Simba finds Nala seconds from being ingested alive with two options before him: run away with his life or charge on ahead despite the risks.

Chapter 5: Pick Your Poison

"What kind of surprise are we talking about here?" Nala inquired with a raised eyebrow as she strolled alongside Simba. "It wouldn't really be a surprise if Uncle Scar gave it away," the Pride Land's Prince snarked back with a smile. "He just told me that he felt bad for what happened at the Elephant Graveyard so he's hoping to cheer us up." His best friend smiled back in delight. "Your uncle can be kind of creepy but he can be real nice." She realized her words and blushed sheepishly. "No offense..."

Simba couldn't help but chuckle. "Hey, it'd be weird if you thought he wasn't," he assured before blushing ever so slightly himself. "Though actually... he only asked me to come alone." The fairly flustered feline tried not to look directly at Nala while remembering his father's advice on that night. "It's just that... I felt guilty for what you had to go through with those Hyenas and how I should make it up to you." He only glanced over to find her cheeks going red accompanied by an awfully touched smile.

"I never knew you could be such a gentleman," Nala replied with a giggle, endeared by Simba's attempt at sincerity. "Not gonna lie, that adventure was scary," she began to admit with her smile dropping slightly, "but I always think about the way you stood before me like a real hero." The lioness cub couldn't help but close her eyes and grin internally over her gallant prince facing off against Shenzi, Banzai and Ed all alone just for her. "I don't think I ever told you how much it meant to me."

Simba felt his heart skip a beat at Nala's near confession and wanted to reciprocate immediately. "Well..." the young male started shakily, "I am the Pride Land's Prince." He knew what he wanted to say in his heart but his mouth wouldn't seem to let him. "It's my royal duty to make sure I keep everyone safe no matter what." The flustered feline looked at his best friend's rather sassy smirk and could almost hear her say, "Really?" Even he couldn't believe he just pulled such a lame cop out.

"Let's... not keep Uncle Scar waiting," Simba stammered as he drew up in front of Nala, hoping to change the subject. He could only sigh when his crush snickered once more at his obvious shyness and mentally told himself that he'll get it right during Uncle Scar's surprise. The Pride Land Prince told himself definitively that his feelings would be made known loud and proud. If he could look a trio of hyenas dead in the eye, how hard was confessing? It'd be the happiest moment of their lives.

Today would be a special day...

"Simba-URK!"

Simba moaned in his semi-slumbering state as his ears picked up on Nala's voice and hissing sounds that followed. His still sleepy mind mistook the latter noise for his best friend's flatulence still petering out, lifting his head slightly from his arms. "Look, I know it's a raw deal but it's the best I can think of," the former prince groggily retorted to what he thought was his crush trying to talk him out of his decision again. "You can get on my case... all you want... in the morning..."

Simba attempted to return to sleep when his ears picked up on some laughter along with that same hissing. "Oh, ssssshe won't be here in the morning, your highnesssss," the reptilian voice gloated with a haughty tone of voice Scar would've blushed at. His Highness began to open his eyes when he didn't recognize the voice and slowly began to push up from the branch with his fore-paws. "What's with your voice?" he groaned out. "You sound so..." His head glanced back.

"...strangled..."

One look caused Simba's mind to wake up in an instant and get him jumping back on all fours, fear shooting adrenaline throughout his veins. He prayed for but a second that he was still dreaming until he turned himself around and felt that freezing feeling of horror again. At the branch's base was Nala encased in scaly coils that shifted about to squeeze her entire body mercilessly. Only her head was actually visibly along with both hind legs dangling from the cocoon's bottom...

Simba felt his guts clench up just looking at Nala's expression as two small but strong coils squeezed her neck. Her eyes were borderline bloodshot as they could only give a deathly stare straight ahead that begged for either rescue or a quick end to it all. Her mouth was agape as if in perpetuate fear while trying to draw in what little air the coils would permit, creating wheezes one would expect from elders at death's door. The helplessness of it all was too utterly palpable.

"How it must eat you up," the purple python gloated in an almost curious manner. "A 'mighty lion' ssssuch asss yoursssself at the merccccy of a fellow predator." He kept flicking his tongue to taste Nala's scene as it became more tinged with fear by the second, the perfect spice to his meals. "Any moment now, you will be little more than a midnight sssnack dissssolving alive in my sssstomach acidssss." He snicked with such naked evilness. "Sssso degrading, wouldn't you agree?"

The purple python paused in pretending to wait for an answer while shifting his coils around Nala for another squeezing. Her furry body was delightful to feel in his grip and even more enjoyable to torture. Even without looking at her blue-violet face, the sadistic serpent could feel her pulse and heartbeat slowly fading with every bit of pressure he put upon her. Like a schoolyard bully, seeing the way weaklings buckled under his immense strength satisfied his ego immensely.

Nala choked painfully from the two coils tightening their grip around her throat once again. If her windpipe wasn't being tortured enough, she could swear that her bones were but seconds from breaking like twigs. The lioness cub could tell that the purple python could do just that but didn't want to damage his new toy already. If she had any chance of giving a straight answer, it would be, "Yes." It was a humiliating experience being some overgrown worm's personal plaything.

Nala could feel her life actually draining from her very body with every breath she couldn't take when she saw Simba in the corner of her eyes. She couldn't move her head for a better look but rolled her eyes ever so slightly downwards to find her best friend wide awake and horrified. It seem like the purple python hadn't noticed that he had gotten up and was wide open to be knocked away by a surprise attack any time. A spark of hope started to flicker within her heart...

Simba received Nala's message from the pleading glint in her eyes, begging her knight in shining armor to save her in her time of peril. By now, he would've dashed in and pounced upon the purple python's head in order to at least loosen his grip on her. However, it felt as though the python had its coils cocooning him with his inability to even move forward. His Highness couldn't forget this very same feeling when he witness the one he loved swallowed whole by a plant.

Just like then, Simba could only stand from a distance helplessly while Nala was put through hell itself before his very eyes. The idea of rushing in was quelled by the traumatic memory of how he had only delayed the inevitable. The most he could possibly do to the purple python was put himself at the top of the evil reptile's menu. His inner heroics urged him to damn the torpedoes and save the day. However, his anxieties told him that he'd essentially be committing suicide.

"Run," Uncle Scar had urged. "Run away and never come back."

Simba swallowed harder than ever before as the words replayed in his mind and steamed up his train of thought. He could just jump off the branch and onto the study one right below with the right timing in his pounce. The purple python would be too distracted constricting Nala to go after him so he could make it to the ground and gain enough distance to be home free. All he would have to do was leave the one he loved to her suffering and run away to save his own skin.

"It's not like I want to," Simba mumbled to himself, unable to look away from Nala's torture. "I just can't save anyone." It was Mufasa who saved Nala from the Hyenas, he barely dragged her through the desert half-dead and couldn't hang onto her properly when a plant was making her into fertilizer. The former prince of the Pride Lands kept reassuring himself how it was for the best. Right? All he had to do was jump onto the next branch down. Right? It was just that simple.

Right?

Nala's life hangs in the balance as Simba finds himself tempted by the coward's way out, doubting in his own abilities. What choice will he make?