Well, here it is a new chapter for you, readers. This one talks about Simba's life in the jungle. I think that it wasn't as "Hakuna-Matataish" as the movies make us to think... after all, jungle is a dangerous place. Joka (male) is copyrighted to the authors of the book "A Snake In The Grass" from "The Lion King: Six New Adventures" series. Now that's over, let's begin.
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Chapter 35 – The problems of parenthood
Perhaps Kisasian was feeling neglected by everyone, and deeply sad, but his ex-best friend had a quite happy life, in spite of all the problems that his caretakers had with him.
Simba was living a happy and peaceful life on Hakuna Matata, under the care of his best friends, and in a way adoptive parents, Timon and Pumbaa. Surprisingly, eventhough they tried to have a care-free live, Timon and Pumbaa turned out to be very responsible parents, and they took care of Simba well, evethough some problems appeared, like the fact that Simba liked to throw Timon to the air, however the meerkat recognized that Simba was a cat, and a cub, so he had that kind of playing, and Timon, as a pacient "parent", tolerated it.
One of the biggest problems that the duo had to face was that Simba seemed to have some suicidal behaviours, like trying to jump from high trees and trying to fall from waterfalls. Timon and Pumbaa could do anything but theorize.
One of the theories, proposed by Timon, was that Simba had incidentally caused someone's death and was subconsciously trying to join that someone. But, when Pumbaa tried to ask where that idea had come from, Timon said that it didn't matter, while recalling some unpleasant memories of his own young life, on the first moments after his father's death.
Another problem was that, mainly on the first nights when he joined to the duo, Simba often woke them up in the night, mainly Timon, for the most varied reasons. Eventually, when Simba woke up Timon because of a nightmare, Pumbaa decided that he could sleep with them. The young cub's nightmares became less frequent, and eventually disappeared.
Probably the biggest problem was feeding the young cub. Simba was a carnivore, not a bug-eater, and Timon and Pumbaa weren't able to hunt too much of preys for Simba to eat. Eventhough Timon and Pumbaa ate almost exclusively bugs, they sometimes also ate other small animals, however, they couldn't hunt enough to feed a lion. As a cub, Simba could survive only with the bugs that Timon and Pumbaa found, but, like the two friends found out Simba was growing, and eventually, the work of finding bugs for him would be too hard for the two friends to keep it.
Like they had found out, the only solution was to find someone that would teach Simba how to hunt, but the main question was how to find the someone, introduce him to Simba, and come out without being eaten. Assuming that the someone wouldn't kill Simba as well. The best solution was take Simba to Bovu and Shimo, but they were too far, on the Outlands, it would be too difficult to find them. However, all those worries would soon have a solution, for sure.
But for now, Simba was just one year old, and finding bugs to feed him was still quite easy. And, on that afternoon, Timon, Pumbaa and Simba were just returning from lunch, after finding a trunk full of delicious bugs and eating them all.
"That was so good." said Pumbaa. "I ate like a pig!"
"Pumbaa, you are a pig." said Simba.
"Yes." said Pumbaa. "That's right."
"Stop arguing, you too!" said Timon. "It's almost nap time."
"That's good." said Simba, yawning. "I want to sleep…"
But then, he brightened up, and asked: "And what will we do next?"
"Whatever you want." said Timon. "We can play tag, swim in the river…"
"Can we go for a walk outside the jungle?" asked the cub, hopefully.
Suddenly, Timon and Pumbaa's attitude changed. They got with stern expressions, and Pumbaa said, in an unusually stern voice: "You can't go there. It's dangerous. It is outside the jungle, there are predators there."
"But I thought that "Hakuna Matata" meant "No Worries"!" said Simba, confused. "Why do we have to worry with staying here?"
"Because the "Hakuna Matata" rule only works in the jungle!" said Timon sternly, before he could look for a better excuse.
However, before Simba could keep making his questions, Timon said: "And enough of questions, kid! It's nap time, and we must go to sleep. Come on, just relax!"
They arrived to the bed of leaves where they usually slept, and they slept on their normal position. Pumbaa slept with his belly turned to the tops of the trees, Simba lied down on Pumbaa's belly, and Timon as well, and Simba hugged Timon with his right paw, like usually.
The trio soon fell asleep, and nothing would disturb their tranquility for some time.
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However, unlike what Timon and Pumbaa thought, Simba wasn't sleeping. He had pretended to be asleep, and, as soon as he heard Timon's low snoring, and Pumbaa's loud snoring, he carefully got up, waiting for the proper opportunity to escape. He had to be careful. In spite of all the appearances, Timon and Pumbaa had relatively light sleep, and if Simba wasn't careful enough, he would wake them up.
So, the little cub got up, and carefully placed Timon over Pumbaa's belly, on a place where the meerkat wouldn't fall and wake up. Then, he began sneaking away, as silently as he could, for not to wake up the two friends, and then he sneaked away for the plain.
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Simba arrived to the grassy plain quickly enough. He managed to get there without Timon and Pumbaa seeing him. Eventhough he was older, he was still quite adventurous, and liked to go to unknown places, partially to show his bravery, and partially to find out what existed in that place.
But, much to his disappointment, after some time of wandering, he didn't discover anything on the plain. The only things that he had seen were high, yellow grass, quite different from the grass on the Pride Lands, trees, and some herbivores, that could serve as prey, if not for Simba being too small and unexperienced to kill them.
"I don't see what Timon and Pumbaa had against this place." thought Simba, while walking. "It seems quite normal… I mean, so far, I haven't seen anything particularly dangerous around here."
But, after some more minutes of wandering in the plain, Simba hadn't yet found anything special on the plain, and decided that the best for him would be to return home as quicky as he could before Timon and Pumbaa would wake up, find out that he had gone to the plain without their permission, and get angry.
So, the young cub turned backwards, and entered an area of high grass, but his surprise was much when he tripped on something.
"Funny." thought Simba. "I don't recall anything being around her where we can trip. I wonder what…"
Simba looked down, and discovered where he had tripped. He had tripped on some kind of rock… but he couldn't see exactly where. Suddenly, the rock disappeared of his sight, and Simba became rather scared.
He turned to run away, but, before he started running, he heard a hiss, and the hiss came from the direction to where he was preparing to run. Simba turned his back again, and tried to run, but, when he started running, something seemed to come out of the ground and block his way, making him to trip again.
Simba rolled for two or three meters, coming out of the high grass, and, before he managed to get up, he noticed something coming towards him. It was a snake, a python, with more than four meters long. His body was covered in scars that seemed made by claws of a feline smaller than a lion. But the worst part was that he was sliding towards Simba.
The terrified cub tried to get up, but, before he managed to do it, he noticed that the snake was already rolled around him. Well, the snake wasn't yet grabbing him, but it already had former a circle around him, and Simba didn't know how to escape.
"Well… well…" said the snake, staring at Simba with hypnotic eyes. "What do we have here? A deliciousssss sssssatisssssfying lion cub?"
Simba didn't answer, in fact, he didn't speak at all, focused only on a way of coming away of the danger where he had gotten. He noticed that there wasn't any way of coming out, except climb above the circle that the snake had former around him.
He tried to do it. He stepped back, ran, and tried to jump above the snake, but, suddenly, the reptile extended his neck, and blocked the way of the cub on midair. Simba fell without any support over the body of the snake, and he began closing the circle, while speaking sarcastically to Simba.
"What'sssss your hurry, little one?" asked the reptile ironically, trying again to look at Simba with his hypnotical eyes. "We haven't even introduced yet… my name isssss Joka, by the way… and yoursssss? What'sssss your name?"
Simba didn't answer, he only began speaking, but with closed eyes, for not to meet Joka's hypnotical powers: "Nice to meet you, Joka, but I… I've gotta go… I can't stay here any longer…"
And, with those words, Simba extended his claws, and tried to plunge them in Joka's flesh as much as he could, hoping that he would manage to hurt the snake. It worked, because the reptile yelped in pain, temporarially distracted, and the lion cub used that moment to climb above the snake, plunging his claws on the replite, which make Joka to help in pain again, and then he tried to run away, before Joka would recover. Some snakes can be relatively fast in short distances, but a lion, even as a cub, could easily outrun them.
However, before Simba could go far enough, Joka's tail seemed to come out of nowhere, and made him to trip. Simba fell heavily on the ground, and, before he could get up, Joka circled him again, staring straight at the lion cub's eyes.
This time, Simba didn't close his eyes on time, and just stared at the snake while he kept his hypnotical abilities. Before Simba was completely hypnotized, he shouted with all his might: "HELP ME!"
"That won't work, you ssssstupid. No one can hear you…" said Joka, finally closing the circle around Simba. Now, the cub couldn't really go anywhere.
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Without knowing about the troubles that their young friend was having, Timon and Pumbaa were still sleeping peacefully under their tree, completely unaware that their friend had escaped during their nap, and probably they would keep sleeping like that for longer.
However, because Simba had placed Timon in a slightly uncomfortable position, the meerkat moved a little bit in his sleep, and began rolling aside. Normally, he didn't roll while sleeping, probably because he always fell asleep in a good position, and also Simba was holding him, and that prevented him from rolling.
But, in a bad sleeping pose, and without Simba there to hold him, Timon just rolled once more, and it didn't take too much time before the meerkat rolled aside uncontrollably, and fell from Pumbaa's belly to the ground. He woke up still at the middle of the fall, on the instant before falling, but anyway, already too late to prevent the fall from happening.
The meerkat fell heavily on the ground, without anything under to make the landing smoother. Timon got up wearily, and still sleepy, at first without understanding at all what had happened.
"Oh… my head…" said Timon, rubbing his head with his right hand. "Ouch… that hurts… I can't even remembered the last time I fell from my bed…"
He stretched again, hoping to get more relaxed, and then he prepared to climb to Pumbaa's belly, hoping to be able to continue his nap with Pumbaa and Simba. But then, he noticed something. Simba wasn't there! He hadn't noticed earlier, but now that he thought a little bit better, of course Simba wasn't there.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have gotten in an untranquile sleeping pose and fallen from the warthog!
"Wake up, Pumbaa!" shouted the meerkat, and the warthog woke up in a flash.
"What, what?" asked Pumbaa, looking around like crazy.
"Simba's gone!" said Timon, worriedly.
"But where can he be?" asked Pumbaa, in a voice that looked very much like Timon's, at least when it came to level of worry.
"I don't know, buddy, but it's time for we to discover it." said the meerkat in a comanding voice. "You snif left, I snif right."
It wasn't necessary more than that for the warthog to roll out of his bed with a surprising speed and beginning to snif intensively on the left, while Timon did the same on the other side.
Both meerkat and warthog had a fine sense of smell, it was naturally necessary for them to find their food, but that fine sense of smell could also serve some other uses. And one of them, surely very important, was finding a missing friend.
After some minutes sniffing around, the meerkat finally discovered the scent of their carnivore charge, and he didn't waste any time in communicating that to his friend.
"Pumbaa!" called Timon with urgency in his voice. "Come here! Quick!"
Warthog was there in a second, and the meerkat said: "Sniff, I found it!"
With those words Timon came out of the way so that Pumbaa could also sniff the track. He inhaled deeply for a second, and then said: "It looks like you're right, Timon. But I wander where he went?"
Without replying, Timon jumped on Pumbaa's back, and only then he bothered to reply, again with urgency in his voice: "Does that really matter now? We have to find out the little guy before he gets in trouble!"
"Right, Timon." said Pumbaa, and he began trotting while following Simba's scent, with his head bended and his snout almost touching the ground.
Warthog wanted to walk faster, but to walk at that speed, he had to raise his head, and if he did that, there was a risk of losing the track of the young lion, and taking more time to find him. That was the reason why the suine only trotted instead of running.
The members of the duo were absolutely silent, and the only sound heard were Pumbaa's hooves stepping on the soft ground of the jungle. But, mainly because each one of them felt the tension in his friend's mucscle, both understood that they shared the same hope, eventhough they wouldn't admit loudly. Both hoped that, when they found Simba, they would find him still alive, well, and mainly, out of troubles.
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However, Timon and Pumbaa's common hope seemed to be a vain hope, because Simba was already grabbed in Joka's grasp, and completely powerless to escape from the huge reptile.
The snake was already completely circled around him, and she was holding so tight that Simba was completely paralysed. The snake wasn't choking the young predator, however, it seemed that it wouldn't take too much time before she decided to do it.
Anyway, because the cub was completely hypnotized and immobilized, it also didn't care. It would be almost the same if Joka decided to swallow Simba on that instant, or if he decided to crush Simba and only swallow him later. The only difference on the final result was that the lion cub with crushed bones would be easier to swallow than a whole cub.
Simba didn't know that, but anyway, there was little that he knew. He couldn't turn his head, to see if someone was coming to help him, because the snake was holding him with a solid grasp. So, he only tried to look ahead, seeing if there was someone there who could help him. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't see anyone in front of him who could help. And, even if he saw someone, he cub also couldn't open his mouth, because the reptile already had left him half-suffocated with a grasp around his neck, and he also had some snake around his chin so he couldn't open his mouth.
And, supposing that he would, who would want to help him to get free of Joka? Which creature would gladly help someone that he didn't know? Any herbivore would just run away while the snake was busy with another prey. Any carnivore would just ignore him. Who could be able to help?
"That's funny." thought Simba bitterly. "I rarely have this tendency to be a philosopher, but it seems that in the final moments of our lives, we get a time to revive what happened. It's just a pity that we can't mend our mistakes."
Meanwhile, Joka was looking at him, from time to time closing his forked tongue of the cub's head, like if he was trying to taste his meal before devouring it completely.
"He tassssstesssss well." whispered Joka. "I want to feel his tasssste very well before devouring him… he will be one excelent meal…"
While the snake "tasted" his meal before devouring it, Simba was basically seeing all his life passing in front of his eyes. He had his first memory, one thing that he could vaguely recall, of going out with Nala.
"I wonder how she is now." thought Simba. "I just hope she's well."
He then remembered a lot of things more. He remembered when he discovered the six birds who later chose Tojo for adoptive parent. He remembered when he met Joe, and ended up in the Outlands, almost devoured by a crocodile and by hyenas. He remembered his mother bathing him, and his loud complain of "You're messing up my mane!"
"Oh, I would give anything to be right now in my mother's paws, being licked." thought Simba, remembering of his mother's tenderness with tears in his eyes.
He remembered when he and Nala went to the Elephant Graveyard, and he almost killed Nala and Zazu by making them to go there. He remembered his father's talking about the stars, and then, another memory… the most terrible of them all.
He couldn't still recall it properly… all that he could remember was of his roar echoing through the gorge, being chased by thousands of hooves, while the dust choked him, his father grabbing him and placing him on a safe place before the stampede took him again… his father climbing desperately the steep walls of the gorge… he trying to run above to help his father… and his father falling while hoof after hoof crushed him to death… and is uncle Scar whispering the dreadful words: "Run away and never return."
"Well, now I will never return." thought Simba, who was beginning to see everything around him more and more dim.
The snake wasn't tighting more the grasp, but wasn't also relaxing it. And then, Simba understood. If he died… well, the idea of dying seemed almost nice for him, at least he would finally see his father again, among all the creatures that had lived, which included for sure all of his ancestors… but then, he recalled something that made him trying to fight once more. If he died, he would met his father, but how would his father react? Simba had killed him!
What would the Great Kings of the Past think? He could recall the names of some of them… but he couldn't meet them! He didn't want to meet them! He wouldn't stand the guilt.
"I can't die now." thought Simba, somewhat determinately. "I can't die now!"
And so, the young cub made one last effort, and tried to slash Joka with all the strenght and breath that he had left. He plunged his claws in Joka's flesh, but before he could plunge any further, Joka was tighting his grasp more and more, so much that Simba couldn't move, and he could barely breath. He had no idea about how he would escape of that terrible situation.
"I'm done for!" thought Simba, terrified.
And then, finally, Joka seemed to be ready for the meal, while Simba slowly drifted to unconsciousness. Again, memories of his life passed in front of his eyes, this time being also memories of Timon and Pumbaa. He remembered everything that they had done for him, and he thought about how sad they would feel when they discovered that he had been eaten. All because he had disobeyed their orders.
"It seems that I just can't learn from my mistakes." thought the golden cub. "I disobeyed my father four months ago, it almost turned out in tragedy. Now, I disobeyed my adoptive parents, and this time, it will really turn out in tragedy. If for some miracle I survive, I swear that I will always obey Timon and Pumbaa!"
After that, his mind was too dim for him to have any more thoughts, as he was almost unconscious. He still had his eyes half-open, but his sight was too dim for him to see clearly. All that he was sure was that Joka was extending his neck backwards, almost as if he was gaining balance to swallow the whole cub at once.
"He will waste all the taste." thought Simba ironically.
Then he saw Joka's head balancing from one side to another, as if he was calculating the best angle to throw himself forward, in a way that swallowing the cub would be easier.
Then, he saw Joka coming again closer, as if he was calculating better the distance… and finally, Joka opened his mouth, with a surprising angle for such a small head. Simba noticed that Joka had a lot of teeth inside his mouth. They weren't poisonous, the main goal of them was to stop the prey from escaping, but it seemed that this time they hadn't been used.
The cub also noticed that the inside of Joka's mouth was of a deep red, and also noticed Joka's forked tongue.
And then, finally came the final moment. Joka launched his head forward with an amazing speed, and, some instants before he reached Simba's head, the young cub drifted away.
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So, what did you think? Sorry if this chapter seems less relaxed than the normal "Hakuna-Matata" but I believe that Simba's life wasn't (at least always) as relaxed as the movies make us to think. I also believe that Timon and Pumbaa were more responsible babysitters than shown in TLKII: Simba's Pride, because, after all, they raised a lion cub to adulthood. Well, you may give me your opinion about these particular points in your review.