Chapter 8

Finishing her story, Nala took a deep breath as she faced Simba directly in the eye now. The whole time, the lion had been listening very intently on her words in hopes of mentally finding some recollection of her. Nala took a step forth, with her face now up to his.

"So you see..." She started. "That's why I'm here, Simba. I left here hoping to the great kings that you'd be here... and here you are. The only thing I have left to hope now is that you aren't under Kaa's control like the hyenas said."

That last part she said with sadness rising in her voice. Simba opened his mouth to say something on the matter, but in an instant every hope he had of being able to do so was shattered.

"Such a heartwarming story. I almost feel sorry for you."

Simba and Nala both jumped when they heard these words and immediately looked over to see none other than Kaa himself slithering in between them. Nala's heart in particular was beating faster as fear began to take hold. She was at this point praying she'd be able to get Simba to remember and run back to Pride Rock with Kaa none the wiser. She had not planning on an actual encounter with him.

However, seeing as this had just now turned into a life or death situation, she gulped and gritted her teeth to try seeming threatening. The lioness could not afford to give up when there was even the smallest chance.

"Forgive me, Simba," said Kaa moving his face directly up to his. "I completely trusted you, but I had this nagging feeling that I had to check on your progress." He turned to Nala with a smirk. "It seems she has been feeding you lies. Very well thought out lies, if I do say so myself. But lies nonetheless."

Simba said nothing as his mind was incredibly baffled to put it mildly.

"Of course, you'd know that, wouldn't you, Kaa?" snarled Nala with a growl to follow it. Despite her bravado, her contempt for the serpent was very much real. "What the hell have you done to my best friend?"

Kaa smiled maliciously as he moved his head towards Nala. "You desire to learn how?" he said as he looked straight into the lioness's eyes. "Very well. You brought this on yourself, foolish girl." His eyes began to radiate their infamous hypnotic colors.

Nala tried to stand her ground but began to fall victim to the beautiful spirals. However, she managed to snap back to her senses and quickly shut her eyes.

"Oh my," Kaa said, surprised by his prey's willpower. "You're full of surprises, aren't you?"

"You won't control me," said Nala, determined as she turned herself away. Just then, she felt Kaa's tail wrap around her hind legs, stopping her and slamming her to the ground. Dread filled her as she knew from the rumors she had heard what was to come next.

"Fair enough," said Kaa, as he continued to coil around the lioness. "I usually prefer just constricting."

"W-wait, master!" cried Simba unexpectedly, which made Kaa raise an eyebrow. The lion didn't know why, but seeing Nala in danger made him very worrysome.

"Now, now, lion cub," said Kaa as he finished wrapping Nala in his painful coils. "Consider this one on me."

Nala was then lifted into the air as Kaa's coils pinned her forelegs to her side, making it seem like she was in a cocoon with only her head, tail and hind legs sticking out. She couldn't move at all as hard as she struggled, and was being held effortlessly despite her weight. She unsheathed her claws to try and rip through Kaa's body, but he was very much used to such a sensation when Simba used to do the same to him. Nala growled and shouted as loudly as she could as the pressure upon her entire body intensified beyond anything she had ever felt before in her life.

No... I-I failed, Nala thought terrified. In fact, in that moment in time terrified was no description at all for how she felt, and found herself unable to fake her bravado anymore.

"How tragic," said Kaa, looking straight at Nala's face, her eyes still shut. He took great delight in his prey's failure. "You suffered so much for this moment only to have it end like this. I will say this: You can be hypnotized and live happily with your friend as my slave or be slowly squeezed to death and become my meal."

Nala tried desperately to seem brave again. "Neither," she said, gritting her teeth. "I just want Simba back. Even if I have to rip him out of your control with my bare claws, don't think for a second that I won't do it."

Kaa smirked at her choice of words. "Of course a lioness like you would stay stubborn to the end" he said, beginning to tighten his coils even more. "That bullheaded pride never ceases to amuse me. Just be aware that you've essentially committed suicide."

Nala felt the coils crush her body painfully and, as if that wasn't bad enough, strangle her as her throat was squeezed. Her eyes widened in shock and her mouth opened to let out wheezes and hacking. In her past she was told horrific stories about close encounters with constrictors by scarred survivors, one of them even being a lioness she once hunted alongside. But she herself had never imagined the hellish experience happening to herself, nor could she ever comprehend that the pain was to feel like this.

Simba kept watching, feeling incredibly distraught but not knowing why. Did the lioness really mean something to him? Even though he had lived with him for so long, he at long last began to consider: were master Kaa's actions... wrong?

"Don't worry, little kitten," hissed Kaa, insulting Nala condescendingly through her grunts and growls of agony. "I'll put you out of your misery very soon." And horrifically enough, they python widened his maw as far as it would go, getting ready to swallow the lioness whole. He couldn't wait to feast upon her flesh.

Fighting the strangulation, Nala watched Kaa getting ready to swallow her as her entire life begin to flash before her eyes. After all she went through, this was to be the way her life came to close. As a predator, it wounded her pride both physically and mentally to helplessly be crushed and eaten so easily. But what made it hurt even worse was knowing how she failed to save her fellow pride and her own childhood friend. With the very little breath she had left, she managed to utter this to herself as she shut her eyes as tight as she could.

"I... love you... Simba..."