A/N The final story in the King of the Sanctuary trilogy. This story shows Little Rose and her friends growing up; other characters will join them. Some I made up; some are canon/sub-canon.

You know the drill; I do not own Scar or any canon/sub-canon characters that appear in this story. I own everything else though.

Chapter 1

King Scar wordlessly carried his cub, princess Rosebud, formally known as Little Rose to their cave. They had been at the funeral of someone very near and dear to their hearts: Rose.

Rose had been a black lioness with a gray underbelly, chest, throat, and snout, dark gray ear linings and eyelids, a black tail tuft, fluffy ears, a black nose, and aquamarine eyes. She had lived here, in the African Safari Lion Sanctuary for her entire life. It was there she met her mate, Scar, a lion from the wild.

He was once called Taka, and he let only Rose call him by that name. Everyone else called him Scar. He was orange-brown with cream toes, underbelly, chest, and snout, brown ear linings, dark brown eye linings, a black mane and tail tuft, a black nose, emerald-green eyes, and a pink scar down across his left eye.

Over time, they fell in love, and became king and queen of the sanctuary. They even had a daughter: Little Rose. She was a perfect mix of her parents; she had Scar's orange-brown pelt, cream toes, black tail tuft, and green eyes. She had Rose's gray underbelly, chest, throat, and snout, and dark gray ear linings and eyelids. She had their black noses, and her snout was a mixture of Scar's and Rose's. She had three scars across her left eye from a buzzard attack, and she was mute; from birth to now and forever, she couldn't speak.

Little Rose loved both her parents; she may be been a daddy's girl, but she loved her mother just as much. So when Scar told her that her mother was dead, the little cub couldn't believe it until she saw Rose's body.

Rose had left sometime during the night. Scar went out to look for her. When he found her in the Rock Pit, a deep pit full of rocks, bleeding from the head, his heart nearly stopped. He was too late though; she was dying. He made one last promise to his love: to take care of Little Rose.

Everyone had been upset and deeply saddened at Rose's death. But none more than Scar or Little Rose. She was Little Rose's mother, and Scar's mate, the love of his life. And now she was gone; ripped from his life by some selfish lion.

Yes, Scar was convinced that Rose hadn't simply "fallen" into the pit. He had known her for nearly two years, and he knew she never went near the pit if she could help it. No, someone had to push her in. And whether it was an accident or not, that fall killed her. Accident or not, Rose had been murdered.

Though Scar had been a murderer, killing his older brother for the throne, he did not tolerate killers of any kind. First had been that silver lion, Mzungu. He had attacked Rose when she was pregnant, costing them what would have been their first cub. Now some mysterious lion had killed his sweet Rose. Well, that was the last straw! He was going to find that murderer, and it didn't matter if it took him until his last breath, he was going to make that lion pay.

Scar entered their cave, crawling under a bush that hid the entrance. He lay down and set Little Rose in his paws. She laid there, fast asleep, dried-up tearstains on her cheeks. Scar licked them away and sighed softly, looking around the cave. It felt so empty without Rose.

Rose. He now realized he would never see her again. Before, he wished this was just a dream; a bad dream, from which he would soon wake up from. But no, this was real. He would never see Rose again. He would never hear her voice, feel her warm fur, or even smell her sweet scent. She was really gone.

He felt warm tears begin to run down his face. Before he knew it, he was sobbing. He shut his eyes tight as his body shook with sobs. His crying woke Little Rose. She looked over her shoulder to see her father crying hard. This surprised her greatly. She never saw him break down like this. He was always brave and strong, yet gentle and loving towards herself. She then realized why he was crying; it was her mother. She was dead, and he was grieving her. He loved her too; he knew her longer than she was alive. But now she was gone.

Turning onto her back, Little Rose bent her head up and began licking the tears from Scar's cheek, just as he had done for her.

At the contact, Scar opened his eyes to see Little Rose gazing in concern at him. Her concern for him made his heart swell. He hugged her tight, tears still streaming down his face. He felt warm tears come from Little Rose as well as she nuzzled his snout with her face. "Oh, Little Rose," He sighed. "What will we do now?" He felt small and vulnerable; like a cub again. No, he felt like the way he did after his own mother was killed.

As Scar and Little Rose drifted off to sleep, a rose-scented breeze blew rose petals across the entrance of the cave, sounding like a sad sigh.

A/N Not much; just a recap of what's happened so far.

I thought it'd be sweet that Little Rose was the one to clean Scar's tears; she's just looking out for her daddy :3