A/N: My co-main character is a Gold Lion Tamarin, but I will explain how he comes to be in a certain lion's district later on. ;)

A week before the Nala encounter...

The air hung balmy and the scent was laced with the exotic aromas of the jungle. A lion of golden-brown fur wearing a calm, restful expression lay out on his back upon a large tree swamped by softly drapping moss. For once, there was no one around and no sounds lingered about. Simba smiled quaintly when there was a thump on his belly.

"Oof!"

When the teenaged lion opened his red-brown eyes, he saw a very small orange and black streaked monkey sitting in the center of his stomach. The primate had a tan face with bright, eager chocolate-brown eyes and a wide, friendly smile. And...he sat there.

Simba looked around quizzically for a possible reason that the monkey was there, he saw nothing. Or no one. The monkey was just sitting there to sit there. Carefully, he reached over with his paws to gather the adorable young primate up and place him down just below his feet. The lion then leapt over to another branch and rested the other way on his back, he felt something on his head.

The sight of the monkey gazing down into his eyes made him frown slightly.

"Is there a reason you're on my forehead?"

"I've never seen a lion-monkey your size before."

Simba crinkled his muzzle. "You think I'm a monkey like you?"

The flame-coloured simeon turned gleeful. "You're the biggest I've ever seen!"

"I hate to tell you this, little guy." He tried blowing in his face to get him to get off, that in turn gave no results. "But I'm not a monkey, I'm just a lion. We're different species."

His tapped his chin as he tried saying persuasively. "Well, you have head fur like me."

Simba gave their manes an uneasy comparison glance --- he really didn't know how to break it to the naive little monkey."Well, they're a little similiar. But I wouldn't say that they-"

"Whoa," the little monkey held up one of Simba's large paws in his spindly little fingers, and turned it around. "I think you're right," he held one up to his eye."What's this do?"

"No!" The lion yanked it back before he could squeeze the talon out, sitting back so he was looking down at the monkey. "Isn't your family somewhere you can get to them?"

"No, they're back in the Forests of Rain." He answered seriously, lacing his little fingers through his toes as he rocked back idly on his rump. "But it's really very far from here."

"How far?" Simba laid down on his stomach so he was eye-level with the child, crossing his big paws. "Are we talking days?"

"No, I hardly even remember it. My sister isn't far from here, though , but we got seperated."

"Well..." the young adult lion stood up, and lowered his head."Climb aboard. If you're not afraid of a big scary lion, I guess I can help you out." he volunteered, sighing a bit.

"I'm not afraid of you," He giggled a little as he scampered up his mane, and vanished inside the thick fur despite Simba's fruitless, stuttering protests. "Mmm, how yummie!"

The tiny monkey suddenly appeared on Simba's head, and held a clasped insect in his little fingers. "You've got a lot of bugs," he stuffed it in his mouth."want me ta get'em?"

Simba smiled and chuckled. "Sure, why not. So you eat a diet of grubs too?" He leapt down a few branches with the monkey moving around, and sifting through matted fur.

"Yep, and fruit and lizards. I'm Ruendi by the way." A hand stuck out, and Simba gave it a little shake between his paw stubs as he introduced himself in turn. "I love bugs..."

"I call them grubs." the lion argued casually as he landed upon the last branch. Ruendi emerged and scampered down beside him. "Do you eat anything else?" He asked him.

This left Simba in a conundrum. He didn't want to frighten his impressionable new little monkey acquaintance, but he didn't want to lie either. "We eat a little of everything..."

"Like leaves and trees and stuff?" Ruendi asked eagerly, he geniunely did not know.

"Oh, yeah." the lion sent him a knowing look and pulled a branch his way, tearing off a few sprouts in his teeth. "I always eat my greens five times a day." he worked them all around in his mouth, mixing them with his saliva, and gave the monkey a toothy smile.

The leaf particles stuck to his still perfectly white teeth.

Ruendi covered his hands over his mouth to surpress a laugh before yanking off a few of his own. "Okay, my turn!" he inserted them into his mouth with Simba watching him a bit disapprovingly.

"Ruendi, no one likes a copy cat..."

"Copy what?"

He found he had to lift up his lip over his nose to match Simba's antics.

The lion nearly fell over in laughter when the little monkey grinned widely to show off tiny bits of leaves stuck in between his itty bitty, stubby fangs. When he looked down to his chest, Ruendi was already there before he quickly made his way onto Simba's head.

"Well," he said with a little lingering reluctance."Let's get going then."

"I like you, Simba."

He looked up at his new travelling companion and smiled pleasantly.

In a single bound, Simba was down on the jungle floor and headed in the direction of the waterfall district. He didn't doubt that he liked Ruendi, that wasn't a huge concern.

What he doubted was how Timon was going to take to an unexpected dinner guest.

To be continued...