A New Life

Defense of his 'territory'

"SHE DID WHAT?!" Tasha shouted. Kovu, Nala,Simba, Diana and Burnt Eboney were on the platform with Tasha whom they just told the incident that happened not ten minutes ago. "Kovu openly seduced Kiara and she threatened him saying if he did anything wrong from now on, she won't give him the pleasure only a female can offer her mate?" she asked gleefully.

Kovu rolled his eyes and shook his head. "For the third time, yes Tasha that's what she did," he said annoyed. Tasha laughed and shoved Kovu, making him step backwards.
"Vitani and Marisa must know of this," Tasha declared. "This would make their day." Kovu stared at Tasha in horror.

"No! Tasha please I'm begging you, don't tell them. Marisa will never let me hear the end of it and Vitani will tease me every chance she gets; no I would never be able to live in peace if you do that," Kovu pleaded in desperation. Tasha grinned at her parents and clicked her tongue sympathetically. "Oh but if I don't do that, it would mean I don't love you. You need to swallow your pride and take some humour Kovu."

"You can't do this to me," he cried. "I'll be driven insane if you tell them." Tasha laughed and patted his head. "Exactly my point! You need to have a little insanity in your life for you to be considered sane. It would be good for you to have some jokes tossed back and forth about you and your wife," Tasha said smiling wickedly.

Kovu groaned and laid down with his paws covering his head. Tasha shrugged and walked off the platform. Simba and Nala looked at each other and smiled. "I actually feel sorry for the poor thing," Nala whispered softly.
Simba chuckled and Diana giggled as her son began to pace the platform and dreading his impending doom. Five minutes later, it came.

Vitani, Marisa and Tasha came onto the platform, but they weren't laughing, instead Vitani and Marisa looked normal and Tasha looked obviously confused. They came up to the group and Marisa looked at Kovu then at Tasha and back at Kovu. "Tasha told us about what happened with you and Kiara. Is it true?" she asked eyeing her brother.

Kovu sighed, said goodbye to his remaining dignity and nodded in confirmation. Marisa looked at Vitani and Vitani looked at Tasha. Kovu frowned confusingly. He had expected his sisters to be rolling on the ground laughing until tears came out of their eyes, but for some reason, this hasn't happened.

He wondered if they were just building up momentum, or if they were trying not laugh. Whatever the reason was, Kovu prayed he could escape the situation with his dignity intact. The chances of THAT happening were slim, but he hoped anyway.

"I'm sorry Tasha but Marisa and I can't bring ourselves to find humour in Kovu's situation. He's been humiliated enough and laughing at the situation would mean we don't respect him. And we do respect him, please forgive us for ruining your laugh," Vitani said quietly.

Tasha's jaw dropped open and Kovu's eyes widened in disbelief. Was he dreaming? This couldn't be happening. His dignity survived, it was a miracle! Diana looked at her daughters with pride and smiled at the look of sheer relief on Kovu's face.
"I must admit, I admire your loyalty towards your brother. I was convinced you would laugh and drive him crazy with your teasing but it seems I was wrong. Good on you guys, you have my respect," Tasha said seriously.

Kovu smiled and hugged his sisters and they hugged him back. "By the way have you girls seen Kiara?" Nala asked looking at the three lionesses. They shook their heads in denial. "Why Mom is something wrong?" Tasha asked her mother. Nala confessed she was worried about her daughter and wanted to know where she was.

"Sunset is fast approaching and there are rouges roaming around, we can't have anyone roaming around after dark, it could be dangerous."
"Let's go find her then, she's probably hanging around at the waterhole with her friends or something," Vitani said rising.

"We'll find her then the hunting party can hunt something for dinner." Everyone got up and walked off the platform and into the savannah in search of Kiara. They went about calling her name and asking any passing lioness if they've seen her. No one had seen Kiara and Nala was getting panicky. "Darling we'll find her, don't worry," Simba said soothingly rubbing his wife's shoulder.

"I know I shouldn't panic too much but she's my daughter and I'm worried about her," Nala said looking at her husband as they walked. Simba smiled reassuringly at her and nuzzled her cheeks. For several minutes they went about calling Kiara's name receiving no answer. Suddenly Kovu stopped and sniffed the air.

He picked up Kiara's scent and sighed in relief. "Good news everyone, I got Kiara's scent. It's coming from this direction, so follow me," Kovu said running in the direction of his wife's unmistakable scent.
The scent got stronger with every step they took, but when they reached the scene where it smelled the strongest, Kovu's nose detected a different smell. "Rougues," he said grimly.

Nala gasped and looked at Simba. Tasha sniffed the air and growled lowly causing everyone to stop and stare at her. "I know that scent," she said looking at Kovu. "It belongs to a lion I once associated with. He's... let's just say he's dangerous and we need to get there- now!" Kovu needed no further encouragement.

He ran ahead with Tasha in hot pursuit followed by everyone else. When they got to the scene, they stopped and stared. Kiara was surrounded by three male lions, one with a brown mane, one with a white mane and the other with a red mane. They were laughing and touching Kiara on her face while she cringed and moved away from their touch.

"Aww come on pretty girl, won't you play along with us? Relax, smile, show us a good time won't ya?" the one with the brown mane said smirking. Kiara growled when he tried to lick her and swiped at his face.
"Leave me alone you creeps! I'm married!" Kiara shouted angrily.

The males growled and the one with the red mane pounced on Kiara and hovered over her, his intentions clear as day. Kiara remembered what happened the last time she was in this position. When she was kidnapped in the Outlands and Chad had forced himself on her. The memory made her want to cry and she struggled to get out from under the lion, but he pressed down on her and made her cry out painfully.

"Get away from her!" Kovu roared fiercely as he lunged at the lion holding Kiara captive. Caught completely off guard, the lions stumbled backwards and fell. Using this to his advantage, Kovu grabbed the red-maned lion and bit him hard, making him scream. Simba and Burnt Eboney jumped out and attacked the white-maned lion while Nala and Diana helped Kiara up.

Tasha assisted Kovu and Vitani and Marisa together seized the brown-maned lion and attacked him, while he put up a pathetic excuse for a fight. After a while, the lions gave up and ran away, but not before they each got severely injured. Kiara got up from where she was and ran to Kovu and hugged him, crying softly.

"They nearly raped me," she sobbed. Kovu shushed her and licked her face. "But they didn't," he said softly. Kiara hugged him tighter and buried her face in his mane. Kovu's eyes narrowed at the direction in which the lions took and made it his personal business to find out more about them, their pride and possibly their leader. They will pay for hurting his love!