"The Tales Of Sanri" 
Author: CrystalWolf 
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*Our Story Begins in the Pride Lands, at the time Mufasa and Scar were
cubs* 
======================= 
"Got ya, Muffy!" yelped a voice. Cub Mufasa jumped away. 
"Go away, Sanri!" he yelled at the strange-looking cub in front of him. 
"But-but-but why?" she said, her eyers filling with tears. She gave him
a look of adoration, and then ran away. 
Mufasa shook his head. "Wannabe," he muttered. 
He saw Ahadi walking up. He could see tearstained Sanri at his side. 
"Why do you taunt her so much, my Muffy? All she wants is a friend."
Mufasa looked spiteful. "OK, then tell her she can go make Zazu her
friend, or Julo." he said. 
Sanri began to cry even harder. "How am I supposed to talk to a magic
dandelion?" she began to sniffle. 
"Julo isn't a dandelion." said Ahadi gently. He's a baby bird. He's only
white because he's little. And he's fluffy because he has baby bird
feathers." 
This correction was too much for Sanri. She leapt up from Ahadi's side
and ran to the sleeping cave. 
Her mother lay there. No one knew where her mother had come from. She
had popped up out of the desert, along with Kaska, Mufasa and Taka's
mother. They were unrelated, but they bore the look of the desert
prides. With longer muzzles, and strangely shaped heads, and eyes that
looked as if they were holding something. Other lionesses often said
they looked evil. 
Sanri often went to her mother when she was sad. Her mother told her
long stories of tall, dark male lions with black manes that hung all the
way behind their elbows. Sanri was fastinated. Her mother told her of
desert storms, and heat that made your paws sizzle on the sand. Her
mother was ill often, though, and when Sanri asked why, she only said,
"Climate change, hon. When you're built for heat, cool air doesn't do
you a touch of good." 
Sanri worried often. But her worries were overshadowed by her secret
crush of Mufasa. large and golden and furry and... oh, but he he hated
her. She looked just like her mother, dark and funny-shaped. She noticed
he looked nothing like his mother, but everything like his father. Yet
Taka, his brother, looked everything like his mother. 
She walked outside again, and saw Sarabi licking Taka's ears. "I love
you, Taka, and when I grow up I am gonna marry you. What about you,
Taka? Do you love me?" 
"Of course I do, Sassi." 
Sanri began to cry. What would it be like to be loved? She would
probably never know. 
One day, when they were about 5 months old, Sanri heard the snarls of
lions outside the sleeping den. 
"I thought you cared about me, Sassi! How wrong was I?" "I DO care,
Taka," she said in a sad voice. Sanri walked out of the den to find
Sarabi and Taka fighting. 
"I just don't love you! I love Muffy now, so just grow up!" With that,
Sarabi turned on her heel and ran smack into Sanri. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING
HERE YOU LITTLE-" 
"Hey! Don't do anything to her! All she did was walk outside! You were
the one who donked her in the head with your big fat butt!" yelped Taka.
"Erggg...babies!" yelped Sarabi. 
"Sasshead."
"Bighead."
"Priss."
"Blackmane."
"Fatbutt."
"BABY!" concluded sarabi. She ran off.

Five Moons later, Taka and Muffy had their full manes. 
 Sanri walked out of the sleeping den one morning. She saw Sarabi
grooming muffy's mane. Suddenly she broke into tears and ran inside the
sleeping den.
She saw her mother sleeping and yacking in her sleep, too.
"OOh. Eckers. Fuzz. Sanred. AHHHH. Barfles."
Sanri began to laugh. then suddenly she remembered what her mother had
told her about lions with long black manes. She gasped.
Taka had a black mane! It was longer than Muffy's! Taka was darker than
Muffy! 

Taka was unloved. He was overshadowed by Muffy. He had desert heiritage.

She had found her new love. 

She knew she needed to act differently if she was to get Taka's
attention. She must tell him. That was why she had lost Muffy.

Taka was sitting on a rock, looking down at Sassi and Muffy grooming and
licking and holding paws.
Sanri took a deep breath, stepped forward, and licked his ear.

The result was electric. Taka jumped 5 feet in the air and landed on top
of Sassi's head. 
"Gtttfffuffmmeee!" yelped Sassi. Mufasa was looking at him like he'd
just seen a ghost. Suddenly Taka realized he was flattening the future
queen, and if he didn't get off soon Muffy would be marrying a pancake.
"Sorry, sassi," he muttered. "Or maybe I should call you Flattie now."
he laughed, but 'Flattie' didn't.

He walked off.
Sanri just say there and looked at a tree.
"What I am I gonna do now, tree?" she said.
"Try again!" said the tree, or rather, squeaked the tree.
"AUGHHHHHH!!!!!" screamed Sanri. Then a little white fuzzy head poked
out of the tree's branches. 
"Oh julo, it's just you!" she sighed with relief. For a minute there she
thought she'd gone crazy. She reached out and grabbed the little
fuzzball and gave it a hug.
"Well, I'm gonna try your idea. Thanks, Julo! She said, setting the baby
bird down that so resembled an owl.

She saw Taka lying under the shade of the cliff. She saw his sad face
and then she couldn't help herself. She went and lay down beside him.
 Taka was surprised, but he hid it well. He merely continued his long
thoughts.
"What's wrong, Taka?" said Sanri quietly.
He looked around at her, as if seeing her for the first time. 
"You're Sanri, right?" he said. 
"Yes. And I came to apologize for what I did today."
"What did you do?" he said, taken aback.
"I...I...licked you." she said. "You fell on Sassi's head. It was all my
fault. Oh, Taka, if only you knew!" she said. She scrambled to her feet,
until he grabbed her tail tuft with his backpaw and pulled her back
down.
"If I only knew what?" he said, amused. (I might put in right here,
right now Taka looks like Kovu, with a black mane and small beard. Same
charming face.)
"I cannot tell you. Not yet." said Sanri firmly. 
Suddenly Taka grew sad again. 
"What's wrong, Taka?" repeated Sanri.
Suddenly it all came out.
"I really liked Sassi, you know. We promised never to go apart. But then
she drops me for Muffy. And THEN I find out he is the chosen King. I
found out no one cares about me, it's all Muffy, even Mom pays more
attention to him now, now that he's got a beautiful lioness and he's the
future King. It's much more than that though. Sassi betrayed me." he
laid down his head and donked his nose on the ground.
Sanri looked at him. He lifted his head. 
"You are wrong. So wrong. Listen for a minute. I used to love Muffy. I
adored him. He thought I was Scum. With a capital 'S'. But then he and
Sassi got together. And then..." her voice faltered. No, she thought.
You must be proud and strong. "Then...I saw I really loved you."

Taka looked at her with an open mouth. Sanri began to sniffle, but she
bit it back and licked Taka's ear.
He smiled, a look that melted her. "I take it you've told me."
She nodded. 
Suddenly a ball of hate bubbled up in her chest. Hatred for Mufasa,
Hatred for Sarabi. It began to get bigger with every day's passing, as
Taka came into the sleeping den and told her of his day. They  were
filled with hate for Mufasa and Sarabi. Her bubble of hate was so big it
was threatening to explode.

And one day it did.

Mufasa watched her and Taka one day, sitting on a rock, grooming each
other. Sarabi had a slight fever, and was in the sleeping den.  Mufasa
began to taunt Sanri and Taka.

"Got yourself a lioness finally, Taka? Maybe you should have taken a bit
more time,(even though you've taken FORVEVER ALREADY) your choice looks
like you found it in the dark." And so on. Finally the hate ripped
through Sanri's chest. She leapt at Mufasa and slung her huge,
unretracted desert-lioness claws she had inherited into his face. Mufasa
snarled and leapt away. 

"Sanri! NO!" yelped Taka. Mufasa jumped and grabbed Sanri's back and
ripped out a chunk of flesh. Sanri cried out in pain. 
"GO FOR THE EYES! BREAK HIS JAW! DO WHAT YOU MUST! " yelled Taka. he
leapt in and grabbed mufasa's back and flipped him over. Sanri jumped
in, but she fell backwards in weakness and pain. Blood dripped across
her back and down into her eyes. 
"Get him for me, Taka..." she said weakly.
Taka had never been a fighter. When it came to brains, he got the lion's
share. But when it came to brute strength, he was at the shallow end of
the pool. But he must avenge Sanri. He reached up for Mufasa's face,
going instinctively for the weakest part- the eyes. Mufasa slashed back,
defending his face...Taka moved out of the way...but a step too late..
he got a deep slashing aross one eye. Blinded with pain, and with his
own blood, he reached out for Mufasa's throat with his jaws, getting
only his front paw. He crunched down and broke the future king's paw,
crushing the bones.
Mufasa limped on his foot, but kept coming. It was bloody now, but Taka
was almost done. With a last and final effort, he rushed to Sanri, and
stood over her, protecting her dying body.
Then he passed out.

   He remembered waking up some four suns and 3 nights later. He got to
his feet. He stood in the 4th chamber sick den, guards surrounding him.
Suddenly the lead guard noticed he was awake.
She looked at him with eyes full of fear. 
"Oh by Aheihu!" she screamed. "Look at the Scar on his face!"
The other 6 guards looked around at him. 
"Look! Fear not, Kaska!" said a lioness.
Suddenly Taka crumpled. His legs were weak, and his eye...it hurt. But
he could see through it. He didn't notice the long cuts and gashes in
his back. All he thought of was Sanri.
"Where is Sanri?" he demanded of the guard nearest to him. She shivered.
"By Aheihu...the mark of the demon. The Scar, across the left eye!" she
laid her ears back and made herself as small as possible. 
He roared. Then he leapt over her, and walked into the third chamber
sick den. There lay Sanri, her body smashed and battered...and a long
scar running down from the top of her head to the middle of her back.
She looked up at him. 
"Sanri?" he said.
"Yes, Taka! You are alive! You defended me! Oh, how can I ever thank
you?" 
she looked up at him. His face was torn out of proportion. It no longer
looked like the old Taka. It looked...more evil. But she shook the
thought from her mind. She reached up and licked his face.

>From that fight on, Mufasa hated them. He shunned them. He never
included them in anything, and told the rest of the pride to stay away
from them. They  tried not to notice, but the pride made up new names
for them. Mufasa called them by these name also.
  "Scar?" he said. "Come forward." Taka stepped forward. Sanri followed.
"Stay back, Zira!" he said. (Zira, I might put in here, means 'Hate')
Sanri obediently stepped back. They stayed their distance from others in
the pride.
Then one day, Sanri's mother called her forward. 
"Sanri, dear, It's time for me to go. Ahadi and Kaska are leaving also.
We are getting too old for this world."
"What do you mean?" yelped Sanri.
"Mufasa and Taka have already been told. Goodbye, honey. We are leaving
tonight for the River Of Pride. We shall not tell you anything that
happens after that, for you shall know when your time comes."
Sanri began to cry. "No, Mother! You can't! Everyone hates me but Taka!
You were the only thing that kept me alive after Muffy fell in love with
sarabi. Oh mom, no..."
"Well, I'm glad I served some use," she said happily. "And remeber, no
matter who calls you Zira, you are always Sanri, the wind lifting the
sand."

Sanri put her head up and walked from the cave. She mourned to Taka, but
then let it go after a time. She could no longer bear Mufasa and Sarabi,
though. Their marriage was final and they soon became the new king and
queen. 

Sanri came down with a horrible infection to her scar down her back.
Rafiki came and tried to heal her, even though it took 3 moons. She
could bear no cubs to Taka. She mourned and cried all through the pain
that happened through this time.

When she was fully healed, a lioness named Sarafina had a cub. It was
not to  Mufasa, either. It's eyes of Cubdom were often green, and Sanri
knew taka had fathered the cub. Nevertheless, the cub was betrothed to
the royal cub of Mufasa and Sarabi (Simba). 

Time passed. Taka killed Mufasa after hate bubbled over hate. He tried
to kill Simvba, but in the time Simba was gone, Sanri had a cub to Taka.
And right after Taka was supposedly killed in the fire, and he escaped
to the outlands, where Zira and a few other lionesses were banished to
after Simba's takeover, Taka tried to father another cub. He told her to
choose another father for another cub, to be born alongside the one he
fathered.  (See reference: "The Ending of Scar's Reign")
Wenshiu was chosen, a roaming desert lion, and then the hyenas came and
finished Taka off. 
Kovu and Vitani were born, meaning together (Kovu Vitani)"Scar Of War".

And through this all, she remembered Mufasa's hate, and chose to commit
the rest of her life to killing of the last branches o family. Yet,
still, she remained Sanri, as she knew herself. And that was who she was
born- and that was who she would die.  

~Crystalwolf

PS Look out for a part two!