Chapter 8 – Preparing for Battle

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"Everyone's ready and waiting." said Pumbaa.

"Good." Timon replied, "Let's go."

Pumbaa lowered his head and Timon and Zina climbed aboard.

"Got your stick?" Zina asked Timon.

"In hand." he said, holding it up.

"Your plan?"

"Memorized."

"Your nosefor?"

"What's a nosefor?"

"For smelling, silly."

Timon gave Zina a weird look for a moment, until he got the joke.

"Oh, wait! I get it!" he said laughing, "That's a good one!"

"I see his sense of humor's starting to rub off on you." Pumbaa said to Zina.

Pumbaa went to the meeting place, with Timon and Zina riding on his back. All the other meerkats in the colony were talking among themselves as they waited for Timon. As soon as they arrived, Timon and Zina climbed off Pumbaa, and Timon cleared his throat.

"If I could have everyone's attention please?" he said.

Unable to hear him, everyone continued talking.

"Ahem. Can we please quiet down now?"

Still they continued.

"For the last time, I… want… QUIET!"

Finally, everyone stopped and turned their attention to him.

"Thank you. Now then ladies and gentlemen, as promised, I have a plan."

Simultaneously relieved and worried, the other meerkats all sighed with relief and then gulped.

"Now I'm not gonna lie and say this will be easy," Timon continued, "but if it works, you'll all be glad you decided to stay. Pumbaa, do you remember how we stopped the hyenas at Pride Rock?"

"Uhh… well, first we danced for them and then you made a marriage prop-"

Timon quickly put his hands over Pumbaa's mouth.

"Besides that, Pumbaa." he said through clenched teeth.

"Oh. Umm… oh yeah! Nina and Max set a trap for them; which caused them to fall down a long tunnel!"

"Yes, Pumbaa. So that's what we need to do now. Build traps. And for our first trap, we're going to dig a big hole right here."

"I get it!" Tony said, "And then we cover the hole with leaves and grass, so that when the hyenas step on the cover, they'll fall in the hole! Right?"

"Very good, Tony. Now, who's up for digging one last tunnel?"

No hands were raised.

"As opposed to hundreds?"

Getting the point, half of the meerkats raised their hands.

"Okay, Tony, you start and I'll tell you when to stop."

Tony started digging.

"And… stop! Alright, the rest of you come over here and start digging until you get to the spot where Tony's standing."

The other volunteers got in position and started digging.

"Dig a tunnel, dig dig a tunnel." they sang softly, "When you're done, you…"

"Guys, please!" Timon shouted to them.

"Sorry!" they all shouted back, before resuming digging.

"That song brings back too many bad memories." Timon said to Zina.

"Ah." she replied, "Say, Timon, what was that about a marriage propos-"

Timon gently put his hand over Zina's mouth.

"Excuse us a moment." he said to the other meerkats.

He escorted Zina behind a tree, just a few feet away from the trap. Then he looked around to make certain that nobody would hear them.

"Okay, here's what happened. When Pumbaa and I lured the hyenas to the trap, Ma and Uncle Max weren't finished building it yet. So Pumbaa and I had to distract the hyenas until the trap was finished. Unfortunately, I… ran out of good ideas. So I had to do the only thing left that I could think of. I proposed to the female hyena. And only after doing that, was I able to buy enough time for Ma and Uncle Max to finish the trap."

Zina blinked a few times, not knowing what to say.

"Wow." she said, "Just… wow!"

"I know. I hate myself for doing it, but it was the only idea I had left."

Timon sighed and looked down at the ground, until Zina put her hand on his shoulder.

"Look at it this way, Timon. If you hadn't done it, you'd be dead now. And you would never have ended up with me."

Timon thought about what Zina said and realized she was right. He looked up at her with a smile and said, "Thanks, Zina." Soon afterwards, their lips were touching and they each had their arms wrapped around each other.

"Shall we get back to the new hyena traps now?" Zina asked as they pulled away.

"In a sec."

Timon gave her one more brief but passionate kiss, then got up and said, "Okay, let's go."

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Back at the hyena's den, Brutus, Akili, and Bob feasted on a zebra's corpse.

"Think he'll ever find the place?" Brutus asked Akili.

"Sure, he will. If he looks hard enough." Akili replied, chewing up a mouthful of meat.

"You really think so?" Bob asked.

Akili swallowed and said, "No. In fact, I bet that place doesn't really even exist."

"Well, hey, I never been there. I just heard a rumor that they lived there."

Akili and Brutus just ignored Bob and continued eating. Shortly afterwards, Lakota appeared, out of breath from running all the way there.

"Well, look what the lion dragged in." said Brutus, "Any luck?"

"As a matter of fact, I did find Timon, and caught sight of Pumbaa." Lakota responded, "And as much as I hate to admit it, Bob, you were right. They really do live in that lush tropical oasis."

Bob just smirked, knowing that Lakota would slap him if he said anything.

"So, did you eat them or not?" Akili asked.

"No. I didn't have the chance to. There was an entire colony of meerkats there and I couldn't possibly take both them and Pumbaa alone. I'm gonna need help."

"Well, how far away is it?"

"'bout a day and a half's journey from here, I'd say."

"Why don't you have some zebra with us first and we'll go tomorrow?" Bob asked.

Bob then flinched, waiting for Lakota to slap him. Lakota started to, but then stopped and thought about it.

"You know, that's a good idea." he said, "We should take it easy now. We'll need our energy for the hunt."

Bob sighed with relief as Lakota joined the feast. But shortly afterwards, Lakota did slap Bob.

"OW!" Bob cried, rubbing his face, "Hey, what'd I do?"

"Nothing." Lakota replied, "I just felt like slapping someone."

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To be continued