*WARNING*
LK2:SP is what inspired me to write this, so READ AT YOUR OWN RISK if you haven’t seen it yet. I have always been fascinated with cats, and this story is a purely fantastical expression of that. Hope you enjoy! (I appreciate comments: contact Shikenta@aol.com)

Shikenta and Zira: Kovu’s Misadventure
by Melissa Marino

“You were supposed to be WATCHING HIM!!”
	Zira’s angry roar echoed through the desolate terrain as she struck her eldest son, Nuka, who scowled, cowered, and finally slunk off to sulk, withering under his mother’s indignant glare. Well, serves him right, Vitani thought. Kovu was the Chosen One, Scar’s heir, and he was only a cub, an easy meal for any hyena or jackal in the forsaken, miserable Outlands. She was worried; mother, beneath her anger was worried; even Nuka, beneath his vineer of jealousy, was becoming genuinely concerned about his brother as the day wore on into dusk, and he even began to feel guilty about abandoning him... it was just supposed to be a joke, to put a tiny scare into the little termite....
	Zira paced unceasingly, her brow creased with worry and indecision. Should she try to find Kovu? Seek help? Question Nuka? Send the other Lionesses out to find him?? Each moment she debated her son could be in greater danger! What to do?
	The wind thudded through the trees like the sound of a young cub coming home, and the three lions raised their heads eagerly, but only the unforgiving, setting sun glared down at them, its orange fingertips tinted blood red. Although it wasn’t cold, Vitani shivered. Nuka has to come home, she thought desperately. He just has to.
	
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	Stumbling through the thick jungle underbrush, Kovu glanced up at the setting sun and frowned. This was worse than one of his brother’s nasty “survival lessons:” this was real, and deadly. He knew he was on the edges of the leopard territories, and that leopards held no love for lions. He shuddered at the thought of his fate at the hands of a hungry, hunting male, and hurried on, tripping over branches. “How do leopards live like this without getting tangled up every two seconds?” he wondered. Before, in the daylight, the jungle had seemed beautiful and inviting, but now, in the lowering night, the young cub saw threats around each twisted tree branch and overturned rock. He walked slowly, carefully, but still tripped occasionally. One of these “trips” sent him tumbling down, right into the angry claws ....
	no it was not a leopard, but it WAS spotted, with glowing malevolent eyes, greenish fur, and an eerie, mocking laugh....
	Snarling with instinctive hatred, Kovu backed away from the salivating, mangy hyena, and ran smack into another one behind him. Both were emaciated, bearing the desperate, wild look of starvation, but one’s belly sagged, as if with a heavy burden had nothing to do with a good, fresh meal. Without words, only growls, they were upon him. He looked around to run and saw only a confusing tangle of greenery. He HAD to get away or.....!
	“Yiongshare!! Here, here!” said a voice apparently out of nowhere. Kovu looked beside him and saw an impossibly large pile of bones. Without pausing to be incredulous he dashed under the pile and trembled there with another cub-like creature. The hyenas stupidly sniffed the bones, fell to gnawing on them in an almost pitiable way, and as Kovu held his breath he began to think of the half-remember stories about a strange leopard that “haunted” the jungle..... one who was a leopard and yet was not, the one they called the ghost of the forest.....
	The hyenas had neared their hiding place, scenting fresh meat and not mere rotten bones, when a figure - - a shadow -- leapt out as if from nowhere and gave an unlion-like yowl/roar, dangerous and threatening. The hyenas were obviously taken by surprise, and that, combined with their poor health, allowed the mystery cat to drive them off. Once she had done so she immediately turned to the huge pile of bones.
	Three heads popped up almost simultaneously -- leopard cubs, darkly spotted, beautiful exotic pelts, and one that so immediately fascinated Kovu that he forget to hide, emerged from the stank of death, and simply stared, looking as if he couldn’t look enough 	-- a black panther. A Shadow Cat.
	She looked back at him, quietly, almost coyly, and then a soft laugh lifted purringly from the back of her throughout, tinged with cautious suspicion. 
	“You,” she whispered, walking boldly up to him, and sniffing, nose to nose, “are NOT Yiongshare.”
	“Indeed,” said an older voice. Kovu turned to the forget larger shadow figure, and saw a larger of the alluring young cub smiling at him not unkindly. This time instead of gaping, Kovu swallowed nervously and smiled back.
	The Ghost’s whiskers twitched knowingly, as if she understood his trepidation, and she hastened to reassure him.
	“Do not fear, little Rajah-of-the-pride,” she said in the same, soft, velvety voice of her daughter, “we will not harm you. But,” she continued, “you mustn’t be here. It isn’t safe. You must be lost.” It was not a question. “We will take you home then.” We know the way. 
	She began to walk away, but then, turning, almost as an afterthought, she said “Well. You should no Our Names. This,” she nodded to the male cub, who smiled eagerly and mischievously “is the infamous Yionshare. Be careful. And she-” indicating the other spotted cub -- is KaLanna. The last,” she paused “is Shikaya.” Shikaya smiled electrically in the dimming night.
	“And I,” she concluded, “am their mother, Shikenta. Come. To your home. Ah,” but she said shrewdly, “you are tired. I’ll be carrying you then,” with irony “if you are not too afraid of us mighty leopards.” Without waiting for a protest or consent from the young lion cub, she picked him up gently in her mouth, as she would her own cubs, and began walking with easy through the tangle of jungle growth, her three cubs trailing nimbly after her, in soothing silence.

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Kovu had almost been lulled to sleep by the rhythmic, barely audible steps of Shikenta’s silky paused and gentle breath when recognized Vitani’s joyous shout. Opening his eyes, he saw the darkness of night blooming around him as Vitani hurriedly ran up to him, then stopped short, seeing this black form emerge as if from the night itself.
	Zira trailed after her daughter looking at the Panther without fear. Kovu’s sensed Shikenta’s mood changed: her jaw tensed ever so slightly, and suddenly it didn’t feel so safe and warm in her mouth anymore. But he had not long to worry, for soon he was dropped unceremoniously at his mother’s feet.
	“I found something you lost,” Shikenta said simply to Mother, who stared at her, almost as if unbelieving, and then fiercely embraced Kovu, licking him, nuzzling him and scolding vehemously all at the same time. Vitani, as if woken out of a trance, tackled her brother and kissed him; even Nuka offered a begrudging, half-intelligible but nevertheless sincere apology. Shikenta wisely waited till the reunited family had settled down, and then looked at Zira expectantly.
	“Thank you... you have no idea --” Zira began.
	“Oh,” said Shikenta coolly “I have every idea of yours, my dear. And I’LL thank YOU to keep your cublings OFF leopard territory. I’ll not be spending all day protecting little lions, you know.”
	Zira growled, letting her claws edge out ever so slightly, but Shikenta faced her with an impassive face, and Zira gradually cooled down.
	“Very well,” she said. “But how do your... fellow leopards feel about this??”
	“The same as I do, I would imagine,” Shikenta replied evenly.
	“You don’t ..... know?” Zira asked, trying not to be obvious in her prying “You are not their leader?”
	Shikenta smiled in a way that indicated that no answer to the question would be forthcoming. Meanwhile, her cubs peeked curiously out from behind her, looking with mutual interest at Zira, Vitani, Nuka, and Kovu. The three giggled knowingly at the exchange of words between the adults and slunk around the lions in a teasing way the made even the annoyed expression on Zira’s face melt into an irrepressible smile.
	“Well,” Shikenta’s voice broke the spell, and her cubs gathered once again at her sides, “good hunting to you, daughter-of-the-pride,” she said. She turned her tailed, looked down lovingly at her shining-eyed cubs, and faded into the night.
	The lions stood stock still. For a long moment, no one, not even the perpetually babbling Nuka, spoke a syllable. Until Zira’s angry voice broke the deceptively tranquil night.
 “Shikenta!” she called, in the manner which one calls upon a friend “You -- you didn’t answer my question!” Her cubs exchanged surprised glances: apparently, their mother KNEW this legendary cat! Shikenta’s voice floated back to Zira tauntingly, as if from nowhere at all, feather-light, both soothing and infuriating:
	“One thing you should know, by now, Zira is that I NEVER answer your questions. Ah, but you don’t give up. On anything. Even when you know deep down that you should. Oh, my friend, I have missed you. I hope -- no I will --- see you again soon.”

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Not bad Lis, it needs a little editing, but not bad, love, Matthew!
More to come! :)