Chapter 3: The Chase
The two lions that had once lived a normal life, now slept in silence. After the previous night, no nightmares could penetrate their bubble of happiness. Unfortunately, sneezes could.
"AAACHOO!"
Nala chastised her stupid nose before realizing that she was talking to her nose. So she stopped. She stared at the wall and thought about how happy she was to be Simba's girlfriend. All those years of jealousy, over.
Being attracted to the Prince wasn't always easy. All the girl cubs were always talking about him. Sometimes he would smile at them. That made her want to punch something. But he was her's now, so she'd never have to worry about that again.
She turned her body carefully so she wouldn't wake Simba. She smiled in the dark. Then kissed him. She felt his lips curl into a smile. A purr erupted from inside her and she couldn't control it. It rumbled throughout the cave. The sound dissapeared and Simba's breathing dominated her ears again. She snuggled up under his chin and slowly fell back into a peaceful slumber, hopefully not interupted by her nose this time.
Simba's mind slowly transitioned from his dream world to the real world. He felt something under his head. Nala! He mentally slapped himself into reality. Memories of last night streamed into his head.
Had it really happened? Had Nala really kissed him? Of course it happened. He wasn't crazy, and the fact that Nala was under his head, moving his head up and down as she breathed, made it pretty obvious. He ran his fingers through her fur. Once again, a purr forced its way out, and woke her up.
Simba smiled down at her as she opened her eyes. "I've never noticed how pretty your eyes are." She blushed, then looked back up into his eyes. She saw herself in the reflection, and noticed how happy she looked.
She smiled. "Simba, do I look happy?"
"You look happier than I've ever seen you before." He returned her joyful expression. "And you smell like strawberries."
"You like strawberries right?" She didn't need to ask, she knew all his favorite foods.
"Of course I do!" His eyes flashed open wide and his mouth hung open as the strawberries reminded him of something important. Food! "Nala... We didn't eat anything yesterday..."
"Oh my god you're right! I completely forgot about food!"
Both their stomachs rumbled at the same time.
Simba rose to his feet and looked at Nala with a worried expression. "We don't know how to hunt. How are we gonna get food?"
Nala stayed on the floor. "I... I don't know..." She looked hopefully up at Simba. "But we gotta try."
"Come on. You can show me where those strawberries are." And with that, they set off in search for food.
Nala led the way to the strawberry patch. Simba's mouth had been watering the whole way there because of Nala's aroma. As they ambled on in search for the fruit, they once again took in their amazing surroundings.
"This place is just too beautiful Simba. It all feels too good to be true." She waited for a moment for a response. Growing impatient, she looked back and noticed that Simba was almost completely brain dead. She stopped in her tracks, and Simba crashed into her.
"Ah! Sorry!"
Nala just laughed at him and ran.
Simba muttered to himself, "Not this time Nala. Not this time..." He then took off after her as he thought of how good those strawberries were going to taste.
As Nala arrived at the patch she noticed that Simba was way behind her, so she hid behind a tree and waited. Simba came rushing towards the tree that she was behind. Right as he twisted his body to dodge the pillar of wood, Nala jumped out and tackled him.
"Pinned Ya'."
Simba was stunned. Here he was, being pinned by the lioness that he dreamed about, and all around him were the strawberries that he also dreamed about.
"Simba?"
He snapped back into reality. "Uhh yeah?"
"I pinned you, and you're not doing anything about it. Are you okay?"
"Nala... I'm surrounded by strawberries, and a beautiful lioness is straddling me. And you're asking me if I'm ok?"
"Hahaha! You're so cute." She nuzzled Simba, who returned the affection, and she slowly removed herself from his body. Simba jumped up and started filling himself up with strawberries, and Nala followed.
Once Nala had eaten as much as she could handle, and Simba had eaten much more than he could handle, they sat back to back and sighed. "I really needed that," Simba said.
"Yeah. Me too." Nala searched for Simba's paw and grabbed it with hers. Simba jumped at the gesture before he realized what was happening. He smiled and returned the squeeze.
TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION
The couple sat in silence for quite some time until Simba's breathing became more prominent. Nala removed her paw and laid him down. Simba seemed happy with strawberries, but she needed meat. She looked down at him, and decided that he'd probably be sleeping for awhile, so she snuck away and searched for some more sustaining eats.
She came upon an open area in the jungle where a doe was grazing. How perfect! This would be her first kill! The trees covered her as she snuck around to the other side. Her mother had taught her some hunting techniques. After all, a lioness needed to know how to hunt. Once she had arrived at where she wanted to be, she lowered her body to the ground and began to sneak up on the unsuspecting doe. She had this. Oh, she totally had this. This doe had no chance. No chance at all. It was gonna be her dinner.
WHAM! Nala went flying and landed on her face. She felt a sharp pain coming from the side of her head, and a headache began to develope. She grunted and looked up. Through blurry eyes, she saw a buck staring at her from the spot where she was a second ago. His eyes were blazing and his foot was stomping furiously. No doubt he was the doe's mate.
The buck charged her again and she screamed, but this time she saw it coming. Just in time, she dodged out of the way of the huge antlers, which found a different a target, the tree. The buck struggled as it furiously tried to remove itself.
Nala was starting to gain her sight again, and she struggled onto all fours. She was about to flee when the buck ripped it's antlers, and some bark, from the tree and turned to face her again. She sat there, immobilized by fear. The buck pawed the floor twice, then charged. Just as she thought she was going to die, a lion cub came flying out of the bushes and tackled the buck. It wasn't expecting this at all, and laid sprawled out on the floor as Simba picked Nala up and shifted her onto his back. Struggling, he sprinted away from the open area. The buck regained it's footing, and the chase began.
Simba leaped over logs and dodged bushes just as he had when he played with Nala, but the buck was well conditioned as well, and bigger. The gap between the predator and the prey lessened more and more. Simba knew he couldn't keep this up much longer. He had to think of something. He remembered from his travels the previous day that there was a river nearby. It was his only chance.
Simba took a sharp turn to the left and continued running. The buck followed in suit. Simba started to hear the water rushing up ahead. He felt a scratch on his back leg. It was right behind him. Right before the buck snatched Nala from his back, Simba leaped as far as he could over the river. He underestimated the width of the river, and came crashing into the rapids, and went under.
He looked wildy around underwater for something he could reach. He noticed a branch sticking out from the side of the wall and grabbed it. Pulling himself out of the water, he began to breath again. He laid on his back, exhausted.
Then he heard a scream. Nala! He ran down the bank of the river and found her struggling to find something to grab onto as the rapids pulled her farther and farther away from her companion. At least she was managing to stay afloat.
"Grab onto this!" Simba held out a branch for her, but she slipped and floated on. Simba noticed something weird. As he kept running, the rushing of the water got louder. He kept up with Nala as she continuously tried to grab onto the branch. Then Simba realized what that sound was. A waterfall. He abondoned the branch, and in a loss of all hope, he jumped into the water in front of Nala. After touching the bottom of the river with his paws, he leaped back up with all his force straight into Nala's chest. The force of Simba's jump brought both him and Nala to the bank of the river. Simba used the last of his strength to pull himself and Nala, who has holding on by his neck, out of the water.
For a long time, the cubs laid there and caught their breath.
Simba was the first to speak. "That... Was... Awesome!"
Nala burst out into laughter as Simba acted out the whole event play-by-play. After he exausted himself again, he laid down next to Nala. Amazed by the bravery of her rescuer, she threw her arms around him, and licked his entire face. Overwhelmed by affection, Simba didn't move. He just smiled and enjoyed the licking.
Nala praised his heroism between licks. "Oh my god! You were amazing! You were so brave! You ran so fast! You attacked that buck! You! You! You carried me the whole time! And you!" She stopped licking and and looked at Simba with sparkling eyes. "Saved me." She collapsed into Simba with a hug and didn't move. Simba returned the hug, and they were both very much content with lying there for awhile.
TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION
Simba woke up to the sound of rushing water and darkness. "Crap. We fell asleep out here."
He tried comprehending what had happened earlier, but it seemed so impossible and so surreal, that he decided to think about it later. For the third time that day, he carried Nala on his back, and returned home by instinct.
He laid her down on some grass and looked at her as she sleeped. She was so beautiful. Saving her was so worth it. He chuckled to himself. "I guess I am pretty amazing," he thought aloud.
"Yeah, you are."
"What? Were you awake this whole time?"
Nala kept her eyes closed, smiled, and nodded. "Sorry, I just like it when you carry me."
He chuckled again. "Well I'm tired. I'm gonna sleep whether you are or not."
"And I'm cold."
Simba smiled. He looked at her closed eyes and beat up body, and settled down next to her. Then he hugged her into his torso, and let his dreams take him away to a place that was no where near as good as the place he was in right now.