(Well, now you've all had time to read "Snakesss" it is time to get back to TSC27...which is now over a year old. Honestly, this isn't my favorite chapter but yet I have no reason not to like it, and I think you will all enjoy it so feel free to review and let me know!)

Within the next couple of hours, the night would be coming to a close and the sun would be breaking through to bring the next day. Thus, it didn't surprise Nala nor Elvis too much when they watched Lenny run up to his pride on the backstretch and fall asleep in front of them. With Juveda, Eboni and Shemshi also asleep, there were now just six competitors left awake.

Three teams of two lined the ambushing posts as the three pieces of prey made their way towards them.

"Ah think we should play this as a team," Elvis suggested. "What say we both go for the buffalo Nala, Ma'am?" Elvis asked.

Nala bit her lip. The answer was 'no.' But…how to word that…

"Uh…I think I'll go for the zebra, actually Elvis," Nala replied. She yawned. "I'm getting tired…I don't think I'm awake enough to make sensible calls when hunting the buffalo."

"Fair enough," Elvis replied.

Nala smiled.

"I'll go for the zebra too."

From the side, Simba had been able to hear Nala and Elvis's conversation. Wanting to keep himself as far away from Elvis as possible, Simba gave chase on the buffalo as it went on by him. Winda went for the antelope while Nala and Elvis went for the zebra. Shairi, confused as to why Simba had gone for the buffalo, joined Elvis and Nala in the chase for the zebra, while Bilauri joined her teammate, Winda, in a chase for the antelope.

As they ran through the turn, the agility of the antelope caused it to pass everyone else, and Winda and Bilauri took over at the front of the pack. The two lionesses waited until the track straightened out before they attempted a move. Winda, thanks to having taken naps throughout the event in order to heal her wounds, had more energy than and, consequently, was faster than Bilauri, and so she took the antelope down without much trouble.

Elvis was lagging behind in the chase for the zebra, giving both Nala and Shairi an advantage. Nala was slightly hesitant to make her move on the zebra though. If Elvis wanted to mess things up for her he would have the perfect opportunity here. A buffalo was charging right behind them.

Shairi took Nala's hesitation as an opportunity and made her own move on the zebra. The Lionrock lioness sunk her teeth into the zebra's neck, and soon had her own set of ten points.

The only chase left now was Simba and the buffalo. The lion king was all too aware of the locations of the deceased antelope and zebra and, since he had no competition for the buffalo, he took extra precautions on making sure that the path was clear before he made his move on the prey. Once he'd ran on by Winda, Shairi and their kills, he snarled, pounced up onto the buffalo's back, dug one set of claws in and then took a bite, scoring him ten extra points.

Nala, Elvis and Bilauri continued to run on around the circuit, with nothing.

Simba stood up from his kill and looked down at the deceased buffalo with pride. He was getting good at this!

He took a look back over his shoulder towards where the two sisters had caught up with each other. Their pride was watching from the backstretch, and so Shairi and Winda both agreed that now would be a good time to go over to the side and take their final sleep of the tournament.

Simba yawned as the thought of sleep crossed his mind. He looked back over towards the frontstretch where he knew his pride was watching. His mind was made up. He wanted to go to sleep. And, hopefully, Nala would too.

"Bilauri! Bilauri!" called the Ngorongoro Pride from up the hill.

The Siku Choka fanatic stopped running and made her way up to the side.

"Yes?"

"Shairi and Winda have fallen asleep…so Simba probably will too, and then Nala and then Elvis. You should sleep here now so that you stay on the same schedule as them. You don't want them to all be waking up while you're still tired."

"No…yeah, that makes sense," Bilauri agreed. She gave out a long yawn and then lied down on the ground. "Alright," she replied, "just let me know when it's time to get up."

Nala had seen all of the other competitors falling asleep, so she only ran as far as the infield scoreboard before stopping. Elvis ran up beside her. He looked down at the scoreboard too.

"264 points, not bad Ma'am."

"Thanks," Nala replied, checking Elvis's score. "You're only 20 behind."

"Yeah, it's-a gonna be a hard 20 points to make up though, that's for sure."

"Juveda's leading," Nala noted, scanning the rest of the scores, "then it's Guv…oh, wait…yeah…okay, then it's Eboni, then it's me…"

"You two have the same number of points."

Nala did a double-take on the scores. She smiled. "You're right," she replied. "Ha! I'm in second."

"Perhaps I should stop trying ta help you," Elvis joked, "seems you can win this on your own."

Nala chuckled nervously. "Thank you Elvis, but I think some of these points are a fluke. I doubt I'm a true threat for the win."

"Well we've eh still got a lot of hours left. Perhaps things will have changed by then."

"Perhaps," Nala replied. She yawned. "Well…I guess I've got to sleep some time. Night Elvis, I'm going to sleep in front of my pride."

"Want me to stay near you? That way your pride can wake us both at the same time."

Nala shuddered at the thought. "No," she confessed. "Only, I think Simba will be stopping by for a nap too."

Indeed, Simba did stop by. Elvis took Nala's explanation and moved on a bit farther down the straight to where his pride was watching. Now, the three pieces of prey were left to pace around the circuit unchallenged, waiting until the sun would break through, and the competitors would reawaken.

Simba slumped down next to his mate.

"Night," he stated.

Nala lifted her eyelids and chuckled, amused.

"Tired much?"

"Not really," Simba confessed. "But I figure its best, for the both of us, if I just go to sleep right now."

"Ah, so you can get up early, right?"

"Not exactly. See…the longer I stay awake next to you…well, sometimes your ear just looks like it wants to be nibbled, then your muzzle looks like it wants to be licked, then your…"

"Okay, I've got it."

"So I should just go to sleep straight away and ignore you."

"Yes, you should."

Simba heaved a deep sigh. "You're no fun."

Nala shook her head, smiling.

"So," she asked, "how do you plan on making up the 50 points you're behind me?"

"I'm sure Shairi's got a couple more tricks up her sleeve."

"Has she told you what she did wrong with that buffalo two years ago, yet?"

"No," Simba admitted, "she says she can't remember…but I think she can. She's getting close, at the least. This circuit must be bringing back memories to her."

"Well let me know if she does," Nala advised. "I hope you wouldn't want me to be making the same mistake, either."

"I will gladly tell you anything Shairi reports to me. Once she remembers what happened, we can't fail."

She'd failed.

It had gotten to her head…the one time in her life that she'd become too headstrong, and now, she vowed to herself never to let it happen again. The problem now, was that she may never have the opportunity to.

She looked down at her claws, piercing into the creature's skin like daggers…only, they seemed like plastic knives now.

She began to feel herself lifting, floating upwards into the stratosphere. She watched her claws detach from the creature's sides. Ironically enough, it was the left ones that detached last. They would have done the job; she never needed to switch.

But even then, the opportunity to back out had presented itself…but that opportunity had passed, thanks but no thanks to her initial distraction.

She attempted to look over at them one last time, but it was too late. She'd flown up too far, and her head was in the clouds.

Shairi woke up; breathing deeply. She reminisced quickly on the nightmare that she had just had.

"Uh oh," she muttered.

It was still dark, but small shades of blue sky were beginning to patch through on the horizon. About an hour was left until the sun would break through. By the time she'd made her way over to Simba and Nala, it was just half an hour.

Having woken both of them up, Shairi stood, chuckling nervously, before the Pridelands King and Queen.

"I'm embarrassed, more than anything else," she confessed.

"Go on, Shairi," Nala urged gently, "what you're about to tell us could save our lives."

"I know. That's why I came to tell you." Shairi took a deep breath, before blurting it out: "I got distracted."

Simba and Nala stared at her blankly. Shairi could read their minds.

That's it?

"I got distracted…" she continued, answering their question for them, "…by you."

For a split second, Simba was a bit concerned that Shairi meant him. But, when he looked at her, he could tell that Shairi was not only looking at himself but, also, at Nala.

"By all of you," Shairi continued. "I tell you, I—I've always wanted to meet you. Simba, Nala, Rafiki, Zazu, Timon, Pumbaa…and I sound like a stalker right now. But seriously…it was the first time I'd seen you, I caught a glimpse of you all together on the front stretch. I knew Winda and the zebra were there, lying on the ground in front of me, but I knew I had the ability to bring the buffalo down before I got to them. The problem was…and this is the stupid part…I wanted you all to see me do it. I got hotheaded. I had my left side claws in the buffalo's side and I knew he was about to give in. But…of course…you couldn't see that, you were all sitting on the right of me…so…I tried to switch my claws and…as I did so, the buffalo felt an extra sense of urgency and began to buck. I—I had the opportunity to fall off of his back but I didn't take it…because I was searching for your group again. I wanted to see if you were watching because…I don't know, I guess I wanted to impress you all or something. Please know…this is not me…I don't know what came over me that day. I tried riding the buffalo out, thinking 'well, I'm screwed anyways…but this is going to look awesome if I can ride this thing out and take him down in front of them,' and…then…of course…I failed."

Shairi stopped speaking. She shook her head. Suddenly, she felt a large paw fall down onto her back and embrace her in a hug. Shairi tried to push the lion away, not wanting to create any more controversy in front of Nala's eyes. However, as the lion embraced her tighter, it occurred to her…she couldn't feel a mane.

"Thank you Shairi," said Nala, her paw wrapped around the lioness's back. Nala let her go and took a step back next to Simba. Both of them were smiling.

"Shairi," Nala continued. "I've always been a fan of you…you never needed to impress us, but you know that now. I confess, I, too, have done some stupid stuff in my life just so someone else would think better of me. So has Simba, so has Rafiki, Zazu, Timon and Pumbaa and all of us! It's nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, you should feel better than the rest of us right now…you're actually brave enough to admit it."

"Thanks guys," Shairi replied. "But, like I said, that's not me anymore…I just needed to own up to it because, well, I told you I would." Shairi lifted her head back up and looked back over towards the backstretch. "And now that I have, I think I'm going to go back to sleep. See you guys in the morning."

Simba and Nala watched Shairi wander off. Or, at least, Nala did. Simba was looking at the horizon.

"It's already morning."

"…this is not a normal mark. No one would ever dig their claws in with such precision so far down the side of a buffalo's body in a hunt…he was obviously up to something."

"Okay, Tumaini, I believe you, but how do you know it was Elvis?"

"Kanafa, Guvu's claws are much larger than this. These holes are too narrow – it much have been Elvis. Hell, you saw it. You know!"

"Even if I did, I'm afraid I change anything," the cheetah replied. "He didn't directly murder him…a buffalo attack cannot be listed as anything more as an accident."

Finally, Sarafina stepped in. "Kanafa, my daughter's out there. This has all the signs of a murder…do we want what we had under Wamariri all over again? I sure as heck don't. I'd pull my daughter out first!"

"Sarafina…I'm sorry. Rules are rules. We have a giant committee that goes around and debates these things and they hardly ever change their minds on anything. Can't say I blame them, there are too many fine lines."

"How about this? If a competitor is involved in three or more hunting accidents that involve the death of a fellow competitor, they get booted?"

"Elvis has only been in two."

"Oh, for heaven's sake!"

"Look, Sarafina, I understand what you're getting at. I understand your frustration, I understand you're upset…"

"I'm not upset, I'm terrified!"

"…but your daughter knows. She knows just as much as you do, she knows that Elvis has been involved in these incidents, and she knows the risks of what can happen to her. There's an exit door if she'd like it. And don't worry, I'll bring your suggestion up at the next meeting. It is one that we have discussed before and it has several supporters…I think it could be easily implemented into the next Siku Choka."

Sarafina didn't like the sound of that. She glared back at Kanafa through narrowed eyes. "By then," she stated, "it will be too late."

Simba was lying down, curled up on the ground next to his mate with his eyes closed. Yet, he was awake…and he was the only competitor still awake. The antelope, zebra and buffalo had been pacing in a herd together ever since they had been released. Shairi had returned to her home pride and had fallen back asleep next to her sister. Now, the prey was on its way towards Simba…and only Simba.

The sun cracked through on the horizon. The light shone straight into the eyes of a young lion cub that had been sleeping. The cub squinted and opened his eyes. He looked over towards the track.

"Hey, look Mommy," he stated, "the Lion King has woken up."

"Don't be silly dear," his mother replied, "it's far too early for any of the competitors to be awake now."

The lioness remained resting with her head on her arms on the hillside, while the cub stood up on all fours to get a better look at the circuit.

"He's going for the antelope."

The cub's mother raised an eyelid, skeptically. It took her a while to focus on what was going on, but, sure enough, she could see King Simba stalking his way over quietly towards the lightest piece of prey.

"Oh…" she noted, "so he is."

A couple of nearby spectators began to stir. This was news to them…why would one of the competitors want to be back up again this quickly?

Slowly, however, it all began to dawn on them.

The mother lion stood up onto all four of her legs with her jaw hanging.

"He's going to go for all three of them."

The audience was beginning to get excited now as, slowly but surely, many of them were waking up with the sun and were getting their first glimpse at what was going on. Despite their enthusiasm, however, each spectator also knew that they needed to remain as quiet as possible if Simba was going to be able to pull this feat off.

Simba was silently stalking the first piece of prey: a youngish looking antelope.

"There's no such thing as being slow, Simba," his late mother had told him when he was young. "All speed is, is energy. How determined you are. Antelope are easy to catch…you've just got to want it enough."

Well, he sure as heck wanted it now. More than ever, Simba wanted the win in this game: he couldn't let Elvis get away with it and, quite frankly, he was getting a bit tired of watching Nala beat him again and again in their little games they had. It was time for Simba to have his moment of glory.

The softness of the mud had worked to Simba's advantage immensely: his paws were sinking into the ground rather than clattering upon hard mud and stones, which would have easily given his position away to the antelope by now. However, he wasn't going to get away with this forever.

Eventually, the antelope caught onto Simba's presence. But, by the time it had checked over its shoulder and caught a glimpse of the pouncing lion, it was too late.

The zebra had only been a few paces behind the antelope. Consequently, it was now all too aware of the threat that Simba posed. The adult zebra took off into a run around the outside of the circuit. Simba gave chase…but then realized that he was chasing the zebra into the sleeping Elvis. If they continued in this direction, Elvis was likely to get hurt.

…

So?

Simba's conscience soon kicked in, however, and he stopped chasing the zebra…temporarily. During this short downtime, he was given free time to talk to his conscience.

"I hate you."

The zebra was lured into a false sense of security as Simba stopped chasing. Thus, he stopped running, and was able to gather his senses back together, casually walking around the sleeping Elvis.

The crowd moaned as they came to accept that Simba was out of the ten points for the zebra.

Simba, however, had other plans.

As soon as he was clear of Elvis, the Lion King broke off into a run. Several audience members began to cheer but were then hushed by their neighbors as they were reminded of the importance of remaining silent in order for Simba to be successful in his hunt.

It was working! The zebra, despite being in the prime age of his life, was completely unaware of the lion king's presence. His world became black before he ever knew that Simba was stalking him.

Now, it was just the buffalo.

Snarl when I'm behind him; dig one set of claws into his side; don't let go.

Simba ran Shairi's rules through his head one more time, just to be sure, before he got up from his zebra kill and set himself up to chase the buffalo. The audience had gave out small cheers upon Simba's killings of the antelope and the zebra, but they were also all trying to hold their applause as long as they could, allowing Simba to get as much points as possible.

The buffalo walked on by and Simba gave chase. However, like the antelope and the zebra before it, the buffalo had grown so accustomed to pacing the circuit without any threats, that he never even sensed Simba's presence from behind.

No need to snarl then, thought Simba. I'll just kill it…

Simba pounced up onto the buffalo's back.

Bad choice…

Picking a snake up by the tail is no easy task. An attack from the back startles it, so it will just swing around and bite you. Likewise, Simba had attacked the buffalo from the rear, without any forewarning.

The buffalo, knowing that he was seconds away from imminent death, began bucking. He was hoping that whatever it was that was attacking him from behind would soon fall off and he would be able to run away.

As he did this, Simba was trying to think ahead. He was frightened for his life, and so it was very difficult for him to think straight.

Rule two? He thought, trying to recall Shairi's instructions. However, he was finding it impossible to remember in this moment of fright. Chances were that it was a useless rule anyways: all of Shairi's rules were designed to prevent the buffalo from bucking; not for recovering after it had begun to buck.

Okay…screw rule two, what's rule number three? thought Simba.

The crowd gasped.

The buffalo had just stopped moving.

Formerly, the creature had been running on down the straight in hopes it would be able to get away from Simba. However, that hadn't worked. Plan B, as far as the buffalo was concerned, was to stop worrying about fright, and start worrying about fight. The bucks were going to be much more violent and effective now.

Simba closed his eyes tightly, trying to remember rule three as the buffalo set himself up for a violent buck.

The crowd closed their eyes too…not wanting to witness the inevitable…

Don't let go!

…

Nala felt some fluid drop onto her paw.

She groaned.

"Please tell me it's not raining again…" she moaned to herself.

"No," came the reply, "it's worse than that, I'm afraid."

Nala's heart sank. In the Siku Choka, bad news could only be terrible news.

The lioness looked up. Her jaw dropped.

"What did you do?"

"Got tossed off of a buffalo," came the reply. "It hurt."

Nala looked down at where the fluid had landed on her paw. Now that her eyes were open, she could tell that the fluid was red. She got up onto her feet.

"Heavens Simba, are you alright? Please tell me you're alright."

"I'm alright."

"No you're not!"

"But you told me to…"

"Simba, you don't even know how bad you look! Do you feel wheezy at all? You're losing a lot of blood."

"It's a nosebleed."

"No, Simba, it's a—well, yes, it is a nosebleed, but…I mean…when did this happen?"

"About fifteen minutes ago, actually."

"And…you're still bleeding?"

"Just a tiny bit. It's nothing compared to what it was before."

"I believe that," Nala replied, looking down at the massive red stains on his muzzle and mane.

Simba sighed. "Think you could wash it off?" he asked.

Nala glared at him. "You're not taking this seriously at all, are you? Aren't you the slightest bit concerned?"

"No. In fact, I'm delighted."

"Why would you be…you know what, don't even answer that. Just go to sleep or go to the infield. Seriously Simba, you need to treat that somehow."

"Oh, I'll go to sleep," Simba replied. "I can afford to now."

Nala frowned. "How do you mean?"

"244 points," Simba replied.

Nala was still a bit bewildered. She did some quick math in her head. "But…you had 214 before…"

"Yup," Simba replied. "Sunk my teeth down into that buffalo, didn't let go until he tossed me off and I slammed head first into the ground. Got up about five minutes later and learned that I had pierced the buffalo's veins. The crowd was going ballistic when I got up, I was surprised you didn't hear it."

Nala didn't mention it, but she had awoken about ten minutes ago to a sudden cheer. Wanting some more beauty sleep however, she had just rolled over and plugged her ears.

"But…214 to 244…that's 30 points."

"Well, 245 actually…I completed a lap."

"So…" Nala continued, looking up at her mate, "…y—you got all three pieces of prey?"

"In one!" Simba replied, merrily.

Nala was hesitant to provide Simba with a response. She didn't really know what to think. Her initial thought was disbelief. Yet, that thought only lasted for about a second. Truth was, she had no reason not to believe it. Simba had surprised her on numerous occasions during this event and he had also demonstrated an immense amount of improvement. Therefore, her next emotion was a sense of pride. She felt like congratulating her mate and letting him know how glad she was to have seen him improve this much…but, for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to do that right now. So, she moved onto her next reaction: anger. Here he was, standing taller than her, boasting about how he had been able to succeed at something that she had yet to accomplish, despite devoting a much greater portion of her life towards hunting than what he had. Yet, he seemed to be taking his injuries quite nonchalantly. Was he really this determined to show her up that he was willing to risk his own personal well-being for it? But, finally, she found her heart set on concern. Here he was, the one that she loved so, wounded beyond belief, playing the situation down with the knowledge that he and she would both have their strongest chance of survival if they persevered through all of their tribulations together.

Nala closed her eyes and heaved a sigh.

"Well done Simba," she replied, getting the sentence out before she made eye-contact again. "Just remember…this is just a game, and I love you very much. Don't go beating yourself up too bad…it's not worth it."

Simba grinned, having expected such a response. He held his paw up.

"Talk to the paw," he replied. "Keep telling me to play safe if you'd like, Nal'. Truth is, you and I both know that if you're going to win the Siku Choka…you're going to have to go by me."

"Shouldn't be too hard," Nala snapped back. "I still have more points than you."

(A/N: I am aware that Elvis, Nala, Shairi and Simba have kind of taken prominence in this story. I'll try and bring the other characters back in more in future chapters. Reviews appreciated!)