"Ooh – a grub!" exclaimed Pumbaa, looking down at a purple insect on the brown, dirt path. He slurped it up. Looking back down at the floor in front of him however, he also found another bug: red this time.
"Ooh – a grub!" exclaimed Pumbaa, making his way over to slurp the red beetle up. He then looked back in front of him and gasped.
"Ooh – a grub!" he exclaimed, as he made his way over to a blue one, who had been basking himself on the ground in the heat of the African sun.
"Ooh – a grub!" This time, a green one.
"Ooh – a grub!" Yellow.
"Ooh – a grub!" Orange.
Slowly but surely, Pumbaa was being lured into a trap as he followed the path of grubs, slurping them all up as he went along, until soon he was covered over by a shadow as he unknowingly entered the back den of Pride Rock.
Finally, Pumbaa took a deep inhale as he looked on, glorified at having seen so many bugs in one big pile in front of him.
He sprung over to it and started slurping them all up. Sometimes one at a time, sometimes more.
"They're nice, aren't they Pumbaa?" asked Timon, approaching him from the side and then putting his arm out, as he used it to lean on the side of Pumbaa.
"Mm – hmm!" replied Pumbaa, slurping up a nice, tasty, light pink worm.
"Pumbaa, haven't you realized something odd?" asked Timon.
"Uh . . ." thought Pumbaa, looking up at the ceiling. He looked back down at his friend with the answer, "that all these bugs have been slimy, not crunchy?"
"Hmm . . ." said Timon ". . . close. Try a little harder."
Pumbaa looked around the back den. Everywhere, there were other meerkats picking out bugs from the cracks in the walls and the floor of the back den; this room had been deserted for quite a while.
Pumbaa gasped, and then looked back down at his friend in shock. "Timon! We're forbidden to eat the bugs from the back den!"
"Not anymore!" replied Timon, enthusiastically.
"Well . . . why not?" asked Pumbaa, bewildered.
"Nala gave the whole colony permission to eat in this back den . . . at she let me invite you into it as well!"
"Why would she do something like that?"
"Isn't it beautiful?" asked Nala. She sniffed.
Simba looked down the hill in front of him. Between the hill they were standing on; the hill opposite them, across in the distance; the hill on the left and the hill on the right, all of which were slowly rolling and no higher than the tips of the trees that were on the flat ground around them, there was now a dug out oval. Twenty lions standing head to tail could easily fill the width of the track, and it was overall a mile and a half in length. It was designed like a ditch, banked upwards at the sides so that none of the prey would think about running out of the track, into the infield or into the spectators. There was also a strip of dirt that had been created halfway down one of the straight-aways just off into the infield, and a smaller one just across from it on the outside. The straights were perfectly straight, and the two turns were complete, wide, 180's, banked to the outside a little extra to stop the prey from running out.
"And the meerkats did all this," said Simba, stunned, already having been told the full story by Nala.
Nala sighed. "I couldn't have asked for anything more," she said.
"You know it's supposed to rain tonight?" asked Simba. They still had three days until the Siku Choka.
"Really?" asked Nala, turning to face him. Her face lit up. "That's great! We can send Timon and Pumbaa down to grab some rainberries. I'm sure they should know what they look like; they've lived in a jungle before."
"So have I and I never . . ."
"However, we can't do the paw print ceremony just yet; we can only do that when the last rains come."
"Nala, can you slow down a little bit. You've lost me."
"Okay, look," said Nala, slowing down, "rainberries are berries that grow just after a downpour. They are about the size of plums and they are either yellow or orange. We want them to be yellow, they are the soft rainberries. They are translucent and you can see the black pips in them, which are about the size of a small grape. However, we'll want some of the orange rainberries as well, they're the hard rainberries. We're going to soak them in the eastern waterhole and by the time of the Siku Choka they should be soft."
"Okay, that sounds good, but you need to tell Timon and Pumbaa that, not me," said Simba, chuckling as he finished.
Nala gasped. "You can go down with them!"
"What?"
"Go on Simba, it'll give you something to do."
"Tonight?"
"Yeah."
"Nala. I'm still king, don't forget that."
"And I'm queen. I'll stay up all night if I have to."
Simba sighed. "Alright, you obviously seem like you know what you're doing."
"Perfect," replied Nala, "anyways," she began, going on one of her fantastical trances again, "the paw print ceremony is when every competitor comes just after the last rains before the Siku Choka, and they place their paws in that strip of mud in the infield over there, while the mud is wet of course, and in the strip of mud there opposite it on the outside. On the day of the Siku Choka, the competitors arrive and they place their paw in their paw print on that outside strip, and then we let them cross onto the track or into the infield so that they can size the prey up. The prey not on the track will also be in the infield. Nobody else is allowed within the oval though. With the strip on the inside though, there will be some creatures who will be keeping tally of how much points each competitor has. We put them in the infield because it's less dangerous. Is that enough information for now?" she asked, looking back and smiling at a thoroughly overwhelmed Simba.
"Uh . . . yeah . . . maybe a little too much to be honest."
Nala smiled. "Don't worry; it'll all make sense eventually."
It was really raining. It was really dark. As a result, the only way in which Kanafa the cheetah could tell that Zazu was approaching, was by listening to the sound of his wings moving against the air. Once Zazu had less than a hundred droplets of rain separating him from the cheetah however, it became clear enough for them to see each other through eyesight. Zazu bowed down as soon as he had landed.
"Good evening sire," he said, as he returned to his normal posture, minus the fact that he was covering himself with one of his wings to keep himself from getting wet.
"Good evening," said Kanafa. "I hear these shouldn't be the last rains?"
"That is correct, sire. Although mind me asking: why do you ask?"
"Bwana Zungumza and I will have to be at the track for when the final rains come. We will need to ensure that only the competitors place their paws on the strips during the paw print ceremony."
"Ah yes, the paw print ceremony. I've been informed of that. Mind me asking, why so early? Why not at the time of the actual event?"
"Well besides the fact that it's not going to rain at the actual event," began Kanafa, which made Zazu's self-esteem drop a bit as he realized that that hadn't been a good question, "trust me, you don't want us to be dealing with all this stuff at the time when the Siku Choka is about to begin. By doing it this way, we can have any trustworthy lion just stand at the entrance to the track and check each competitor's paw print. I'm sure Bwana Zungumza will have more important things to occupy him on the actual day of the event. Anyways," he said, making Zazu pick himself back up a bit, "were you able to get in contact with King Maneno today?"
"Yes sire, and as a result, I am pleased to announce that all sixteen competitors have been informed," said Zazu, smiling.
"That's wonderful news," replied Kanafa, smiling too. "Okay, with two days left I guess that all you've gotta do is get stuff set up and find jobs for everyone. How's that been going?"
"We have a party sent out tonight to collect some rainberries; we also have an organized system set up for them to carry them from the waterhole to the track. The track is complete and we're just going to need some lions to agree to be the guards on the actual day. I believe you said that you had someone who was going to be keeping score?" Zazu asked.
Kanafa nodded. "Yes, we have our own professional team for that."
"Excellent. We have a timekeeper as well, and we have been able to get most of the hunting party to agree to rally the herds on the morning of the Siku Choka. I think that should take care of pretty much everything."
"It should," replied Kanafa.
"Well," said Zazu, shaking the water off of his wings to lighten them for flight, "I guess I'll see you in two days."
"Sounds good," replied Kanafa as Zazu bowed. "Have a safe flight," he finished off, as Zazu took to the rainy night sky.
"Simba?" asked Nala, watching her mate take place next to her in their sleeping spot. "Where have you been?"
"Collecting rainberries, like you told us to," he replied, laying his head down to rest.
Nala glared. "You were playing, weren't you?"
"How?" asked Simba.
"Soft rainberries. You squirt them and they fire a seed out," said Nala in a lighter tone.
"Yes they do," replied Simba with his eyes shut still.
Nala smiled. "Thank you Simba. You've all been working very hard for this."
"Mm," replied Simba wheezy. Nala licked him on the cheek, and then watched as he let loose a smile.
Nala laid her head back down to rest, smiling like him. All was going to plan.
"Hey, Nala?"
Nala turned her head over, opening her eyes so that she could see her mate. "Yes, Simba?"
"Why aren't you out there with the hunting party?"
Nala frowned. "I didn't know they'd been sent out. I thought I saw them all in here," she said, referring to their cave.
"Oh," replied Simba. "Well . . . I guess it could have been a number of things," he said.
"For what?"
"For making that zebra herd charge."
Nala looked on in bewilderment. Simba lifted his eyelids and then chuckled lightly at her expression.
"Don't worry about it Nala, go back to sleep."
Simba closed his eyelids. Nala hesitated, but then decided it was best too.
"We'll have to do a recount tomorrow," she whispered.
"Okay," Simba replied. "Sweet dreams."
Nala sighed. "You too."
Everything was a blur. She was beginning to feel claustrophobic, surrounded. The young lioness made her way through the elder lionesses mobile legs, growing up to the heavens around her like large trees. It was daylight up there, but down where she was it was all dark. The shade was completely covering her. She finally made her way onto a small patch of grass where, for a moment, the legs had stopped moving.
"Mom!" she called, but there came no immediate answer.
Several seconds later, however: "Nala!"
The young lioness moved her head over to the left and let out a giant grin. Waving her paw from the other side of just a few more sets of lioness legs was her mother.
Sarafina was trying to peak her head under all the other lionesses while she kept her daughter in sight. Nala was quickly making ground, springing over all of the lionesses paws until she finally made it to her beloved mother, and she could hug her leg. Sarafina crouched down and placed her paw around her daughter.
"Mom . . . I thought I'd lost you," said Nala, staring up at her lovingly with her wide, green eyes.
"Aw . . ." replied Sarafina, looking back at her, ". . . I would never lose you Nala. Look Nala, look who I've found here. This is Juni. She won the Siku Choka last year."
Nala looked up at the towering lioness that was looking down at her from above her. Nala thought she kind of looked like her mother's friend, Sarabi, only this lioness looked a bit younger, and she had green eyes.
"But mom . . ." asked Nala, confused, ". . . I thought this was the Siku Choka, today?"
"There's one every year, sweetie."
This just made Nala frown even more. "I don't get it."
The two lionesses above her just chuckled.
"Never mind," said Sarafina. "Nala, aren't you going to say 'hi' to Juni?"
"Hi Juni," Nala said, quickly looking at and then retracting her glance from this new, unfamiliar face.
Juni crouched down. "Hi Nala," she said, "you going to be cheering for me today?"
Nala finally got the idea. "Wait . . . you're in the Siku Choka?"
"Mm hmm," replied Juni, "my, you're certainly smart, aren't you?"
Nala took a step back, not really wanting to get too friendly with this lioness of whom she hadn't met before.
Juni raised herself back up. "Well Sarafina, it was lovely speaking to you. I best be getting to the track now," she said.
Nala watched the scene run itself as the new lioness and her mother bade each other goodbye, and then finally Juni made her way off into the distance, and Nala made a few steps forward until she was back, standing with her mom.
"Nala," began Sarafina, still watching as Juni walked off, "Listen to what I'm about to say very carefully. I'm going to tell you something; and I'll want you to remind me that I said this in the future," she said, looking back down at her daughter.
"Okay," Nala replied, not really sure what was in store.
"You are about to get walloped by a giant rainberry seed."
Now Nala was completely confused.
"OW!"
"Hahaha!" began Timon, as he fell to the floor laughing.
Nala lifted her head up off of her bed and looked around. Just a few paces away from her, Pumbaa was chucking a yellow, seedless rainberry into his mouth whilst Timon was just cracking up on the floor.
"Ah . . ." he said, getting up, ". . . sorry Nala, we just wanted to mess with your mind."
"Hmph," Nala said, as she laid her head back down to sleep. She peeked as Timon and Pumbaa wandered off though, both still laughing, until she finally lowered her eyelid back down, saw the humor in it, and smiled.