"I think it was just an accident," said a cheetah, watching from the stands.

"Pushing a fellow competitor off a buffalo is no accident," replied a hippo standing next to her.

"But this is only Elvis's second time. Perhaps he hasn't learned the true consequences of his actions yet."

"Hmm," replied the hippo, "you have a point."

The cheetah and the hippo were standing right from the track's edge on the frontstretch, and Simba and Juveda could hear every word that they were saying.

Simba shook his head. "Why are they defending him, Juveda? That was murder!"

"Well those bloody idiots don't know that, do they?" Juveda reasoned. "They haven't been able to connect the dots together like we have. None of the other competitors are going to think he's a murderer, they're just going to think the same as that cheetah up there."

"Well that may not be true," Simba replied. "I mentioned your theory to a few other lions. Winda, Shemshi, Shairi, Na—Nala!" Simba exclaimed, remembering his mate. He looked on farther down the track to make sure she was awake. She was. Surely she must have seen it? Simba groaned. "Oh no," he continued, "if Nala doesn't buy it by now, she never will. Going up there and talking to her about it isn't going to help anymore. She's going to think that I'm just rubbing it in her face…"

Suddenly, Simba heard a couple of footsteps approach him from behind. He and Juveda turned around to see who it was. To Simba, it was a face that he had grown all too familiar to.

"Y—you were right," stammered Shairi, her blue eyes now containing a much more watery appearance than usual. However, Simba noticed that she wasn't quite looking at him but, rather, she was looking at Juveda. "You were right all along…we all owe you a huge apology Juveda."

At this, Shairi hung her head. Then, within seconds, she had collapsed onto the floor with her face buried in her paws and tears streaming out from her eyes.

"H—he was my friend…" she babbled, "…he didn't have to die."

Simba's heart broke. Watching this lioness cry almost made him want to tear up. Never having really known Guvu, however, he was able to retain his composure. Simba crouched down onto the ground and put his paw over Shairi's back. He didn't dare move closer, however. He knew Nala was still in this game…

Meanwhile, Juveda took a step back away from the pair of them.

"Stupid emo slut," she muttered to herself.

"Let's move into position," Bilauri commanded.

"Huh?" Winda replied.

"Our ambushing post, Winda. We've still got a game to play…one of us should go get that buffalo. Let's put Guvu's death behind us, alright?"

"It wasn't a death, Bilauri. It was murder!"

"Whether it was or whether it wasn't, it doesn't make a difference right now. Elvis is nowhere around us and we've got some prey to chase. I know Guvu was probably a good acquaintance with you but, seriously, we're not going to win this game just by standing here."

Winda took a deep breath. Bilauri was right.

"Alright," she replied, "let's go."

"Either of you two going to go for this antelope?" asked Juveda, watching the creature pass on by them.

Shairi gave one final, large sniff and looked up at her. "No," she replied, "we hunt zebra only."

"Works for me, then," replied the lioness, and she gave chase.

Juveda knew that this antelope was a marvelous opportunity for her. She had been sitting in second with 272 points. This antelope would put her up to 282, essentially putting her into the lead ahead of the deceased Guvu.

Unfortunately for Juveda, she had virtually lost all of her energy and, as the chase for the antelope wore on, she just watched it run farther and farther away from her before it was ambushed by Nala.

Juveda slowed down from her run and stood over the Pridelands Queen and her kill.

"You want my advice?" she asked. "You'd better get your husband away from Shairi, they're getting a little too close for comfort back there."

Nala stood up from her kill, but she shook her head. "Shairi has had a history of working close with Guvu," Nala reasoned. "She's terribly upset that he's gone. I can't blame Simba for comforting her."

"Shairi had a history of working close with Guvu? Shairi has a history of working close with Shemshi. And now, they're going to say that she has a history of working close with your mate. Don't you see? That slut's all over every male that steps into this game."

"Because the males have strength, something that doesn't always come to us lionesses naturally. If you're going to pick a teammate, why not pick one that picks up where your weaknesses let off? I can't blame her for picking Simba as her teammate." At this, Nala gave a deep sigh, and then changed the subject. "But I shouldn't be arguing with you Juveda. I should be thanking you. You were right about Elvis and…well…if it weren't for you, I may not be making it to the end of this game alive."

Juveda let Nala's words run in through one ear, and out the other. She didn't really have anything to say to this. She moved back into her ambushing post.

"You look worn out," Nala added. "Perhaps you should go to sleep?"

"Don't you dare tell me how to play this bloody game," Juveda replied. "I'm getting a piece of prey. I'm not sleeping until I have the lead from Guvu."

Nala turned away from Juveda and shook her head.

That's a bad strategic call, she told herself, Juveda's going to be awake a looooong time…

"I wish Shemshi would man up and wake up," Bilauri stated, "he'd be able to get this buffalo down for us easily."

Winda glared at her. "So…I guess that's your way of saying you don't want to go for the buffalo?"

"Feel like you're up for it?" Bilauri replied.

"I'll give it a shot."

"Okay then…and Winda…" Bilauri said, causing Winda to delay her chase a bit longer, "…please don't get injured again."

"Good evening Madam."

Nala whirled around. "Zazu?" she asked, seeing Simba's majordomo standing next to the track edge. "Came to relay a message to me?"

"Well, I guess you could say that," the hornbill replied. "Your mother instructed me that I should fly down here and check that you were mentally okay. She says that you were a big supporter of Guvu and she knew that you may be a little upset about the accident."

"A—accident?" Nala stammered. "Zazu, Elvis pushed Guvu off! Did you not see it?"

"I did Madam, but your Mom is watching with Tumaini, who said that it was Elvis who injured her earlier. She believes that Elvis's inexperience is what has contributed to the two incidents."

"There's been much more than two, Zazu! Peponi, Linda, Tonka, Shemshi, Winda…heck, even myself! We've all been injured today because of Elvis's antics out here!"

Zazu's eyes widened. This was all new news to him.

Nala took a deep sigh. "I should've seen this coming…he even told me that he would make sure Guvu didn't score points. I just never listened to Simba."

Zazu wasn't quite sure how to respond. He brushed his wings together trying to think of the right words to say. "Ma'am…I—I…"

"Just GO!" Nala commanded, blowing Zazu off of his feet. Zazu lifted his wings up and soared away, off to deliver his discoveries to the Pridelands.

Bilauri got the buffalo and Winda got the antelope. Shairi wiped the final tear away from her eye in time to bring the zebra down to the ground. Three new pieces of prey were released in front of Bilauri and Winda.

"Pick a favorite," said Bilauri.

"Antelope."

"Zebra."

And so, as the prey passed, the two lionesses went for their respective pieces of prey, while the buffalo ran on by them but was soon ambushed by Simba. All three lions were successful in their hunts, and three new pieces of prey were released out onto the track.

However, before the prey could make its way down the frontstretch as pickings for the ambushers, they would most likely be chased down by Elvis, who was now running out of the final turn.

Simba made his way back towards the outside of the track. He lifted his eyes up to see who he would be lined up next to in ambush. He quickly broke his eye contact though; he still wasn't quite sure what the right words were or, for that matter, if there were any right words at all, for him to say to his mate.

Instead, the Pridelands King just made his way up and parked himself next to her, waiting in ambush.

Nala looked over at her mate. She read the expressions in his face and she could tell that he was conflicted. She knew her mate well enough to be able to understand why. She turned a slight bit away from him and took a deep breath. It was evident that she was going to have to start this conversation.

"You have nothing to fear, Simba," she said. "You can say anything. You can stand here and rant at me for three hours, if you'd like. Honestly…I deserve it. It won't accomplish much though. You've already won me over." Nala rolled her eyes over towards him and let the sides of her mouth twitch.

Slowly, it began to dawn on Simba what Nala was saying. She believed him! Simba pulled a paw out and embraced his mate in a hug. Nala buried her head into his mane and, instantly, Simba felt his mane dampen from her tears. As Simba felt one knot loosen in his stomach, another one tightened. True, it was great news that Nala was no longer deceived by Elvis's tactical ways and desirable charm…but that was where the good news ended. If they had now concluded that Elvis was a murderer…well…that meant they now knew they were out on the track with a murderer. True, they could turn away now and walk safely back to their daughter. Elvis would have no reason to try and hurt them then; they would not be a threat. But that was never going to happen. Simba knew that, and he didn't even have to ask Nala in order to know it. Fact was, he didn't want to quit either. He wasn't just about to give up. That hadn't worked with Scar, so why should it work with this lion? Elvis wasn't worth any more than what his uncle was, anyways. The only question Simba had left and, for that matter, Nala did too, was…

"What do I do now?"

Simba remained silent, trying to think of a reasonable answer to his mate's question. Nala sniffed and lifted her head out of his mane.

"If Elvis gets a whiff of the fact that I know the truth…well, I don't know what he'll think. He'll probably play it down as being 'just an accident.' I could try and talk with him and try to persuade him to play cleanly, but the risks would be too high if I failed. I—I don't want to give in, Simba. I want to win. But I feel that my life is too high of a price to risk," Nala finished. Neither of them could help but think of Kiara.

Simba turned his head towards the left. He could see him. The Devil in Disguise was pacing his way down the frontstretch, slowly closing in on the three pieces of prey in front of him. There were still lionesses cheering in the stands for him, admiring his black mane and the way it hung over the front of his face. Honestly, to Simba, it was almost as if nothing had changed about him from the beginning of the event. He looked at him and couldn't help but confess that, yes, he did have a certain charm to him as far as male lions went. Yet, deep down inside Simba had always had held some skepticism. Towards the beginning of the game, he had never really been fond of Elvis, yet that had been his own fault and he had been forced to contain those emotions within himself. Now, he had a reason to not like him, and a very good reason at that. To an extent, it almost felt as if a giant restraint had been lifted off of his muzzle, and now he was free to critique and attack Elvis. The problem was, he just wasn't quite sure how to do so…

"We can't banish him, can we?" Nala asked.

Simba shook his head 'no.'

"The Siku Choka organizers own this plot of land for the duration of the event," Simba reminded her. "In order to get rid of a competitor, they have to have broken one of the Siku Choka rules."

"Yeah, I figured that," Nala replied. She sighed. "So…you got any plans?"

No, was the correct answer, but Simba wasn't quite prepared to say that. He had been thinking of one minor plan…

"I threaten him," Simba stated. "I tell him that if…"

"You lost me at threaten," Nala interjected. Her tone was sincere. "Simba, if that's the best plan you've got, then you haven't got a plan."

"Well have you?" Simba retorted.

Nala shrugged. "I play dumb," she replied. "I accept his lie that it was an accident, and see what happens."

Nala looked up at her mate. His expression said nothing, but she hadn't expected it to. She knew what he was thinking. That's the best you've got? I don't like it.

"I don't like it either," Nala said, continuing their telepathic conversation.

Simba groaned. "B—"

"Be careful, I know."

Simba nodded. That wasn't good enough for him but, he knew, that was the best he was going to get for now.

Elvis crept on by the buffalo and antelope, allowing himself to have a clear shot at the zebra. He charged it down and easily took it down for the kill. However, he wasn't done yet. Elvis got back up onto his feet and began charging down the other two pieces of prey.

Bilauri and Winda had run out from their ambushing posts and were now charging down the prey too.

Bilauri set herself up on the antelope while Winda went for the buffalo. However, as soon as Winda saw that Elvis had committed himself to getting the buffalo down too, she backed off.

Elvis took the ten points while Winda brought herself to a halt and lined up in ambush on the outside of the track. Elvis got up from his kill and walked over to join her.

"Ah'm a l'il surprised you gave in there, Ma'am," he sung.

Winda returned a forced smile. "Well…uh…I thought it was too big for me anyways. So, once I saw you going for it, I gave in," she lied.

"Ah, you're strong Winda. If you ev'r see me going for a buffalo, Ah'm sure you could bring it down just as well. Don't be afraid."

"Oh…not at all," Winda replied hastily. "I'll tell you now though that I'm quite far behind in points…probably not a threat to win at this rate."

"Well yeh won't win if yeh keep giving in," Elvis reasoned. He turned around, facing the other way from Winda, and looked on farther down the track.

Winda shuddered.

Bilauri had been successful in her hunt as well and now three new pieces of prey were released.

"Ah, the wait," groaned Timon, watching the three pieces of prey sluggishly walk on down the straight. "Sometimes I don't get how you could stay awake through all this, huh Pumbaa?"

Timon looked over towards his warthog friend. The pig was sleeping on his back, snoring loudly.

"Point proven."

"You know Timon, there's plenty of other stuff to do around here," Sarafina reasoned.

Tumaini chuckled. "Yeah, one thing I like to do is look around at all the spectators. I like seeing diversity…some animals travel quite far to get here. Look at that panther over there!"

The group turned and tried looking for a large black cat. However, the panther that Tumaini had spotted had colorings that more closely resembled a lion. She had already seen the group herself though, and was on their way towards them. The Pridelanders couldn't help but notice that she almost tripped over herself a couple of times.

"Well look at this!" she exclaimed, before hiccupping, "I never thought I'd ever get to meet the royal family of the royal Pridelands family. How do you all do, you?" she asked, before hiccupping again.

"Um…we're fine…" replied Sarafina, slightly concerned.

"Eh…you may want to lay off the rainberries…" Tumaini suggested.

Timon shuddered at the word. He'd hated collecting rainberries for the spectators at their last Siku Choka…

"Yeah, they all told me that, but I said I hadn't been lying on them, I'd been eating them," the panther replied. She chuckled. "Lying? Huh. You know, I've got colorings like you lions. Once I told that to a friend, and they said 'you're not lying!' and it was funny because I wasn't lying but I wasn't lion either…you know, like you guys, though I look like you."

"Yeah, we get it," Timon replied, not that impressed. "Puns are the lowest forms of jokes, you know that?"

"Aw, now you're a cute li'l fella, ain't yeh?" asked the panther, patting Timon hard on the head and messing up his hair. "You're a bit moody though, perhaps you should try some rainberries?" she suggested, before hiccupping again.

Timon shuddered.

"Well, it was nice meeting you all, name's Isabella by the way. I'm just sitting on down the hillside there, though I like to stand when the action gets exciting but my friends tell me to sit or else I'll fall…" she reasoned, before hiccupping again, "…well, bye!" she exclaimed.

"Bye," chorused the Pridelanders, happy to see her go.

"See," said Tumaini, signaling back down to the track, "…and now the prey's caught up with the competitors. Time can pass quickly, huh?"

Winda was the first competitor lined up in ambush. Thus, she had three pieces of prey to pick from.

I'm not going for the buffalo if Elvis is lined up behind me.

Thus, she was able to narrow it down to two pieces. She eventually decided on the antelope, determining that there would be much more competition for the zebra.

Elvis went for the buffalo…as did nobody else. Most of the other competitors were quite skeptical of him by this point.

So, Simba and Juveda went for the zebra.

Simba was up on its back first but Juveda was close on the zebra's hind heels. However, she had an extra boost of determination right now. She wasn't stupid: she knew that her energy was draining from her. And, now that Simba was on the zebra's back and, consequently, was slowing it down, now was the perfect opportunity for her to strike.

She did so….and wound up being ten points richer. Juveda was now the new leader in the Siku Choka!

"Finally," she muttered.

Meanwhile, Winda had failed on her antelope chase and the prey had ran on into the clutches of Lenny, while Elvis had emerged triumphant in his buffalo hunt and was now making his way over to line up in ambush…next to Nala.

"Looks like our Lenny wants to log another lap," Elvis noted, watching the flimsier lion run a lap around the track. He turned his eyes farther on down the straight. "And Juveda is going to sleep, we may have a good opportunity soon here, Nala."

"We may," Nala agreed, trying to not let the hatred, anger and fear of Elvis that she had right now, show. "I suppose it also makes it easier now that Guvu has…well…you know…"

Elvis sighed. "Yeah, it was a shame about that, really," he replied.

Nala closed her eyes. She was trying to visualize a happy place…perhaps that would take her mind away from her anger at Elvis.

"Ah mean, Ah guess I am to blame. I did push him off."

Nala reopened her eyes, bewildered. She looked up at Elvis.

"Y—you did?" she stammered.

Why did he just confess that?

"Well yeah," Elvis replied, looking at her back with a similarly perplexed glance. "Ah thought it would've been pretty obvious."

Nala didn't quite know what to say about this. Elvis was owning up to murder…and he was doing it while standing right next to her.

"W—why?" Nala stammered, in the same confused tone.

"Well Ah didn't mean for him to get injured," Elvis replied hastily. "Ah mean, we push competitors off of antelope and zebra all the time. Ah didn't think it would be that bad, doing it off of a buffalo. Evidently and…uh…rather unfortunately…I was wrong. Ah'm not going to do it again. I just pray that Guvu is blessed upstairs and that his family will be able to cope."

Nala's eyes were affixed to Elvis's. She could find no trace of dishonesty within him. Finally, her senses came to her and she snapped her eyes shut.

Don't listen to him, Nala. Remember what you promised to Simba, you're not going to buy his lies…

"M—Ma'am…" stammered Elvis, concerned, "are you okay?"

Nala reopened her eyes. She continued to look into his, but she would not allow herself to become entranced within them again.

"I—I agree," she stated. "I hope his blessed too. I hope they'll all be okay. But you're right, Elvis. You should never be going around pushing competitors off of buffalos…that's how accidents like those happen," Nala explained, dropping her ears at the thought of Guvu's demise.

"Ah've learned that now, Ma'am," Elvis restated. "But thanks for the advice."

"Hi Zazu!" exclaimed Sarafina, welcoming the hornbill as he arrived back up on the hillside.

"Urgent news Madam, sorry I couldn't get here sooner…but Nala believes that Guvu's death was murder!" shrieked Zazu, though he tried to keep his voice down so that the other prides couldn't hear.

Sarafina looked on down the track to where Nala was talking with Elvis. She didn't buy it.

"Zazu, we know Elvis is new, but…"

"She gave me a list of names, Madam, of competitors who have been injured by Elvis today. Peponi, Linda, Tonka, Shemshi, Winda…and even she, herself, had been injured by him. She seems to think that it's a little more than a coincidence."

Zazu had got the attention of every Prideland resident…including Pumbaa, who had now woken up.

"I—I…" Sarafina stammered.

"Go get the carcass," Tumaini stated.

"What?" Sarafina asked. "Tumaini, we just ate."

"No, I mean go get the buffalo carcass from Guvu's death," Tumaini explained. "Maybe it will explain more about what happened."

"Well you might want to hurry up about it," advised Timon, watching the three current pieces of prey walk on down towards where the competitors were lined up in ambush. "It looks like they're about to chase the prey around the track, again."

(A/N: Well I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and remember to re-

Nala: Machungwa63...what do you have to say for yourself?

A/N: About what?

Nala: You know what I'm talking about. The cross-promotion?

A/N: Oh, like you can talk. You and Simba were both in "Fantasia 2000" in the Noah's Ark scene

Nala: That wasn't my choice. Disney asked me to do it and we were running low on funds...we needed the money

A/N: *Sighs* Okay...confession time. I have began writing a story on called "Snakesss." It started as an idea at college when I said to my friend, why are there no animated movies with snakes as the protagonists? Anyhow, we've created a plot and the characters and it's based in Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida. Therefore, one of the characters is a drunken Florida Panther by the name of...

Isabella: Hey, what's-a going on in here? Is this a promotion for our story? You all were leaving me out! Anyhow, yeah, you should read the story because it has me in it and a lot of snakes which is why it's called "Snakesss" and it has those extra esses on the end because they speak funny, the snakes do. Unfortunately I have no jokes about snakes.

A/N: Let's consider that a good thing. Anyhow, feel free to check it out! And apologies if you don't like cross-promotions. I'll be sure to keep working on this story too!)