Chapter 37. Assemble lions!

The lions of pride land had assembled for a meeting that was called by their king.

Simba stood beside Asafa, as the pride, they sat in around them, listening.

The small pride that Simba had brought with him sat behind him while looking nervous.

Asafa had introduced and explained Simba's identity to everyone, and the most joyous was Sarabi, she had both her sons back.

But that left a new problem, Simba used to be the crown Prince, and now that he's alive, what would happen to Asafa? That was the worry of the pride lions.

There was also the fact that Simba had brought his own pride of 12 lions that wanted to join their pride. Not only were all of them old, young and or weak, but they would take a large portion of their food reserves and would need protection.

Adding so many lions that couldn't help the pride would only become a burden on them.

So all of them were in worry right now with what would happen.

"The truth is, I never had the ambition to become king. The crown always belonged to my brother and he should take my place as the rightful king." Asafa said after many minutes of awkward silence, they all looked shocked to hear the words of their king.

He had thought deeply about this, and this was the best solution he could come up with so there would be no chaos.

"Asafa this is not acceptable. Because of circumstances, you are our king now, and rightfully so, the title of crown prince is not definite, but the fact that you are our king is." Sarabi walked forward to retort him. She disagreed with his decision.

"Furthermore, Mohatu is the crown Prince, we can't change that after the ceremony has taken place." Ayana also stepped forward and spoke her mind.

"Asafa, I agree with mom and Ayana, and seing the expression of everyone else, I'm guessing that they do as well." Simba also spoke disagreed with Asafa.

Asafa looked at his brother in surprise, Asafa always assumed that Simba wanted to become king, but that he had only hidden that ambition ever since escaping the pride lands.

So the fact that he simply accepted his brother as king without any bitterness about it stumbled Asafa slightly.

Seing his brothers facial expression, Simba felt that he had to clarify.

"I know I wanted to be king, but that was when I was a cub..." He started saying as he looked around.

"But that ambition died, and truthfully, I was always jealous of you Asafa." Simba said with a smile as he looked at his brother.

"Because I always knew that you'd make a better king than I could ever be." Simba said, he continued as he saw that Asafa was about to retort to that.

"Your way more mature than me, smarter and stronger. If I had to choose one between the two of us, that should be king, it is without a doubt, you." Simba stated before sitting down again.

"I see." Asafa said, he offered the king's crown to Simba because he didn't want any bad blood between them.

Asafa did love his brother, and he would rather be prince than allow any bad beef between them.

And truthfully, now that Simba had come with his own pride, Asafa was slightly worried that Simba would seek out the throne of Pride Lands as well, that thought did hit him as he realised that his brother had returned.

And if Simba did seek kingship the traditional way, of challenging the king to a fight, then there were only three outcomes.

The best outcome would be a similar situation to what happened to Mufasa and Scar.

Scar challenged Mufasa in their youth and lost, gaining the Scar he became known for and his original name was replaced by his new nickname, Scar.

Even though Scar lost the fight fairly, he could never overcome the loss. And the bitterness led to their relationship worsening day by day, until Scar became what he did.

The second outcome is that Asafa would have to exile Simba from the pridelands after defeating him.

And the wors case scenario, Asafa would have to kill his own brother.

He would never lose against Simba no matter what, not because he wanted to be king, but if Simba did challenge him for the throne, and won... Simba would have the right to kill his sons and take his women as the new king.

Asafa didn't think Simba would ever do such a thing, but he wouldn't allow for Simba to be in a situation where he had any possible chance of actually being capable of doing that to.his family, therefor, Asafa would never concede if Simba wanted to challenge him. That's why there are only three outcomes for such a challenge, and that's why Asafa chose to rather give the throne to his brother and take the easy way out....

Although it is the easy way out, it is also the most beneficial to Asafa, since he didn't care about being king, he never did. He wanted to live life as royalty and enjoy riches while his brother worked hard as the king, sadly, his dreams stayed just as that, dreams.

But to his surprise Simba didn't want to be king.

"Furthermore, I have been a leader for a while now, and it's too much responsibilities for me, I enjoy the life of Hakuna matata..."Simba laughed out.

*Sigh* Asafa sighed as Simba understood how wise Asafa's own ideas were.

"Fine, then there only one matter left to take care of." Asafa said as he looked at the 12 lions Simba had brought.

"We can't and shouldn't burden ourselves with them." Sarabi was the first one to speak her mind again.

She was one of the elders and had handled political matter for a long time, so her wisdom was well respected, and everyone nodded at her words, agreeing with her.

"If they can't stay, neither can I, I took them in, and I promised them security." Simba stood up for them and argued back.

"Asafa, look at them, there's almost only elderly and two cubs. There's only two young males amongst them capable of fighting and working for the pride, if we take them in, it will only burden the pride lands." Sarabi reasoned, she understood that it wasn't just about what was moral, Asafa's first responsibility was their well being.

Both Simba and Sarabi turned to Asafa, waiting for his choice.

"... Haven't you all lived through the worst of times?" Asafa asked rethorically.

All of the lions looked at each other.. how many years did they survive under Scars rule?

"Didn't you survive without any food at all?" He asked again.

"We are lions that have survived famine, so why sould you fear eating a bit less and sharing food with others?" Asada said.

His words did hit them hard, as they knew that they could handle this little hurdle.

"Since Simba has accepted you, then from now on, I'll also accept you." Asafa said to the 12 lions. All fo them cried out happily, they were outcasts, unwanted by their individual Prides.

So they were joyous to finally have a real pride with territory again.

The cubs were also cheering happily, not really understanding what was going on.

"Thank you for your mercy your majesty!" One elderly lion bowed down.

"No need!" Asafa said as he walked to the cubs.

"I have a few cubs younger than you two, would you like to play with them?" Asafa asked them with a big smile.

They calmed down as the giant lion stood in front of them. They simply nodded nervously.

"Hahahaha that would really make me happy!" Asafa laughed out as he took a liking to the two cubs.

Simba also smiled at this, since cubs were not liked by male lions that were not their fathers.

Yet he felt like something was missing, where was the crew he had missed so much, Timon, Pumba, Imani and Hamu?