Kaa has been lording over both prey and predator alike, violating of the Circle of Life for decades. A reign of terror that shall soon reach its grand finale.

Chapter 15: Kaa's Komeuppance

Kaa slithered through the tall grass as he followed Kiara's vomit-tinged scent with the most deranged grin stretched across his face. "Now then," he hissed haughtily, knowing his little kitten could hear loud and clear, "what ssssort of derring-do will our plucky princcccessss pull to get out of thissss jam?" The python kept his spirits high by imagining the desperation his prey must be wracked with and the despair she'll face once he gets her. "Ssssurely, this can't be the end?"

Kaa couldn't help but feel a rush to it all. It had been the very first time that anybody had ever escaped his stomach after enduring his constriction. He was utter livid at the disgrace that Kiara had put him through yet also relished the thought of the retribution she'd be put through. The python almost felt like laughing at the crafty cub's delusions of control when he began to recognize his surroundings more. A musty sort of scent also graced his tongue soon enough.

"Ssssay now," Kaa hissed in genuine intrigued, "what have we here?" He soon slithered out of the tall grass to recognize the tree hanging over the quicksand pit and soon spotted Kiara with her hind legs on the edge, one step from the bog itself. "If you get any closer, I'll jump right in," Kiara declared vehemently. "I would rather die on my own terms than become your toy." The python pretended to be taken aback by Kiara glaring daggers right at him before smirking again.

"Would you now?" Kaa declared, slithering out of the tall grass. "No, I think you would prefer to be my toy." The colorful rings soon poured out of his eyes at full force with every intention of brainwashing Kiara permanently. "I believe that you ssssstill dessssire the validatiiiion your father denied you." The princess was quick to shut her eyes and turn her eyes away but her scaly adversary knew that she lost when she saw but a glimpse. "The validatiiiiion I rewarded you with."

Kiara tightly had her eyelids shut while getting ready to step back onto the quicksand. "I am the only one you can find true refuge in," Kaa hissed, his words sounding so... tempting. "The only one who can make you into the Queen you're desssstined to become." A mere glance at the radiant rainbow had awakened the princess's desire to see more of it, one he had conditioned her for. "N... no...," she uttered as her left eye slowly opened, her urges overwhelming any logic.

"That'sssss a good girl," Kaa sniggered condescendingly, his head looming over Kiara. "There'ssss no reasssson to give your life up when I can make it all feel better." The way she slowly moved her head towards him and opened her eyes bit by bit was simply sublime. "Let my eyessss wasssssh away your negativity," the snake declared, seeing his rainbow rings reflecting in the resisting princess's eyes already. "Let my voice ssssoothe your troubled ssssoul forever and ever."

Kiara's eyes slowly became magnetically drawn to Kaa's with her gritted teeth already loosening up. The radiant rings pulsated from her pupils as the princess could feel the snake's stare actually eroding her anger and slowly replacing it with a new sense of tranquility. She tried to cling to her rage but her expression softened into that of curiosity with her brows knit and her mouth agape. It felt so invasive and yet good. All she had to do was give in and never feel bad again.

"It'ssss sssso mucccch better to jusssst give in," Kaa advised with an almost maternal tone of voice, moving closer to Kiara's face. "To jussst ssssurrender after all of your hard battlessss." He was pleased to see that the princess was still hanging on to her anger in sheer futility. "All you musssst do issss... trussst in me and jussssst in me." The snake delighted in his little kitten's helpless expression too much to see her left paw unsheathing its claws until she raised it up and...

Simba struggled through the tall grass with an exhausted Nala on his back just when a bloodcurdling screech cried out. Neither the king nor queen could help feeling the shivers down their spine as their sharp hearing respectively recognized it as Kaa's. Simba made sure that Nala was holding on tight before running faster towards the source and exited the tall grass where the quicksand was but a few yards away. Neither one of them could believe what they were seeing.

Kaa cried out further as he could still feel the claws pierce his left eye and the pain of it all. His head flailed about as if trying to shake off that pain while Kiara takes in deep breaths to shake off the heavy hypnotic effects. She couldn't believe that she had that much willpower to lift a paw, let alone strike the python himself. The princess decided to take this opportunity to try her plan out despite her mind only semi-recovered and began going backwards onto the quicksand.

Witnessing Kiara step onto the unstable surface gave Nala a real fright despite being too weak to rise. Simba's own fears subsided as he began to piece together what his daughter was attempting and found himself holding himself back from interfering. It would be simple for him to rush in and push the python into the pit but seeing his little girl attempting this gambit after resisting the radient rainbow filled him with pride. He had to allow his successor to prove herself.

Blind with rage as well as a bloody eye, Kaa fiercely flickered his tongue to pick up on Kiara's scent as she backed away from him. "Firsssst, you essscape my ssssstomach," he declared with barely restrained anger, "and now you actually fight off my hypnossssissss." He slithered forward onto the quicksand without even taking the time to distribute his weight properly. "Let'sssss ssssee how you'll endure the full forcccce of my conssssstriction if you're feeling bold enough."

Kiara felt her left hind-paw start to sink below the surface to her dismay but was relieved to see Kaa head her way with reckless abandon. "I will enssssure you exxxxpire in the mosssst exxxxcruciating way imaginable," he vowed while ignoring the bulk of his body beginning to go under. "Your facccce will cry out for help like the bitch that you are but not even wheezzzzzesssss will esssscape your throttled throat." The princess waited for his head to get in range and dive down.

Kiara pounced up off of the quicksand with all of her might and landed upon Kaa's head with perfect timing. Her body managed to push his face into the bog as she raced across his bulky body and hoped over the more sunken parts in order to reach firm ground. The princess turned around in time to see Kaa yank his head out and turn his snarl towards his feline foe. He began to slither back towards her but felt the muck entrap him no matter how many times he tried to pull.

"No," Kaa quietly said in his distraught. He managed to look with his good eye and was distraught to find that his neck was slowly being dragged down by the quicksand. "Oh no no no." He looked up ahead to find the rest of his body becoming pulled into the pit and couldn't budge an inch on that end either. "Thissss cannot be happening!" At last, his good eye landed its sights on Kiara glowering straight at him with a pitiful yet angry glare. "You- you can't do thissss to me!"

"You did this to yourself," Kiara declared vehemently, strutting away from the other half of Kaa's body. "You turned your back upon the Circle of Life and gorged yourself on any creature whether you needed it or not." She held back the tears upon recalling some of the fun times she actually had with the python. "You made me into some tool for your cruelest revenge." She gritted her teeth as the tears soaked into her fur. "This is the least of what you deserve, you monster!"

"No-," Kaa began to scream out before the quicksand fully engulfed his head before he knew it. Kiara looked on as bubbles rose up from where the one mighty terror was loosing air by the minute. Suffocated not unlike how he subdued his prey. Part of her felt relieved that the terror was over and that she managed to topple her manipulator yet... another part of her felt heartbroken to lose him again. Tears continued to flow as she sat down and hung her head as if mourning.

One lioness cub became Kaa's undoing but it's not the victory that Kiara had thought it would be sadly.