Tojo awoke feeling exhausted, as per usual. Being pushed around day in, day out by that controlling cub Tama made him feel more and more tired with each passing day. These days, sleep didn't even help. He wondered how long it would go on for. Couldn't she do something for herself for once? She had to be the laziest person he'd ever met!
"Tojo," Tama called as she nudged him, wanting him to get up so she could force him to carry her into the Pride Lands on his back. All that sleeping had made her exhausted. "Get up! You said you'd carry me first thing in the morning into the Pride Lands, and guess what? It's first thing in the morning! Get that lazy butt of yours up!"
"My lazy butt?" Tojo exclaimed as he got to his paws, wide-eyed. "You're calling me lazy when you can't even be bother to walk? You know, Tama, you got serious issues!"
"Are you insulting your eternal master?" she asked in a threatening tone. She didn't tend to react in a happy way when people insulted her. If it were anyone else, then in a matter of seconds they would find themselves stuck in the bottom of the ocean with a heavy rock tied to their leg. The only reason Tojo wasn't in such a situation right now was because the tiniest part of her tiny heart had something of a soft spot for him.
Tojo frowned. "I don't know," he replied flatly. "Am I?"
"That's it!" Tama exclaimed angrily. "One more word out of you and you'll be hanging from the edge of a cliff. And a very tall cliff, too!"
Tojo rolled his eyes in response. "And how many times have I heard that one, Tama? Every day it's the same thing. You'd never throw me out, Tama."
"Oh, yeah?" Tama said, giving him a challenging look. "What makes you say that?"
"You need me," Tojo told her.
Tama laughed loudly in his face. "I have no use for you, you miserable wretch! I just keep you around because I feel pity for you."
"Come on, Tama. Surely you've realised by now that I do everything for you. You couldn't even walk without me. If I left right now then you'd be dead by tonight."
Tama narrowed her eyes. "Just let me get on your back. All that sleep has made me very tired."
A smile appeared on Tojo's face. Am I right or am I right? She'd b e nothing without me. I wonder if one day she'll realise just how lazy she is. Prob ab ly not, b ut I can hope, can't I?
Tama clambered onto Tojo's back, resting all of her weight on him. Already Tojo could feel his back beginning to ache. If he didn't get some muscles when he became an adult because of this then he was going to be very angry! He deserved some kind of reward for doing all of Tama's dirty work, didn't he?
"So where are we going?" Tojo asked, double-checking to make sure that she definitely wanted to go to the Pride Lands.
Tama had a habit of frequently changing her mind, and when she did do this she would blame it all on Tojo. Why was it that nothing good ever seemed to happen to him?
"We're going to the Pride Lands, stupid!" she replied, frowning. "I told you that earlier! Why are you asking me again?"
"Because last week you made me climb all the way up that tall cliff," Tojo replied.
"Yeah. So?" said Tama, not really understanding.
"So, you neglected to tell me that you changed your mind as soon as I started to climb it!" Tojo finished angrily. "And then you made it look like it was my fault!"
"Ah, shut up, you big baby!" Tama snapped. "Just go to the Pride Lands like a good little slave. That's all you're good for. If we get there within the next hour then I might let you have a thirty second break today."
"Gee, Tama, can you be any more generous?" Tojo asked sarcastically as he begun to walk through the jungle, while carrying Tama's body.
"How dare you ask me to be more generous!" Tama exclaimed furiously. "I think a thirty second break is generous enough! What more do you want from me, a thirty-one second break?"
Tojo moaned loudly. "Do you know how miserable you make me?"
Tama nodded, grinning. "Yep. That's life, kid. Deal with it. I saved you from your burning pride, so now you have to do everything I say. I think it's a fair deal."
"Fair? I'm beginning to wish that I was dead now," Tojo informed her. "You seem to get eviller every day!"
"Why, thank you," Tama said, smiling, as if it were a compliment. "I do try to improve my image."
"And this image is what exactly?" Tojo asked.
"My image of an evil temptress who all males feel compelled to bow before," Tama replied as she fluttered her eyelashes, trying her best to look attractive.
"Can't say it's working," Tojo joked with a grin. Horrible as it was, this slavery business did manage to provide a few laughs at the expense of his master.
"Hey!" Tama slapped the back of his head. "What have I told you about insulting me? You're lucky I don't feed your legs to you one by one!"
"I think I'd be dead long before I got the chance to swallow one of my own legs," said Tojo. "Your threats seem to lack... well, threat. Now how far is it to the Pride Lands? I can feel my paws already starting to ache. You need to lose some weight."
"It's only an hour or so, Tojo," Tama replied. "Then all I have to do is sweet-talk the King into letting us become part of the pride."
"How are we going to do that?" Tojo wondered.
"We'll need a convincing cover story," Tama replied. "So of course we'll go with the classic 'we're poor orphans with no home' story. That seems to do the trick with most places."
"Yeah, but what if they find out about your magic powers of evil?"
"No one needs to know they're evil," Tama told him. "I'll just say they're an accident given to me. Like a birth defect."
"I can think of a few other birth defects," Tojo muttered under his breath, earning another slap to the back of the head from Tama. "Ow!" he cried, rubbing the back of his head. "What was that for?"
"I heard that!"