Prologue

Two cubs

Born of one mother

Kin of his kin

Through a Healer's wisdom

And a Hunter's finesse

From two different Prides

Will save the Savannah

From inevitable darkness

Simba stares from Pride Rock and into the distance. He hears his mate, Nala, purr from behind him. When he turns his head, he sees his beautiful mate with his two beautiful and healthy cubs. They are just a few weeks old and they can barely crawl. Simba smiles proudly at his male cub, Kion, who would be the next great King of the Pridelands. And he couldn't be more proud of his daughter, Kiara who would make a fearsome lioness and hunter. Simba is disrupted by the sound of footsteps running frantically through the plains of the Savannah.

When he snaps his head back around to see what was going on, he sees Rafiki running towards the Healing Cave. Simba is delighted to see the Royal Mjuzi who had been just traveling to the Tree of Life. Secretly, Simba is relieved to see the baboon. So much has happened since Rafiki was gone — it's unnerving.

Upon further inspection, however, Simba notices a creaminess ball of fluff in Rafiki's arm just before he enters the Healing Cave. Without hesitation, Simba swiftly climbs off of Pride rock and into the Healing Cave.

"Rafiki? I didn't know you would be back this early." Simba calls out to the baboon. Rafiki doesn't answer but instead places the creamish ball of fluff into a freshly made nest. When Simba looks closer at the fluff ball, he realizes it is a cub! A lion's cub.

"Where did that cub come from?" Simba's head starts pounding with so many questions.

"Simba! No time to explain! Is there a nursing lioness?" Rafiki doesn't bother to look up at Simba but instead forages through the herbs. Simba is no Healer, but he knows that the cub is sick. Simba decides to postpone the questions he has for the time being.

"Ayala delivered a still born cub yesterday while you were gone. She still has milk for the cub." When Rafiki hears this news, he is relieved.

"Quick! Bring her here now!" Rafiki is frantic now. Simba dashes out the Healing Cave and clambers up Pride Rock. Inside Pride Rock, he sees Ayala with her head on her paws. She isn't sleeping but instead just staring into space. Simba feels terrible for Ayala. Her mate died from the bout of summer's cough that hit the Pride and her cub was a stillborn. Simba pads over to Ayala.

"Ayala. How are you feeling?" He asks softly. Ayala doesn't respond but instead looks at him with her big sad grey eyes. Those grey eyes made her very popular among the male lions of the Pride. Unfortunately for her, her mate died. Simba knows that the loss of a child will weigh down the heart of any animal. But for Ayala, her cub was the last thing she had left her mate.

"Ayala, I know it's not your own cub, but there's a cub that Rafiki just brought in who desperately needs a mother. Could you please take care of her until she no longer needs milk?"

"A cub?" Purpose fills Ayala's eyes and she lifts her head from her paws.

"Yes. A cub. She's in the the Healing Cave. She really needs you." When Ayala rides to her feet and starts walking towards the exit/entrance of Pride Rock, relief washes over Simba.

"A cub?" Nala echoes Ayala's words. Simba looks over at his mate. Her blue eyes look confused as she repeats her question.

"Rafiki brought in a cub today. He doesn't have time to explain right now but he will later." Simba tells her. He sighs when he realizes just how many cubs there are now. There is Tiffu, Zuri and her twin brother Makua, my cubs Kion and Kiara, and now this new mysterious cub. So many mouths to feed.

Before he can worry too much, he walks out of Pride Rock and into the Healing Cave where he sees Ayala nursing the hungry cub. Ayala looks at the cub with such love in her eyes even though it's not her own real cub. She bends her head down to lick the top of head to get her fur to lay down.

"Rafiki? I think you have some explaining to do." Simba looks at the Royal Mjuzi with his eyebrows raised. Rafiki rises to his feet now that the cub is situated and follows Simba outside the Medicine Cave.

"How did you find the cub? And who's cub is it?"

"She is Kalani's cub." Rafiki tells him.

Kalani? Kalani was Simba and Nala's best friend growing up. Simba, Nala, and Kalani would be spend all day playing with one an another. She was meant to be the next Healer of the Pride but her father Scar declared Healers useless and made her become a hunter. Kalani ran away with her mate just a few days before Simba returned and set the Pridelands free. She had to escape her father.

Once he did return to the Pridelands, he had to fight off Scar and restore order to the Pridelands. Between the fire and the heavy rains, Kalani's scent was impossible to trace. Simba remembers, with pain, the dark days shortly after he regained control of the Pridelands. He had to worry about bringing all the animals back to the Pridelands. He had enlist the help of the elephants to water the grasses that were killed by the drought. Then, once everything got somewhat normal, when Nala was pregnant with Kion and Kiara, Zira started her uprising.

But through all this, the main thing that pained Simba was the cries of his mate. For days after Scar's overthrow, Nala's cries could be heard from all across the Pridelands. She search relentlessly for hours on end for her sister. She asked everyone she could, she tried to track the scents, and sometimes, she wouldn't even come back home some nights. Simba, to this day, doesn't know where Nala was on those nights. Finally, after giving birth to Kion and Kiara, she gave up her search. But she kept hoping that she would one day see Kalani once again. Simba secretly thinks that a part of Nala died the day she gave up her search.

"What happened to Kalani?" Simba's voice catches in his throat. Sorrow fills Rafiki and Simba's heart sinks.

"She has completed her journey on the circle of life. She asked me to take care of her cub."

Simba's heart drops at the news. Simba has always blames himself for not getting back to the Pridelands sooner. If he had just listened to Nala the first time instead of waiting, Kalani would still be alive. She would have never run away and everything would be fine. Simba swallows the bile in his throat. How was he going to explain this to Nala?

"What's the cub's name?"

"Sarafina." Rafiki sighs. Kalani named her cub after her late mother. Sarafina was the name of Kalani's mother. She died during the reign of Scar and with no Healer, Sarafina was unable to make her journey to the Prideskies. So her spirit instead roams the Pridelands. That's why every Pride must have a Healer — a Healer must bear the mark of a Healer, a leaf on just below their shoulder. Simba's Pride is in desperate need of a healer because without one, the lions who pass away cannot make it to Prideskies and they are destined to room the Savannah for eternity. Once a lion dies, the Healer preforms a ritual with the deceased lion which allows the lion to enter Prideskies.

Simba turns away from the Royal Mjuzi and walks back into the Healing Cave. When he walks in, he sees Ayala purring contently as she gazes at Sarafina. Simba walks up to the cub and fully inspects her. She is a cream-colored cub with sparkling blue eyes. When looking at her eyes, Simba is reminded of his days soaking in the beautiful lagoon water back at Hakuna Matata falls.

It's funny because she resembled her grandmother quite a bit. Sarafina turns over a bit and Simba notices something on the cub. At first he thinks it's a speck of dirt but when Ayala licks the cub to clean her, the mark doesn't move. He takes a step closer to the cub to inspect the mark. It's too small to tell for sure but to Simba it looked like a small leaf. The mark of a Healer.

"Rafiki! Rafiki!" Simba calls out to the baboon. Rafiki rushes into the Healing Cave.

"The mark. She has the mark of the Healer!" Simba points to the mark with his paw.

"The mark?!" Ayala cries in surprise as she turns to view the mark. Rafiki's eyes light up in delight. Finally this pride would have a Healer. Too many lions have died without one. Typically a former Healer would train the new one but because there isn't a Healer, Rafiki would have to train Sarafina along with his Mjuzi apprentice. Simba is ecstatic as he breaks the news to the rest of the Pride. Everyone is delighted to know about the new Healer cub.

Nala, however, cries when she sees Sarafina. Nala then bends her head to lick the top of the cub's head furiously.

"She looks just like Kalani. Just like her." Nala cries over and over again. Simba notices his son Kion taking particular interest in Sarafina. They are both too young to talk but they wiggled near each other as they stared at one another with wide eyes. Simba chuckles to himself when he think of the potential marriage between the two of them.

'What a great couple they would make.' Simba thinks to himself.