(A/N: This is a very short chapter...but the stuff that happens is kind of important. I didn't get a single review for the last chapter, I'd like at least one here so that I know that people are still reading. If you think everyone else will review for you, they probably won't...so please review! And enjoy!)
The zebra knew Juni and Rakusa were there, and he was prepared to make a run for it. Rakusa slowly began to move out, knowing that their window of opportunity was very limited. The zebra saw him, and took off into a sprint. Rakusa ran out and tried to attack him, but the zebra escaped. Juni ran out too. They did not want Winda to have this zebra. Juni used her experience to visualize where the zebra was going to move next, and she went in for the attack.
Score!
Juni brought the zebra down to the ground.
Rakusa smiled as he saw this, but then his ears perked up. He could hear hooves…but they were too far away! Juni and Rakusa could only watch helplessly as the antelope went running on by them. Thankfully for them, they still had control over the buffalo and the next zebra.
"In fact," murmured Lenny to himself, "they have control over the whole track." He quickly glanced to the right to see if Anzi had picked up on what he had said. She hadn't. But…then again…that could probably be a good thing.
Anzi caught sight of Lenny staring at her. She had heard him mumble something, but she didn't think he had been talking to her. Oh well, apparently she was wrong.
"I'm sorry, did you ask me something?" she asked him.
Lenny continued to stare, but then realized that that probably wasn't a smart idea. He snapped out of it. "Oh…eh…no."
Anzi frowned. "Where are you going?"
"N—nowhere," replied Lenny.
"Yes you are. You just walked right by me."
Lenny stopped. Indeed, he had just began walking right on by Anzi.
"I—I'm going counter-clockwise," stated Lenny.
Anzi smiled. "That's good. You'd get disqualified if you went the other way."
Lenny smiled too, and then continued on his way.
Anzi thought she knew what this lion was up to, but she stayed put. Eventually the prey would break for it…then her time would come.
Juni elbowed Rakusa. Rakusa acknowledged her. Juni nodded her head towards the buffalo and then pointed towards Rakusa.
"Yours," she whispered.
Rakusa nodded.
The buffalo began to make its way on by them. When Rakusa thought the moment was right, he gave chase. He had struck a bit late though. The buffalo was already charging on down the front stretch. Rakusa could not let Winda get another ten points though. She had just taken down the antelope that he and Juni has missed earlier, thus increasing her already-high score. This buffalo had to be Rakusa's.
Meanwhile, Juni had gone for the zebra. The lioness had gotten a good sleep last night, and now it was paying off. Her accuracy was as good as ever, and so was the taste of ten more points. The lioness hurried back over to the outside of the track. A new antelope and zebra were on their way.
"Where are you going, brother?" asked Bahati.
"For a walk," Lenny replied. "We're really not in a good spot all the way down here. You're welcome to come too if you want. And Nakshi, we can work as a team again."
Bahati turned towards Nakshi. Nakshi, however, continued to look farther down the track, where Juni and Rakusa were tallying up their points.
"Nakshi," addressed Bahati, "do you think it's a good idea?"
Nakshi shrugged. "It's not a bad one."
"But you're not coming?" asked Lenny.
Nakshi shook her head 'no.' "I'll stay here. You can go, Bahati."
Bahati thought about it for a moment, but then replied. "Honestly, I don't really want to. I'd like to stay here and get some tips from the champ."
Nakshi blushed. "Honestly Bahati," she replied smiling, "you'll upset your wife if you hang around me much longer."
Bahati chuckled as a response, but Lenny just out right laughed.
"Nakshi," said Bahati, "I'm not married."
Nakshi's attention was finally taken away from Rakusa and Juni. Instead, she found herself growing wide-eyed and slightly red as she turned towards Bahati. "Really? Oh…I just thought…you know, because you're king…you would be…you know. I'm sorry, anyways…I just…assumed."
"Its fine," replied Bahati. "Kind of funny honestly."
Nakshi found herself growing ever redder, and thus decided to turn her head back the other way to watch Juni and Rakusa. "Still…" she added, trying to change the subject back, "…if you think your brother's more right than I am, well…I'm not going to stop you."
Bahati nodded and turned back to face Lenny.
"So…" said Lenny, "…you coming?"
A cheer suddenly came from the front stretch as Rakusa caught the buffalo and brought it down to the ground. The prey had not made the break yet.
"Yeah," replied Bahati, "let's go."
"Uh oh," said Simba, "what have we done wrong?"
Nala frowned. "What do you mean?" she asked. Simba did not have to reply though. Before he caught, Nala had herself caught sight of Kanafa the cheetah, walking across the track and making his way up the hill, presumably to meet them.
Simba and Nala got to their feet.
"What seems to be the problem?" asked Simba.
"Oh…nothing," Kanafa reassured them. "I was actually here to meet Rafiki. Where is he?"
"Probably on my back," replied Simba.
"Or Timon's," added Nala. "He could probably pull that off."
"Well when you see him, could you give him a message from me?" asked the cheetah.
Simba and Nala tried to hide their smiles. There, lying on Kanafa's back as he talked, was Rafiki. Rafiki held a finger up to his mouth, letting Simba and Nala know that he wanted them to remain silent. The King and Queen of the Pridelands sat back down.
"Sure thing," they replied in unison, both giving a wink to Rafiki when Kanafa was not looking.
"Well yesterday, we drew a line next to Rafiki's stick when there were two hours until the event. We did the same when there was one hour left, and then, of course, when it began there was no shadow. What I need him to do is hold one arm up when the shadow passes the point at which…" Kanafa continued to talk, but all his words were passing straight through the minds of Simba and Nala, both of which continued to nod as if they were paying attention to what he was saying…which they weren't. "…so, when Bwana roars once, there will be two hours left. When Bwana roars twice, there will be one hour left. When Bwana roars three times, it will be over. Got it?"
Simba and Nala continued to nod mindlessly.
"Guys?"
Simba finally snapped out of it and smiled. "I'm sure Rafiki's already on it," said the lion.
Kanafa looked over towards the dip between the two hills. Between them stood Rafiki's stick, and next to that stood Rafiki.
Kanafa gave a sigh of relief. "Fantastic. Alright, well I'll be off now. Oh and…uh…pleased to say that it seems your mother's doing quite well, Nala."
Nala groaned. "She hasn't done much in a while, honestly. She's just been waiting there in ambush. At least Juni's catching up though. I like her too."
Kanafa smiled. "Eh…don't give up. Your mom's time will come."
Time was running out. Juni was franticly trying to figure out her best strategy. If she went for the antelope, Rakusa could easily get the zebra. Chances were, however, that she would miss the antelope. If she went for the zebra, she would not get the antelope and it was unlikely Rakusa would either. However, Winda was no longer third in ambush. Tumaini was.
Juni did not know whether Tumaini was a threat or not, but to Juni that did not really matter that much. She was going for the antelope.
That she did, and it was a failure. The antelope ran on by her and the zebra followed in its tracks. Juni wanted to groan, but she knew she had no time to waste. She needed to set herself up for the buffalo.
For Rakusa, it was an easy decision: zebra.
He let the antelope run on by. Tumaini ran out from her post and took it down to the ground immediately. Rakusa soon followed her with the zebra.
"Something tells me that buffalo are not Juni's specialty," predicted Simba.
"You're right," replied Nala, just as Zazu came flying down to her feet.
"Juni has 175 points. Guvu still leads with 268. Sarafina has 226 and Rakusa has 195."
"I don't recall Nala ever asking for Rakusa's score, Zazu," commented Simba.
"She didn't," Zazu replied. "But, now that we've brought the subject up, what do you think his chances of winning are, Nala?"
"Hmm…" Nala replied, "…I believe that the odds of one of the Majibuluu pride members winning today, lie somewhere within the numbers negative one, and one."
Pumbaa began to calculate some numbers, using his hooves to help him.
Timon sighed. "She means zero, Pumbaa. Queenie's given up on them."
"But they're both the first in ambush!" exclaimed Zazu. "Surely that gives them a chance?"
Nala nodded in agreement. "Possibly," she replied.
Juni went for the buffalo. The creature took off. Knowing she needed points, Juni gave chase. Fortunately, this buffalo was not that fast. Juni caught up with him and launched up onto his back. Once she had got a firm grip on him, it was a relatively easy ten points.
The Majibuluu pride cheered. So did Simba.
"What's the matter, Nal'?" he asked, seeing his mate not too thrilled about Juni's kill. "Did she do something wrong?"
"She used up too much track," Nala replied.
Simba looked back at the circuit. "You mean she ran too far?" he asked. Nala nodded as a response. "What's the problem with that?"
"The prey. They just walk unless they're being chased. It'll take them forever to walk all their way down to Juni. Bahati and Lenny will probably beat them there. Not only that, but now a ton of time will pass before anything is brought down. Guvu won't be knocked out forever."
Simba sighed and sat back down. "Well," he said, "how do you kill time?"
"I've seen lions get killed, some dreams get grilled, and corpses stinking up the place.
"I've had mud stuck in my fur, and injuries I can't cure, and I've broke down when I got second place.
"And although I come here year to year, and all the time I see lions shed a tear,
"There still remains one thing that just ain't clear, and that's why the hell does the crowd always cheer?
"It's the Siku Choka, and if it don't croak ya, there's not anything that will.
"So may that violence be gory, and that victory glory, but as you set yourself up for the kill.
"You've got to understand that it ain't easy, and if you take one down and survive…
"…you'd better thank your lucky stars that you're still alive, to take another dive…into the Siku Choka."
Sarafina stopped singing. She couldn't help but notice that Wamariri was giving her a weird look.
"Never heard it?" Sarafina asked her.
"And I don't want to again," replied the lioness.
"Ah," Sarafina replied. "Got it," she added, winking.
Wamariri shook her head. She's a strange one, she thought.
"Oh…" began Simba, thinking of a four-letter word that Nala would not find offensive.
Nala sighed. "What is it?" she asked.
Simba pointed. Nala's eyes followed, and then grew wide.
"Oh no," she murmured.
Guvu was getting up.
"This couldn't get worse, could it?" asked Simba.
Suddenly, a loud roar bounced off of the hills surrounding the Siku Choka. That roar, everyone knew, belonged to Bwana Zungumza.
Nala gulped.
"Two hours," said Simba.
Nala's mouth went dry. "Well…there's one good thing about this."
"What's that?" asked Simba back.
"We don't have to go down to the grieving families anymore."
Simba frowned. "Why's that?"
"Well…usually in the final two hours…there's too many…um…incidents…that if we went down for every one, we'd never get a break."
"T—that doesn't sound good at all," commented Simba.
"I know," replied Nala, "but at least we get to stay here. Which should be good. It is about to get very…very, for lack of a better word, exciting."
(A/N: I have discovered an inverse relationship: more reviews = less time until Chapter 21. You may have found at least one other relationship somewhere within this chapter. Also, I have had that song stuck in my head ever since I invented it, so don't study it too much or else you may suffer from the same fate. btw, anyone ever gone to Tractor Supplies Co. and realized that the shopping carts say TSC? If you thought, hey, that's the abbreviation for The Siku Choka - give yourselves a pat on the back! Review please!)