A/N: Thanks to those of you who reviewed. This chapter has some flashbacks which are in italics so no one will get confused.

Chapter Four:

The Other Side

It was slow going, but by late afternoon Nina and Max had dug their way around Pride Rock. By this time, Nina was exhausted, having slept little the night before. Her head was in a haze as she broke through the surface to get her bearings. She was in a large bare patch of ground, which gave her the perfect view of a terrible sight.

Three half-grown hyenas surrounded a little ground squirrel, laughing as the poor creature scurried back and forth to try to find an opening. Though they were not yet adults, they were quite powerful, with strong jaws and large, pointed teeth. Nina was petrified. She had seen this before; death wouldn't come easily for this prey. Some hyenas savored fear and pain almost as much as meat.

"Okay, we've had our fun," one of them said. "You can go." The hyena moved to the side, and the squirrel hesitated for a couple of heartbeats before making a mad dash for freedom, only to be blocked when the hyena sprang back to close the circle. "Gotcha!" She knocked the squirrel back effortlessly with a swipe of her paw.

Nina felt fury rise within her, burning away the haze of exhaustion. She knew she couldn't let this happen again- not if she could do anything about it. Max's questions of what was going on barely registered. "Stay back, Uncle Max," she said, and she sprang out of the hole and ran a little way toward the hyenas.

"Hey, cowards! Does it really take three hyenas to bring down a squirrel?" Her voice wasn't nearly as loud as Max's, but it did the job. The three young hyenas turned their heads toward her- and so did the older hyenas that were lying farther away. Seizing the opportunity, the squirrel sped off in the opposite direction, and Nina turned around and darted back to the hole. Her tail go caught on something on the way, but she quickly tugged herself free and plummeted into the tunnel, colliding head-on with Max.

"Max! I told you to stay back!" A huge grey paw slid in after her, and they ran back until they were sure it couldn't reach them.

"I wanted to see what was going on," replied Max, rubbing his back where it had hit the ground when Nina slammed into him. "From now on I'm going to look first. No more scampering out to rescue total strangers!"

"So it would be better to let him die, is that it?" Nina's heart was still pounding from fear and excitement.

"Better than throwing your life away for nothing!" His fists were clenched at his sides. "Don't you realize you could have been killed? You think you can face carnivores thirty times your size! It ain't natural, I tell you!"

"I know all that!" she snapped. "But what they did to that squirrel reminded me of what they did to Nate. It killed him, Max. Don't you get it? I couldn't watch it happen again."

Max slowly opened his fists and shook his head sadly. "You've got too much of your father in you."

Nina was surprised; Max hardly ever talked about her father, although the rest of the colony mentioned him often. She opened her mouth to speak, but Max continued. "I tried to teach him to be a good meerkat, you know. To respect the elders, play it safe, and above all, to stay away from creatures with fangs and talons." His brow furrowed. "He never listened to a word I said."

As he spoke, Nina became aware of a little pricking sensation in the spot where her tail had snagged. . . No, it hadn't snagged, she realized. One of the hyenas' claws had scratched her. She curled her tail in front of her and bent to inspect it.

"You're bleeding," said Max in alarm.

"It's not that bad. I'm fine." Nina sucked on the wound; there was no other way to clean it in the tunnel, and her mother had always said saliva was as good as water.

ooo

After a brief rest, they continued to dig, but they weren't sure which way to go. There was no one else for them to ask, and it was too dangerous to take more than a quick look above ground, which made it all the more difficult to figure out what Timon "looked beyond" next. Max thought he had headed southwest, but Nina thought he might have gone to "Smog Land."

"Are you kidding me?" said Max. "Even Timon's not that crazy. I wouldn't set foot in that geologically unstable area even if there are no hyenas there."

Nina didn't ask how he knew a phrase like "geologically unstable."

In the end they agreed to skirt around the hyena's former territory. As the weak daylight faded, so did Nina's energy, and though they hated to spend another night in the Pridelands, they knew they had no choice.

"We should be out of it before noon," said Max. "Try to get some sleep tonight."

But sleep didn't come easily. When Nina curled up and closed her eyes, memories rushed to the surface of her mind.

"I beat you again, Dad!" Timon grinned and jumped around in the bright noon sun. He was eight weeks old.

"And you even gave me a head start that time!" Nate grinned back at him. "You sure are fast, kiddo."

"I know!" Timon agreed. "C'mon, let's race again. Ready, set-"

"Maybe later, Timmy. I'm feeling a bit winded."

Naturally, Timon's tiny face scrunched up in confusion. "There's no wind now."

"No, I mean, I need to catch my breath."

"That's silly. How do you catch a breath?"

By the time Nate made Timon understand what he meant, his breathing was back to normal, and they raced again.

ooo

It was the start of evening twilight, and Timon stood by himself, staring toward the thin clouds that were still lit with orange. The new crescent moon resembled a crisp smile hanging above the glowing clouds.

Nina walked up to stand beside him. "Pretty, isn't it?"

For a few moments, Timon watched the colors fade in silence. Then he turned to look down at Nina. At seven months old, he had reached his full height, but he wouldn't come of age for a few more months. "What happens to us when we die?" he asked. "I've been told so many different things. . . How can anyone be sure?"

The question didn't surprise her. Actually, she was surprised he hadn't asked sooner; they had lost Nate almost three weeks earlier. "Well. . . I know there's an afterlife the same way I know rain will come after a drought. . . After you die, it can only get better."

Timon seemed pacified. "That makes sense. . . I still miss him, though. I wonder what he's doing now?"

Nina's eyes grew moist, but she smiled. "Probably talking to your grandparents, telling them how proud he is of you."

"Not much to be proud of," Timon muttered, staring at the dry ground.

"That's not true, Timon," She put her hand on his shoulder. "You're a great kid. You've got a good heart, a good imagination, and a great sense of humor. That's more than you can say about a lot of meerkats."

ooo

The next morning, Max and Nina made good progress until they came to a barrier they hadn't expected. They heard it before they saw it: a constant gurgling sound that was almost musical. It reminded Nina of splashing in a puddle. And in a sense, it turned out to be the biggest puddle she'd yet seen.

She'd heard of rivers, of course, but it never occurred to her that she and Max might have to cross one. It was wider than a giraffe is tall, and though the current did not seem strong, it was very muddy. Anything could have been in it.

"Well," she said, "I guess we'll have to swim across."

Max gave her an are-you-nuts look.

"What else are we going to do? Go around it?" She put a paw on her hip and gestured toward the stream. "Sit here until it dries up? Or maybe you'd rather go back home?"

He winced. "All right, I get it. We don't have much of a choice." Still they delayed, looking around nervously. Max was trembling the way he had when they'd first left their colony.

"Look," said Nina, putting her paw on his shoulder and pointing across the stream. "Those antelope are coming down to the water. It must be safe." The slender orange-brown antelope seemed almost as nervous as the two meerkats. Their ears swiveled as they cautiously bent to suck at the water.

Nina turned back to her uncle, who seemed less than convinced. "We'll go on three," she said, trying to sound confident and firm. "One. . . Two. . ."

"If we die, I'll never forgive you."

She faltered. "Now you've gone and interrupted me. I'll start over. . . One. . . Two. . . Three."

They jumped into the stream and found that it was shallow enough for them to stand. The chilly water swished into their fur as they waded forward. Soon it was up past their necks and they discovered that, like most mammals, they could swim reasonably well. They could keep their heads above water and push themselves forward, and that was enough. Nina fixed her gaze on the bank and thought about climbing onto the dry, firm earth. Shoving aside her fears of crocodiles and snapping turtles, she focused on her destination.

Then she shrieked as something smooth and hairless brushed against her feet.

"What happened!" Max said in a panic.

"S-something touched me!" said Nina, panicking even more.

"Where?"

"My feet- I don't know where it is now!"

"Just- just keep swimming as fast as you can. There's nothing else we can do."

"What do you think I'm doing!" She paddled as fast as she could, but the shore was approaching very slowly. It was a huge relief when her feet finally touched the muddy bed. She and Max ran as quickly as the water would allow until they climbed onto the bank. Then they ran further until they were well away from the stream. Nina dropped to the ground with her arms stretched out, embracing as much of the land as she could.

"Hey- you okay?"

Startled by the unfamiliar voice, Nina looked up and saw one of the antelope bending toward her.

"I'm fine now, thanks," she said, standing up and shaking water out of her fur.

"Since you're not dead or hurt, it was prolly just a fish that touched you," he assured her.

"Okay. . ." She wasn't sure what to say to that. "That's good to know, I guess." She shook again, spraying little droplets; then she looked up again as she remembered something.

"Say, you wouldn't happen to have seen a meerkat riding a warthog, would you?"

The large animal blinked in surprise. "Actually, yeah. We saw them the day of Simba's ceremony." He paused. "It's really sad, what happened. He was only a kid and all. . ."

"What? Who?" Anxiety rose within her.

"Simba." The antelope raised an eyebrow. "You know, King Mufasa's son? Got trampled by wildebeests?"

"Oh," she said, trying not to sound relieved. "Yeah. Anyway, do you know where the meerkat and warthog went?"

"No idea."

"Hm. Well, thanks anyway." She turned to Max, who was busy wringing his tail. "Come on, Uncle Max, let's keep going south. . . Oh, you missed a spot." A patch of fur on his tail was sticking up a little, and she smoothed it down, not caring much that her own fur was still scruffy all over.

A/N: I couldn't find a Swahili name for Timon's father that suited me, so I finally dubbed him Nate after Nathan Lane, who I hope you know is the voice of Timon. I still think that the writers of TLK 1.5 meant for Fearless Buzz to be Timon's father, but I thought of something else that works better for this particular fanfic. And since he never made it to the movie, I can take more liberties with him.

By now you've probably guessed how Buzz is related to our meerkat heroes.

P.S. There's a reference to the movie Robots in this chapter. Can anyone spot it?