Cribs & Corpses

(February 9th. Open to Scar.)

Tan paws trailed along the dusty darkened sand. Her slender body had plumped up a bit but it was still lithe and limber. She felt heavy however. Disgusting. Her ear flicked back slightly, a giddy grin on her face. She sat to the entrance of biggest prison. She was there under the pretext of showing Scar the prisons. He seemed to refuse to see the lovely torchlit prison cells carved in the rocks. Zira was so sure that if he just saw them, tasted her vision, he would be very happy.

But if the jail tour didn't make him happy...a little surprise would.

"Sleep my little Kovu...let your dreams take wing...one day when you're big and strong...you WILL be a king."

Kovu no longer was that little whelp she'd forgotten about so long ago. Kovu was now SCAR. Just a word. Just a name. She cackled under her breath. He would be pleased either way. FINALLY...she could please her king...

Scar sulkily picked at his supper, a baby meerkat a hyena dug up and two ostrich eggs. "I'M HUNGRY!" The king's thunderous roar interrupted the otherwise quiet evening. He glowered at his mate. "If you're trying to put me on a diet again so help me I will EAT Nuka!" he threatened. "And don't think I won't!" 

He ungratefully popped the herpestid in his mouth and cracked open an egg to slurp the yolk up. "I want you to organize a hunting party," Scar ordered Zira between slurps. "Select a pawful of your strongest hunters and travel to the Pride Lands. Bring whatever you catch to my den. No one eats until I do. Including you." Zira's weight gain did not go unnoticed. Scar thought Zira looked pretty no matter how many pounds she put on or lost, but he suspected his mate had been eating his share. It did not yet occur to him Zira was pregnant. If that was not apparent long before, he was kind of stupid like that. 

"You're still here?! Go!" 

Zira's ear folded back, lips pursed. He was acting like a whiny child and that drove her insane. However she knew his childish behavior would be curbed once she told him her muse. She smiled softly, almost purring as she walked towards Scar. She grinned, lowering her face towards him.

"Oh I don't know if you want me to do that Scar," she purred, "It might be a dangerous situation."

"You're still here?! Go!"

"No." Her voice quivered slightly as her deadly smile appeared on her mouth again. "No, i don't think I will." Her ear twitched as she turned her back on him. She wanted to drag out his agony as long as possible. Though inside she did have a few nervous, insecure thoughts about her recent plumping up.

"Don't you want to know why I asked you here?" She asked over her shoulder.

"Dangerous situation?!" Scar exclaimed. What cheek! "Hmph. I'll give you a dangerous situation...", he sassed under his breath as Zira approached him.

His mate's subsequent refusal pissed him off even more. "What do you mean no?!" he demanded. "Can't you see your king is hungry? Hurry up and get me some food before I eat every single fucking Outlander in this shit heap of a kingdom! Including you!" 

Ouch.

Remarkably, Scar's childish histrionics did not seem to faze Zira. He was dumbfounded. What gives? Zira's calm behavior was extremely unnerving. It usually meant something really, really bad was coming his way. The calm before a storm. Or in Zira's case, a category five hurricane. 

"I guess? Well, don't keep me in suspense then!" he huffed. "If you have something to tell me, then say it already!"

"Hurry up and get me some food before I eat every single fucking Outlander in this shit heap of a kingdom! Including you!"

Her jaw parted in a wild grin. "You mean...including US." She lifted her large paw and curled it over her stomach, claws tapping on her firmer stomach. She wasn't showing quite yet, despite becoming plumper, she felt the small bump on her stomach. Only a thing a mother could feel. No movement yet but just a beautiful glow from her belly. After cradling her future baby for a bit, she looked up at Scar with a lovely smile. Pride was on her face. She had pleased her king. She would finally please her king!

Not a Nuka, not a Kovu or Vitani, a perfect little cub that was Scar's. Scar's alone. "If you have something to tell me, then say it already!"

She let out a giddy, almost uncharacteristic squee. "SCAR, my beloved," she breathed, "I'm PREGNANT!"

"What are you prattling about?" Scar asked brusquely. "You are trying my patience." As usual, Zira was not being very straightforward. Way to ham it up. "Us? Is this your way of breaking up with me? It's just...I always thought if we ever went our separate ways, my head and body may follow suit." Hell hath no fury and all that mumbo jumbo. 

"I'm PREGNANT!"

"Oh." Scar's eyes went to Zira's stomach. "OH!" Whoops.

A smile crept across the king's long visage. "Great!" he beamed. But Scar cannot celebrate just yet. He wanted somebody to take over as king in case he died before enacting his revenge on Simba and co. - his son. Scar's mind briefly went to his biological sons and Kovu. Scar's known sons, Mheetu and Nuka, were ultimately passed over because Mheetu was "brainwashed" by Scar's ex-wife, Sarafina, and Nuka just sucked at everything. Kovu would have been perfect if he had been Scar's. Scar had several daughters, but he was far too traditional and sexist to allow a lioness to carry on his legacy. He hoped Zira's unborn child was the boy he wanted.

But he did not say so. That should go without saying, and he did not want to upset Zira. "I'll send Shenzi in your place," he offered. "She can get us both something to eat. When's it due?"

Zira sighed. She was delighted, relaxed that the king was pleased. Now all she had to do was pray that it was a boy. Or at least there were multiple. She placed her hand carefully on her belly and rubbed it slightly. At least she knew this cub was her beloved Scar's.

"Um...a week...maybe a little less," she purred, "I...I...kept it from you. You know...until I was certain that I was...well that they were safe..."

She didn't need to say more, she hoped. Though the old king's mind was waning, the female was sure he remembered her losing the small russet furred cub a while back in a still birth. She hadn't wanted to try again but he'd been so keen on a son. He was old, she was old...but...

"Are you pleased, my king?" She asked, almost pleading with him in case he wasn't.