"Simba…" Haiba sounded exhausted. "It's been two days… How long do we have to go on for?"
Simba kept on walking, determined to find Nala. "For as long as it takes," he answered, making his way across the dusty, barren land. The sun beat down on them both, and even though his body was calling for him to rest, he refused to listen. He wasn't going to give in. Not until he rescued Nala from Hago.
"And how long is that going to be?" Haiba asked, collapsing to the ground, finally giving up.
"You can't stop now!" Simba said, turning around and heading over to Haiba, pulling him to his paws. "We've gotta find Nala! She could be hurt – or worse, dead!"
"If she's dead, then what's the point of even finding her?" Haiba retorted, trying to catch his breath. The heat was making it so difficult for him to breathe… He couldn't stand much more…
"Oh, you know what I mean!" Simba replied, continuing on his journey. "She has to be around here somewhere…" he said, looking left and right. "Hago can't have gone too far. I think he wants us to find him."
"But I'm so tired," Haiba complained, stumbling to Simba's side. "I haven't eaten in two days, and I've barely slept. We can't go on like this for ever. We'll just end up starving to death! The buzzards are gonna pick us clean by the end of the third day!"
"Don't be ridiculous," said Simba. "More like the end of the second day."
"But that's today!" Haiba exclaimed, a desperate look in his eyes.
Suddenly, Simba looked concerned – and just a little bit worried. "I know," he admitted, frowning. "That's why we've gotta find Nala – and fast."
"But where would she even be?" Haiba wondered, looking around the empty land. "Look at this place, Simba. It's all… empty and stuff. Wouldn't we have noticed her by now? Maybe we're going in the wrong direction…"
"Trust me," was Simba's reply. "I've got it all worked out. I know what I'm doing." At least, Simba hoped he knew what he was doing. Somehow… he knew where Nala was. Like… inside of him, there was this… funny feeling. It felt stupid, but at the moment, it was all Simba had to go on. Hago hadn't left any clues, so this was his only option – to just look. Look for Nala, and hope he would find her. There was nothing else he could do.
Haiba raised an eyebrow at Simba. "Do you know what you're doing, Simba? 'Cause right now, it looks like we're in the middle of nowhere. There's no food, no water, and I'm pretty sure that there's no Nala." A sudden thought occurred to him. "Hey – maybe that was Hago's plan."
Simba didn't understand. "What?"
"Maybe he wanted us to try and look for Nala," Haiba explained. "So we would come all the way out here, and starve to death. Maybe Nala's already dead."
"Don't say that. She's still alive. It may sound stupid, but… I think that… if Nala ever did die… then I'd… know. Like I'd… feel it, somehow. You know?" said Simba.
Haiba sighed, and then smiled at Simba. "All right," he said, giving in. "We'll keep looking. It's not like we can do much else, right?" he joked with a chuckle.
"I say we just keep moving forward, until we get to the next pride," Simba told him, beginning to walk again.
"Whoa, wait a second," said Haiba, hurrying over to Simba's side, walking by him. "The next pride is at the Wild Lands."
"Yeah." Simba shrugged at him. "So? What does that have to do with anything?"
"Well, everyone there has been dead for a while, now," Haiba told him. "There's no life there – at all. The whole place is dead!"
Simba sighed, looking down at the ground. "Great," he muttered. "And I was hoping we'd have a chance to rest there."
"Huh?" Haiba's eyes widened. "The one place you do want to have a rest at, and it's all gone?" He moaned loudly. "Oh, I hate my life!"
"Oh, all right." Simba decided to give in. "When we get to the pride – what's left of it – we'll rest there for a while. Okay?"
Haiba looked relieved. "Thank you," he sighed, glad that he would be able to sit down for a while. This had certainly been a long journey… He hoped it wouldn't last much longer.
"Don't mention it. Now come on. Let's keep moving. We'll get there much quicker." Simba continued walking across the seemingly infinite land. Come on, Nala, he thought. Where are you?
"You were right…" Simba told Haiba, upon entering the Wild Lands. "It looks even deader than everything else around here."
The Wild Lands consisted of nothing more than dry bushes and dead trees. Simba even thought he could see a lake in the distance – a lake that was totally dried up, devoid of any water. He presumed this was probably once a great kingdom – before everyone had died. "So do you know why everyone died?"
"Who, me?" said Haiba, pointing to himself. "No way," he answered, shaking his head. "It was all a complete mystery. No one's been here for ages."
"Hmm…" Simba narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Let's take a look around," he suggested, walking forward. "You never know what we might find…"
"I've seen that look," Haiba told him. "That 'I'm Simba and I know what's going on' look."
"Hago could be here," replied Simba. "He could have brought Nala with him. They might be hiding somewhere."
"Why here?" Haiba wondered. "It's not exactly the best place in the world you can live, is it?"
"Would you come looking around here?" Simba retorted. "No. You wouldn't. It's the perfect place to hide. Think about it."
"Surely we would have heard something by now," Haiba pointed out. "Someone walking, or… breathing. Anything, really."
"One quick look can't hurt," said Simba. "What have we got to lose?"
"Our sanity?" Haiba answered.
"Tell you what," said Simba, craning his neck to the side, noticing a few caves in the distance. "You take a look in those caves," he instructed, pointing to them. "I'll try that dried up lake over there. Okay?"
"Do I even have a choice?" Haiba responded, before doing what Simba said, heading off towards the caves in the distance. This is going to b e like looking for an ant on an elephant.
Simba continued towards the dried up lake, and stopped when he came to the edge. The dirt didn't even look wet. It was all dry as a bone. "Weird…" said Simba, scratching the back of his head. "What happened around here?"
Simba walked around the edge of the lake, making his way over to the other side. He found himself at a rocky area, with random hills of stone and rock scattered close together around the land. Cave entrances seemed to be nestled in amongst the hills, and this only managed to confuse Simba. "How am I gonna find Nala in all of this mess?"
He got an answer when he heard movement, coming from on top of one of the rocky hills.
Quickly looking up, he could see Hago, who lay on his back on top of one of the hills. He turned his head to look at Simba, and then grinned. "Hello, there!" Hago greeted him, hopping to his paws. "Welcome to our happy home!"
He walked down the hill, standing in front of Simba. Needless to say, the Prince of the Pride Lands wasn't impressed.
"Where is she?" he demanded.
"She?" Hago feigned a look of confusion. "There's no she here," he told him. "Unless you mean my little Nala." He raised a claw. "Of course! That's it!"
"I don't have time for this." Simba pushed past Hago, only to be grabbed by him and thrown to the ground.
"Ah, ah, no peeking," said Hago, shaking his head. "You know, Simba, we've been doing this little run-around of ours for ages," he said, circling Simba. "It's been loads of laughs. But the truth of the matter is: none of us are getting any younger. And I was thinking it was time to start a family."
Hago made his way over to the entrance of a small cave. "I've already had a daughter for quite some time. A daughter you've been looking after – so I borrowed her."
Hago gestured to the entrance of the cave, and inside, Simba could see a cub with creamy fur, her face obscured, tied to a rock by vines. "No…" Simba said, his eyes widening in shock, recognising her instantly as Nala.
Hago slashed through the vines with his staff. "She needed a little moulding of course – what cub doesn't? – but in time,
I came to love her as my own." He looked at Nala, and smiled "Say hello, Nala."
Nala sat up, and Simba gasped. She now had blood red eyes, and an insane grin on her face. She giggled maniacally, jumping from the rock and to her paws, looking like she had lost her mind. Which she had. She just laughed and laughed, completely insane.
Simba growled loudly, and jumped to his paws, completely losing it. He was going to kill Hago for this!
Hago laughed evilly at the top of his voice, and ran off, disappearing into a cave.
Simba sprinted after him, determined to put him to rest for good. Running through the darkness of the cave, he couldn't see Hago anywhere, but he knew he couldn't be that far in front.
He came to a halt in the middle of a wide cavern. Looking around, Simba noticed that Hago was nowhere to be seen.
Simba stared straight ahead, and found Hago's peculiar staff sticking in the ground. It was such an odd thing. Its head was shaped like that of a cobra, and somehow, it granted him amazing powers.
Simba was about to reach out and touch it, when suddenly, Hago's voice rang through the air. "What's the matter, Simba?" he asked. "No witty comeback? No threat?"
Suddenly, the eyes on the cobra head of the staff glowed a bright white. Simba turned his head, to find that the eyes were projecting a blank screen onto the wall.
"Then I'll provide the narration."
The screen cut to Hago, standing in the middle of the same cave Simba stood in right now. He had a sinister grin on his face, and held in his paw a sharp stick.
"I'll b egin with how I peeled back the layers of the girl's mind," Hago began, still speaking from an unknown location.
Suddenly, the screen cut to Nala, who lay on a rock, tied to it by thick vines. She struggled and squirmed, trying desperately to escape, but couldn't get away.
"Oh, she b ravely tried to fight it at first," said Hago.
On the screen, Hago made his way over to Nala, still holding the sharp stick. He raised it high above her left eye, and brought it crashing down.
What Simba saw next was far too gruesome to describe.
"You would have b een proud to see her so strong," Hago continued. "But all too soon, the torture and the torment took its toll, and the dear girl b egan to share such secrets with me. Secrets that are mine alone to know, Simba."
Simba could picture Hago grinning.
"It's true, Simba. I know everything ab out you. And I must admit, it's sadly anticlimactic. Behind all the heroism and courage you're just a little cub in a b ig world, crying for recognition."
Simba had an angry glare in his eyes.
"It'd be funny if it wasn't so pathetic… Oh, what the heck, I'll laugh anyway." Hago laughed loudly at the top of his voice, as if mocking Simba for everything he was.
With an angry cry, Simba turned around and made a mad leap into the darkness, grabbing hold of Hago – who was hiding there – with all the strength he could muster, slashing him across the face and chest with his claws.
Simba grabbed Hago by the throat, pulling him down to his level. Hago just grinned in response. "If you don't like the movie, I've got slides!"
Growling, Simba threw him at the cave wall, and to his surprise, Hago crashed through it, ending up on top of a rocky hill.
Hago lay on his stomach, staring down at the bottom of the hill. He could see Nala standing there, still grinning.
Still insane.
Hago smiled in response, still entertained by all this.
Simba grabbed Hago by the throat, and pushed him up against what remained of the cave wall, unable to contain the immense rage he was feeling right now. "I'll break you in two," he threatened, shaking with anger.
Hago just chuckled. "Oh, Simba. If you had the guts for that kind of fun, you would have done it ages ago. I, on the other paw…"
Hago slashed Simba in the chest, sending him onto his back. He then picked up a sharp stick, and stabbed Simba in one of his back legs.
Simba roared in pain, tumbling down the hill, collapsing in a heap on the ground below, a few feet away from the insane Nala.
He felt broken. All he could feel right now was pain. Brutal, uncaring pain that wouldn't go away.
Hago hopped down the hill, staring down at the fallen Prince. "You've lost, Simba. Nala is mine. The last sound you'll hear will be our laughter."
He held out his paw, and his magical staff flew into it. He turned to look at Nala, and tossed the staff at her. She caught it.
"There you go, my angel. Make Daddy proud." He grabbed Simba by the shoulder, holding him up.
Staring down at the sharp end of the staff, Nala laughed maniacally. She sat up, ready to hurl the staff at Simba's chest, impaling him.
"Nala…" Simba said weakly, but it was no use. She wouldn't listen.
Nala continued to laugh, aiming the knife-like end of the staff at Simba. This would kill him instantly.
Hago grinned widely, so eager for this to all end. "Do it!" he ordered his daughter.
Nala laughed and laughed, ready to kill Simba. She winced, tears streaming down her cheeks, and hurled the staff.
Hago cried out in pain, and was sent flying onto a large rock on his back. He looked down at the staff embedded in his chest, and frowned. "That's not funny…" he said. "That's not…"
He gagged, slid from the rock and collapsed to his stomach, letting out a loud gasp.
He was dead.
Simba stared up at Nala, his eyes wide with shock.
She continued to laugh, as if enjoying it. She laughed louder and harder, and before Simba even knew it… She started to cry.
Nala collapsed to the ground, crying and sobbing her eyes out.
Simba ambled to his paws, and stumbled towards Nala, finding it hard to walk after being stabbed in the leg. He embraced Nala in a warm hug. "It's okay, Nala. It's okay…"
Haiba arrived on the scene, staring wide-eyed at the commotion. "What the heck happened out… here?"
He saw Nala crying her eyes out, burying her fur in Simba's chest. It didn't take him too long to understand what had happened.
"… We buried Hago and the staff deep underneath the ground," Simba explained to his father that night, having returned to the Pride Lands. "You're the only other person who knows what happened."
"Has she started talking again?" Mufasa asked, looking in the direction of the den. Nala was in there. She could still be heard crying.
Simba nodded. "Yeah. I don't know how it's gonna affect her, though," he told him. "Hago drove her insane."
"I think we'd better keep this between you and me, Simba," Mufasa suggested. "I think it's for the best."
"Don't worry about it," replied Simba, shooting a sad glance towards the den opening. "No one should have to know what happened today." He stared up into his father's eyes. "No one."