The Lion King Sarabi's Story

Chapter Five

Mohatu returned from his visit to the Southland Pride and entered the cave, he nuzzled his daughter lovingly and she opened her eyes and looked at him, smiling. He then went over to Mufasa, licked him and then to Taka who woke up immediately and asked to go for a walk with his grandfather, Mohatu accepted this request and the two walked out of the cave into the sunrise.

Uru watched her young son fondly, he was not the strongest cub and not the most impressive. She knew that this pained him, especially when stood next to his brother at various presentations. Mufasa was golden, now with a mane growing on his forehead early, his muscles were clearly strong and he was overall a very impressive cub. Uru often pitied poor Taka. However he was more sensitive than Mufasa, this would make a good advisor for the future king,

"Grandad?"

"Yes Taka?"

"Will I always be more lonely than Mufasa?"

"Of course not! One day you will have either a pride of your own or have a wife and many other friends within your brother's pride."

"But, I'm just not as good as him. He is strong and confident, fearless and brave. All the girls like him and Sarabi is absolutely besotted with him. How the hell am I supposed to ever live up to him?"

"Trust me Taka, your brother is far from perfect."

"Ok then." Taka was nervous, he always saw himself as less important than Mufasa and only trusted his mother and grandfather to see him as just as good as his brother. Mufasa did not intend to create this friction between them but it was not really his fault. The fact that he was going to be king one day was the main problem, Sarabi was another. He was not willing to give her up though, never. Taka and Mohatu patrolled the borders all morning and Taka came bounding in afterwards, hoping to play with his brother. However Mufasa was on Royal lessons with Ahadi and would not be back till sunset. Taka's eyes filled with tears for a minute. "Taka? Are you ok love?" Uru asked, coming out from the shadows.

"Yeah, I am fine."

"Come here darling." Taka trailed over to his mother who he cuddled up next to and as she wiped away his tears, asked if he would like to go and play with Sala. He nodded, feeling neglected by Mufasa. Uru walked with her son through the Pridelands to where Abla and Chimalsi lived, when they arrived, Taka ran off to play with the girls and she entered the cave. Abla and Chimalsi were sleeping together, but something had changed about Chimalsi. His mane was thickening, he was finally reaching closer and closer to adulthood. Abla was now also slightly larger than she had been. Uru herself was now on the boundary between her teenage years and being a grown lioness. Only Ahadi had not changed, he was a little older than them and was wiser and more concerned about things that they would describe as trivial. Soon, the two lions woke up, "Oh! Sorry Uru, we were just..." Chimalsi tried to explain. "Don't worry about explaining to me exactly what you were doing earlier on, I could guess or I could just choose not to care about it. I have guessed but I don't see that as bad so I won't judge you." Uru put this comment a little embarrassingly and Chimalsi blushed vividly, yes, she had probably guessed right. The cubs had been outside all morning and he and Abla were still incredibly young and they had just been... He stopped himself there, it was a natural part of life and he was too flushed, Uru had come at completely the wrong moment, she had managed to walk in on them after an exciting morning and he was probably just over reacting. Then Abla woke up, saw Chimalsi's face and Uru standing behind him. Abla's face fell into an awkward smile as she tried to explain herself. The two knew they were not following normal customs of a pride but they did not belong to one so why should they. "Erm, well... I am just going to pretend that you two were just sleeping because you were tired..." Uru said before trying to change the conversation, "Chimalsi! You are over half way through the growth of you mane! It looks good!"