Simba and Nala came to a halt at the water hole, hiding behind a tree and peering out to see if Zazu was gaining on them or not.
"Can you see him?" Simba asked.
Nala continued looking for a few seconds more. "No. Do you think we lost him?"
"I hope so," Simba replied.
But with Zazu, he always managed to catch up. One way or another. That was what was so irritating about him. He always managed to find them, wherever they hid from him. Surely they were old enough to look after themselves by now?
They didn't need this kind of hassle!
"What if he finds us?" Nala asked. "What do we do then?"
Simba thought for a moment, and a sly grin crept across his face. "I got it!" he exclaimed.
"What?" Nala asked, cocking her head to the side.
"Let's try and get rid of him," Simba replied, grinning widely.
"Get rid of him?" Nala exclaimed. "How?"
"Let's knock him out," Simba revealed. He spotted a large rock on the ground and picked it up. "With this."
"With that?" Nala exclaimed. "Isn't that a bit… nasty?"
"Do you want him following us around all day or not?"
That settled it for Nala. "Okay. Let's do it."
"Okay, so we need to be sneaky with the way we do this, otherwise he'll know it's us."
"Well, how can we do it without him realising?" Nala enquired.
"Hmm…" Simba looked up at the tree they were hiding behind. "Nala, give me a boost so I can get up this tree."
"We tried this last night, remember?" Nala reminded him. "It didn't work."
"Come on. We'll be more careful this time. I promise."
"Fine." Nala positioned herself by the tree. Simba placed the large rock in his mouth, and gently climbed onto her back, allowing him to scale the tree. He clung onto a branch, before steadying himself and holding his paws out to Nala.
"Grab on," he instructed. Nala did so, and Simba managed to pull her up onto the branch. He smiled. "Now all we have to do is wait for Zazu to show up, and we drop this right on his head. Then he'll be off our backs all day."
"He won't know what hit him," said Nala.
"I know. That's what's so cool about it."
Zazu flew toward the water hole, landing on the ground underneath a tree and looking around for Simba and Nala.
"They have to be somewhere around here," Zazu told himself.
Zazu was concentrating too much on searching the ground to realise Simba and Nala were just above him, on top of a branch of the tree he was under.
Zazu sighed deeply. "Curse those troublesome cubs," he muttered. "Why don't they ever listen to anything anybody says?"
Simba held the large rock just above Zazu's head, ready to drop it on him. "This'll teach him," he whispered to Nala.
"Do it," she urged.
And with that, Simba dropped the rock. It plunged toward Zazu's head, before landing on the top of his head with a sickening crunch. Zazu's eyes widened; he staggered backward, before sprawling onto the ground, motionless.
Simba and Nala looked at each other and smiled. "Mission accomplished," Simba said.
The two dropped down from the branch, landing on the ground. They walked over to Zazu, and looked over his still body.
He wasn't moving an inch. He looked… dead.
Simba looked him over, and nodded. "We sure showed him, huh?"
"Yeah…" replied Nala in a faraway voice. "Um… Simba?"
"Yeah?"
"Doesn't Zazu look a little… dead to you?" Nala asked nervously.
"Dead?" said Simba, before laughing. "Oh, he's not dead. We just knocked him out. See?" Simba prodded Zazu's corpse several times. "He's still breathing…. I think."
"You think?" Nala exclaimed. Nala walked closer to Zazu. "Let me see."
Nala put her ear to Zazu's tiny chest and listened for a heartbeat. After a few seconds, she gasped and looked at his lifeless body in horror. "H-He's… not… breathing…" she stammered, pointing at Zazu.
Simba narrowed his eyes, doubtful. "No way," he said, thinking Nala was just joking. Simba did the same as Nala, putting his ear to Zazu's chest and listening to see if he was still alive. After a few seconds, he came to the same conclusion as her, and his reaction was exactly the same. He gasped and looked on in horror, pointing at him.
"Y-You're right," he stammered, worried. "H-He's n-not breathing!"
"S-Simba," said Nala, "if he's not breathing, then that means he's…"
They both came to the same conclusion. "Dead," they both said, looking into each other's eyes fearfully.
Three seconds exactly passed. And then, the two cubs let out a loud, horrified scream.
They had just killed Zazu! Not hurt him, not severely injured him, but outright killed him! Murdered him! This was bad!
This was very, very, very, very bad!
Simba continued to scream. This couldn't be happening! It just couldn't!
"This isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening!" he muttered.
Nala was the first to regain control of herself. She slapped Simba on the face repeatedly. "Calm down! Calm down! Calm down!"
Simba managed to compose himself. "Okay, okay, okay. I'm calm." Simba's eyes then widened. "No, I'm not." He continued to scream again.
Nala rolled her eyes and slapped him in the face as hard as possible. He staggered backwards, confused.
"And you are?" he asked, dazed.
"Simba, you're going crazy!" she told him.
He didn't seem to return to his normal state. "Say, what's a pretty girl like you doing in a pride like this?"
Nala slapped him in the face again, and that seemed to do the trick for him. He shook his head. "Hello?"
"You back to normal now?" she asked, hoping so.
"I guess," he replied. "What were we doing now?"
"We just killed Zazu," Nala reminded him.
"Oh, yeah. We did, didn't we?"
The two began to laugh for a few seconds, before fainting and falling to the ground.