their heads and pointed them in that direction, where they noticed a large feathered bird flying towards them at a fair speed. All three of the Royals immediately knew who it was, but the other two did not know this specific flighted animal as well as them until he eventually got closer and they were able to recognize him better at face value.

"Zazu!" Simba quietly exclaimed, seemingly eager to hear the news that he knew his royal majordomo hornbill would state, due to that fact that as of a couple of days ago when his friends Timon and Pumbaa wanted to go back to their original home for a while in the Tropical Paradise in the east, Zazu had been ordered to escort them home. The King now wanted to make sure that everything was okay.

Zazu eventually came close to them and landed in front of Simba, ready to deliver the news.

"Good evening, sire, and to you all." He began, politely addressing everyone out of royal courtesy and also bowing his head to further show it.

"Good evening, Zazu." Simba replied, acknowledging the respect. "How did the journey go?"

"Very well, indeed, Simba." Zazu pleasingly said. "Your friends and I travelled through the afternoon and evening yesterday with a quick rest in an open grassland past the sandy desert before arriving at their jungle home in the early morning, where I then left them. So I believe they are quite settled in right now." 

"Excellent news." Simba delightedly remarked to the hornbill. 

"And they said that they were very delighted to be home but wish that you, Simba, could also be there with them. They send their regards."

"God bless them." He replied with a smile. "I also wish that I could be with them if it was possible, but I am very happy for them all the same."

"I know they will acknowledge that." Zazu further added.

"Yes; well anyway, thank you for flying many miles in such short time to keep safe watch over them. I am sure you must be feeling pretty tired and imagine you want to get some rest, so you may go ahead and do so at your will."

"Thank you, sire, and it was an absolute pleasure to help you and your friends out. Good night."

"Good night, Zazu." Simba finished to him.

"Yes, Good night, Zazu." Came the same response in unison from the other royals including Kovu, but without Vitani being there as she had suddenly and quietly disappeared.

Zazu smiled and nodded them off before lifting himself off the ground by the spread and flap of his wings and flying off to a nearby tree to get some rest for the night.

The Lion King turned back to his family after he was gone and was about to say something else when he noticed Vitani's absence.

"Oh!" He exclaimed in surprise. "Where has Vitani gone?"

"I'm..." Kovu began, looking around where his eyes could focus to catch a glimpse of his sister, but to no avail. "...not really sure. She must have snuck away while Zazu was speaking to us. I don't think that she went up the path leading to the den because we would have easily spotted her. But I'll go and look for her."
"Okay, and we will most likely have turned in for the night inside the den when you come back." His mate said, Simba and Nala nodding in agreement as they would also be likely to do this. "So come on in when you are ready."

"Will do." He assured. "Thanks."

That said, the dark furred lion walked away from the Royal group to go and find where his sister had supposedly 'escaped' to; in hopes that things would be okay.

Sure enough, on the west end walls of Pride Rock, Vitani was lying down on her stomach and staring out to the starey horizon in the north. Like the previous day, she was lost in her thoughts and confused as to whether she should be feeling happy or sad. Again, she was happy that everyone could have come together in peace and a new life had dawned upon her, but deeper down she knew that something was still missing and she considered herself yet to be fully complete without it.

She suddenly had a flashback to her cub days and remembered when she had played and made friends with a Pridelander. He came to the Outlands very often to spend a certain amount of time with her before he would then head back to his home inside the borders of the Pride Lands. He liked her company very much and grew fond of her through it. And they might have made something more of it if not for Vitani's mother, who intervened between them and seemingly killed the male Pridelander cub out of vengeful rage. The young Outsider female cub took it hard at first, but was then told strictly by Zira to let him go and focus on working together with the others of their clan to get ready to one day take back the Pride Lands for good. Vitani appeared reluctant, but since she was a part of the group who was banished and the Pridelanders were the supposed enemies, she had to accept; and the resulting manipulation also blackened her heart as much as it did to her brother, and she grew loyal to the evil ways set by her mother, and there would be no looking back on past times after that.

But now that things had changed, she really wanted to remember the good times of her youth as well as the times spend with her friend, even if he now seemed deceased.

Before she could reflect any further, she heard a familiar voice coming from behind her:

"Vitani?"

The young lioness suddenly let her thoughts go as she let out a small surprised flinch at the sudden unexpected sound and turned her head to spot her brother walking towards her. She noticed a concerned look on his face and got the impression that he knew that something was up, but she tried to shrug it off and act like she was alright.

"Oh! Hi, Kovu." She said to him in a manner sounding like she was pleased to see him.

"What are you doing around here?" He asked curiously. "Why did you suddenly walk away from us?"

His sister thought for a second about telling something aside from the truth, but she knew that it would be pointless considering that she had already acted this way the previous day and she saw that Kiara had questioned her a couple of times about it, only for Vitani to lie her way out of it. Now her brother had also apparently noticed it. I suppose that if I keep this up any longer, they are going to find out sooner or later. She thought. I really should talk. Kovu is my brother, so he will understand, and it is not really a serious issue, so why not?

"Is something bothering you?" Kovu, who had just come and lay beside Vitani, then asked when he noticed her deep in thought, sensing that it might indeed be the case.

She then made her wiser decision:

"Do you remember, when we were young," She then began, looking up at the stars but still focusing her attention to her brother. "the time we made friends with another Pridelander cub, who was so playful and fun yet so innocent?"

The mentioning of this memory actually took Kovu back. He had not thought about it for some time because the brainwashing by his mother had seemingly erased it from his memory, but now that he never had to worry about this any more, he knew that his memory was free to explore the past. It then came back to him.

"Come to think of it, I do remember him." Kovu responded to his sister's question. "His name was Kopa: the Young Prince; the very son of Simba and the firstborn before Kiara, right?"

"Yes."

"And yes, I recall that he would often come over to us in secret without his parents knowing and play with us when we were not around our mother. I think even Nuka warmed up to him. But it was you and him who would often go off together alone."

"That is right." His sister remarked, feeling both happy and melancholy at the memory. 

"So this is what is on your mind?" He then asked.

"Well, I don't exactly know why, but I just can't stop thinking about him." She then replied, still gazing up at the night sky. "The truth is, I didn't think that he was all bad like some had said he and his clan were through all of that, and so I decided to get to know him a bit. We went for strolls, had some enjoyable conversations and explored some interesting places in the Pride Lands. But I also got to know his spiritual side. He told me everything that he knew from his father about the delicate balance of the Circle of Life and how every living creature existed together as a compassionate unit inside of it. These words were very wise from him and it is something that I very much became inspired by. But it was erased from my brain after all the manipulation from mother, as you well know." Her brother smiled lightly and gave a simple single nod when he heard this before she continued. "So in short, I just knew that he was indeed alright. I also didn't know much about it at the time, but I think we had developed feelings for each other after a while." She then turned her head and looked at her brother. "I think that I fell in love with him."

Kovu slightly widened his eyes in surprise. He never really thought that the two of them would have known about the meaning of love at their age. Not even on his own and Kiara's first meeting did he know anything about it. 

"I really believe that it was love, because I remember the very last time that we saw each other before the worst happened." And this is where Vitani had a flashback:

It was the late afternoon and Vitani and the Young Prince were lying on their bellies near a very small pool at the

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