Chapter 2: Father Knows Best

Kiara let her head sink down less so out of shame and more out of aggravation as her father read her the riot act for what seemed like the umpteenth time. It was almost routine at this point with her returning to Pride Rock by night and finding him with his trademark hard look. The put-upon princess could only silently sigh while letting the king prattle on about how much he does to keep her safe and make sure she's ready to take up the throne. At this point, it was so boring.

"Are you even listening to me?" Simba demanded to know in his heated state of mind, finally getting Kiara to lift her head up. His daughter merely rolled her eyes drolly. "Well, you opened with 'you have disobeyed me yet again,'" she snarked back defiantly, "so I knew where it was going from there." The king sighed in utter annoyance at how dismissive the princess was being. "I'm guessing this is the part where I remind you I deserve a life outside of this glorified boulder."

Simba felt almost as tired as Kiara but stayed firm. "No one would have a big problem if you weren't so keen on endangering said life," he declared straight to his daughter's face. "If you're going to rule from this 'glorified boulder' one day, you can't just walk around the Pride Lands without some sort of protection." His little princess just stood back up to give a mean look back at his Majesty and strolled on away. "Yeah, because Zazu will always be down to fight off crocodiles."

Simba trained his glare on Kiara as she turned his back on him. "You better be going to the den, young lady," he all but ordered. "Why wouldn't I?" his daughter bit back with her usual sass. "I'm tired of these same old little chats of our's." She yawned in what almost seemed like in direct defiance. "Hope you don't freak out if I sleep in tomorrow, your Majesty." The King could only let out a deep sigh of weariness, the stubborn princess entering the cave while grumbling audibly.

"You know I seem to recall a similar sense of defiance from an old BFF of mine," Simba heard Nala state sassily as she came up along his right. "I know, I know," he snarked back in annoyance, "I just couldn't wait to be king and all that." He could only groan much to Nala's amusement. "Though from what I remember, it's hardly like you were always the voice of reason on our little misadventures." The king shot his own smarmy look at his wife, making her the one blushing all red.

"Kiara's not wrong about striking out on her own," Nala claimed while walking back to the den with Simba by her side. "We just need to help her prepare more for what's out there." She could see Simba frowning before giving a deep sigh. "It's what's out there that concerns me." The Queen could recognize that look from whenever her husband would wake up from a particularly bad dream. "We were able to wound him but a real monster never takes his defeat with grace."

Nala sighed sympathetically as she gave her husband a solemn look. "I know that you can't move past him yet," she promised with an empathic tone of voice. "I can still feel his coils squeezing the life out of me but this is no reason to hold out daughter back." Simba only sighed in response as they reached the den. "Nobody's spoken a word about him for years," he admitted, "but as far as we know, he's probably biding his time." His Majesty knew of that beast's patience.

"He's had plenty of time to strike back," Nala insisted, not even wanting to consider his return as a possibility. "Odds are that he'd gone on to claim another Jungle as his territory." Simba looked back at his wife with a doubtful gaze. "Much as I'd like to believe that, we still can't risk Kiara's life until she's old enough," he declared. They both entered the dark den and tried to keep their voice down. "I can ease up a little but Zazu'll still be on look out for her for the time being."

"Speaking of the old birdbrain," Nala mused while laying herself onto the floor, "did he already turn in for the day?" Simba came up along side her and began to snuggle up. "Oddly enough, he did just drift to sleep a while back," he replied noticing Kiara laying on her side further down to his right, much to his dismay. "He even claimed that he didn't even see Kiara in the slightest as soon as I met up with him." His Majesty couldn't help feel that something wasn't quite right here...

"He was always run ragged by us two back in the day," Nala yawned as she began to drift to sleep. "Kiara alone is really pushing him to his limits." Simba saw his wife begin to snore slightly before yawning himself and looking towards his daughter, knowing she was still sulking even in her sleep. "Goodnight, princess," he whispered softly, laying his head down to rest. What he couldn't have known was the silly smile stretched across her face as she faced away from her father.

---

A ring of red followed a ring a green and a ring of yellow within a second as an entire rainbow poured out before Kiara. The bright rhythmic flow instill that special sense of satisfaction she felt when Kaa gazed down at her with his magical eyes and widened that goofy grin from cheek to cheek. It was as though all her troubles with her parents and insecurities of being herself no longer mattered. So long as she could be enthralled by the mesmerizing colors, the princess had the happiness she needed.

A cold drop of water falling onto Kiara's face suddenly was all it took to make her snap awake from her dream. Colorful rings flickered in her eyes as she blinked and felt another drop splash onto her head, causing her to spring up onto her feet. She grumbled silently about the leaking stalactites while wiping the water off of her and lamenting how her dream had been cut off so soon. The fuzzy feeling was starting to disappear yet still linger as she thought about Kaa's staring.

Kiara looked towards her father and mother sleeping side by side and saw that it was still in the dead of night outside Pride Rock. A thought had struck her that she could sneak out to find Kaa and sneak back before either of them could even suspect that she was gone. They'd always be on her case during the day but she now had a prime opportunity to sneak off alone. The princess began to silently make her way towards the den's exit, fully aware of the risk she was taking.

"Bring it on..." Kiara whispered to herself, smirking confidently.