Simba collapsed by the edge of the water hole, exhausted. "I didn't expect the water hole to be so far away."
Nala collapsed next to him. "I know what you mean," she agreed.
Simba peered across the water hole, and could see most of the other cubs had gathered round on the other side. It was then Simba noticed that he and Nala were the only cubs present on the side they were on.
Nala followed his gaze, and noticed what he was looking at. "Can you believe it?" she asked. "We probably look like outcasts to them."
Simba looked at Nala and smiled. "Nah," he said, "we're just the lucky ones. It's not everyday you get to make friends with the Prince. And if they don't want to be friends with me, then that's their problem. We're better off by ourselves."
"You really think so?" Nala asked, surprised. She thought he'd want thousands of friends.
"Yeah," he replied, smiling. "You're better than all of them put together. They're too… boring," he finished.
Nala smiled back at him. Simba… Cocky, arrogant, mischievous? Certainly. However, this translated to Nala as the perfect friend.
"What were you doing before you met me?" Nala asked him, curious.
He shrugged. "Getting into trouble, mostly," he replied, smiling. "I went into a lot of places I wasn't supposed to. I can't wait until I'm King, then I'll actually be allowed to go to those places. So, what were you doing before you met me?"
"Well… At my old pride things were actually pretty quiet. Nowhere near as much fun as it is here. Most of the time I was looking for stuff to do. But there wasn't anything to do. Come to think of it, it was actually really boring. I'm actually happy I've moved here."
"I'm happy you moved here, too," Simba told her. He chuckled. "I don't think I'd have a friend otherwise."
The two continued to talk, while from behind a tree - which just happened to be the tree Simba and Nala first met by -Shenzi, Banzai and Ed watched them.
"There they are," Banzai pointed out.
"I can see that, genius," Shenzi said. "Now, it's even easier than last time."
"Is is?" Banzai asked. "How?"
"Because, all we have to do is push the girl into the water hole while she and the Prince aren't looking. How hard can it possibly be?"
"You've said that fifty times before," Banzai informed her, "and it always ends horribly for us."
Shenzi rolled her eyes. "Shut up and just push her in."
"Me?" Banzai exclaimed, eyes widened. "No way. You do it."
"I'm not doing it - I hit 'em with a rock, remember?"
"No… You tried to hit them with a rock. You missed," he reminded her.
"Well, I wouldn't have missed if you didn't hit me with another rock!" she snapped. "Now go on, go push her in."
"You push her in!"
"No, you push her in!"
"You push her in!"
"You push her in!"
"Okay, okay," Banzai said, holding his paws up. "Let's all push her in."
"Huh?"
"Let's all sneak up on her and push her in," Banzai explained.
"Why?"
"Um… Because we'll have more strength with the three of us combined. Yeah, that's right. It'll be easier to push the cub in."
"Ed doesn't even know how to push!" Shenzi said, turning to Ed. "Do you, Ed?" Ed laughed manically. Satisfied, Shenzi turned back to Banzai. "See?"
"Can we just do it? Scar's going to be very angry with us otherwise…"
That seemed to do it for Shenzi. She'd seen what Scar was capable of, and she certainly didn't want to be on the receiving end of his bad side. If he even had a bad side. It seemed every part of him was bad. Evil to the core, that was Scar.
"All right, all right, let's just get it over with," Shenzi said. "And remember… we do it very slowly."
Banzai nodded. "Okay. You coming, Ed?"
Ed just stared at him blankly, like he didn't even hear Banzai speak.
"Okay," Banzai said, thinking that qualified as an answer from him. He turned to Shenzi. "Looks like it's just the two of us."
"Oh, that's just great," she complained, rolling her eyes. The two of them then slowly made their way toward Simba and Nala, who had their backs to the two hyenas, unaware that they were being approached from behind by them.
As Shenzi and Banzai got closer and closer, Simba and Nala remained unaware, continuing to happily talk and laugh.
Now right behind them, Shenzi and Banzai looked at each other, smiled evilly and closed their eyes, ready to push Nala into the water hole.
"Yeah, you're right," said Simba. "Maybe we should go there."
Simba and Nala then got up and left, walking away. Shenzi and Banzai then pushed with all their might. They never touched anything, though. Instead, they tripped over and fell straight into the water hole. They coughed and spluttered, opening their eyes.
"Would this be a bad time to mention I can't swim?" said Banzai.
Shenzi still couldn't comprehend what had just happened. "But… But they were right there. And we still missed them?"
"Hey, it looks like we're moving," Banzai observed, as the two of them were swept down the water hole by a current.
They tried to get out of the water hole, but the current was far too strong for them. They ended up getting swept away right to the bottom, where a familiar face was waiting for them.
The two hyenas came to their senses and looked up into the eyes of Scar, an unimpressed look on his face.
Scar sighed. "We have to stop meeting like this."
"Meeting like how?" Banzai asked.
Scar did his usual routine of roughly grabbing them by their throats. "Us meeting with you failing to end the two cubs' friendship and you bumping into me to tell me of that failure!"
"Who said we failed?" said Banzai, smiling nervously.
"I was watching you, you idiots!" he replied, tightening his grip on them. "And now I'm going to make you pay."
Scar's claws dug into their throats. The two choked. This was it. Scar was going to tear their throats out. But hey, pleading worked before, didn't it?
"Please, Scar…" Shenzi begged while Scar choked her. "One more chance?"
"One more what?" he screamed angrily.
"One more chance…" Banzai echoed. "Please?"
Scar glared at them furiously for a few seconds, before he decided to give in. "Fine," he rasped furiously. "One more chance." He threw them to the ground for the third time today. Some habits are hard to break.
"Oh, thank you, Scar," Shenzi told him. "Really, we promise we'll get 'em this time!"
"Just get out of my sight!" he snapped. "And this time if you fail, there won't be any more second chances. I'll make sure of it."
Shenzi and Banzai once again gulped nervously. This time Scar meant business. He was already at the end of his tether. One more failure and the two hyenas had no idea what Scar might do to them.
This was it. One more chance.