So I know that this chapter probably isn't as exciting, but it is important for a later chapter. I also wanted you all to get to know Tumaini a little bit better and show off a little bit of her curiosity.

--TLK--

Kion wakes up to something heavy landing on his spine. He quickly opens his eyes and turns his head to see a young cub wrapped across his back.

"Sorry, I thought I could make the jump." She laughs nervously.

Kion scans the den and notices that the cub attempted to jump over Vitani, who still rests peacefully next to him, and himself.

"She tried making a game out of jumping over us."  Kion thought to himself, chuckling slightly. Kion had always had a soft spot when it came to the young ones. It's one of the only things that Zira's training had not hardened.

He looks back at the cub, his expression soft and reassuring. "It's ok Tumaini, I used to do the same thing when I was little."

"Really, you were little too?" She asks in awe.

Kion chuckles at her astonishment. "Yup."

"Whoa!" Tumaini looks away in wonder, trying to wrap her head around the idea of a little Kion.

She climbs off the lion carefully as Kion lets a yawn escape. He slowly got up, being careful not to wake Vitani, and stretched the sleep from his muscles. Kion turns back towards Tumaini who sits a couple feet away as if waiting for something.

Mlezi stirs awake, finding that her cub is missing from her paws. She looks around frantically, trying to locate her daughter. Then to her surprise and horror, she sees that Tumaini had awoken Kion.

"I'm so sorry Kion. Tumaini, get back here." She whispers loud enough for only the two to hear.

"But I'm not tired mama." The cub protests.

"I don't care. Come here." Mlezi responds, with a hint of embarrassment.

Kion watches the young one pout and slowly walk towards her. He turns to Mlezi. "Go back to sleep, I'll watch Tumaini."

The cub stops and looks back at Kion with excitement.

"Are you sure?" The mother lioness asks.

Kion gives her a nod of his head to show he means it. Tumaini runs back and stops in front of Kion with a huge smile.

"Well... thanks." Mlezi returns with a smile. She puts her head down and drifts back off to sleep.

"Come on Tumaini." Kion says, walking towards the mouth of the den. Tumaini races past Kion and breaks out into the open air.

As Kion exits the den, he takes a deep breath of the fresh air around him, a small breeze ruffling through his mane. The sky gave off a small glow, but the sun hadn't pierced the sky yet. Kion watches Tumaini as she darts for the watering hole. She took a few laps before the sound of a nearby cricket caught her attention. Tumaini follows the sound to a nearby rock. Kion watches her in amusement as she gets closer to the cricket, perched on top of the rock. When the cricket decided that Tumaini had come too close, the cricket jumped over her head; Tumaini tried to swat it out of the air, only to miss. She pounces at the cricket but misses again as it jumped even farther this time, right onto another rock.

"It's so small, how can it jump so far?" She turns to Kion for an answer.

Kion smiles as he walks over to the puzzled cub.

"I'll show you." Kion and Tumaini walked over to the cricket slowly and stopped a little farther away from the cricket than Tumaini had before.

"You see the back legs?" Kion began.

"Ya."

"Look how big they are compared to the rest of the cricket."

"Whoa... they're really long." She responds.

"They use those long legs to push off the ground, and propel them forward." Kion finishes with a smile at the cub's curiosity.

"How do they land?" She asks.

"They spread all their legs out to stabilize themselves, and just before they land, they bring their legs back in, towards the ground." He blows on the cricket so Tumaini can see it in action. Her gaze remained fixed on the cricket from take off, to the landing.

"Whoa!" She exclaims.

"So, like this?" Tumaini crouches and with determination, she pushes off the ground. She spreads her legs far apart like a flying squirrel when they glide from tree to tree. Tumaini closes her eyes, expecting to jump really far, only to fall straight to the ground on her stomach. "Ow..."

"Not quite..." Kion chuckles. "You ok?" He responds, knowing very well that she's fine.

"Ya." Tumaini grunts as she gets up, rubbing her stomach. "Why didn't that work?" She asks in frustration.

"Well, lions are different. We can't jump like crickets." He responds to the cub.

"Now you tell me." She pouts.

"You may not be able to jump like a cricket, but you can still learn to leap like a true lion." He reassures her. "For starters, you had the right idea when crouching."

"I did?" She tilts her head slightly in confusion.

"Yes. But when you push off the ground, reach out in front of you."

Tumaini got back into a crouch, ready to make a second attempt at leaping. Pushing off the ground, she stretches her front paws forward. Her form and distance, for a cub, was excellent. Kion knew that her height was definitely going to need some work; nothing a few days of practice couldn't fix.

"That was perfect, Tumaini." Kion walks over to the cub.

"Whoa! I jumped really far." She answers, wide-eyed.

"And with a few days of practice, you can jump over three lions, instead of two." Kion encourages Tumaini.

"You really think so?" She asks hopefully.

"Of course. It also helps to get a running start; that's how I used to practice." Kion smiles.

Tumaini smiles back at him with excitement. After a few seconds, her face drops as she looks to the ground, deep in thought.

"What's wrong?" Kion asks the cub.

"Back at that... that... bone place..." She looks Kion in the eye. "... those hyenas tried to hurt my mama and me."

Kion thinks back to the Elephant Graveyard. He felt ashamed that he had killed Chungu and Cheezi right in front of the cub. He didn't regret it, but Kion knew that he might have traumatized Tumaini by slaughtering them.

"I remember." Kion answers soothingly.

"You fought them and made them go to sleep. Can you teach me how to fight like that?"

Of course Kion knew that Mlezi told her daughter that the hyenas were just sleeping after what he had done. But the question bothered him, it didn't feel right hearing it from a cub like that.

"Maybe someday, but you'll also have training from some of the other lions." Kion answers, not liking his own response.

"Ok." Tumaini responds in disappointment.

Kion didn't like Tumaini's reaction either, so he scooped the cub closer to his side, doing his best to comfort her. She looks up at Kion innocently, an understanding but still disappointed smile spread across her face.

"It isn't fair for a cub to be raised out here." Kion thought to himself. It was partly one of the reasons why he hated Simba; forcing Vitani, Kovu and Nuka to live in such harsh conditions as cubs. Now Kion may have been at fault for not caring during his time in the Pridelands; but that all changed when he got to know Vitani.

"Training for when you and Vitani have your own cub?" A voice behind Kion teased. He turns to see Zuni smirking at him.

"Maybe." Kion chuckles.

"Hmm... I haven't seen you laugh in... well.. Ever." Zuni observes. "Any ways, You should probably wake Vitani. The sun is about to breach over the mountains, and we don't want her getting in trouble with Zira."

"I guess you're right." Kion gets up.

"I'll watch Tumaini." Kion dips his head in thanks.

Most of the lionesses are awake and moving towards the watering hole for their morning drink. Kion walks to the den and enters; Vitani is still fast asleep. He moves towards her, and licks the top of her head; gently, he wakes her up. Vitani opens her eyes and lifts her head.

"How early in the morning is it?" She yawns.

"The sun is still hidden behind the mountains, but it won't be long before it breaks through." Kion responds.

Vitani stretches awake, and stands up to nuzzle Kion. "I had fun last night." She cooes.

"Me too." He responds with a smirk.

"You guys were loud." Cyrus exits the cave without stopping.

Vitani and Kion stare out of the den after her, both hot with embarrassment. Suddenly, Zuni's words from a few minutes ago hit him, driving him deeper into torment. Kion looks back at Vitani, her gaze returns to him.

"Whoops." Was all Kion could say.

"Anyways..." Vitani brushes the situation off her mind as best she could.

Vitani and Kion exit the den and head to the watering hole. As they had their fill, Vitani made an unexpected move as she finished. Kion gets splashed in the face with water as Vitani jumps in. He and most of the lionesses stare at her in astonishment.

"What is she doing?" Cyrus echoes Kion's thoughts.

Vitani crawls out of the watering hole; water spilling off the soaking lion.

"What was that about?" Kion walks over to the lioness; BIG mistake. She shakes the water off, drenching Kion.

"I need to get your scent off me before going back, otherwise mother will know." She responds with a grin.

"Well, was that necessary? Aren't there other ways to do that?" Kion asks in annoyance to being drenched.

"Yes, but then I wouldn't get to see your face like this." She chuckles.

"Right..." Kion shakes the water from his mane.

Kion looks over at the zebras from last night. There's definitely plenty left over, and one of them hasn't even been touched. Most of Kion's lionesses have already started helping themselves.

"Want to stay for breakfast?" Kion asks Vitani.

"I better not, mother can tell if I've eaten or not." She responds.

Kion walks over to the untouched zebra and drags it towards Vitani. "Take it."

Vitani looks at Kion in astonishment. "Why?"

"I'm not letting you go hungry." Kion reponds.

"But mother didn't send me out to hunt, only to spy." Vitani protests.

"If you tell her that nobody saw you, that you stole from the Pridelands right from under their nose, she'll be happy about it." Kion reassures her.

"I guess, and thanks Kion." She nuzzles him and gives him a quick lick on the head.

Vitani grabs the zebra and starts dragging it away towards Zira's territory. Before she could go much further, a deep voice calls out her name.

"Vitani, What are you doing here?" All eyes turn towards Kovu as he enters the clearing.

"I'm done spying on the Pridelands. I came here for my share of water before going back home." She lied to her brother.

"Right... and what's that you got there?" Kovu accuses.

"What does it look like?" Vitani snaps back.

"And I suppose you got two of them." Kovu looks at the zebra that Kion's lionesses surround. Some of the lionesses growl at Kovu.

"Traitors." Kovu scoffs.

"That's enough Kovu." Kion gets up and crosses the clearing towards Kovu. "Take your share of water and leave."

"Whatever, Kion." Kovu and Kion stare each other down as he walks towards the watering hole. After taking his share, he walks over to Vitani and helps grab the zebra. All eyes stayed with him until they were out of sight. As Kion cooled down after the little encounter, he walked over to Mlezi.

"Mlezi, I was wondering if I could take Tumaini out on patrol with me. I want her to be a little more acquainted with the Outlands." Kion asks.

As Tumaini hears her name, she excitedly pads over to Kion; looking at her mother hopefully.
Mlezi didn't seem to like the idea, but she agreed to Kion's request.

"Good, we'll head out as soon as you're finished eating." Kion looks at the cub with a smile.

"Where are we going first?" She asks with excitement.

"You'll see." He responds.

"We'll be back before the sun is fully overhead." Kion reassures Mlezi.

--TLK--

Tomorrow I'm going to be going through all my chapters for a couple hours. Just fixing mistakes and polishing up everything. I'm telling you now so that if you end up getting notified of another update tomorrow, you'll know what it means.

Anyways, I hope that at least some of you enjoyed this Chapter. If you guys have any questions or if you have any ideas for future chapters, I'm all ears.