Sarafina dropped the dead antelope down next to the water's edge. Her plan had worked. Simba had now gotten off the island and was eager to begin working his way through the carcass. He bent down with his mouth open to start eating, just as Sarafina roared.
Simba looked up, confused. "What was that for?" he asked.
"Calling your dad," replied Sarafina, bending back down to get a bite out of the carcass herself.
"Well I know Mom always does that, but that's cos they're married. Why would you want to eat with him?"
Sarafina finished eating her piece and swallowing it down before she answered. "It's an obligation, Simba. I have to do it. Will he come along? Probably not. But any time one of us catches something, we must call your father."
"Huh," replied Simba. Now not as confused as he had been, the cub bent down to finally rip his first piece away from the carcass, just as Sarafina had done once again. Sarafina looked back up as she chewed and found herself slightly disgusted with the way in which Simba was eating his food. He was ripping pieces off far bigger than what he could chew, and thus when he chewed he had to do it with his mouth open. It was also making the young cub's jaw a mess, but that just pretty much matched the rest of his body. Since the sun was now heating up the day, it had made the water part of the dirty water evaporate from his fur…leaving just the dirt to coat Simba. Sarafina still had no idea how she was going to convince Simba to take a bath. She knew he hated them, even from his own real mother. But he had to be cleaned.
Sarafina swallowed her piece down. "You know, Simba. If you ripped smaller pieces off of the carcass, you'd tire your jaw out less. You have to chew really hard to get those bigger pieces down."
"Yeah…" replied Simba admittedly, as he continued to chew. Sarafina tried to look away. "…but bigger is better," he added, finally swallowing his first piece down.
"Not necessarily," replied Sarafina. "I'm bigger than Nala – does that make me a better friend of yours than what she is?"
"You're not food."
Sarafina laughed as Simba ripped off another giant piece of antelope.
"True…true…" Sarafina replied. She looked back over at the cub again. "You're making your jaw a mess."
Simba somehow managed to laugh, even with his mouth full. "I know! Mom's going to be so mad when you get me back to her."
Sarafina smiled. "I'm going to clean you," she stated simply.
"No you're not," replied Simba in the same way.
"Yes I am…as soon as you're done with that carcass…"
"I'm gonna run…" interrupted Simba, "…and I'm not going to leave arrows."
Sarafina smirked. "I'm not going to need arrows."
Nala looked around the tree slightly let down. All she could see was tortoise shells and gourds; how could they perform magic?
"What does this stuff do?" she asked Sarabi.
"I don't know," replied Sarabi smiling. "Let's see, shall we?"
Slowly, she led off towards one of the larger tortoise shells. Nala followed, hoping that there may be some true magic up here after all.
The two lionesses arrived and looked down into the tortoise shell to see a purple liquid. Sarabi sniffed it curiously, and then turned to Nala.
"Know what this is?" she asked.
Nala shook her head 'no.'
"I do," replied Sarabi. "Go up and hide in one of the higher branches somewhere. I'll try and find you."
"You mean hide-and-go-seek?"
"Yup. Go on, I'll close my eyes and count to a hundred. I bet you with this liquid, I'll have found you before you know it."
Nala frowned. Sarabi was joking, right? Or maybe…
"You do know I'm better at this than Simba, don't you?"
"Sarafina's told me."
"You'll never find me."
"With this liquid I will."
"How does it work?"
"I'll show you that when I've found you, now go and hide." Sarabi closed her eyes. "One…two…three…"
Nala finally accepted that Sarabi must have just been crazy. There was no way in which she was going to find her. However, since Sarabi seemed so confident, Nala decided to play along. She climbed up one of the branches and began to jump through the leaves, from branch to branch, spreading her scent so that Sarabi couldn't find her that way. She then went back down a rather steep branch and almost slipped, but fortunately for her she didn't hit many leaves, so there was no sound for Sarabi to catch onto.
"…sixty…sixty-one…sixty-two…"
Nala now carefully began making her way back through the branches which she had already spread her scent on, looking for a decent hiding place. A couple of bushes appeared between places where the branches split, but those places would be too obvious. A lot of leaves were in abundance though, so if she just found a small sufficient area on leaves in which she could hide behind, then that would seemingly be her best bet. She'd be well hidden, and yet it wouldn't be a spot in which Sarabi would expect to find her. She finally caught sight of such a place, and then hid herself behind it.
"…ninety-nine…a hundred. Ready or not, here I come," said Sarabi. She grabbed a handful of the liquid and then threw it out around in a circle from where she stood. Then, she grabbed half a coconut shell and filled it with the liquid, and went on her way.
From her hiding place, Nala lied her head down on her paws to rest with a small smile on her face. It was a win-win situation from her standpoint. If Sarabi found her soon, magic worked! If she didn't, then Nala would have further proof that she was the best hide-and-go-seeker ev…
"Found you," said Sarabi, as she lifted the branch of leaves that Nala was hiding behind away.
Nala jumped. She hadn't expected her to have found her that quickly.
"Told you, didn't I?" said Sarabi, reading Nala's expression.
Nala shook herself out of her astonishment. "How'd you do that?"
"With this liquid, silly," replied Sarabi, holding the coconut piece with still a bit of the purple liquid in at the bottom of it.
"How?"
Sarabi grabbed a handful of the liquid and threw it back across the branch. Nala watched as the purple stuff landed on the wood and settled into the bark, almost instantaneously illuminating bright yellow footprints.
"I just followed your footprints," replied Sarabi.
Nala was now a little angry. "That's not magic, that's…that's sciency stuff!"
"True," replied Sarabi, as casual as ever, "but say you're a hungry lion who just ran into the Pridelands and stole some of our food. Then you run away with the food without leaving a trace of a scent or a footprint, yet still Mufasa will come and hunt you down within a minute. Don't you think it would seem like magic to the thief?"
Now Nala was a little upset. "So there's no such thing as magic? It's all sciency stuff?"
"Not necessarily," replied Sarabi. "This isn't the best potion in this tree. Tell you what, let's go back down and find another one. How does that sound?"
Nala, however, wasn't listening to Sarabi anymore. Her attention had been distracted by the sudden appearance of a giant yellow footprint on the bark behind Sarabi. The queen noticed that the cub's attention had been distracted, and so she looked over her shoulder. She could now see the footprint too.
Nala got up to her feet and walked underneath Sarabi. The queen looked down, only to find that Nala looked incredibly scared.
"It's nothing to be afraid of, Nala. That footprint belongs to a monkey. He's a friend of ours. He makes the potions."
"Mandrill! Not – monkey!" exclaimed the mandrill, as he swung down from the branch above the two lionesses and into their view. Nala jumped and screamed. Sarabi sat down and pulled the cub to her side.
"It's okay, Nala," the queen said as she laughed. "It's just Rafiki."
"Ah, Nala, you have not met me before, have you?"
"No sir," replied Nala, still slightly frightened.
"Allow me to introduce myself." Rafiki swung himself back up onto the branch above, and the next thing the two lionesses knew, his two hands and two feet reappeared in front of them, each holding a gourd. "So, you are fascinated by magic, 'ey?" came a voice from above the two lionesses. "Well Nala, I know I could tell you all about myself, but I'm sure you have a lot better interests in mind, such as your favorite color…" Rafiki stopped speaking and then let go of one of the gourds, allowing it to smash on the branch that Sarabi and Nala stood on, releasing a cloud of blue dust as it did so, "…is blue…your favorite smell…" he paused again as he let a second gourd drop and smash on the branch. A white cloud was emitted out of the fruit.
"Go on…smell it…" Sarabi encouraged Nala, giving her a small shove from behind. Nala smelt it and smiled. It was her favorite smell…the smell of…
"…is lavender…and your favorite number…" he paused again and let go of a third gourd, allowing that one to smash onto the branch and emit…nothing. Rafiki's head finally reappeared from the branch above, and he reached out one of his fingers and counted the amount of pieces his gourd had broken into. "…one…two…three…six…nine…twelve…fifteen! Am I right?" he asked the cub.
Nala nodded, now a little less frightened. She looked back over at Rafiki's final foot where the fourth gourd was still. "What's the fourth one for?" she asked.
Rafiki answered by letting go of the fourth gourd and allowing that to smash open on the branch. Out of it appeared half a coconut shell with a trace of purple liquid in it. Sarabi looked down at her paw, where the coconut shell had last been. Somehow or another, it wasn't there anymore! Even though she could have sworn that she had never let go of it.
She turned back to Nala and smiled. "Pretty impressive…isn't it?"
"It is," replied Nala honestly, "but I just think that…well…"
"You think I can do better?" asked Rafiki, now getting down onto the same branch as the two lionesses. "Course I can! Come follow old Rafiki, he's a got a real special treat for you, Nala!"
Rafiki began to swing back down the base of his old tree. Sarabi shoved Nala forward, and the cub began to lead the queen back down with the mandrill.
(A/N: Honestly, I'm not too happy about the way this chapter came out, but I believe that the next chapter or two will be the ones I've been looking forward to writing, and thus for that reason I'm not going to say when they'll be posted, because I'm planning on making a really good job of them. Hopefully it won't be too long though. Please review!)