Chapter XVII

Finally cutting the Dramatic voice, Timon read onward. In the story, there was a bit of mood-setting before the main conflict could begin. The four cubs mentioned before discovered the Ring in the back of Pride Rock's den, showed it to Kovu and Kopa, and in no time the others were crowding around it. Then, Nala had this to say.

"Simba, that's not entirely accurate.", she spoke up. Everyone was confused by this statement. What was Nala talking about? She walked a few steps closer to Simba, and she began to speak loudly enough so that everyone else could hear.

"Simba, much like you, I know this ring too."

Simba grew worried. "W-what? how do you-?"

He was cut off when Nala powerfully explained. "This was the ring Scar was wearing when he destroyed the Pride Lands."

"Uhh... what?" Simba said blankly in confusion. "So Scar just... happened to find this Ring and not question it?"

"Okay, I'm officially confused." said Kovu. "What am I even listening to now?"

Timon sighed.

Everyone gasped at this. The shock and horror across all of their faces was almost too much to bear for the two of them. Simba was also mortified. Scar had always been a difficult subject to discuss with anyone, but now he had to whether he liked it or not.

"Nala... what do you mean?"

She continued, "Within days after Scar took control, my mother and I were talking about how he was the new king with the other lionesses. And some of the things they said were... disturbing for a cub my age. but right then Scar walked into this cave, and I looked at him. I was scared, but then I looked down at his paws when I saw something shiny on one of them. I only saw it for the briefest second, but I could tell it was a ring of some sort. Soon, Scar began to go insane. Once Zira became his queen, she didn't fare much better.

"Uh yeah, ya think?" Kopa said.

Not long before I left to find you, he started having maniacal outbursts about some sort of fiery eye, and he kept talking about "his precious". At the time, I didn't know what that precious could've been... but now I think I know."

"Well that's a little degrading." Nala said with some embarrassment apparent on her face. "I see him with a ring, then he suddenly starts shouting about 'his precious'. I could've easily figured out that he was talking about the ring!"

For a solid ten seconds, the cave fell deathly quiet. It was so quiet, it was unnatural. Breathing seemed to temporarily stop. It was almost unearthly how quiet it fell after Nala's speech. Finally, Simba broke the eerie silence.

"You mean... you mean this is how Scar destroyed the Pride Lands?... with this?" he said, picking up the ring with his claws.

"Yes. I must've been the only one who saw it."

"Well gee, that was convenient now, wasn't it?" Kiara pointed out flatly. "Scar stands in front of an entire pride wearing the Ring, and my mother just so happens to be the only one to see the golden, shimmering thing on his paw!"

Nala rubbed her eyes for a moment. "And didn't they say that wearing it turns you invisible, anyway?" She asked.

As the story progressed, Simba had called an emergency meeting among the pride to discuss what to do with the Ring now that everyone knew about it. And throughout all of the excessively detailed descriptions of just about everything the author could describe, it was decided by everyone that the Ring must be destroyed. The only way to destroy it was to throw it back into the fires of Mount Doom where it was created, which turned out to be a rather intriguing concept for the six lions. Then an argument arose in the group, and Timon read this out:

While all this was going on, a certain lion was looking down upon the ring in the center of all the arguing. The sounds around him seemed to fall silent as he looked upon the ring. His breathing was rapidly growing in speed. The corruption of the ring was already taking hold upon him, as there seemed to be fire emerging from the ring now. This could only be seen by the one staring down upon it, and soon clear thought had utterly left his mind. It could only be heard by him, but a deathly ominous chant in a low pitched whisper began to emerge from it.

Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,
Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

Timon stuttered before saying, "Alright, I... I honestly can't read that. Something like... ash derby Gimli... Thrash burp krimpets?"

He struggled to pronounce the ring's inscription, and failed incredibly. In fact, most of the others laughed out loud when they listened to Timon trying to say the elvish speech.

He gave them a dirty look. "What? Oh like you could read it any better?"

Suddenly without any warning, Pumbaa stood up. He looked down intently at the laptop's screen, and as quick as he had stood up, the warthog cleared his throat and he began to recite the elvish inscription perfectly, catching all of their attention. Timon's eyes widened, Simba gasped, and the others just stood there and gaped. Somehow, some way, Pumbaa was reading the inscription fluently.

All fell silent. Timon took a step back from him. Kopa said out loud, "Okay, now I know he's hiding something!"

Timon scratched his head as he asked him, "Pumbaa... are you okay? H-how the hell did you read that?"

"Read what?"

"Yep, he's okay." Vitani sneered to Timon.

Deciding to ignore that right there, he took a step back up to the screen and read. In the story, Kopa volunteered to bear the Ring to Mordor, and Simba, Nala, Kiara, Kovu, and Vitani agreed to go with him. After Timon and Pumbaa themselves joined in soon after, they set out. The first night they rested at the old termite mound and slept there. The following morning, Rafiki suddenly showed up. When he did, he was able to give more insight on what the Ring could do and why it was so dangerous, which made everyone's interest rise suddenly. They were intrigued by the Ring's apparent abilities being listed off to them. After Rafiki formally joined the fellowship, they went off again.

At that same time, a lioness named Nadra was in charge of taking the cubs to a place called the Shire, where they would be safe in case danger ever came to the Pride Lands in the king's absence. When they got there, they rested in an empty farmhouse and prepared to go to sleep. But then this wend down between Nadra and one of the cubs:

"Nadra... if you like cubs so much, how come you haven't had any of your own?"

The question had caught her by surprise. She wasn't expecting someone as young as him to be thinking about such things.

"Why would you ask something like that, Amain?", she asked the cub, now curious about his thoughts.

Amani replied, "Well, you're a very nice lioness, and you know how to take care of us. Don't you want to have your own cubs? I mean, you're only looking after us because of my parents' journey."

For a cub, he sure knew how to handle a subject like this.

"Well... I just never did, I guess. I never met the right lion to have them with."

Amani crawled up closer to the lioness. "But... don't you want cubs?"

Nadra opened her eyes a little bit more and answered, "Of course I do, Amani, more than anything in the world. It's just... I want to meet the right lion to be able to help me raise them... maybe to be like you four." She smiled when she said that last part.

Kovu stared silently in awkwardness at what had just been read off. His eyes moved around the den, and saw that the others had similar looks on their faces.

"Uhh... is anybody else seeing something wrong with saying that to a cub?"

Kiara nodded, as did Nala and Vitani.

Later in the story, the fellowship got to a village called Bree, and they went into an inn where they were quickly accepted.

"So the inn keeper sees lions, a baboon, a warthog and a meerkat walk into his bar... and... everybody's okay with this?" Kiara asked curiously.

"Well that's weird. If I were that guy, I would've screamed my ass off at that." Kopa commented. Timon snickered. "Maybe because everyone there's just too drunk to notice." He sneered.

Then in the story as everyone was getting settled, Timon had randomly decided to get drunk off his ass.

Timon, taking virtually no notice of his friend's advice, suddenly made a huge burp sound from his mouth, and was talking in slow, slurred and hard to understand speech. It became clear to Pumbaa at that moment: his best friend was drunk.

"E-enough? L-lets me tell you somethin'. buddy! I... I'll tell YOU... when I've had enough. It's... it's-it's you who's had... enough... had... buddy... oy." the meerkat said. Pumbaa had never seen him like this before. It was embarrassing, really. As Timon spoke, his uncontrollable laughter began to take hold. His laughs were long, drawn out and rather whistle-like and high pitched, as only drunken laughter could be.

Timon blushed as the ones behind him began to laugh. Kopa remarked, "This is so you, Timon!"

"Okay, that's actually pretty funny." Simba said in between laughs. Timon grunted. "Hey buddy, if this were you getting wasted, you wouldn't be so happy about it!"

Simba caught his breath before replying, "Yeah, I'd still laugh!"

"Come on, Timon!" Nala said playfully. "Learn to laugh at yourself every once in a while!"

It didn't take long for everyone to stop laughing and calm down once Timon started again. In the story, Kopa went to get Timon, but slipped on the beer he'd spilled on the ground and in a strange turn of events, the Ring fell on him and he turned invisible. Here, Kopa received a vision of the Eye of Sauron, where the story suddenly got dark very quickly. In fact, they all felt rather jarred by how abrupt the change in mood was there. Kopa mutilated his paw trying to get the Ring off of him, and soon after that they abandoned Bree to avoid any more attention.

They came to a place called Weathertop, which was essentially a hill in the middle of nowhere. They went to the top and slept there.

And then, it suddenly cut to this.

In the middle of a dark forest, a fair distance from where the fellowship was, three mutilated corpses lay side by side, covered in blood that was still gushing from their bodies. A majority of their bones were shattered and in pieces, and one of them had their back leg ripped viciously off and had it tossed into the woods. If one were to see these dead bodies up close enough, they would be just barely recognizable. What was left of them had dark grey fur, walked on four legs, and appeared to be carnivores based on what remained of their teeth. Their names, or at least what they once were, were Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed. Three hyenas that were the best of friends together had been slaughtered in cold blood by the swords forged of the strongest metal. They lay side by side in the now deep red grass, caused by their relentlessly bleeding forms.

"Well that was... unnecessary." Nala said with concern. "I might not've liked them, but they don't deserve to die!"

"And where did these people in robes come from all of a sudden?" Kovu asked with confusion. "What are they doing killing hyenas anyway?"

Timon groaned as he replied, "My God, would you just listen and wait already? Geeze, you lions have no attention spans at all!"

Kovu then sarcastically remarked to the meerkat, resisting the urge to laugh, "Oh yeah, because we all know watching an obnoxious internet video while ignoring the fact Kiara's in pain right next to you means you can just pay attention so well, right?"

Kopa burst into laughter upon hearing his brother-in-law's comment, rubbing his eyes as he did. He said, "Nice one, Kovu!"

Timon just groaned with irritation. "You're never going to let that go, are you, Kovu?"

The lion replied while leaning in comfortably to his mate, "Timon, Zira is gonna be back from the dead before I let that go!"

Timon smacked his hand against his face, rubbing it briefly before returning his attention to the fanfic. In it, the dark riders that were mentioned went to attack the fellowship because they had the Ring, and a battle on Weathertop ensued, Here is where the interest began to pick up once more, for even though most were bored and confused out of their minds, here they at least could follow what was going on. Basically during the fight between the fellowship and the nine riders, Kopa got stabbed by a poisonous blade in the shoulder, and was threatened by death now. But suddenly, a new lion named Kivuli who wore a red robe around his mane came in and chased the Black Riders away with a torch in his mouth.

"Well gee, that isn't random or cheap at all!" Simba pointed out sarcastically.

"Why would a lion wear a robe? That's... kind of pointless." Nala said.

Then after that, Kivuli said that if Kopa didn't have the proper care, he would die. So long story short, they took him to a place called Rivendell, which was inhabited by elves and the master of the place named Elrond. At one point they were talking together with the elf while Kopa got his rest.

"I have heard many tales of battle and grief from the Pride Lands. May I ask, are they true?" Elrond asked, turning back to them for a second. Nala was the one who decided to answer.

"Yes, they are. Every one of them" she said. "And I witnessed most of them firsthand."

Elrond chuckled very softly, thinking about what it must be like to live the life of a lion. And then he turned to Simba, now with a more serious mindset. "I must say, king Simba, you have my pity for what your uncle Scar did to your father. It was a senseless act of murder thad should have never befallen upon you at such a young age."

Simba sighed softly at the thought of his father. "Thank you, Elrond. He never deserved what happened to him."

Talk of this was bringing back some horridly painful memories for the king. Elrond could tell this with ease, and decided to change the subject to the ring.

"Well then..." said Vitani uncomfortably. "These elves sure know a lot about us."

"Anyone else find that kind of creepy?" Kovu asked, glancing to Simba for a moment. Simba shook his head. "The way I see it Kovu, is that the people of Middle Earth know about all we went through. And well... I kind of get the feeling we're like celebrities for them all."

"Just as long as these ones don't draw you having sex with my brother this time." Vitani whispered under her breath.

And then, there came something that not a single one of them would've expected or wanted.

Within the room where Kopa was resting, he had fallen fast asleep on the bed like he had before. Not long after the others had left him and Vitani alone, Vitani had climbed up by his side, and the two of them were soundly sleeping closely next to one another. The white blanket and sheets were disheveled, ruffled and halfway hanging off the bedside, as opposed to how smooth they were beforehand.

Both Kopa and Vitani stared blankly at the laptop now.

"Uhh... is anyone else getting the same message here as me?" Kopa asked uncomfortably. Vitani shook her head. "Oh for God sakes, please tell me we didn't..."

"Yeah... I think the elvish medicine worked, Vitani. I can get up now." he answered. He moved his body around a little bit, this time not feeling any pain. Going further, he pushed the blanked off of his body and leaped down to the ground on all fours. At last, he could walk again. When he looked back behind him, Vitani had also done the same. The two of them walked side by side as they headed for the open doorway to try and find Elrond or Simba.

Vitani turned to Kopa. "I had a great time last night, Kopa" she said to him, again with the low, almost seductive voice of hers. Kopa replied calmly, "So did I, Vitani. It was fantastic"

Kopa's mouth fell open in shock, and Vitani just shook her head in disgust. Simba and Nala seemed somewhat indifferent to it, while Kiara and Kovu looked borderline horrified.

"So... Kopa almost died from getting stabbed, they're barely able to be taken in by the elves... and then he and Vitani do it?" Kovu contemplated out loud, looking just a tad disgusted. Kiara leaned in closer to Timon.

"Timon! I thought you said these fanfics wouldn't have any of that here!" She said in an irritated voice. Timon shrugged.

"Hey, I didn't write it, kid."

"And didn't they say that Kopa couldn't move earlier?" pointed out Simba. "If it hurt for him to move, how did they...?"

At that moment Kopa pushed back some of the hair in his mane out of his face, looking a lot less embarrassed that he probably should have. He smiled in a goofy fashion.

"Oh, I'm sure we have our ways." He said calmly, looking at Vitani. She tried not to laugh as she said, "You'd better believe we do." Kovu placed his paw on his face and bowed his head in embarrassment, exhaling loudly.

"That's it, I'm in hell... I'm officially in hell now." He said to himself.

Kiara then said, "Well whoever wrote this thing, I'd sure like to give them a piece of my mind!"

Kovu rubbed his face for a moment before he nodded beside his mate. "This story's really starting to suck now." He said flatly.

"Oh come on guys, give it a chance!" Pumbaa asked them. "At least wait until the end to say that."

Kovu and Kiara looked at each other for a moment before Kiara rested the side of her head on Kovu's mane, appearing to be flat out bored by the story. Kovu didn't look much better.

After that incident in the story, the fellowship had left Rivendell and set out for the Misty Mountains, now with Kivuli leading on. They traversed upon mountainsides and plateaus, seeing beautiful skies around them too. And although most of the listeners would've wished for a different choice of words, none of them could deny that they were in fact getting some very vivid imagery in their heads as they pictured this. The thought of such vast landscapes, elven cities like Rivendell, and the clouds scraping along mountain tips.

Then at one point, the fellowship was resting upon a plateau at late dusk, huddling around a fire Rafiki had made. Out in the distance they heard someone calling for them, and then this happened:

"Hello? Where are you? Anyone?"

They could all tell that whoever this was, they were very clearly worried about something- or someone. The echoes of her voice were just enough to begin to wake up Timon and Pumbaa. Timon's eyes hardly opened at all, and his vision was still blurry because of it.

"Ugh, not now Ma, just a few more minutes." he said, still very drowsy. He wasn't a breath away from going back into deep sleep if the voice hadn't called out one last time.

"Is there anyone here?... Timon?"

Timon. That was when it hit him like lightning. Besides the fellowship, only the members of his colony knew his name. His eyes shot open, and he lifted himself up on his feet.

"Hey hold up a minute here." Simba interrupted. "Why wouldn't anyone else know your name, Timon? Didn't the story say we were a type of legend around Middle Earth? Didn't you play a pretty big role through everything too, I mean that doesn't make much sense. If they know my name, shouldn't they know yours too?"

Timon smacked his hand against his face in annoyance, groaning. He replied, "Simba, if you want to talk about everything that's like that in this story, we'll be here all night."

Simba nodded, though he was no less confused than before.

"Oy, what's going on?" he said. He turned to the fellowship, specifically Simba.

"It sounds like someone's calling for you, Timon." he said. The meerkat then leaped off of Pumbaa's stomach, prompting him to wake up as well. Timon went past them and the fire and looked out to where the sun was setting. He searched around with his eyes, and then called out,

"Hello? Who's there?"

That was all he needed to say. The voice gasped with appearant happiness, and then it exclaimed, "Timon! Timon, where are you?"

Now he was really confused by this. "Who are you?" he called out once more. The answer he got would not be in words, but through what he saw next. He saw some kind of blur jump out in front of him, and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground, as whoever it was had pinned him. At first, he thought it was an attacker, and he screamed.

"Ahhhh! Hey! What's the big idea here, you-!" he started. But then he stopped once he saw her face. It was never known if it was a coincidence or not, but at the second he saw who she was, a breeze started up through the mountains, ruffling his fur around a bit. It wasn't a cold or brisk like it normally would be, but it was gentle, warm and almost welcoming in a way. It began the second Timon saw who was there.

Zuri, his mate.

"Hey, you have a mate in this, Timon?" Vitani asked in a teasing voice.

Timon thought to himself, They're really not gonna let me do this, are they?

"You know that raises a good question." said Nala. "Why haven't you found a mate yet, Timon?"

The meerkat muttered to himself, "Because the writers were too lazy to think one up for me."

"What was that?" Simba asked, which made Timon jump for a second. Realizing he had heard his comment, Timon stuttered before replying, "Oh uh, nothing Simba. I meant uh... I-I just never found one, that's all. Never got to meet the right person."

"Well how hard can it be? There's probably at least a hundred other meerkats in your colony, Timon." Kiara said in a bit of a supportive voice. Timon turned to her.

"Kiara, have you even seen my colony?"

The lioness shook her head. "Oh that's right." Timon said, realizing what he'd just asked. "You uh... never did, did ya?"

She shook her head again. "Neither did I, actually." said Kovu.

Timon turned to Simba. "Simba, you've seen my colony! You know how hard it is to tell the guys from the girls, right?"

Simba nodded. "Honestly, I couldn't tell either."

Before Timon began reading once more, he whispered to himself, "You would not believe how many awkward situations I've gotten myself into because of that."

So in the story, Timon's mate Zuri had followed them because she didn't want to believe he was dead. So upon learning that the legend of the One Ring was real, she joined the fellowship and volunteered to do whatever she could to help. However, right as she did, a flock of crows flew over them for a bit. Upon hiding from them, Kivuli revealed that the crows, or the Crebian as they were called, were spies of Saruman from Isengard, the closest ally of Mordor. After that, Kivuli told them that they needed to go through what he called the Pass of Caradhras.

But not before the story cut to this little segment at Isengard.

Saruman looked down at the Palantir for a moment, before a voice from behind said to him, "We have work to do, don't we?"

It was a dark, hateful female voice from the other side of the chamber. Saruman turned around and looked at her. The female figure was hidden within the shadows of the night, but Saruman knew who she was. For this was his closest ally, the one who would assist him the most in retrieving the ring.

"We must accelerate our plans if we are to ever reach them." she said. Although her figure was almost completely hidden, one could tell that whoever it was, it was not a human or an elf. She appeared to stand on four legs, but it wasn't for certain to an untrained eye. Saruman said to her, "Patience. You will be able to spill their blood in due time."

The voice grunted at him. "Just be sure that I get the final strike."

Saruman then said to her, "You will get what you are owed soon enough... Zira."

"God dammit! Dammit all!" Kovu suddenly exploded at the same time everyone else gasped. He took a step up to the laptop. "What is this fascination of bringing my dead family members back to life?"

"What about Scar?" Timon asked. "He wasn't a part of your family... I hope."

"Seriously, out of all three stories we've read, all of them just happen to somehow bring back someone I know is dead! First Nuka, then Scar, and now Zira!"

Kiara took a step up to him now. "Calm down Kovu, it's just a story." She said in a comforting voice. Kovu glanced at her before looking back down at the text-filled screen. "It's just... these people should know that these are sensitive things to think about for me."

It was apparent that Kovu's mind was anguished at the memory of those whom he had grown up around until recently. Ever since the prides had become one, he had always done his best not to think about Zira's abuse, Nuka's neglect or Scar's glorification. The poor lion had never even met Scar in person nor was he ever related to him, but just the thought of him was still a painful thing to think about, especially if Zira was involved.

Kiara then said calmly, "I know how hard it is to think about them, Kovu. I know, it is for me too. But... whoever wrote these stories probably didn't expect us to actually find them."

Kovu sighed as he bowed his head. "I know."

"And besides" Kiara added. "Sometimes it's better to embrace the memory of those we lost instead of ignoring it."

"Yeah, why's that?" Kovu asked in a sad tone.

"Look at my father."

Kovu turned to Simba, where they made eye-contact. Kiara continued, "If he had just ignored Mufasa instead of embracing his memory, none of us would be here now."

Then, Kiara nuzzled Kovu tenderly for comfort, just as he had done for her hours before. She began in a comforting voice,

"Listen, I know it isn't easy to think about, Kovu... but you can't ignore them. They were a part of you, even if you didn't want to be a part of them. Zira was insane... but she still accepted you as a son, so she had to have had at least some kind of heart. And she did still feed you and teach you how to hunt. Nuka was still your brother. And Scar... well, he wasn't your father. But you can remember him as what not to become... what you don't want to happen to yourself, and as a reminder of who you almost became... the mistakes he made are the ones you learned from. You wouldn't have learned from that if it weren't for him making them to begin with."

There was a subtle pause before she finished her comforting words.

"What Scar did was horrible, and I'm glad he's not here now. But because of that, you know not to repeat his ways. Same thing goes for Zira. If she hadn't made her mistakes or at least learned from them, she could've been one of us right now, which is why I wanted to save her. But Kovu, that's why you succeded where she failed."

She brought her face in close to his now, looking into his emerald green eyes. "You need to take in the thought of them even if you don't want to. Remember how I did when Kopa came back?"

A moment of silence passed as Kovu took in Kiara's words. Taking a few moderately deep breaths, he turned back to her. As he did, Kiara glanced around to the others. Everyone around her seemed to be moved by her words. Softly, Kovu said, "How?"

Kiara gave him a confused look before he clarified. "How the hell do people get off on calling you a ditz, Kiara?"

As he said this, his face changed to that of a loving smile, and he put his head up against hers warmly, embracing her words of wisdom. Kiara returned the comfort.

"It's alright, Kovu... I know it isn't easy, but you've gotta trust me."

Kovu replied softly, "I trust you, Kiara... I always have."

And with that, the two mates returned to their original positions and sat back down with everyone else in the semi-circle surrounding the laptop. And since he had said unwise things before, Timon decided not to utter anything that could ruin the moment for them.

With that, the meerkat continued. In the story, the fellowship was passing through a blizzard in the Misty Mountains around Caradhras. Suddenly however, something unexpected happened. With the temptation of the Ring beginning to take hold of him, Kovu slashed Kivuli in the face and accused him of leading them into a trap of some sort. But then at one point Kovu called the Ring 'his precious', which made him realize what was happening. Not wanting to endanger anyone else, Kovu ran off with Kiara going after, and the two got separated in the snowstorm.

When Timon read this off, the lions and lioness didn't know how to feel. On one paw it was good that the story was finally giving them something unexpected, but on the other paw, they were worried as to how this would end up. And for the first time in quite a while, they were actually interested in what was going on.

In the blizzard, Kovu and Kiara were saved by a rogue lion living in the mountains by himself, going by the name of Kifo.

"So... this lion lives in the mountains because..." Kopa said flatly, wanting an explanation.

And an explanation he got indeed. For in a new turn of events, Kifo turned out to actually be Kovu's biological father. He explained that he once lived in the Pride Lands after the death of Scar, and that his two cubs Kovu and Vitani were born right around the time Kopa was. The story he told was rather interesting for everyone to hear, except for this last part.

"I eventually found my way up here, in the coldest part of the Misty Mountains. I live off of the deer and elk that wander around these parts. To this day I still wish I could've found either of them... at least to say good bye."

"Why the hell would he live there?" Vitani questioned. "I get that he didn't know where the Pride Lands were, but he could've at least picked a better place to stay that those freezing mountains!"

Kopa nodded. "At least when I was gone, I stayed in warm climate to keep myself alive!"

"Not that there's anyplace cold around here anyway." Simba corrected.

"Hey wait a second!" Kovu cut in. "Aren't lions meant to live in hot weather like we do? Wouldn't being in cold mountains like that for so long kill us?"

Pumbaa decided to answer now. "It's just one of those things you've gotta accept, Kovu. Remember how not ever-"

Kovu cut him off. "Not everyone's an expert on us. Yeah, yeah, I get that. But... still, this is going a bit far."

Timon muttered something under his breath, though no one heard it by any means. What he said there was something that none would ever know except for himself.

As the story was drawing to a close, Simba and the rest of the fellowship were searching all over the mountains for any signs of Kiara and Kovu. At one point they were moving up a mountainside with a path on its side, but then were attacked by the wizardry of Saruman, for even as far away as he was, he still was able to know where they were. With his sorcery, he conjured up lightning bolts to rip apart the snow and have it collapse on them from above. At one point Kopa was dangling over the edge because he had been pulled over by the snow, but was saved by Simba before he could fall.

And that was when the moment no one could've ever foreseen for the lives of them came. Saruman struck a lightning bolt from below to collapse the pathway, and Simba now dangled over the edge. The fellowship members tried to save him, but sadly, it was too late. Simba slid off into the abyss, killing him.

Upon hearing this, the real Simba stood up suddenly. "What? What the hell, man?" He objected. "Why did they kill me off?"

Kopa looked up to his father. "Well at least you died saving me."

Simba gave his son a sympathetic look. "Yeah... just like how my father went out."

What followed this chapter was nothing short of depressing. Being so torn by the loss of Simba, Kopa ran off and abandoned the fellowship, wanting to take the Ring to Mordor on his own. Vitani went after him, and Rafiki told everyone it was best to let them go, since they still needed to find Kiara and Kovu. Rafiki had confidence that Kopa and Vitani could reach Mount Doom on their own.

"Uh yeah, that's real nice." Kiara said sarcastically. "The one who's carrying the reason you're out there, and you just let him go like that?"

Kovu nodded. "Yeah, that's idiotic!"

Nala then said to her son-in-law, "Well it says we did it so we could find you."

Kovu shook his head. "Still, you could've sent at least someone else to follow them. Why not have half of us go to Mordor, and the other half come to look for Kiara and I?"

Nala opened her mouth to say something, but ultimately decided against it, failing to come up with an appropriate response.

In the end, Kopa and Vitani did find each other in the mountains, and set out for Mount Doom together, ending with this:

"Mordor... " Kopa said. "So that's where we're going... I hope the the others can find a safer road."

Vitani said, "Rafiki can look after them."

Kopa looked over to her. The breeze of the air around them began to flow through his flowing mane. "I don't suppose we'll ever see them again." he said solemnly. Vitani replied in a hopeful voice, "We might yet, Kopa... we might yet."

She started down the pathway that led down the mountain to continue on their quest. But before she could start heading down, Kopa called down to her.

"Vitani?"

The lioness looked back to him as he ran to her side.

"I'm glad that you're with me."

They both smiled, and Kopa now led her down the pathway. Neither one of them knew if they would ever see their family, friends or home ever again, but whatever happened, they would always stick together. Even as they treaded down the pathway, into the land of the shadow.

Timon collapsed onto the floor in front of the keyboard, his voice scratchy and worn, while he had almost no breath left in his body. He collected himself for a moment before Simba said to him, "Well? Read us what happens next!"

Seeing his friend in such an exhausted condition, Pumbaa decided to answer. "Uhh, that's where it ends, Simba."

In that instant, everyone around him started to call out in annoyance and groan loudly, with Kopa saying "Aww, what? That's it?"

"Well what the hell kind of ending was that?" Kiara objected.

"We never even got to know if we made it out all right!" Kovu added, getting his head up off of Kiara's neck.

Simba shook his head. "That wasn't even an ending! It just... cut off!"

Finally mustering the courage and will to speak, Timon stood back up and asked them all, "So... that was certainly a mouthful. What'd you think?"

It took a moment for everyone to settle back down before anything could be said.

"It's no wonder you said 'one does not simply walk into this next fanfic'. That sucked." said Kovu. "I can't believe how many holes are in this story, not to mention that freaking ending! If you can even call it an ending!"

Kiara nodded. "Yeah, I don't know how much I liked it either. They took way too long to describe everything, it made up half of the story! And besides, this fantasy stuff really isn't for me."

Timon turned to Simba and Nala. Simba said, "Well... it's illogical and is kind of a mess... but I'll admit that I was able to imagine some nice landscapes throughout the story."

Nala nodded beside him. She said, "Yes, I imagined some beautiful mountainsides and valleys too, and I really do want to know what Rivendell and the Shire look like... but still, this fantasy land is just too much. I felt like that part with Kovu's father was just forced in without any buildup, and the ending was just too depressing."

That last part she said while looking to Simba, who was giving her a sad expression.

Facing Kopa and Vitani now, Timon asked them what they thought. To this, Kopa replied, "Well... it was okay. I mean I know, this thing's got holes and problems everywhere, and I hate the ending! But... I'm really liking this Middle Earth place, it sounds awesome."

Turning to Vitani, she nodded approvingly. "Yeah. I liked the elves especially, Rivendell sounds beautiful. The Shire sounds like a nice place, and the mountains must look amazing from a distance."

Timon nodded. "Trust me, if you ever saw the other movies that inspired this fanfic..."

Suddenly, Kovu cut in, "I say whoever wrote this is a hack!"

Simba now gave him an odd look. "What? Why is that, Kovu?" He asked.

Kovu stood up now next to Kiara. He said, "Think about how he worded everything, and how detailed he got. He probably thinks he's some great author who can change everything with this crappy story. He talks like he wants to sound all smart and wise when he can't even see all the holes in everything!"

Kiara nodded beside him, while Simba and the others looked more skeptical. "Well... it certainly took a while to get used to, but by the end it started to grow on me."

"I'll admit, it did seem a little overdone." Nala added.

"I didn't have a problem with it." Kopa said suddenly. "Heck, with this Middle Earth place, I want to know everything I can about what it looks like!"

The meerkat said under his breath, "Yeah, Peter Jackson can definitely help ya' there, kid."

Nodding, Timon turned back to the laptop, and closed the page at last. Little did he know that the page containing the Shenzi/Timon smut was still hidden below, ready to be opened when Kiara's plan would call for it. He sighed.

"So I'm guessing none of you liked that very much?" Timon questioned, even though he knew the answer.

"No, that was terrible." Kovu replied.

"It didn't make any sense and it was just way too long." Kiara said.

Simba stood up and stretched himself out before saying, "No, I didn't like it either. It had some good moments, and the scenery it described was great. But overall it was just too depressing, especially the ending.

Nala agreed. "Yes, the same thing goes for me, Simba. "That part with the hyenas being killed by those riders, and Kopa ripping apart his paw to get the Ring off... that was a bit much."

Kopa rubbed his eyes for a bit before he gave his response. "Well... I don't know how much I liked the story like you guys, but so far I'm loving Middle Earth as a whole. The place sounds incredible!"

Vitani stood up and stretched herself out like Simba did before saying, "Yeah, I want to know what the place looked like too. Although... the ending was pretty sad, and I really wish Zira didn't have to be alive."

"Isn't that the truth!" Kovu called to her.

"And besides", Vitani finished while facing Kopa. "Thanks to this, I think I know what we can name our cubs now."

Simba suddenly perked up, and his eyes widened. Taking a step closer to his son and his daughter-in-law, he said firmly, "That reminds me... Kopa? Vitani? I need to speak to you outside."

Kopa smacked his paw against his face, rubbing his eyes now. He said through gritted teeth, "Way to go, Vitani."

Kiara stood up now, watching Kovu do the same beside her. She said to her mate, "Well as long as we don't have to hear any more stories from this guy, I'm fine with it."

Kovu said to her. "Yeah this guy sucks, thinking he's so great. Good thing we aren't in any of his other fanfics, right Kiara?"

The lioness nodded. "Yep, I'd never want to be in another one of his stories again..."

Author's Note: Well, there goes the last of what used to be the fourth wall now.