Chapter 4 Battle at Pride Rock

Oh my god! I am about to be eatern. After stalking a dung beetle a lioness stalks me. I run and get stuck under a tree root and Timon is telling me he has to save me. Luckily, Simba goes after the lioness to protect us. Timon says" I told you he would come in handy."

The biggest surprise comes after the lioness pins Simba down. He recognizes her. She is Nala, his childhood friend. I am introduced to her after Simba tells me to come over. Although she almost ate me, she is a friend of Simba's so I feel I have to be nice. She is beautiful and will make a nice girlfriend for our boy. I feel all toasty and warm inside that Simba has grown up and found someone he loves after all these years. Timon is really upset though. He tells me that our trio will be down to two. "WE have to stop this Pumbaa!" he states with determination! "They can't feel the love tonight.!" None of our schemes to stop their romantic interlude work. They all end up injuring both of us especially Timon. The one that is really good is trying to send the spider. It falls in love with a female arachnid and ends up spinning heart-shaped webs. Timon feels awful especially after the bees sting him. Finally when we try to trip the two lions we wind up flying into a tree and scattering butterflies and the two lions end up nuzzling each other. So much for stopping true romance.

Another surprise is finding out that Simba comes from a royal family. He is King Mufasa's son. Our sounder always knew about the Great Lion Kings of the Pridelands. They controlled resources and hunting among all of the animals and several of my relatives thrived under their I try to bow down to Simba, Timon mocks me but then decides that he likes Simba's status because it would make him powerful. Timon tries to see if he can turn circumstances to his advantage. He has always been jungle smart.

After seeing Nala, Timon and I catch Simba talking to a strange cloud formation. I swear the thing looks like the head of a lion. Maybe there is something to Simba's spiritual beliefs. The next morning Simba is gone. Nala tells us that he has gone back to the Pridelands to reclaim his throne as king back from his uncle Scar. Timon does not pay any attention to the story but I do. Nala does not think we understand anything so she angrily tells us in a frustrated manner. "Look, don't you get it?Simba needs our needs us." Then she runs away in the direction of the desert. I am ready to follow her but Timon just goes back to our bed and flops down for a nap. I am appalled at him. Timon says that he will stay right here in the jungle because Simba abandoned Hakuna Matata to be a king. I tell Timon that Hakuna Matata is not Hakuna Matata without Simba.

Timon argues with me. He says" That's crazy talk, crazy talk Pumbaa! It was Hakuna Matata before Simba and it will be Hakuna Matata after Simba!"

I plead with Timon. "We gotta help our friend, Timon.!

Timon looks at me like I had just betrayed him. "Et tu, Pumbaa? What happened to friends stick together till the end?"

I look at the meerkat in disgust. How can he be like this to Simba our kid? I feel like knocking him down. Timon is so darn selfish. Well, I have made up my mind. I am going to help Simba whether Timon likes it or not.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," I tell Timon."How can you be so selfish? Simba is not just our friend. He is our child and he needs us. Don't you love Simba? He is closer to you than he is to me. You are like a father to him. You won't help your son when he is in trouble ?What kind of father are you? You are just going to sit here and let Simba face his uncle alone?" I try to see how my statement will impact the meerkat but he does not move a muscle. He just goes back to the bed ignoring turns around and replies, " I've got everything I need right here. If Simba wants to play his Majesty he can do it without me."

"Well, I am going to Pride Rock to help Simba. ," I tell Timon." I will be his father even if you won't.I love Simba and I am not going to let Scar kill him.I will not let Simba face Scar alone." I sadly look at Timon one last time and then I begin my journey to the Pridelands. My love for Simba keeps me going . I try not to think about leaving Timon behind.

When I run across the desert , Timon catches up with me. He decides that Simba and I took Hakuna Matata with us and he wants to help. We are friends again. It is good to have our duo back again and ready to help our boy.

When we arrive at the Pridelands. Timon and I act as live bait for the hyenas, so Nala and Simba can sneak past them. Timon looks funny in his hula dress. We manage to run away. Then we see the hyenas attacking Simba after he holds down Scar and gets his uncle to confess to Mufasa's murder. So I do bowling for hyenas like I did to the meerkat colony. Then somehow Timon gets in trouble again. He runs in the den at Pride Rock and hides in a skeleton whereo a hornbill is imprisoned after he is chased by two of the hyenas. I follow them into the cave and I am really insulted when the male hyenas stares at me and askes me "Who is the pig?" I hate it when animals have lousy manners and I seethe with rage at such disrespect. I get really angry and scream " Are you talking to me? They call me MISTER PIG!" Then I charge the hyenas, knock them down, break the skeleton, and set Timon and the hornbill free.

So far we have been successfull in our battle with the hyenas but we end up being cornered by them again. UncleMax and Timon's Ma show up. Timon has a plan and we implement time we hold off the hyenas so Max and Ma can dig tunnels under them. We do everything to stall. The real surprise is when Timon proposes to Shenzi, the hyena matriarch. I had no idea that Timon was is love with her. I would really like to be his best man, but she really does not want to marry him. I cannot imagine what their kids would look like. Unfortunately, when Uncle Max and Ma try to trap the hyenas in the tunnels , not all the sticks holding up the tunnels fall and the hyenas remain above ground. This time Timon is the hero and I am really proud of him. He dives into the tunnels under Shenzi's feet and knocks down the last sticks keeping the tunnels up. The hyenas fall underground and slide away and then we see Simba throw Scar off of Pride Rock. "It looks like Scar is down and out" I tell Ma and Uncle Max.

Finally Simba ascends Pride Rock to claim his throne. He notices Timon and I before he starts to ascend. We both bow down to him and he hugs us."I could not have done this without you guys." , he that Timon and I both cry. We are so proud of our boy as he roars to his pride of lions. We stick around to see if Simba is happy and he looks like he is. Nala and all of the other lionessess flock around him. They seem happy with their new monarch. Simba is definitley home where he belongs and he really does not need us any more. Timon says we had better sneak away before the lionesses decide to eat us.

We start to go away and leave when Nala and another lioness jump in f ront of us. Timon tells Nala not to scare us.

"I am sorry I frightened you, but this lioness wants to talk to you. This is Sarabi, Simba's mother. She will not harm you."

Sarabi is an older lioness and she has amber eyes like Simba. In fact our boy's face is just like hers.

She greets us warmly. "You too must have raised . I want to thank you. He looks strong and healthy."

Timon apologizes to Sarabi. "Listen ma'am. We did not know how to raise him to be a king. We did not even know he was a king. We told him not to have any worries and to put his past behind him."

I tell Sarabi"Your son is a great kid. We just wanted to make sure he was happy. He had fun with us. We sort of taught him how to hunt and we told him not to worry, but you lions will have to teach him his kingly duties."

Sarabi looked at us with gratitude. "You helped him enjoy his childhood and for that I can never repay you. And he looks like a young lion should. I am so grateful that he is alive. So you did a great job as parents". Then she says goodbye to us.

After meeting Sarabi both Timon and I realize that Simba has entered a new phase of his life. Our trio is now down to two. He does not need us anymore. He has a family of lionesses that will love and take care of him. Sarabi and the hornbill named Zazu will help him rule as king and Nala will be his mate. Soon he will have cubs of his own. He does not need an outcast meerkat and a smelly warthog to be part of his family. Our job is done. I want to say goodbye to Simba but Timon says we should just leave quietly. "I doubt that Simba will miss us. He will be too busy being His Majesty to notice us." Timon is just as brokenhearted about leaving Simba as I am but he will not admit it. It is too hard for him to say goodbye and it is hard for me too. It feels bad to leave without saying goodbye and I wonder if Simba will be hurt, but maybe he will be too busy learning how to be a king to dwell on such feelings. We might as well start living like we are two again.