The lioness lunged forward at the three of them, screeching in an unearthly voice. A green mist sprayed out of her open mouth, causing them to jump back in surprise. "What the heck are they doing?" Nala asked, her eyes widened in shock.

She'd never seen anything like this before in her life!

"Poisonous gas," Haiba replied, his eyes fixed on the crazed lioness. "Told you they were dangerous. I think, Nala, you should follow Simba's plan: run. Both of you. I'll stay here and hold them off."

"Are you sure?" Simba asked, amazed by Haiba's courage. Here he was, up against something he'd never even seen before, and already he was willing to put his life at risk. He really couldn't have asked for a better friend.

"Very sure," was his answer. "Just go!"

Simba tapped Nala on the side. "Come on," he said. "We'd better do as he says."

"But he'll die!" Nala argued.

"Yeah, and maybe that's the answer," Simba replied, trying to pull her away from the field. "You're forgetting – this could be the dream. All of this might not be real."

"It feels real!" Nala cried, before realising that there was nothing she could do to help if she stayed. She sighed. "Let's just go. I've had enough of this. Come to think of it, I had enough ages ago."

Simba and Nala ran off as fast as they could, leaving Haiba on his own with the peculiar lionesses. "Leave them alone," he said to them. "Talk to me. Talk to me." He eyed them up and down. "You must be some kind of proud, ancient race – you're better than this. Why are you hiding away here? Why aren't you at home?"

The lioness that stood in front of Haiba began to speak, in a raspy, hushed tone. "We were driven from our—"

"Home by nasty neighbours," Haiba finished for her. That was pretty easy to figure out.

The lioness spoke again. "So now we've—"

"Been living in the bodies of innocent lionesses for years and years," Haiba concluded. "No wonder you look so young after all this time – you're keeping them alive," he realised, raising his eyebrows.

"We were humbled and destroyed," the lioness said. "And now we will do the same to others."

Haiba nodded in agreement. "Okay. Fair enough, I suppose – which means this could be the reality," he said. "So are you what's killing all of the animals around the kingdom?" he asked.

The lioness responded by turning to one of her cohorts. She opened her mouth wide and sprayed out the green mist.

The result was instantaneous. The lioness screamed in pain, melting away until all that remained of her was a pile of dust on the ground.

Haiba frowned, and glared at the lioness. "You need to leave," he told her firmly. "Now."

The lioness hissed at him angrily.

Somehow, Haiba doubted that was an option for these girls.

Simba didn't know what to do. Everything had become way too confusing for him now. Even more confusing than when his whole world had changed, and Nala was in love with Haiba. But that was years ago…

Unless this was the dream. He didn't know for sure. Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. He just couldn't tell. This King of Dreams, or whatever he liked to call himself, had made everything look and feel completely real. Right down to the last detail. Simba suspected that if he saw a flying elephant then it would somehow look realistic.

"Simba, where are we going?" Nala asked as she ran across the dusty ground of the Outlands. "We're just running all over the place! Don't you have some kind of plan? Is there anything going on in that brain of yours?"

Simba stopped next to the opening of a cave. "In here," he said quickly, before pushing Nala into the cave, following her inside. "We should be all right in here. Well… I think we should be all right. I can't really tell, if I'm honest."

"We just ran away," Nala said, sounding ashamed of herself. "We just left Haiba all on his own. We haven't seen him for years, we don't really connect with him anymore and now all of a sudden he sacrifices himself for us."

"You know Haiba," replied Simba. "He'll do anything to make himself look handsome. I remember that time when I asked him if he was dropped on his head at birth."

Nala narrowed her eyes. "I believe he said, 'In a pool of sexy.'"

Haiba was stumbling down a hill as the sound of birdsong invaded his ears. He was fighting so hard to stay awake.

Those lionesses – those creatures – were following him. He needed somewhere to hide. Somewhere where they couldn't reduce him to dust. He couldn't let them get to him. He didn't know what was real yet!

Haiba dived into a cave – and the King of Dreams was waiting for him. "Oh, you're such a big wuss, aren't you, Haiba?" he teased.

"Oh, shut up," Haiba said, his eyes flickering as he fought to stay conscious. "I'm busy." The birdsong seemed to get louder, and Haiba slipped to the ground. He couldn't fight it anymore. He just couldn't.

The King of Dreams pretended to look concerned. "Oh, wait a minute," he said. "If you fall asleep here, those lionesses are going to come in and finish you off, Haiba."

Haiba covered his ears with his paws, desperate to block out the sound of the birds.

But the King of Dreams wasn't impressed. "Covering your paws with your ears? Brilliant!" he exclaimed sarcastically.

"What's next, shouting 'boo'?"

He looked towards the outside of the cave, where the lionesses were. He beckoned for them to join him. "Come in!

Come in!" he called. "He's in here! We've got a nice meaty lion for you to eat!" He turned to Haiba. "Hey, there's lots at steak here, isn't it? Get it? Lots at steak!"

Haiba stumbled into a hole in the ground, but it wasn't enough to hide him from the lionesses. The King of Dreams frowned. "Are these jokes wasted on you?"

Haiba tried to get up, but the birdsong became even louder, and he collapsed to the ground. "Wait, stop…" he pleaded.

The King of Dreams covered his eyes with his paws. "Oh, I can't watch!"

Haiba's eyes lit up when he spotted a tunnel inside the hole. Using all of his available strength and effort, he crawled into the tunnel, finally obscuring himself from being found. He closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep again. At last, he was safe.

For now.

Simba, Nala and Haiba woke up in the cave, reverting back to cubs.

Nala shivered even more, her teeth chattering a little. "It's even colder now," she said, a cloud of icy mist coming out of her mouth when she talked.

"Okay, we have to decide now which is the dream," Simba said quickly, an urgent look on his face as he got to his paws.

"It's this, here," Haiba said, pointing to the ground.

"He could be right," Nala told Simba. "I mean, it all seems wrong here. How can it be getting colder just because we're next to a river?" She shook her head. "It just doesn't add up."

"Anything is possible in our crazy lives!" Simba exclaimed. "It's a big world, you know! But we have to agree which battle to lose. All of us, now."

"Okay, which world do you think is real?" Nala asked him.

"This one," Simba answered.

"No, the other one!" Haiba argued, his eyes widening.

Simba sighed. "Yeah, but are we disagreeing, or competing?" he wondered.

"Competing over what?" said Nala, looking slightly perplexed.

Simba and Haiba just stared at Nala as she got up, groaning a little.

"We've got about nine minutes," Simba said, looking even more worried now. He shuddered. "Man, it's cold. I don't know how cold, but I can't feel my paws and… other parts."

"I think all my parts are basically fine," Haiba said.

"Stop competing!" Simba snapped.

Haiba shook his head. "We're not going to die. We can't die – can we?"

"I hope not," replied Simba, a lump in his throat. "But we're running out of time. If we fall asleep here, we're in trouble."

He started pacing around, putting his brain to work. "If we could split up, then we could be in both worlds at the same time, but the King of Dreams is switching us back and forth." He started fiddling with his tuft. "Why, why, what does it all mean?"

The King of Dreams appeared beside Simba. "Good idea, Simba!" he exclaimed. "Let's divide you three up, so I can have a chat with our lovely companion," he said, shooting a look at Nala. "Maybe I'll keep her, and you can have Mister Sexy to yourself for all of eternity, should you manage to clamber aboard some sort of reality."

The birdsong began for what felt like the billionth time now. "Can you hear that?" Haiba asked Nala.

Nala shook her head. "Hear what?"

"Nala, don't be scared, we'll be back," Simba told her, before he and Haiba fell to the ground, asleep.

"Simba, Haiba, don't leave me!" Nala cried, but it was no use. She worriedly looked up at the King of Dreams.

He had a little smile on his face. "Nala, we're going to have fun, aren't we?"

Needless to say, Nala was terrified. "No," she said. "No, please, not alone."

Haiba opened his eyes, and crawled out of the tunnel, looking around for any sign of the lionesses. But they were nowhere to be seen. Where have they gone? he wondered, but there was no time to think.

Quickly, Haiba hopped out of the hole and ran away from the cave. I've got to find Simb a, he thought as he sprinted across a field. But where would he be?

Nala stared at the King of Dreams, feeling so very frightened. "Poor Nala," he said. "Simba always leaves you, doesn't he? Alone in the dark. Never apologises."

Nala frowned, turning away from the creepy lion. "He doesn't have to," she mumbled.

"That's good – because he never will," the King of Dreams said with a chuckle. "And now he's left you with me. Spooky, old, not-to-be-trusted me." He sat down, smiling at the scared cub. "Anything could happen."

Nala turned back to face him. "Who are you and what do you want?" she demanded. "Simba knows you, but he's not telling me who you are. And he always does. Takes him a while sometimes, but he tells me. But you… you're something different."

"Oh, is that who you think you are?" asked the King of Dreams, raising his eyebrows at Nala. "The one he trusts?"

"Actually, yes," Nala replied honestly.

"The one cub in the world who Simba tells everything?"

Nala glared at him. "Yes."

"Then what's his darkest secret?" the King of Dreams asked.

Seconds passed, but Nala couldn't come up with an answer. "That's just what I thought."

He pointed at Simba and Haiba, who lay on the ground, still asleep. "Now, which one of these two would you really choose? Look at them. You're currently with a bumbling, idiotic, naïve cub. Why not change him for Haiba, the handsome, quirky little hero?"

"Stop it!" Nala snapped, no longer in the mood for his games.

"But maybe Haiba's not as good as loving and losing Simba," the King of Dreams mused. He stood between Simba and Haiba. "Pick a world and this nightmare will be over. They'll listen to you. It's you they're waiting for. Nala's friend. Nala's choice."

With that, the King of Dreams vanished.

Simba sat inside the cave, staring at Nala, who was sleeping peacefully on the ground. But he doubted the dream – or reality, whatever was real – she was having was very peaceful. "He'd better not hurt her," he growled.

The King of Dreams appeared beside Simba. "It's make your mind up time in both worlds," he informed him.

"Go away," Simba sighed. "I need to find my friend."

"Friend?" The King of Dreams' eyes widened a little. "Is that what you call people you acquire? Friends are people you stay in touch with. They never see you again once they grow up. Do you prefer the company of the young, old man?" he taunted, before vanishing.

Nala's eyes snapped open. "What happened?" she quickly asked, grabbing Simba. "And where's Haiba?"

"Well, I—"

"Don't worry," Haiba cut in, jumping into the cave. "I'm here now. All right, now what are we going to do?"

"I don't know," Simba replied truthfully. "I thought the freezing cave was real… but now I'm not so sure."

Suddenly, a loud screeching was heard from outside the cave. "It's the lionesses," Haiba realised, horrified. "Why are they so desperate to kill us?"

"They're scared," was Simba's reply. "Fear generates savagery."

"Good answer," Haiba commented.

"Thank you." Simba took a few steps forward, so his head was poking out of the cave.

And that was when a lioness jumped out in front of him, screeching and spraying a green mist out of her mouth.

Simba fell backwards with a groan, having been hit by the mist. He collapsed against the back wall of the cave.

Haiba quickly slashed the lioness in the face with his claws in defence. She hissed at him and backed away – presumably to get some of her friends for assistance.

"Simba!" Nala cried, staring at her mate with horrified eyes.

"No…" Simba began to slowly dissolve away. "I'm… I'm not ready…"

"Stay," Nala urged him, tears running down her cheeks.

"Nala… I love you…"

Simba completely melted away, and all that remained of him was a pile of dust on the ground.

"No…" Nala shook her head in disbelief. "No. Come back."

"Nala…" said Haiba softly, putting a comforting paw on her shoulder.

Nala looked up at him with tear-stained eyes. "Save him," she ordered. "We save everyone. Bring him back. It's what we do."

"Not always," Haiba replied regretfully.

Nala just glared at him. "Then what is the point of you?" she spat.

She touched the dust on the ground, and could feel her heart breaking in two. She nodded. "This is the dream. Definitely, this one." She got to her paws, looking at Haiba. "If we die now, we wake up, yeah?"

Haiba nodded slightly. "Unless we just die."

"Either way, this is the only chance of seeing him again," Nala responded. "This is the dream."

Haiba just stared into her eyes. "How do you know?"

"Because if this is real life, I don't want it," was Nala's reply. "I don't want it."

Nala and Haiba walked out of the cave, past the three lionesses who were waiting for them.

But they did nothing.

"Why aren't they attacking us?" Nala asked.

"Either because this is the dream," replied Haiba, "or they know what we're about to do."

The two of walked over to the edge of a cliff, looking down at the seemingly bottomless abyss below. "Be very sure,"

Haiba warned her. "This could be the real world."

"It can't be," Nala insisted. "Simba isn't here. I didn't know. I didn't, I didn't, I honestly didn't – until right now. I just want him."

Haiba turned his head to the side, and could see the King of Dreams staring at him from a distance, not saying a word.

"I loved Simba until he died," said Nala, looking down at the blackness before her. "And right at the end, I never got the chance to tell him that. But now he's gone."

Haiba looked at Nala, before together they leapt from the edge of the cliff, tumbling down, down, down into the nothingness below…

Simba, Nala and Haiba all woke up in the cave, and found they were all covered in a layer of ice. It was so cold right now.

So cold that it wouldn't be long before they wouldn't even be able to move.

Nala quickly grabbed Simba, giving him a massive kiss on the muzzle. That alone seemed to warm her icy heart right now.

The King of Dreams appeared beside the three cubs. "So… you chose this world. Well done. You got it right. And with only seconds left." He shrugged. "Fair's fair. Let's warm you up."

He whacked the cave wall with his paw, and suddenly the whole interior seemed to warm up. It no longer felt like the inside of a giant snowball.

"I hope you've enjoyed your little fictions," the King of Dreams continued. "It all came out of your imaginations, so I'll leave you to ponder on that. I have been defeated. I shall withdraw. Farewell."

And then the King of Dreams disappeared. Hopefully for ever.

Simba slowly got to his paws, as did Nala and Haiba.

Simba blinked a few times, feeling a little confused. "Something happened. I… What happened to me?" he asked, as Nala embraced him in a tight hug. "Oh… Okay. Oh, right. This is good. I am liking this. Was it something I said? If it was, then can you tell me what it was in case of emergencies? And if necessary, birthdays? Anyway…" Simba wandered off, looking around the cave.

"What do we do now?" Haiba asked. "We may have beaten him, but that still leaves us trapped down here."

"Well, I'm going to slit my throat," replied Simba, extending his claws and putting them to his neck, ready to slice it open.

Haiba's eyes widened in shock. "What?"

Simba looked at him. "Didn't you notice how helpful the King of Dreams was, guys? Okay, there was the wrong information, the bad jokes, and I could have done without the rhyme, but he was always so keen to make us choose between dream and reality." He chuckled.

"What are you doing?" Nala asked, horrified.

"Simba, the King of Dreams said this wasn't the dream!" Haiba exclaimed.

"Yes, it is!" Simba insisted.

"Haiba, stop him!" Nala yelled.

"The King of Dreams has no power over the real world," Simba began to explain. "He was offering us a choice between two dreams."

"How do you know that?" Nala asked.

"Because I know who he is," Simba replied. "You all ready?"

Nala and Haiba looked at each other. "No," they both replied, putting a paw to their throats.

"Good! Now do it!"

The three cubs all used their claws to slash their throats open, and everything went black...

Simba, Nala and Haiba woke up in the den at Pride Rock.

They were… they were home.

Haiba looked around confusedly. "What… what happened?" he asked, astonished at where they had woken up.

Simba got to his paws, sticking a claw up his nose. He pulled out a tiny, glittering thing, holding it up to the two. "What's that?" Nala asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Psychic pollen," Haiba realised, pointing to the glittering little bits. "Now those are rare."

"We must have accidentally inhaled them today," Simba concluded. "And we ended up all going into some kind of weird dream state."

"So that was the King of Dreams?" asked Nala. "Those little specks?"

Simba shook his head, smiling. "No, no, no. Sorry, wasn't it obvious? The King of Dreams was me. This stuff feeds on everything dark inside of you. It gives it a voice, turns it against you."

"But why didn't it feed on us, too?" Haiba wondered.

"Darkness in you two?" Simba grinned. "It would have starved to death in a second! I'm the Prince – I choose my friends carefully."

"But those things he said about you," Nala cut in. "You don't think any of that's true?"

"Never mind about that," replied Simba, before a thoughtful look appeared on his face. "What I want to know is this: I stopped the cave dream by killing myself, but what stopped the dream where we were all grown up?"

"We jumped off a cliff," Nala replied.

"Oh." Simba narrowed his eyes in confusion. "I don't remember that bit."

"No, you weren't there, you were already…" Nala began, trying to find the right words.

"What?"

"Dead. You died in that dream," Nala explained. "One of those lionesses got you."

"Okay. But how did you know it was a dream?" Simba asked. "Before you jumped off the cliff, how did you know that you wouldn't just die?"

"I didn't," was Nala's reply.

Simba realised. "Oh." He smiled, turning away from Nala. "Makes sense, I guess. Really, I shouldn't be—"

Simba stopped dead when he saw the King of Dreams staring back at him.

He blinked, and then the King of Dreams was gone. "What? I thought I… I thought I just saw…"

"Saw what?" Haiba asked.

Simba looked at Haiba, and then back at where the King of Dreams was. "I… Nothing. It was… It was nothing." He looked down at the ground, almost appearing to be sad. "Nothing."