The Lion King: A Second Chance

A Fresh Start

Kopa slowly begins to wake up. He is blinded by the sun and squints his eyes, letting them adjust to the light. He turns around and sees a long leaf wrapped around his body, covering the deep wounds in his back. A large shadow begins to cover him, and he looks up to see a massive white lion standing over him. Kopa tries to run away, but is stopped when the lion puts his paw on the cub's tail.

"Who are you and how did you get here?" the lion asked. Kopa turned around timidly, shaking slightly. He didn't want to reveal who he was, incase Zira found out he was alive. Kopa gulped.

"I um- I'm t-Tojo. m-My family was attacked and killed, b-but I'm the only survivor." He replied. The lion lifted his paw off the cub's tail. Kopa looked around to see if he recognised where he was. He looked back up at the lion.

"Excuse me sir, but, who are you?" Kopa asked. The lion smiled gently at the cub.

"I am Kushinga, King of Ardhi ya Usalama." Kopa looked at the king in confusion. Kushinga chuckled lightly.

"It means Land of Safety, Tojo." he said to the cub. "Don't worry, you will be safe here, hence the name."

Kopa, or Tojo, looked back out over Ardhi ya Usalama.

"How long was I out for?" he asked Kushinga.

"About a week." Kushinga replied. "You must be hungry, Tojo, but first, would you like to meet the Queen and my son?" Tojo turned and smiled at Kushinga. The king led the cub out of the cave and around the back, where the queen was giving the prince his bath. The queen saw Kushinga and Tojo coming towards them, and so did the prince. Kushinga introduced Tojo to them.

"Tojo, this is my Queen, Utamu. And that is my son, Prince Kenji." He said, pointing to the queen and prince. Kenji leapt out of his mothers grasp and stood right in front of Tojo.

"You're finally awake!" he exclaimed. "Now I finally have a new friend to play with!" Utamu got up from where she was sitting and sat down closer to Tojo.

"Hello, Tojo." she began. "How did you end up here without your parents?" Tojo told Utamu and Kenji his big lie and she was horrified that such a young cub could go through what he did. She walked up to him and nuzzled him.

"I'm so sorry, Tojo. You are welcome to stay here with us if you want" she offered. Tojo returned her nuzzle and looked back up at Kushinga.

"So um, can I have something to eat now?" he asked. Kushinga smiled at the cub and signalled for him to follow where he was going. He brought Tojo back to the cave and to where the cub had woken up. Tojo was stunned to see the leg of a zebra laying where he was, just a moment ago.

"Wha- How did you-?" Tojo stammered before being interrupted by Kushinga.

"Shhh" he smiled. "Just eat it, you need it. Come back out to us when you're finished." And with that, Tojo dug into his meal. He was a lot hungrier than he felt, which surprised him.

It was a week since the three princesses were born and today was the day that their ceremony takes place. Rafiki was on his way with his staff and his baobab fruit. Timon and Pumbaa stood beside Simba as Zazu returned from gathering all the animals from the Pridelands.

"Ya ready Simba?" Timon asked. Simba looked up to the sky and sighed.

"If only you were here to see your sister's celebration.." he said to himself. Simba hadn't heard what Timon had asked him, and he was in a world of his own for a moment, before Timon shoved one of his paws up Simba's nose. That definitely broke the King's trance.

"OW! Jeez Timon." He said while rubbing his nose.

"Sorry Simba, but you know how much I hate it when people ignore me." The meerkat replied, while posing as if he were a model. Pumbaa looked at his meerkat friend, who was still posing.

"Timon, did you pull a muscle or something?" he asked with concern. The meerkat looked at him, thinking what he just said was a joke.

"No, Pumbaa, I'm just being fabulous." He answered. Pumbaa shook his head and then saw Rafiki making his way through the crowd of animals.

"Simba, the monkey is here!" he beamed. Simba looked towards the crowd and indeed, saw Rafiki now climbing up Pride Rock. Simba walked to the entrance of the cave, where he would meet the mandrill. After a few moments of climbing, he met with the king again. They both hugged for a few seconds, before walking into the cave where Nala and the three princesses were waiting. Rafiki sat down in front of the three cubs, broke the baobab fruit and spread the juice on each of their heads. He picked up Kiara, Simba picked up Zuri and Nala picked up Tiifu, before walking to the tip of Pride Rock. The animals cheered upon seeing their new heir and her sisters, and then bowed in respect to the cubs.

Tojo walked back out of the cave and around the back, where Kushinga, Utamu and Kenji were sitting out in the sun with a few other lionesses. Kenji saw Tojo and ran over to him.

"Hey Tojo!" he beamed. Tojo smiled shyly at the prince before seeing Kushinga approach him.

"Tojo, would you like Kenji to give you a tour of Ardhi ya Usalama?" the king asked.

"Yeah, this place is huge, and if I'm gonna live here, then I'm gonna need a tour guide to show me where everything is." He replied. Kenji smiled ear to ear and then ran off.

"Come on Tojo, let me show you where the water hole is." Tojo followed Kenji as Kushinga smiled watching the two cubs run off into the distance. He walked back over to Utamu and they both spoke to each other.

"Poor cub." She began. Kushinga nodded as he lay down beside her. "I can't imagine how he must have felt; having your family killed and you barely making it out alive." Kushinga sighed, before Utamu started to brush his mane with her paw.

"I wanna ask him if he would like to become part of our family, but I don't know if he would want to." He said to her. Utamu licked her mate's muzzle.

"Whenever you feel like you are ready, or when he is ready, you can tell him." She said wisely.

Kenji and Tojo had been walking around Ardhi ya Usalama for about 15 minutes before Kenji brought him to the waterhole. Kenji bends over to take a drink, but Tojo froze as dark memories came flooding back to him of that morning with Zira. He shook his head to try and push his thoughts aside before taking a drink beside the Prince.

Night has now fallen, and Kenji and Tojo had spent the rest of the day playing together and getting to know each other. You would be surprised as to how close they had gotten after a few hours of knowing each other. The cubs walked back into the den and Kenji jumped into Utamu's forelegs and snuggled into her chest. Tojo watched his friend with his mother and looked at the ground sadly. Utamu saw this and looked at Kushinga before calling Tojo.

"Tojo, dear. Come over to me." She said to the upset cub. He walked over to the queen and she nuzzled him affectionately before he lay himself down beside her, burying his face into her foreleg. She felt her foreleg get a little bit wet, and realised that he must be crying. She licked the top of his head, which made him look up at her. She looked at his teary eyes before speaking.

"Tojo, my dear. I know that I can never be the mother you had, but if you would let me, I would love to be a mother figure for you." She said to the crying cub. He sniffled and smiled at the queen, before burying his head into her foreleg again. Utamu looked back at Kushinga with a worried, but relieved look. He nodded to her before laying his head down to sleep. She looked back down at Tojo, who was still crying silently into her foreleg, and started to lick the top of his head gently, hoping to help him fall asleep. Sure enough, after only a couple of licks to his head, he fell asleep. His head turned, showing the queen his tear stained face. She frowned sadly.

"It's alright Tojo" she whispered. "You're safe here.."