Akito and Estelle in Simba's Pride

chapter 2

Later on, Atticus said he wanted to be alone for a little while, so Mo decided to play a family game with the others to keep themselves occupied until he would come back in time for their trip. Drell then seemed to appear and snaked up behind Atticus with a smirk and wrapped his arms around the man's shoulders.

"Not the time, Drell." Atticus said.

"Oh, I know..." Drell let go then.

"What do you want?" Atticus asked.

"You're having Daddy's Little Girl Syndrome." Drell folded his arms.

"Is that obvious?" Atticus frowned.

"Ah, Atticus, it happens to all dads," Drell replied. "You can't help it, every good father comes down with it once her daughter becomes interested in boys."

"Then why didn't Emi's father do this when she was interested in Akito?" Atticus asked.

"Maybe he has more free will..." Drell shrugged. "Or he has a different way of showing it, I mean, Emi's known Akito for a long time after her father disappeared until they reunited as a family."

"True." Atticus nodded.

"It's only natural," Drell put his arm around Atticus. "Besides, this Lee Clark seems like a very nice boy."

"Yeah, I guess." Atticus said.

"Now, now, cheer up..." Drell put his hands on Atticus's shoulders.

"I just want to know if he will protect Estelle no matter what." Atticus said.

"I'm sure he will, Atticus," Drell tried to relax him. "Look, I've known your father since we were kids in Udrogoth, and I've watched you grow after you were kidnapped by Jackson deVil, Lee Clark is basically you, only not as interested in schoolwork until Estelle came into his life."

"Really?" Atticus smiled before he saw Drell's crystal behind him. "Did you also see anything else through your crystal ball that I can see behind you?"

"Maybe...?" Drell grinned shyly, but he then gave up and held out his crystal ball. "I never leave home without it."

"Okay, tell me what you saw in your crystal ball." Atticus said.

"Well, it's mostly about when you guys go to the Pridelands..." Drell said as he showed his crystal ball. "This is what happened after Simba took Kiara back home."

Atticus took a look and watched as the rogue lioness known as Zira was bringing her youngest back home into the deserted and deathly scarce Outlands.

"Kovu, Kovu, Kovu, Scar wasn't even his father..." a scrawny older lion muttered to himself. "He just took him in."

"Well, looks like someone's not happy about Kovu being the favorite one." Atticus smirked.

"Watch." Drell warned.

Atticus nodded and watched as the mangly older son came up to a young lioness cub who was chewing on a root.

"Oh, hey, Vitani, where's little termite Kovu?" the oldest cub asked before mocking. "'The Chosen One'?" he then cut his claw through the root which made the female cub fall back.

The cub then stood back up and glowered her dark sapphire eyes at him. "Nuka, where's Kovu?" she asked roughly. "Did you leave him out there on his own again?"

"Hey, it's every lion for himself out there," Nuka replied as he scratched himself like a flea-bitten dog. "That little termite's gotta learn to be on his own."

"Mother's gonna be mad; she told you to watch him!" Vitani snapped.

"Oh, who cares?" Nuka scoffed as he scratched himself. "I should've been the chosen one. I'm the oldest, I'm the strongest, I'm the smartest--Ooogh! These termites!" he then attacked himself with the infesting insects.