Chapter VI
Uneasy and fearful was no description at all for how the hyena trio felt as they followed Nala and Timon upwards against Pride Rock's stony slope leading to the den. Timon stood upon Nala's back close to her neck, and the entire time he was frighteningly paranoid. Nala had not said a thing to him on the way there, so he had no idea if she still wanted to kill him or not. If that were not enough for him, the three animals that he feared most were walking right behind him, and coming directly to Pride Rock. And if he was trying to hid his fear from his face, he was failing miserably at it.
Nala looked upwards to the edge of Pride Rock, and saw Simba struggling to walk back into the cave. She smirked at this. Calling back to the hyenas, she said "Don't worry about him, you three. I'll make sure he doesn't rip you to shreds... yet."
Banzai gulped. "Yeah, that helps." He said sarcastically.
Soon, Simba and Nala met up with each other at the right time in front of the den. Simba's expression seemed to lighten greatly at the sight of her.
"Oh Nala, am I glad to see you." He said relieved. Nala smiled. She said to her mate, "So I saw Kopa and Vitani on my way here. Did I... miss anything?"
Simba hesitated before he replied. "It... it's better you don't know." he muttered.
The lioness nodded. She looked behind her, and then turned back to her mate. She said to him, "So Simba... I found a few intruders on the edges of the Pride Lands today..."
Suddenly, Shenzi stepped forth and blurted out, "Oh what the hell?! You said we wouldn't have to see him again!"
Simba gasped at the sight of this. He finally saw there, standing behind Nala and Timon were the same three hyenas who had tried to kill him as a child. With his tone and expression growing serious again, Simba roared angrily at the sight of them, making the trio wince in fear together.
"You! You know you were banished from the Pride Lands, what are you doing here again?!" Simba shouted angrily. When he did this, it caught the attention of the two remaining in the den. Kovu, who had barely recovered from what he had seen had heard Simba's anger, so he emerged from the cave and looked outside to see exactly what the king was seeing. Pumbaa followed him, and the two of them gasped in shock.
"What are hyenas doing here?!" Kovu suddenly exclaimed, with Pumbaa ducking for cover behind his back legs, which made Kovu shoot him a look of clear annoyance.
"Look, Simba, it's not what it looks like." Nala finally said after he finished his second roar. "Yes, I found them intruding here. What they were going to do, you decide, but... I think I know what to do with them."
Simba gave her a strange look. "What are you talking about?" He asked her.
Nala took a few steps closer to him, leaned in and began to whisper in his ear for a moment, glancing over to the three hyenas occasionally. And as she did so, Simba could be seen growing a devilishly devious smile, fully seeing what Nala intended. He chuckled at the thought of it.
"Nala... that is probably the most ingenious thing I've ever heard from you." He whispered back to her, making the lioness blush. Understanding what she intended to do, Simba took a few steps forth and faced the hyenas for the first time in what felt like years. And also for the first time since then, he did not look like he wanted to kill them.
"Follow us." Simba said calmly.
Shenzi, Banzai and Ed took a step back each, each of them completely dumbfounded and borderline creeped out by what was happening here. Ed was looking especially confused by this, but then again, that was normal for him.
"W... what's going on here?" Shenzi asked. And to this, Kovu called from the den's entrance sounding quite annyoed,
"Uh yeah, you mind filling us in here, Simba?"
Simba ignored him as he said to Shenzi, "Let's just say that I'm definitely not going to chase you away this time. Come on, I uh, want to show you something."
Simba winked to Nala when he said this, and she nodded. Simba then turned around to go back in the den, and Nala followed him. Timon, who clearly looked like he'd had enough of this, leapt off of Nala's back, and he ran over to Pumbaa who was still cowering behind Kovu. The meerkat looked as though he had been traumatized.
"Are you okay, Timon?" Pumbaa asked his friend sincerely. Timon replied,
"You know, Pumbaa? I never thought I'd say this... I think those hyenas just saved my life."
There was a pause of silence as the two of them watched Simba and Nala enter Pride Rock's den with Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed following close behind. As they did, Shenzi suddenly looked over to Timon and shot him a glare, signifying that she did in fact remember what Timon had asked her just before Scar's death. The meerkat gulped as he stood there directly behind Kovu's back legs. Suddenly, Kovu looked behind him, and he said to Timon and Pumbaa,
"Uh, guys? Could you please get away from my ass already?"
Inside of Pride Rock, Simba had walked up to Kiara, who was still unconscious on the ground. He placed his paw on her body and gently shook her.
"Kiara... Kiara, wake up!" He said softly. As Nala, the hyenas and the others entered, Kiara slowly began to rouse from her unconsciousness. Moaning, she opened her eyes and lifted her head up. She rubbed her eyes with her paw.
"W... what happened?" She asked tiredly.
At the sound of her voice, Kovu had perked up and ran over to her. He helped her up off the ground, and the two nuzzled for a moment.
"Are you alright?" Kovu asked her sincerely. The lioness replied, "Yeah, I'm fine... I think."
"Don't worry about it, Kiara." Kovu said in a bit of a comforting tone. "The worst of it is over."
"Uh, did we miss something here?" Banzai blurted out, catching everyone's attention. "Who the heck are they?"
Timon snickered. He reluctantly said to Banzai, "Yeah, it's kind of a long story."
Simba motioned for Timon and Pumbaa to come over to the laptop, and the two did so. He leaned down to them and said,
"Alright guys, don't worry about the hyenas here. If they were intruding, their punishment will be having to go through everything we see from here on out."
Timon and Pumbaa both smiled playfully at that statement. Timon stood by Pumbaa's hooves as he took a glance back at the hyenas again.
"Uh... Shenzi..." The meerkat started. "You uh, don't happen to remember that little proposal I gave you, right?"
Shenzi glared at him. "I swear to God, if these other idiots weren't around here right now..."
Simba cleared his throat before looking behind him and speaking. "Okay, listen everyone." He began. "The hyenas are here because they were caught trespassing in the Pride Lands. Normally I would chase them away, but Nala gave me a better idea."
Kiara and Kovu were seen grinning ear-to-ear with each other when he said this, realizing what Simba was doing.
"We're going to make them endure every image with us to see from here on out."
The hyenas all looked down with awe at the sight of the laptop. Shenzi, with her eyes wide open, asked in a mystified tone,
"What is this thing, exactly?"
Nala grinned deviously as she replied, "Oh you'll find out, guys."
Seeing as there was little to no way out of this, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed found a space for themselves in front of the laptop and sat down side by side. Ed tried to say something, but it came out as incomprehensible gibberish as usual. Kiara and Kovu both sat down to the hyenas' right, and Simba and Nala got themselves comfortable to their left. Timon walked over to the laptop's keyboard, while Pumbaa sat down just behind it, and he looked down to the screen with the now blank search bar.
"Uh, Simba?" Timon asked his friend. "Are you... sure you want to keep doing this? I mean, this has already gone way farther than I really planned it to."
Simba replied to the meerkat, "I went to see Rafiki. He told me that if we don't want to be haunted for the rest of our lives by this, we need to look up the art for each and every one of us."
Nala looked over to Simba. "Wait, why did you go to see him?"
Simba all of a sudden looked extremely uncomfortable, remembering what had gone down right before he had done so. Awkwardly, he replied,
"Uh... j-just for luck. Yeah, luck, nothing wrong with that, right Nala?"
As suspicious and confused the lioness felt in that moment, she decided not to question her mate's answer... at least for now.
"Alright then, it's your funeral." Timon remarked, shrugging. "So uh, who's next then?"
There was a moment of silence as each of them stared down at the laptop's screen, looking at it anxiously. Not a one of them wanted to volunteer, seeing what the Internet was capable of doing to them. Even if the worst of it was behind them, it did little to ease the pain of the situation. But at the same time, the hyena trio simply sat there dumbfounded, not having a clue in hell as to what was even going on here.
Eventually, after a long moment of awkward silence, Kiara spoke up.
"I'll go." She said firmly. When she did, Simba gave her a sad look, realizing what he was about to see done to his daughter. He sighed. Kiara said to her father,
"If Rafiki says I have to do this, I will. He hasn't steered me wrong yet."
That last part she said while looking into Kovu's eyes, remembering how he was one of the reasons the two had happily fallen for each other. Kovu sighed, and he placed a paw on his mate's shoulder.
"Be brave." He muttered hopefully.
With that, Timon shrugged again, and he turned around. Leaning over to the keyboard, he typed in what he had to, clicked around on a few things, and hit 'search'.
The results came up.
Author's Note: Just for future reference, and to clear up some of my readers' concerns, this story is not going to consist of just the characters seeing only dirty pictures of themselves. It may be like that for the next couple of chapters or so, but I can personally guarantee that after they're finished with this, they will move on to other things, specifically in written fanfiction about themselves. So don't worry, things are going to move in a different direction eventually.