Simba sat in the corner of the den, curled up, a miserable look on his face. He was upset, and anyone who caught the slightest glimpse of him would know that.

And to think the day had started so great for him. But here he was, ten minutes later, feeling more upset than he ever had been. He wiped a few tears from his eyes, thinking he was never going to see Nala ever again.

Nala was gone, and there really wasn't anything he could do about it. Why had she disappeared all of a sudden? Simba knew someone must have taken her – why else would she disappear?

The real question was this: just who had taken her? Simba had thought about it, and really could only come up with one logical conclusion…

Hago. Hago had taken her. It kind of made sense when he thought about it carefully. Simba and Nala had wrecked his plans, and this was Hago's idea of revenge. He'd kidnapped Nala out of revenge. Hago was the type of lion who would do such a cruel thing. Who knew what he could be doing to Nala right now? All those weird powers of his… He could be torturing her without mercy, inflicting the most horrible pain on her… She could be dying.

And that's when Simba realised that he had to do something. The thought struck him that Nala could be dead in a matter of hours if someone didn't find her and save her. But who could save her? Clearly the pride weren't getting any closer to locating her, so what could be done?

Simba knew what the rest of the pride didn't. He had this feeling deep down that Nala was closer than anyone expected.

The creepiest place around here by far was the Outlands. Evil, hungry hyenas roamed the place, and they would do just anything for the slightest scrap of food…

What if Hago had made a deal with the hyenas, and now they were working together? It wasn't beyond Hago's boundaries, that was for sure. During Simba's encounter with Hago, he had seen just how menacing and cruel he had been. He froze Nala! That was enough proof, wasn't it?

Maybe Simba could tell his parents… Yeah, that was a good idea. Maybe then they would do something about it, and start looking for Hago, too. After all, how could anyone miss him? The insane, evil look in his eyes, his slick body, the abnormal cobra staff… It all practically screamed,"Find me!"

Simba had made his mind up. He'd explain all about Hago, and how he thought that he had kidnapped Nala. They'd have to believe him! They just had to! Why wouldn't they?

Simba wiped a few more tears from his eyes, and hopped to his paws, a little bit of hope instilled inside of him.

Mufasa, Sarabi and Sarafina were still stood by the den opening, talking worriedly. Sarafina seemed even more distressed now, and it came as no surprise to Simba. After all, her daughter had suddenly disappeared without warning or reason – wouldn't you be worried too?

"Dad, I need to tell you something," Simba said urgently, interrupting their conversation.

"Simba, what is it?" Mufasa asked, instantly detecting the urgency in his son's voice. It sounded like he had something really important to say.

"I think I know who's taken Nala!" Simba declared.

Mufasa was a little confused by this. How could Simba possibly know who had kidnapped Nala? It seemed… odd, the King had to admit. However, maybe there was something in the past Simba knew that might have led to Nala's kidnapping somehow. Something he didn't quite want to admit to earlier…

"Who?" Mufasa asked his son, hoping that Simba really did know something and wasn't just making it up.

"Okay, remember a while ago when we said a few hyenas kidnapped us?" Simba asked his father.

Mufasa nodded. "I remember."

"Good. Well, we weren't actually kidnapped by hyenas," he explained quickly, hoping his parents wouldn't pick out the fact that he had lied to them. Again. "We actually went to the jungle and—"

"You went into the jungle?" Sarabi interrupted, an angry look on her face. "Simba, you know you're not supposed to leave the Pride Lands!"

"Yeah, but this is really important—"

"Do you know how worried we were about you when you told us that you were taken by hyenas?" his mother continued on, ignoring the fact that Simba had something really important to say. "You just lied to us to cover yourselves up!"

"Mom, that's not important right now—"

"Your mother's right, Simba," Mufasa said sternly, cutting off Simba for the second time. "You know it's wrong to lie."

"But—"

"Enough, Simba," Sarabi interrupted yet again. "If you're just going to continue to lie to us then we're not going to listen to you."

Simba groaned loudly. "Why won't anybody listen to me?" he roared loudly, his voice echoing throughout the empty den.

That seemed to shut his parents up. Their mouths were wide open, shocked by Simba's sudden outburst.

"I'm trying to tell you something important and you just keep ignoring me!" Simba complained loudly, getting angrier by the second. "I'm trying to tell you who kidnapped Nala, but no, you're too busy thinking about how wrong it was to lie to you! Don't you care? Don't you care at all?"

"Listen, Simba—" Mufasa began to say, before he was cut off by Simba.

"No, you listen!" Simba cried angrily. "I'm not even going to tell you now! I'll take care of this all by myself!"

Simba stormed out of the den. "Simba," Mufasa began in a warning tone, "if you leave the den you'll be stuck in here for a month."

Simba glared back. "What's new?" he spat, before sprinting away, off on his own adventure.

He was going to take care of this. He knew he could. If no one else was going to help him, there he was just going to have to do it himself. He'd rescue Nala, stop Hago and anyone else who threatened them.

Or he would die trying.