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Mipa looked like she was serious. The lioness crouching and her tail aggressively high, she growled noisy stepping steadily closer, forcing Kovu to the edge of the grass.

It was about then that he realized that he would be at a deadly disadvantage in any flight. Mipa knew the terrain and he didn't. Kovu hadn't wanted to, but he figured that he didn't have a choice; he had a better choice in avoiding injury in grappling with her straight up than getting ambushed by her later on. She doesn't look too fast. Maybe if I can just get in an pin her... Kovu thought as she approached.

One thing was obvious, Mipa hadn't been in a fight in a while. She advertised her pounce with a huge tell, nearly a whole second in advance of her initial attack. For once, Kovu had cause to be grateful for the constant bickering and infighting he and Nuka had shared growing up. His reflexes were still sharp.

"Uph!" Mipa grunted where she landed, her bulk quaking under her grass cloak. Kovu dodged easily, but was himself slow to counter. He still didn't want to hurt her.

"Mipa!" Kovu called, but she charged again, this time slashing out with her claws. She growled in frustration as Kovu danced away, although she forced him into the tall grass which rose over both of their head. The black maned lion leapt high, using the trunk of a nearby tree as a spring board when he was unexpectedly cornered by an especially vicious assault by the chubby lioness.

He landed on his flank, but had plenty of time to recover. Mipa, just beyond sight was puffing, already winded with her brief attacks. Kovu lowered his chest, preparing to spring on top of her when she came for him.

But she didn't. Showing a wily streak, Mipa quieted her breath and curved around Kovu out of sight. He listened intently, but obviously her hunting skills were not at all atrophied. Kovu grew worried, remembering the lioness's clever grass cloak. He lifted his head, looking around and scenting the air. However, it was clear that Mipa lived in this area. Whichever way he turned his head, he detected her odor. He listened and hear nothing but the wind rustling the grass under the sparse eves of the lightly wooded area.

"This is bad..." Kovu whispered to himself, wondering if he ought to try outpacing her after all.

He'd barely taken a step before the option was taken from him, however. Something big came flying out of the grass; it didn't take a genius to figure out who it was.

She'd been aiming with the apparent intention of flattening him under her considerable bulk, but she came up short, hitting him just below the shoulder. Kovu also rolled with her blow, lessening the severity of the impact and also preventing her from getting her claws into him.

Still, Mipa was remarkably heavy! Her weight was fully on him for a few moments as she rolled, and just then she seemed like two lions pressing down on his lean form. Kovu gasped for air as they came around still rolling and flattening the tall grass under them. He made sure that he came up on top. Mipa struggled like a wild thing, hissing and yowling, flailing her deadly claws in every direction heedless to her own safety. She was incensed.

Kovu gripped one wrist then another with his paws and forced them to her chest. He straddled her wide belly with his hind paws as she continued to kick with abandon, but Mipa lacked stamina. All Kovu had to do was hold her still.

Eventually her growls and snarls turned to moans and weeping. Her belly, surprisingly full and firm, filled the space under his rib cage and between his thighs where he held fast despite her bucking.

Fresh tears spilled down her full cheeks as she let her head fall to the ground with a weak thud. She offered her throat, "Just kill me, I don't want to be raped, just kill me..."

Kovu sighed raggedly. He pulled on her paws so she'd looked up at him. She sniffed miserably. "I'm going to say this one last time, I'm not here to hurt you."

"But why did you-"

Kovu shook her again, "I followed you up here to make sure you were alright." he said, not quite truthfully, but at least it was indeed part of his reasons. "I've been lost in the desert for a week since I left my pride. I haven't seen another lion in all that time." Kovu sighed and shook his head, exhausted both physically and mentally, "I just wanted to talk, alright? That doesn't mean I want to kill you or chase you away from your home."

Mipa was silent for a long time, resting on her broad back with this large male lion straddling her, the forks of their legs uncomfortably close. She relaxed her face in thought. Without the fury wrinkling her brow, Kovu thought that Mipa was fairly older than himself, though still young. Perhaps four, maybe five. He wondered how long she'd been living here, alone. "Talk?" she muttered finally, as if it were a foreign word. She looked at the stars behind Kovu's broad shoulders. "You...want to talk...to me?"

Kovu said nothing, instead staring pleadingly into the bright blue eyes of the foreign lioness.

All of a sudden, she burst into laughter. She guffawed into the night, her great belly heaving with Kovu on top, making him feel he was riding wave crest after wave crest.

Gingerly, he hopped off of her, but Mipa kept laughed, eventually rolling over and striking the ground with her paws. It was a sight to bring a smile to the dark lion's face. Genuine mirth, so rare back home. Before he knew it, he had joined her, adding his voice into a bestial din which drove the night birds away for a mile around.

Half an hour later, both lions were seated before the half eaten remains of a jungle boar. Kovu's mouth and throat were already stained red with generous helpings. There was little left now of the once meaty beast, although the bones and gristle could keep Kovu occupied easily through the next day.

Mipa remained guarded and socially awkward, but at least she seemed resigned to the fact that he was not going to attack her. Kovu insisted that he was just passing through and this seemed to comfort Mipa who slowly, through bits and pieces, related her own story.

Kovu gathered that Mipa had not left her former pride willingly but rather had been banished. All Mipa would say on the matter was that they thought she was "Fat and lazy" However, Kovu did not believe that was the entire issue. Mipa described wandering for a "long" time by herself, avoiding contact with rogue males and other lions in general. She spent time dwelling in the nebulous areas between rival prides out on the savanna, "scurrying like a rat and always hiding. Lone females oughtn't be caught out in the open, my mother said." Mipa said. But apparently some time ago, this area had closed suddenly when both prides migrated near each other's borders at the same time. There was a war brewing and Mipa knew she wouldn't be welcome on either side.

"Did you ever ask them?" asked Kovu

Mipa chuffed, as if the question were ridiculous, "Ask? Ask who? Everyone knew I was an outcast. They saw me on the borders, they hid their cubs from me, like I was some sort of f-freak! or a monster. Every adolescent male who saw me had exactly one thing on his mind...er, no offense." she said glancing at Kovu and rubbing her paws together. Kovu just cracked open a bone and began sucking out the marrow, bidding her continue. "It was so hard to outrun young males...but then, I was considerably less...er, full figured back then..."

After the two prides began feuding, Mipa was left with nowhere to hide. She went to the only place she could go: The Desert. "It was so hot and dry. I was dying, literally dying." she said. "That's when I met Jobie for the first time..." she said in a small voice, clearly still ashamed.

Kovu glanced to the pig skull mounted on its stick, then back at Mipa, who'd grown quiet. "Care to tell me about Jobie?" asked Kovu.

She looked down, then settled onto her elbows, lowering her head to Kovu's level. She sighed, the only sound other than the cracking of bone in the lion's mouth. Finally, she said "Not now."

"I'd really prefer not to talk about that." said Mipa bashfully, turning and getting up. Kovu watched, a cracked bone hanging from his mouth, as Mipa approached the mounted skull, her "Jobie." She took a deep breath and let it out. She looked up into the empty orbs of the dead skull and then slashed out at it with a paw, her claws streaking in the moonlight. She knocked down the skull and stick and then, with a small growl, proceeded to jump down on the skull where it had landed a few feet away on the moss. The brittle old skull sundered completely under her considerable weight, shattering like an egg.

Afterwards, Mipa was left panting, catching her breath, as if the affair had taken serious mental effort for her.

Kovu waited, saying noting. Eventually Mipa returned to lounge in front of him, across the gristly pile of bones.

When she seemed calm, Kovu asked, "Why'd you do that to... erm, Jobie?"

She glared at him. "You don't have to use that name. I know you don't think he's real."

How could Kovu refute what was true? Still he looked at her with sympathetic eyes. "Well he's real to you isn't he?" he said.

Mipa chuffed in wry humor. "Jobie isn't real, at least not like you or I am real." she said, then more quietly added, "He'd just be a distraction right now."

Kovu cocked his head, letting the empty bone fall from his mouth, "Aren't you going to miss him though?"

Mipe turn her face towards him and a grin made her seem younger, dimpling her large cheeks, "Oh, I can always get another one. He's never more than a meal away."

The lion's eyes widened in surprise and he spoke no more about the mysterious "Jobie."

Despite the fact that Mipa admitted to eating most of the pig before Kovu even arrived, he felt guilty about eating alone in front of her, especially since it was obviously her kill. He felt indebted to her, not only for the meal, but also - in a vague sort of way - for the whole oasis where she had lived alone for an unspecified period of time. This was her home. Kovu had a strong feeling for it, especially in this glade where she seemed to spend a lot of time. He glanced at the pale fragments of bone littering the ground, once a skull which had obviously meant a lot to the disturbed lioness. Kovu felt like the worst sort of house guest, one who moved in like he owned the place, carelessly shattering precious relics and artifacts in his clumsy gait.

And tension still abounded between them Mipa seemed unwilling to get too physically close to Kovu and almost never turned her back to him. She seemed still instinctively terrified of him, but also terrified to be away from him. Kovu thought that she recognized how desperate she was for social contact with another lion.

Feeling relaxed and somewhat sleepy after the generous meal, Kovu began to relate his own tale. It wasn't in perfect detail, of course, but neither was Mipa's either. Kovu told the lioness seated before him about Zira, his mother and her plans for revenge and ascension, gaining mastery of a wide domain called the Pridelands. "She was a bitter, foul female." said Kovu. "Her only reason for existence seemed to be revenge. But it wasn't my revenge, it never was, no matter what destiny my father foretold for me."

"You father?" Mipa asked, surprisingly acute despite her social awkwardness.

Kovu sighed, "Yes, his name was Scar... He killed his brother." It was at that time that Kovu realized this would take a long time to relate in full. So he gave her an abridged version, saying simply that at a later time, Scar was killed by his brother's son and the pride schismed. Those who supported Scar were banished to wastelands outside the Pridelands. "And there we rotted, rooting in the dirt for grubs by day, scavenging by night." Kovu said. "My mother favored me. I was to be Scar's heir, had things worked out differently for my family. I... mistook her favoritism for love... for my entire childhood. But I was never anything but a pawn to her." he failed to mention a certain cub he'd met on a specific misadventure when he'd been young; in fact, it slipped his mind altogether.

"That's so sad." said Mipa. When Kondo looked up he saw that the large lioness had edged closer. Her once gorgeous cloak of grass and fronds was now mostly tattered for rolling about, but she still had to blow at the strands hanging over her eyes. When Kovu saw them, they seemed intense, piercing. She looked down. "At least I knew that my mother loved me very much... I'm so sorry Kovu."

The dark maned lion stiffened. He hadn't meant to garner sympathy, rather just explain why he'd left. He hoped he hadn't come across as pathetic.

Raising a paw, Mipa scratched the underside of her thick, fleshy neck, the brown fur rippling where it sagged generously. Kovu still had no idea how in the world she could maintain such a high weight, living by herself. When she spoke, she looked just to the side of him. "Kovu." a nervous tick passed through the corner of her mouth, "If I ask you to do something right now, can you promise not to ask me about it later?"

Kovu shrugged, "Well sure." Though inside he felt a slight unease.

She breathed and Kovu tasted the smell of her breath, which itself seemed rich with frequent meals and plenty. "Just... hold me for a moment."

Kovu looked across at her where she lay on her belly on the thick moss of the glade. Her profile was so different than what he was used to. Exceptionally wide for one, bulging in areas where he was used to seeing dips. He could see nothing of her ribs, nor her hips or spine. Even her shoulder muscles were muted and diffuse under the thick blanket of fat. Suddenly, he did want to know what she felt like; in another context besides fighting each other. He scrabbled forward on his elbows and knees. He looked down and saw her gracefully rounded chest, protruding like a large fruit at her collarbone. He smiled and put his larger paws over hers. She flinched, but didn't flee this time.

Mipa closed her eyes and Kovu lowered his head towards hers. He rested his neck against hers. Soft and thick. That was the first impression, Mipa was different than anything he'd ever felt before, soft and yet with a firm, underlying solidity. He pressed his neck against her and rested his chin on her back. Where there should have been a dip between the shoulder-blades, he felt only a curved plane of solid flesh. Again it astounded him just how FAT Mipa was. Every inch of her was saturated it seemed. How could a lion get this way? he wondered yet again and another stranger though intruded, I wonder if she could get any bigger?

Kovu just blinked the odd thought away, instead concentrating on holding this odd lioness who hadn't been touched by another lion without fear or anger in who knew how long. He breathed the scent of her coat. She bathed often and her skin exuded a surplus of the natural oils which kept it sleek and glossy. She smelled healthy and exceptionally feminine.

Mipa broke the contact abruptly, as if remembered where she was and who she was with. She coughed awkwardly and rose to her feet. "Morning is coming." she said

Kovu noticed the dawn breaking overhead, lightening the sky. "It is." he observed, waiting for Mipa.

"I-I haven't slept." she muttered, then added, "I'm going over there." She gestured with her nose to one side of the glade. Kovu could just barely make out evidence of woven grass nestled somewhere within the tall strands. "W-w-would you mind sleeping over there." She pointed now to the opposite side of the glade, where they had had their little scuffle.

Kovu looked and then peer in the direction he knew that the clifface was. "If you like I can sleep down below. We can meet up again this eve-"

"No!" Mipa cried turning abruptly. Her belly and flanks wobbled with her sharp movement. She breathed out a breath and let her hackles smooth. "I-I'd just feel more comfortable knowing where you are. I'm sorry Kovu."

"It's not a problem." said Kovu, who himself rose and began sauntering over to the opposite side of the glade. He let his tail hang merrily behind him despite having been told where to sleep by an overweight female. "See you this evening, Mipa!" he called over his shoulder. Then he yawned, he really was very tired. He had not rested in over 18 hours; a very long time for a cat.

"I'll get you earlier, so we can check my traps." Mipa said in a normal tone that Kovu had to struggle to hear. Again, he was confused by the word "traps" coming from a lion. But he didn't dwell on it. He was determined not to make more of a nuisance of himself than he already was. This is her home. He reminded himself. I can put up with being told where to sleep, if it makes her feel more comfortable. One thing Kovu desperately did not want was to head back out into the desert where there was no food or water and he had no idea where he was going. He really needed to regain the weight he'd lost out there before he left.

Kovu nestled into the comfortable grass, folding it under his lean body. It felt good to have some padding between his ribs and boney hips and the ground. He wondered what it must be like to carry that padding around with you all the time like Mipa. "Must be nice..." He sighed and fell almost immediately to sleep