…
Nala walked along the outer rims of the dark-fallen jungle, tears kept ebbing and flowing against her yellow scleras but she found the strength to keep them at bay. What had she expected? 'What's happened to you? You're not the Simba I remember!' His unfamiliar scowling eyes had skimmed over towards her. 'No, I'm not'--- Not.
So if Simba was no longer the king, did that mean Nala had never been meant to be the queen? As she traced the sloping tree-line, she recalled her determination and commitment to Sarabi. It had meant so much to Nala as a cub, and it still did. But, if Simba didn't claim his kingship, how could Nala ever truly be a queen?
"I guess we came, we saw, we struck out." Someone heckled.
The lioness only swept a put-out glance his way and continued her sulking stroll away. But the leopard charged after her in amazing bounds through the bouncy branches, and kept on talking with her.
"I don't know what you were thinkin', Mama. Simbs is the crème de la cancan around here. It's not like you were gonna make him go."
Nala sent him a glare. "You knew all along, didn't you?"
Kurou shrugged from where he now lay casually. "You were going to find out one way or another." He smiled easily, "It wasn't my place."
"It would have been helpful."
"I told you everything you asked for, Mama Nala." the big shadowy cat blended in perfectly with the spot-shrouded night as he gave a stretch back. "Of course, now that ya know, I'm continuing on."
Nala sighed wearily, "I think I've heard enough," she strode off.
Kurou surprised her by jumping down several branches near her and becoming more sure-footed then he was before, "I listened to the two of you arugin'. It sounded like you wanted him to go with you."
"Yes!" She agreed quickly. "To save his home."
"So what's this place?"
"I don't know." the lioness said impatiently. "A jungle getaway."
"Well, it looks to me like this is his home; and his life."
Nala wrinkled her nose, passing him coldly. "You don't even know what you're talking about." She said. "He's always had a home..."
"Right." Kurou came down nearly all the way and kept talking from atop an uprooted root behind her. "The kind of home 'you' recall. The kind of home that no longer is set within that cat's sights."
She turned to him and asked, mystified, "What do you mean?"
"Miss Nala, permit me to say this, but you live in your 'past'. I respect you, and Simba's a good friend of mine. So I'm just going to put it plain. Simba is living in his own world, he has got his
Own life set before him. And here you are out of the blue to tell him what 'he' needs to do with it. Now if you really wanna get to him and be in his life, you're going to have to see life just the way he does. Miss Nala…" Kurou grew serious. "It's the only way."
"But, but-."
"If you don't, there's no way he'll listen. Trust me."
The lioness sat down in mediation. She had not prepared for this.
"All this time I've only been thinking of myself." Nala lamented.
"Think back kid, was there not ever a time in your life when you were 'really' happy?" Kurou urged her. "When you were care-free?"
"When I was with Simba." She said with a smile. "And my mother."
He gave her an obvious look with his golden eyes. "Then pick one and stick with one. You're either Nala or someone else." He left.
Keeping this in mind, the lioness went back into the jungle. She remembered her life as a cub, she remembered Sarabi, her mother, the zebra, Kurou and Tojo. Nala remembered Simba --- and hummed.
"Oh…" she sang quietly, her hips bopping. "I just can't wait…"
"To be what?" Someone asked from high up in the trees.
Nala giggled softly. "To be queen."
…