Chapter 3:

Kovu

Yesterday was spent trying to keep me calm and out of danger. Today is a new day as Kiara and I wake up. I go out to the edge to sit and look at the sunrise as she is caught by Simba.

"Whoa, where do you think you're going?" he asks.

As he moves her from the other edge she says, "Daddy! Let go!"

"I just want you to be careful." he says.

A butterfly passes by, catching Kiara's attention, but she's stopped when Simba puts his paw on her tail in the middle of a jump.

"Kiara, are you listening? Mwezi, come here a sec." Simba says. My ear twitches to my name, making me turn to look.

I walk over as he says, "Accidents can happen, you two. You could get hurt or stepped on-" Kiara continues, "-Hurt or stepped on, or even get lost."

"Smartypants." I say.

"...And remember, I want you to stay in the sight of Pride Rock at all-" he says as Kiara recites, "-At all times. And if I see any strangers, don't talk to them. Come straight home. Okay, okay, can I go now? Pleeeaaase?"

Nala and Zazu come out of the cavern as Simba says, "Hmm, very funny."

Losing interest, I walk back to the edge for more gazing.

Nala gently laughs and says, "Mind your father, Kiara."

"Are you okay, Mwezi?" Zazu asks.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm okay. Just...I dunno. I feel, bothered by something." I reply.

"Like what, Young One?" Shenzi asks.

"Mmph, I dunno. Maybe it was the event from yesterday, or something else." I answer.

"It shouldn't take long to figure out." Shenzi says.

"Hey Mwezi, let's go!" Kiara says decending Pride Rock. I follow out of boredom.

"And stay on the path I've marked for you!" Simba calls.

"Simba, who does she remind you of?" Nala chuckles.

Simba cluseless asks, "What? Who?"

"My, my, even as a King he has trouble with his memory." Shenzi teases.

"She's just like you were when you were young." Nala says.

"Exactly. Do you realize the dangers we put ourselves in?" Simba replies.

"Hahaha, you mean the dangers YOU got the both of you into." Shenzi says.

Nala nuzzles Simba and reassures, "They'll be fine. Mwezi will keep Kiara in line."

As she walks away Shenzi calls for Banzai and Edd, saying, "Let's go you two! Time to go look for food!"

Simba then calls over Timon and Pumbaa who were standing watching the sunrise. He tells them to go watch out for us.

Meanwhile on the path, Kiara chases a butterfly, and I try to keep up.

"Kiara! Slow down!" I call.

She leaps onto a rock, and looks over finding the Outlands and says as she sits on the top, "Cooool. The Outlands."

"Oh good, water." I say finding water next to the rock Kiara's on, going for a drink.

Footsteps from behind her are heard and as she turns to look, Timon, Pumbaa, and her start screaming out of shock, and Kiara falls in.

"Ack! Great, I'm wet." I say shaking off the water.

It was meaningless as I hear, "Don't worry Kiara! Uncle Pumbaa's comin'!" SPLASH!

Timon says, "Oh no! Ohh...uh...uh...let's see, uh...Gee Simba, the good news is, we found the girls. The bad news is, we dropped a warthog on one. Is...there a problem with that?"

As Pumbaa looks from side to side calling her name, Timon and I say simultaneously, "Pumbaa! Let me define 'babysitting'!"

Pumbaa quickly gets off and Kiara resurfaces, finally getting air.

Pumbaa says, "Sorry. Now Princess Kiara, as Simba's daughter, you should know better than to go off all alone. You could've been hurt."

Timon freaks and says, "Hurt? Oh your father would kill us!"

"Um, I exist too." I call, still soaked.

But Timon goes on examining Kiara. I shake off all the water and leap into the group. Kiara swats away a leaf that Timon was holding over her.

"Would someone just please listen to me?" she asks.

"I'm sorry; I wasn't listening. Did you say something Princess?" Timon asks.

"I'm not just a princess. That's only half of who I am." Kiara says.

"Oh, then who's the other half?" Pumbaa asks.

I reply, "Look at it this way: out of control half, in control half."

"That's not it." Kiara says.

I growl in return.

"Well while you're figuring that out, let's eat!" Timon says snapping his fingers.

Pumbaa walks over and using his tusks, lifts up a nearby half log with all kinds of bugs crawling around.

Timon picks one up and continues, "Grubs!"

He gathers some putting them on a leaf as Pumbaa says, "The other white meat."

"And so high in protein." Timon says offering to Kiara.

She responds, "Ewww! Gross!"

"No? How 'bout you, Mwezi? Don't tell me you grew out of them." Timon offers.

I grab a big red one (identical to what Simba grabbed as a cub), and say, "Thanks Timon."

As I slurp it up, Pumbaa suddenly coughs up his grub.

"Oh! I hate it when you do that! You try every one and then you put it back; it drives me crazy!" Timon says.

Pumbaa says, "But you can't tell on the outside which is the real slimy ones."

"I agree." I say.

"But Pumbaa my corpulent compadre, it's the crunchgy ones that make the meal." Timon argues, throwing one into his mouth.

Soon both are going back and forth saying slimy or crunchy. Kiara looks back over to the Outlands as I go to the log, lift it, and find another big red one. Kiara rushes off to the Outlands. I go to look back with it half hanging out of my mouth, but find she's missing.

"{Great.}" I thought as I gave chase, slurping it along the way.

She makes it to the bridge and slows to a walk, but falls off not watching her step and bowls into an outlander cub. He had very dark fur, and a black tuft on his head. He pops back up facing her and starts snarling.

She's startled as he asks walking toward her, "Who are you, Pridelander?" and continues growling.

Kiara starts to back off, and jumps around trying to keep him in front of her.

I call, "Kiara!" and jump in between, puffing out my fur and growling right back at him.

He gets confused and asks, "What the heck? What were you doing, and who are you, Cottonball?"

"My father says to never turn your back on an Outsider!" Kiara replies.

"Meanwhile he says for me to protect her." I reply.

"You guys always do what Daddy says?" he mocks. As Kiara replies no, I reply yes.

"I bet you do. Bet you're Daddy's little girl." he says to Kiara.

"Man, is it me, or am I being completely ignored today?" I ask, watching as he jumps onto a rock across the river.

"An outsider doesn't need anybody. I take care of myself!" he states.

Kiara's awed and follows him, while I stay behind and watch as a crocodile comes to life.

I cry, "LOOK OUT YOU GUYS!" The crocodiles start to attack.

As both start jumping for their lives, I run around in circles trying to figure out what to do. Then an idea! I rush back over the bridge and rush over to an edge where I was over the crocs. There are rocks nearby, so I carefully start swatting them at the the crocs, avoiding Kiara and the Outsider cub. Soon they race for the edge, jumping right over me. As both catch their breaths, all of us look over to see the crocs gather, unable to climb up the rock wall.

Kiara starts saying, "I did it...I did it!" and raspberries them. The cub laughs.

We move ino a clear patch in the grass and Kiara recounts the adventure, "Woah man-did you see those teeth? They were going 'Raararrarraa'! *giggle* He was just totally eatin' you right there and I jumped on his head! And you, you were really brave."

"Yeah? You were pretty brave too. My name's Kovu." he says.

"I'm Mwezi." I say.

"I'm Kiara." she says. She then starts to playfully tag him.

"Um Kiara, I don't think he knows what Tag is." I say.

"Oh." she says.

Then she starts jumping around and mock growling. Kovu gets the idea and mock snarls back, but the Simba appears out of nowhere, jumping in front of us and roars. A lioness jumps in front of Kovu and roars back.

"Oh shit!" I shout and dash out of the grass towards Pride Rock before crashing into Pumbaa.

I recover and continue my dash till Edd appears and catches me in his mouth. Nala and some lionesses join Simba, along with the now recovered Timon and Pumbaa.