Timon and Pumbaa plan to free Simba. Will they become sloppy seconds for the python?
Chapter 4: Prison Break
The python leisurely slithered through his part of the Jungle and enjoyed his time enormously. The sun was shining, warming him up really nice. The smaller animals he passed amused him with their fear, either scurrying away or becoming frozen in fright,losing bladder control. However, what made the day was feeling Simba wriggling within his stomach and hearing his muffled pleas of mercy. It emboldened his sadism to see and feel his pathetic prey's final moments.
"Oh, yesssss," the python hissed haughtily to Simba, "I'm ssssure a million more of your criesssss will convincccce me to sssssspare your life." He snickered at his own black humor while looking back at his stomach. A sizable bulge contained the unfortunate lion cub. "I can't tell you how it sssssatisssfiesss me to have put a sssso-called king of the Jungle in their placccccce." He smiled deeply while daydreaming about the digestion process about to slowly melt the prince down.
The python's fantasies were disturbed by a beetle hitting his cheek just shy of his left eye, a blatantly deliberate attack. "Okay, who'ssss feeling sssssuicidal today?" he hissed angrily with a modicum of restraint. The sadistic serpent saw Timon march out of the tall grass like some sort of cowboy or whatever the humans called it. His legs spread out along with his arms while he chewed a grasshopper leg in his mouth. The snake smirked upon seeing the circus in town.
"I believe ye got somethin' of mine in that fat gut of yer's," Timon declared with a country dialect, trying to mask his underlying fear. "Oh, let me guesssss," the python snarked with a roll of his eyes. "You're here for revenge becausssse I ate that lion you were palssss with, I killed your family, yadayada." Timon gulped as silently as he could to keep up his little cowboy act. "Only thing I want outta yer mouth is the cub coughed up on the double, y'hear?" Timing was everything.
"I have an idea that'll sssssatissssfy ussss both," the python hissed devilishly, slithering closer towards Timon. "I sssswallow you alive now and allow you to ssssspend a little more quality time with your cub." He opened his maw and lunged down towards the meerkat to eat him up in a single gulp. However, Timon smirked before Pumbaa pounced out of the grass behind him and knock his hard head into the python's throat. The serpent slithered back from quite the blow.
"I'm not in the mood for pigsssss," the python hissed irately, exchanging glares with Pumbaa, "but I could do with a good choking." The warthog rotated his body around to present his hindquarters bold and brashly. "Choke on this, you overgrown worm!" Timon plugged his nose while Pumbaa gritted his teeth and let loose his biggest fart to date. "FFFtttt..." his buttock declared diminutively with one short toot. An awkward atmosphere settled in around the three of them.
"Seriously?" Timon exclaimed exasperatedly. "NOW you're able to keep it in?" Pumbaa blushed over his... performance issues. "I swear this never happened before, even when I'm nervous," he pleaded, sounding like he was talking about... something else entirely. "I don't mean to interrupt thissss little lover'ssss sssspat," the python rudely butted in, "but I'll be killing you now if that'sss okay." He widened his maw and lunged down for Timon. They got away just in time.
"C'mon, Pumb," Timon panted, running by his partner's side. "Fart like your life depends on it." The meerkat let his fear fuel his legs for the long haul. "Mainly because it does." Pumbaa strained to make some kind of bowel movement while making his mad dash. "Of all the times to get constipated..." he moaned, feeling guilty about letting his surrogate son down. "I'm sorry, Simba." Timon could see that his S.O. was feeling down. However, a loud hissing killed the mood.
Both of Timon and Pumbaa's eyes nearly popped out of their skulls when they screamed at the sight of the python gaining on them. "It's not too late, Pumb," the meerkat encouraged the warthog. "You just gotta-" However, his pep talk was cut off when he tripped and hit his nose on the dirt. "Owwww," Timon groaned before a shadow loomed over him and made his heart sink. "Think of it thissssssss way," the chilling voice hissed. "You'll be able to part way properly."
Pumbaa turned around just in time to be horrified by the sight of the python's maw chomping down on Timon and swallowing him in a single gulp. He saw the small bulge travel down the snake's throat and teared up over the idea that his love had been reduced to a snake's snack. "As for you, Mr. Pig," the python hissed haughtily, "I can't exactly fit you in my mouth but I'll enjoy seeing you slowly choke in my coils." He salivated at the idea of such a slow and satisfying kill.
Pumbaa scowled back with tears in his eyes, finding himself with nothing left to lose. "Choke on this, murderer," he uttered like an action hero before rotating around to display his dangerous derriere. "BRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPTTTTTT!" his butthole erupted with one long blast of gas from his ass. A plume of green flumes engulfed the python and sent the stench upon his tongue before it entered his mouth. The serpent's eyes went wide as coconuts in but seconds.
"Oh, you disgusting-" the python hissed angrily as such an offensive odor. However, his tirade was cut off by his innards convulsing in responds to the potent pong and caused him to vomit up Timon. The meerkat landed on the ground covered in the snake's bodily fluids and was only distracted by the gross mess all over him from the fart polluting the air. "Woo-wee, Pumb," Timon praised his partner while waving the air away. He remembered why he stuck with the warthog.
"No... don't make me-" the python begged with a desperate look in his eye. All trace of swagger and control left his expression when the bulge that contained Simba traveled up his throat despite his best efforts. Timon and Pumbaa looked on with baited breath as the lion cub's hind legs jumped out of the python's maw, dangling listlessly. Soon, the python couldn't contain his nausea any more and let Simba slide out of his gullet. The ex-prince grunted on his crash landing.
Simba moaned from hitting the ground and fatigue after being in the python's stomach with thin air. He was too exhausted to properly process that he was back outside and panted while laying on the dirt all slimed up. "What... how..." the lion cub mumbled while lifting his head feebly despite his body's lack of energy. "Kid, you're alive!" Timon checked while coming up to Simba's face and grabbing his head by the cheeks. "Way t' tough it out!" He kissed his boy jovially.
The python coughed up more of Pumbaa's noxious fumes and could only do so much to keep from blowing chunks. "Okay, tough guy," he heard the warthog declare in an intense tone of voice. "Here's what you're gonna do." The snake saw a most murderous intent in Pumbaa's eyes that made him flinch. "You turn tail and leave our kid alone, y'here?" The serpent gulped when the pudgy pig turn around to display his huge butt. "Next time, it'll be potent enough to kill you."
The python swallowed hard before slithering away and barely keeping himself from upchucking. "Yessss, sssssir," he hissed humbly, making himself scarce speedily. "Pumbaa, you and your big beautiful butt really came through!" Timon cheered while jumping on his partner's back to hug him. "I'll never complain about nocturnal emissions again." Pumbaa smiled back at his meerkat before noticing Simba starting to stand up. The pair turned their attention to their ward.
Simba pushed himself up by his fore-arm and slouched heavily from running on fumes. He was still coughing from the chokehold he could still feel when he saw Timon and Pumbaa rush up. "Sorry to cut it close, Simba," the meerkat apologized with a smile, hoping to make light of the situation. "Pumbaa needed just the right amount of indigestion to get the potency just right-" Without warning, the lion cub sniffled and began to tear up in hopes of holding back the floodwaters.
"Whoa, whoa now!" Pumbaa quickly spoke softly to a sobbing Simba. "If it's the gas, it'll only sting a little." The lion cub rubbed the tear from his eyes, embarrassed to seem this weak in front of his own guardians. "It was all my fault..." he choked out. "I couldn't move an inch in his coils." Timon and Pumbaa kept quiet to let their kid cry it all out. "And no matter how hard I tried, he made me into his little toy." The memories of his torture replayed inside of his head.
"None of this was your fault, kid," Timon promised softly, coming up to Simba's right side. "That snake choose to bully you and nearly make a meal out of you." Pumbaa came over to the lion cub's left side. "All we care about is that your safe with us again," he swore to Simba. "You don't have to be a big, strong lion when you still got growing to do." His words managed to get a soft smile out of the former prince of the Pride Lands. "Like we've always said: Hakuna Matata."
Simba could out sigh in relief after hearing his guardian's reassure him. "Hakuna Matata," he repeated, remembering how they saved him with the phrase not too long ago. "And hey," Timon said, starting to look a bit more cheeky, "how metal was is that you'd nearly got eaten alive and lived?" Pumbaa played along and even made a big chuckle while leading the gang back towards their stomping grounds. "I'm more impressed you'd survived being squeezed to begin with."
Simba enjoyed their banter but couldn't shake off the verbal bullying the python had put him through. As a lion... it pained him to think about how there was such an animal that wasn't just stronger but could make sport of them if they chose. The cub had been humbled by this experience in knowing that Timon and Pumbaa saving him was by chance. If they didn't know a thing, Simba would've been digested slowly out of sight. It would be like if the ex-prince never existed.
The harrowing moment of discovering Mufasa's corpse replayed in his mind. Another loved one or two could've been lost because he was in over his head again. All of this reaffirmed one thing for Simba. He was better off in the Jungle than in the Pride Lands. The former prince missed his mom deeply and never truly appreciated Nala until she was far, far away. However, it was now the lion cub knew that he needed to keep far away from them for their own protection.
Simba exits this deadly adventure feeling affirmed in his decision to run away from home. That is, up until an old friend comes back into his life.