Chapter 5

The pride knew something was wrong, yet they couldn't pin point where the dread filling was coming from an this put them on edge, especially Sarafina and Nala. Sarafina had watched Sarabi high tail it out of the cave the day before yesterday when it wasn't even sun out in a panic and she hadn't seen her at all since she left until late last night with Simba following her silently, not very unusual except he looked slightly afraid when he caught sight of Mufasa. The lioness didn't understand that one, yes Mufasa was intimidating, but Simba was his cub and he shouldn't be afraid of him...should he?

She sighed while helping Nala with a small project she was doing with some rocks and flowers, though she didn't see that her own baby girl was looking around fearfully and keeping an eye out for her younger friend. The young female had heard Mufasa when he thought that she and Zazu were far enough and she had saw the King lash out and hit Simba. She made sure not to get Zazu's attention as she knew that if he saw the King then there would be an uproar with everyone and possibly a war, according to her mom at least, between the pride and their allies. So she kept to herself while waiting for the right opportunity.

"-ala! Nala!" the young female came out of her daze as she heard her mother call her name.

"Hm?" she hummed while looking at Sarafina. The elder female watched her daughter and saw that she was distracted and decided to let Nala roam as her little project was not on her mind at the moment.

"Go play, stay close though" Sarafina told Nala, who nodded and walked over to the trail before shifting into her cub form and ran out to the plain below. The elder female watched her daughter run and sighed again as she went and searched for Sarabi. If she knew her best friend as well as she did, she knew where she would be and she hoped she caught her soon.

~0~

"Are you sure this plan will work?" Shenzi asked Sarabi as the Queen paced back and forth while Simba messed with Ed and Banzai, Scar had gone out to command his other hyenas to set them on with the plan he had to take down Mufasa. Sarabi didn't look at the hyena female, but she did answer her as she grabbed a rock and fiddled with it so she could do something instead of ponder and worry about little things.

"For as long as I've known Scar, and I've known him for a very long time, he's always made plans that have worked. If he has a plan idea in his head, he works on it until it isn't going to fail. If he made a plan that has a even a slight chance of failure, he sacks it and starts over. So yes I believe it will work, I have faith in Scar and his plan" Sarabi said to the other female, who blinked at her for a few moments before sighing an turning to where Simba and her pack mates were.

Even though they had chased him and his little friends, Simba was willing to be around them and interact with them as they had apologized to him after he was told what was going on and introduced to them. He was understanding and a happy cub, very smart and willing to try and make peace with people, not really violent unless there was no other choice or he was running on instinct. She smiled as she saw that Simba had tackled Banzai and, with the help of Ed, started to tickle him mercilessly.

"Ah! Ha ha! S-stop! Ha!" the tortured male was shouting to the cub and his pack mate. Shenzi laughed at Banzai's misery before deciding to go and help him as she could see Scar coming from the south with what seemed to be the baboon they went to, to fix Simba, following him.

"A'right let the 'scopic brained one up, Scar's returning" Shenzi said as she lifted Simba up and placed him to the side before smacking the back of Ed's head to get him off of Banzai. The panting male shook from the tickling and glared at his male pack mate before tackling him when he started laughing. Shenzi grabbed him and shoved him to the side away from Simba.

"Knock it off" she said before going over to Sarabi, who was waiting for Scar to come up the ramp. The lioness smiled brightly at the baboon following Scar and went down to greet them while Shenzi stuck close to Simba and entertained him with a story so the others could talk.

"Rafiki, it's good to see you" Sarabi said as she hugged the medicine man, her blonde hair bounced over her shoulders and into the baboon's face. Not minding the hair, Rafiki patted Sarabi's back before she went to Taka's side.

"It's good to see you too, my dear. Taka told me about the plan and thought I'd be valuable to it" Rafiki told her and chortled lightly at the glare he received from Taka.

"I see, mind explaining that part Taka?" Sarabi asked and giggled at the defeated look on the dark lion's face as he gave in to their use of his birth name. He motioned for them to sit in some shade at the base of his bungalow, smiling as he heard Simba's laughter and the hyena trio's bickering. Once sat down, Scar began to elaborate on what he had going for Rafiki's part.

"Since Rafiki is one of the elders of the Pride Lands, no one would expect him to join in on this. I've thought of his use in medicine and poisons to help dull Mufasa's senses so he won't be suspicious plus if things get out of control, he can use his knowledge in his...uh...what did you call it?" he asked Rafiki to retell his form martial arts.

"Baboon foo, it mixes several forms of martial arts together to work with a baboon's natural abilities and flexibility" he gave a general depiction of what he meant.

"Um...yes...that. Since Rafiki can use his...baboon foo...he can cause harm to Mufasa if things get tricky" he finished up for Sarabi. The lioness nodded slight before thinking of something. She knew the basis of the whole plan and yet she hadn't been told a key part of the plan; who lures Mufasa out of the Pride Land safety zone and towards the canyon where this will take place. She voice her question and saw Taka looking to the side.

"That's part of the plan I'm not liking at all" he stated carefully and sighed, "I've thought of many possibilities of who it could be, and yet each one had been knocked aside for one reason or another and I've found only one that can do it and it's the one I hate to use at all" he said to Sarabi and the concerned looking baboon.

"Who?" Sarabi asked softly, hoping that the dreadful filling she had was wrong. Taka looked down for a moment, contemplating on telling her before looking up to her brown eyes.

"Simba"

~0~

Nala stumbled through the plains as her mind wondered through thoughts and worries she had. She was mostly worried about Simba, her friend and brother in all with the exception of blood. She had wanted to run to Sarabi or, she wondered why she thought this, Scar to tell what she saw, but she remembered her mother's words and she was terrified that Mufasa would do something to her mother and the pride. She was scared of being hurt, but she was more afraid of her pride being hurt because of her. She remembered telling her something when she was a little younger and before Simba was born.

"Our pride is our family. We have bonds with everyone in it regardless of how well we know them and when one of our pride makes a step out of the rules for our pride, things get hectic and everyone turns against that pride member. Remember this Nala, you never turn your back on your pride, they're you're support and they are your only ties to living"

Back then she didn't understand and even now she didn't fully comprehend the meaning, but she had a small idea of what her mother meant. Simba is her pride member, her family, and he was hurt by Mufasa, his father. She had to protect him from the threat otherwise he would die. She shivered at that and turned around to head back to Pride Rock. She needed to tell someone what she saw so she could help Simba and she had a vague clue as to who to tell.

~0~

Sarabi sat at the mouth of the den with Simba dozing next to her, he wasn't completely healed yet and Rafiki said he'd sleep a little more for the better part of two days before being more active again. She saw Mufasa leave Pride Rock for some reason or another and she narrowed her eyes at this before scanning the pride. They were all doing something or another and some were off hunting with the youngsters, teaching them the finer points of hunting, and she then saw Sarafina laying against her claimed rock. She picked up Simba carefully and went over to her best friend.

"'Fina" she said calmly. The named lioness looked up from her position and sat up to who she saw.

"'Rabi" she said and motioned for her to sit. Sarabi shook her head.

"Not right now. I need you to watch Simba for me while I run to Rafiki's tree" she said to be inconspicuously to her friend.

"Why? Are you alright?" Sarafina asked her, worried that something was wrong.

"I've just been feeling a little under the weather and I want to see if I'm getting ill and take care of it before it gets worse" she said offhandedly.

"'Rabi...do you want me to come with?" the blue eyed lioness asked the Queen.

"No! No I don't, I need you to watch Simba for me, you know I don't trust the other lionesses with Simba" she said while her heart pounded against her chest, she didn't need Sarafina to follow her while she did this crack pot scouting.

"You sure? Why not leave him with Scar?" the other lioness asked while trying to find a way to go with Sarabi.

"Taka's out at the moment, otherwise I would, please 'Fina. I don't want him to be around the others who will try something if I'm not here" the brown eyes lioness begged. Both knew that a few lionesses of their pride would leap at the chance to attack Simba so he wouldn't get the throne and so they could suave Mufasa into their claws so they would have the next heir to the throne and be Queen. Sarafina shook at the thought, as did Sarabi, then nodded after a small amount of thought.

"Alright, I will. Be careful though 'Rabi, something's going on around here and I'm not liking it one bit. Also if you see Nala, tell her to return here before Sundown?" Sarafina asked Sarabi and received a nod.

"I will" Sarabi said to her on both accounts of Sarafina's worry. Sarabi knew to keep a look out for her goddaughter knew that Simba was in safe paws with his godmother until she returned. Leaping off to the ramp, Sarabi transformed into her lion form and ran down the rest of the slanted rock until she hit the plains floor. From there she rushed down the path she saw Mufasa take and hurried to catch up with Mufasa, hopefully she'd get on his trail quicker than he'd catch on to her tailing him.

"-abi! Auntie 'Rabi!" the lioness heard a small voice from her right and slowed down to see Nala rushing over to her, panting and looking on the verge of tears.

"Nala, sweetie what is it?" Sarabi asked and hoped that she could quickly get going, not to be cruel to her goddaughter as she cared for her deeply, but Mufasa was getting farther and farther away each passing second and this was vital that she followed him.

"I need to tell you something, about Simba!" the cub said as she wrapped her arms around her godmother's neck. Turning back into her human form, Sarabi wrapped her arms around the little girl's back and pulled her close.

"Tell me, what is it?" she asked wondering what was wrong with her cub.

"I knew I should have said something sooner, but I was scared" Nala cried out and let the tears fall down her face.

"Shh, Shh. There, there Nala. Tell me what happened" she said and calmed the little one down quickly.

"A Fe-few nights ago *hic* Simba and I got I-in trouble w-with M-muf-fasa for being somew-where we shouldn't have b-been and wh-while I was se-sent home with Zazu, S-Simba was ordered to stay with M-Mufasa" Nala started while getting small amounts of hiccups in her breathing, "W-when *hic* he thought Zazu and I we-were far enough a-away he s-started yelling at S-Simba. Z-Zazu didn't hear him, b-but I did *hic* and I s-saw him lash out a-and h-hit Simba" she then felt more tears fall down her face and cried again. Sarabi blinked widely and knew that she could use this, Nala had been there and had seen what went on, SHE was a link to nailing the coffin lid on Mufasa's casket.

"Don't worry Nala, I'm going to take care of this, Simba won't be hurt again" she soothed Nala's fears and calmed her again.

"Go, your mother is waiting for you and Simba is with her, safe and sound" she assured the cub and watched her run off after getting her nerves under control.

'Who knew that cubs were resilient?' Sarabi asked herself before going off again in her lion form.

'Damn, I don't see him' Sarabi thought darkly an stopped to look around, her night vision was slowly forming as the sun escaped her line of sight. She couldn't see her 'mate', but she suddenly smelt his scent coming from the ground beneath her. She hadn't smelt it before in the main proportion of the Pride Lands for the mixed scents, but now on the edge where she had seen him go, she had him. Leaning down and sniffing in his scent, Sarabi lifted her head and narrowed her eyes as she smelt others not to far ahead, who was Mufasa going to see?

Sarabi went onward again, this time nailing on Mufasa's trail and following it out past the meerkat burrows and side of Hyena territory. She went past the dried twin canyon, one not unlike the one Scar was planning to use, and then came to some cliffs she remembered passing when she went rouge in her youth. What was Mufasa doing here?

The mixed smells of her 'mate' and others was getting the better of her nose and she soon lost Mufasa's trail, but it was still heading in the same path as the others so she kept following it until she heard voices, many of them and all varying in tones and gender. Looking around, Sarabi found a small path up to a cliff that seemed to overlook a bowl that the voices were coming from. Sarabi eased her way up the side of the cliff, missing the rock piles that would slide with the slightest touch and made sure she was hidden by slabs of rocks on the cliff face.

Several times she had to back track when there was a big enough gab to have her been seen or there were multiple rock piles to navigate around, but she did make it up to the top. She breathed in deeply to calm herself and to rid herself of the mixed scents that had coagulated in her nasal passages. She shook her head and edged over to a rock that would hide her and yet allow her to see a majority of the occupants in the bowl. Sarabi bit back a gasp at what she saw down in the bowl and quickly his herself as she didn't know if she had made a quick movement or not.

She couldn't believe her eyes as she looked back to the bowl and saw Mufasa down with his gathered people.

Me: What did Sarabi see? Oh! You want me to tell ya? HA! Not this time, ya have to wait for the next chapter!