Chapter 4
A little bit later, Leo ran out into the tall grass, calling out Kiara's name and looking for her. He somewhat hated it when she ran off without him, but he loved the fact that she was probably going to try pouncing on him. The thing he loved most is that she wasn't very good at it, so that meant he could get her whenever she tried it.
Speaking of which, Leo heard rustling in the grass and childish growling coming from it. He grinned, got down on his knees, and pretended like he was looking at something. The rustling of grass and childish growling got closer and closer until-
"YAA!" Kiara roared playfully as she jumped out to knock Leo down.
Leo dodged out of the way and his lioness sister hit the ground, rolling over on her back in the process. Leo got up quickly and crouched over her, pinning her to the ground.
"So, you thought you could sneak up on me, huh?" Leo asked lightheartedly. "Well, I don't like that. And it's clear that you need to work on your pouncing abilities."
"My pouncing abilities are good and you know it, Leo!" said Kiara, struggling to get free as he grasped her arms. "And if my paws could open and close like yours, you wouldn't be pinning me!"
Leo laughed and let his sister loose.
"I guess you can just called me 'blessed'." He replied, striking a pose. "And your pouncing skills aren't that great!"
"Yes, they are!" she argued back.
"Oh yeah?" said Leo. He turned around and saw a blue and gold butterfly sitting on a rock, absently minding its own business. He pointed to it and said, "If you can pounce on that butterfly and bring it back to me, I will let you pounce on me whenever you want."
"Really?" asked Kiara, looking somewhat surprised.
"Yep." replied Leo, smirking haughtily. "I will sit down, in plain view of you, and let you ram into me."
"You're on!" said Kiara with a grin. She crouched down and began moving slowly towards the butterfly. Leo sat down with a smirk and watched the whole show.
"The mighty hunter has cornered her prey…" Kiara said quietly, staring at the butterfly that was about two feet away from here. She let out a quiet childish growl and then jumped at it. However, the butterfly flew out of the way quickly and she missed, landing on the rock.
"Told ya!" Leo spoke, running up beside her.
Kiara gave him a stormy look and then something else caught her attention. About a mile or so was a land that was cut off by a river between it. This land had no grass and the trees there were dying. It was the Outlands, where many enemies were banished, away from the Pride Lands.
"Whoa…" said Kiara, climbing on the rock to get a better look.
"What?" asked Leo, who climbed up beside her. He then saw it. "Oh wow! The Outlands!" He sat down on the rock beside her.
"I wonder what's out there." Kiara spoke aloud.
"How about we go down and see for ourselves?" Leo said excitedly.
"Are you kidding? If Dad found out, he would have a fit!"
"Oh, come on! They won't know. Besides, we're not going down into all of it. We're just going down to the edge of it. That's a whole lot different than going into all of it!"
"Yeah, but what if we encounter hyenas, or outlanders?" asked Kiara.
"Come on Kiara," said Leo. "Where's your sense of adventure?!"
While they were talking, something was coming through the grass towards them. However, the man-cub and lion cub didn't notice it until it was close to them.
"Wait!" said Leo quickly. They both stopped talking and the grass stopped rustling. "What was that?"
"What was what?" asked Kiara.
"The grass was rustling. There's something moving in it."
They both stopped talking and got down low, thinking it was the lion with the black mane. They saw him once being chased away by the lionesses of their pride, and when they asked about him, they said that he was watching them.
They watched the grass near the small pond underneath the rocks, waiting for the lion to show. But he didn't. The grass stopped rustling. They waited for a minute before a voice behind them asked, "What are you hiding from?"
"We're hiding from-" Leo was about to say. But when he turned around, Pumbaa was standing behind him so close that they could have touched nose to snout. Timon sat on top of Pumbaa's head.
Being a brave kid filled with the courage of a lion, Leo let out a yell of fright. "AHH!"
Pumbaa and Timon responded with their own yells and then Kiara joined in on the chorus. She tried to jump back, but she ended up falling backwards off the rock and into the small pond.
Pumbaa, Timon, and Leo stopped screaming and looked over the edge.
"Hang on Kiara!" Pumbaa yelled, backing up. "Uncle Pumbaa's coming!"
He then jumped off the rocks and landed into the water, splashing some onto Leo and Timon.
"Oh man!" Leo said in shock.
"Oh no!" Timon spoke. He looked around nervously, trying to think of what he would say to Simba when he came back. He turned to Leo and said, "Gee Simba, the good news is, we found your daughter and son. Bad news is, we dropped a warthog on your daughter. You aren't exactly angry about that, are you?"
Playing along, Leo replied in a mock tone of authority, "Why no, I'm actually pretty fine with that. But considering the fact you killed my only real child, I'm gonna eat you both alive and leave nothing behind."
"Very funny…" replied Timon as a cloudy look crowded his face.
The two of them peeked over the edge where Pumbaa was sitting in the water with a confused look on his face. Several small bubbles of air were erupting from below him. "Kiara?" he asked worriedly. "Kiara? Where are you?!"
"Pumbaa!" Timon yelled down to the warthog. "Let me define 'BABYSITTING'!"
Pumbaa gave him an inquisitive look, which caused Leo to yell, "Dude! You're sitting on her!"
Realizing what he was doing, Pumbaa jumped up and backed away. Kiara came up, coughing and sputtering. When she stopped, she looked at Pumbaa with a cloudy look.
"Sorry…" said Pumbaa, who shrugged. Then he and Kiara got out of the pond.
Leo and Timon leaped down from the rock. "You okay?" Leo asked as Kiara was shaking herself dry.
"Yeah, I'm good." She replied, still taking in her breath.
"Now Princess Kiara, as Simba's daughter, you cannot be doing things like that!" Pumbaa spoke. "You could've gotten hurt!"
"Hurt!" Timon yelled. He quickly got on Kiara's back. "Simba would kill us if you got hurt! You didn't slip a disc, did you?"
Kiara was about to say something when Timon moved to her forehead. "Catch a fever?" he said as he felt her forehead. He then moved down to her paw to examine it. "Get a hangnail?"
"Timon!" said Kiara, pulling her paw away.
"I had one once, and it was excruciatingly painful." Timon spoke as he bent down and picked up a palm branch. He put it over Kiara's head. "Darling, with your fair complexion, you should stay out of the sun!" Kiara swatted the branch away. "What? You want to get a wrinkle?"
"Why don't you guys do this to Leo?" Kiara asked, somewhat annoyed by their antics.
"He's a different case." Timon replied. "He can take care of himself."
"Yeah…" Leo muttered. "That's the excuse Pa uses to show how much he worries about me; He won't even call me a Prince."
"Well, you're not exactly a lion." said Pumbaa. "You were-"
"I know, I know, I know." Leo replied, putting his hand up to stop Pumbaa. "I was born in the carcass of some strange beast that fell from the sky. Mom found me and brought me back… Look, even though I'm not a lion, I am a something."
"Well, what are you then?" asked Pumbaa.
"I…" Leo was about to speak, and then paused. He never really thought about it.
"Well, while your finding your identity, let's eat!" Timon spoke as he and Pumbaa went near a log. Pumbaa lifted it and Timon produced a leaf that was covered in bugs. "Grubs!"
"The other white meat!" said Pumbaa, dropping the log.
"And so high in protein!"
"Eww!" Kiara recoiled in disgust and hid behind Leo. "Gross!"
"Yeah… that was Simba's reaction when he first saw me eat." said Timon. "How about you Leo?"
"Nah, I'm good." Leo replied, backing away. "I ate grubs was 3 and have regretted it ever since."
Timon turned to Pumbaa and offered it to him, who was more than happy to eat some. He took a bite out of one, and then spat it back onto the leaf.
"Ah, man!" Timon groaned. "You take a bite out of one and then put it back! That's driving me crazy!"
"Yeah, but you can't find the really slimy ones!" replied Pumbaa.
"Slimy?! Pumbaa, my corpulent compadre, it's the crunchy ones that make the meal!"
"No, it's the slimy!"
"Crunchy!"
"Slimy!"
"Crunchy!"
"Less filling!"
"Tastes Good!"
"Less filling!"
"Tastes Good!"
The meerkat and warthog duo argued away with Kiara and Leo watching.
"So…" said Leo. "Watch them argue or explore the outlands?"
"Outlands." Kiara replied.
And with that, the two ran away from the warthog and meerkat. Little did the lion cub and man cub know that they were about to meet somebody… Somebody who would change their lives forever.
