A flash of anger crossed the healers face, but he thankfully left.

Another wave of nausea passed over her, followed by a sharp pain in her stomach. The pains had been occurring here and there for the past few days, but this one was different, more painful.

Imani tried to ignore it, but it was followed by another, and finally it became to painful to ignore.

Imani slowly made her way to the healers den, seeking out the apprentice. Just a few steps outside the den, she collapsed from the pain.

The apprentice rushed out, coming to her side, "Your Majesty, what's wrong?"

"I don't know," she managed to get out.

The apprentice called for the healer, and Imani had pretty much connected the dots by now. She was going into labor, and Zeus wasn't here.

Zeus lowered into a hunting crouch, as did the rest of his patrol. Soon he and his team were almost within pouncing range. It had taken awhile to get here, as the herd was spooked a few times in the process. He held his tail up in the air to signal when to pounce. Once his team was in position, he flicked his tail down, and the hunt was on!

After the hunt was over, they had successfully killed three dik dik. "Nice hunt." The King said, as he picked up a dik dik in his mouth. "Lets get back." Then he and his lions headed towards the camp.

Imani barely made it to her and Zeus's den before she collapsed again, the apprentice and healer with her.

The pain was like nothing she had ever experienced before, and everything around her blurred as one thing ran through her mind.

Zeus. He had to get back soon, she couldn't do this on her own.

It took longer than he expected to get back to camp, the dik dik's they had caught were really big, heavy too. But they had made it back. When he entered camp the whole Pride seemed anxious, and Zeus was confused. Suddenly a lioness aproached him. "King, The Queen is giving birth now!" She yelled, her tail pointing towards their den. A rush of anxiety and excitement rushed through him as ran towards the den. He entered quickly and took in the scene around him. The apprentice was at Imani's side, and she was breathing raspt breaths full of pain. "Imani," he said, approaching her side. "I'm here now, everything is going to be okay."

Imani tried to feel relieved when Zeus arrived, but all she could feel was the pain.

She heard the healers muffled words as the world blurred. She was so, so scared.

Imani tried to smile at her two cubs, wriggling around between her front paws. She was happy, so so happy, but the weight of loosing a cub weighted heavily on her heart.

One boy and one girl, the stillborn cub also a boy. "What should we name them?" Imani asked, her voice hoarse and raspy from crying.

Zeus layed next to Imani, licking her ear slightly, feelimg both the joy and sadness that radiated off her. He watched the small bundles of fur wriggle through their mothers front paws. And Zeus gabe a smile, even though he mounred the loss of the stillborn cub. At the question, he had to think deeply about it. These were the heirs to the throne, if he libed long enough to see it. "Imani, name them whatever you like." He said with a smile, but then a thought came to him. He rubbed his his head against her neck, and suggested. "Why don't we name the male Zion? In honor of him?"

"It's perfect." She said, her voice still raspy. "Maybe we can name the girl Kiana." She said, waiting for his response.

He smiled. He rolled the names around in his head, Zion and Kiana. Perfect. "They are perfect names Imani." He said, nosing Zion and licking Kiara. "They will grow up to be fine young lions and lionesses. He looked towards the stillborn cub, grief grabbing at him, but he turned back to the cubs in front of him. At least they had two.