Ten Years Later

Salama's P.O.V.

"He should be here by now." I pace and look over my shoulder for the tenth time in the past minute. My sister Adya rolls her pretty blue eyes and decides her dark fur is more important than my obvious anxiety.

"Knowing him, he's off doing god knows what with god knows what." She dismisses and licks her paws clean from whatever debris she had on them.

"He wouldn't do that. He sent word he would come and he never goes back on it." I defend and look over my shoulder again. The savanna was still lion-free and it irked me. He should've been here forever ago.

"He's been saying he'll come home for years. He's not coming back." She reminds me and I stop pacing for a second and look at her.

"He sent word to me. He'll be here soon." She rolls her eyes again and rolls onto her back and swats at the air.

"You're his favorite and we all know it. But that doesn't mean shi-" She stops when our father walks up from the mouth of our den. I instantly perk up and skip over to him.

"Good morning father." I greet and stand slightly on my hind legs and rub my forehead against his.

"Any sign of him?" He asks with yawn. I shake my head sadly and look down at my paws. He better not disappoint father again. "He'll appear. That boy is a lot of things but when it comes to you--he's a different lion." He chuckles but I can see the sadness in his eyes. The gold specks that swim in them are dim and it hurts.

"He's a strange lion." Adya chortles and stretches her slim body out before she greets our father. "Why is he even coming back? He left what--five, six years ago? Is he even allowed back?"

"As long as I'm king." My father says sternly and Adya cowers but she giggles and swats at our father's mane.

"Which won't be for very long." My mother, beautiful as ever comes from behind her husband and rubs her head against his chest. "Imara will be king once he chooses his queen consort." She reminds and almost on cue my brother comes out from the den, the sun beaming down on him. Kellan was behind him but he laughed boldly and leaped over our brother playfully.

"You're going to break a paw one day doing that." Imara chastises, his eyes turning in his skull the same way and color as our mother's.

"And it'll be worth it!" Kellan laughs and throws himself onto Adya.

"Kellan!! We're not cubs anymore! Get off!" She grumbles only making Kellan laugh louder, his black mane completely engulfing his twins face. They looked more alike now as adults. Well "adults" as my father calls us. I guess twenty is the new ten. Their fur was dark as well as their mane and tail tufts--almost looking like members from aunt Rani's Pride. Adya's paws were colorless while Kellan's were a lighter brown shade and their noses were opposites of each other. Adya's was black and rounded while her twin's was angular. Their most striking features being their eyes. The brightest and clearest blue eyes I had ever seen.

"Enough now, we want to make him stay not scare him off...again." My mother sighs but quickly changes her expression and gives my brother Imara a lick. He's identical to her minus the lack of freckles and the rounded nose. His mane is like our fathers, a beautiful gold.

"If he wants to be a nomad let him. Pride Rock hasn't been this still in years." My brother's rimmed ears flick backwards and he looks away from our mother.

"He's your brother, Imara. Whatever differences you have put them aside." My father speaks and his ears perk up immediately.

"Why? He's nothing but trouble."

"Because he is your brother and as future king you must learn to be forgiving. No matter how difficult." My father says and places a paw over his shoulder and pulls him close to his chest.

"While we wait for my red-haired son-ladies we have some hunting to do." My mother smiles and beckons myself and Adya.

"Ugh can't we wait here?" Adya whines and finally gets her twin off from on top of her.

"The hunting party is already waiting. Now, come along."

"Hunting party?" I pause and realize the sparkle in my mothers eyes. Her sisters are home. "You mean-" I trial off and look over at Adya who is already racing off of Pride Rock.

~~~

"Aunty!" Adya screeches and jumps on top of our aunt Shyra. She gasps and topples to the ground but laughs and hold her dark niece in her arms.

"You're not a cub anymore." Shanni's eyes are glossy and she slowly licks my cheek an engulfs me in her little arms. "We've missed so much." She tears up, her red and blue eyes dancing with sadness.

"We have memories to make then!" I smile and she nods a few times and rubs her forehead on mine. "Where are my cousins?" I beam and look around after I greet Shyra and Adya greets Shanni.

"Find them." My aunt Shanni arches a red brow and then runs and hugs my mother. The three of them laugh and jump around and nip at each other--it was like our time at the cave we once lived in. It was a sight to see.

"What did she mean by find them?" Adya asks after smoothing her fur with her tongue.

"A hunting lesson, I'm assuming." I shrug and point my nose in the air and give a good sniff. The wind was against me, it didn't have much direction so it was difficult to really know where their scents were.

"There." Adya says, her eyes focused on a dark mound in the grass. Gotcha.

I nod in her direction and we split up, crouched and quiet. When we were close enough the dark mound shuffled and Adya flicked her ear and we pounced.

"Damn it!" The lion groans but laughs and picks himself up.

"Aslan!" Adya cheers and rubs her forehead on his.

"Wrong twin." He blinks. His eyes were mismatched, one blue one green. He had grown so much since the last time we had all been together. His mane was pitch black like Mheetu's, his fur a golden tawny shade, his paws colorless. One of his ears had a feather on it like Shanni. I didn't care about what anyone said, he might have Mheetu's features but his eyes screamed Shanni. It was the clear distinction between the twins. Well, that and the new piercing.

"Cecil." He bows and then quickly wraps his arm around me.

"You've grown freckles!" I rolled my eyes at the nickname he gave me as a cub. My muzzle and cheeks were riddled with freckles and, apart from my ears and height, it set me apart from the rest of the lionesses...well anywhere.

"I would hope! I was eleven when we met Tau!" I joke and hear something behind me shift. I duck and hear Cecil groan along with another bold voice.

"Nice one." Cecil growls and pushes his twin off.

"Patches are your ears super sonic too?" Aslan. Just as handsome as his brother. Green eyes, dark mane, colorless paws. He and his brother would surely gain mates if they hadn't already. Dark manes were attractive what can I say?

"No you just breathe like a warthog in the middle of this heat wave." I retort and greet him after his bow to me and Adya. Now with them next to one another, of course they were identical but Cecil looked more like Shanni while Aslan looked more like Mheetu. It was weird...it was the eye shapes for sure.

Another way to tell them apart, the mirrored freckle they each had on their cheek. They both inherited that from Shanni.

"Where's everyone else?" Adya asks impatiently and smells at the ground.

"Oh no. You got to find them on your own." Cecil says and swishes his mane.

"Older siblings that tattle are for cubs." Aslan grins and swishes his mane as well. Malene is close. I squint my eyes and the twins do "the thing" and wink at the same time.

"Right." I lick my teeth and quickly turn and torpedo to the other side of the grass and catch Sarafina instead.

"Was I being too loud?" She blinks her pretty teal eyes.

"No you just smell really strong." Adya lies and pulls her favorite of the girls into her paws. "You were missed Saf." She tears up and pulls from Sarafina II. She was beautiful. She looked so much like Nala and maybe if I had known grandmother Sarafina I could compare the two but if she really did look like Sarafina I, she was stunning.

"You have three siblings left." She giggled and joined her older brothers.

"Malene will be easy to find and Tau too. Mwezi on the other paw." Adya says and sucks on her canines. Mwezi, now being twenty years old like myself and my siblings, has not said a single word. Not one. Not. A. Single. Swahili. Word.

I had remembered him being very quiet as a cub. A sweet boy with completely brown ears, pale fur, and little spots on his legs. I thought he was shy but, before Shaman Rafiki passed on, he confirmed Mwezi's muteness. We didn't know what caused it or why he had chosen to be mute. Shaman Rafiki simply said "he will speak when there is something to speak on."

But, this silence makes him an excellent hunter.

From what I've heard.

"You'll be here all night." Sarafina challenges with an arched brow.

"Watch me." I challenge. It wasn't that I didn't love Sarafina. She was my cousin and I adored her and I would kill for her without a second thought. I just didn't particularly like her. And she was well aware of it.

"Oh I will." She flicks her tail sassily and sits. I understood now why Adya and Sarafina got along so well. They were two peas in a pod.

I turn away from her, to avoid anymore of a confrontation. I flick my ears up and close my eyes, inhaling deeply. The earth smelled warm and it was dry and it burned my throat and nostrils, the water smelled clean and crisp, Malene's scent—baobab fruit and dew drops. My best friend. I open my eyes and crouch, she was thirty five steps from me. For sure next to a boulder of some kind.

I go in the opposite direction to avoid the wind that now was sending my scent in every direction. I needed to avoid that so Malene wouldn't smell me coming. I was silent on my colorless paws. I was massive for a female, a trait I've accepted, but it didn't affect my stealth. I had learned to evenly distribute my weight on my limbs and I was near silent now.

"Boo." I whisper behind my cousin and she leaps into the air with a roar.

"Salama!" She shrieks and barrels over. We giggle as we tumble down the hill she was on and crash into a boulder a few feet from us.

I knew it.

"You havent grown an inch!" I giggle as we stand to our feet. She snorts and shakes off her fur.

"I guess all the height I was meant to get you soaked it up instead!" We laugh together and I rub my forehead against hers. It had been too long.

"Gosh! Princess of the Pride Lands! Any suiters?" She wiggles her brows and I roll my eyes.

"Not yet. Father wants that to happen when I'm ready." I smile and this time she rolls her eyes.

"Or until we're all really members of the Pride you mean." I sigh and I nod.

To become a real member of the Pride, we had to learn to be members of the Pride. Which meant all the young lions and lionesses had to prove their loyalty and compliancy with a group hunt. If we all work together and being down a kill, we would be accepted and we could pick someone from the Pride or elsewhere to be our mate.

Apparently it was how Mohatu and his wife had met all those years ago. Father wanted to preserve that tradition as he had met my mother in the Pride as well.

It was lame to have to wait, especially being twenty, to find a mate. But I suppose his intentions were well enough for us all to wait. Well, some more than others. Some males and females, some older than me and some younger, had already found their mates and moved away from the Pride.

"It's worth the wait don't you think? And soon enough you will be joining me in Pride Rock." We giggle loudly. She and her siblings would be joining our Pride if they pass "the test". I'm sure they would anyway with Mheetu and Shanni as their parents.

"Not just me but my siblings and Bindi." She corrects and blinks her long hair tuft from her face. She had her mother's golden pelt and colorless paws like her father. She possessed now an ear piercing like her mother and Cecil. It suited her adventurous character. Her eyes had become much more of a bright green with age and her little nose a dark pink. She was stunning.

"Bindi is here too?" She nods her head and flicks her rimmed to signal that she was close.

"Everyone from everywhere will be coming to the Pride Lands soon enough." She says and a flicker of something passed through those jade eyes.

"What do you mean?" I didn't understand. Why would beasts from other Prides come here other than for alliances? It didn't make sense. My father was a friendly lion but he would never be foolish enough to have lions from elsewhere and near to come and scare off our prey.

"When you find my brothers and Bindi, I'll explain everything." She sassed and moved from being in front of me to now being on top of the boulder. She stretched her lean body with a yawn and then lied down and crossed her paws. "Have fun hunting cousin."

"Cubs!!" I hear Shanni yell and my anxiety awakens. I look over at Malene and her ears are on high alert. "Cubs come out! Now!" She demands and we quickly run through the dry grass and follow her soft bellows. Too soft.

"What's going on?" I ask my mother when she's close enough to me. She comes out from the grass, Bindi, Mwezi, and Tau trailing behind her. Her eyes in slits.

"Rouges in the Pride Lands."