Simba looked about and saw that all the apes' eyes were aimed towards him, inspecting, analyzing and wondering what he was and where he came from: he was nervous, and afraid of the unknown, as he has never met any apes before, let alone sought them out of curiosity. They resembled the olive baboons that lived in the Pride Lands, but they were much larger, more heavily built and lacked tails. Moreover, his anxiety was increased by the fact that the apes were slowly and cautiously approaching him. Fearing that he may be harmed, Simba crouched down, looking to his sides. They were all large gorillas, covered in shaggy brown or black coat, with powerful forearms and bumps on their heads.

"So, what are you doing around here, lion?" a female gorilla, with a bangy hairdo and bluish fur, addressed the golden cub in a somewhat defensive way, perceiving the young cub as a potential threat, and the joke about his species made the other gorillas laugh.

"Uhh..." Simba tried to speak, but was soon interrupted by Tarzan, who laughed in response to his gorilla companion: "Relax, Terk, he's just a cub." He himself then crouched over, with his spear point turned downwards, showing that he does not want to strike and that he wants to get to know him better, and asked him: "So, where are you from, little guy?"

"Well, I was just walking around the jungle, and then the leopards came, and.." Simba stopped, and then felt some more guilt from causing a scene at the nest, for which he was compelled to apologize: "I'm sorry about this."

"Hey, that wasn't your fault." Tarzan said to the cub, laying his hand on his head: "There was nothing you could do, and besides, nobody ended up getting hurt." He tried his best to relax and calm Simba, who was clearly very uptight with a kind he has never met before. And he could see that Simba's eyes were full of understanding and that he intently listened to his words.

"Other than those leopards." Simba grinned, already showing that he was more at ease. He then curiously asked: "So, what kind of ape are you?"

Tarzan chuckled, and then got onto his feet: "I guess I should introduce myself. My name's Tarzan, and I'm a human. Some animals call me 'King of the Apes' but I don't really act much like one." he then pointed at the elephant: "This is Tantor, and these gorillas are my troop. My family." Upon being called out, Tantor gave a benevolent nod and a sheepish smile with shut eyes. Tarzan then looked down on the cub once more: "What about your name?"

"I'm Simba." he responded, looking up at Tarzan, and around the apes, who clearly grew more easy-going towards him, as some of them were smiling at his presence. Soon, a small baby gorilla with a black coat approached him from behind and yanked his tail, which made Simba twitch suddenly, and immediately turn around to see what exactly it was: it was half-his size, with large, innocent eyes and a smile that beckoned for play, as it let out some playful coos and hoots. The baby jumped on his legs and beat his chest, chattering whimsically.

"Hey." Simba said, approaching the baby slowly, when it walked over, sat down and reached over to touch his face. Not before a few gentle strokes, it used its little hands to curl up Simba's lips to reveal his sharp teeth: this startled the baby and sent it back in fear, and its gaze turned sad.

However, Simba wanted to let the young ape know he's not a threat at all: "Don't be scared, I won't hurt you." He approached the baby and nuzzled him on the belly, which immediately returned its joy, but it started to yank Simba's whiskers, though not so hard. Another baby played with Simba's tail, and a third baby came over to groom Simba's fur on the back. The golden cub was shocked, but chuckled at this innocent manifest of playfulness, that didn't bother him at all, because babies still have a lot to learn, and sometimes, letting them act naturally was the best thing that could be done.

Tarzan also chuckled at this sight, finding it just as funny as Simba did. He then went on to address the cub himself: "Looks like they've taken a liking to you. Though... Are you sure you can't remember where you came from?"

"No, I can't." Simba said, as he was released by the babies, who noticed that Tarzan had spoken to him, as they instinctively imprinted on Tarzan as the true leader of the troop.

"So, that means you're lost..." Tarzan said, with a worried realization. He came to think that perhaps Simba had a family of his own that was searching for him, and was compelled to ask: "Where's your pride?"

"I don't have a pride.. I used to, but not anymore." Simba replied, lowering his head in grief, and not revealing any more information about where he came from, because he did not feel willing to talk about it.

Tarzan was alarmed by these news, looking out into the jungle horizon. He immediately took pity to the young cub now that he knew that it was alone, but he had to be sure that he would not pose a threat to the safety of his troop when he would grow up, in order to adopt him, at least briefly. He also thought it would be best that Simba lives with his own kind, because without their care, he would forsake his normal life, or perish in the wilds.

However, Simba came to think that Tarzan may know about Timon and Pumbaa, so he quickly asked: "Tarzan, sir, do you maybe know Timon and Pumbaa?"

"Who?" Tarzan asked, distracted from his overlook of the jungle, and unfamiliar with the names the cub uttered: "Who are they?"

"They're my friends." Simba said in response: "A warthog and a meerkat."

Tarzan looked out into the jungles, thinking that they might be following Simba's trail, if they truly cared for his safety...

Meanwhile, Tarzan's initial assumption was made true. The trail that Simba left as he walked and was attacked by the black leopards, was indeed followed by none other than Timon and Pumbaa themselves. One could only see Pumbaa's tail sticking out from the thick undergrowth, as he followed a distinct smell that he knew belonged to Simba. Timon was perched on his back, looking around to spy for danger and possible signs of Simba's whereabouts, if not Simba himself. They trekked for all clues to know where he went and whether or not he was alright.

"Whatcha got for me, Pumbaa?" Timon asked, growing less patient by the second, as he watched Pumbaa take too much time with each patch of scent-bearing soil.

"Uh, Simba was going this way." Pumbaa said, meticulously sniffing the still fresh trail. He moved on, for as long as Simba's scent could be smelled. From what he could gather, he stayed away from clearings for the most part. "And he went this way, and... Uh-oh." In this instant, Pumbaa caught another, different and more pungent scent, one that he knew belonged to a predator, a predator that was large, and possibly quite dangerous. Simba was clearly not alone, because this new scent was clearly more fresh than Simba's scent, and it came from a sideways direction compared to Simba.

"What's eatin' ya?" Timon asked, noticing that his friend has grown weary.

"I think it's something pretty big, with sharp teeth and claws..." Pumbaa said, growing ever more worried that something very bad happened to Simba when he went outside alone. Now he knew that he and Timon have been going too easy on him, since they so likely forgot to teach him of the dangers that lurked in the depths of the jungle.

"Pumbaa! Got a footprint over there!" Timon shouted, and dismounted Pumbaa as he rushed over to examine it: he could see the distinctive small footprints that belonged to Simba, and several larger ones that had a distinct kidney shape, with four rounded toes ahead of it: unmistakably a big cat. Soon, he was overrun with fear of the worst. He thought that Simba might have died from an attack by a leopard: "Pumbaa, full-speed ahead! I think we still might get him!"

Pumbaa galloped on, following the scent, and shouting loudly in panic, because he had the same fears as Timon: "This is all our fault, Timon! We taught him too much Hakuna Matata and not enough self-defense!"

"Shut your schnoz and stay on that scent!" Timon hollered, as they ran on. Then, Pumbaa unwittingly tripped on a grounded vine, and both the meerkat and the hog tumbled down a small landslide, and into a large hole in the ground, and when they looked around, they saw that, much to their dismay, they were surrounded by dozens of baboons. Both their eyes widened and their jaws dropped from shock and fear, but Timon quickly came to his senses, and urged Pumbaa to quietly sneak away from this den and continue searching for Simba. They sneaked around the baboons as elegantly as possible, aiming not to step on any branches, their bodies, or make unnecessary noise. However, Pumbaa's stomach had begun to rumble, and he had started to feel uneasy because of the number of baboons. it was a sort of curse of his behavior, because every time the hog found himself in a large herd, or crowd, he was claustrophobic, and this gave him stomach cramps and caused him to fart. The rumbling of his stomach intensified, but still didn't overpower the snoring of the baboons, who couldn't hear this noise at all. Pumbaa knew that he was about to fart anytime soon, so he gave his all to try and not do that until they are out of the den. Once they reached the exit, Pumbaa couldn't hold back anymore: he let out a thunderous fart that echoed throughout the jungle. They both frightfully turned around to see if that awoke the vicious monkeys, yet it seemed that they were still firmly asleep: they relaxed and let out sighs of relief, seeing that it was not enough to awaken the monkeys... or was it? Just as they kept moving, they heard the rising hoots and cries, which meant that they had been deceived by their apparent sleep...

Screaming in horror, Timon and Pumbaa galloped through the jungle, followed by the huge, stampeding troop that chased them both on the ground and from the trees, bared their teeth and screeched at the two viciously, aiming to destroy their intruders, because they were extremely territorial, and did not allow anyone who entered their territory either deliberately or accidentally to go unpunished.

"I'm sorry, Timon! It was the crowds! You know!" Pumbaa tried to justify the accident, as he panted frantically.

"I thought you took care of your tooting horn after we had breakfast!" Timon replied angrily, clinging to his back, annoyed at the warthog's rather common outbursts of gas, that didn't obligatorily need to have something to do with crowds.

"Haven't you noticed that they're gaining on us?!" Pumbaa screamed, not interested in listening to Timon's criticism because they might as well be killed by the enraged monkeys. But Timon noticed something that could be a potential life-saver for them, and buy them enough time to withstand the onslaught: a poison plant whose fruits' juice was greatly irritating to the eyes of most mammals, and made birds or reptiles physically ill.

"Not for long!" Timon replied, reaching for a fairly large bundle of fruits and finally snatching it with his hand. The meerkat quickly threw the fruits onto baboons that were very close by: the irritating poison that they emitted was not deadly to them, but it stung their eyes and caused them to trip and fall, and thus baboons that were behind them collided with them. One baboon was charging in front of Pumbaa after leaping from the trees, but he summoned up his courage and rammed it down, and others that came after it, using his large head and sharp tusks. Timon even managed to throw the plant into the mouth of one attacker. However, as all victories are short-lived, so was this one: Timon was out of ammunition, and frightened already that they may lose this battle. Pumbaa, however, saw that a small rapid was nearby, and that there was a thin log over it. He ran toward it, bent on shaking off the monkeys for good. As he ran over the log, he jumped around midway, landing on the rear end, causing it to springboard into the air, and deny the baboons access across the rapids, and sending some flowing downstream. The baboons that didn't get sent downstream ran after their comrades, to try and save them.

"Take that, bumble-butts!" Timon taunted them, and then, both chanted in unison: "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!"

"And that takes care of that." Pumbaa said, before they were pounced on by a familiar yellow form that let out a premature roar - it was Simba, glad to see that Pumbaa and Timon have managed to find him safely.

"Guys!" Simba said delightfully.

"Simba!" Timon shouted, hugging the cub, and then bonking him on the head with his fist, not very happy with him simply walking away from them unprotected, so recklessly: "You loonie! You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Oh.. Sorry." Simba said, with a nervous grin, even though he could see that the two had forgiven him before the apology was made.

"Are those Timon and Pumbaa?" Tarzan, who was nearby and witnessed what was going on, addressed Simba.

"Yup." Simba responded, with a smile on his maw: "Timon, Pumbaa, meet Tarzan. He helped me."

"Oh... Well, I think we should get going now." Timon suggested, and was about to motion Pumbaa to get moving back to a new sleeping place, because the two never had a permanent place to stay, and moved around quite a bit.

"We could stay with the new guy." Pumbaa suggested to Timon, because he saw that he could protect him more efficiently from dangers.

"What? We're not gonna butt in with a stranger and just-..." Timon paused, then seeing the benefit in staying around more friends for protection, as he could see the gorillas and Tantor behind: "Hey... Why don't we stay with baldie? We could get shelter, protection, and much more!"

"We wouldn't mind it at all, if you aren't trouble." Tarzan said solemnly.

"So, we're staying with Tarzan?" Simba asked, with a joyous smile, glad that they found a home with his rescuer, and that they were going to make friends with him.

"You bet we are!" Timon said with a grin and a pat to Simba's shoulder, and then addressing Pumbaa: "Who's the genius here? Lemme hear a thank you!" to which the warthog rolled his eyes.

"Alright!" Simba said as he cantered alongside Tarzan, who led on, saying: "Come on, guys. We're gonna have to find another den by nightfall."

The four then headed back toward the old nest, where the rest of the troop was waiting for Tarzan to give word on whether or not they were going to move.