The Shadowland Princess
Chapter nine
The fire and another human encounter
The next morning the cubs were told that Timon and Pumba would be watching them. The pride felt that the cubs needed to be watched more closely, but Nala was still questionable about them, but if Simba was okay with it so was she. Soon the pride takes off to take care of their duties and soon the cubs are running all over the place and Timon and Pumba do their best to watch them as the cubs play tag. They had finally lost sight of them and were looking for the cubs. Vitani then sees her sister looking towards the Outlands. As she walks up to her little sister, Kiara says, "I wonder what's out there."
"The Outlanders, and trust me Kiara, you don't want to meet them," Vitani says.
Terra and Kovu joined them on the rock and they start looking at clouds trying to make out shapes, then they hear cracks coming from behind them. All of them scream in surprise as they see Timon and Pumba pop out of no where, making them all fall into the water. Pumba then says, "Don't worry cubs, Uncle Pumba's coming. Terra and Kiara dodge him in time, but Vitani and Kovu were not so lucky. "Kovu, Vitani?" Pumba says.
"PUMBA! LET ME DEFINE, BABYSITTING!" Timon yells.
Pumba relizes what he ment and gets off of them, Kovu and Vitani coughing up water and giving Pumba the 'really' look. "Sorry, now cubs you should know better than to go off all alone. You could have been hurt," Pumba says.
Vitani tries to say they were just fine but Timon proceeds to freak out. "Will someone please clamp his mouth," Vitani says.
Kovu clamps Timons mouth and says, "Done and done."
"Thanks Kovu, now Timon, we are just fine out here. We know that we are not supposed to go into the Outlands. Mom told us a thousand times and I've told Kiara what lurks out there. We try to stay out of trouble, it just finds us once in a while," Vitani says.
Then Terra smells something all too familiar, smoke. "Speaking of trouble finding us, I think it just found us," he says.
The cubs soon see a fire coming from the direction of the Outlands and knowing full well this was the Outlanders doing, Vitani says, "We hve to get back to Pride Rock."
All agree, but Timon and Pumba were nowhere to be found. "Some babysitters they are," Kiara says, making everyone laugh before running.
They were getting close to home but then the flames encircle them. The smoke was getting thicker and there seemed to be no way out. Then all the cubs feel something grab them by the scruff. It was humans, but the cubs didn't know if they were friendly. "Head towards that big rock, It must be their home," a human says.
"Yes sir, I'm on it" the other human says.
They were in some shiny moving thing and were headed towards Pride Rock. Seems the humans were helping them. "John, look out for that tree!" the human yells as they cleared the smoke.
The human named John did his best to dodge it but it was too late. Their ride home was now riding on two wheels and then goes on it's side. The whole party goes tumbling out and all the cubs lay spread apart. Vitani was the first to come to her senses and soon gets her sister and Terra and Kovu. Before they took off, Vitani gave the Human, John, a quick nuzzle, and he says, "Get back to your pride little ones, your safe now."
The cubs soon take off to Pride Rock and the humans soon get their ride back on its wheels and take off. The cubs get back to Pride Rock and see Nala lecturing Timon and Pumba for losing the cubs. "That is the last time at let you two babysit," Nala says, and Simba agrees adding, "I thought I could trust you two, but my trust has been shaken. You better wise up and soon."
They then see the cubs and are over joyed to see they are alright. "Cubs what were you thinking wandering off? That fire could have killed you," Simba says.
"Simba, before you jump to conclusions, let them talk. I'm sure they have a good reason for being where they were," Nala says.
All the cubs tell them what happened, but try not to make Timon and Pumba look bad. After they tell their story, Simba sighs says, "Well you are only cubs."
"But Your still confined to Pride Rock, for your own safety, that means you'll either be here or at the water hole, with a Pride sister watching you," Nala says.
"Yes mom, and to be honest, after what's happened today, I don't think any of us want to wander far from here for a while. I wish I could have told those humans thank you though," Vitani says.
"I'm sure nuzzling the human was enough Vitani," Simba says.
Soon the hunting parties came back with three antelope, which told the cubs that dinner and bedtime was soon. Nala and Selene Nurse the cubs and then let grandma Sarafina tell the cubs a story of a time she got into big trouble. Once the story was over they Cubs go to lay beside their mothers. Kiara fell asleep quickly, but Vitani just laid there thinking. Nala noticed she wasn't falling asleep and says, "What's on your mind honey? You seem worried."
"I just keep thinking about the fire, like the what ifs. What if we hadn't made it back, what if the humans never came, what if the Outlanders did it in order to kidnap us? I'm just scared that one of these times we will do something that puts the whole pride at risk," Vitani says.
"I know honey, but you are still very young. I worry about everyones saftey every day, but it's my job to. One day when you and your sister take over, you will know how to deal with that worry. But for now all you have to do is make sure to keep yourself and Kiara out of trouble, though I know how hard that is. You are just like I was at your age, and you won't believe the trouble your dad and I got into. Now get some sleep dear, you're gonna need all your energy for tomorrow," Nala says.
Vitani soon lays her head down and shuts her eyes and her mother gives her a gentle nuzzle and a lick, before she too falls asleep. Meanwhile somewhere on the borders of the pridelands, Zira says to one of her pride sisters, "Those humans keep interfering with our plans. I need to do something about them."
"I still don't see why we don't just go in and take over," the pride sister says.
"Because I want to hurt Simba and Nala the way they hurt me, and that is by killing their cubs," Zira says.
"Well you'll have to come up with a new plan Zira because the cubs won't be cubs forever," her sister says.
Zira knew she was right and soon they went back to their new termite mound.
End of chapter nine. Hope it was good. Now there is a three way conflict between the Pridelanders, Outlanders and the humans. And it looks like the cubs might be able to use the humans to their advantage. Please read and review. I'll update as soon as I can.
