I have been living with Beba and his cubs for the past month and honestly it's been the best month of my life. I feel like I actually fit in here. They don't judge, they aren't afraid to tell me things, and it's taught me a lot about survival.

Since they're cheetahs they're a lot smaller than the other predators. I've had to help Beba fight off stupid hyenas almost every time we hunt. We have lost a lot food to them though, I'm not an octopus so I can't fight an entire pack of them. But other than that spending time with the cubs is fun and entertaining while Beba goes to look for a different resting place.

"Tana, tana, tana, tana!!" Muna, the only female, has been calling me four times every ten seconds and most of the time it's only to say 'hi' and run off.

"Yes Muna?" I answer rather annoyed.

"When's papa coming back?" For such a young age she speaks very well.

"Beba will be back soon. Now, you stay here while I go get your brothers. " I get up from my resting position and walk off.

"Can I go with you?" Her innocent soft voice fills my ears and I feel bad that I've been an ass to her lately.

"Okay, but you have to keep up. That shouldn't be hard for you. " She smiles and trails behind me pouncing at my tail every once in a while.

"Muna, I can't walk with you dangling like this. " She has managed to jump on my back and now she is dangling from my flank.

"If you weren't so tall this would be easier. " She whines. I stop walking so she can jump off with ease but instead she falls on her butt.

"Oh my God! Muna are you okay?" I check her over and she's fine. Just a little bit shocked from falling. "Alright, no more walking for you. "

"What?" I take hold of her by the extra skin on her back and carry her the rest of the way with Muna complaining the entire way.

When we got to the boy's favorite place to play, a large tree in the middle of a waterhole, I place Muna down and look around for Haunani and Makuma.

"Can you call for your brothers? " I ask Muna as she continues to toy with my tail. "Please? " She stops her actions and begins to make the little squeaking noises but no one answers.

"Nani? Kuma? Come on it's time to go home. " I call out into the air, I swear if they're messing around just to scare me..

"Haunani! Makuma!" I yell louder but I only hear my voice echoing throughout the lands.

"What's wrong? " Muna asks when she realizes that somethings wrong.

"Nothing. Just your brothers trying to be funny. " She notices the shakiness of my voice and fear takes over her beautiful face.

"Hey, hey it's okay. We'll find your brothers. " I lower my head to make eye contact with the tiny two year old.

"Promise? " Tears appear in her brown eyes.

"I promise. "She smiles a bit and I wrap one of my paws around her as I raise my head to comfort her. "Come on. " I begin to walk and she follows right beside me.

"Where do you think they are?" She asks after a few minutes of walking around the entire waterhole.

"Somewhere we wouldn't look. Muna, do cheetah's climb trees?"

"Yeah, why?" Bingo.

"Can you climb trees?" Her eyes buldge looking at the large tree that has oddly enough grown smack in the center of the small waterhole.

"Can you?" She challanges me, sassy little girl. She reminds me of Kiara, no, stop. Forget about them. They aren't important.

"No, no I cannot since I weigh almost six hundred pounds." I say emphasizing my weight.

"Fatty!" She giggles.

"Yeah, and fatties can't climb trees."

"Fine!" She groans "but I can't swim."

"What?" She shrugs and I groan this time "you've got to be kidding me."

"Nope." She smiles wickedly popping the p.

I place the young cub on my back as I swim through the cold water. "You owe me big time." She giggles and crawls to the top of my head. "What are you doing?"

"The water's cold."

"You don't say?" She sinks her claws into my head. "Okay, okay sorry." She loosens her grip and jumps onto the small island and begins to claw her way to the top of the tree.

I drag my body out of the freezing water and shake it off my body making my mane stick up. "Great." I run my exposed claws through my mane and tame it a bit.

"Muna are they up there?" I ask after five minutes of silence.

"No."

"What do you mean no?" I place my two front paws onto the dark of the tree to help me see her small body jumping from branch to branch until she lands on the ground next to me.

"They aren't there, I looked through every branch." I groan and bang my head against the bark.

"Where could they possibly be?" I try to think of every place they love to mess around at. The bushes around here were empty and the trees. Trees. Oh my God. "Muna?"

"Uh huh?" She licks her tiny paws as she answers me.

"Do Haunani and Makuma like to hide in the big tree by our home?" She thinks about my question for a while and then finally says "sometimes." God damn it.

"Ugh, they're there aren't they?" I rub my head with my paw.

"Yup." She pops the p and smiles as if this were a big game.

"You knew the entire time didn't you?" She giggles telling me in a way that she did.

"Wow! Way to go old man!" I turn around and see Haunani with a smug look on his six year old face and Makuma laughing next to him.

"You scared the crap out of me!" I scold the evil cubs.

"You swore." Haunani tells me as Makuma gives me a stern look and when I look back at Muna she has covered her lips with her two front paws and is shaking her head.

"Yes, I swore, wanna see what else I can do with my mouth?" I open my mouth to show them my sharp teeth.

"I'd like to see you try." The purple spotted demon challanges me.

"Wait till I get over there. You're butt is mine." They all laugh at me, clutching onto their stomachs, throwing their heads back and rolling on the ground.

When I turn around to swim back with Muna she's not there. "Ha-ha funny. Come on Muna it's time to go home." I talk looking up at the tree trying to find her unique brown eyes. "Muna?" I lift my front paws and place them on the tree. I search the visible branches but I can't see her tiny shadow.

I try to climb up the tree doing well until I get to the first branch, breaking it, and falling on my butt. "Muna!" Out of the corner of my eyes I see bubbles in the water and I freak out.

Muna can't swim.

"Muna!!" I yell and in my panic I jump back into the freezing water head first.

The bubbles I have caused make it hard for me to see but I keep swimming to the bottom and see a tiny spotted cub resting at the bottom. I open my mouth and take her body in between my teeth and kick towards the surface. When I reach the top I make sure to keep her head out of the water.

I make it to the shore where her two brothers are watching with wide eyes. I place her gently on the ground and watch as she doesn't resond. "Muna?" I call and in my frantic attempts to wake her I push my paws sofly against her chest and in seconds she is coughing up water and gasping for air.

I can now breathe.

"Muna!" Her brothers yell at once and embrace their sister. She's in tears and I'm almost leaping for joy at the sight of her breathing.

"Thank you." Her larger twin says with tears in his red eyes.

"You're welcome." I force a smile and the young boy returns the gesture.

"That was uh.." I look over to the eldest who is forcing kind words out of his mouth. "That was uhm..pretty cool." In his own six year old he thanked me and I couldn't be more thrilled that we are back to being kind to one another.

The little, brown eyed cub crawls over to me her wet body making her look fluffy and odd. "I'm sorry." She lays her head on my left leg and wraps her own tiny paws around them while I wrap my right paw around her body.

"It's okay, you scared me."

"Really?" She looks up and the shock on her face makes me stiffle a laugh.

"Of course, I thought I lost you."

"I didn't think you'd care."

"I care for the three of you, you lot just didn't trust me and I understand why you were so..demonic today." She giggles and licks my nose since I had lowered my head to make better eye contact with her. I smile and lick her dry causing her to fall asleep in my giant paws.

''Come on boys, time to get you home before you're father thinks I killed you." They laugh and begin to walk off while I carefully take Muna once again into my lips. She stirs but doesn't wake.

"I thought you killed them and ran off." Beba says as he greets his boys. He throws his body around as the boys nip at him and chase him around. I place, now awake Muna, onto the floor and she runs off the greet her father.

"I would never." I tease and he smiles. "Did you find a place to relocate?"

"I did actually. But, we can go early tomorrow morning." I nod in agreement as I watch him lick his cubs and tell them how much he loves them. He's a great father.

"Thanks." Oh shit did I say that outloud?

"For what?"

"Not killing them and running off." Oh okay good I didn't say it outloud.

"Oh um yeah." I stutter and lay in the shade.

"So how were the little ones?" He asks and I can feel six eyes on me.

"They were little angels. "I force a smile and when I look at the kids they look so relaxed.

"Sure they were. "Beba rolls his eyes and lays next to me and we spend the entire evening watching the three siblings playing with one another.

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Something's off.

Way off.

You know when you wake up in the early hours of the morning, right before the sun meets the sky again, and you just know something is not right?

That's exactly how I feel right now.

I raise my head and look at my surroundings. I am no longer sleeping next to Beba with Muna sleeping in my giants paws, I am in the darkness once more with two glowing green eyes staring at me.

"Hello there Kopa. "

"Don't call me that. " I get up and stretch my long body not caring that he's watching my every move.

"Has he not told you yet? "

"Enough with the fucking mind games! You're dead for crying out loud! Your disgusting blood doesn't run in my veins so I am in no way a part of you. "

"But you are a part of Mufasa? "

"I have decided to make my own decisions in life and not care about what you, or Mufasa, Simba, Mheetu, or even Vitani has to say. So to answer your question, no, no I am not a part of Mufasa. Are you satisfied? "

He stares at me for a long time. Never breaking eye contact and honestly if he thinks this is going to break me he's wrong. I've had cheetah cubs bite my ears and stab my eyes with their sharp claws so this, this is nothing.

"Tanabi?" He finally speaks actually using my name.

"What? " I rudely answer.

"You are more like me than you think. " He smirks and I swear I can feel his anger and his hatred.

"I've told you before. I am nothing like you. "

"But you are, the only thing that doesn't resemble me is your mane, height and fur tone. Other than that you and I are much alike. "

He's not wrong.

But he's not right.

"What does it matter who I look like or who I resemble? I am me. Tanabi is who I am. I am not you nor do I ever want to be anything like you. So please, please, please for the love of God. Leave. Me. Alone. " I yell the last three words and from the very pit of my stomach I release a roar I didn't know I could ever create.

And with that I am back to the grasslands, laying next to Beba with Muna in my paws, Makuma laying on my back and Haunani curled up by his fathers left shoulder.

I think I have finally broken the darkness that has tried and tried again to consume me. The only evidence of that darkness are the scars on my right flank, the single scar on my snout, and my exposed black claws.

If I'm going to be honest I'm glad I still have these scars and memories because I have proof that I didn't fall into that darkness that tried so hard to pull me in and completely consume me. I have proof that I am nothing like Scar.

I am simply me.

I am Tanabi who doesn't remember his past or why a specific brown maned cub continues to play in my dreams. But, at the end of the day, I'm happy.

Isn't that all that should matter?

_____________________________________________________________________________

This chapter is a lot shorter I am sorry about that, but, I honestly wanted to end this chapter with something that teens deal with everyday. It deals with depression and having a certain "darkness" always trying to consume you.  My main character might be a boy but he has a little bit of me in him. Starting with the way he doesn't want to be someone that he's expected to be, he wants to be himself even if that isn't pleasing others. But at the end of the day only you can decide who and what you want to be. 

Depression is something that Tanabi and myself deal with even though we don't seem to show it to the world. Tanabi hasn't admitted it but he is dealing with an odd version of depression that is being dealt with, with the love he's finally getting from the cubs and his new friend Beba. I deal with it by writing or reading or even cracking perverted jokes, this might be a bit too personal but I just wanted to point out you are never alone. There is always a Mufasa or Vitani waiting to join your Circle Of LIfe, and I'm here if you ever need to vent or simply need someone to talk to. Just inbox me and I promise I will answer and truly listen to you. I am not anyone to judge and I would never judge someone who actually needs help. 

Till my next post :)

~Delaney ^.*