(A/N: Well, all I can assume is that your Siku Choka trivia scores were so high that you didn't want to brag about them in your reviews. *Sniffs* I'm so proud of you guys! Here's another long chapter as a reward!)
Nine lions were in the chase in all. Eboni and Juveda had just finished running a lap around the track, and so they were now lined up in the frontstretch in ambush waiting for the new prey to be released. Winda had remained on the frontstretch also, still feeling uncomfortable about running on her injured leg.
A breeze blew by the spectators sitting on the hills.
Rafiki took another bite from a gourd that he had been eating, but then looked down inquisitively at the end of a gourd that he had finished earlier.
There were twelve seeds sitting in the bottom of the cup-shaped shell. The wind blew nine of them in a circle around the base of the gourd. Three of them remained where they had been before. Of the nine that travelled around the base one lap, one rolled up high and fell out of the shell. As the eight rolled back down to join the other three, there were now only eleven seeds left.
Much to the Pridelanders delight, Nala had been the first lion to have scored ten points as she took the antelope down in the first of the two long turns.
A new antelope was released on the frontstretch, but was quickly taken down by Juveda.
Meanwhile, the chases for the zebra and the buffalo were continuing on the backstretch.
Shairi and Bilauri were the only females left in the chase. They had pulled out a lead in front of the males and were both close on the zebra's hind heels. However, they were making it harder for each other by positioning themselves at an angle at which it would be difficult for the other to make an attack.
Simba, who had been able to conserve his energy since his previous chase, was getting a bit tired of watching the two lionesses run without either of them making a move for the kill. Yet, he figured, he knew both of these lionesses well, and so surely they wouldn't be too mad with him if he were to just barge on by between them and take the zebra down himself.
Whether they would or not, Simba didn't care. That is what he did, and it was well worth it. Ten points went to Simba while Bilauri and Shairi were left to run on by with nothing.
Meanwhile, the rest of the males had been sizing the buffalo up all lap, and thus had been running at a slower pace than the rest of the chasers.
Tonka was the first to make a move up onto the buffalo's back, but he would soon find himself lined up with an unexpected problem.
The zebra carcass and Simba were still lying down in the middle of the backstretch. Also, Lenny and Elvis had just ran on by the buffalo, both determining that they would now no longer be able to get ten points for bringing it down.
The buffalo freaked out at the presence of so many lions in front of him, and so he stopped running.
The crowd gasped.
Get off Tonka, was all they could think.
However, Tonka, as strong of a hunter as he may have been, was still a rookie in the Siku Choka, and so he wasn't quite sure as to what was about to happen next. He just pulled himself farther up on the buffalo's back and tried to get a better bite on the neck.
The buffalo, inevitably, began to buck. As it did so, it closed in on Simba and the zebra.
Simba could feel the ground vibrating, and so he checked over his shoulder to see if something was coming.
Seconds later, and Simba was another ten or so feet farther on down the backstretch, as he had determined that running was the best thing for him right now.
Once he was far away enough, Simba stopped and turned back around, waiting to see how the situation would wind out.
It wasn't good.
The buffalo continued to buck all the way up until it arrived at the zebra's carcass. At this point, he tried to jump over it. His rear legs went up so high that Tonka finally lost grip and flew off and above him. When he landed back down on the ground in front of the buffalo, the prey had now became the predator.
The buffalo knew that Tonka was a threat, and so he wanted to make short work of him. He began smashing his hooves into Tonka's skull and body, but was soon stopped as Guvu caught up to them and pounced up onto the buffalo from behind.
Guvu killed the buffalo, but not before the buffalo had done some killing himself.
Nala ran on by all the commotion and ran up to her mate, who was still standing rigid, frozen in his tracks farther on down the straight.
Nala grabbed her mate by the shoulders and shook him violently.
"THIS IS NO TIME TO RUBBERNECK!" she shouted in his face. "GET MOVING TO THE FRONTSTETCH, NOW!"
"Nala…Tonka just…he just got…"
"I know he just got killed!" Nala shouted back. "But you can't stop and look back in the Siku Choka, or else you'll get killed! Get moving, Simba!"
"Nala, T—Tonka…"
Nala groaned and then waved her paw out. She slapped her mate hard across the face with it.
"Ow! Nala!" Simba snapped back, holding a paw up to his face. "I just saw my friend get killed! How do you think you'd feel?"
"How do you think I feel?" Nala asked back. "He was my friend too, Simba. But I'll be damned if I'm going to watch you get killed too."
"Nala, look, I'm still with it, okay? Nobody's coming. I'm safe here. I just…need a moment…"
"You don't have a moment," Nala cried back, on the verge of tears now. The edge in her voice finally caught Simba's attention. For the first time since the incident, Simba drew his focus away from Tonka. "Simba, it's a psychological thing. If you don't move on from Tonka now, you're never going to. You've got to do it Simba, you've got to do it now."
Simba looked deep into his mate's eyes. He could already tell that they were tear-stained. She had probably been crying on her way up towards him. Simba took his focus off of her eyes and looked around at the rest of her body. There wasn't an inch of Nala that wasn't covered in mud or blood. Most of it was mud, honestly, as Nala had fallen down plenty of times during the Siku Choka slip-n-slide earlier. Yet still, Simba could see plenty of scars and bruises down on both of her sides, thanks mostly to the early zebra incident. She also had collected plenty of dried blood underneath her nose from the same incident, and there was also much around her muzzle, thanks to all of the points that she had been achieving. Simba looked back up towards her eyes and realized how many bags had formed beneath them. Nala was trying her hardest to operate on as little sleep as she could get.
It was at that moment that Simba recalled how much this game really meant to Nala. She was as much a fanatic of it as what Bilauri was. And yet, through all the scars, mud, blood and bruising that this game had been worth, Nala had determined that it was more important to go up to her mate and check to make sure that he was okay before she got back on with the program and gone on to score more points.
Simba sighed and nodded his head.
"Okay, Nala, I'll move on," he replied.
"Now?"
"Now. I just—I just need something else to think about."
Nala bit down on her lip and tried to think of something for him.
"Well, you could always think about…"
"I know," Simba interrupted her, "I'll just think about you."
Nala raised an eyebrow.
"Really?" she asked.
"Yeah, but you'll look a lot better than what you do now. You're lying down next to the waterhole…its dusk and you're on your back, and there are flowers all around and we're all alone, and…"
"Simba."
"Yes, hun?"
"I get the visual."
"Alright, just making sure."
Nala began to walk on by her mate, brushing him with her tail as she did so.
"Coming to the frontstretch?" she asked.
"Do we have to go there?" Simba asked, catching her up. "I was thinking more along the lines of…"
"You know, you still haven't given me something else to think about. I'd like to forget about Tonka too."
"Well, how about some more Siku Choka trivia?"
"Sounds good. What you got?"
"Well…um…who's the second best Siku Choka competitor of all time? After Uku?"
"Tunda. The only three-time Siku Choka Champion. Won Siku Chokas three, five and six. Never finished worse than third."
"Okay, so, um…who's ranked third?"
"Kahawia. Are you just going to go down the entire top thirty and ask me?"
"Perhaps. Who's number four?"
"Guvu."
"Five?"
"Juni."
"Six?"
"Chumvi."
"Seven?"
"Raia…"
Every now and then Winda would attempt a run, but each time it would either end with her limping back to the outside of the track in pain, or falling over in the middle of the track in humiliation.
Thus, a lot of the new points were going to Eboni and Juveda as they kept taking down the new prey that was getting released. Eventually, Bilauri and Shairi led the rest of the field back up into their ambushing posts on the frontstretch.
"So how about it, Shairi?" Bilauri asked. "Tonka's gone now, unfortunately, and Winda isn't of much use to us right now. You're more than welcome to team up with me and Shemshi."
Shairi tried her best to muster a smile, something that was, given the current circumstances, hard to do.
"Thanks but no thanks, Bilauri," she replied. "Simba's all the teammate I need."
"But you have a history of working with Shemshi too," Bilauri added, "you and him work great together."
"We do," Shairi replied, watching Shemshi running with the rest out of the final turn. "But if you ask me," Shairi added, "I think there's some kind of relationship between him and Winda, and so I usually try and stay out of their way."
"Ah. So…that's why you didn't team up with them?"
"It was one of the reasons," Shairi replied. "Also, though, I just truly believe that Simba is the right teammate for me, today."
Simba and Nala finally lined up at their ambushing posts.
Simba shook his head and looked down at the ground.
"You know Nal', all I'm going to say is this…about Tonka…and then I'll drop it…but, talking about being with you at the waterhole, talking about the lions who have made it in the Siku Choka. That doesn't take my mind off him at all. He can never lie down with his mate again, he will never go down in Siku Choka history. It just…that bothers me…"
"Don't let it," Nala replied. "If you can't help it, then you can step out of this track right now. Competing in the Siku Choka is a huge statement Simba. It says, 'I know I have family, but the Siku Choka crown is worth so much to me, that I'm willing to risk it all, even if it means I'll never be remembered.' You have to believe that Tonka made that statement, and I have to believe that you can make it too."
Simba looked over at his mate. "You think the Zazu thing was an omen, don't you?"
Nala bit her lip. "I think you care more about me, than you do the Siku Choka," she replied. "And I think that is a one-way ticket to losing it all."
"I'm not going to get hurt," Simba replied, calmly. "I wouldn't put myself in the position that Tonka was in."
"That's what they all say Simba," Nala snapped.
The crowd reacted as Juveda brought down a zebra.
"That's what they all say."
Simba's attention was distracted as a new zebra was released. Bilauri and Shemshi were lined up before them, but neither seemed intent in going after the zebra. Simba knew that he was next.
"Nala, I've got to go…"
Nala raised herself up onto her hind legs and rested her paws against Simba's shoulder blades. She was at his eye-level, but also in a position in which told Simba that she meant business.
"Simba, promise me, promise me you'll move on. Promise me you'll forget about Tonka. You'll have time to mourn after the event. Forget about that, and just focus. Focus. And if you feel your focus sliding away just the slightest bit, please leave the track immediately…cause I can't stand the thought of losing you."
"I will," Simba replied, moving out of his mate's grasp and over towards the zebra. "I will."
As Pumbaa and Zazu had noted earlier, Juveda was slowly but surely losing her energy. She began to chase the antelope but it heard her coming in plenty of time and, thus, escaped from her.
Juveda resorted to pacing herself to a walk around the rest of the lap.
Simba, meanwhile, had chased the zebra down and caught it, and was now lined back up in ambush.
The buffalo and the antelope were now walking harmlessly around the track by themselves, leaving the competitors no choice but to go for zebras.
Shemshi and Nala competed against each other in the first chase, with Nala winding up being the victor.
Bilauri and Shairi went for the second, and Shairi took the ten points.
Lenny got the next one, then Elvis, then Guvu, and then Simba again.
Finally, everyone was beginning to see the pattern…
"We're all getting the same amount of points," Bilauri said aloud. "Each of us gets one zebra each and then it moves on to the next competitor."
Winda and Shemshi looked at her.
"Is that a problem?" Winda asked.
"Well, yeah…unless your name's Guvu. Everyone's getting the same amount of points so no one's closing in on him. We need to upset the order of things."
Bilauri looked on farther down the straight. Juveda had now stopped on the side of the track and let the buffalo by. She was pacing it. However, much like Nala's team had earlier, she had no intentions of bringing it down until she got to the front stretch. By pacing now, she could conserve her energy and she would have less distance to run from the point where she killed the buffalo to the point where she could line back up in ambush.
But not if Bilauri could have anything to say about it…
"Shemshi, you're the strongest of us. You're the best at bringing buffalos down." She pointed over towards the buffalo. "Fetch."
Shemshi rolled his eyes. "Yes, master," he replied, moving on out from his ambushing post.
Nala, Bilauri and Shairi all continued the pattern of taking tens for the zebras. Meanwhile, Winda had given up on her attempts at healing herself, and so she collapsed down onto the floor and fell asleep.
Lenny was up next, and a couple of the competitors got on edge, knowing that if Lenny missed, which was probable, it could start another chase around the track.
Indeed, Lenny moved out too late, and the zebra was already far in front of him by the time he started the chase.
Elvis, Guvu, Nala and Shairi stayed where they were but Simba and Bilauri moved out.
"Simba, wait!"
Simba stopped running and looked over towards the side of the track, wondering who had called him. He soon discovered that it had been Shairi.
"Leaving these posts won't help us, we need to stay here."
Well…Simba might as well obey. It was not like he was going to get the zebra now. Bilauri and Lenny were now far in front.
Simba made his way up to Shairi.
"So what's your plan now, then?" he asked.
"Well, I hate to confess Simba, but you were right. We need a team of three. I don't want to team up with Bilauri and Shemshi because they have far more points than us…"
"Shairi, no offense, but…everyone has more points than us."
"I know," Shairi admitted, "but Juveda's lost her energy. She's not going to be a threat to us for the win."
Simba couldn't help but stare at Shairi blankly. He blinked. What did she just say?
"Y—you want us to team up with Juveda?"
"Sometimes you have to work with lions you don't like," Shairi reasoned. "You should know that, you're a king. I'm sure you've had plenty of meetings before where you've had to make deals with lions you've disliked.
"Well…yeah…"
"So that's why I need you, Simba. Now it's your turn to do something that I can't do. I get on well with other lions, true, but I suck at persuasion. I need you to use all the techniques that you've learned to persuade Juveda to become part of our team. Because I guarantee you she's going to say 'no.'"
"Well, at least we agree on something."
"Please Simba."
"Okay, okay. I'll try my best, Shairi."
Juveda could finally sense Shemshi's presence from behind, and so she took off into a run and began to work on the buffalo.
She had left her attack until as late as she possibly could. That way, there would be less distance for her to run back to the frontstretch after she had got the buffalo down. She could now hear Shemshi behind her, but it was too late for him. She was up on the buffalo's back and was setting herself up to bite down on its neck. However, Shemshi soon joined her, and it knocked Juveda off balance. Juveda was able to hang on to the buffalo's sides with her claws, but the buffalo was now in a lot of pain and he was beginning to buck. Shemshi knew that they would both be in certain trouble if he didn't finish the job soon, and so he clamped his jaw down onto the back of the buffalo's neck and was able to slice through the crucial veins.
The buffalo collapsed to the floor and brought both Juveda and Shemshi down to a rocky landing with it.
Once Juveda had been able to open her eyes and check that she was alive, she got up onto her feet and made her way over to Shemshi.
She cuffed him across the head.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?" she bellowed. "I almost died!"
"Oh yeah? You would've done the same to me," Shemshi retorted, getting back up onto his feet.
"When have I ever put someone in a position of certain death?" Juveda snapped back.
Shemshi opened his mouth to respond, but then thought better of it. He had no proof that Juveda had killed Peponi…
"You were thinking of Peponi, weren't you?" Juveda asked, disgusted.
Shemshi chose not to respond, but that was enough of an answer for Juveda.
Juveda narrowed her eyes.
"I'd like to see you prove it," she added. And with that, she turned around and left.
Lenny, to the crowd's astonishment, had been able to outpace Bilauri and get the ten points for the zebra. Both competitors were now running the rest of their ways around the lap.
Meanwhile, a game was being played between Eboni and the Guvu fans.
A new buffalo and a new zebra had just been released. The buffalo was in front of the zebra. Eboni wanted to get the buffalo, as, if she didn't, Guvu probably would. However, if she startled the zebra, the zebra would send out a warning shriek and send both himself and the buffalo off into a run, at which point the buffalo would most certainly become Guvu's.
The Eboni fans in the stands were being as silent as possible, allowing Eboni to read the zebra's mind as she walked on by him. At this point, the zebra now knew she was there, but Eboni needed to make her moves with precision in order to ensure that the zebra knew that she was not after him.
Meanwhile, the Guvu fans in the stands were making as much noise as they could, attempting to frighten the zebra and cause him to break out into a run. A couple of small brawls broke out in the stands as the Eboni fans tried to shut the Guvu fans up.
However, Eboni had done a Siku Choka before, and thus she knew exactly what she was doing. With elegantly timed moves, she was slowly but surely able to walk on by the zebra and away from him without ever startling the prey. Now, she could begin her chase on the buffalo.
"Well Ah don't know about you Misses Nala, Ma'am, but Ah'm a li'l concerned by the fact that Lenny has took off without us. Do you think we should run around a lap with him or wait for him to return here?"
"We'll take off," Nala replied simply. "Guvu and Eboni are only going to go for the buffalo, and it seems that Shairi wants Simba to stay with her on the frontstretch here for some reason, so they're not going to run. In other words, it's just going to be a chase between you and me for the zebra, Elvis."
"Well ah wish you all the worst of luck, in that case then," Elvis joked.
Nala chuckled. "Aw," she replied, "I was starting to hope that I'd become your Good Luck Charm."
"You have, Nala…my good luck charm," Elvis clarified, pointing at himself, "only works for me."
Eboni was able to get the buffalo down before she got to Guvu. Seconds later, and Juveda had the antelope down on the backstretch, half a lap after her first failed attempt. The zebra walked on by Elvis and Nala and they both gave chase, with Nala emerging as the victor. They made their way on around to complete another lap.
Shemshi led Juveda out of the final turn and they both lined back up in ambush at the prey-release point. Simba turned to face Shairi again.
"Are you sure waiting is a good idea?" he asked her. "Juveda might be a while."
"Good," Shairi replied. "That'll help us conserve our energy."
"Is that what we need to do to win?"
"I don't know," Shairi replied. "But we'd better try something different. Nothing we've been trying so far has worked."
"You don't know?" Simba asked back. He didn't buy that. "Shairi, you've almost won this game, twice!"
Shairi closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. Several seconds passed and her eyes were still shut. Simba got a little concerned. Had he said something wrong?
"Shairi?" he called.
"Simba, I really shouldn't be allowed to work with you," she replied, now finally reopening her eyes. "You realize you're the only one who's said that to me today?"
"Well…I'm just trying to prove a point…"
"Everyone else has moved on," Shairi continued. "This new generation of Siku Choka fans. They're all rooting for Tumaini, and Eboni and my sister and Elvis. I'm not going to lie…it's made me feel kind of forgotten…it's been so long since I've heard someone say that I'm good at this game. I don't know if you know, but I got knocked out of the top 30 last year."
"Yeah, I heard," Simba replied. He smirked. "And I also heard it was Elvis who did it," he added. "There you go, something we both have in common. We both want to see Elvis lose."
Shairi laughed. "Ah, that's a good one Simba," she replied, "but…it's not Elvis's fault I'm not in the top 30. It's mine. I'm doing something wrong. I haven't given the fans what they've wanted to see. I don't know what it is, but my only guess is that it's a win." She shook her head. "I don't know what else I'm doing wrong."
Simba groaned and looked down at the ground. He didn't want to say it, but Shairi had employed him as a teammate on the basis that he would help her, and perhaps this was what she needed to hear…
"Perhaps you should try running on a broken leg," he said.
Shairi frowned. She was puzzled. What had caused Simba to say that?
"How do you mean?" she asked.
"Well…my mother-in-law, Sarafina…after she won Siku Choka 25, she told us all about different lions that she had met. Well, she told me that she was talking to someone in Siku Choka 25, and that lion told her that you would have never won, because you'd never run on a broken leg."
"Well duh," Shairi replied, "running on a broken leg is virtually impossible. What crazy loon told her that?"
Simba sighed. I knew she would ask that…damn you Shairi!
"Um…Uku…"
Shairi's ears dropped. Her face fell. Simba tried to look away from her, but even in the instant in which she had caught her eye, he had been able to read her full facial expression. She was devastated.
"U—Uku said that?" she stammered.
"Uh, yeah. Yeah, she did," Simba admitted. "But, she also added that she was upset that you were dead," he continued, trying to lighten the mood up, "so…it's not all bad."
Shairi looked down at the ground. "I never knew Uku held an opinion of me," she explained. "Nonetheless a negative one. She was my inspiration…and yet she died believing I would never be a Siku Choka champion."
"Well that's not entirely true," Simba said hurriedly, trying not to let Shairi get too upset. "She said that my mom-in-law reminded her of you, because you have guts…you just go out there and kill prey without even thinking about it. You're a great player, is what I think she was getting at, but you were just never determined enough to take the win."
Shairi took in another deep breath. Finally, she looked back up.
"Then she was wrong," Shairi replied, looking up at the skies. "Uku, I don't know if you can hear me, but heavens above, I loved you. If determination's what you want, then that's what you'll get." Shairi turned back to face Simba. "I'm winning this Siku Choka," she told him.
Simba smiled. "Not if I can help it."
Shairi smiled back. "Oh, you can't," she replied.
Oh, what the fans wouldn't give to see this event fast-forwarded to about twelve hours from now. A buffalo was on its way down the frontstretch and it was about to pass on by Eboni and Guvu. The two points leaders were about to have a go at it for a valuable set of ten points, and yet only one of them would emerge triumphant.
Eboni was the first to move on out, but Guvu was right behind her. The buffalo could already hear them coming and so he had already broken off into a run, but he had nothing when it came to being able to outpace these two lions.
The coffee-coated lioness was first up onto the creature's back, but she hadn't quite found her footing on him yet. Guvu was already in position to pounce, but he knew he couldn't yet. He was too much of a sportsman to put Eboni into peril. He was going to hang back until he knew she was safe, then he would pounce.
Eboni reached out one of her arms and pinned her claws into the buffalo's side. The buffalo shrieked and tried to run faster, but, for Eboni, it had already worked. She had now been able to pull herself up into a more comfortable position, and now Guvu knew that he could join her. Guvu leapt up off the ground and gracefully flew all 550 pounds of him through the air and farther up onto the buffalo's back than what Eboni was.
However, Eboni had already gotten her jaw clamped down on the buffalo's neck, and she was starting to shake the piece of flesh that she had around, attempting to cut off the buffalo's blood supply. Guvu joined in, and, finally, it was over. The buffalo collapsed and Guvu and Eboni moved back to the outside of the track, waiting in ambush for the next buffalo.
The track workers ran out and investigated the carcass. It didn't take them too long to determine who the winner had been. A jackal pointed over at Guvu, and then between them the track workers dragged the carcass off the track and towards the carcass pile.
"I'd thank you for waiting for me to get my balance," Eboni said aloud, "but I can't be too sympathetic towards you when you keep taking all these points from me."
"There's no need to thank me," Guvu replied. "I don't like putting anyone in any sort of precarious position."
"Well, I wasn't exactly about to fall off," Eboni admitted. "If I were you, I would've just taken the jump."
"I have realized that you are a more aggressive player than I am," Guvu continued. He cocked his head sideways. "That's all I can really say about that. I guess we'll have to wait until the end to see whose style works best."
Juveda went after the newly released buffalo, but she was now using up a lot of track in doing so. The chase took her across the starting line to log another point, and then she tallied another ten as she brought the buffalo down to the ground. Still, she was now far away from the prey-release point, and it was beginning to become evident to her that sleep would be required as part of her strategy soon.
Bilauri groaned. "You're kidding me," she moaned.
"What?" Shemshi asked her back.
"Simba and Shairi are just standing there, doing nothing. They just let the antelope and zebra by. We're going to have to keep hunting buffalo until someone breaks out into a run."
Shemshi smiled. "Not a problem for me then."
A flock of birds flew on by over the top of Bilauri and Shemshi. The scorekeepers had just made a startling revelation, and so the infield reporters, a.k.a., the hornbills, were now off to deliver it to the spectators.
A yellow one flew on down right in front of Sarafina and Tumaini.
"Upon a close examination of the current points standings, it has been discovered that Juveda has now passed Eboni for second place in the points. Guvu still leads the twenty-seventh running of the Siku Choka with 238 points, Juveda is second with 220 and Eboni is third with 212."
The hornbill then whirled around and flew off to deliver the report to someone else.
"Meaningless," Tumaini said to Sarafina. "Juveda's not got the stamina. She's not going to win. Still a showdown between Guvu and Eboni, if you ask me."
"Agreed," said Sarafina. "I only hope my daughter can catch them up too."
Shemshi had brought down the newly released buffalo, leaving this newest one for Bilauri to try and chase.
The Nyaziland lion made his way over towards the outside of the track, where he now found himself right next to where Winda was sleeping. He shook her gently by the shoulder, waking her up.
"Hmm?" murmured Winda, looking up.
"Hey," Shemshi whispered back, "how you feeling?"
Winda groaned, closing her eyes again. "Still sore," she confessed. "I don't know Shemshi…I don't know what I'm still doing out here. I only have 110 points, I must be a hundred points down by now."
"Well don't give up," Shemshi instructed. "You're in no danger while you're here. Maybe you'll feel better in the morning, then you can take them all down while we're all asleep."
Winda smiled at the thought. "Let's hope so," she replied. "You're a great friend, Shemshi. You know that?"
"Hey, I'm just doing my best to help a teammate," Shemshi reasoned.
"And how's our other teammate doing?"
A giant SPLOSH from behind them was enough of an answer for both of them, as Bilauri had just failed on her attempt to take the buffalo down.
"She's getting there," Shemshi replied.
Juveda was now the next competitor in ambush for the buffalo. Shairi and Simba were hoping that, if Juveda screwed up, she would run all the way down to where they were and then line back up next to them. That way, they could call on her as a teammate.
As luck would have it, that was exactly the way in which it turned out. Juveda moved over next to them and then lied down on the ground. She had long-since realized that her energy was gone, and now it was time for her to get some sleep.
"Go on King Simba," said Shairi, pushing him forwards. "Now's your chance. Use your excellent persuasion techniques to get her to join our team."
"Alright," Simba replied, confidently. "One excellent persuasion, coming right up!"
The lion king made his way over to Juveda. Juveda sensed his presence. She lifted an eyelid.
"What do you want?" she asked crudely.
"Would you like to be on our team?"
"No."
Simba sighed. He turned around to face Shairi. "That's it," he told her, "I tried."
Shairi rolled her eyes. 'Try harder,' she mimicked.
Simba turned back around.
"Would you like to be on mine and Shairi's team, please?"
"Shairi, huh? That overrated whore? You realize the only thing that's ever made her any good is that she knows the right lions to work with. But what about you? Why'd she pick you as a teammate? What makes your story so special? Lions take over prides all the time, yet yours just had a fire and starvation and a love story and all that crap that made it more interesting. Why the bloody hell would I want to work in a team like that?"
Simba blinked.
Okay…so she's an insult comic, is she? Ha! This should be worth it…
Simba knelt down and looked at her from eye-level.
"So," he began, "if it's not me, who are you going to work with? Elvis?"
"Elvis, huh?"
Simba could feel a laugh coming on already. He knew this was going to be great…
"That bloody murderer?"
…
…okay…that—that wasn't quite what he'd been expecting…
"Um…explain?" Simba asked.
"What, you think I killed Peponi?" Juveda asked. "She and I were the only ones awake at the time, huh? Who told you that? Elvis?"
"No…Eboni…"
"And who do you think told her? She had to find out somehow. Lions with families don't last very long in the Siku Choka, Simba. As soon as Linda got injured, she ran home to her husband like a wuss. You think Elvis didn't know that was going to happen? He was in the hunt that injured her, remember? And then it looked like Tumaini was going to win, and Elvis ran that piece of prey right down into her when all the track workers were telling him to stop…"
"But he apologized…"
"…and then Peponi, she was doing really well in the wet. It looked like she would take the lead away from everyone. Two leaders get taken out early on in the Siku Choka? Sounds a bit fishy to me. Remember that wounded buffalo earlier that you and your mate went to kill? Who wounded it? Elvis. When Shemshi was on it. He was trying to kill someone."
"He confessed it was his mistake! He said, 'sorry, folks, I injured this buffalo, it's my solemn duty to bring it down.'"
"Then when Tonka was on that buffalo a while ago, he started running right on by it before Tonka had it down. That freaked the buffalo out and you know what happened next. Remember that fight he and Bilauri had with Winda earlier when they were all going for that same piece of prey? A chunk of Winda's shoulder got ripped out. You're telling me Bilauri did that?"
Juveda's eyes widened. How could she forget, she was speaking to Simba! She should have mentioned this one to start off with…
"And what about your mate, Nala? Remember when she got badly injured hunting that zebra earlier? Who wounded that zebra? Who was right on its hind legs when that incident happened?"
"It was a pack."
"Yah, and Elvis was part of that pack. You go up to your mate and ask her to reminisce on that accident. I guarantee she'll tell you that she got clipped."
"Juveda…Nala's a good judge of character. She's been working with Elvis all game, I'm sure if he was a murderer she would have seen it by now?"
"No female can see through that pretty face," Juveda sneered. "He's the devil in disguise. But he's not married, unlike the real Elvis. He doesn't sing, unlike the real Elvis. And he's not nice, unlike the real Elvis. Simba, he's not the real Elvis…but all these pretty girls just don't see that."
Simba had no reply for Juveda right now. She had brought him right in. There was too much here for it all to be a coincidence.
"Elvis tried to murder your mate, Simba. And…if she does well and starts scoring points, he'll try and do it again."
(A/N: BOOM! Bet you didn't see that one coming! I'm not going to lie, I've been building to that all story. It's not something I've just came up with. So, who's made a worse choice on teammates: Simba or Nala? After all, Juveda's not exactly the most trustworthy lion on Earth...)