Family Affairs

(Set February 28th for Naanda, Sarabi and Kula if she feels like it to have a bit of family time)

Out in the savannah, two cubs raced each other through the grasses, giggling and batting at each other in play. They were only a few months old and twins despite the fact that they looked like polar opposites save for the green of their eyes. Up the rocky slope to Priderock they ran, the red-furred female bearing down on the jet-black male. With a pounce, she launched herself onto his back sending them both sprawling across the rocks, wrestling and growling in play with each other. So engrossed that they didn't realise they were being watched until it was too late.

"Get away from her, you little monster!" The snarl from the den caused the cubs to freeze instantly then break apart from each other as if the other had plague. Playtime was now over as the brown-furred lioness padded out towards them "How many times must I tell you, Duni, stay away from that thing!"

Naanda quickly scooped up Duni by the scruff, shooting the dark cub a hate-filled glare, before padding into the den with her daughter. Gwandoya sat staring forlornly after them before he sunk to the ground, covering his head with his paws, and began to sniffle quitely to himself. Naanda, however, didn't care and as far as she was concerned the black cub ceased to exist as soon as she turned her back to him. Instead, she lay in the den and calmly began to groom Duni as if trying to wash away all traces of her interaction with the other cub.

"Naanda, I swear to the great spirits in the sky and on my husband's grave you treat that cub with some respect."

Sarabi's fur prickled on her thick neck as she stared her sister down. She pulled back her lips, revealing sharp teeth. Her ears folded back as she stood her thick form over the child. Her head lowered as she offered the ebony furred cub a lick to the back of his neck. She gave her nephew a small smile. It was nice to have a niece and nephew she could call exactly that. Not her child in disguise. Naanda's back was even on her child.

"You selfish child," she snapped, "Look at you." She turned to Duni and offered the cub a soft, weak smile. "Darling, can you go play with your brother. Auntie Sarabi has to speak with Mama." Her ears folded back again.

"I know I'm not in the place to say this," she hissed, "But you're condemning the son for the sins of his father. And that's not right at all. What, you have no problem taking two dark cubs in from your sister but when they're your own you cast them out like garbage?"

Naanda's ears flicked back as soon as Sarabi entered the den. She knew that her sister had come to lecture her again and she was not in the mood to be preached to by her holier-than-thou sister. Duni glanced between her mother and her aunt as she approached and tentatively stepping out of her mother's grip and padding past Sarabi, brushing up against her leg as she went.

"You're right." she replied with a scowl as she watched her daughter join Gwandoya outside the den where they sat side-by-side, red and black "You do have no place to comment on how I deal with my own affairs. You gave up your children because of rumours and I was the one to raise them into what they are today. There is a difference, sister, Chumvi and Kula are not demons whereas that...thing is. I hate Scar, make no mistake, but you've heard others whispering the same things. That child is unholy."

A black lion was never a good sign and the fact that Naanda had birthed one made her repulsed to her core...and Scar was his father. It was as if the spirits couldn't resist making her life more difficult. She wondered how Sarabi would feel if their positions were reversed and she was the graceful Queen Mother whilst Sarabi languished away in obscurity and misfortune. She'd like to see her sister lecture her if that were the case, Sarabi had been handed everything whilst Naanda had only been taken from.

Still, she tried to be civil because Sarabi had saved her, Kula and the other lionesses kept prisoner with them in the Outlands. If it weren't for Sarabi, she'd still be Scar's prisoner or likely dead for birthing a monstrosity to him. That was the only reason her replies lacked the bite and venom they would have once had. 

"Who is whispering." Sarabi snapped back, jowls pulling back in a frown to reveal her lower canines. "Naanda, you tell me who among us is saying these things and we will go talk to them and put these rumors to rest. Because I see no one else frowning upon that cub. I see just that. I see a child, everyone but you see's a child. You are the only one that looks into the eyes of your own son and cries demon." Sarabi growled lowly.

The great former-queen dipped her head lightly as she eyed Naanda with a look that was both incredulous at the stubbornness and also annoyed. Sarabi was done playing this trivial game with her sister before they had even began speaking. She raised her head once again regally so as her ears flickered back and she regained some composure. But there was still a wrinkle in her maw that gave a visible warning to the shortness in which Sarabi would be dealing with this situation. When she spoke again, it was calmer but still unyielding.

"Let my mistake in putting my own children aside to my sister be a guidance for you. My mistake I lived with their whole lives and a fault I am paying for to this day. I was not truthful and therefore I was cold. Do not raise this child in that way or you may well mold him into the very thing you curse him to be." Sarabi advised with a grim frown that pulled at the corners of her maw.

Though the look in her eyes were neither prideful nor demanding. It was pleading. Sarabi wanted desperately for her sister to not choose the wrong path that she was so clearly set on. If she couldn't talk sense into Naanda, then she didn't want to have to take the next steps. However forced she may be to take them. So much lost hope in the young ones of this war it'd be an incredible blow to lose another. She thought briefly to Kiara, and how they met not too long ago and Sarabi promised she wouldn't talk to Simba about it. Sarabi looked at her and saw someone who was lost.

Much like her sister currently looked now.

Her sister's aggressive tone just made Naanda's fur bristle with rage. It was a rich sentiment coming from Sarabi who could apparently do no wrong. Apparently the irony of the situation was lost on the elder lioness. She wasn't going to listen to her sister's preaching and it would have no effect on her. She'd known from the minute that the cub had slipped from her body that it would have been better to just kill it then and save everyone the misery.

But Sarabi, of course, was too much of a soft hand when it came to cubs. She wouldn't let Naanda dispose of the cub before it could truly know the suffering it would bring on them all if it lived. Sarabi had deafened it, named it and insisted that she raise it because she was the unfortunate soul to birth the creature.

"Because that is what he is!" she hissed back, her own lips pulling back to show her sharp teeth "I'm not going to deny an obvious truth. The sooner that cub is gone then the better off we will all be! You know the stories, a black lion is a blight and no good will come from one. Better that the harsh truth is taught now and dealt with quickly than to prolong it. Call me a monster if that satisfies you but if I had gotten my way from the start we wouldn't have this problem now, would we? It was you who insisted on keeping it around."

She glanced to the cave entrance where the two cubs sat quietly, heads leaning together as they no doubt talked about some childish thing or other. Her skin crawled that her daughter, her sweet joy, continued to defy her and associate herself with that cub. Siblings or not, Naanda knew her daughter would end up suffering because she chose to associate with the black demon she had the cheek to call "brother".

"I was happy just having one child of my own to love." she added more to herself than to Sarabi.

(God Naanda is such a bitch)

Sarabi's nose wrinkled in annoyance as the ignorance spilled from her mouth. Word after word of lies and ridiculous theories that if Sarabi had had a week, she couldn't list all the reasons why they were wrong. She could see Naanda was being stubborn and would not be convinced, but still. She couldn't find it in herself not to speak out against her sisters disgusting prejudices against her own child.

"Listen to you." she practically hissed. "I won't call you a monster but that child is as much yours as it is the fathers. The product of two parents, not the embodiment of one! Evil is made, Naanda. Not born!" she insisted with a desperate persistence. All the same, Sarabi expected the failure before Naanda would even speak back. Her sister was blind and it was for that reason that Sarabi tightly shut her eyes, heaved a sigh and let her shoulders drop a moment in silence. When she opened her eyes again, there was a new found strength in the acceptance that Naanda could not be reasoned with.

"Fine..." she said simply, turning slightly so she could stare at the two cubs, both equally harmless in her eyes. Without looking away from them she continued speaking. "He has a few more months before he can be weaned entirely. You will provide for him until then under my careful watch." she announced. This was not a sisterly voice she spoke with, but one of authority. There would be no choice for Naanda in this.

"Then I will take him as my own..." Sarabi finished. After a certain age was reached the child would no longer need any amount of his mothers milk, only a motherly figure to tend to him. Sarabi couldn't ask anyone else to be that so she would willingly do that of her own accord. Turning her gaze back to Naanda she looked her unflinchingly in the eye as she recalled how Naanda took in Kula and Chumvi.

"As you did for me, all those years ago."

"No, mother."

The daughter both lionesses shared stood in the cave entrance, the great pillars of her legs hiding the young siblings playing behind her. Having paused just out of sight around the lip of the rocky mouth upon Sarabi entering it, Kula had heard the entire exchange and boy had it done it's job in upsetting the younger female. Anger and hurt set crimson fur on its end at the words spoken. How could the lioness who'd raised her say such things? How could she neglect a child? Gwandoya couldn't help the color of his fur anymore than she had been able to help not being the son that Naanda had wanted.

The gaze that traveled past Sarabi to Naanda was filled with disappointment and more than a hint of rage. Though fully grown and with cubs herself, Kula had never truly outgrown the pain that her mother's emotional neglect had caused. It hadn't been as great a thing as what Zira had heaped upon Nuka perhaps, but damage had still been done through the lioness' clear favoritism of her adopted son. Kula had hoped that with this new litter the mistakes of the past could be rectified... Clearly that hope was for naught.

"Sabini and I happen to still be nursing our own cubs..." Though her scowl was plain pain still shone through her eyes. "We will raise him alongside them." A tremble ran along the underside of her jaw as the lioness grit her teeth and swallowed, easing the choking lump that had risen in her throat back to whence it came. The next words to flow past those lips were husky and thick with the weight of the hurt and disappointment her mother's words had brought. Kula knew before they flew that they'd be like a dagger to Naanda's heart, but in her own moment of pain the grown child cared very little. "You always were happier with just one cub..."

Swallowing again Kula turned away, head lowered as she presented her back to the sisters and padded towards her 'siblings'.

"My child and my shame." Naanda tossed back, her tail whipping back and forth as her anger and frustration grew "You say evil isn't born but I remember how Scar was, sister, look at him and tell me evil can't be born. Uru and Ahadi loved him like you love Simba, raised him as well as they could and he still betrayed them and Mufasa."

"No, mother."

Kula's arrival was an unexpected one but Naanda was sure that her and her sister's arguing would attract someone eventually. Kula looked just as incensed as Sarabi did and in anger it only made the two resemble each other all the more. She listened with horror as she planned to wean the cub herself or give it to another of her pridesisters. Naanda rose to speak against it, warn Kula that she would be offering herself up to whatever curse the cub had but before she could get the words past her lips, Kula's eyes turned to her.

"You always were happier with just one cub..."

Kula's words hit their mark. Naanda's dark green eyes widened with hurt at her adoptive daughter's derision. Duni may be her own child but she had loved both Kula and Chumvi regardless of the fact they were not her true children. She had favoured Chumvi over Kula but only because she couldn't look at the girl and not see her sister's face shining back at her. Her sister who got the world at her paws whilst Naanda was left with nothing to call her own. With Chumvi she could at least pretend that he was her own child and her's alone, not simply a cub given to her to save face.

Still, she had loved Kula regardless. She had put herself between her daughter and Scar twice and done all she could to protect her and raise her. She may not have been the perfect mother but she was still her mother...the lioness who had raised her when Sarabi had abandoned her...and now it seemed her daughter was finally rejecting her fully. Taking the side of Sarabi and spitting in her face.

"Fine." she growled at Sarabi, trying to compose herself again after Kula's barbed words but it was clear that the younger lioness' words had hit hard "Do what you want. You're not a cub and I'm not your mother but mark my words closely. That child will cause nothing but pain and misery. It has Scar's taint in and another all of its own."

--------------------------

Outside, Duni and Gwandoya padded up to meet Kula.

"What's gonna happen now?" Duni asked, her minty-green eyes wide with fear and uneasiness. Gwandoya looked just as concerned with what was happening as his sister did, perhaps more so. He knew his mother hated him and he knew this argument was about him even if he couldn't quite hear all the words exchanged inside the den...still he knew that he was the cause of it all.

Sarabi wrinkled her nose, shaking her head at Naanda immediately as she spoke and looked shock. Scar? Was she really bringing him into this in that light?

"Maybe you didn't know him like I did, but Scar was not always this way. I knew him when he was Taka, when he was nothing but a child like Gwandoya is now. He was made into what he is today by neglect and favor for another child, the one chosen to be King..." she was of course speaking of Mufasa, "You would do well to remember that, Naanda." Sarabi finished with a particularly nasty scowl. If Scar turned out the way he did regardless of being loved by Uru and Ahadi, then what hope did Gwandoya have with how Sarabi's sister was treating him?

The change in expression was remarkable, upon Kula's arrival. She turned to the entrance of the den once again, Kula's form massive and as sharp as her voice that cut into their argument. Her words, though not directed to Sarabi, brought a pang to her heart in multitudes. But the pride swelled in her chest as Kula offered her nursing as well as Sabini's for the child. The lionesses who were also victim, the same as Naanda. Sarabi's heart ached. She'd done all she could to shield those females from Scar's maliciousness and still it hadn't quite been enough, but each of those cubs managed to be a blessing despite that.

Her ears flickered back at Kula's last words, a viciousness in their own sense which seemed to hit Naanda substantially more than Sarabi's. Perhaps cruel, but entirely within the rights. With how Naanda was behaving, she wasn't wrong. When Kula turned back to them and left, Sarabi's frown trained upon Naanda, offering no comfort to the blow she had just received.

"She holds more grace than you ever did." Sarabi said lowly. Without following up on that comment though, Sarabi turned entirely around and moved towards the cave exit after Kula. She stopped before reaching the mouth of the cave however, and turned her head to look over her shoulder for one last comment to Naanda.

"If you can not love one child of your own then you do not deserve the other." she announced grimly. "The ownership of both Gwandoya and Duni will be discussed in the future. You would do well to seek a change of heart. Sister." Sarabi finished with a cold scowl, before turning and bearing a less dark facial for Kula and the children outside the cave. She would not be speaking another word to Naanda, leaving her behind and coming up beside Kula to face the children.

"Don't you worry your sweet head, young one." Sarabi said softly to Duni, leaning down and nuzzling the side of her face with a gentle bump, "You'll be well taken care of until your mother is feeling well again. You, and your brother..." the elderly lioness assured, leaning to give Gwandoya a lick upon the top of his head. Sarabi couldn't imagine that the siblings would want to be separated so confiding them that no such thing was going to happen would no doubt bring some relief. They needed a change of scenery though, she thought, as she smiled fondly at the pair of them after straightening up.

"How about we take a walk the four of us? We can go to the watering hole for a bit and play, how does that sound?" she suggested. "You two go ahead, we're right behind you..." Sarabi promised. With that she turned to Kula, giving her a gentle smile that encouraged her to be strong. She needed to be, for the sake of her cousins. Wear a brave face and follow the suit of her mother, who leaned forward and nudged beneath her giant daughters chin lovingly with the tip of her nose.

A silent gesture for her to keep her chin up.

"I'm not your mother,"

The words struck through her back like an arrow, piercing the girl's heart completely and releasing sparks of pain throughout her body. Crimson eyes widened and a pause entered her already-slow gait as the words echoed in her ears. In a way Kula had always known that someday it would come to this. Even before Sarabi, even before this mess of birth mothers and adoptions and lies. She'd known that someday, somehow, it would be said. It was as inevitable as her own death and no less painful.

So... This was it.

Kula's gaze fell upon the cubs before her, growing distant and vacant as the lioness seemed to retreat into herself. There was no ire to be seem from the outside, but the sorrow and pain was definitely there for those brave enough to search her gaze. She couldn't blame her small cousins for this, not when she'd known from the beginning that it was inevitable. How could she? They were children still, innocent of the world and it's cruelties. Or... Most of it's cruelties.

The lioness flinched as Sarabi's touch brought her back to reality. Kula's head twitched away as she found herself unable to face her mother just quite yet, expression tight and eyes closed as she lowered her head and turned away so that the cubs might not see their grown cousin's distress. She needed a moment to readjust to this new reality without the mother who'd suckled and raised her, and no amount of foresight could deaden the pain of its conception.