“Enyi?” he whispered.

“Sir?”

“Who is your king? Tell me, Enyi, who is your king?”

“Eh… you are, sire?”

“Indeed. And that goes for all Outlanders, I am their king, right? Me, not Simba.”

“Well… yeah, you are…” Enyi replied with certain confusion. What was this all about all of a sudden?

“Well then if you value the word of your king, I need you to do the following,” Kovu whispered still, his voice now cold, determined and calculated, “I need you to tell all Outlanders this…”

Enyi gasped quite a few times as she received her new directives, for they were both cold and grim.

“In those words?” she uttered, “I need to tell all our fellow Outlanders those exact words?”

“Yes, those exact words, and be sure to mention they have the obligation to obey them, no matter how hard they might sound and no matter how hard it will be to follow them, for not doing so could well mean our demise, our complete annihilation,” Kovu replied with a grim stare.

“And the Pridelanders? What do I tell them?”

“You tell them nothing, for we cannot trust them. We can only count on ourselves. If, however, the Pridelanders value their lives and existence, most of them will prove wise enough to conform with us Outlanders, especially the wounded ex-prisoners, who will have little choice in the matter. Now, when you are done informing our sisters, I want you and some of your most trusted lionesses to go over to Kiara and…”

*

“Uh-oh…”

“What, ‘uh-oh’?”

“That huge lion with his impressive set of brown manes is coming our way…”

“What?” Vitani gasped as she looked around. Indeed, there he was: Simba, slowly striding towards her. At  least he came alone, that could only mean he wasn’t out to pick a fight. Still, the thought of having Simba around her didn’t really appeal to Vitani, as their last meeting had been rather… unpleasant… scary… creepy. Oh well, at least now, Vincent was with her (though she doubted he could ever prove any good against a lion as powerful as Simba). But Simba’s appearance did mean Vitani and Vincent would be unable to work out a solution for the present standoff by themselves, though..

“Is he good news or bad news?”

“Neither… he’s the King…”

“Ah…” Vincent mumbled, as he signaled his fellow hyenas he needed no help just yet: the sudden descent of Simba into the Golden River had nearly provoked a hyena counterattack (which was set to occur if Vincent’s life ever came in any danger). But that didn’t seem to be the case just yet. It came to prove how twitchy everyone was, however. From both sides of the river, dozens of eyes watched anxiously as Simba slowly made his way towards Vitani and Vincent. Everyone hoped no-one would at this point do anything stupid… would their hope prove idle? With ponderous tread Simba closed in, and Vitani moved back a bit, now sitting next to Vincent in stead of standing in front of him. The hyena and lioness now awfully stared at the king, as he graciously sat down before them.

“Vitani,” he quietly nodded with certain reservation. Vitani just returned the nod, but didn’t really feel anything for a verbal response: no matter how you turned it, Simba’s mere appearance remained mightily impressive and even intimidating.

“And I take it you speak for your kind?”

“Good guess,” Vincent replied, feeling very uncomfortable and puny around Simba, “And you are…?”

“I am the King of all Pridelands,” Simba replied with certain disdain, “I rule over these lands…”

“Well, that ought to be enough ‘meet ’n greet’…” Vitani noted, hoping to skip past all those formalities. Her remark, however, did not exactly bring forth the reaction she was hoping for, as Simba apparently considered Vitani’s remark an insult.

“Do not interrupt me. In fact, do everyone a favor and only speak when spoken to…”

“Hey, hey, easy there, it doesn’t hurt being polite…” Vincent mumbled, still a bit wary because of Simba’s sheer size.

“I need no lecture in politeness from your kind, hyena,” Simba sneered. Although he obviously took some offence at that remark, Vincent argued that he’d have to stand taking a few sneers; if that was what it took to ensure peace, so be it. His and Vitani’s loved ones were more than worth having to stand that minor inconvenience. Vitani, however, who wasn’t too fond of authority ever since the Reunion, and who had little love for Simba ever since their last (scary) encounter, wasn’t just going to let that insult slip.

“If that’s what you came down here for, I suggest you leave again,” she hissed, “We’re here to put a stop to the horrible effects those kinds of remarks have always fueled… not perpetuate this pointless war by never-ceasing insults as you seem to be trying now, my king.”

“I dare you to take such tone to me again…”

“Come on now, that’s no way to talk to a lady…”

“Stay out of this!” Simba snapped at the hyena, “You should be grateful to still be around after what you did to my pride, and my home!”

“Oh yeah, great way to be thanking him for letting Nala and all other prisoners go free of charge…”

“Thanking him?” the lion shouted in indignation, “I should be thanking him? After his kin butchered my pride and stole my Pridelands, my Priderock? Their release of the prisoners was just  a conditio sine qua non for the hyena-clan’s mere survival; now I might consider sparing them. But thanking them? Over my dead body.”

“Un-fucking-believable!” Vitani suddenly cried out, “What kind of blockhead are you? Spare them? For the Kings’ sake, it are the hyenas who are sparing us! Look around you, we’re in a war, and we’re losing badly; it’s about time you start acting in concordance with that one simple fact. It is not up to you to spare anyone, can’t you get that through your thick skull? You are a king without land and without a pride!”

Those remarks already got the lioness some pretty nasty glares from Simba, but now that she was on a roll, she wouldn’t be put off by some gloomy stare.

“I mean, my mom used to tell me some pretty painful stories about Musafa’s hardheadedness… but your unfounded pride and mindless stubbornness makes his pale in comp…”

Maybe it was the still lingering heat that hung over Golden River, maybe it was the unexpected feeling of hunger, maybe it was his relative lack of sleep that day, maybe it was the fact he couldn’t stand any bad word about Mufasa, but probably it were just his nerves finally snapping after an endless day of shocks, fear, disobedience and the trauma of losing and then being reunited with Nala. Regardless of the causes, Simba did something he nor anyone else had thought possible in the given context, and worst of all was he did it not at all voluntarily: it felt as if someone else were occupying his body, a takeover by his own pride, hate and common annoyance over level-headedness.

“Don’t you dare befoul the name of my father again!” Simba thundered, in the midst of Vitani’s sentence, and already his front-paws had swung up to hammer down on Vitani in an unfortunate and untimely outburst of impulsive violence.

*

“My princes, my queen.”

“Oh, hi, Enyi,” Kiara replied a bit off-guard. Enyi could still see her trying to blink away a single tear. Meanwhile, without Kiara or Nala noticing, Enyi’s lionesses discretely took post around them; as always they acted flawless.

“You look upset, is there something wrong?” Enyi continued, “And how is  my queen?”

“We were just going over old-times,” Nala replied a bit avoiding, “About how she was as a kid, you know, the kind of things I thought about when I was deprived of my daughter…”

“…and about what happened too mom just now, on Priderock, of course,” Kiara quickly added, “I was just upset because I was afraid I’d never see my mom again, and now that she’s here I cried out of pure relief.”

“I can imagine. You’re lucky to still have each other,” Enyi">

Maybe it was the still lingering heat that hung over Golden River, maybe it was the unexpected feeling of hunger, maybe it was his relative lack of sleep that day, maybe it was the fact he couldn’t stand any bad