Guilt and Fear-The Untold story of Zira

Chapter thirty-eight: Vitani's point of view

Soon, Zira came back outside of the cave...and Kion wasn't with her. Vitani began to stand up from her spot at the waterhole, staring at her mother in disbelief. What...had Zira done to Kion? Hopefully not the same she had done to Kopa. Vitani wouldn't be able to bear it if she knew that another royal cub, or any cub for that matter, had died due to her mother.

Zira began to walk towards where Nuka, Kovu, and Jasiri were standing, and Vitani rolled over onto her feet and scampered after her mother. Jasiri noticed Zira coming instantly.

"Nuka, what are you doing?" Zira asked, knowing fully well that Nuka had most likely been attempting to fight Jasiri.

"Mother!!!" Nuka exclaimed, putting his paw around Jasiri and yanking her to his side, as if they had been best friends since birth. "We were just...playing nice." Jasiri growled at Nuka, annoyed, and began to attempt to wiggle free. Pushing her paws against Nuka's chest, she successfully shoved him off, and looked at Zira, clearly not in the mood to play any games.

"Where's Kion?" She demanded.

"I had a talk with Kion." Zira said. "And he and I decided that this water hole belongs to the Lions." She said. Vitani's eyes grew wide. She knew her mother was lying. She had done something, and Vitani wanted to know, now. Jasiri didn't seem convinced, either.

"What?" Jasiri asked, chuckling a bit. "Kion would never do that." She said.

"He's a lion, dear." Zira said. "We lions stick together. Now, scat." Vitani was surprised at how poorly Zira was treating Jasiri. She remembered that when she was little, she and Janja had been good friends, living in the pridelands, before the incident that cost Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed their lives. Zira had been good friends with Shenzi and Banzai, why then was she treating their daughter so poorly?

"Fine, I'll go." Jasiri shot back. Vitani could see tear droplets forming in the corners of Jasiri's eyes as she sadly walked away, her ears down. Vitani looked back up at her mother, the dark queen's face carrying an evil grin.

"Come along, children." Zira said, walking back towards the cave. "Prince Kion has something he would like us to know."

Vitani slowly followed her mother back towards the cave, her ears down with sympathy for Jasiri.

"Mother," Vitani started. "Why were you so mean to Jasiri? She was only thirsty."

"It's time you learned, my daughter." Zira started, proceeding towards the center of the cave. "Life isn't fair. If one wrongs you, you must make sure that you are treated as you should be, no matter what the cost."

Vitani looked at the ground and didn't ask any more questions as she proceeded to follow her mother further in the cave.

Once they made it to the lifeless bridge, as the cubs called it, as it served as a bridge across the lava, Vitani became more cautious, jumping slowly and carefully to each stone, so as to not hurt herself. At one point, Nuka made a howling noise behind her, causing her to yowl out of fear. Her paw slipped, and she skidded across a stone, almost falling in had Kovu not been there to grab her tail in his jaws and pull her to a stop. She panted heavily, looking at the bubbling lava inches from her paws before jumping to the next stone as fast as she possibly could, Nuka howling with laughter.

Eventually, they made it to the back of the cave, where Vitani noticed Hila almost guarding Kion as he sat there, his ears down, his back turned to them.

"Hello, Kion." Zira said evilly. Kion instantly turned around, growling. His ears were back in anger, and he stared at Zira as if he wanted to tear her to shreds. Vitani was honestly so relieved to see him safe that she couldn't care less if he was staring at them and growling.

"Zira, let. Me. Go." He said. But Vitani could also sense fear in his voice. She looked at Hila and mouthed, what did you say to him?

She simply responded with one word, Kopa. Vitani's ears went down again in sympathy, as well as hurt. She hadn't heard that name in such a long time. It amazed her how just the name of a lost loved one was enough to make her want to burst into tears. Kion hadn't known of his brother. If only he had known him, he would have known what a great lion he really was. But she could only hope and wish.

Because Kopa was gone, because of her.