Simba's Pain Chapter 11
By Mr_Toast
Welcome back, everyone! So this chapter will be focusing on the cubs. So a lot of you are pointing out the Chumvi, Malka, and Tojo don't have a part in the story like Kula and Tama do. I'm aware of this, and I made it like that for a reason… So, I planned for chapter 11 to be the chapter where I would build their characters up a bit more, but decided to do it in this chapter. Also, not like this is a huge spoiler, but I'm also going to introduce Ariya in this chapter as well. Now as for what Mufasa has planned for Simba, that will be the topic of Chapter 12, 13, and then after that… well… who knows… Also, Mufasa's plan will have a little part in chapter 12 as well, but we'll just have to see how all that will play out. So with all that said and done, Enjoy!
Nala made it back to the cave in record time from Simba's Hideout. She entered the cave to see that things looked to be in order. Chumvi and Kula were talking in one corner, Tama and Malka were talking in another, Tojo was sleeping by himself, and Simba was also asleep in their usual corner.
Nala walked up to him and nudged him with her muzzle slightly. Simba opened his eyes and was met by Nala's concerned glare. Simba gave her a warm smile and was relieved when she replaced her worried glare with a smile of her own.
"Hey" Simba said in a tone just above a whisper. He heard Nala mumble something back to him, which sounded like 'hey', and made room for her to lie down next to him.
Wasting no time, Nala lied down next to Simba and started to place gentle kisses along his jawline, which he didn't seem to mind. Simba could tell that Nala was slightly nervous and acting strange right now. He knew that it had something to do with the talk with her mother, and prayed that she would start to show improvement soon.
Nala left herself relax, and rested her face into his chest. The first thing she smelt was Kula… meaning that from the time her mother pulled her aside, to the time she got back, he and Kula did something together, but she didn't mind… or at least didn't make it seem like she did.
In truth, she did care a little, but she was already walking on thin rock, so she didn't want to make a big deal about it. Simba could sense that Nala was smelling his fur, taking in Kula's scent, and was happy to see that she didn't make a big deal about it.
"So soft…" Nala muttered to herself as she snuggled into Simba even deeper. For some reason, this rainy season was lasting a lot longer than other, and right now it was around sixty degrees Fahrenheit. In just a week the temperature had dropped around dropped around twenty degrees Fahrenheit, So Simbas soft, warm, and comfortable fur was practically irresistible.
"Hmm?" Simba said, not having understood Nalas inaudible jibberish.
"So soft…" Nala said a little louder, pushing her face even deeper into his mane and fur. Simba smiled lightly and brought his chin down so it was on top of her head, and wrapped his arms around her, almost like he was tucking her in.
It was only a few hours past noon, and the two young lions had no idea as to how they were going to spend the rest of their day. Nala was fine just staying snuggled up against Simba, but knew that they should probably do something more productive.
"Simba?" Nala said, lifting her head so that she could look up at him. Simba moved his chin out of the way and looked down at her.
"Yea?" Simba replied.
"What do you want to do?" Nala asked.
Simba took a moment to think about it, but couldn't come up with any answers. It was one of those things where he would say he didn't know, then ask Nala, in which she would also say she had no idea as to what they should do, and they would both be back a square one again.
"Not sure, but seeing as you're asking me I'm going to assume that you don't have any ideas either" Simba responded, with a slight sigh at the end. Nala gave him a nervous smile, telling him that he was right.
"Well, we could always just walk around the pride lands and see if there something to do" Nala proposed, it a hopeful attempt to find something to do. For some reason, the two young lions felt as if there was absolutely nothing they could do, or if there something they could do, it sounded boring and like a waste of time.
"Yea, but it isn't really a good idea to just wander around the pride lands" Simba said. Even though the pride lands was the safest area around, it was still in Africa meaning that there were a lot of animals that could harm two young lions.
"Well… we could… uh… I don't know. Everything I'm thinking of seems lik-" Nala was saying before a loud and fierce snarl erupted in the air. Simba and Nala turned around to see that during their talk, everyone had moved around and Tama had pinned Tojo to the floor, snarling at him with one of her paws pressed up to his throat creating the sound of someone being choked.
Simba quickly got up to break the two up. Everyone was standing around them not want to get between Tama and Tojo. Unlike Simba, everyone saw Tama as hostile and aggressive. Someone not to be messed with, so no one dared to try and break them up.
"I-I'm Sor… sorry" Tojo wheezed out, trying to remove her paw from his throat so that he could freely breathe again. Tama deepened her glare, making it look as if she was set on killing him. Tojo tried to push her off, but due to the fact that she was choking him, he could barely make her budge.
"Tama, stop" Simba said trotting up to her and prying her off of him. Simba was able to pry her off of him and toss her to the side but was met with much resistance. Simba quickly turned around and caught her as she tried to make her way around him and continue to choke the life out of Tojo.
"Tama stop!" Simba said glaring aggressively into her eyes, scaring her a little. Tama stopped pushing against Simba and sat down, glaring towards Tojo who was in the process of getting back up and rubbing his throat.
"Now someone tell me what's going on here" Simba said, trying to gain control of the situation.
"Well, I was minding my own business when Tojo decided to come up to Malka and I and try to start a conversation. I told him to go away, and he didn't. This happened multiple times until he finally asked me why I always had to be so moody and cranky, and you know the rest" Tama said in a dark tone, still glaring at Tojo.
"I simply asked you why you were in such a bad mood. You didn't have to attack me you stupid crazy bitch" Tojo yelled back, with anger present in his voice as well. Tama felt a whole new level of anger rush through her. She lunged at Tojo with her claws unsheathed, ready to make him pay for what he said, but Simba caught her and threw her to the ground, before pinned her with one paw, and raised the other paw above his head with his own claws unsheathed as if he was going to kill her.
Tama looked up terrified at Simba. She felt his strength slowly starting to crush her, and the look in his eyes was the exact same look he gave her the first time he pinned her like this, the only difference was that this time he had a paw raised, ready to execute her.
"Don't... Do... That... Again…" Simba said in a low voice sending, even more, fear threw Tama's body. Simba quickly followed up by using his one arm to pull her to her feet and escort her out of the cave. "We'll be back" Simba said as he passed Nala.
Nala felt like she should go after them, try to see if there was anything she could do to help, but knew that Simba could handle this one on his own.
(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)
Simba and Tama had walked out of Pride Rock, just outside of earshot of the others. Tama looked into Simba's eyes and saw that he looked like he was angry. The feeling Tama had just felt was almost like the first time he pinned her, only way worse, and the only thing different was that she didn't tear up.
Simba quickly turned around and brought his arm up to stop Tama. He gave her a stern glare, telling her that he was clearly mad at her. Tama sat down submissively, crouching slightly as Simba seemed to tower over her. Tama knew the look in Simba's eyes well enough to know that something bad was about to happen.
Tama kept staring into Simbas glare before he sighed and let his head drop. She watched as he lifted his head back up and gave her a concerned glare, catching her completely off guard. Tama felt guilty upon seeing his look. She knew that she was the reason why he was wearing such a concerned glare.
"You just had to do it… Didn't you…" Simba said sounding disappointed. Tama had never heard Simba sound disappointed before, and felt a heavy feeling in her gut knowing that he was disappointed at her.
"Sorry…" Tama muttered, dropped her head. It wasn't like her to act like this. Normally, she would have taught whoever crossed her a lesson and left it at that, but this was the first time someone who had the ability to stop her had been there, and this person just happened to be her best friend.
"Sorry?" Simba said sounding confused and slightly mad. Tama realized that she must have done something wrong, but didn't know what. She would have expected that apologizing would have helped, but it didn't.
"Sorry… ey?" Simba said turning around. "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to" Simba said turning back around.
"You're scaring her"
Simba heard someone talk and looked around to see no one but them. He then realized that this voice only belonged to one person…
"I know" Simba called back.
"I suggest that you try something else" Sarabi called back.
"So why did you attack Tojo" Simba said in a soothing voice, surprising her once again. Right now Tama was unable to tell if he was angry, worried, or disappointed. It kind of seemed like was all of those.
"He… I wanted to be left alone, but he wouldn't leave me alone so I told him off, but then he started to ask questions and knowing Tojo he wasn't going to stop, so I guess I just attack him…" Tama muttered, hearing how bad her actions sounded as she said them out loud.
Tama heard Simba sigh. She looked up to see that he was no longer looking at her, and looked to be in deep thought.
"That isn't a reason to attack him, Tama. Just because he annoyed you doesn't give you the right to choke him" Simba said, resuming eye contact. Tama knew that she was in the wrong, and felt guilty for it, but still felt like that was her only option.
"Well, what could I have done" Tama asked. Fighting had been her solution for her entire life. Every time someone made her mad, or something didn't go her way, she would just fight someone to solve the issue.
"Walked away" Simba said with a blank face. "Look, I didn't drag you out here to give you a speech on how to act, so I'm heading back. Apologize to him and we'll leave it at that. Please try and control your anger next time" Simba said with a yawn, seeming to have completely dropped the subject they had just been talking about.
Tama watched as Simba climbed the hill back to Pride Rock. Tama sighed, knowing that she had messed up, before returning back to Pride Rock herself.
(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)
Malka was waiting just inside the den for Simba to return. He had observed that Tama had changed a lot in the past month or so, and was starting to wonder if there was something that was bothering her that he could maybe help her with. Malka gave Tama a smile as she walked back into the den, but she continued to keep on a stoic face, not returning the smile. Malka saw that she was walking towards him, but wasn't on a path where she would intersect him. He looked towards where she was walking and saw that she was approaching Tojo, who was still nursing his throat.
Malka moved a few steps over so that he stood in her path. Tama saw what Malka did and sighed. All she was trying to do was apologize to Tojo, but everyone assumed that she was going back for round two. The problem was that Tama was known to be a fighter, and never apologize unless it was something serious, and this wasn't.
"I'm trying to apologize to him" Tama said moving around Malka, be he took a step in the same directions and blocked her again. Even thought Malka and Tama were sorta like a couple, he still didn't know the side of Tama that Simba knew. The side he knew was aggressive and didn't apologize to people almost at all, or if she did, she didn't really mean it.
"Come on, let's be honest. You're not going over there to apologize to him" Malka said putting on an unamused look. Tama followed up by sweeping his arm up and twisting it so that he fell over and she could once again be on her way.
Tojo was nursing his throat when he noticed that Tama was coming back up to him. Probably to finish him off for good this time. He knew that he had no chance of outrunning her, so he waited for to get to him, hoping that if she attacks him again, Simba would be able to push her off like he did the first time.
"I came… I came to apologize" Tama said refusing to make eye contact. She already thought that it was humiliating that she was doing this, and now was starting to think why she even was apologizing in the first place, seeing as no one was forcing her to.
"Thanks" Tojo said, giving her a smile. He knew that she probably didn't want to give to an apology, but was surprised when she gave him a small smile in return. Tama nodded her head before turning back around to check on Malka, who was already back on his feet.
Malka tried to keep Tama in check, and he did, for the most part, but sometimes he got ahead of himself and he ended up paying for it. Malka and Tama were a lot like Simba and Nala, just without all the snuggling and kissing. They relied on each other and kept each other company throughout the day.
"How's your arm?" Tama asked as she went to check on Malka who didn't seem to have a limp or anything.
"Fine" Malka said with a nervous chuckle. He always tried to be the leader of the adolescents, so though it embarrassing that a lioness was able to do this to him. Back before Chumvis… secret… got out, Malka and Chumvi used to compete who was the alpha adolescent, but ever since his secret got out, he backed down and kept a real low profile.
"Sorry about that" Tama said, apologizing for the second time in the past few minutes. Malka gave her a smile and nodded his head, showing that he accepted her apology, after all, he was the one who was dumb enough to get under her skin.
"Hey, mind if I talk to Chumvi for a bit?" Malka asked. Tama glared upon hearing the name 'Chumvi'. She still hated him for what he had done, but she allowed herself to forgive him… or at least give him a second chance….
"Sure" Tama replied. Tama was actually thinking of using the last few hours of daylight to have a talk with Simba about his plans for the future, seeing as he passed the trials and would now become king.
"Thanks" Malka said giving her one last smile while turning around and making his way towards Chumvi and Kula. He knew that Chumvi bullied Simba when they were younger so he could become king, but he was still unclear as to why he was so devoted to becoming king that he would ruin someone's life over it. Malka knew deep down inside that there just had to be another reason as to why he went to such lengths to become king.
Malka made his way towards Chumvi and Kula and stopped and few feet in front of them. "Hey" Malka said he approached the two who looked to be resting. Both Chumvi and Kula lifted their heads and looked towards Malka upon hearing his voice. "Chumvi, mind if I talk with you for a few minutes if you're not too busy?" Malka asked.
Chumvi turned towards Kula and watched as she gave him a nod saying that it was ok. "Sure…" Chumvi said shyly before getting up. After his secret spread, he turned into a whole new cub. The bold, fun, outgoing Chumvi turned into the shy, boring, and wary Chumvi.
Malka gave Kula and appreciative nod before leading Chumvi outside of Pride Rock, and then up the side to the very top of Pride Rock, which was the highest point in all of the pride lands, besides for the mountains, and also gave them some privacy.
"Hey, Chumvi" Malka said casually. Chumvi nodded kinda awkwardly, not wanted to be the one to start the conversation.
"Ok, I'm just gonna be straight forward with ya" Malka started. "I wanna talk about you and Simba and all the bullying" He finished. Chumvi closed his eyes and sighed. This was the one thing he was praying that Malka wouldn't bring up.
"I… I have no excuse…" Chumvi said, thinking that Malka was mad at him and wanted to make him pay in some way. Malka was confused at first, wondering why Chumvi had said that, until he realized that he must have thought that he was angry.
"I'm not angry, or trying to make you feel bad about it, I just wanted to know why you did it" Malka said. Malka used to be great friends with Chumvi, but it seemed like that Chumvi was no longer around, and the truth was that no matter what Chumvi did in the past, Malka missed his friendship.
"As I said before, I did it because I wanted to become king" Chumvi said sounding guilty. Malka of course already knew this and knew that Chumvi wasn't that kind of person. It would take a truly demented person to do something like he did just to become king, so there had to be some other motive.
"I know that, But I know you well enough to know that you're not the kind of person who would do something like that just to become king…" Malka said. Chumvi sighed, not because he was trying to hide something, but because he was also asking himself this question to. The truth was that Chumvi didn't entirely know why he did what he did.
"I guess… I guess it just because I wanted to be cool. We used to always compete over who was the best and I thought that If I could be king, I would win" Chumvi said sighing. Chumvi had spent a lot of time thinking about it, and that was the conclusion he had to come to.
"You were already cool" Malka said with a slight frown. "And I never meant for it to be so competitive. I was just trying to have fun" Malka added. Their little drive for power was just meant to be a competition between two friends and was never intended to be taken so seriously.
"I know… I just felt… I don't know. I was just being dumb and wasn't thinking straight" Chumvi replied. Chumvi just wanted to be cool and thought that by becoming king everyone would think he was cool and seeing as the real prince wasn't around, Chumvi thought that it wouldn't be a big deal if Simba left and he tried to claim the throne.
"I don't why you did it either, but Simba forgives you, and I do too. Part of the reason I called you up here is to understand that we don't hate you. Or, at least I don't. I just want things to return to the way they used to" Malka said. Chumvi gave him a slight smile. It was reassuring to hear that Malka forgave him, but he still felt like he wasn't welcome.
"Thanks, and I'll try" Chumvi said. Malka wanted to keep asking questions on this topic, but new that Chumvi would just have to work it out over time. Malka didn't know what it was like to be Chumvi, or what he was going through, so he would just have to be patient and let Chumvi slowly recover.
Malka nodded his head before walking past Chumvi and back down to Pride Rock. Chumvi sighed when Malka was out of earshot. He was happy that Malka still saw him as a friend, but Nala and Tama still hated him, and that's what was keeping him down.
He had no idea how to win them back and didn't know if he ever could win them back. After a moment of thinking, Chumvi got up and made his way back down to Pride Rock as well, planning on how he was going to change so things could be as they once were.
(Meanwhile)
After Malka left to go talk to Chumvi, Tama started to walk towards Simba and Nala. Tama had a good idea that Nala wasn't going to like the idea of her borrowing Simba, but hopefully allowing her to tag along would make her tolerate it. Tama had no idea as to why Nala was so possessive of Simba. Tama didn't mind what Malka did, but then again, Simba and Nala were closer that She and Malka would ever be.
"Hey" Tama said as she stopped before Simba and Nala, who were still trying to decide on something to do. Simba and Nala looked up towards Tama upon hearing her voice, wondering if she would be the one to save them from this temporary state of boredom.
"Hey, Tama" Simba said. Nala nodded at Tama and Tama nodded back. Tama knew that Nala was probably wondering what she wanted, and was hoping that she would allow her to talk to Simba.
"Can we take a walk and talk about something Simba? You can to Nala if you want" Tama said trying her best to sound calm and level. Upon hearing this, Simba had a good idea that Nala would have some kind of objection to this, but was surprised when she said 'sure'. Tama was slightly tired but didn't think anything of it, as she planned to be back inside of an hour...
Tama gave Nala a smile and took a few steps back as the two got up. Tama turned around and started to make her way out of the den with Simba and Nala in tow. The three lions made their way down the hill that led up to Pride Rock and took a random trail and began walking down it. They had been walking for a long time in silence before Simba finally broke the silence and started the conversation.
"So what did you want to talk about?" Simba said as he increased his pace so that caught up to Tama. The only time Tama and Simba really ever talked was when one of them had a problem. They hadn't really just talked before without there being some problem.
"I just wanted to know what your plans for the future were. You passed the trials and what not but I'm wondering what your next steps to becoming king are?" Tama asked, hoping that he had some idea as to what would be next.
Simba took a moment to decide how he was going to tell her this. He wasn't trying and hide the truth, but the thing was that he was far from being done with his father and he didn't make her worry.
"Well… ok, so I know that I've completed the trials, but I know my father has something else planned. I don't have a way to definitively prove it, but I know my father well enough to know he has something else planned" Simba said, knowing that he would probably cause Tama to go on some rant.
"What! He can't do that! You passed all three trials so that means he can't do that, and even if he tries to we can stop him with some law or something" Tama said getting worked up. Simba knew that she would do that, and there really wasn't anything he could say to calm her down.
"Well, if he does there's not much we could probably do. He is the king…" Simba said. Tama hated when Simba said things like that. Instead of hoping and praying for a miracle, he was that one guy who listed everyone the statistics, showing them just how much they are screwed.
"Whatever. So what are you going to do in the future?" Tama asked, unsure if he had any plans for moving forward. Someone was going to have to teach him how to be a king and she could already rule out Mufasa.
"I don't know. Probably just do what I used to do" Simba said. Simba had never had both friends and free time before, so now that he had both, he had no idea as to what he was going to do with them.
"Being…" Tama asked having no clue as to what he used to so in his free time.
"Wander around the pride lands" Simba said. Tama gave him a confused look. Clearly, she had misunderstood him, because a cub would really have to have been a giant loser if all he had to do was wander around the pride lands...
"But that's not fun. Come on, I'll show you fun" Tama said a she got into pouncing position.
"Maybe later" Simba said with a smile. The truth was that for some reason he was tired and beat, and only wanted to take it easy or rest for the remainder of the day.
"Come on Simba" Nala chimed in, surprising both of them. Usually, all Nala ever did was support Simba when he was tired or upset, so what seemed like the first time in… ever… she was actually going against him and pushing him slightly.
"You ok Nala? You're acting… different than normal…" Tama said, surprised by her behavior. It seemed like she was talking to a whole new Nala.
"What do you mean?" Nala said laughing, earning an even more confused glance.
"Ok, I'm just gonna say it. Why aren't you acting jealous, or like… like Nala. You used to be so fun, but then got jealous, and now your back to being your old self. Don't get me wrong, I like this, but I'm just confused because it seemed like just this mourning you didn't trust me to be alone with him" Tama said, motioning towards Simba at the end.
Nala dropped her smile and replaced it with a slight frown. "I… I wanted to talk to you about that…" Nala said sound serious. Tama was now focused solely on Nala, she had been wondering about her behavior as of recently, and Nala might just be about ready to tell her. "At first I thought I was jealous… But as of recently… well… like an hour ago, I realized that I was guilty" Nala said, earning a confused look from both of them. "Look… when I was younger I partook in the joke making and laughing, and I still feel guilty about that. So from that guilt, I tried to protect him from you guys" Nala said.
Tama listens in fascination, but one thing was wrong. Nala only ever tried to chase away Tama and Kula, not the males… so was it real guilt… or just a cover-up.
"But why only kula and I?" Tama asked. Simba nodded upon hearing this. He was beyond thrilled that Nala might be changing, but it was a bit odd that she only chased the females away…
"Because you two are the only ones who spend time with him. I don't know if you've noticed, but Simba never spends time with Malka, Chumvi, or Tojo" Nala said. Tama thought about it and realized that Nala was right. It all started to make sense! She felt guilty and was just trying to protect Simba.
"Oh… you know what! Tomorrow, we should all get together and mess around in the pride lands" Tama said. It probably would be best for everyone if Simba spent more time with the males, seeing as he would most likely have to work with them one day if they weren't sent away by Mufasa.
"Sure" Nala said with a smile. Simba nodded along as well but was still too caught up in his thoughts to say anything. Nala just seemed jealous, not guilty, and those two emotions were the opposite of each other.
"Nala…" Simba said in a hurt voice, snapping both the females out of there happy trances and made them worry a bit.
"Yea?" Nala said, taking a few steps toward Simba.
"Tell me, and be honest. Are you, or are you not jealous of me being around Tama or Kula. You seemed so jealous… I can't… I can't believe that it was guilt all this time… it just seems… Impossible…" Simba said. He wanted to believe Nala and think that she was just guilty for her part in his past, but it just didn't make sense.
"I'm not" Nala said with a serious face. "Look, I know I used to sound jealous… but the truth was that I thought I was the only one capable of protecting you. When she slept with you that first time, I was mad because… Ok well that was the only time I was jealous, but I got over that pretty quickly" Nala said with a nervous chuckle, and Tama and Simba chuckled back. "But all the other times I feared that they would hurt you, and I thought that If I prevented you from being with them… I could prevent any further pain… but I only created more…" Nala said sound guilty. "I just thought that if there was no one around you, there would never be anyone to hurt you..." Nala finished.
"What about that lesson Kula gave me before the hyenas…" Simba said... "I heard you by the way… when you told her not to make any moves on me…" Simba said, starting to think that she may have been lying this entire time.
"I know this sounds like a load of crap… but… ok, I'll understand if you don't believe me on this one, but when I said 'Just don't make any moves on Simba', I meant for her not to try and change you… because… I kind of like how you were back then. You were really shy and cute" Nala said with a nervous chuckle.
"She's right Simba… you kinda were cute" Tama said nudging him with her elbow.
"But that doesn't make any sense. You made it sound like you were talking about her flirting with me…" Simba said
"She didn't let me finish before she cut me off by shushing me. I was going to say 'Thanks, It's just that-'s not what I meant, I mean don't try and turn him into someone he's not'..." Nala said with a nervous chuckle. This was the truth, but right knows the truth sounded like bull crap.
"But she said you were glaring at her…" Simba said. "I do believe you, but some parts aren't adding up and I'm just trying to get the big picture" Simba added.
"I was mad, and I talked to her about it. I might have been a bit jealous or just mad, but she was acting as if she knew you and like you were best friends… and I didn't like how she was acting. You looked scared and nervous, and I love Kula to death but sometimes she just misses those cues… She was being way too upfront with you and trying to turn you into a new lion in a day" Nala said dropping her head a little.
"It's true Simba… Sometimes she does miss those cues" Tama said, stepping into vouch for Nala.
"But what about all those times you were like 'Now that Kula and Tama are gone, I get my turn to nuzzle you'" Simba asked, wondering why she would have said that if she wasn't jealous. He wasn't mad or against her right now, he was only confused and wanted clear answers.
"Because I love you and wanted some time with my favorite lion in the world. And when I said Tama had a foul scent, I know for sure that Tama works Kula and my scent out of Malka each night" Nala said turning towards Tama, and Tama gave both Simba and Tama a nervous smile, because it was true. "And the time I wanted to take you to Rafiki to get your paw looked at, I was a little jealous, but only because I had been worrying about you, and… I wanted Malka, Tojo, and Chumvi to go with you because… Yea, I was jealous… The day I got mad at you for ignoring me when you were running around the pride lands, I was just mad and being dumb… That time I hit… I hit my little brother I was mad and I did apologize about that. So the only times I ever got jealous, or like seriously jealous was when She slept with you, and Kula and Tama got to take you to Rafiki's" Nala said listing out all the time she remembers getting mad or jealous, or any other times she could think of that would look suspicious.
Simba stood there, looking at her as if she was a completely new lioness. Simba let a smile come to his face and watched as one made its way towards her face.
"I can't believe this" Simba said in a happy voice but stopped when he saw that Nala hung her head low. "No, I mean like I do believe you, it's just that I'm so happy right now. All this time I thought you were being possessive over me, and that one day it would cause some conflict and damage all of us… But this… This changes everything!" Simba said, truly happy for the first time in a long time and flung himself towards Nala, wrapping her into a hug as they fell over.
Nala was surprised by Simba's sudden actions, and it took her a few seconds to realize what was going on. Nala hugged Simba back, before pushing him off of her to get back up. "Easy there" Nala said with a chuckle, before turning around and helping him back up. Normally she would return his playful gesture, as not even five minutes ago she was trying to encourage it, but all of a sudden she was feeling tired and ready to turn in for the day.
"Sorry, just got excited" Simba said as he got back up, thinking over and over again about how all this time she wasn't really jealous. Well… at times she was, but for the most part, she was just guilty.
"Well, I'm going to turn in for the night, even though it isn't even sunset" Nala said. It had been a stressful week for Nala, but things started to look up. Without another word Nala started to head back to Pride Rock to get some early sleep.
"That was… interesting…" Tama said, quietly watching the two from the side. Simba was slightly startled by this and looked over to see that Tama was walking up to him, and then sat down next to him. Simba had forgotten that Tama was sitting there, due to the fact that he was in the middle of having a huge weight relieved for his shoulders.
"What was?" Simba asked, wondering if she was talking about Nala's confession, or him getting excited and tackling Nala.
"Nala telling us that she wasn't jealous all this time, and being able to prove it…" Tama said, sounding like she was in disbelief. Simba had to agree with her. There was no denying that she wasn't jealous at times, but to be told that it was mostly from guilt almost seemed impossible.
"Yea… All this time I was thinking that she thought you would try and take me away from her" Simba said, and looked over to see that Tama was giving him a surprised look. "What?" Simba said, not knowing why she was giving him such a surprised look.
"Nothing… it's just that I thought with me being with Malka that would kinda… eliminate me, ya know?" Tama said not understanding why Simba thought that.
"Well… I don't know how to say this…" Simba said scratching his head. He knew what he wanted to say, but was having trouble on how to word it. "Lionesses have this thing with each other. Almost like… Uhh… Well, basically Nala is always trying to prove to me that she's the girl for me, and always giving me more reasons why we're meant to be together" Simba said, not having a clue as to how females worked.
Upon hearing this Tama chuckled a bit. "She's just giving you more reasons to love her. If Nala stayed the same and never changed, she would get boring after a while" Tama said. Simba thought about what Tama said, and concluded that it kinda made sense, but he wasn't going to fry himself over trying to figure out females… something that was impossible… So decided to ask the female next to him.
"So she was fearing that I would get bored and leave her?" Simba asked. Tama sighed, realizing that Simba wasn't understanding anything she was saying right now and was going to have to lecture him on how females worked.
"Well… yes and no. So basically what's happening is that she is always trying to impress you and get you to notice her. Everyone does this, both male and females. So what's happening is that if you get bored of her, you'll start to peel away from her and set your sights on someone else" Tama replied, hoping that he would get the point.
"But I would never leave her" Simba said. Tama was now starting to get slightly irritated. She was putting this in as simplest terms as it could possibly be put in, yet he was still failing to understand.
"Yes, but she doesn't know that. Look it's just something we lionesses do, and you don't have to understand it. Ok?" Tama said in a somewhat hostile tone. Tama might make an exception with Simba, and let most of her feelings show, but even sometimes Simba would starting picking at her bad side, and it also didn't help that she was beginning to feel tired.
"Sorry" Simba muttered looking away towards the right.
Tama mentally cursed herself. Tama didn't understand why, but Simba had this way of almost controlling her emotions, and what messed with her, even more, was that he didn't even know he possed this ability. Tama now felt guilty that she made Simba feel bad. Normally, she just wouldn't care if she hurt someone else's feelings like this. It would have been their fault for irritating her, and all she did was raise her voice, nothing too serious. But she felt a lot of sympathy for Simba and didn't like to see him look hurt.
"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten irritated" Tama said. On the plus side, ever since she had met Simba, her attitude had improved greatly and she was no longer as hostile and aggressive. Part of the problem was that she never had anyone she could let her feelings out in front of before, so all that emotion built up into one place was an explosion waiting to happen, so now that she had a person she could trust and had a way to release her emotions from time to time, she was a lot less hostile.
"You've changed" Simba said looking back left towards Tama. Tama knew they had all changed a lot since they've met Simba, yet she had probably changed the least… so she thought.
"How so?" Tama asked, starting to feel even more tired and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Well… When I first met you I thought that you were a bad person. Not like evil or anything, but one of those kinds of people that just didn't care about people by the way the talked and acted, If that makes sense. But now I realize that you care a lot, and not only about me, but you're starting to care a lot about other people" Simba said.
Tama yawned loudly and took a moment to think about what he had said. She guessed that he was right, but she didn't really remember a lot on how she used to act compared to now. "Who knows" Tama said closing her eyes, struggling to stay awake, too tired to think anymore.
"Want to head back and get some sleep?" Simba asked. All he felt was her nodding on his shoulder similar to as if it was light nuzzle. There was only one problem. They had walked for a long time and were a good ways away from Pride Rock, and Tama was already about to fall asleep.
It was starting to drop to around forty degrees now that the sun was about to set. Some of the oldest animals in the pride lands would tell stories of were a rare natural phenomenon would occur, causing the temperature to drop so low to where water would freeze. Seeing as they lived in Africa, this almost never occurred, but anything with a chance greater than zero percent was bound to happen.
Walking back to Pride Rock would take around thirty minutes. His hideout was about half that distance, but it was far too cold and they would want to stay in a cave where it would be warmer, and the cave they used during the storms was on the other side of the pride lands, so that would take over an hour to reach by walking, and Simba knew that Tama would be far too tired to run.
Upon thinking about Tama, Simba looked back down at his shoulder to see that she had already fallen asleep leaned up against his shoulder. "Tama…" Simba said gently, shaking his shoulder slightly as to wake her up, but not startle her. "Tama…" Simba said a little louder but got no response. "Great…" Simba said. Half of him wanted to wake her up, but Simba wasn't that kind of person. He was almost too nice to the point where he would screw himself over just to make other people happy.
Simba lied down gently, making sure that Tama didn't slide off his shoulder, and let her fall on top of him. Simba slowly managed to get her right arm and leg to fall over his other side, and gently began to stand back up, carrying her on his back with her legs draped over his body, exactly how he carried Kula when she was tired during the storm.
Now came the hard part… Simba began his 'thirty' minute walk back to Pride Rock, but he soon realized that it would take him over an hour. It wasn't that Tama was too heavy or anything, it's just that he didn't want to wake her up, so he decided to walk extra slow and smooth. Simba knew that Sarafina was probably out looking for them, seeing as it was now after sunset and beginning to get dark out… assuming she hadn't already been watching them before.
Simba had been carrying Tama on his back without waking her up for around ten minutes now when he heard rustling in the bush around fifteen yards away from him. "Aunty?" Simba asked, wondering if that had been Sarafina. Simba watched as the bush remained completely still. The grass and plants around it were moving in the wind, but the bush wasn't…
Simba knew that someone… or something… was in that bush, causing it to stand still in the wind, and continued on, but now on high alert. Simba heard some more… unusual sounds, and could tell that something as following him.
Simba understood that they look like an easy target. Two cubs far away from Pride Rock, both looked tired, after sunset, so nice and dark to where people could slip by, and his stalkers could also think that Tama may be injured due to the way he is carrying her. Simba knew that Tama and Nala wanted to have a fun day tomorrow, but he was starting to fear that that would soon no longer be an option.
Simba saw that the path in front of him was straight and clear so closed his eyes and focused his hearing…
"Are you sure about this? What if he's on to us?"
"Don't be stupid, he's just a cub. Plus the one on his back looks half dead anyway. There's no way he knows we're here"
"That's a big cub… think it's red mane?"
"Who?"
"Red mane. The lion that took out five of our best hyenas, and sent the boss and that other guy running for the hills. They say he's new around here."
"Pfff he's just a myth. Those fur brains probably just ran into a buffalo or something"
"I don't think so. They say it was a lion all right. Eight hundred pounds and six feet tall"
"You ever heard of an eight hundred pound lion that's six feet tall?"
"No"
"Exactly, Because they don't exist. Plus this is just a kid. Even if 'red mane' exists, he's nowhere to be found"
"Will you two shut up"
"Sorry Jasen"
"Jasen is right, stuff it you two"
"Sorry"
"Now how should we do this?"
"Jason and I will flank him from the right, you two flank him from the left. Won't even know what hit him"
"Ok, let's go"
Simba opened his eyes back up. He knew those voices belonged to hyenas, and that they wanted to attack Tama and him. Simba watched from his peripheral vision and something went from the corner of his left eye, out of his vision behind him, and then back into his right before entering the bush.
"Telling you guys now, you got the wrong two lions!" Simba shouting to them, waking up Tama in the process.
"Hmm… what?" Tama said waking up, then shot up realizing that Simba was carrying her since she had fallen asleep. Simba let Tama roll off his back and helped stabilize.
"Were about to be ambushed by at least four hyenas" Simba shouted again, telling the hyenas that he could hear them, and that he knew they were following him. Tama was now fully awake once again and got into a defensive stance. She was looking around for any sign that something was around them, but it was completely silent and nothing was out of the ordinary.
"Well well well… a lion cub who strayed too far from the pride..." A hyena said as he came out of the bush next in front of them. Simba saw another hyena come out from the bush beside him and heard the other two exit the bush behind him.
"You should have seen the last guy who said that to him," Tama said with a chuckle, recalling that those were the exact same words the leader of the last pack used before he got annihilated by Simba.
"Shut up!" The hyena said, expecting that the two lions would jump back in fear as he tried to use the most intimidating voice he had but was angered when he saw that they looked at him like he was nothing. "Ain't you scared of me cubs!?"
"First, Shut up. Your voice is annoying. Secondly, No. I'm not going to be scared of something that I'm faster than, stronger than, smarter than, and bigger than" Simba said, trying his best to make the hyena mad.
The hyena snarled loudly and marched up to Simba. "Last warning kid, shut it…" He said in a low voice, in another attempt to scare Simba.
"Make me" Simba smirked. Tama watched as Simba seemed to be acting differently. Tama knew the despite Simbas strength, and ability to fight, he was a very passive person, so it was almost like a whole new Simba was showing.
"That's it. You asked for it!" The hyenas said as he raised his paw and formed a fist, hurling it towards Simba. Simba quickly caught his paw and held on with a firm grip, not applying any extra force. The hyena quickly followed up by striking him in the head but had no effect on him at all.
The hyena tried to rip his paw away from Simba's grasp and back to his own body but found it to be like he was trying to pull his paw out from under a two-ton rock. "Let go right now or so help me I'll-" "Enough" Simba said, crushing the hyena's paw with his grip. The sounds the followed next were bones crackling, and screams of pain…
Simba only cracked the bones in his paw, not having the forearm strength to break his paw completely just with his grasp, but gave him a nasty fracture nonetheless.
"Right now you're in the pride lands… my home. Which means I could beat the shit out of you and legally get away it" Simba said getting up into his face. "So I'm going to give you this chance now, while your paw in still attached to your body, to walk away" Simba said now crushing down on the hyena's paw with all his force.
"Ahhh… Y-yea r-right away" The hyena said between painful breaths. Simba tossed the hyena towards the two behind him and caught a glimpse of there facial expressions before impact, and knew that he was going to be successful in scaring them off.
The two hyenas quickly took off, with the other doing a half limp, half run behind them, leaving their companion behind.
Simba turned back around and saw that the one hyena was still standing at there, and decided it was time he went too.
"Name's Simba. Not Red Mane. Now get" Simba said, and watched at the hyena bolted off in the direction of his companions, and would probably be the last time he thought of returning to the pride lands for a while. Simba had concluded that 'Red Mane' was what the hyenas who he encountered before had nicknamed him, and had just greatly over exaggerated him.
Tama stared at Simba in udder disbelief as he had been able to handle that situation entirely by himself, and just like the first time he set them running for the hills. Simba turned around and met Tama's gaze. "Come on" Simba said as he turned back around and started to head back to Pride Rock.
Tama wanted to ask him a bunch of questions as to how he was able to do all of that and how he did that wrist/paw thing, yet knew that he would most likely not want to talk about it right now.
It wasn't long before Tama felt the adrenaline start to leave her body, and began to feel tired again. She was tired during the whole ordeal, yet the situation called for her body to muster some quick energy.
Simba noticed that Tama was starting to fall behind, and saw that she was walking with her close, and looked like she was barely able to keep her self up off the ground. "Want me to carry you?" Simba offered, seeing how tired his friend was.
"No… I'm… Fine" Tama said in between yawns, not wanting Simba to carry her. Tama knew that Simba was trying to be helpful, but felt bad knowing that Simba was going to have to waste his time and energy on her.
Tama felt herself walking into something, and before she knew it she was back on top of Simba's back with her legs draped over the side, just like she had been before. Tama opened her eyes barely to see that despite her request, Simba was now carrying her once again. Tama would have normally protested, but she was far too tired and let herself fall asleep within a matter of seconds.
Simba had his sights set on Pride Rock, and upon getting closer, he saw two figures sitting at the tip. One was a full-grown lioness, and it looked like a slightly younger and similar lioness was projected next to her. It didn't take Simba long to realize that it was just Nala and her mother waiting for them to return. Simba looked up at the sky and saw the stars had shifted a lot since sunset, and knew they had stayed out at least an hour by now.
Simba continued walking with Tama on his back, just starting to feel his legs grow tired. Simba knew that all his hard work and training were paying off right now and that the would not have been able to carry Tama like this if he hadn't decided to began intensely working out at a younger age. Simba looked back up and saw that it was just a few more minutes, and he would soon be reunited with the most beautiful lioness in the world, and her angry mother.
Simba could barely see Sarafina's expression but could make out it was anything but a smile. He knew that she was going to be mad for him staying out so late. Nighttime was a dangerous time of the day for young animals to stay out, and running into those four hyenas was just more proof.
After a few more minutes, Simba was now walking up the hill the lead up to Pride Rock, and onto the stone that protruded out into the Pride Lands. Sarafina and Nala made their way down from the tip of Pride Rock and greeted Simba, and check on Tama and were relieved to see she was only sleeping.
Sarafina gave Simba the stink eye but dropped it seeing as he had returned with Tama safely. Normally, Sarafina would be mad at the cubs if anyone one of them stayed out like this, but she made a slight exception for Simba. She was confident in Simba's ability to protect the others, as well as keeping them alive for an extended period of time. His second trial was proof enough for this.
Simba entered the cave and looked around trying to find Malka so that he could drop Tama off and get some sleep himself. He knew that Tama and Nala wanted to do something involving everyone tomorrow, so he wanted to get as much sleep as possible for that.
He finally found him, but there was one problem. Chumvi, Malka, Tojo, and Kula had formed a giant pile in the far right corner of the den as to save precious heat. In was now cold enough to see your own breath as it had been night for over an hour now, and they were just trying to save as much heat as possible.
Simba didn't want to just drop Tama off and wake everybody up like a jerk, so started to brainstorm how he was going to get to Malka, who of course, had to be at the bottom of the pile…
"Simba? Everything alright?" Nala whispered as she walked up to him and nuzzle into his check and the crook of his neck, seeing that he was in deep thought and had just stopped all of a sudden.
"Huh… Oh, Yea. Just thinking about what we should do with Tama" Simba whispered back. Nala looked towards the pile and just thought it would be simple enough to lie her down there, but then realized that that would wake them up, and then leave her with four moody lions.
"Come on, she can stay with us" Nala said, placing a kiss on his jawline before making his way towards there usually corner in the far left. Sarafina walked up beside Simba and gave him a confused glance, in which Simba returned.
Sarafina gave Nala her serious talk today, and it seemed like she had already changed and seemed completely fine by now. Tama muttered some inaudible in her sleep bringing both Simba and Sarafina back to looking at each other.
"Hopefully it lasts" Simba whispered with a smile. Sarafina gave him a dull smile in return, before turning around and going back to wrap her youngest, Mheetu, into a hug to keep him warm throughout the night.
Simba walked over to where Nala was, and gently set Tama on the ground, but accidentally woke her up. Tama opened her eyes to see Simba giving her an apologetic smile, and was about to return to sleep when she saw that the left side of his forehead and temple were covered in blood.
"Simba you're bleeding" Tama said, getting up and checking his head over. Nala heard something about blood and began to investigate too, and saw that Simba had a tiny cut on his forehead that had already clotted and look to be a few minutes old.
"How did this happen?" Nala asked as she ran her paw over it before she guided his head down with her paw and began to start licking his wound to clean it. Simba looked up at Tama, wanting to know if he should tell her about the encounter with the hyenas and saw that she started to nod, telling him it was best if he told the truth on this one.
"Hyenas" Simba said. SImba realized that the strike the Hyena delivered to his skull didn't do that much damage to him at that moment, but still left its mark.
Nala finished cleaning his cut, and then gave him a very emotional look in the eyes. Nala hated that Simba was always hurting himself, or getting into danger. It seemed like every day he would come back to the den at night with one more battle scar than when he left, and Nala was beginning to get fed up with it.
Nala was tired and had been waiting for over an hour for them to get back, so she was ready for bed and done with arguing.
"We'll talk in the mourning" Nala said, giving him a small peck on the lips before lying down. Simba followed her lead and lied down next to her, before wrapping her into a hug. Nala turned around so that she could rest her face in his chest, mane, and neck. Over the time Nala has spent nuzzling and sleeping with Simba, she had concluded that his chest, mane, and neck were the softest places, and couldn't wait to know how his mane would be when it was full grown. So big… so lush… and soft…
Tama lied down behind Simba and pressed up against his back, however, most of her body was still exposed and she began to shiver slightly.
"Lay on top of me" Simba whispered when he began to fell Tama shiver. Tama took his advice and began to plan out how she was going to do this. Simba was lying on his right side, and Nala was a few inches to his left in some spots. Tama carefully laid down on top of him and placed her legs between Nala and his body making sure she didn't kick anyone.
Tama rested the side of her face and the side of his neck where his mane was beginning to grow in and found it to be unbelievable soft. Tama felt so comfortable during that moment, and wished she could do this more often, but knew that it would be weird if she stayed with him almost every night.
Tama closed her eyes after feeling the urge to sleep return, and it wasn't a few seconds later until she was finally able to go to sleep for good this time…
(TLKTLKTLKTLKTLK)
Simba woke up with a slow start the next morning. He attempted to lift his head up so he could look outside of the cave and tell what time it was but felt something weighing him down. He was able to see out of the corner of his eye that Tama was using his neck as a pillow and that he was going to have to lie around until she woke up.
"You're awfully selfless… You know"
Simba had closed his eyes, but upon hearing a voice he reopened them and then realized that it was only his mother.
"What do you mean by that?" Simba said back, wondering what Sarabi meant when she said he was awfully selfless.
"You could wake them up. Use your superior strength and size to force them to move, but you don't… You wait patiently for them to wake up" Sarabi called back.
"I could, but then again I could just wait for them to wake up and everyone would remain happy" Simba replied, not wanting to have to talk about him being stronger or faster and all that other crap.
"Suit yourself…" Sarabi said back.
Simba waited… and waited… and waited… until it had been some time and he didn't hear anything back.
"Mom?" Simba called back.
"Yes?" Sarabi replied.
"I... I miss you. Even though I never met you" Simba said, sighing.
"I know. I miss you too. But one day, many years from now, we will reunite and have nothing to worry about" Sarabi said. Simba realized that she was talking about the day he would die, and transcend into the heavens. "But until then, this is the best I can do" Sarbi finished.
"It's more than enough" Simba replied with a smile. Unlike Simba, Sarabi could actually see Simba right now. Simba found it a little weird to talk to her without seeing her facial expression or body, having no way to know her mood besides her tone.
Simba waited, but never heard anything back. He knew that his talk with her must have expired. Simba allowed his eyes to close as he attempted to get more shut-eye while he allowed Tama to wake up on her own.
Simba reopened his eyes, not having felt tired, and looked over to where Malka, Chumvi, and Tojo had all been previously and saw that only Kula remained, who was wide awake and staring at him. Simba raised his eyes brows once to tell her that he saw her, and Kula got up and started to make her way over to them.
"Mourning" Kula muttered, trying to find a space near Simba so she could talk to him. Kula sat in front of him and positioned herself so that she could talk to him eye to eye.
"Hey. Where's Malka, Chumvi, and Tojo?" Simba asked.
"Out doing boy stuff. Something about seeing who can lift the most weight" Kula said, rolling her eyes at how boys found the dumbest things to compete over.
"Why's that?" Simba asked, having no idea as to why they were always competing to see who was the stronger, fastest, and leanest out of the three.
"I don't know. You're a boy, tell me" Kula said back, wondering why he asked such a dumb question. Then it occurred to her. Simba didn't know what it was like to be a normal male. It's why he let Nala get away with everything and doesn't ever try to act tuff or cool.
"Well…" Kula started, thinking about why males did what they did. "Ok, Well Malka thinks he is the leader. Out of all of us. Even thought Chumvi is a little bigger than him, Malka has a decent sized ego. Chumvi… he used to be bolder… but now he isn't as bold as he used to be, but he's making progress. Tojo just wants to have his veins bulge out. Right now I guess they're just having a competition to see who is the best." Kula said, trying to decide each of the males to him.
Simba carefully shifted Tama off of him, abandoning his plan to stay with her until she woke him, and broke his protective hold of Nala and got up without waking either of them. Simba started to walk away from the two with Kula and tow and noticed that they were the only four lions in the cave.
"Wow…" Kula said randomly.
Simba looked over his shoulder to see that Kula was staring at his arm like something was wrong with it. "What?' Simba asked, checking his arm out to make sure nothing was wrong with it. Kula approached Simba and took hold of his arm.
"Flex" Kula commanded.
"What?" Simba replied, not knowing why she was asking him to flex.
"Just flex your arm Simba" Kula said. Normally, anytime she asked a male her age to flex, they just couldn't wait to show off their muscles to her, so she was just trying to work around Simba's curious and cautious mindset.
Without another word, Simba flexes his arm to the best of his ability, still wondering why she was asking him to do this and saw a completely normal arm… so he thought.
Kula stared in disbelief... Simba was the cub Malka, Chumvi, and Tojo all dreamt they could be. He had the muscle, the veins, and the small little scars every few inches. Kula started to move her paw around his arm, running it over each vein and getting a feeling of what they felt like. She moved her paw further up his arm an started feeling over his cephalic vein, biceps, triceps, and deltoids.
"Holy…" Kula muttered, catching Simba's attention.
"What?" Simba asked. Simba had never had someone take ahold of his arm and just stare at it like it was something sacred or godlike, and was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with him.
"It's just I've never seen anything like this. You're just… I-I can even begin to describe it. Every muscle, every vein, and every tendon… all visible… all there" Kula said with an amazing smile. Simba wondered why she was glorifying his muscularity and vascularity, seeing as they all had the same muscles and veins, just that he showed a lot, lot more.
"Thanks?" Simba said. Kula put his arm down, and then just sat in front of him with an unreadable face. Without any warning or gestures, Kula slammed her paw into Simba's chest as hard as she could, attempting to see if she had the strength to inflict any damage on his near-impenetrable layer of muscle.
Simba was started and begin to think that he had done something wrong for her to attack him like that, and scurried back away as to not cause any more problems. The punch hurt, but Kula had terrible form so she didn't end up punching him that hard, so it just surprised him more than hurt him.
Kula on the other hand… Kula felt like she had just punched the cave wall. "Wow… Ok" Kula said shaking her paw in the air and laughing. "Mental note, Don't punch a muscular lion" Kula said smiling towards Simba.
"What was that?" Simba asked walking up to her, now realizing that he didn't do anything wrong and that she had just punched him for fun.
"I wanted to see how strong your chest was… and judging by the pain in my paw… I'd say really strong" Kula said, taking a step forward and wrapping her arms around his neck and put her face next to his.
"Try and stand your ground" Kula said. WIthout a response, Kula pushed off the ground with all the force she had but barely made Simba budge. She repeated this a few more times with no success. She only ended up making him take a step back, and for the most part she was only successful at making him lean back.
"Holy" Kula said unwrapping her arms from his neck and taking a step back. "I think you should be our new leader" Kula said with a smile. The fact that she did more damage to herself than him when she punched him, and not being able to move him at all made her confident that he could easily become the new leader of their group.
"No thanks" Simba said. Simba didn't believe that he should become the leader just because he was strong. Kula was surprised by him turning down the offer of a leadership role, as male lions were always thirsty for power, but shrugged it off as she was talking about Simba, the weirdest lion she knew.
"Well, thanks anyway" Kula said, giving him a nuzzle as she departed to wake her friends up. Simba barely had enough time to return her nuzzle with a pathetic little nuzzle of his own.
Simba watched as she walked away and then looked out towards the pride lands. He started to walk towards the tip of Pride Rock, and the second he took a step outside he felt the freezing temperature bite his skin. Surprisingly, it was quite warm and comfortable inside Pride Rock, but just outside of the den it had to be at least thirty degrees colder.
Simba walked to the tip of Pride Rock and sat down, looking out towards the Pride Lands. It was a quiet mourning. The unusually cold weather caused all the animals to go dormant. Normally, the pride lands would be jumping with life at this time, but right now there wasn't a soul to be seen.
Simba took this time to study something that Kula said about him. He looked down at his arms to see a complex network of veins running up them, being pushed to the surface by the muscle and started to wonder if everyone was like this. He made a mental note to see if any of the other males were the same, or if he really was as god-like as everyone makes him out to be.
Simba looked back out towards the pride lands. Simba didn't like the sight of not seeing any activity at this time of day, and it made him feel a little uncomfortable. Simba looked out towards his hideout and just stared at it. He spent almost his entire life in that place, and now it seemed like he was almost never there at all.
"You ok?" A voice said from behind Simba. Simba turned around and saw that Nala was making her way towards him, probably wondering why he was standing in the near-freezing temperature.
"No" Simba replied and then looked back out towards the pride lands. For some reason, Simba didn't feel ok, and what bothered him was that he didn't even know what was wrong. He was just sitting there with a heavy feeling in his gut, not knowing how to get rid of it.
"What's wrong?" Nala asked as she sat down beside him, and rested her head on his shoulder. She knew that he probably wouldn't give her a straight answer if he even gave her one at all, but she decided to try anyway.
"I don't know. Honestly. I just feel… sick, tired, worn-down" Simba replied, sighing as the felt the weight in his gut start to grow slowly.
"Maybe you should get some rest" Nala proposed, concerned for him. She always wanted to help Simba in any way she could, but it always seemed like she had no way of helping him, because she had no idea as to what was wrong.
"I… what now…" Simba muttered, turning his head so that he was starting at Nala who was resting her head on his shoulder.
"What do you mean?" Nala asked, looking into his eyes and seeing pure pain.
"I… I don't know how to say this… but… I've just never, not had trouble. Every second of my life was a struggle and a non-stop grind for survival. I was the only one there to look after myself and I spent everyday beating myself up thinking that I was defective. All I'm trying to say is that all this new stuff, the friends, endless food, the… basic things all of you guys had that I didn't, I'm just not used to. I've only ever known pain Nala. That was who I was. And now… Now I don't know who I am…" Simba said breaking the eye contact and looking back out towards the savannah. Simba didn't know why, but it was almost like he preferred his daily struggles as a cub. Near the end of his dark days, it was just a rhythm and no longer trouble, so he got used to it. Now… now he had no idea as to who or what he was, and could only ever think about who he was and what he was.
"J-just give it some time" Nala said in disbelief. At that moment Nala was terrified. She was scared that Simba liked his old life more than his new life, and she wasn't in his old life…
"I love you… Always have and always will" Simba said as he placed a gentle kiss on her lips. Nala was about to return the kiss when he broke away and turned around. Nala quickly got up and trotted up beside him. She didn't really trust him right now to make the right choice and wanted to make sure that he was going to be ok.
"How about we just spend the day off? Just the two of us?" Nala said with a smile. She did want to hang out with her other friends today, but she was more concerned about Simba.
"Um… well… you should hang out with the others. You guys haven't done anything together for a while, and I kinda want some alone time to myself" Simba said giving her a smile, making it look like he wasn't completing shooting her down.
Nala gave him a suspicious look, which Simba noticed immediately. "I promise I'll stay in Pride Rock the entire time, and be in our usual spot when you return" Simba said with a smile as he nuzzled up into Nala.
Whether it was the nuzzle, or his reassuring words, Nala gave in to his requests and began to nuzzle him back. Nala wished that he would nuzzle him back more often. She was usually always doing the nuzzling while he just stayed stationary, reminding herself that she still needed to teach him how to nuzzle… or at least make sure he knew to repay the favor.
A few minutes later, Simba and Naa walked back into the cave were Tama and Kula had been waiting. Tama and Kula had seen their little moment and gave them smug grins on their way in. Simba acknowledged their grins but didn't make anything out of it.
"So what are we gonna do today?" Kula asked as she sat up.
"We were planning on doing something we haven't done in a long time. Hang out as a giant group" Tama said. It had been a little over a month since all the adolescents had done something fun together, and today both Tama and Nala felt like they should do it for old time sakes.
"We haven't done that in… uhh… a long time" Kula said, not being able to remember the exact time they all hung out together.
"Where do you think the boys are?" Nala asked.
"Somewhere" Kula replied.
"Either the spot they used to hang out at when they were cubs, or near the waterhole" Tama said.
"Well it's like really cold outside, so I don't wanna be walking around the pride lands all day looking for them" Kula said, not liking the idea of having to spend all day in the cold looking for her friends.
"It'll be fine" Tama said. It was cold, but it wasn't like they were going to freeze to death by staying outside for an hour.
"Hello, ladies, couldn't help but overhear the fact that you were looking for us" Malka said as he walked into the den with his chest puffed out and his head held high. Chumvi and Tojo were both behind him but weren't acting anywhere near as strange as he was.
"Yea..." Tama said, not really knowing how to respond to what Malka had said. Her first reaction was to laugh but knew that would only cause him to get worked up.
"Well worry no more. A real man has arrived" Malka said.
Nala, Tama, and Kula all started to giggle upon hearing him call himself a real man. Malka may be somewhat athletically gifted, but he was still a longshot compared to Simba.
"What's so funny?" Malka asked a little confused as to why they were laughing.
"You" Kula said standing up. Kula knew that Malka was going to do something stupid when she told this to him, but didn't care, it would probably be funnier than what he just did.
"Don't think I'm a man?" Malka asked. "Just set the record for the most pushups at one time" Malka said with a victories smirk.
"How many?" Tama asked. Unless he beat seventy-five, and Simba could probably do more than seventy-five, then Simba held the record for the most pushups at one time.
"Thirty-five" Malka said with a competitive smirk, enjoying that he was able to brag about his new record. Previously, Chumvi held the record at thirty-three, but Malka was able to squeeze in an extra two.
"Oh… Uh… Nice…" Tama said, looking over towards Simba, waiting for him to chime and let his record be known. She spotted Simba sleeping in the far corner of the cave-sleeping on the ground. She was confused as to why he was sleeping when they were planning to leave to spend the day together as a group.
"Yea, Uh, Good for you. Anyway, We were going to mess around in the pride lands for the day, you guys wanna join?" Kula said, not really caring about how many pushups he could do.
"Sure" The three males said in unison.
"Alright, let's go. I'll get Simba" Tama said, as she began to move towards Simba, but Nala held out a paw to stop her.
"He's staying behind. He's not feeling well" Nala said, not wanting to give the details of his problem.
"I can stay here and look after him if you want" Tama suggested.
"No, I already asked him and he said he would prefer if he was left alone" Nala said with a little distress in her voice.
"Ah, who cares. Probably a stomach bug. He'll be fine by sundown" Tojo said turning around and making his way out of the cave. Nala sighed, wishing it really only was a stomach bug and not the fact that he couldn't cope with his new lifestyle.
"Yea, let's just head out" Nala said.
Everyone started to file out one by one, and Tama gave one last look toward Simba. She could tell that he was hurting on the inside due to the fact that he wanted to be left alone, and Tama knew that he was the kind of person to do a thing like that.
Tama was seriously hesitating on whether she should stay or not. Normally, if someone told her they felt bad she would have just told them to suck it up, but Simba was different. She had a soft spot in her heart for him, and only him.
"Nala" Tama said in a voice below a whisper as to not alert the others. Nala looked over and was surprised to see that Tama hadn't moved that much and was looking concerned. "I can't do this. I'm going to look after Simba. Don't try and stop me" Tama said as she turned around and made her way over towards Simba.
Nala wanted to stop Tama but knew that she couldn't even if she tried to, so decided to let her go. Nala wanted to stay with Simba but knew that he would be fine with Tama there and she really did need to spend more time with her friends.
Without looking back, Nala heading out of Pride Rock and quickly caught up with the others who were at the bottom of Pride Rock waiting for her.
"Where's Tama?" Kula asked. Nala didn't want to tell them what was going on, because if she did, it would most certainly cause them to all get nosy and start asking questions. Sure, they were great friends, but like all friends, they got nosy from time to time.
"She didn't feel that well, so she decided to stay behind and rest" Nala said, passing everyone and walking towards the water hole. Thinking that some stomach bug or cold was going around, they all decided it best to just leave Tama and Simba alone before they also got sick.
Upon arriving at the waterhole, they were thrilled to see that no one was around and that the waterhole was there for the rest of the day. Upon placing their paws in the water, they all recoiled as the water was freezing, thus swimming wasn't an option.
"Of course. Now what?" Tojo asked. There was no swimming, no small animals to chase, and they couldn't travel too far away from Pride Rock without having their mothers yell at them.
"Let's go to the outlands" Malka said with a smirk.
"Can't. Are mothers would kill us if they caught up poking around that place" Chumvi said.
"So stupid that we can't go there. What are hyenas gonna do to us? Three big and strong males who know how to fight" Tojo said with a huff. Both Malka and Chumvi nodded along while Nala and Kula listened in disgust.
"It's because they love you. Now while you could probably fend off one hyena with ease, hyenas are pack hunter. They will start to swarm and surround you, and at that point, it doesn't matter who you are, you're dead" Kula said hoping that the idiotic males would understand why the outlands were off limits.
"Yea but it's not like we're dumb. We could just run away" Tojo suggested.
"Clearly you are seeing as you don't understand what it means to be surrounded" Kula said with a chuckle.
"Trust me I'm strong enough to survive on my own" Tojo said with confidence.
"Maybe, and I mean just maybe, Strong enough, but not smart enough" Kula said laughing at this point at how delusional Tojo was appearing to be.
"Oh and I suggest you could do better?" Tojo said starting to get fed up by Kulas act. Clearly, she didn't know that she was talking to a superior lion.
"No. I'm not strong enough to haul down a full-grown animal by myself like a zebra or buffalo. But, I'm smart enough. Simba taught be during the storm some real basic stuff" Kula said with a smirk, knowing that she wasn't some invincible lion god.
"Yea whatever" Tojo said turning around, wanting to save Kula the trouble.
"Ok… So, what should we do?" Chumvi asked. Normally, this would be a simple question, but seeing as how it was near freezing outside, most of their normal games wouldn't work.
"We could… … … Yea I got nothing" Malka said. Every time he thought of something, the cold weather seemed to make the plan impossible, or would just ruin it and make it suck for everyone.
"Damn, What happened to us? We used to all be so fun and playful. Now everything's different" Tojo said. He missed the old days when they were all young cubs and spent all day playing, and now… now it was all different.
"We grew up" Kula replied. Tojo then realized that they had just simply outgrown their cub days, and they were starting to become young adults with real responsibilities.
Nala had been focusing on something else than their conversations this entire time. She was walking as a strange figure that resembled a lioness, with a slightly larger male lion standing next to her, and next to the male, looked to be… her mother?
Nala watched as the three figures began to get closer and closer, and confirmed that they were all three lions, her mother was on the far right. The male in the middle Nala had never seen before, but Nala felt like she had seen the lioness on the left before… Almost like she knew her, but at the same time didn't.
Nala watched as the convoy began to get closer and closer… and her heart skipped a beat…
It was Ariya…
Nala had a million questions at that moment, her biggest wondering how Ariya had gotten here to fast. Nala observed that Ariya wasn't the same cub she met nearly seven months ago. That little cub had grown up into a young beautiful lioness who seemed to look like her in a way.
"Ariya?" Nala called out. Everyone looked over at Nala, wondering why she said an old friends name so suddenly, and all stopped dead as they saw someone they had expected they would never see again…
Ahhh! This took so long to write! Sorry for the delay guys, just got tangled up in life. (Great excuse Ikr) Anyway! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and the little cliffhanger at the end. So I know I said chapter 11 would be a lot about Malka, Chumvi, and Tojo, and for the most part, it kinda was, but they will get their fair share of screen time as well in chapter 12. So Ariya is finally here! But who is the strange lion next to her? Classified… that's who… Anywho, that just about does it for this chapter! Y'all have a good one! Mr_Toast out!