Family Quarrel

[Zira]

To say that Zira was furious would be an understatement.

The tan lioness paced the marbled courtyard like she had been caged. Her claws clicked against the stone. unsheathed as if ready for a fight at any moment, her lips pulled back in a fearsome snarl. Every so often a growl would escape unbidden from the back of her throat and she would stop and take a breath to attempt to calm the firestorm that was brewing in her.

How could she? Her Saffy, her beloved mate, how could she? Did she care nothing for her feelings? She of all the people in the world should have known how deep Scar's death had cut and yet--and yet! Her pretty mate had a mind like a labryinth and it turned like a wheel even at her most peaceful, it was part of what she loved so much about her and Scar alike, and she never thought that her brilliant mind would turn against her.

Unable to contain herself, she aimed a deadly swipe at a nearby lemon tree, sawing the young sapling in two and scattering its bitter fruits to the ground.

"Damn you!" she snarled "Damn you, Sarafina!"

[Sarafina]

It was the dull thud of fruit hitting the floor that heralded Sarafina's entrance -- save for one, caught in her paw before it could strike the floor.

The lioness had been passing what she'd thought had been an empty courtyard, but the sound of her partner in loving crime snarling at the air had diverted the lighter female's path into the man-tended garden.

"'Damn me'?" Sarafina's brow wrinkled as she stared at Zira, and for all the gentle curl she kept to her lip there was hurt in those turquoise eyes at the words. Zira had a temper, she knew this, she even loved it... So she would see what the cause of her ire was before deciding just how personally to take that barb.

"Zira?"

[Zira]

Zira's head whipped around as soon as the cream lioness spoke. A part of her felt guilty that she had said what she had aloud and Sarafina had clearly heard it but the anger she felt swamped it out quite quickly.

"What were you thinking?" she demanded without preamble, stalking over so their conversation would not be overheard by any spies "Have you no care for Scar's memory or our children's feelings? Hanging off their his murderer's neck, naming him your son! Yes, I said damn you and you deserve it for welcoming Simba into our family like he deserves to be there!"

In her mind, the only thing Simba deserved was to be sent back to wherever Facilier had dragged him from, as painfully as possible if she had her way. She hadn't the stomach to stay after Sarafina's display and she only hoped their children hadn't seen it either. Still, if the thought sickened her this much then she could only imagine how it must feel to their cubs who had worshipped their father. Kula especially would be furious, Zira knew, their red girl had suffered so much even when Simba had been supposedly a ghost, dead and buried.