Battles, adventure, murder, blood; it's not all it's cracked up to be. Some think life is a game, where you have to go on an adventure and kill until your heart's content. Others think that murdering is the way to go. No. All the damn blood and corpses that lay on the ground are only a sign that he is back. He, is the blackness within us all. He, is the B-side to your conscience. He, is the one that causes all the pain in the world. He, is us…
The meerkat that was sleeping on Pumbaa's stomach started to stir. His eyes flicked open as he looked around. The sun had been higher then when he had last woke up, and no one was in the cave, besides the warthog sleeping on his back and snoring like a…well pig. He took a second to regain his senses before realizing something.
"Pumbaa, you warthog! Wake up!" Timon's voice shrilled into the thin ear of Pumbaa's. "Kiara's gone!"
The warthog, startled, jumped up and landed on his butt. His eye looked around the den. Empty, as Timon had seen. "Well, where did she go?"
"Pumbaa!" Timon cried out. "We're facing a problem here. If Simba finds out he'll kill me!"
"Well, what if we find her first?" Pumbaa suggested, before hearing a squawking noise. "W-What was that?"
A blue hornbill fell from the perch on the top of the den. He landed face first into a rather deep, yet small hole in the southwest corner. He ruffled his feathers before pulling his beak out of the ditch in the hole.
"Zazu!?" The meerkat and the warthog shouted in unison.
"Yes, so it would seem. You lost the king's daughter again, yes?" Zazu inquired.
"Well, we were going to find her." Timon responded to the hornbill quietly, as not to awake any living creatures in the walls of the cavern.
"It be best if I accompany you. The king would say so himself if he were here." Zazu pointed out, stumping Timon and Pumbaa. With nothing else to say, Timon simply nodded and climbed up onto Pumbaa's neck.
"Fine, fine." Timon said and kicked Pumbaa lightly in the side. "Hee-How!"
The warthog started running from the shock of the pressure in his neck. Timon grabbed onto Pumbaa's ears to keep himself on at the speed he was going at. At the surprise of the quick speed burst, Zazu had almost been tripped, but he regained his balance and took flight after them, soaring above their heads like an eagle circling a mouse.
The trio ran through the Pride Lands like a wolf hunting its prey. They searched every corner of every tree they could find, but still no sign of their lioness friend. Pumbaa and Zazu would need breaks for a while, so then Timon would go out on his own and search, but everything they tried failed and everywhere they looked, it was empty.
"I hope she's okay." Pumbaa said in the last bit of hope the three had left. "Hopefully she isn't being attacked by hyenas…"
"Hyenas? They wouldn't waste their time on her." Timon pointed out to the warthog and the hornbill.
"But she is the princess, you know" Zazu said, with strong emphasis on the words is and princess. "She could be good bait, and maybe some sort of ransom."
"He's right ya know." Pumbaa told the meerkat who was looking behind a tree.
"Well, we'll find her, right boys?" Timon exclaimed and ran over to the two and put his hand out.
"Yes sir!" Pumbaa replied, putting a hoof on top of Timon's hand.
"If it will save me from exilation…"Zazu rolled his eyes and placed his wing on top of Pumbaa's hoof.