The sun was high in the sky and heated up my back. The laughs from the other lions reached my ears but I ignored them easily. Now the flies that were buzzing around me were less easy to ignore. I swatted them with my tail until they went away and then crouched low. I was on a mission. One that I had failed before but WOULD NOT fail again. Finally, the bushes parted slightly and I found my target. They were talking to someone but then the conversation went silent. Perfect, they were alone. Performing everything I was taught that morning,
I watched my prey. They breathed easily, soaking in the sun. Seemingly unknowing. I willed my tail to stop twitching and hugged the ground, made my breaths silent and few. Advancing slowly, I kept my eyes on my prey, never looking away. Finally, I was close enough to see the leaves waver slightly when they breathed. Rolling my shoulders, I let a soft growl escape before I jumped from the tall leafy bush and out into the sun.
And found myself promtly with my back on the dirt ground and two big, blue, annoyingly confident eyes staring at me.
"You still can't pin me Simba! No lesson Zazu can teach you will help." Nala was now smirking, enjoying my moment of humiliation.
"Can you blame me for trying?" I attempted to shove her off but she only shifted all of her weight to her paws, which were on my shoulders, therefore rendering me immobile. I really hated her right now.
"Yes, yes I can."
"Simba, perhaps you should start with a less skilled opponent?" Zazu was sitting on a branch above my head, wing resting on his forehead as if it was painful to watch my failure.
"I would do that. If I could get up!" I tried to shove Nala off with my back legs but found them pinned down by her own. Did she think of everything?
"Actually Zazu, perhaps I could help Simba out! Give him some pointers...you know, from the lion's point of view?" She smiled down at me and added, in a whisper that only I could hear,
"Because obviously, whatever that birds teachin ya, isn't working!"
I growled in response but it was drowned out by Zazu's approval.
"Of course! Try your best Nala. Although I doubt anything will get through his thick head!"
"HEY! I heard that!" I was still pinned down and stared up at Zazu. Although he was directly above me so I ended up crossed eyed and I got a bit of a headache.
"Ow, my head."
"Kings help us. You were SUPPOSED to hear that Young Simba!" He settled down on the branch as if accepting that it would be a long while before any of us were going anywhere.
Boy was he right. It was more than an hour later and I was only, quote 'Moderatly close to mabye half-way pinning' Nala.
"No Simba, shift your weight forward so that I'm pushed back. Don't worry to really push 'kay?" Nala was jabbing my chest and shoulders with her paw for perhaps the thousandth time before I swiped her paw away.
"That's what I've been doing for the past like, 20 times!" this whole routine was getting real old real fast.
"Well I guess you haven't anchored your back paws enough. Plant them firmly on the ground, take out your claws if you have to. Now, try to pin me." Nala walked away until she was a good 7 feet away from me and sat down, waiting for my attack.
"Fine then!" I charged towards her but at the last moment, she jumped away so that I ended up running into the tree behind her with a loud THUNK, knocking Zazu out of his branch with a yelp and giving me a bloody nose and one heck of a headache.
"Owwwwww! What was that for?" I tried my best to sound menacing but my nose was covered with my paw so I just sounded nasally and ridiculous.
"Well, I didn't think you would run into the tree!" Nala said, failing to keep a straight face.
"Well, now I have a bloody nose! Thank you so much!" I pulled my paw away to see some crimson staining my fur.
"Oh my gosh! I'm soo sorry! Come on, we can get Hallette to clean that up! Just follow me." she came closer to inspect my now hurt nose and immediatly sobered up. I followed her relunctantely, since I knew that Hallette was probably the only person who could help stop the bleeding and I really didn't feel like showing off my lousy tackling skills.
A half hour and a lot of fussing from Hallette later, I was back to my old self, plus some bandage thing on my nose. Zazu insisted that I restart my tackling training immediatly. Of course, with someone else than Nala, who apparently decided that she would just 'sit and watch' this time. So I went to find someone else. We followed the laughs to a pool with a low waterfall where Kuju, Miko, Kiki and Tal were taking turns jumping off of. Kuju sat down near the bank to egg on Tal who was scared of doing a flip. I repeated the stalking procedure from this morning and eventually jumped out of the bushes and unto an unsuspecting Kuju, promptly pinning him down to the ground, wearing a smug face.
"Pinned ya!" I shouted so that everyone would notice my accomplishment. Everyone turned and...collapsed into peals of laughter. It was then that I realized that I still sounded nasally.
PERFECT.
