I. – Simba

He crashed through the bushes at the screeches that he just knew Ruendi was letting out in distress. The branches thwacked at his less-then-burly frame, and the ground he raced across only seemed to weight him down as he tried rushing to the child's aid, yelling out:

"Ruendi!"

"Simba!" a frightened voice howled back. "Help! Hurry!"

"Ruen..."

The lion suddenly found his feet picking up faster, and he practically flew through the air to come within ten feet of a terrible sight. Ruendi, a look of sheer fear struck across his pink face, now had his small back up against a tree. He was trembling, wincing in mortal fear at the danger that posed itself before him. Simba was crouched down and ready to lunge out when a smaller, brighter hued creature swept down and got between the lanky cheetah and the primate. The lion's face dropped.

"Zazu," Simba mouthed in shock. He looked around, saw a hollow tree trunk and released a roar.

"I'm worried…" Pumbaa voiced his concerns.

"Worried? Over what?" Timon wanted to know as he paced the already indented dirt floor.

"And I think you're worried too."

The merekat leered over at him. "Why would you say that?"

"You only pace when you're worried."

"Oh."

A blaring horn-like noise caught their attention.

"The alarm," They said together.

Simba hesitated from acting, but the cheetah did not. She kept upper back rigid as she came near the two defenseless animals, showing off her perfect rows of needle-sharp incisors. He started on towards them, and then paused. Then again, and then he paused again. The tension was mounting; he could hear the rush of the other jungle animals flying in to their aid. Simba made a snap choice and rushed right into plain view, inserting himself in an enormous leap in front of the startled cat.

"Simba!" Ruendi cried happily.

"Simba!" Zazu uttered in complete surprise.

The cheetah looked between the much larger cat and the bird and monkey cowering behind him.

"Am I to take it you're going to defend them?"

"Leave," Simba said in a deep voice, holding out his paw and extracting four claw points "Now."

"Humph," her small muzzle wrinkled, calling his bluff, "You're so young, aren't you?" Her older eyes fell to Ruendi, "Yet you have this child, who's so much younger then yourself to look after."

"What do you mean?" The lion asked guardedly.

"Why risk exposure to yourself? You very obviously do not wish to make contact with the small bird there. Surrender him and take the child, that way it works out for us both." She tried urging.

"Simba, no." Ruendi said shakily. "Please."

He cringed and looked over his shoulder to the petrified Zazu. Then turned around slowly, head down, and charged forward at the cheetah. They tussled around before Simba got a good hold on her, and thrust her up against a tree. She stared back with her gilded eyes zeroing straight into his.

"Please, no."

Simba breathed heavily, thought of Ruendi, and fell back to the ground in release.

She crinkled her muzzle back and tried going for an attack under his throat when a volley of rocks suddenly pelted her out of nowhere. The cheetah jerked her head around, highly insulted, to see a single stone being tossed up and down in the hand of a glaring Timon. He sat atop Pumbaa with a barrage of other jungle animals backing them. "May I load you once more, my tummy chummy?"

"You most certainly may."

The merekat stuffed two round stones in his nostrils, ready to fire.

Simba smiled confidently. "It's called Hakuna Matata, and it's more then just a lifestyle." He let Ruendi into his point of gaze. "We're a family. We don't just look out for ourselves here; we look out for each other." He met Zazu's startled eyes; letting the bird know that he meant what he said.

"Yeah," Ruendi moved away from the bird to knuckle his way up Simba's back, and stand on top of his head proudly. "We're a family!" he declared. The lion monkey grew wary. "You can too."

They all looked between the bird and the thin-limbed cat. She straightened herself up now, flared her brown-black nostrils at them all disdainfully and the outcast cheetah stalked away. As Timon and Pumbaa dispersed the gossiping animals, Zazu couldn't help but to still stare amazedly at the lion before him. Simba stepped away from him as he tried approaching, his wing out, and took off into the brush with a protesting Ruendi. He crashed through the tropical foliage, trying his best to get them lost and out of the radar of the hornbill. Ruendi finally got fed up and screeched noisily.

"Ah! Ruendi! Right in my ear…" Simba complained.

"I had to do it!" He defended himself. "You were being so weird. Why… why are you?"

"You wouldn't understand," The lion told him with a raspy sigh. He was going at a light jog.

"You don't know that."

"It's just that… Hakuna Matata, you know? It's all in my past."

"That bird guy is part of your past?"

"Exactly!" Simba exclaimed, relieved that Ruendi finally understood.

"And this bird guy would prefer a bit more of an explanation then made up words."

The lion started as Zazu appeared before them both, his wings were pressed into his sides.

TBC.