Chapter 44:
The pack of hyenas returned to their cave. The elder Jumbe and a younger hyena were keeping guard on Pumbaa, Zuri, and Sudi. Pumbaa was being held in an elephant's ribcage, while Zuri and Sudi were in a smaller ribcage next to Pumbaa. When the pack entered the cave Jumbe approached them.
"Well?"
Bintaka growled softly as he looked at the entrapped warthog and meerkats. He spoke to Jumbe, "That beast was fake! It was just a bunch of clay, sticks, and shells!" The entrapped animals looked at each other, worriedly.
"You mean we've been afraid of nothing but noise all these months?" Jumbe growled. "Who constructed it?"
"A mob of meerkats. A good lot of them paid for this little deceit." Zuri put a paw to her mouth. "We didn't find the son of Fearless Buzz, though. At least the good news is that we managed to get a snack." He licked his teeth.
"And you didn't bring back a doggie bag?" a hyena barked.
"The lions chased us out before we could do that! They'll probably be coming after us soon."
"Hmph. I'm sure the King won't interfere too much. I happened to see this one," Jumbe jerked his head towards Zuri, "climb to the top of Pride Rock earlier last night. If she was a stranger to the King she wouldn't be standing here now, would she?"
"I knew I felt like I was being watched," Zuri mumbled.
"So if we tell the King we have hostages that he knows, he'll be at our mercy, won't he?"
"In addition to when we find Great Timon... oooh, this is going to be a good day," Bintaka shivered with excitement. "I'm going to find an apple for the warthog and we'll have a big luau." He took off.
Pumbaa gulped. "Come on, boys. We've got work to do." Jumbe instructed the rest of the hyenas to do various tasks and soon the prisoners found themselves alone.
"I thought they'd never leave," Sudi said as he kicked the ground beneath him.
"Can't you two dig out of there and get help?" Pumbaa asked.
"Not without help," Sudi replied, and then knelt down and knocked on the ground. "With the proper tools we can dig through stone, but otherwise we'd be looking for a wide enough crack to get to the dirt underneath."
Pumbaa began to pace. "Then how are we gonna get out of this one?"
"Maybe Timon will have a plan... if he cares about saving me," Zuri said as she sat down.
Pumbaa stopped pacing and looked at her. "Of course he cares about you, Zuri. What makes you think...?"
"He overheard my conversation with Sly, Pumbaa! I'm sure he overheard my saying I'm not sure if he cares for me! That would crush him." She brought her knees up to her chest and folded her arms on top. "If he can even love me after I said that right in front of him..." She sighed and looked away from both Pumbaa and her brother. "I never should have pushed him so hard to saying the 'L' word. I should know he loves me."
"Of course he does." Pumbaa walked to the corner of his cage to get closer to the other cage with the meerkats inside. "He was trying so hard to be able to say it without choking while we were looking for the boys."
Zuri turned her eyes over to Pumbaa. "He was?"
"Of course. And I know he could say it before he met you, and after he met you. I just don't understand why he can't say it easily now. Maybe he's afraid."
"No, he's not afraid. He just never thought he'd ever say those three words to a girl he feels it towards and he gets tongue-tied." Zuri rested her back against the wall and rubbed her chin. "He never thought he'd ever end up with a girl, since he had such bad luck with them."
"Why am I not surprised?" Sudi asked under his breath.
Zuri turned to her brother. "You're in enough hot water with me. Don't add to it." Sudi nervously grinned. "They're just really strong words... and maybe he's not strong enough to say it to my face."
Pumbaa tilted his head to the side. "He'll come through for us, Zuri. Trust me." He turned back towards the bars and snorted. He lowered his head and charged towards them, banging his head against them. He grunted and continued to push, but to no avail.
"It didn't work the first five times you did it either," Sudi said.
"I just need those hyenas to call me a pig and I'll be angry enough to crash through these and save us," Pumbaa grunted and then sat down.
"Can't you just pretend one of them called you pig?" Zuri asked.
"I don't have a very strong imagination."
"Then what can we do?" Sudi asked with a sigh.
Pumbaa walked back to that corner of the cage to be closer to the meerkats and sighed, "Just wait for Timon." They looked towards the way they came in, waiting.
To be continued...