Cast

- Simba is the King of the Pridelands

- Nala is just a regular lioness who has feelings for Simba

- Sarafina is Nala's Mother

- Ni is a rouge who saved Nala from a hyena when she was younger

- Zira was a follower of Scar

- Spotty was a follower of Scar and now a follower of Zira

 

Nala

 

   Nala ran over to where her bloody Mother lay.

   "Mother!" she gasped in shock. "What happened to you?"

   Sarafina looked up from where she was laying.

   "A lion attacked," Sarafina wheezed. "I didn't get a good veiw, but he had a brown mane... It was fully grown as well. His fur color was about the same as Simba's."

   Nala looked her Mother over. Now at a close up, she didn't look so bad. A couple of scratches on her face and body, but that was about it.

   "Did he say his name?" Nala asked curiously. 

   Sarafina laughed, or tried to anyway.

   "Of course not!" she said. "Why would he reveal his identity to me? He probably wanted to be kept a secret. I've never seen him around here before... we lost most of our males to Scar."

   Nala tried to think of who that would be. A lion with golden fur and a brown mane? Who could that have been? She was still unsure by the time they managed to get back to pride rock, with Sarafina leaning on Nala.

   "Where's Simba?" she asked.

   Nala shrugged.

   Sarafina narrowed her eyes.

   "Did something happen?" she asked.

   Nala sighed. She didn't feel like talking about this. Simba was just being stupid, that was all. Nothing else mattered except that her Mother was okay.

   "I don't really feel like talking about it," she said at last. "Let's go home and get Rafiki to treat your wounds."

   Sarafina shook her head as if to say it was fine.

   "I'm perfectly okay," Sarafina said. "Rafiki has some other lioness with worse wounds he needs to treat. I only have a few scratches."

   Nala nodded, too tired to care. She just felt like sitting down and giving up. More then anything, she wished she wasn't dumb enough to stop and argue with Simba.

 

Simba

 

   As Simba continued to head toward the Outlands, he stopped to catch some prey on his way there. He knew that would be selfish: the Pride was starving. His jungle life was still in sight: all the fresh prey there was there, cool water, everything a lion needed. He could go back, but he knew it wouldn't be right to abandon his Pride, expecially at a time like this.

   After Simba caught himself a small rabbit, he heard a nose behind him coming from a bush. Soon, a male lion emerged, with a brown mane and golden fur.

   "Well, well, well, well," the lion said. "Now who are you?" 

   Simba narrowed his eyes.

   "I'm not afraid of you if that's what you're thinking" he growled. "Get out of my territory!" 

   The lion squinted his eyes.

   "You must be the King here," the lion said, ignoring Simba's other remarks. "King Simba, that is."

   Simba bristled. How much did this lion know about him?

   "How do you know all this?" he questioned suspiciously. 

   The strange lion shrugged.

   "It doesn't matter," the lion said. "All that matters is that I've found you."

   "What's your name?" Simba snarled.

   "My name is Ni."

 

The Outlands

 

   As Spotty checked over the Outlanders that they had lost, Zira was in her den again, plotting. She still needed the prisoners for her plan, but she didn't know how to use them just yet.

   "7," Spotty said as she came in. "We lost seven lioness to the lack of food."

   Zira growled in frustration. Seven was way too many. They weren't going to be able to overpower Simba's Pride.

   "Spotty, I need you to do me a favor. Send a couple of scouts over to the Prideland border, and make sure there are no hunting parties there. This is the time we put our plan into action."

 

   Simba

 

   "Ni?"

   The brown maned lion nodded his head.

   "Yeah, I was friends with Nala," Ni said. "Well, kind of."

   "What does kind of mean?"

   Ni shrugged.

   "I saved her from death, big deal. It's not like she owes me a favor or anything..."

   Simba narrowed his eyes. He had a feeling Ni was being sarcastic.

   "Well... Ni, I guess I better take you back to pride rock. Let's let Nala judge you there."

   Ni flashed a smile.

   "I assure you, she'll let me stay."

 

Pride rock

 

   "What? Of course I won't let him stay!"

   "Nala, I said this a thousand times," Simba explained yet again. "You have to let him stay. Or else... well, who knows what he'll do."

   Nala rolled her eyes.

   "Simba, you have no idea what he's capable of! We can't let him stay, or else he'll ruin the whole of the Pridelands."

   "But he'll ruin the whole Pridelands if we don't," Simba said. "And didn't you say he saved you from death? You wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for him!"

   Nala shrugged her shoulders.

   "It was just one hyena, no big deal," she said. "Anybody could do that!"

   "Obviously you couldn't if he did it," Simba pointed out dryly. "Come on Nala! Just give him a chance. Why are you so distrustful? I thought you said you never saw each other after that!"

   Nala's ears went back a little.

   "Well, we did see each other again after that..." Nala said hesitantly. 

   Simba's eyes narrowed: there was something Nala wasn't telling him.

   Ni, meanwhile, was waiting outside of the Pridelander's den.

   "Whatever," Nala continued. "You can't trust him."

   "Really?" Simba scoffed. "He didn't do anything worthy of not being trustful of him."

   "He injured my Mother!" she snarled. "What's not distrustful of that? And I'm sure he knew it was her!"

   Simba rolled his eyes.

   "All lioness look the same," he said impatiently. "Maybe he thought it was a lioness from a different Pride."

   Nala growled.

   "Traitor," she muttered on her way out of the den.

   Simba bristled. As soon as he calmed down, he walked over to where Ni was sitting. 

   "I'm sure we can make room for you," Simba said to Ni. "How long will you be staying?"

   Ni shrugged.

   "I don't know," he replied. "I was thinking about making this my permanent home."

   Nala gasped: Simba froze: Sarabi stared. Everyone was shocked at this reply. 

   "How did you know?" Nala asked.

   "Know what?" Ni said.

   "Know that Scar was gone?"

   Ni shrugged again.

   "News travels fast," Ni said, not even bothering to give a better explanation. "Now, where am I staying for the time being?"

   

The Outlands

 

 

   As Zira watched Spotty bury all the Outlanders that had died, she couldn't help but think of how much the Prideland's lioness would outnumber them if they went into battle. Which of course, was not what Zira wanted. She needed more allies.

   After all the lioness were buried, she asked Spotty if the coast was clear.

   "I saw no hunting parties out there," Spotty reported. "A couple of lions patrolling, but that's about it."

   "And how is... well, you know, doing?"

   "Just fine," Spotty replied."In the Pridelands right now, in fact."

   Zira nodded in satisfaction.

   "Good," she said. "We need to gather more lionesses for the on coming war. We lost seven, so that is eleven or so fighters more the Pridelanders would have."

   Spotty looked unsure.

   "How do we recruit?" she asked. "I mean, the other Prides would never want to help us after what Scar did to them."

   Zira growled at Spotty. She wasn't making this easy.

   "And what exactly did he do to them?" Zira snarled.

   "Well..." Spotty tried to think. "He got most of the Shadow Pride's territory, and they only had a little left. Of course Simba returned it to them once he reclaimed the throne. And-"

   "Alright, alright," Zira growled. "He did some terrible things to them, I know. But we need to act fast, before we lose all of our

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