(A/N: It's weird. I'll go for ages not wanting to work on this, and then I'll just go days on days where the Siku Choka is all I can think about. By the way, some of you may wonder how I'm able to keep up with the points and the locations of every single lion while I'm writing this thing. (Maybe I've already told you this.) The answer is that I've made a diagram of the event from a bird's eye view on PowerPoint and thus I can move the boxes that resemble each character when I need help with writing the next section. It works well. Enjoy!)
Wamariri brought a zebra down. The crowd groaned. Anzi was about to bring an antelope down, but Winda ambushed it. Some former Shairi fans cheered. On the hills, some animals and prides were moving onto the hill next to the front stretch, since that was where this was all now occurring. Nala was being proven right: it was night, and the action was picking up. Nakshi and Juni were the only ones left asleep…on the front stretch. The Serengeti Border pride cheered and a lot of jaws dropped when Ema suddenly came running out of nowhere and brought the newly released antelope and zebra down. Twenty points.
Six lions were now waiting in ambush on the front stretch. However, most of them were just letting the buffalo that was on the track, pass. A new antelope and zebra had just been released, and both of them were worth waiting for. And if you missed? Well then when one of them was caught, a new one would be released. It seemed that for this moment in time, five new lions had caught onto Guvu's strategy.
So where was the other lion that had helped give birth to this strategy? She, Tumaini, was with Bahati, Lenny, and Uku, and they were all now running out of the final turn. The antelope and zebra were but two hundred yards in front of them.
The six lions in ambush gulped and got ready; the crowd got to their feet; Sarafina meanwhile was on the backstretch, running and trying her best to catch up to the action.
The antelope was the first piece of prey to creep on by Ema, who remained still, trying not to startle the creature. She slowly began to follow it, hoping she could get to it before the pack of four came charging after it. If she couldn't, then the zebra was not too far behind her. So far, everything was going well, until suddenly some of the crowd began to cheer as Rakusa tackled the buffalo down further on down the straight. The cheer startled the antelope and zebra, and they both began to run.
Ema, Wamariri, Anzi, and Winda were now all after the antelope, and Rakusa had set himself back up in position to ambush it.
"He shouldn't do that," cautioned Nala from the stands.
"Why not?" asked Zazu apprehensively.
"Ambushing won't work if you have that many lions already charging it. You risk a higher chance of being hit. I'm sure he knows that though. He's done this before."
To put it quite simply: Nala was wrong. Rakusa went after the antelope just as Winda had set herself up for the pounce and the kill. Anzi and Ema realized potential conflict and thus ran around the antelope, but Wamariri remained in pursuit. Rakusa was able to attack the antelope from the side and bring it down dead onto the ground right in front of Winda. Winda tried to slow down to prevent herself from tripping over the deceased animal, but she did a better job of slowing down than Wamariri did, who thus ended up running into her and knocking them both down to the ground. A livid Wamariri looked up in time to see Rakusa and his eyes widen. Rakusa began running again, and Wamariri looked behind her.
Now, Bahati, Lenny, Uku, and Tumaini were all charging after the zebra, and yet right in front of them an antelope, Winda, and Wamariri were all lying on the ground. The zebra tripped over the antelope carcass and stumbled, allowing Bahati to jump and land on its back before delivering the fatal bite to the neck. Now there were five animals on the ground…and Uku, Lenny, and Tumaini were all still running. Uku caught the antelope too and slammed down onto the ground on her side. Lenny didn't know what to do and so he decided to just keep running and let fate determine what happened…and thus he ended up just running over Wamariri, while Tumaini suffered a similar fate to Uku as she tripped over Winda. All in all, Bahati and Rakusa had both picked up ten points, and though Winda, Wamariri, Bahati, and Lenny all got back up onto their feet and began running or walking off again, two of the biggest names in the competition were left lying on the ground and seemingly heavily injured: Uku and Tumaini.
Simba sighed. "Well," he began, catching Nala's attention, "at least your mom wasn't in that."
On the inside of the track, Kanafa the cheetah was running over to where alongside where Uku and Tumaini were still lying down on the ground. "You guys okay?" he called out when he got there.
"I am," came the response from Uku as she grabbed a hold of one of her forelegs with her other one, obviously in a lot of pain. "I think I've dislocated or fractured my shoulder though, I don't think it's broke. I'll sleep on it."
"Alright, well you'll need to get yourself to the outside of the track. What about Tumaini, is she okay?"
"I dunno," replied Uku facing Kanafa, "I really don't want to roll over with my shoulder like this."
Kanafa looked down the track to see if anyone was coming. No one was. He had time. He ran out and ran up to Tumaini. He looked around her head. A small trickle of blood was visible on the floor next to it. Kanafa was worried that if he lifted her head up it would be even worse. He looked on further down the lioness's body and saw that her chest was still rising up and down with her breaths. Well, at least she was alive.
"Tumaini, can you hear me?" he asked.
"Touch me…and you die," came the response.
Kanafa breathed a sigh of relief. "You need to get to the outside of the track if you think you can still compete. You're bleeding by the way."
"I know, and I know," replied Tumaini.
"You're being very pleasant about this," he added sarcastically.
"Believe it or not, I am," came Tumaini's third short reply.
"Well, I'll let you be," the cheetah finished off, and then he ran off the track before Sarafina came flying down the front stretch.
"I guess she's okay," said Nala from the hillside as they saw Kanafa walk away.
"Well," began Zazu, "I'm sure Rakusa didn't mean for this to happen."
"Oh, certainly not," reassured Nala. "These things just happen. It's a dangerous event."
"Will everyone else be able to run by those two still lying there?" asked Simba.
Nala shrugged. "Hopefully," she answered.
The Pridelanders looked back over to the left. A buffalo led an antelope which led a zebra, and behind them, catching up with the prey, was Sarafina.
"Well…" began Simba, before Nala pressed her paw hard to his mouth.
"Don't say anything, Simba," she cautioned, worried about her mom getting injured. Of course Sarafina knew to look out for the two lions on the track. But did the prey know that? Would they be so frightened for their lives that they would run and trip over one of the two lionesses lying on the ground, which could catch Sarafina off-guard and make her trip, potentially putting her in danger of breaking her neck just like Maneno had earlier? They would find out very soon.
The prey now knew Sarafina was behind them. The buffalo began running and made it by the two lying lionesses. So did the antelope. However, the zebra was slightly more spooked, and unfortunately he was the one that Sarafina had chosen to chase.
"He's heading for…" began Simba again, but now Nala shoved her paw even harder over his mouth.
Suddenly, just as the zebra was about to have to run over Tumaini, the supposedly "injured" lioness got up and whirled around, grabbing hold of the flank of the zebra and throwing it down on the ground next to her. She then jumped forwards and bit down hard on its neck, killing the creature.
While the Pridelanders all had their jaws dropped, the rest of the audience were giving their loudest cheers and greatest round of applause that they had since Uku had been the one to bring the first piece of prey down.
"That…that…" began Nala, thinking of something to call Tumaini.
Simba began laughing. "You know what, Pumbaa? I think I'm a Tumaini fan now too," he said to his warthog friend sitting next to him.
Meanwhile, Sarafina had stopped running and was looking down at Tumaini in disbelief. Tumaini looked up at her, beaming.
"Thanks for cheering me up, Sarafina," she said. She got up and looked down at the carcass, then back up at her fellow competitor. "Sorry about that," she added, still in the same merry manner however, even though blood was still rolling down one side of her face.
Sarafina finally shook her head and was able to break out of her disbelief. She smiled. "You know," she began, "I needed to be redeterminated. Thanks for that."
Tumaini, knowing Sarafina was just trying to make it seem like something had came out of this in her favor as well, shook her head too. "That's not a word, Sarafina. That's not even a word."
It doesn't have to be a word. Anyone should know what it means. Re-determined-ated. Re- means again, determined means to want something really bad, and –ated is some kind of adjective or whatever you call them. It means that now, more than ever, I'm determined to get points again.
Then why are you just walking around the circuit instead of bringing another piece of prey down?
I just ran a whole lap or two, brain! If you could feel physical pain, you'd know.
Can you still run?
Yeah…but…
So do it.
No.
You're redeterminated though, right?
That's not…well…
Or not?
No, I am, I am.
Then run!
Alright! I will.
Now!
Not yet. We didn't agree on that.
You are redeterminated, not will be redeterminated.
…
Well?
Alright, alright, you win. I'll run now.
"Why's your mom running?"
Nala sighed. "I don't know."
"She could just wait and ambush. Everybody else is walking onto the backstretch."
"I know, I know. She probably thinks she has to run to make up for the ten points she just lost out on."
"But wouldn't it be easier to just wait and ambush and get ten points that way?"
"That's what I would do. She probably thinks she's redeterminated or something."
Simba frowned. "She's what?" he asked.
Nala shrugged. "I don't know. That's Mom. She comes up with words sometimes."
Simba shook his head. "You know her too well."
Nala looked back over at the track. "Time for a change of subject, I think," she stated as a reply.
Simba looked around too for something else to talk about. It wasn't too hard. "Doesn't Nakshi look cute when she's asleep?" he asked. He looked over at Nala to see her reaction. Nala was holding back any signs of a facial expression, as she continued to look off in the distance at the far end of the track where her mom ran.
"On second thought," said Nala, "yes, my mom and I are very close."
Meanwhile, Uku was still lying injured on the ground halfway down the front stretch. She knew she was losing precious time. She tried to move her leg again. It hurt. She looked back down the front stretch to see if anyone was coming. Three pieces of prey were right now just walking on by her, and Ema and Anzi were beginning to approach them as they ran. Uku groaned. She needed to move, now. She clenched her eyes tight and tried to push up with her forelegs. No good. She collapsed back down onto the ground. She was in too much pain for that. She got one of her back legs and ejected her claws, running them down the side of her other back leg. It didn't hurt a lot, but she knew that if she tried to focus on that pain instead, she might at the least be able to get up. She tried to push herself up again and this time made it to her feet, before attempting to take her first step which quickly resulted in her falling back down on the ground.
"Oooohh," the crowd reacted appropriately.
Uku tried scratching her back leg again, a little harder this time, and then pushed herself up again. She focused on getting herself balanced on her three good legs this time before she tried taking a step, and after several seconds of heavy concentration she finally found herself in position to stand up. She looked back down the front stretch. Ema was still coming, but Anzi had politely backed off, realizing the potential problems that could result from too many of them running by Uku. Behind Anzi however, Wamariri came flying down the straight. Knowing that Ema and Wamariri were two competitors who were not going to stop, Uku began trying to make her way over to the outside of the track on her three good legs. Some of the crowd was cheering, which Uku didn't mind. The last thing she wanted to do right now was lie back down and rest, because that would mean she'd have to get back up again. No, for now, she'd be okay just walking along the outside, and if the crowd felt like cheering her on for doing that, then let them cheer.
Ema and Wamariri now had clear track in which they could charge down the prey in front of them. Anzi, meanwhile, decided to sit down and wait in ambush for the next piece of prey that was released once Ema or Wamariri had brought down something. Ema ran on by the buffalo and got the zebra down without much of a struggle, while Wamariri charged the antelope only to give up when it simply seemed too fast for her. Guvu used his exceptional strength to his advantage as he was able to ambush the buffalo and bring it down to the ground, dead.
Nala held up a stick. Another random bird came flying down to land next to her.
"Hello Ma'am, feel free to ask anything, we've all been exceptionally busy, I'm sure I can answer your question off the cuff."
"How many points does Guvu have?" she asked.
"Hmm," replied the bird, "considering he just took down that antelope I believe that gives him one hundred and thirty-five."
Nala muttered something under her breath. "Okay, thank you," she said back. The bird flew off. "We need to tell the Majibuluu pride to wake Juni up."
"Why?" asked Simba.
"She's over a hundred points down."
"I thought you said…"
"Yes, but I don't think anyone expected Guvu would be doing this well. He's really got his strategy working for him. He's the only one who's daring enough to go after the buffalos."
"Isn't Nakshi over a hundred points down too?"
Nala waved her paw. "I don't care about her as much. Go tell the Kimaland pride if you feel it's essential."
"Well shouldn't they be keeping score of their own pride members? I mean, we all know how well Sarafina's doing."
"Really?" asked Nala.
"Yeah. She has fifty-eight points, making her…forty-two plus thirty-five…seventy-seven points behind Guvu."
"And what place is she in?" asked Nala.
Simba remained silent.
"Exactly," replied Nala. "It's best to just make sure the other prides know what they're doing if we want to be friendly."
"Aren't we meant to be competing against them?"
"We're meant to be sportsmen. Give everyone a fair chance and may the best lion win, that's sportsmanship."
"If you insist. So you don't mind if I tell the Kimaland pride?"
"Not one bit. Wait a sec though, Mom's on the front stretch. Let's see how well she does, first…"
Simba, Nala, and the rest of the Pridelanders all looked over and cheered Sarafina on as she came sprinting down the front stretch, catching up on the buffalo and zebra in front of her. The buffalo let out its warning call and both it and the zebra broke into a run. Sarafina was going to have to go for the buffalo. At the same time, Anzi began running at the zebra, but then to everybody's surprise, Juni also dashed over the track and reached the zebra first, bringing it down the ground and killing it.
Somewhere in the hills where some lions were cheering, Simba looked over towards his mate to see her grinning from ear to ear.
"I'd say she's right on cue," Nala commented.
Simba looked back over towards the track. Sarafina had been able to dig her paws into the back of the buffalo, but other than that things weren't going to plan. In other words, the buffalo was virtually dragging Sarafina along in the dirt behind it. Obviously she had mistimed her attack. Sarafina let the buffalo go, believing that she'd have a more realistic chance at catching the newly released zebra. Juni got up from the zebra she had just killed and then charged over the buffalo. Energy was a fascinating thing. However, Juni would have to try and bring the buffalo down before they approached Tumaini and Guvu, who were both waiting in ambush for it.
Juni was not able to succeed in her short-term mission, and now Tumaini had sprung out and was after the buffalo too. Juni decided to jump prematurely in order to beat Tumaini too it, but now she was being dragged along behind the buffalo almost exactly the same way in which Sarafina had been. However, by doing this she was able to slow the buffalo down, which unfortunately for her made Tumaini's mission much easier, as she was able to jump up right on the back of the buffalo and deliver the fatal bite to the neck. The buffalo collapsed down onto the ground and Tumaini scored another set of ten points.
Meanwhile, in front of the Prideland, Majibuluu, and Kimaland prides on the hillside, Nakshi had virtually just copied Juni's surprise attack from two minutes earlier, and now Sarafina was denied of another zebra as Nakshi began to collect points again.
At the same time on the backstretch, Bahati had been waiting for the antelope that Wamariri had proven to have been unable to catch. It didn't seem so hard for Bahati though. Ten points went to him.
"All of them are now up," noted Simba.
"Yup," replied Nala.
"Ooh, look at that!" exclaimed Zazu. "Rakusa's began running. He's going to be the first to this new prey on the front stretch."
"You got a lot of lions waiting in ambush," Rafiki added.
A lot of the nearby Pridelanders turned around to look at him.
"Where'd you come from?" asked Simba.
"Can I not sit down and watch?" asked the Pridelanders' ancient shaman.
"Do you have a favorite, Rafiki?" asked Nala.
"Sarafina, of course," replied Rafiki.
"No, second to Sarafina?" asked Nala more specifically.
"Hmm…" thought the mandrill, "somet'ing tells me Winda will do well. She be a rookie but she also is in fourth place and feels she must win to make it up to her lost sister, but I would like to see Uku win in all honesty. I was alive when she was born, and so she seems young to me."
Simba and Nala tried not to laugh, and so they just turned back to watch the action taking place in the event.
"You're right though," said Simba to Rafiki, "there are a lot of lions waiting in ambush."
"Five, to be exact," added Nala.
"And look who's first in line…"
Sarafina was first of the lions set up waiting in ambush. Nakshi was the second, Anzi was the third, Guvu was the fourth and Tumaini was the fifth.
"I think Tumaini's pushing it a bit. Maybe even Guvu is. They'd be better off going on and completing another lap," suggested Simba.
"You're right with Tumaini but I think Guvu should be okay," replied Nala, "he's the only one daring enough to go after the buffalo right now."
The two stopped talking in time to watch as the buffalo made its way on by Sarafina. Sarafina remained in her position. The zebra wasn't too far behind. The buffalo continued and began to walk on by Nakshi. Unlike Sarafina however, Nakshi began to move.
It wasn't too long though until Sarafina moved off and began to hunt down the zebra too.
"Of cause Nakshi's been asleep the whole time," added Simba as an afterthought, "so she doesn't know how much trouble the buffalo have been causing the others."
"I'm amazed at the progress you've made in understanding this event," replied Nala, "but for now, let's just focus on Mom please."
Nakshi's sleep had given her enough energy to bring the buffalo down easily and quickly enough, but since the zebra was a faster animal, Sarafina was finding herself having to chase it on by the others that were waiting in ambush. Anzi ran out and began to try and bring it down too.
Unfortunately for Anzi, she was beginning to tire out a little, and Sarafina was able to get out in front of her and bring the zebra down. Anzi wandered back over towards the outside of the track to wait in ambush for the next piece of prey. Sarafina followed her.
"Hello again," she said.
"Hi," replied Anzi, smiling.
"Haven't spoken to you since the beginning of the event."
"No you have not."
Sarafina sat down. "Doing okay?" she asked in a more concerned tone.
"Fifty-one points," replied Anzi smiling. "And you?"
"Sixty-nine, now with that zebra."
"So if I'd have got it, I'd actually be beating you."
"Ah, but you didn't," Sarafina pointed out, back to her fun self.
"True, true," replied Anzi.
Sarafina put her concerned, more serious tone back on. "So…Zoea…Maneno…Shairi…you're okay with all that now?"
Anzi shrugged. "I try not to think about it. Ema put me in a deep sleep and when I woke up Maneno was dead. Didn't affect me any."
"What do you mean, 'Ema put you in a deep sleep?'"
"She's a hypnotist."
"Really?" asked Sarafina, her eyes growing wide.
"It's not a bad thing," replied Anzi.
"Well…no…" replied Sarafina, "…but I've just never really liked Ema."
"How come?"
Sarafina shook her head. "I don't know. I just wouldn't trust her."
"Well…" began Anzi before yawning, "…I'm probably going to need to see her one more time. I am getting kinda tired again. I figure if I sleep into the early morning, then I can complete the rest of the event in one stint."
"I don't think you're alone on that," replied Sarafina smiling.
"Well Nakshi and Juni just got up."
"Yeah…but that still doesn't make you alone. I'm staying up."
"Really? Why?"
"Oh, I'm not going to run much. I want to log a lot of points though. I wouldn't have entered this if I felt I couldn't win, but I know I'm going to have to push myself if I really want to win it."
"Should I stay up too?"
Sarafina chuckled. "I'm sorry, Anzi. I can't answer that. Only you can." Sarafina looked back down the straight. An antelope was slowly making its way towards them. "Anzi," began Sarafina, once again in her more serious and concerned tone.
"Yes Sarafina?"
"You never thought I didn't care about Zoea, did you?"
Anzi looked down at the ground and admitted: "Yeah, a little bit, I did."
Sarafina shook her head. "I did care about her."
"I know."
"I just didn't know what to do."
"I know."
"I was…"
"Sarafina, it's okay, it really is. She was as much my friend as she was yours and we just had different reactions to it, that's all. I don't think any less of you now than I did before it happened."
Sarafina smiled. "Thanks for that. I just wanted to make sure. See, the thing is…I actually think more of you now than I did at the start of the event. See, at the beginning I really didn't think you wouldn't be able to cope with this."
Anzi smiled back. "I think a lot of lions thought that."
"But now," Sarafina continued, "now there's an antelope right behind us."
This didn't catch Anzi off-guard any. She knew. They both knew. They both knew exactly where it was. It was behind them. It was still behind them. It was still behind them. But now, it was alongside them. Not taking their eyes off each other for any instant beforehand, they now both knew that the antelope was right in position for them to take off and try to kill it. At the same time, they both took off to try and do exactly that.
Nakshi joined them. As they ran further on down the straight and into the turn, Tumaini joined them too. However, Sarafina and Anzi still led, and Sarafina was faster. Nakshi had a lot of energy right now though, and she was beginning to catch up with the two lionesses in front of her. Tumaini had essentially given up, but had concluded that it was probably best to run around another lap until she was back on the front stretch. Nakshi ran by Anzi and then began to catch up with Sarafina, who seemingly couldn't get any closer to the antelope that was running for its life. All four of them knew that even if the antelope was uncatchable, they'd still have to run in order to get back to the front stretch where new prey would be being released and where they could log another point for another lap. However, the antelope wasn't uncatchable, and Nakshi was able to prove that when the turn ended and the track straightened out again. Sarafina, Anzi, and Tumaini had no choice now but to run on by while Nakshi got another ten added to her tally.
Bahati and Rakusa, meanwhile, had been scoring points on the front stretch, and they were soon followed by Guvu, Juni, Wamariri, Ema, and Winda. Then, with three new fresh pieces of prey let out onto the front stretch, Sarafina led Anzi and Tumaini as they came running out of the second long turn, but Winda, Juni, Wamariri, and Ema were all waiting in ambush, while Guvu, Bahati, and Rakusa had gone on to run around the track and log another digit point.
"She should get something here," said Simba.
"Ooh, I hope so," replied Nala.
Lenny began running from behind Tumaini as well, just to see if anything good would come of it. Given that he only had thirty points and still had a lot of his energy left, things were looking promising. He was running extraordinarily fast.
"Um…Nala…" addressed Simba, tapping his mate on her shoulder.
"What?" asked the lioness, who turned around just to see that Simba was pointing at something else on the front stretch. Ema had just brought down a buffalo. A new one was about to be released right in front of the string of running lions that Sarafina led.
Nala checked back over and saw that indeed a new buffalo had been released onto the track, and now that was the first piece of prey in front of Sarafina. With three lions lined up in ambush already for the antelope and zebra, it looked like the buffalo was now Sarafina's only choice.
As the four lions of Sarafina, Lenny, Anzi, and Tumaini closed in on the buffalo, Anzi and Tumaini backed off, realizing that this buffalo had Sarafina's name written all over it…something that Lenny must have failed to realize.
Sarafina felt a boost of confidence as she heard that there weren't as many footsteps behind her anymore, and so she took her time and tried to set herself up for the perfect attack on this buffalo. She took too long. She was right on the creature's rear hooves when suddenly Lenny jumped up and managed to get onto the buffalo's back before Sarafina could. Unfortunately, as inexperienced as Lenny was, he landed on the buffalo crooked, and the buffalo was in a good position to try and buck him off. With Sarafina still right behind its rear hooves, the buffalo kicked its back legs up and slammed one of its hooves into the bottom of Sarafina's head. The lioness was sent into an airborne back flip, while Lenny continued to try and ride the buffalo down the rest of the straight.
Sarafina landed on the ground directly onto her back, and then, knocked out, her limp body was sent rolling for about another ten yards as inertia carried her farther down the straight.
For once in his life, probably the first time ever, Simba did not want to look at his mate. Yet he knew he had to. Who else would comfort her? Thus, he closed his eyes, and put his arm around her. He suddenly felt a whole body fall into his side, and knew it could have only meant that Nala was in desperate need for comfort. Before seconds had passed he began to feel his mane getting a little damp from Nala's eyes. Simba began to rub his arm up and down her back.
"It'll be okay," he said, "she'll be okay."
(A/N: Remember to review and/or participate in the poll please! Thank you.)