Chapter 1

Simba's eyes opened to the sight of something he never could have expected for the life of him. His head arose tiredly before his eyes widened suddenly. The young cub found himself laying on his stomach against a soft ground, clearly not in the desert anymore. The air around him was much cooler than it was before, but also more moist at the same time. He cocked his head while he stood up, gently rubbing his eyes with his paw. He groaned.

"W-what happened? Where am I?" He asked just waking up. Simba thought for certain some time ago that he was going to die out in the desert, but yet here he was alive and well... at least physically.

The cub mentally recollected the events that had led him into the desert in the first place, thinking of how he felt as though he were responsible for the death of his father. He sighed.

"Oh yeah... that's right." He said solemnly to himself, resisting the urge to break down in tears once more.

But as much as he may have wanted to at the moment, the poor cub could not dwell on these thoughts by any means. For Simba looked around him to get a bearing on where he was. He could tell he was in a jungle of some sort, but he had never seen this place before. Tall trees towered over him, creating a jungle canopy that allowed only sparing amounts of sunlight through their thick leaves.

A thin mist covered the place low to the ground, and strange insect noises could also be heard off in the distance. But what was most striking of all to Simba was that it was dark- darker than it usually would be. At first he thought it was night time, but the sunbeams reaching through the canopy suggested otherwise.

Simba took a few steps forth along the vegetation infested ground. "Hello?" He called out. His voice echoed across the vast jungle in all directions, and yet not a single reply was heard.

"Is... is anyone here?" He called, this time making an effort to sound louder. "Anybody?"

What struck the cub as most odd was that when he passed out, he was lying on the searingly hot desert ground that none had been able to call home in centuries. But the fact remained that he was now in this vast jungle without coming here on his own will. The cub could guess that someone took him here.

"Uh... t-thanks for saving me!" He called out, hoping he would get a response of some sort. But he got none. The cub wandered forth for a moment, becoming increasingly confused and scared with each step he took. The mist on the ground went up past his paws, making it difficult to see where he was walking. His breathing picked up anxiously.

"Someone! Please, is there anyone here?"

Finally, as he walked past some thick bushes, he heard it. A high pitched hissing sound was heard within it, making his heart skip a beat in shock. He felt as though his fur stood up straight as he turned around suddenly, knowing that the sound came from the bush.

"Who's there?" He asked in a quivering voice, unable to cover his fear. "D-did you save me out there?"

A moment of silence passed before a blood-chilling voice replied,

"Well... that's certainly one way to put it, young one."

Simba gulped loudly. "Well... t-thank you, then. What's your name?"

The voice simply chuckled to himself, amused by the cub's innocence. He replied, "My name is Kaa, and you could also say that this jungle knows me well. What is yours?"

The cub hesitated before he replied, "Simba."

Another pause went by before Simba took a step back in fear. "W-what are you, Kaa? Are you another lion?"

Kaa held back his laughter as best as he could, unable to believe Simba would think that another lion was out here. But amused nonetheless, he replied, "Oh no, Simba. Lions don't live anywhere in this jungle here."

"Then what are you?" The cub asked again, this time with fear and anxiety rising in his voice.

And then, Kaa made his move. Hissing ominously once more, he disturbed the bush around for a moment before he slithered out from the side, revealing his long, slimy self to the young one. Simba's eyes widen in terror.

"So... does this answer your question, Simba?"

Simba almost forgot to breathe in that moment, seeing Kaa's slithering form come closer and closer to him. Kaa laughed as he watched Simba back away in horror.

"Y-you're a snake!" The cub cried.

Kaa chuckled. "Well, I'm certainly no lion now, am I?"

Simba backed himself up against a tree, watching Kaa slither right up to him. He cowered down as low as he could, but Kaa simply lowered his head down to him.

"You are very lucky that I'm not hungry right now, Simba," hissed Kaa as he looked into the cub's fearful eyes at point-blank. "If I was, you would've been dead before you even woke up. Of course, your new fate isn't looking to bright either."

Mufasa had once warned Simba about the malice of snakes, particularly constrictors who had their prey strangled slowly to death. Even the hyenas feared the mere thought of strong coils squeezing the life out of them. His father even said how Scar himself gain a fear of snakes after a close encounter as a cub. Back then, Simba thought how cool it'd be to face a constrictor but now all that bravado was gone for good.

As the snake's eyes looked at Simba's, Kaa's tail looped around the lion cub's lower torso and pinned his forelegs in doing so. It continued to coil around Simba like rope to bound him up.

Feeling the slight squeeze, Simba spoke meekly, "W-what are you doing?" Though he knew, the terror of it hadn't fully sunk in.

"Now, I saved you from the desert, Simba..." Kaa said darkly. "And now you are going to repay me for it."

As Kaa's eyes stared deeper into Simba's, they gave off bright, colorful rings that flashed in a captivating sequence. Simba's mouth hung open and his eyes widen as he saw the beautiful display of colors. A wave of calmness spread throughout his body with each loop his eyes took in.

Soon it seemed like the whole world around him vanished. All the fear he once had was fading away quickly. The sadness over his father's death and running away from home melted away, a sudden sense of tranquility replacing it. Nothing matter except for the wonderful color before him.

"That's it, lion-cub," Kaa smoothly hissed as if he were a mother, "Let go off your negativity... and trussssst in me..."

At last, Simba's pupils started to shrink down to almost nothing before reflecting the rings of color back at Kaa. The snake smiled wickedly at the cub's dumbstruck expression as he continually coiled him.

"Some... body," Simba attempted to say, cling onto what consciousness he had, "hel-"

However, Kaa's tail slipped around his throat to give it a sharp tug, making Simba gulp loudly in surprise and fully submit. A goofy smile widened on Simba's face as a loud ping sounds in his mind. Kaa lifted him up in a cocoon of his strong, tight coils. Only Simba's head, hind-legs and tail were visible as he looked like a rag doll in the python's coils.

"Now that we've taken care of that pesky free will of yours," Kaa said sadistically. "You will no longer remember anything from or wherever it is you came from. You will not escape or leave me. You will be my pet, Simba. For my amusement, you will do whatever I say, whenever I say it. And if you defy me even slightly, this will be your punishment."

To drive his point home, Kaa tightened the coils and squeezed his prey's throat in particular. Simba's colorful eyes bulged almost out of his skull as his mouth is left agape and letting out only faint gasps for air. The python couldn't help but enjoy torturing his prey writhe in agony within his coils. Watching gasp for air and desperately cling to life only to slowly but surely succumb to death. The power of it all was intoxicating for Kaa, an addiction he would never get enough of.

"Have I made myself clear, my little kitty?" Kaa demanded as he loosened his grip. As enjoyable as Simba's helplessness was, he wasn't about to kill his toy.

Remaining entranced, Simba nodded his head slightly like the mindless puppet he had become.

"That's a good pet," said Kaa. "Take a nice rest." Once you wake up, you'll retain your personality but you'll be loyal to me. What fun is there in a blank slate?

Simba closed his eyes and fell asleep as Kaa slithering off to his den. He could hardly wait to see his pet prove his worth.