A Mother's Instinct

Chapter 1

It had only been a couple of hours since Sarabi, all the cubs of the pride and her pride sisters heard the news. Mufasa and Simba were gone, and with no heir to Mufasa's rule, Scar claimed his kingship. None of the cubs in the pride could challenge Scar's claim. They were not Mufasa's sons or daughters, so they could not take the mantle of King. Sarabi wasn't very keen on Scar becoming King, but since both blood relations to Scar were with the Great Kings, she could not claim her title as Queen to be held. If Simba were alive, she would rule in Mufasa's stead til Simba was ready to take the Mantle. But Simba was no longer, so she had no way of keeping her Queen title. Nor any means to keep the hyenas away, since Scar allowed them safe passage.

She had requested to be able to see her husband and son's final resting places, which Scar permitted, seeing no harm in allowing her that right. Sarafina, along with Nala wished to accompany her. Sarafina had always seen Mufasa like a brother to her, and Sarabi as a sister. Nala of course wanted to come to say her final goodbyes to Simba. As they approached the site of Mufasa's body, all of them cried. They were all sad that such a strong Lion had met such a cruel fate, and Simba, one of the cutest cubs in the pride, next to Nala, was dealt the same blow. They all payed their respects to Mufasa. Then Nala noticed Simba wasn't in the area. "W-Where's Simba?" Nala inquired.

They all looked around and found no trace of him. "He may have been taken further by the Stampede," Sarabi suggested.

"Let's trace his scent, and we'll find him, so we can pay him our respects to him as well," Sarafina added.

Sarabi nodded. The two pride sisters sniffed the air, and thankfully, Simba's scent was still fresh. They began to follow the trail, feeling that, somewhere further down the gorge, they'd find Simba's body. They both knew that, being how small he was, the Wildebeest could have carried his body a distance. How far they were unsure. Just then, his scent turned to one of the forks in the Gorge. They followed, and came upon a most peculiar sight. His scent was still trailing, but they had found themselves staring a climb. "This can't be, how could Simba's scent be in this direction?" Sarabi pondered.

"What do you mean Queen Sarabi?" Nala asked.

"His scent leads upwards to this climb, but his body is not here. And for Wildebeest this is a dead end. They can't scale a cliff upwards like this one. Their hooves aren't built for such a climb," Sarabi stated.

"Perhaps, I hate to think it, but, maybe some Buzzards found him," Sarafina suggested.

"Maybe, but if it were them, the trail would have ended right before this area. Let's trek farther. Maybe... maybe Scar thought Simba was dead, after seeing him taken into the chaos of the Stampede. Maybe he survived. But, I'm not sure why Simba wouldn't come back," Sarabi stated with a shred of hope.

"Well, if he did survive, maybe his mind was panicked and he lost his sense of direction. Perhaps we should investigate further," Sarafina stated, now hoping as much as her queen that Simba was alright.

As they scaled the cliff face that had Simba's scent, they came upon a slope that led down towards thorns. "The scent leads this way, he could be trapped in those thorns," Sarabi worried.

She soon started to carefully scale down the slope with a bit of a slide. Sarafina picked up Nala and followed suit. As they came to the ledge, they saw some blood. Sarafina took a sniff. She winced, and stated, "Sarabi, my queen. Thankfully, this blood is not Simba's, but... It smells of Hyena."

Sarafina's face turned to one of worry. Sarabi eased her worries as she stated, "I understand that you think the Hyenas may have finished Simba off, but Sarafina... they haven't. Simba's scent trails into the thorn bushes below. I can see some damage to them, made by a cub Simba's size. And one made by a Hyena's size. But that's where the Hyena's ends. Simba's trails off. Simba may yet be alive. We have to find him. He's out there all alone," Sarabi stated.

"But Sarabi, that trails off into the desert. What if we're too late?" Sarafina pointed out.

"We have to try Mommy. He's my friend," Nala argued.

Sarafina took a little bit to think then sighed, "Alright, but we'll have to pick up the pace. Scar is king, and he may worry why we've not come back yet."

"Scar could probably care less if a couple Lionesses and a cub trailed off. As long as he's got the bulk of our Lionesses with him, he'll probably think we returned while he was sleeping. Which we may very well do. We were mourning when we left. He probably thinks we're devistated and taking our time. He doesn't know Simba may yet still be alive,"Sarabi reasoned.

"You do make a good point, my queen," Sarafina said.

Soon, the three found a safe route through the thorns and picked back up on Simba's trail. With the night sky out, at least if they made their way to the desert, the seering heat of the sun would not slow them. They picked up the pace as they cleared the thorns. All Sarabi could hope for, was her son was still alive, still fighting. Hopefully, she could find some answers as to why he did not make his way back to the pride.