The character names in bold are my characters that are used in this fan-fic. Want to know more about them, try my first fan-fic "Journey of Destiny".

All other characters belong to Disney.

*Warning* does contain mild violence and blood.

Potea-lost

Kucha-claw

Baba

Prologue

Sarafina took one last look at the small medley of lions, cubs, and birds traveling away from her and toward priderock. They were all hanging their heads and unwilling to move very fast at all. Then, sighing, she too lowered her head and kept on walking toward her fate.

As she entered the jungle, she was surprised at how thick it was. On the outside it looked like nothing more than a whole bunch of trees, but on the inside, it was filled with all sorts of other stuff. Once again she hesitated just before stepping in and looked back, pondering if it was still too late to go back. It was too late, they all knew what she was doing, and it had to be done. But then, a small speck of black right above her caught her eye. As she watched, the figure became clearer and clearer. It was Kucha. For some reason, he had returned to stay with her.

Kucha landed almost right on top of her. “I decided to come with you.” He said, as if nothing had happened. “The others don’t mind at all. In fact, I don’t think anybody noticed me go away.” Hurriedly, he added, “Except Sarabi, she knew what I was doing.”

Sarafina was overjoyed that she wouldn’t have to stay out here alone for the next few years. This was going to be a great time she thought. “So, why did you decide to come back to go with me instead of staying with everyone else? You would have had almost no hardships in the pridelands as a hawk.”

He answered without a trace of hesitation, because they didn’t need me, and you probably would. And anyway, that Taka or Scar or whatever his name is, probably won’t do much good to the kingdom. He’s just a stuck up jerk that thinks everything is someone else’s fault. If I come with you, then I won’t have to deal with that and instead might do something good.” He paused and looked at her, “So, what are we waiting for, let’s go!”

Together, they descended slowly into the deep jungle. They were already learning to put previous events behind them and to keep going with life, after all, what else can be done in life?

Chapter 1: Past Battles

It was a year later and Sarafina was now a full grown lioness. For the past year she had been wondering how the life of Sarabi and Mufasa was going right now. But now, with a whole year between their partings, the unknown was becoming almost unbearable.

She couldn’t stand it, even though she was planning to leave in another year or two, there was nothing to do right now. She couldn’t even talk to Kucha anymore. He had died only a couple weeks ago and her theory of moving on with life was being put to the test. She thought back to the incident. She still had the wounds on her back.

She had just walked into a clearing to see if there was anything around that looked promising. She remembered she had stopped in the middle, in hindsight; it was the worst place to stop because she was far away from any safety. It was even worse that Kucha was not with her at the time to tell her if anything dangerous around. As it happened, there was an eagle circling far above. She didn’t see it as she walked away from safety. The eagle soon started circling lower, and soon, it dove straight at her. What saved her life though, was that she looked up at the very last second and saw this huge bird coming at her.

Instinctively, Sarafina dropped to the ground as fast as she could. Fortunately, her eyes, which were what the eagle had undoubtedly aimed for, were now too low. However, the eagle still raked her back with his outstretched talons. Releasing a shriek of pain, she fell on the ground. Seeing the bird coming around again, she instantly started getting to the forest as fast as possible while calling for help.

At first, it seemed hat she was going to make it all the way without having to dodge another attack. The eagle was too fast though, just as she turned her head to see the position of this new enemy, the eagle came again and got one of her legs as she tried to roll away. It was at this moment that Kucha came and surprised the eagle.

Stunned, the eagle slammed into the ground. Despite its wounds, it got back up to kill this hawk. Clearly, the eagle was capable of withstanding much damage. Kucha, instead of just leaving it here and disappearing into the jungle, had to finish this fight. In midair, they started fighting. With surprise no longer on his side, Kucha was quickly being overpowered.

Within a minute, both were seriously injured and unlikely to do much for the next week. Kucha realized he finally had defeated his enemy at this point and just needed to get away. Sarafina had crawled into the jungle and was calling up to Kucha to try to get him to come down. He made his attempt.

Kucha, with a quick burst of speed, flew a short distance away, and aimed for a small hole in the canopy were he could easily lose the eagle. Seeing his purpose, the eagle also dove down toward the same spot. Kucha reached it an instant earlier and started to maneuver around branches. The eagle was not so careful. Knowing it’s life would probably be over unless it caught Kucha, the eagle went through the branches, leaving a wide hole through the forest.

Kucha had almost reached the ground level and was about to level out, when the eagle grabbed him. He knew it was over, there was no way he could escape this. He could only try to take the eagle with him. Kucha leveled out and flew straight at a tree. Despite best efforts, the eagle couldn’t budge the course. Then, right before impact, Kucha flipped on his side so only the eagle would hit the tree.

It worked perfectly, the eagle slammed into the tree and was instantly killed. Unfortunately for Kucha, the talons that were buried deep inside his back had ripped out leaving gaping wounds and severely damaging important organs, including some vital nerves. The wounds left him unable to fly, so he just crashed into the ground in a pile of leaves and blood.

Sarafina still had the strength to get to him quickly and tried to see if he was going to live. She could see almost instantly that there was no hope. As she started to cry, Kucha’s eyes glazed over and he said, with the last breath of air in his lungs, “See, I did do something good.”

Sarafina couldn’t take it anymore, she snapped herself back to the present, it was time to plan her next move.

Chapter 2: A Stranger

Sarafina knew it was time to head back to priderock now. The others would be very surprised at her coming this early, but that could not be helped.  If she stayed here all by herself, she knew something bad was going to happen someway or another. So, after a quick sleep, she started walking toward the edge of where she had come from. Hopefully she had remembered properly.

She couldn’t help but replay Kucha’s death over and over again. The more she thought, the more depressed she came. Subsequently, this effected her direction ever so slightly and soon, she was heading for the deepest part of the jungle. Unfortunately, she didn’t notice this until she was almost through the toughest section. Finally she realized her mistake.

Sarafina couldn’t believe it, she would have to work her way back through all the tough jungle she had just passed through. With her strength almost depleted, she needed to find something to eat now, but with this jungle, it was impossible. This was exactly what she had feared. All hope seemed lost for her as she just lay down and started crying, waiting for either an incredible stroke of luck, or certain death.

For a whole day she just sat there. Sometimes in silence, other times sobbing as loud as possible. Finally, after another day, there was a sound nearby. Sarafina quickly became alert and attempted to locate the noise. With the last remnants of her strength, she pulled herself over to the noise as quietly as possible.

The figure making the noise was not what she had expected, but before the magnificent lion, lay what seemed like the most beautiful meal Sarafina had ever seen. She rushed in toward the bloody feast not caring what the other lion would think. Surely he would realize that she needed food immediately.

Taken aback, the lion stopped her growled. “What are you doing here?” he asked, clearly not welcoming Sarafina at all.

“I just need to eat something.”

“What are you doing here?” he asked again, this time more forcefully.

“I told you I just need something to eat, I’m very hungry as I’ve been lying right over there for the past two days.” She replied, desperate to get past this lion and start eating.

“You’ve been here for two days.” The lion did not believe her. “I’ve been through this entire area several times over the last two days. This is my territory.”

“Well, then, either you didn’t happen to stumble right where I was, or you’re lying and you’re just being stubborn. Now give me some food before I die.”

This time, the lion grudgingly allowed her to pass and eat some of the kill. “Now will you tell me why you’re here? No lion comes into the jungle without a decent reason.”

Sarafina, not wanting to give away too much, answered semi-honestly. “It was in my way.” She smiled, “But what are you doing here then? No lion comes into the jungle without a decent reason.”

The other lion was flustered, “That…that…that’s none…none of you business.”

“Why isn’t it?”

“Because well, because, it just isn’t. You shouldn’t be trying to find out my life story. After all, “Your answer ‘it was in my way’ is hardly an answer.”

“But it’s true, it was in my way so I went there.”

“And what circumstances put you in that place so the jungle was ‘in your way?’”

Sarafina was getting more and more curious as to why this lion was acting so defensively. “Well, how about this, if I tell you why I’m here, will you tell me why you’ve ended up here also?”

Apparently, the other lion was also curious about her life too. “Fine, I just want to here your story first.”

“No problem, After I finish, you will tell me why you’re here right?” Sarafina prodded.

Once again he got nervous, “Well, alright. Just tell me what happened.”

Sarafina closed her eyes, and remembered, all the way back to her first weeks as a cub; this would be a long story.

Chapter 3: Just for a Little While

Sarafina took over two hours to recite everything that she thought was important for this stranger to know so he would trust her. Her story went through her entire life. All the way from her first weeks of memory of playing with the other cubs in the pride, to the whole incident with Taka turning evil, to the incident just 2 or three weeks ago where Kucha had died. Reliving all those events had caused her to think about them again. By the end, she was almost in tears.

“Well,” she sniffed, “That’s about it, how about your life story now?”

The lion was surprised, this story was worse than he had expected. He no longer felt so bad about sharing his story. “Fine, just give me a minute here.”

They both used that minute to regain their composure. Sarafina from just telling her story, and the other lion to gather up his courage for his story. Finally, they were both ready. Then, at the last second, Sarafina asked “Could you tell me what your name is first please?”

The lion only thought it was fair as Sarafina had revealed hers during her story. “potea. All right, here we go.” He paused as if he still wasn’t sure whether he should uphold his promise or try to get away from telling. He shook his head, this lioness would not leave him in peace until his story was revealed. “It started about one year ago when I was almost a full grown lion.”

Slowly his story unfolded and Sarafina was stricken with horror. This lion clearly had a terrifying time. His entire pride seemed perfectly nice enough, it was just a year ago when the bad things started happening. It started with a hunt. There was an accident and one of the main lionesses was killed in a stampede. After that, things went from bad to worse.

A mysterious disease soon afflicted almost the entire pride. Unable to hunt, most starved to death, only a few of the older cubs and two or three lionesses lived. There was little hope for the survival of the pride at this time. Still, unable to break old bonds, they stuck together and wandered their territory for a whole month. It was at this time that another awful accident occurred.

The pride was playing in a water hole, just cooling off, at the time. Potea decided to run off and chase some small animals. It was this move that probably saved him. Not five minutes after he was gone, the first lion cub disappeared under the water. Of course, the others went looking for the cub and were subsequently also pulled under.

“At least, that’s what I think happened,” said potea, “I guess they all could have ran off and ditched me, but I can’t imagine them doing that.” He sighed, “That’s about it, after that, I just wandered and came across this jungle. It was perfect for me. It had enough food, and it was the perfect place to forget everything.”

“Well,” exclaimed Sarafina, “Then let’s forget everything and move on with our lives.” She glanced over at potea, “Are you coming or not? I could spend another year here.” Sarafina started walking away with a smile on her face and started counting silently. At five she turned around and said to the surprised lion “Good to know that you’ll join me.”

Startled for a moment, potea quickly recovered and caught up with her again. “Just for a little while.”

Chapter 4: Final Act

That little while, had ended up to be almost a year long. Both would later look back and realize that this was the one time that they had never enjoyed more. For the most part, they could just sit back and enjoy life, but occasionally, something with more action occurred. Each and every one of these moments was thoroughly enjoyed.

About ten months into the fun and play, Sarafina’s cub Nala was born. It was a day of rejoicing. Unfortunately, less than two months later, tragedy struck. potea was struck with the disease that wiped out the rest of his pride. Knowing the definitive ending to this, he thought it over soon after the first symptoms appeared. Nala, still thought it was just a sickness that would soon pass, but potea knew better, he couldn’t bear letting Sarafina and Nala see him die. After thinking for a few minutes, he came up with an idea. He would execute it this very night.

He easily convinced Nala that they should sleep next to the nearest river so that he could get a drink if it became necessary. That was the first part of the plan, then, by himself, he looked around the river to find an area that would suit his needs. With the first two steps out of the way, he just needed to wait until they went to sleep.

It didn’t take long, within 15 minutes both the others were asleep. He gave it another half hour to make sure they were sleeping deeply. Then, trying to stay quiet, but still making the occasional rustle, he walked over to the river and took a drink. He turned back to make sure Sarafina was asleep, and slowly walked into the river.

He had picked the location with care. It had to have fast moving water, but also at least one little slow moving section near the bank. It was also preferred if it didn’t have too many rocks that he could slam into on his way down the river. Potea would need to stay in the river for quite a while. That would assure that Sarafina would think that he had died in the river.

Now was the moment that he would decide whether he would be able to desert them, even though he knew there was no hope of his survival. He decided to take the last step into the river and let himself be swept away by the force of the water.

Potea gasped, this water was colder than he had anticipated. Despite the temperature, he looked ahead and continued down the river, farther and farther away, never stopping. He could only count on two or three hours before Sarafina woke up someway or another.

It happened to be much longer than Potea had expected when Sarafina woke up. However, she did notice his disappearance instantly. After a moment of shock and panic, Sarafina calmed down and tracked his movement to the river edge. Sarafina came to the conclusion that Potea had hoped she would come to, he must have been sweeped away.

Sarafina, also according to plan, grabbed Nala and started moving down the riverside. She walked and ran for a whole hour and ended almost two miles downriver. Finally though, she gave up and excepted the fact that potea was most probably dead.

As she was thinking about what she should do at this moment, she came to the realization that she should probably think about heading back to priderock. It was the perfect place to go to if there was nothing left for her here. They would provide everything she needed for herself and for her cub.

Slowly, most of the time carrying Nala, Sarafina slowly moved toward the edge of the jungle and priderock.

Chapter 5: Return

Sarafina had reached the edge of the jungle by now, and stood there with her daughter Nala, gazing at the large rock formation named priderock. It was quite small from where they were, it was about the same size as one of their claws. Sarafina looked down at Nala, she was staring at the tiny protrusion.

“That’s going to be your new home Nala. That tiny little rock way over there.”

Nala was joyfully surprised. “Really? Can we go there today?” She asked, eager to get to someplace where she could stop walking a lot. “Please please please please pleeeeeeeeeeease?”

Sarafina laughed, “We won’t make it there today Nala, but tomorrow we should be able to. Do you want to ride on my back for the rest of today?”

Nala could once again barely contain her excitement. “YAAAAAAY! Let’s go!”

“Oh alright, we can go now.” Sarafina let Nala climb up onto her back and slowly stood up. “You okay up there Nala?”

“Of course I am mommy! Can we go now?”

Sarafina smiled and started walking forward. It would feel good to see her first home again. Who knew what everyone was like now.

It was a little more than an hour later when Nala had a question. “Mommy, what will the other lions be like there? Will they be like daddy?”

Sarafina smiled a sort of half smile, remembering her last days with Mufasa and Sarabi and the others. “I don’t know what they’ll be like when we get there. Most should be just as nice as daddy.”

Little Nala still would not stop though, she barely realized the tragedy that had occurred just a few days ago. Her mind was still too young to realize that bad things happen. Nala just kept talking about how she knew everyone was going to be so wonderful and she just couldn’t wait to get there. Finally, after what seemed like hours to Sarafina, Nala nodded off for a midday nap. Finally with some quiet, Sarafina was able to think about the past days. Even still, she couldn’t stand the memories.

Slowly, she did what she had done years earlier returning to priderock with Taka. She put everything into the very deepest corners of her mind. It caused her to have an excessive amount of nightmares later on, but at the moment, it worked perfectly. She once again focused on what was to come, not on what had happened.

Nala slept through the night, and woke up with priderock only a three hour walk away. Sarafina just lay down with Nala still sleeping on top of her back. When Nala woke up, Sarafina was still asleep. Nala wasted no time in getting her up. “Let’s go!!! We’re almost there mommy!”

Sarafina smiled, it was true, in just a few hours all her problems would be over. Feigning reluctance, Sarafina gave in. “Oh all right, I guess we could go there now.”

Nala could barely contain her excitement and went running full speed off toward priderock. Sarafina, hardly surprised, followed her and picked her up while running next to her.

Eventually, Nala fell asleep again and Sarafina once again carried her the rest of the way to priderock. Shortly before arrival they ran into Zazu who was still here. Apparently, by the way that he went straight to Sarabi, he had some sort of important job here now. Sarabi was waiting for them right there in the very front. Tired after the journey, Sarafina walked in and fell asleep right next to Nala and Simba.