Chapter 11: Amani
As always, Simba somehow ended up curled around Nala during the night. Not that they minded. Simba loved having a nice, warm Nala to cuddle up with, and Nala loved having a Simba to protect her and keep her warm.
A member of The Pride walked by and looked at the sleeping monarchs. "What a rarity," he thought, "to have rulers as loving as this. It's truly a blessing."
The sun slowly creeped across Simba's back and he began to sweat. Distressed by the uncomfort, he slowly opened his eyes and saw a field of tan. He lifted his eyes out of Nala's fur, and chuckled at the thought of little animals running around in her fur field. He looked down at the sleeping lioness, and wished she were awake, but he did not want to wake her. So, he decided he'd wake her up pleasantly.
He began by gently nipping her ears, which were closest to him, and then he played with her tail with his own. He licked the fur on top of her head as he moved his paw slowly down her back.
"Morning Sire!"
All respect that Simba had for Zazu from the battle, was now gone.
"Morning annoying blue bird..."
"Simba!" Nala looked angrily at Simba.
"Oh awesome. You woke her up too."
Zazu cleared his throat to express his distaste for the name-calling. "Ever since your speech in The Cave, the animals have been thirsting for blood. They want to go back to war, regardless of their small size. Please go down there and knock some sense into them!"
TRANSITION-TRANSITION-TRANSITION
Simba entered The Cave, and looked around for Tareesh, but he was nowhere to be found. Simba sighed. He'd worry about Tareesh later. He roared to capture the attention of the war-crazed animals.
"Look, I understand that my speech yesterday aroused you all." He looked around at all the angry Pridelanders. "A LOT. But you're being way to rash. You all know that we can't take on Scar with all our losses holding us back. We're not as big anymore, and we lost our best fighters. Don't be irrational."
The congregation looked at each other, and calmed themselves, realizing how truly immature they were being.
"Now I don't know where Tareesh is-"
"Right here." The antelope leader entered the cave. "I'm sorry. I just had to take a walk."
"I understand. I take walks all the time. I wanted to ask you if you could watch over The Pride while Nala and I are gone."
"Of course," replied Tareesh, bowing, "But where are you off to?"
Simba turned back to his subjects, as the antelope joined them. "Nala and I are going to try and kill Scar."
Murmers filled the room.
"We have no chance of winning a battle with the strength we currently have. So we need to cut their strength. With Scar gone, a battle should be much easier."
A hippo spoke up. "But how are you gonna kill Scar? He's protected by his hyenas."
Nala revealed herself as she stepped up onto the rock that Simba was standing on. "We're going to hide. Sneak our way through Pride Rock, til we get Scar alone. Hyenas aren't very smart, so we hope that it shouldn't be too difficult. But-"
"It'll be dangerous." Simba finished her sentence, while frowning at the floor.
Nala looked worriedly at him, "Simba..."
Simba looked up into Nala's eyes and continued. "I don't know if you should be coming, with the cub and all. It's just not safe."
With everyone watching, Nala walked up to her mate and nuzzled him under the chin, then kept her head next to his. "I could never let you go alone. Our whole lives, we've been together. This family will never split. You die, we die."
Nala removed herself from Simba's side and silence fell upon The Pride. Simba just stared into her eyes, on the verge of tears.
"Oh Nal'. You're so right." The king slowly returned his attention to his subjects, and cleared his throat. "Now, we're gonna go kick some ass. You guys just wait til we get back." He winked at them and cheers echoed throughout The Cave. Simba smiled at Nala, who returned the expression, and they made their way, side by side, out of their fortress.
The sun was incredibly hot. There was no water. Only a giant rock jutting out of the ground in the distance.
Their home. Their childhood. Their future.
The trek was far from enjoyable, but the two lovers laughed the whole way there, remembering past experiences.
"and I've always wondered why you like strawberries so much. I mean, it's so-" Simba put his paw over Nala's muzzle and pulled her into a familiar log; this time they weren't so small, so the fit was tight. Coincidentally, just as before, two hyenas came by on their way to Pride Rock. Only this time, they seemed to be moving with more urgency.
"Is your brother gonna be part of the attack?"
"Of course he will! I'm sure he'll be in the front line! That show off..."
"Heh heh. That just means he'll die first, probably get impaled by a rhino."
"Yeah! Then guess who the head of the family will be?"
Silence.
"Me dipshit!"
"Oh right."
Their voices trailed off into the distance, and Simba and Nala emerged from the log.
Simba stood stiff, sincerely worried. "No! They're planning an attack on The Cave!"
Nala rubbed up against her mate. "Don't worry. It can't be right now."
Simba's expression didn't budge. "I know, but we're not ready! We just can't do it with the numbers we have. And if they're planning it now, we definitely won't have enough time to build our army..."
They both lowered their gaze to the ground, and Nala closed her eyes. "It just means we HAVE to succeed today. There's no room for failure."
Simba looked up and sighed. "You're right... Maybe we shoulda brought more with us."
Nala walked over to Simba and put her paws on his face. "Simba, my precious, kingly, caring Simba. With more, we'd be caught. You planned this perfectly."
Simba smiled. "What would I do without you?"
Nala shook her head and turned back towards Pride Rock.
They now walked in silence, to avoid detection as best as they could. They circled around the outskirts of Pride Rock before arriving at the back entrance. The food pile wasn't being monitored. What could that mean? Neither of them remembered their way through Pride Rock, because their childhood was so long ago, or at least it seemed like it was. So they slowly creeped up the road, leading to the inner parts of the rock. At the first sight of a few rocks to hide behind, the couple dashed behind them and waited.
A couple minutes passed before Simba whispered, "It doesn't look like too much is going on right now."
"Yeah, it's great."
"It's our lucky day. Cmon let's move up further."
Simba led the way further up the path, as Nala began to play with his tail. Simba turned around and smiled and Nala innocently smiled back. Even in the most dangerous of times, love will always be present.
The road curved around a corner and Simba poked his head out past the corner, to see Karkass's back three feet away. He quickly whipped his head back around and widened his eyes, to tell Nala not to move. Their ears perked up as they eavesdropped.
"We're tired of you Talca. You're good for nothing! You can't hunt, you can't fight, and hell, you cant even keep a family together. Why do we keep you?"
Silence.
"Hmph," Karkass smiled, pleased with how Talca was taking this, "And you can't even watch the food pile without complaining."
Talca tightened his face in anger.
"Fellow hyenas, comrades, do we have a reason not to kill this pathetic excuse of an animal?"
Every hyena watching remained silent.
"I'm giving you one last chance to leave, Talca. Or should I just have a chat with your family?" He slowly backed up and came within view of the two hidden lions. Simba's heart began hammering against his insides, and Nala held her breath.
Talca jumped. "Stop!"
Karkass's body froze.
"Leave them out of this! They did nothing wrong!"
Karkass laughed so loud that Simba and Nala's ears rang. "And neither did you! But you see, you did nothing right!" Karkass reversed directions and disappeared from the king and queen's view. They heard Talca flee from the scene and Karkass follow in pursuit.
Simba poked his head back out into the open and saw no one. Nala stepped past him and dropped her head. "They're terrible. Terrible, terrible animals."
Simba nuzzled her. "Cmon Nal. We gotta keep moving." Nala took a deep breath, held her head up high, and followed her king.
Periodically, they had to hide behind rocks and walls, but it seemed that the hyenas were all pretty involved with watching Karkass ridicule Talca. Nala frowned at the idea, but was reminded by Simba that it made things easier for them, which in the long run helped many more animals than just one hyena. They had almost made it to den when Nala lost her footing by slipping on some loose rubble. She screamed and Simba winced. As her side came tumbling down, she saw the edge of the road and her paws slipped off of it, followed by the rest of her body.
Simba whipped around. "Nala!" He peered down to where she had rolled, and noticed the abundance of hyenas around her. "Oh, hell no!" He slid down the side of the road and stopped himself at Nala's side. The hyenas advanced towards them and Simba unsheathed his claws. Luckily, the fall hadn't hurt Nala too badly and she stood up, ready to fight as well.
The first hyena stupidly tried to jump over them. Simba jumped into his belly and it went flying over the edge. Nala took the next two oncoming enemies by swiping the one on the left with her claw as she spun her body into the other. The one on the right fell unconscious, while the one on the left was stepped on by another hyena, who tackled Nala. Little did he know, she could flip him right back over.
She dismounted her surprised victim and turned her attention back to Simba, who's leg was taken out from under him. Two hyenas piled onto his back as he laid on the floor.
Nala flew through the air and rammed her head into the side of the hyena on top. The hyena's body fell limp as she slammed him into the wall. She turned her head to see three more hyenas coming at her. "They don't stop coming..." She ran backwards up the slanted wall, and kicked off of it with her hind legs. She flew through the air once again, and landed even farther from her husband.
Simba ducked as another hyena went flying overhead, awkwardly landing on top of another to his right. He leaped up into the air and two hyenas collided beneath him. He landed on top of them and threw them away from each other with his paws. Their bodies took down a couple hyenas each and he swiped at the one to his front. He felt his tail explode in pain, so he slid under the hyena to his front, flicked him up into the air, and reversed directions. The hyena that had attacked his tail crouched into a jumping position, but he was cut short by the airborne hyena, landing squarely on his back. Simba laughed.
Nala continued to back up as she couldn't push through the line of hyenas in front of her. She was backed up into a thin road, that twisted in circles. She watched her paws to make sure she didn't slip and fall again as she held off the oncoming hyena onslaught as best she could. They rapidly brought her farther and farther away from Simba.
The thin road became a large plateau as she realized that she was at the complete top of Pride Rock. "SIMBA!" she desperately screamed. There was nothing she could do. Out of necessity, she jumped on top of the hoard of blood thirsty hyenas.
At the sound of his mate's desperate plea, Simba's blood began to boil and he created a new definition for the term adrenaline. He bounded over several hyenas and made his way up the road that she had just traversed. At the top of the road he saw his lover beat up and bloodied on the floor, with hyenas continuing to slash at her already limp body.
"NO! STOP! GET OFF OF HER!"
He leaped and collided with the hyena on top of her. Instant karma was dealt as the hyena flew completely off of the top of Pride Rock.
"STOP IT YOU BASTARDS! WHAT'D SHE EVER DO TO YOU?"
He stood over her body and bit and clawed every hyena that attempted to attack her. She was his priority. He didn't even notice the rest of the hyenas, who were tearing his skin to pieces. Blood covered his eyes so he couldn't see, but he couldn't give up. Emotion filled his voice as he yelled out one more desperate plea, "I, love her!"
"STOP!"
Every hyena froze, and silence filled the scene. Dust rose into the air and drifted off into the distance. Scar stood at the mouth of the road that led to the plateau. He slowly made his way past his followers, and stood over the two mutilated bodies of the king and queen.
"Now, haven't I been lucky lately."
Simba bared his teeth at his uncle and quietly growled.
"You two are really dumb. You even surpassed my expectations. I would NEVER have thought that you would gift wrap yourselves so nicely for me. It's rather convenient."
Simba could only manage a whisper. "Why?"
"Excuse me?"
"Why do you do this? What do you have to gain?"
"Just like your father... Asking questions that you already know the answer to. You're a disgrace Simba." Scar brought his face to Simba's, and said, "You know, you could do a lot of good if you swore your allegiance to me. You're a powerful lion."
Simba roared in his face and Scar jumped back.
"Hpmh," he narrowed his eyebrows at Simba.
A cocky hyena jumped out in front of the croud. "I can finish them for you!
"No... Leave them to bleed to death. I want them to feel the pain that I felt my whole life." Scar turned his back on his nephew and daughter, and declined Pride Rock, followed by his hyenas.
The two lovers laid on their backs, and watched the stars. Nala felt around for Simba's paw, and when she found it, she grabbed hold of it, and didn't let go. A long silence followed, and was finally broken by Simba's steady voice.
"Ya know, I did this all for you." A rain drop hit him in the nose.
"I never cared about Pride Rock, or the Pridelands, or The Pride. Just you. I know it's selfish, but it's the truth." He gulped as he held back tears, which Nala let slowly fall down her cheeks.
"Every time you looked at me, every time you said my name, heck, every time I thought about you, I got this feeling. This incredible feeling... But it was never the feeling that mattered."
The tears broke through as he continued. "But... But when I saw you got bullied, it hurt me more than anything, ever. When you cried, it hurt me more than anything, ever. When you gave up on trying, it hurt me more than anything, ever. And I never wanted to feel that way again. So I wanted to do everything in my power to make you happy." Nala closed her eyes as the tears stung them, now cascading onto the rocky surface below her. "That's when I realized that nothing else mattered. That when all the other cubs wanted to be like me, it didn't matter. That when all the girl cubs flirted with me, it didn't matter. That I was getting the whole fucking kingdom! It didn't matter. You mattered, Nal'. You mattered." Simba sniffed.
"And I told myself, that no matter what happens, no matter what you do, or whatever anybody else does, I will always love you. And I always did. You, with your beautiful sapphire eyes. The eyes that I would stare into and just... Just take in all the different little details of. Your soft, warm paws, that would hold onto mine, and tell me that you're there for me. Your lips, that would take me places I never thought I could go, where everything is turned upside down, and where we're unstoppable. And you voice. Oh, your voice. The voice that confessed your love to me. The voice that convinced me that you felt the same way about me as I do about you. The voice that called out to me in need. Nal'. You're unbelievable, and if I haven't made you feel like the most special lioness ever, than I've failed my task."
"Oh Simba." Theirs paws were gripping each other so fiercely, that they had to relax them now, to recuperate their muscles. "You have no idea. *sniff* You have no idea how happy I am, how happy I've always been. You ARE my life. You gave me life, and kept giving it to me ever since. I'm so in love with you Simba, that most of the time, I don't even know what to do about it, and I do crazy stuff. *sniff* and I'll love you forever."
"Forever and ever."
More silence followed, but it didn't feel like it to Simba and Nala. They were so much in the presence of each other, that it felt like they were dancing, to the rhythm of the rain.
Nala weakly pointed to the sky with her free hand. "You see that really bright star up there?"
"Yeah.
"I think it's Mufasa."
Simba's mouth gaped.
"And the smaller star next to it is Sarabi, and that one near it is my mom."
"I..." He smiled. "Hi Mom, hey Dad."
"Hi Mommy."
"I miss you.
"We both miss you."
"But we'll be there soon. We'll see you again.
"And you can meet your granddaughter."
Silence followed as this realization hit them. Not only were they dying, so was their cub.
"Hey Nala, we need a name for her."
She responded without hesitation, "Amani, it means peace. Because it's not her time yet. But one day, she will come. One day, Scar, her grandfather, will be gone. Then, she may come. Then, she will rule the Pridelands, and govern all life. And she will rid the world of evil. But that time is not now."
Simba painfully twisted his body so he could see his wife. "That's beautiful."
Nala did the same. "Thanks. I put a lot of thought into it." They smiled at each other, then sang.
"We'll do it all,
everything,
on our own.
We don't need,
anything,
or anyone.
If I lay here,
if I just lay here,
would you lie with me and just forget the world?
I don't quite know,
how to say,
how I feel.
Those three words,
are said too much,
they're not enough.
If I lay here,
if I just lay here,
would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what were told,
before we get too old,
show me a garden that's burstin into life.
Let's waste time,
chasin cars,
around our heads.
I need your grace,
to remind me,
to find my own.
If I lay here,
if I just lay here,
would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what we're told,
before we get too old,
show me a garden that's burstin into life.
All that I am,
all that I ever was,
is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see.
I don't know where,
confused about how as well,
just know that these things will never change for us at all.
If I lay here,
if I just lay here,
would you lie with me and just forget the world?"
"Chasing Cars" - Snow Patrol