A/N: Hey, guys. How're you all doing? Super good I hope. :D I'm going to get straight down to business. Lots has changed, but not unnaturally, in the fanfiction. Whenever there is significant change, I won't put it in a character's point of view because I want a greater scope of the outward differences of everything – including them. Can't wait for you to read and tell me what you think.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Lion King and/or its characters – I only own Lela and this plot that you see before you in the form of meu fanfiction. Meu means my, it's Portuguese.
Anyhoo! Here it is, enjoy!
Chapter 4
"Ah," sigh Kopa and his uncles Timon and Pumbaa in harmony. They found a spacious and deep mud-filled hole on the edge of a grove where the grazers tend to congregate. It's a bright green area of the Pridelands with strong trees for shade and a cool spring to ease into.
'Now this is the highlife,' thinks the now juvenile lion as he stretches out his arms. The birth of a brunette mane sprouts densely atop his head and lines his back, contrasting nicely with his tawny fur. He has sharp, ebony eyebrows that usually shape a competitive and inquisitive look about him, when he isn't being a couch potato that is, and has grown to the size of his father. He hasn't yet grown out of the dark rims around his ears, and it's unlikely that he will. All that's left is for his mane to fully blossom, but as it is, one might consider him a handsome sight.
Timon yawns graciously, then smacks his lips on one side of the lion, "I needed this break."
"Did you, Timon?" Kopa smirks.
"Yeah, I did!" informs the meerkat. "It's not natural to do nothing for so long, ya know? I needed to take a break from all that," he flicks his wrist with his eyes shut in dismissal.
A chuckle bounces about Kopa's throat before he sinks down further into the muddy mud. "You doing okay, uncle Pumbaa?" asks he, head tossed back in recline on the edge of the mud pool and eyes closed.
The soft-hearted pig has a serious, thoughtful look on his face. "Why does the sun only come out during the day?" he speaks up on the other side of the prince.
"Is thatwhat was on your mind, Pumbaa?" asks Timon with disbelief at the simplicity of the answer. "It's so obvious." Kopa and Pumbaa cast their sights at Timon with expectancy. Timon rotates his wrist and boldly goes on to say, "The sun gets tired, so it goes to sleep. Everybody gets tired, Pumbaa."
"Oh," sighs Pumbaa.
"So it just comes back on time every day," Kopa asks with a quizzical look and somewhat sceptical tone.
"Of course it does," Timon replies. He gives Kopa a mentoring yet apathetic look. "Kid, in life there are a lot of complicated concepts. The sun is not one of them."
"I always thought that we somehow circled the sun," starts Pumbaa with a contemplative expression, rounding his hooves around each other. "And that when it falls out of sight, it's because it's busy making it daytime somewhere else on the earth."
Timon laughs gregariously. "Pumbaa! That's hilarious," he tosses a hand out, swinging it down to splash in the mud. "You've gotta stop with these jokes, buddy, you're killin' me." after laughing thoroughly, Timon recollects himself to ask a question. "You know I like hanging with you, Kid, but why aren't you off doing something important?"
"Yeah," asks Pumbaa. "You and your dad are usually too busy to sit and have a mud bath."
Kopa shrugs looking anywhere but in the eyes of his company. "I've had some free time on my hands. I mean, Afua and Beba are constantly together now. They're getting so excited to leave the Pridelands and start their own families. They're pretty much inseparable so I don't really have much of anybody to hang out with."
"What about that other she-lion? What was her name?" Timon looks off, pecking at his ear trying to recall the name of Kopa's lioness companion.
"Oh. You mean Lela," Kopa says. He looks down at the muddy pool. "She's around… when she's not with Rafiki."
"The monkey?" asks Timon.
Kopa nods. "Yeah," he says. He looks up towards Rafiki's tree not too far off. He catches a flash of the lioness of mention, bustling about. "She's really interested in practically everything he has to say."
"Is that all?" asks Pumbaa.
Kopa glances at his warthog uncle. "What do you mean?"
"Well, if you wanna hang out with her, all you've got to do is be more interesting than Rafi-"
Timon swims over and claps his hands to Pumbaa's mouth. "Don't listen to him, Kopa!" Timon says with a nervous chuckle. He swings his attention back at his pig friend. "Pumbaa," he hisses. "What're you doing? You can't give him ideas! He's gonna go off now and bother that female friend of his," Timon points his thumb over his shoulder at Rafiki's tree, still keeping his voice low. "I though you learned something from Simba! Give a guy an inch, he'll take a mile! We don't want it to be the end of Hakuna Matata all over again, do we?"
Pumbaa shakes his head, but points behind Timon. "Uh, Timon," he murmurs.
"No, Pumbaa," Timon silences. "Let me handle the talking. You just… have a grub or something. I don't know. Only attentive and observant people should be allowed to talk. You're like the friend of the smart guy."
"Timon?" Pumbaa mumbles again, a little more urgently with more urgent pointing.
"What, Pumbaa?!" asks the meerkat. "What is it that you want to say? I thought we agreed on you saying nothing. What could be so important?!"
"Kopa's gone," Pumbaa says finally.
Timon spins around and sees the young lion kicking up dust in a sprint off to Rafiki's tree ahead. He sighs, dropping his shoulders. "It starts."
Meanwhile, Lela sits on the floor of Rafiki's home, looking out towards the Pridelands from a pair of branches that sort of window her view. She stares aloofly, daydreaming actually, versus admiring the view. Rafiki said he'd be back shortly. He had to go get some more yellow powder in a place only he knows of. So Lela volunteered to keep watch of his tree and possessions while he's gone. As time has gone by, she hasn't changed much in physical appearance. She still has the same honey-golden fur and the same dark wood eyes. She just looks older.
"Boo!" shouts Kopa, springing to view in Lela's 'mirror'.
"Ah!" she shrieks throwing a fist at Kopa's face. He falls over but claws at the tree, keeping himself from falling. Lela leans over and grabs Kopa from behind his elbows. "Oh, you're heavy!" she whines.
"Hey, I didn't hit myself in the face," Kopa chuckles.
"So you're just going to sit there and do nothing while I pull you up?" Lela's feet slide towards her overhanging arms, unable to stay anchored due to her friend's weight.
"It's pretty entertaining to watch you try," teases Kopa, but he climbs up the tree with his hind legs. Both lions give a grunt as they force up the male lion. When he's over the edge of the tree, the momentum drives Lela back and she falls on her back. The thrust flies Kopa over the ledge and tosses him on top of his friend. He opens his eyes, realizing that something had softened his fall. He pushes up on his arms in surprise, still on top of her. Her gaze is just as befuddled as his. 'Woah,' thinks he. 'She looks kind of… different.' He doesn't even notice that he's staring at the lioness until her features shift.
"Heh," Lela beams widely, downright embarrassed and skittish. Had this happened with any other male lion, it wouldn't have her jumpy. This, being a prince whose opinion matters for many reasons, is particularly an event. "I, um… I didn't expect for…"
"No, I thought that I'd…" Kopa's eyes wander away from Lela, trying to finish his sentence. His flustered attitude is the more dominant over his curiosity to further study his friend's face. "…that once you pulled me up enough I'd, you know…"
"Yeah," Lela nods, also diverting her gaze. "And if you'd… I would've, stepped back and this uh might've been prevented. But I did pull you a bit hard."
"Yeah, you're stronger than you look," Kopa compliments with a little smile. Lela glances back at Kopa, a tad surprised at the kind words but also flattered.
She gives a small acknowledging huff with a smile. "Thank you."
The lions stare for a minute at each other before a familiar, formal voice chimes in. "Ah! Sire, Timon and Pumbaa said you might be here."
"Ah!" both Kopa and Lela panic in a scramble to pull away from one another at the sound of another creature. Once separated and standing up straight a good distance from each other, Kopa speaks. "Hi, Zazu!" he says a scrap too merrily. "You need me?"
"I've been instructed to fetch you," says Zazu with a nod after perching on the window that Kopa was pulled through not too long ago. "Your parents have particularly exciting news to share with you, young Sire."
"Exciting news?" Kopa questions with a raised brow.
"Oh yes!" Zazu buzzes gleefully. "Come along, Sire. It's simply remarkable!" Zazu flaps his wings and heads out slowly.
Kopa takes a step forward, then looks back to Lela. She gives him an earnest smile, her lips pressed together. He smiles back at her, wanting to say something, but instead he hops down the tree and takes off after Zazu. He catches up to him and they dart towards Pride Rock.
"Are you going to give me a clue as to what this exciting news is?" huffs Kopa, running alongside the hornbill.
"I'm afraid not, Kopa," says Zazu. "Your parents were very clear on me being tight-lipped."
"Bummer," Kopa laughs.
When the pair get to Pride Rock, they find Nala and Simba sitting at the base of the structure with bright, brilliant smiles on their faces.
"You're here," says Simba.
Kopa nods, wordless from the need of air. "I am."
"I assume Zazu mentioned that we've got some interesting news," Nala tells.
"Oh, I did," nods the bird. He rests on the ground next to Simba. "But I was perfectly vague, Your Majesties."
"Yeah, he was," says Kopa. He rolls his shoulders in question. "What's the big whoop?"
Simba and Nala bounce a look between themselves before Nala turns back to her son. "How do you feel about being a big brother?"
Kopa stops breathing for half a minute, looking from both his parents to Zazu. "A big brother?"
Alrighty, there it is. I'm sure you all know who that little bundle of joy to be is. Heh. I totally realized that I left out Sarabi in this whole fanfiction! I think she'd still be around by the time that Simba and Nala have kiddies so I'll figure out a way to involve her. Thanks so much for reading, guys! Please drop a review, I really enjoy reading them, and they're such a great motivation. Even if it's just to say, 'Good job,' or some constructive criticism. I welcome it with open arms. Take care!