Simba knew something was wrong – right from the very start. He had a knack for figuring out that sort of thing. If trouble was around, then bam! Simba knew about it. Almost like he was psychic. A sort of… sixth sense. Simba liked the sound of that. It made him feel pretty special – not that he wasn't special enough already, of course.

But this time, the trouble was pretty obvious to see. All Simba really had to do was look down at the bulging belly he had, and he would know something was up. He hadn't looked that way since he'd eaten all that food at King Hapana's pride…

So something was seriously wrong. Over the course of one night, Simba had suddenly put on a lot of weight, knew a lot more than he was supposed to, and his girlfriend was no longer his girlfriend. This had to be one of the most confusing days of Simba's life, and what made it worse was the fact that he was all on his own.

He didn't have anyone to help him out. Everyone around him had changed – so they wouldn't know what was going on, either. It was like this wasn't really his home. Like he was on another world… But that just sounded stupid.

Didn't it?

"I just don't understand it," Simba said to himself, as he sat in the middle of the field he had woken up in, all on his own.

"I don't get it. It's confusing. More confusing that seeing an elephant flying high in the sky."

Simba shot a look up at the sky, and then frowned. "Come on!" he yelled. "Stuff like that is supposed to happen when you say it! Stupid sky…" Looking down at the ground, Simba suddenly felt very depressed.

He was alone. No one was going to help him. Normally he had Nala or Haiba to help him out with his neverending battle against the forces of evil. But this was a different kind of evil. A kind of evil that couldn't be seen or heard. An invisible enemy. Just the thought of that alone made Simba even more confused. So much so that he thought his head might just explode from all the puzzlement.

"So what do I do?" Simba asked himself, hopping to his paws and pacing back and forth around the field, his mind locked in 'thinking mode', as he liked to call it. "Your whole world has changed, and there's no explanation for it." He started with the simple facts. What made up the problem. Maybe by talking himself through everything that had happened, he might just find a way of fixing the problem.

"Okay, so that's the problem," Simba told himself. "Now what is the solution? Every problem has a solution – right? You've just got to find the solution. Once you've done that, everything will be easy to fix. Nala will be back in my paws, and Haiba will go back to just being… Well, himself."

He smiled. Maybe there was a little bit of hope for him yet. "There's always a ray of sunshine in the darkness." Haiba had told him that, and it had turned out to be a very useful phrase indeed. It meant that, no matter how bad things seemed there was always a glimmer of hope somewhere. And hope was one of the most strongest emotions Simba had ever known. It always kept him fighting. Just the mere thought that he could make it through a terrible situation always made him feel better.

Hope – a very, very useful emotion to have.

"So here's what I'm gonna do," said Simba, looking into the distance. "I'm gonna find Nala, and demand that she tells me everything she knows. I want to know all about this… strange new world I've ended up in. Information keeps the brain healthy." He looked upwards. "Jeez, did I really just say that? Anyway…" Simba sighed. "Once she's told me everything, I can start fixing this. And once I've fixed this, maybe I can—"

"Talking to yourself again, kid?" Simba turned around to find the source of the voice – it was Nala.

"Oh…" Simba wasn't really sure of what to say. "It's… it's you."

Nala went cross-eyed and poked the side of her head, sticking her tongue out. "Duh!" she exclaimed in a dumb tone.

"Really? I never knew that."

Simba ignored her remark. "What… what are you doing here?" he finally managed to ask. He thought she was with Haiba…

"I came to see you, dummy," Nala replied, taking a step towards Simba. "Even if you are a complete idiot, you're still my friend – I guess."

"You guess?" said Simba, raising an eyebrow at her. He didn't really like this new Nala… She was far too mean. "Nala, just how long have you known me for?"

Nala shrugged in response. "I don't know. A while. How should I know?"

"Because you're supposed to be my friend," replied Simba. "Surely you can remember when we first met. Was it before or after you met Haiba?"

Nala's heart skipped a beat at the mention of Haiba. "It was before, actually," she informed her friend. "You're lucky I found you when I did – these days I wouldn't even bat an eyelid at a… creature like you."

Simba's face fell. Oh, yeah… Nala was more than mean! "And what kind of a friend calls her other friends a 'creature'?" he said, glaring at her disapprovingly.

"I do," Nala declared, putting a paw to her chest. "I'm just taking pity on you, Simba. You should feel very lucky for my generosity towards you."

"So what about Haiba?" asked Simba. "When did you and him… get together?" he asked.

Nala rolled her eyes. "Simba – you know Haiba and I aren't together… yet. We're just very, very, very good friends. But not for long, if I have my way…" A sneaky grin spread across Nala's face. "Before sundown, Haiba will be mine. We'll be together for ever, and we can have a big family of our own." She sniffled. "It actually brings a tear to my eye."

"You can't be serious!" Simba exclaimed in disbelief. "What's so good about Haiba, anyway? Why are you 'in love' with him?"

"Because he's kind and caring and passionate and romantic," Nala replied, as if she had said that to herself a hundred times over. "All the things that you aren't, by the way. Oh, and I just love the muscles. They make him look so tough and rugged…" She seemed to melt at just the thought of that. "Of course, you're nothing like him at all, Simba. You're just thin, nerdy and scrawny. Oh, and by the way, that tuft is absolutely disgusting."

"Sorry, am I really your friend?" Simba has to ask. Right now Nala just seemed like a big bully. "'Cause all you're doing right now is just insulting me."

"I've told you before, Simba – it's to make you man up," Nala told Simba, putting a paw around his shoulder, so the side of her face was touching his. "Well, at least you're warm. What do you know – you're actually good at something."

Simba looked up at the sky, resisting the urge to moan. Kill me, he thought.