"Come on, Simba," Nala urged, smiling at him. "You know you can tell me anything. We can keep a secret, right?"
Simba found himself automatically staring into Nala's beautiful teal eyes, and admiring her kind, inviting smile. Oh, now he had to tell her. You couldn't say no to a person as kind and caring as Nala. You could tell her anything, and she would listen attentively. Simba didn't think anyone else like that even existed in the world. At least, not to him.
Simba gave her a little smile. "Fine. I'll tell ya. But you have to promise me something. You can't tell anyone else, okay?"
Nala nodded. "Okay, Simba. I promise I won't tell anyone. What is it?" she asked, knowing that Simba was hiding something. Even though he seemed his usual self, Nala could tell that he was hiding his true feelings right now. That's how well she knew Simba. There was no way he could fool her. Something was troubling him, and Nala knew it was her job to find out what.
"Well, you see, I keep having this nightmare where..." Simba hesitated for a moment, swallowing his sentence. He thought about not even telling her, but then he remembered that he could trust Nala with his life. He'd feel a lot better if someone else knew, and who should know but Nala?
He compared it to the time he'd spent when he was hiding his deep crush he had on her. For a good few months, Simba and Nala had been the best of friends, and had secretly been hiding their true feelings for each other. Simba found it so hard to tell her, because there was always this nagging feeling in the back of his mind that things would go horribly wrong. He feared that Nala would hate him if he told her. The fear that she'd never ever want to see him again.
Of course, it didn't turned out like that in the end. Nala loved him back, and they were now a very happy couple. He was very glad that he told her. If he didn't, then Simba concluded that he would have died of love sickness.
Just tell her, Simba ordered himself, before he finally spoke again. "In the nightmare, I'm in this place with all these flames surrounding me. There's no way out, and I'm always terrified of who's there with me."
Nala raised an eyebrow. "Who's there with you?" she asked, curious. This was going to be something bad. She could tell. Simba looked petrified right now, and this was all because of a nightmare? Just how bad was it?
"Hago," Simba revealed, causing Nala to gasp in surprise. Hago? It was Hago who was in his nightmare? Why was that? Hago was long gone. He was dead. For ever. It wasn't like he was going to suddenly come back from the dead to kill them. What was there to worry about?
"He walks right through the flames, and says all this scary stuff – most of it being about how much of a loser I am. And then, he kills me. I think," he added, scratching his head in confusion at that last part. Did Hago really kill him? Or did he send him into that awful place? The void full of nothing but darkness. Endless darkness.
"Oh, Simba..." Nala said sympathetically, putting a comforting paw on his shoulder. "You don't need to worry about Hago any more. He's dead. He's not ever coming back."
"I know," Simba told her. "But it doesn't stop. It never stops. It's always the same nightmare, over and over again. I don't think I can stop it." Simba bowed his head, looking down at the ground sadly. He'd have to deal with this for the rest of his life. He was never going to get a good night's sleep ever again.
"Why do you think you keep having it?" Nala enquired, feeling really sorry for him. She didn't want to see Simba go through something as depressing as this. He deserved a lot more than that. Instead, all he seemed to get was nothing but depression. Would something good happen to him for once?
"In the nightmare, Hago told me that it's the only thing he can do, now that he's dead. All he can do is scare me. Because... there's nothing else for him. When he died, all he had was... nothing. He has to live in darkness for ever. He says that's all bad people get. Just the dark. And I really, really hate the dark. What if I'm next, Nala? What if one day I die, and that's all I get?"
Nala stared into his handsome auburn eyes, and smiled. "That's never going to happen, Simba. You're nothing but good. You're the sweetest, kindest, most loving, wonderful cub I've ever met. There's not one evil thing about you. If there was then I wouldn't have fallen in love with you." She put a paw on Simba's chest, where his heart was. "There's nothing but good in here, Simba. Never tell yourself anything different."
Simba's mouth was wide open, surprised at how much Nala believed in him. No one had ever really told him anything like that. Nala had nothing but faith in him, and wouldn't let anyone convince her otherwise. She was the kindest soul on the planet.
Simba hugged her, smiling properly for the first time that morning. "Thanks, Nala," he told her. "I feel a lot better already."
"Then let's go have some fun," she said, gesturing towards the den opening. "We'll have a relaxing day. Would you like that?"
Simba nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I would."
"Then let's get out of here," she said, heading out of the den. "It's too hot to stay inside. Do you want to go to the waterhole? I bet the water's nice and cold."
"The water hole sounds great to me." Simba nodded, and joined Nala by her side. "Just make sure I don't try to breathe underwater. You know what happened last time."
Nala giggled. "Yeah. It was pretty funny, if you ignore the fact that you almost died."
The two of them laughed as they walked away from Pride Rock. Simba felt happy again, forgetting all about that awful nightmare.
A nice, quiet, peaceful day with Nala. No distractions at all. That sounded perfect. It would take his mind off of things. No worries, no fears and no stress. Today wouldn't be so bad after all.
Unfortunately, Simba would soon discover that today was going to be the total opposite of peaceful and stress-free.