Chapter 9

Disclaimer: See Prologue.

Hakuna Matata!

*Simba*

It has been almost one month since the events of when both Malka became Kopa and mine adopted brother. But it was also the day I almost killed Zira and her friends. That day still haunts my dreams, but I try not to dwell on it too much.

"Hey Simba!" Malka said, his voice startling me out of my trance and reminded me of why we were out here in the first place. "You Ok?"

"Never better." I said with true enthusiasm. Malka being around has really helped me get to my old self. He is always there for me and I always have a lot of fun when I am around him. What is better is he is younger than me.

"Ok. So you ready to go?" I could tell from the smile on his face that we were going somewhere fun. He had only hinted that it was hidden between the Water Pride and Earth Pride and we were all curious as to what it was.

"Yeah! Let's go!" And with my words we all bolted for the unknown adventure that Malka had in store for us.

*Kula*

Malka said that he had some friends there that were going to help us with this fun. I got confused at that statement. How can you help someone have fun? Fun comes naturally.

"Kula! You are moving to slow. Come on or you will lose your lunch to me tonight!" Chumvi taunted, Oh he is so asking for trouble! No one messes with my food and gets away with it. I have always been one to get my food first and never let anyone beat me to it. Mom always told me it was because when I was young there wasn't a lot of food and I nearly starved when the dry season came and mom could barely produce enough milk for the two of us. I got serious and bolted ahead of Chumvi and managed to get neck and neck with Simba and Malka.

"So Malka? Where exactly are we going?" I batted my eyelashes in the hopes of tricking him into giving it up.

"Kula? Are you running or staring at me? Because if you are staring at me, then you will fall in that huge pile of mud" said Malka. My eyes widened at this and turned my head and skidded to a stop, there was no way I was going to bathe myself. I looked and saw that there was no mud. He is so dead! Sure Malka is my friend, but I hate it when he pranks me like that, which he does a lot. I went to go tear Malka a new one when I heard Tojo yell.

"And Chumvi takes the lead once again!" My eyes widened again and I saw that Chumvi had indeed passed me again. Darn you Malka! Why do guys always have to work together? At least Tojo is on my side.

I run at full speed and actually managed to catch up to Chumvi, but am unable to pass him. We are neck and neck while our friends had reached the destination which looked to be a huge forest. My momentary look at the forest had given Chumvi the chance to stick his tail in front of my legs and I face planted into the dirt. I got my head up quickly, only to see Chumvi beat me to my destination. I got up and trotted the rest of the distance and arrived to a bunch of chuckling males and my girlfriends all looking at the boys with glares.

"Took you long enough Kula." Chumvi said laughing on his back and the others joined him.

"Shut up Chumvi!" I hissed at my brother. Mom is so going to hear about this.

"What is wrong Kula? Sad you won't get dinner tonight?" Malka chortled.

"Malka! Watch it or you will be washing sand out of your fur for weeks." Tama. Always willing to back me up when the guys decide to gang up on me.

"OH, We quiver with fear. All we have to do is stay off the ground and your bending will be useless!" UH OH! Malka just said the 'U' word to Tama. She absolutely hates being called that, but not as much as being called a guy. The poor girl already had to deal with the fact that she would not be able to join us hunting, or at least stay at our pace when we are older due to her being blind. He crossed the line.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Tama was pissed and she was about to slam the guys down with a bunch of rocks when we heard three voices.

"Enough!" We all turned and saw Kopa with his flames ready with Simba and Nala at his side. This is going to be fun!

*Kopa*

I will admit that this was funny at first when me and the guys wanted to mess with Kula and we actually got her to lose, but Malka took it too far when he called Tama is a recipe for a fight we do not need.

"Will you guys stop acting like a pair of newborn cubs fighting for the first drink of milk or do I have to give you a royal Time-Out?" I said while I made a flame appear in my paw. They all stepped away from each other and backed off. I think I made my point.

"Come on guys, this is supposed to be a fun day. Don't pick on the girls and turn this into a bad day. I don't think anyone wants that." said Simba. My brother is always one to try to be nice to others and whenever he speaks, everyone listens to him. I am certain when he is older, he will be a great Avatar and an even better king.

"Yeah guys! Let's just do what we came here to do huh?" Nala is also a very peace seeking cub and will always back up my brother whenever situations like these come up and for that I am very grateful.

I saw the other guys look at each other with guilty looks on their faces and I give them a look telling them to apologize to Kula and Tama.

"Kula, I am sorry. I know I was a bit mean to you by tripping you. I was just having fun with ya. Can you forgive me?" Chumvi has actual remorse on his face. I know Kula, she probably will forgive him. She isn't a grudge holder.

"I understand Chumvi. It was kinda funny anyway, besides you are my brother and will always forgive you," I saw Chumvi's eyes light up with hearing Kula say that, "If you give me half your portion of dinner to me as reconciliation." I saw Chumvi's eyes widen and I smirked because I knew that this was fair payback for the reluctantly nodded in agreement. Who knew she could be so sneaky.

I then turned to the problem that really concerned me. Tama and my younger brother Malka. I shivered as I saw the blind death glare that Tama was giving Malka and prayed that I would be able to resolve this before it turned violent. She was not nearly as easy going.

"Tama" the blind lioness turned to me with a panting chest from what I could see and I continued, "Any chance of you not killing my little brother?"

"Maybe, if he apologizes first." Tama said with an obvious hiss towards Malka. My eyes went to the copper brown lion and I could already see a joke forming on his lips. Not gonna happen.

"Just apologize to her Malka. Don't piss her off more." I gave him another glare when he opened his mouth to protest and then I saw him sigh.

"Tama. I am sorry for calling you useless." I could sense some reluctance in his voice, but otherwise he was being truthful. I saw a wide smile approach Tama's face and I saw her walk up to Malka and give him a friendly nuzzle.

"Apology accepted Malka!" I saw a smile of relief reach my brother's face and just as I was turning to enter our destination, I saw Tama deliver a hard smack to Malka's face with her claws sheathed.

"Tama. I thought you said you wouldn't hurt him." I was confused. Malka had already apologized. Why did she smack him?

"Yeah Tama. What did you do that for?" We then heard laughing and we all turned to see Simba laughing a short laugh.

"What is so funny Simba?" I asked and Simba simply laughed a little harder and then Nala joined in. The hell?

"What is so funny?" Malka hates it when a joke or something funny has happened and he was not responsible.

"It is funny cause you told her not to kill him, not hurt him. Tama got around your little deal." It was then that I mentally slapped myself and joined in the laugh. Girls are such weird creatures.

*Malka*

I winced as I put my paw once again to my cheek. Dang, that Tama girl smacks hard. I can only imagine what it would be like if she combined her earth bending with that. I shudder at the thought and then hear the voice of Nala.

"So Malka, what exactly are we doing in what looks to be nothing but a vine infested jungle with only a small pool of water?" The way she asked described our location perfectly and I could not wait to give them a surprise that they would absolutely love.

"I brought you guys here to teach you Hakuna Matata!"

"ALRIGHT!" I could already tell Simba was looking forward to this and at the same time I heard all the girls groan with disgust because they probably thought it would be boring, boy stuff. Oh how wrong they are.

"Did someone say Hakuna Matata?" Alright! They made it. Me and my friends all turned and there they were, a meerkat and a warthog.

"What the?" Simba was obviously dumbstruck and I caught everyone else's jaws hit the jungle floor. This will be fun.

"Guys," I saw all the others look to me, "this is Timon and Pumbaa. A pair of jungle benders that taught me the ways of Hakuna Matata. They are.."

"Jungle Benders?" I saw Kopa's head tilt and his scarred eyebrow raise as he let the words settle in his mouth.

"We Jungle benders are basically another kind of water bender that learns how to bend water in different ways here in the jungle." Timon explained. This meerkat despite his lazy look is actually very intelligent. Pumbaa is as well but it is often down played by his..

"Let's get started!" He is always one to have fun. He moved his left hoof and down came a vine which wrapped around his hoof and pulled him into the trees. The rest of my friends looked dumbstruck while me and Timon just shook our heads.

"How did he do that?" Simba looked really excited. He obviously wanted to try what Pumbaa just did and I could not help but smile. He is definitely forgetting what happened with Zira and her friends a month ago.

"Yeah Timon. How did that pig just bring a vine down here?" I am so happy that Tama did not say the 'P' word when Pumbaa was here. I would shudder to predict the outcome of the battle.

"Well young lady. As I said; me, Pumbaa and Malka here are all water benders who bend water in the jungle. More specifically, we bend the water inside the vines and trees in the jungle."

"HUH?!" Everyone once again looked confused and I decided to put their minds at ease.

"What Timon means guys is that everything that is alive has water in it that a water bender can control. Everything that lives, like the trees takes in water to live and that water is always there as life goes on."

"Soo basically, what they do is bend the water and they can bend the wood and plants?" Nala asked with revelation in her eyes.

"Yes Nala, you're a quick learner. That is exactly how it works." I thrust my paws up and down came two vines that wrapped around my claws and with that I went swinging. "HAKUNA MATATA."

"I'm gonna try!" said Nala, " Tojo, Chumvi, Tama, Kopa and Kula! Grab on!" I looked back and saw Nala effortlessly bend six vines down for her and her friends and they all grabbed on and joined me in the trees.

"Hakuna Matata!" They all jeered in unison as we swung. I could not believe how much fun they were having and how easily Nala got the hang of Jungle bending. She really is a natural.

"Not bad Kid! You got some real talent with our style." Pumbaa said with praise to Nala who blushed in embarrassment. I was about to say something as well when I noticed we were missing something or someone.

"Hey! Where's Simba?" Everyone looked around from on their vines in search of our future king until Kopa got our attention.

"OH Kings! Look!" We all turned our heads and what I saw next really blew my mind.

"HAKUUUUUUUNNAAAA MATAATTTAAAA!" Simba. He was riding on his air sphere technique along a vine that he had water bent into a path. It was very impressive and it showed how care free he is at this moment.

"Go Simba!" Simba heard my cheer and the whistles of our friends in cheering and waved up at us with a huge smile. Unfortunately, my brother got distracted by us and plummeted into a bush.

"Oof!"

"Bro!" Me and Kopa said in fear as we descended from our vines with our friends in tow.

We searched very carefully until Simba jumped out from up above and and attempted a roar that actually spooked us.

We all jumped in fear but then joined Simba in laughing at us getting scared by him. Then, I got a mischievous smirk on my face and looked to the others who had an identical gleam in their eyes. We all pounced on Simba who jumped back in surprise.

"Catch me if you can!" He jumped up and spun an air sphere which he rode away at top speed.

"You're on!" I summoned another vine and swung after him while Kopa somehow used his fire abilities and shot after him. Tama used her earth bending and started earth trotting after Simba and Nala once again used her water bending to summon the vines and helped the others swing after our avatar prince. It must be hard being unable to bend like the rest of your friends.

"HAKUNA MATATA, what a wonderful phrase" And the chase was on.

1) Do you think Hakuna Matata is an effective motto?

2) How do you think Aang would have turned out if he didn't run away from the Monks?

3) Who is your favorite of the Swamp benders from Avatar?