Chapter 6: Hope
As the sun began to set in the western savanna sky that evening, Simba stood just outside the entrance of his den. It was a warm, relaxing evening in the Pridelands, and all the animals were snuggled up close with their families, playing, resting, or simply enjoying the breath-taking sunset.
Simba's heart sank as he thought back to the day he and Kiara ran across the savanna about this same time of day. A few notes of the song he had sung to her, "We Are One," drifted through his head.
We are one you and I
We are like the earth and sky
One family under the sun.
The melody played softly in his head as he looked up at the sky, warm tears forming in his eyes. He looked at the soft, yet bright glow of the red sun, sinking behind the distant mountains and streaking the sky with even more gorgeous summer colors.
"Wait, don't leave me," Simba whispered softly. Then his eyes widened as he realized he had said those same words when Mufasa's spirit had visited him in the form of giant thunderclouds. His dad would always be with him, watching over him and guiding him, because him and Mufasa were one; part of Mufasa lived in Simba, just as part of Simba lived inside Kiara. Simba gasped silently and gaped at the now set-sun.
"I'd never leave you, Simba," a soft voice behind him spoke.
He gasped softly and turned around.
Nala stood, with tired eyes and half a smile on her face.
"Oh Nala," Simba walked towards her and embraced her tightly. "I don't know what I would do without you. I love you so much, Nala, and I'll never leave you either. I promise I'll find our daughter," he smiled.
"Simba, we'll find her together," she whispered softly, but with determination.
Simba's face eased into a relaxed smile. "You're right, we'll both find her, together," he licked her muzzle softly and embraced her once more before gathering the rest of his pride with him.
"Listen up everyone. The sun has set, as you can already see, and night is upon us. That is when the Outsiders all go out to hunt, just like all you lionesses do. Remember that there are more of them than of you, and we are going on their lands, so we are technically trespassing for once, but for important reason. They are sly and swift, watch your backs. Let's head out," Simba let out a hunting growl and led his pride down Pride Rock and into the abundant, green fields of the Pridelands.
"Now listen up everyone! Night is upon us, and the Pridelanders should be out hunting by now. Although there may have been a little trespassing mishap in the past month or so," she paused to glare at Kovu's "bed", remembering he was gone. She didn't realize how empty the den felt without her son in his bed. She felt her pride looking at her and quickly turned away from the sight.
"However, that is between that tyrant Simba and myself. Don't worry, I'll deal with him when we meet up with him and his precious daughter again," she snickered.
The rest of the pride snickered along with her until she roared for silence again. "Be on the lookout for them, and watch your backs. Remember that they helped him kill Scar, they could take one of you down if you're not careful. Let's move," Zira growled and leapt out of her den, leading her pride through the barren Outlands as tumbleweeds blew past them.
Timon and Pumbaa, who had gone with the pride also, searched non-stop for Kiara ever since she was pronounced missing. Although Simba had assured them it was not their fault, as he had given them a small break from watching her since she had seemed to mature much. He didn't want to upset her, making her think he didn't trust her more now, and also, he wanted to watch her, observe her, to see if he could figure out the change that had come over her. Nevertheless, Timon and Pumbaa felt ashamed and at fault for the princess's disappearance, and dedicated all their time to searching for Kiara.
"Timon, we must be searching in all the wrong places, either that or Kiara is just not here," Pumbaa cried, losing hope.
"No Pumbaa, don't talk like that, you'll bring us both down. We just aren't looking hard enough," he insisted. "It's obvious we must be looking in all the wrong places, and do you know why, Pumbaa?" he asked.
"Uh," he struggled to think of an answer.
"Because we aren't thinking like a lion cub! The only way we'll know where a cub likes to hide is if we think like them! I am a genius," he grinned proudly.
Pumbaa nodded in agreement. "So, what do we do now?"
Timon sighed and ran a hand across his face, tiredly. "Well, I say we go to our smorgasbord, Kiara might be there hunting for some grubs," he drooled as a smile came across his face.
"Or we could try looking in that place where Kiara ran off to last time, remember, when we saw that bad, scary lioness and her cub?" Pumbaa said thoughtfully.
Timon stared at his buddy, and his jaw dropped. "Pumbaa, you never cease to amaze me. Good thinking, buddy," he smiled and patted his head.
"Aww shucks, it was nothing," Pumbaa grinned proud of himself.
"Alright, let's go look," Timon instructed, hopping onto Pumbaa's back. "And if she's not there, maybe we can go look for her at the smorgasbord," he accented "smorgasbord" and winked at Pumbaa.
"Ohh," Pumbaa nodded enthusiastically and then blinked. "I don't get it," he said regressing back to his simple-minded state of mind.
Timon groaned. "Just move already," he said as he gave a small but firm kicks into Pumbaa's sides to make him move forward.
Once they arrived at the scene Kiara was found playing with Kovu not so long ago, Timon jumped off of Pumbaa's back and began inspecting the ground carefully for cub paw prints.
Pumbaa walked in a circle and looked at his surroundings. Tall, light- colored grass, and bright, twinkling stars above him. He enjoyed looking at the stars, even if he didn't always believe Timon's theory of them being fireflies that got stuck up in the sky. He still in his heart believed that they were balls of gas burning from billions of miles away. He yawned, realizing it was getting rather late, about the time him and Timon usually turned in for the night. He blinked his tired eyes, and lowered his head back to the level of the grass. He looked in the direction Timon had been looking in, and was suddenly face to face with a lioness.
He gasped as his brain processed the image he was seeing.
Even in the dark, the lioness's yellow eyes gave off some scarlet red color. However, something the night sky couldn't hide was part of the lioness's one ear that had a rounded notch at the end of it. It looked like someone had rip off her ear, but only succeeded in cutting the end of it.
"Well look at what we have here-a stupefied, pork dinner!" said the cold, taunting tone of the voice, followed by a chorus of evil cackles.
Poor Pumbaa tried as hard as he could to speak, but faltered upon seeing his best friend in the grasp of a cub similar to Kiara's size, but slightly larger as she was clearly older. She had a wicked smile on her face. Her white teeth glimmered in the moonlight and her dark eyebrows revealed a pair of glowing eyes. She continued to squeeze poor Timon and enjoyed the feeling of having power over this smaller, weaker creature.
"Timon?" he barely whispered.
"What's that? You want your friend back? Well, I suppose in this case that could be arranged," Zira smiled slyly.
"You let Timon go now you evil lioness!" Pumbaa shrieked, tears coming to his eyes.
Zira was just about to hit him, when Valla leapt from the grass and jumped in front of Pumbaa.
"Don't you touch him!" she growled.
"Valla!" Pumbaa exclaimed, hearing Valla's new, loud voice. "They've got Timon!"
Valla shot a cursory glance behind her at Pumbaa before whirling her head back around to meet the sight of a helpless Timon in young Vitani's grasp.
She gasped and glared at Zira and the rest of the Outlanders.
"So, you have a name, spy!" Zira spat, glaring back at her.
"I am no spy, and you have no right to call me a spy when I'm in my own lands!" Valla cried.
"Still, you are intruding in other lions' business," Zira growled.
Valla arched her back more. "If you don't let my friends go now," she began, but was cut off by a few Outlanders jumping towards her and forming a circle around her and Pumbaa, snarling.
Valla's ears went back nervously, but she continued to stand her ground.
The circle was parted to allow Zira to come face to face with her. "I wouldn't threaten us again if I were you, darling, you're clearly outnumbered," Zira snickered.
Valla continued to glare at the lioness.
"Now then, I was going to say, we can make a deal. I'll let your little friends go, if you'll take me to Simba," Zira smiled evilly.
"It's King Simba to you, and I shall never put my king in danger," Valla felt a surge of pride and loyalty flow through her body.
Hearing Simba be called "king" and seeing Valla being so loyal to the one who had murdered Scar (so she thought), made her blood boil. Her muscles tensed and she reared up on her hind legs, and let out a roar, preparing to strike the now cowering lioness.
Just then all the Pridelanders appeared at the scene, lead by Nala, who roared.
Zira froze and then lowered herself back onto four paws, and discovered the circle around her targets was broken, and the lionesses retreated to Zira's side.
Valla and Pumbaa gasped and gave a sigh of relief as the members of their pride immediately consoled them, including Simba.
"Valla, are you alright?" Nala asked worriedly.
"Y-yes," she managed to stutter.
Nala's eyebrows relaxed a bit and she looked to Pumbaa. "Pumbaa?" she inquired.
"Your highness, they captured Timon!" Pumbaa cried.
Nala immediately turned to face Zira.
"What is the meaning of this? You know the penalty for returning to the Pridelands. You know this! And you've attempted to do harm, I see, to a member of our pride, one of our royal babysitters," Nala spoke fiercely.
"Babysitters? Well in that case, maybe one of them can tell us where my little prince Kovu has gone to?" Zira said angrily.
Nala gasped quietly and her eyes widened suspiciously. "You mean to tell me that your cub is gone, too?" she asked in a normal tone.
"Yes," Zira replied solemnly and lowered her head in sadness, as did the rest of her pride. Vitani, forgetting about Timon for the moment, let him go and went to console her mother.
Finally free and able to breathe easy again, Timon lay on the cold, hard ground taking in huge gulps of air before getting up and racing to Pumbaa, who hugged him tightly, silently rejoicing, as to not disturb the lionesses in their moment.
Just then Simba stepped forward next to Nala. "Is it really true, he is missing?" Simba inquired in a serious but light tone.
"We thought he might have run away to the Pridelands again," Zira replied, with sadness in her eyes, her hatred toward Simba subsided for the moment.
"How long has he been missing?" the king asked.
"How can you pry her for answers at a time like this?" Vitani replied coldly, bravely stepping in front of her mother.
Simba stared down, startled by the bravery of this young cub, which was only a little older than Kiara. Although she looked nothing like his daughter, her bravery and strength reminded him of Kiara. The great king hung his head as Zira had done, and remained silent.
Vitani sniffled a bit, upset at all the sad emotion in the air. She sighed and retreated behind her mother again.
"Kiara is missing too, since last night," Simba replied solemnly.
Zira gasped and stared at her enemy as a spark of hope grew inside of her. "So has Kovu," she said softly.
Both prides looked at each other and gasped, whispering amongst each other.
"Were you out looking for him just now?" Nala spoke up.
"Yes, we were. In fact we thought you might know where he is. Did he come into the Pridelands at all since the last time we met?" she said with a harsh tone again.
"Not that I know of, how about Kiara?" he asked.
"Haven't seen her since last time," she replied.
"Hey wait a minute," Nuka said out loud.
"What? Do you know something about all this, Nuka?" Zira growled.
"Well I remember when I was watching him the day he disappeared," he began to retell the story of that day.
As the sun began to set in the western savanna sky that evening, Simba stood just outside the entrance of his den. It was a warm, relaxing evening in the Pridelands, and all the animals were snuggled up close with their families, playing, resting, or simply enjoying the breath-taking sunset.
Simba's heart sank as he thought back to the day he and Kiara ran across the savanna about this same time of day. A few notes of the song he had sung to her, "We Are One," drifted through his head.
We are one you and I
We are like the earth and sky
One family under the sun.
The melody played softly in his head as he looked up at the sky, warm tears forming in his eyes. He looked at the soft, yet bright glow of the red sun, sinking behind the distant mountains and streaking the sky with even more gorgeous summer colors.
"Wait, don't leave me," Simba whispered softly. Then his eyes widened as he realized he had said those same words when Mufasa's spirit had visited him in the form of giant thunderclouds. His dad would always be with him, watching over him and guiding him, because him and Mufasa were one; part of Mufasa lived in Simba, just as part of Simba lived inside Kiara. Simba gasped silently and gaped at the now set-sun.
"I'd never leave you, Simba," a soft voice behind him spoke.
He gasped softly and turned around.
Nala stood, with tired eyes and half a smile on her face.
"Oh Nala," Simba walked towards her and embraced her tightly. "I don't know what I would do without you. I love you so much, Nala, and I'll never leave you either. I promise I'll find our daughter," he smiled.
"Simba, we'll find her together," she whispered softly, but with determination.
Simba's face eased into a relaxed smile. "You're right, we'll both find her, together," he licked her muzzle softly and embraced her once more before gathering the rest of his pride with him.
"Listen up everyone. The sun has set, as you can already see, and night is upon us. That is when the Outsiders all go out to hunt, just like all you lionesses do. Remember that there are more of them than of you, and we are going on their lands, so we are technically trespassing for once, but for important reason. They are sly and swift, watch your backs. Let's head out," Simba let out a hunting growl and led his pride down Pride Rock and into the abundant, green fields of the Pridelands.
"Now listen up everyone! Night is upon us, and the Pridelanders should be out hunting by now. Although there may have been a little trespassing mishap in the past month or so," she paused to glare at Kovu's "bed", remembering he was gone. She didn't realize how empty the den felt without her son in his bed. She felt her pride looking at her and quickly turned away from the sight.
"However, that is between that tyrant Simba and myself. Don't worry, I'll deal with him when we meet up with him and his precious daughter again," she snickered.
The rest of the pride snickered along with her until she roared for silence again. "Be on the lookout for them, and watch your backs. Remember that they helped him kill Scar, they could take one of you down if you're not careful. Let's move," Zira growled and leapt out of her den, leading her pride through the barren Outlands as tumbleweeds blew past them.
Timon and Pumbaa, who had gone with the pride also, searched non-stop for Kiara ever since she was pronounced missing. Although Simba had assured them it was not their fault, as he had given them a small break from watching her since she had seemed to mature much. He didn't want to upset her, making her think he didn't trust her more now, and also, he wanted to watch her, observe her, to see if he could figure out the change that had come over her. Nevertheless, Timon and Pumbaa felt ashamed and at fault for the princess's disappearance, and dedicated all their time to searching for Kiara.
"Timon, we must be searching in all the wrong places, either that or Kiara is just not here," Pumbaa cried, losing hope.
"No Pumbaa, don't talk like that, you'll bring us both down. We just aren't looking hard enough," he insisted. "It's obvious we must be looking in all the wrong places, and do you know why, Pumbaa?" he asked.
"Uh," he struggled to think of an answer.
"Because we aren't thinking like a lion cub! The only way we'll know where a cub likes to hide is if we think like them! I am a genius," he grinned proudly.
Pumbaa nodded in agreement. "So, what do we do now?"
Timon sighed and ran a hand across his face, tiredly. "Well, I say we go to our smorgasbord, Kiara might be there hunting for some grubs," he drooled as a smile came across his face.
"Or we could try looking in that place where Kiara ran off to last time, remember, when we saw that bad, scary lioness and her cub?" Pumbaa said thoughtfully.
Timon stared at his buddy, and his jaw dropped. "Pumbaa, you never cease to amaze me. Good thinking, buddy," he smiled and patted his head.
"Aww shucks, it was nothing," Pumbaa grinned proud of himself.
"Alright, let's go look," Timon instructed, hopping onto Pumbaa's back. "And if she's not there, maybe we can go look for her at the smorgasbord," he accented "smorgasbord" and winked at Pumbaa.
"Ohh," Pumbaa nodded enthusiastically and then blinked. "I don't get it," he said regressing back to his simple-minded state of mind.
Timon groaned. "Just move already," he said as he gave a small but firm kicks into Pumbaa's sides to make him move forward.
Once they arrived at the scene Kiara was found playing with Kovu not so long ago, Timon jumped off of Pumbaa's back and began inspecting the ground carefully for cub paw prints.
Pumbaa walked in a circle and looked at his surroundings. Tall, light- colored grass, and bright, twinkling stars above him. He enjoyed looking at the stars, even if he didn't always believe Timon's theory of them being fireflies that got stuck up in the sky. He still in his heart believed that they were balls of gas burning from billions of miles away. He yawned, realizing it was getting rather late, about the time him and Timon usually turned in for the night. He blinked his tired eyes, and lowered his head back to the level of the grass. He looked in the direction Timon had been looking in, and was suddenly face to face with a lioness.
He gasped as his brain processed the image he was seeing.
Even in the dark, the lioness's yellow eyes gave off some scarlet red color. However, something the night sky couldn't hide was part of the lioness's one ear that had a rounded notch at the end of it. It looked like someone had rip off her ear, but only succeeded in cutting the end of it.
"Well look at what we have here-a stupefied, pork dinner!" said the cold, taunting tone of the voice, followed by a chorus of evil cackles.
Poor Pumbaa tried as hard as he could to speak, but faltered upon seeing his best friend in the grasp of a cub similar to Kiara's size, but slightly larger as she was clearly older. She had a wicked smile on her face. Her white teeth glimmered in the moonlight and her dark eyebrows revealed a pair of glowing eyes. She continued to squeeze poor Timon and enjoyed the feeling of having power over this smaller, weaker creature.
"Timon?" he barely whispered.
"What's that? You want your friend back? Well, I suppose in this case that could be arranged," Zira smiled slyly.
"You let Timon go now you evil lioness!" Pumbaa shrieked, tears coming to his eyes.
Zira was just about to hit him, when Valla leapt from the grass and jumped in front of Pumbaa.
"Don't you touch him!" she growled.
"Valla!" Pumbaa exclaimed, hearing Valla's new, loud voice. "They've got Timon!"
Valla shot a cursory glance behind her at Pumbaa before whirling her head back around to meet the sight of a helpless Timon in young Vitani's grasp.
She gasped and glared at Zira and the rest of the Outlanders.
"So, you have a name, spy!" Zira spat, glaring back at her.
"I am no spy, and you have no right to call me a spy when I'm in my own lands!" Valla cried.
"Still, you are intruding in other lions' business," Zira growled.
Valla arched her back more. "If you don't let my friends go now," she began, but was cut off by a few Outlanders jumping towards her and forming a circle around her and Pumbaa, snarling.
Valla's ears went back nervously, but she continued to stand her ground.
The circle was parted to allow Zira to come face to face with her. "I wouldn't threaten us again if I were you, darling, you're clearly outnumbered," Zira snickered.
Valla continued to glare at the lioness.
"Now then, I was going to say, we can make a deal. I'll let your little friends go, if you'll take me to Simba," Zira smiled evilly.
"It's King Simba to you, and I shall never put my king in danger," Valla felt a surge of pride and loyalty flow through her body.
Hearing Simba be called "king" and seeing Valla being so loyal to the one who had murdered Scar (so she thought), made her blood boil. Her muscles tensed and she reared up on her hind legs, and let out a roar, preparing to strike the now cowering lioness.
Just then all the Pridelanders appeared at the scene, lead by Nala, who roared.
Zira froze and then lowered herself back onto four paws, and discovered the circle around her targets was broken, and the lionesses retreated to Zira's side.
Valla and Pumbaa gasped and gave a sigh of relief as the members of their pride immediately consoled them, including Simba.
"Valla, are you alright?" Nala asked worriedly.
"Y-yes," she managed to stutter.
Nala's eyebrows relaxed a bit and she looked to Pumbaa. "Pumbaa?" she inquired.
"Your highness, they captured Timon!" Pumbaa cried.
Nala immediately turned to face Zira.
"What is the meaning of this? You know the penalty for returning to the Pridelands. You know this! And you've attempted to do harm, I see, to a member of our pride, one of our royal babysitters," Nala spoke fiercely.
"Babysitters? Well in that case, maybe one of them can tell us where my little prince Kovu has gone to?" Zira said angrily.
Nala gasped quietly and her eyes widened suspiciously. "You mean to tell me that your cub is gone, too?" she asked in a normal tone.
"Yes," Zira replied solemnly and lowered her head in sadness, as did the rest of her pride. Vitani, forgetting about Timon for the moment, let him go and went to console her mother.
Finally free and able to breathe easy again, Timon lay on the cold, hard ground taking in huge gulps of air before getting up and racing to Pumbaa, who hugged him tightly, silently rejoicing, as to not disturb the lionesses in their moment.
Just then Simba stepped forward next to Nala. "Is it really true, he is missing?" Simba inquired in a serious but light tone.
"We thought he might have run away to the Pridelands again," Zira replied, with sadness in her eyes, her hatred toward Simba subsided for the moment.
"How long has he been missing?" the king asked.
"How can you pry her for answers at a time like this?" Vitani replied coldly, bravely stepping in front of her mother.
Simba stared down, startled by the bravery of this young cub, which was only a little older than Kiara. Although she looked nothing like his daughter, her bravery and strength reminded him of Kiara. The great king hung his head as Zira had done, and remained silent.
Vitani sniffled a bit, upset at all the sad emotion in the air. She sighed and retreated behind her mother again.
"Kiara is missing too, since last night," Simba replied solemnly.
Zira gasped and stared at her enemy as a spark of hope grew inside of her. "So has Kovu," she said softly.
Both prides looked at each other and gasped, whispering amongst each other.
"Were you out looking for him just now?" Nala spoke up.
"Yes, we were. In fact we thought you might know where he is. Did he come into the Pridelands at all since the last time we met?" she said with a harsh tone again.
"Not that I know of, how about Kiara?" he asked.
"Haven't seen her since last time," she replied.
"Hey wait a minute," Nuka said out loud.
"What? Do you know something about all this, Nuka?" Zira growled.
"Well I remember when I was watching him the day he disappeared," he began to retell the story of that day.