaded for this to be a nightmare - one that she would soon wake up from - a tear fell from her eye and fell onto Nuka's lifeless body, and Vitani wished with all her might that it would somehow heal him, reverse time so that he could live. But the damage had been done, and nothing could change that.

Her brain reflected back to the earlier events. It all started when they began to chase Simba. Vitani knew that this was also Zira's fault for sending them out and letting Nuka go after Simba, but deep down she would never look at Zira in a bad way. She had raised her as if she was her mother, and protected her from her early life. She couldn't understand what had gone wrong. She found herself wandering through the depts of her mind as her head fell, reflecting on her past.

Vitani's earliest memory was gazing into her mother's gentle velvet eyes with a soft, warm huddle lying next to her at the age of five weeks old. She could still remember the den, with it's skylight in the centre, soft, gentle heather surrounding them and the pond behind the cave. And the smell. The gentle, lingering scent of her mother that hung in the air like leaves from branches, swaying gently in the breeze as they stroked her fluffy fur.

Her first memory of her father was when she was one month old. She was celebrating her birthday with her sister, Niva, when a strange lion approached them. He had blue eyes that floated in an endless white sea, eyes that very much resembled her own sapphire orbs, only his were much darker.

She could still remember the conversation between her mother and this strange lion who looked very much like Niva. The words gripped her throat like an icy hand strangling her whenever she thought about it. Her mother called the twins over to her and looked proudly at the male.

"Derrick, this is Vitani and Niva, your cubs. I had them while you were away for five months." She had said, gazing at this stranger. Derrick, who seemed to be their father, gave a look of discust for a second, but it was gone so quick Vitani didn't know if she had really seen it, and her mother hadn't really noticed it. He quickly changed it to a twisted false smile that Vitani knew was not sincere. She had seen her mother's smile and his was not the same look. It was much more forced.

"I'm so glad to finally meet them." He purred and reached out to them. Vitani's attempts to duck under her mother's legs failed, and she was dragged over to her father and pulled into a hug. She could feel the gentle tip of his claws scrape the edge of her skin, sending off a rush of pain up her arm, yet her mother could not see.

His crooked smile burned harshly into Vitani's memory as he gazed into her eyes with his darkened ones, a look of discust written all over them. "I'm sure me and my daughters will get along great, Lilly."

The second thing she could remember was how much her life had changed. The skylight that shone in the centre had been blocked out by a stone, the soft, gentle heather thrown out and replaced with hideous, scratchy dried grass, and the pond behind the den completely dried up. And the smell. The awful stench of her father clung viciously to the air, like a tree in a thunderstorm, smashing back harshly at the wind, and it clawed at her growing fur. Her father's smell was not like her mother's own gentle, heather scent, but like blood, both a dried and fresh blood stench, and it was enough to make her heave. Vitani and Niva discussed this in private, whenever they got to go out and play.

However, they so rarely got the opportunity because of how harsh their father was. Finally having someone always around to watch the twins, Lilly went out to hunt more and more often, with Derrick babysitting the two. He would practically forbid them to leave the cave and keep quiet, or they would be punished. Vitani once accidently broke this rule. She was thirsty and decided to step outside for a drink, but when she got back, her father attacked her. Vitani never forgot the burns of pain that tore across her side and sliced up her arm. The last thing she could remember doing before passing out was vomiting. When she woke up she was thirsty again, but did not dare to try and get another drink.

These rules remained when Lilly was around, too, but their father never attacked them when she was around, and said he was "worried about them" when they wanted to go out, and "he was extremely tired" when they were noisy. They had to be escorted to the nearest water hole because the pond had dried up. And then, when they broke these rules, they would get told off, then the minute their mother had gone out to hunt he would turn and attack them. Then when Lilly came back he would send her out for more food until she collapsed on the cave floor with exhaustion.

Really the only way the twins could get some time alone was when their Aunt Petal came over. Petal wasn't really their aunt, more of their godmother, because she was best friends with Lilly. Whenever Petal came with her three cubs, Harmony, Melody and Destiny, she would look after the twins and tell Derrick he "deserved a nap for working so hard" so the two would go off and play. And then they would talk about the problem.

"I don't really like Daddy a lot." Niva would pout. "We were better off when Daddy wasn't here." "Daddy!" Vitani would sniff. "There is no way that monster is our dad! I can't think why Mother likes him so much! He's no father to me!" "But Vitani," Niva said one day. "We can't change the fact that He is our real dad, even though we don't want him to be." Vitani wrinkled her nose. "I don't care. I won't reffer to him as my dad. He will be my stepdad in my eyes, and no more." She sniffed. Niva nodded. "Right. So from now on Daddy is our stepdad, but we won't ever tell Him or Mother that's what we see Him as."

As the months passed with their abusive stepdad, Vitani and Niva wished for someone to come and kill him, and also began to long for a younger sibling to protect, Vitani more, since she was younger than Niva by ten minutes. One day Niva had a brainwave so they went to their mother.

"Mummy, can't we possibly have a little baby brother?" They said when they arrived. "Oh Vitani, Niva, I'm afraid I haven't got time to raise you a younger brother, although I would love to have one." Lilly sighed. "Your father already says we're struggling with food as it is, and he's always so tired from looking after you two all the time." Stepfather. Both cubs mentally corrected. And he's lying. We have loads of food, he just eats it all like the pig he is. And he doesn't look after us, he abuses us. We look after ourselves. But neither said this, and Vitani suddenly came up with an idea. "Oh please let us have a baby brother, Mummy!" She pleaded. "Pretty pretty pretty please with cherries on top! We'll look after him while you're out, promise! So Dad doesn't have to worry about him, we'll look after him!" "Yes, we will, we promise we will!" Niva chirped in, also pleading. "Pretty pretty please, Mummy, we really want a baby brother to look after. And we are old enough to look after ourselves while we are in the den. Pretty pretty pretty please with sprinkles on top!" Lilly laughed. "Alright, you've worn me down. But I can't promise it will be a boy. You might have a little sister, you know." "That's OK, thanks Mummy!" Vitani yelled, leaping about. "Yay! We're going to get a little brother or sister!" Niva squeaked, hopping around with Vitani.

Of course, Derrick decided to spoil everything by walking in. "What's going on, Lilly?" He asked. "Why are the twins leaping and hopping about like that?" Lilly smiled at him. "Derrick, Vitani and Niva really want a baby brother or sister. They can have one, can't they?" Vitani's hopes shattered in an instant. She knew what her stepfather's reaction would be.

"Absolutely not!" He said at once. "We can barely find enough food to feed us all, let alone one more. And what if its twins, or triplets?" Vitani lost all hope. There was no way she could possibly change her stepfather's mind. But Niva came up with a sick, realistic looking smile and gazed into her stepfather's eyes. "Oh pretty pretty pretty please with sprinkles on top, Daddy!" She begged. "We'll do anything you say!" Personally Vitani would much rather get chased and mauled by hyenas and then poke her eyes out with her own claws before drowning herself in the water hole, but she played along, and did the same as Niva. "Yes, pretty pretty pretty please with cherries on top, Daddy!" She pleaded. "We'll look after him, we won't be noisy or set a paw outside the den, honest! Please!"

Her stepfather laughed. His laugh was cold and twisted, but he put on fake warmth to it for their mother. "Alright then, you two may have a little sibling. Go out to play then, and go get a drink from the water hole." He smiled, using that fake smile that Lilly could not see past. "Yay! Thanks Daddy!" The twins yelled