Chapter 3: What's Baobab ball?
It had been a long two hours since I had woken up in the Pride Lands and was taken to King Simba. Now, as I walked alongside the character that I had always admired, I couldn't help but wonder if I would ever return to my world. It was lonely, I had discovered, being here alone with no actual knowledge of why I was even in this world. There seemed to be no purpose for me being here and it was becoming ever clearer in my mind that I was not meant to be here originally.
Simba strolled ahead of me as I slowed in my pace. I decided to walk behind the fully grown feline ruler to leave me to my thoughts. It wasn't until King Simba spoke aloud that I was brought from my self imposed trance. We had arrived in a field where there were Lionesses and cubs laying and playing about. There seemed to be all females in the area, aside from the king himself.
A greeting was made to the king as I looked up from the ground and saw the one and only Nala herself approaching. I quickly looked back down to the ground, my bashful side showing. There was no way that I was going to be able to look at my favorite Disney royal in the eye. However, when Simba decided to introduce me to his mate I had no choice but to look her in the eye.
"Nala, this is Sauda," Simba said. "Akina found her alone on the outer edge of the Pride Lands."
Nala looked down at me and smiled. "Hello, Sauda."
"H-hello, your m-majesty I'm Sel-sauda" I greeted. "I'm S-sauda."
Crap! What the hell's wrong with me!?! Did I just stutter, not to mention almost say my actual name!?
"Well, it's nice to meet you Sauda," Nala said. She looked up from me to Simba who was still standing next to me.
"Simba, I have to go find Kiara and her friends for their hunting lesson," she said. "I'll have to get to know Sauda at dinner time."
Simba nodded and walked over to Nala and nuzzled her. "I'll see you at dinner."
"Likewise," Nala said before she took off running in the direction of Pride Rock.
Simba watched his mate run home and then turned back to me. "Now, you are free to do as you please until dinner time. Until then you can play with the other animals or with the other cubs your age. However, if you go exploring be sure to stay away from the Outlands, they are forbidden."
I nodded. "Thank you, your majesty. I will do as you say."
I then ran down pride rock and into the savannah where I explored. I found various piles of rocks that had geckos and other lizards sunbathing, there were tons of acacia trees with giraffes eating off them. I saw a herd of zebra along with antelope and elephants. I even found a watering hole where I decided to stop to take a drink and calm my heart rate down from running. Now what was a challenge was trying to figure out how to drink with no cup and no opposable thumbs. Of course, in the end, there was only one option: drinking like the animal I currently was.
I reached my head down until my muzzle reached the water. I immediately jumped back, though, because it turns out you're not supposed to stick your nose in the water when it’s on top of your mouth. The water had gone up into my nose. I quickly figured out after that that I was supposed to let mu muzzle hover over the water instead of delving my mouth and nose completely inside the water.
As I started lapping up the water with my sandpaper tongue, which to be honest felt kind of weird. I suppose it's to be expected, though, I was after all, technically a human. I was so concentrated on the movements of my tongue to prevent licking water up into my airways again that I failed to see the crocodile swimming up from the bottom of the water hole. In one second I was lapping up water and the next I was pushed up against a tree trunk by a young male crocodile.
“My, my who's this we have here?” he asked. “You don't look to be a pridelander, but you look well fed so you can't be the cub of a rogue.”
I nervously looked around as my chest heaved up and down from my ragged breathing. I sucked in a huge breath and prepared myself to scream, in hopes of alerting one of the adult lions who could defend me, seeing as for some reason I was a cub instead of a near adult. I began to exhale, but before the sound could escape my throat, the crocodile put his clawed foot over my mouth.
"Ah, ah, ah," he warned. "We don't want you alerting any adults now do we?"
I shook my head ferociously. "Good, good. Now, I'm gonna take my paw off your mouth and when I do you will not scream, do we understand each other?"
I nodded my head slowly, my eyes still wide. He removed his paw from my mouth and I shuddered out a breath. I looked over to him as I stood back down on all four paws and gave him a cold glare. What in the actual fuck?! Why the hell..? You know, nevermind. I'm not gonna even bother asking him why he pinned me against a tree if he wasn't going to fucking eat me. At least that's what I thought he was going to do anyway.
"Now, seeing as I can't eat you due to treaties the crocodile float has with the Lion King Simba, and in doing so would cause a war between the lions and the crocodiles, I have a question for you young...?" he trailed off.
"S-sauda," I stuttered out after a few seconds.
"Okay, S-sauda..." he started. "First of all, my names Makuu the crocodile, it's nice to formally meet you."
I nodded to him and held out my hand - er - I mean paw. Makuu looked at me strangely before I embarrassedly put my dark fur covered paw back on the ground. I nodded to him and then he nodded back.
"Now back to my question," he continued. "Why are you out here all alone and where's your pride? As I said before, you are too well fed looking to be a rogue's cub and your fur color is quite unique and different from that of the lions here in the pridelands."
"I'm an orphan," I explained to Makuu. "Simba has let me into the pride after one of the elephant leaders, Akina, found me passed out in the elephant territory near the end of the pridelands."
"Ah, I see, well you run along Sauda, but don't come back to this watering hole, some of the other crocodiles won't be as forgiving to intruders as I just was," Makuu concluded.
I nodded and response and trotted off from the crocodile floats watering hole. That Makuu fellow sure was a strange one, that I was certain of.
I was walking along the savannah when I saw some tracks in the dirt, lion tracks to be specific. I decided to follow them. They were soon joined by tracks that had distinct claw-like marks in them. I sniffed it and for some reason, my mind immediately registered the smell as one belonging to a honey badger. What would a lion and a honey badger be doing together? In my world not even a lion would dare mess with those ferocious little spitfires that are natural born angry introverts. But then again this was a Disney show, so anything is possible here I guess...
I followed the tracks until the smell got strong enough to where I could tell that the owners were nearby. I cautiously listened for any voices. I listened closely to the sound of the wind as it carried two voices to me. They were the voices of young boys for sure, and by the smells, it was the young honey badger and a lion cub. The lion cub's scent I could tell for some odd reason was close to Simba's scent, but not entirely the same either. I slowly crept closer to the owner of the voices and moved downwind, so the lion cub wouldn't smell me. I watched my footsteps and crept up onto a small boulder that my fur blended in with to take a peek at the owners of the voices and smells invading my nostrils.
There, wrestling over some sort of fruit was a golden lion cub with a small mane the color of Simba's and a grey honey badger. Wait for a honker, I knew who these cubs were! It was Kion and Bunga, they were who the mysterious scents belonged to! I peeked over the edge of the small boulder and stared at the two as they played.
The baobab fruit rolled to a stop a few feet away from them and they looked at it with wide eyes before turning back to each other. Kion leaped off of Bunga and grabbed the baobab fruit in his mouth.
Something about this moment seemed familiar...
Of course! This was the moment in the movie where my screen went off in Biology and my computer sucked me into the show in the first place. Now begged the question, why was I sent into the movie before this moment when my computer shut off and sucked me in here at this scene? I decided to make myself known at that second. I rose from my crouched stance and jumped down off the rock and onto the ground, startling Bunga who was still on the ground. Kion who still had the Baobab fruit in his mouth dropped his jaw in shock, allowing the baobab fruit to drop to the ground and roll off to the side somewhere. Bunga got up from the ground and went to stand next to Kion.
I nervously twitched my tail and eyed the two cubs across from me warily. They seemed shocked that someone had been able to sneak up on them without them noticing, let alone the fact that I was talking to them. I looked at Kion, who had a confused look on his face and then over to Bunga who's facial expression turned from startled to excited.
"Hi, I'm Bunga, and this is Kion!" He introduced himself, then pointed over to the still shocked lion cub. "Are you new to the pridelands? I haven't seen you before?"
I nodded and smiled shyly. "Y-yeah, I just got here today. Apparently, I was found passed out by the Elephant Graveyard and Akina the elephant elder found me there."
That's when Kion snapped out of his trance. "How come you were found unconscious? Do you happen to remember how you wound up in the pridelands in the first place?"
I shook my head and for the first time since I arrived here, started a sentence without stuttering. "No, all I can remember is being woken up by Akina's son, Mtoto, and then being taken to Zazu, who took me to Simba."
"Really?" Kion asked. "What did Simba say?"
"Zazu me that I was probably the daughter of some rogue clan of lions or something and was abandoned on the outskirts of the pridelands to be left to the vultures," I replied solemnly. "Then he took me to Simba who said that I was to join the pride."
Kion's eyes widened in shock. I suppose here in the pridelands, rogue lions are not often accepted into the pride of lions that ruled here. It makes sense, though, due to the events that happened with Scar's betrayal and then the betrayal of Zira and her followers. With so many lions betraying the trust of Mufasa and then Simba, who could blame the strict laws and restrictions for the members of the pride. I have also noticed that in the Disney universe, lion prides allow more than one male in the pride at the same time. Probably due to it being a Disney creation, though.
"Dad said that you could join the pride?" Kion asked, shocked and eyes wide. His tone led me to believe that he was somewhat impressed that his father had let me into the pride after knowing me for such a short period of time.
I nodded in response. "Yeah."
"That's unusual for my dad to let a rogue into the pride after such a short period of time, but I won't question the judgment of the King," Kion concluded, a smile on his face. "Besides, I'm sure your not a bad lion are you?"
I shook my head, smiling as well. "Nope, not that I know of!"
"Well, now that we're all introduced..." Bunga started off, a mischevious smile on his face. "Wanna play baobab ball with us?"
"Sure, how do you play?" I asked.
"Well, you just toss the ball around to each other in the air, really," Bunga explained.
I nodded. "Sure, I'll play!"
"Awesome!" Bunga cried.
Kion nodded in agreement and smiled. "Yep, it'll be more fun with another player. Not only that, but it will lessen the chance of Mr. Hogger here to steal the ball all the time!"
"Alright on your mark, get ready, get set..." Bunga trailed off. "GO!"
Bunga ran for the ball that was off to the side in the grass from when it rolled from Kion's mouth. Scooping it up into his claws, he started to run but was pinned down to the ground by Kion.
"Gotcha now, Bunga!" he gloated.
The baobab fruit rolled to a stop at my feet. I smirked and quietly watched the exchange between Bunga and Kion. Without them noticing, I grabbed the fruit up into my jaws and began to slowly sneak off into the distance. Sadly, Kion looked back over his shoulder and saw me sneaking away and released Bunga to go after me. Bunga then got up from the ground and chased after us.
"Not yet!" he shouted.
He jumped and tackled Kion to the ground, which caused Kion to vault forwards into me and caused me to tumble to the ground with Kion halfway on top of me, both our bellies exposed. The mischievous little honey badger began to rub mine and Kion's bellies and tickled us, making tickling noises.
"Alright, mercy!" I pleaded, dropping the baobab fruit. "Mercy!"
"Stop it! Bunga!" Kion complained while laughing.
Seeing the baobab fruit roll away, Bunga stopped the tickle torture and ran off after the fruit.
Kion crouched down and lowered himself to the ground and I copied his moves as Bunga caught the baobab fruit. Once Bunga had caught it, Kion and I pounced and landed on Bunga.
But Bunga being the small animal he was, got out from under us easily and ran after the fruit once more. He caught it and I ran past him, an excited gleam in my eye. I nodded twice as he looked at me and he understood the message I was trying to send him. Pass me the ball! The baobab fruit flew through the sky once again, traveling through the air towards me. However, I missed it as it came to me and it hit me in the head, making me topple over the cliff behind me and the fruit following me down. I screamed as I fell through the air, and there was a loud thud when my body made contact with the ground below.
"Ughh, motherfucker that hurt!" I groaned, cussing unintentionally. Well shit, there goes the no cussing in Disney movies rule!
I looked over across from me and noticed that the baobab fruit had landed somewhere other than where I was. I heard two voices shouting my name and I looked up to see Bunga and Kion peering over the edge of the cliff in worry.
"Are you alright!?" came Kion's worried voice.
"Yeah!" I shouted back up to him. "It's too bad that the fruit rolled down here with me, though, huh? Game over, I guess."
"Yeah, that's too bad!" he agreed, chuckling at my petty attempt at a joke.
"What are you guys talking about!?" Bunga asked. "We can still play!"
"No, we can't," Kion corrected him.
"Says, who?" Bunga questioned. "I'm not afraid of the Outlands!"
"Neither am I!" Kion defended himself. "It's just...my dad. He says we shouldn't..."
"Oh, please!" Bunga countered. "Simba's a big ol' scaredy cat when it comes to the outlands!"
"So uh..." I called up to them, sitting up from the ground.
My back right leg was in a little bit of pain. They looked over the edge when they heard my voice.
"How exactly am I going to get out of here?" I asked with a hopeful smile on my face.
"Oh, I think we should go get my dad!" Kion called down to me.
"Kion, didn't you just hear what I said?" Bunga asked incredulously. "We can handle this ourselves, we don't need the grownups' help!"
Bunga looked over the edge of the cliff and down at me. "I'm coming, Sauda!"
"Bunga, wait-!" Kion started.
"Oh, C'mon!" he said. "You know what my uncles always say...!"
He trailed off as he jumped down the cliff. I didn't hear Kion's response as Bunga flew through the air, but I had a pretty good idea of what the saying was. After all, there was an entire song written for it! Bunga landed on a branch halfway down the cliff and I giggled when I looked up and saw him hanging there.
"Woah! eh?" Bunga questioned, looking up at the branch that he had hooked himself onto.
Kion looked down over the edge of the cliff at Bunga. "Bunga? Heh, you look a little...stuck."
In response, Bunga just waved his hand nonchalantly. "You kidding? It's just a tree branch!"
He then did a flip off the branch, unhooking himself in the process and he fell the rest of the way down the cliff and landed right beside me. He helped me up to my feet and noticed that I was leaving most of my weight off my back leg.
"Are you okay?" he asked a frown on his face.
I nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay, but my leg hurts a little though," I told him.
He nodded and looked back up to Kion. "Kion! I'm gonna stay down here and find the baobab fruit!"
Kion looked down at us. "Okay! But what about Sauda, is she okay?"
"Yeah!" I yelled up to him. "Pretty okay, although my leg hurts a little bit!"
I reaffirmed my stance and looked back up at Kion. I noticed that he had a worried look on his face.
"You should stay down there until Bunga finds the fruit, that way both of us can help you back up the cliff, okay!?" he shouted down to me.
"Alright!" I called up to him.
I looked back at Bunga. "Let's go find the baobab fruit."
He nodded and smiled. He supported my shoulder and helped me walk next to him as we searched for the ball.
"Now, where'd that baobab fruit go?" Bunga asked curiously.
Bunga left me halfway to walk by myself, as I told him my leg felt a bit better than before, so I went off in a different direction than him. I was searching in a pile of rocks when I smelled something rotten and gross. I then thought to myself, what in the world could smell so bad? I then realized that I was in fact in the outlands, and there were many clans of a certain animal species that were banished here by Simba before Kion and Kiara were born. Hyenas, lots of them. I could tell from the strong smell that their den was somewhere close by, so I decided to investigate. Luckily, with my dark fur, I was able to blend in with the dark shadows that the rocky cliffs cast over the canyon. I listened carefully to the sounds on the wind and sure enough, accompanied by the horrible smell I could hear high pitched laughter coming from the east.
I crept through the shadows until I could tell that I was a good 100 yards away from the den. On my left, there was a pile of mud. Awesome! I jumped into the mud and rolled myself around in the sticky substance. It would be enough to temporarily mask my scent from the horde of hyenas awaiting me in their den ahead. All I needed to do now was make sure to keep quiet as to not alert them of my presence. I crept closer to their den opening, making sure to stay downwind and stopped until I was close enough to peek into their den through an opening in the rock without getting caught.
There were at least five hyenas that I could see from where I was, one on a rock ledge above the rest. I noticed another thing as well, they were all males. Probably outcasted from their clan by the females, no doubt. I guess hyenas in the Lion King worked the same as they did in my world, the females dominate and the males submissive. The male hyena on the rock ledge was busying himself with chewing on a leg bone from some poor dead animal that they had probably dragged down the cliff and into their den to its death. All of the other hyenas on the floor of the cave looked up at him, waiting their turn to eat.
Snarkily, the head hyena stopped chewing and spoke to the hopeful hyenas surrounding him.
"Oh! 'fraid there's no meat left for you boys," he commented, giving one last lick to the bone between his paws.
I then noticed the two hyenas that were closest to him that kind of reminded me of ed and banzai from the original Lion King movie. The smaller one even had the same eyes and messed up tongue that Ed had, perhaps Ed had a kid or something? They both sighed and the smaller one that looked like Ed whined and then looked out the cave opening. I followed his gaze and saw the baobab fruit from our game in a pile of discarded bones and rocks.
Excitedly, the small Ed spoke up. "Janja! Janja! A baobab fruit!"
He pointed to the fruit as he spoke and the bigger hyena that sat next to him looked out the cave opening and saw the fruit as well. In a scratchy voice, the bigger one spoke excitedly.
"Let's eat it!" he excitedly declared, looking back up at "Janja" the supposed leader of the male clan of hyenas. "I'm starvalated..."
He rubbed his paw over his stomach and looked down with a grimace.
Janja just scoffed. "What do you take me for, a vegetarian?"
Huh! I for sure thought he would have said herbivore instead of that but apparently, in the Lion King universe, they have some of the same terminologies as humans from my world. I noticed the blue butterfly flying past Janja's head as he continued to speak.
"I want something nice and meaty for lunch," he stated. "Something-"
He cut himself off as he then noticed the butterfly and began to snap at it, trying to eat the beautiful insect. Now personally I think all insects are necessary to the world, but that doesn't mean that I'm not terrified by them in any way shape or form! Yes, butterflies are pretty and harmless, but you can't ignore the alien faces they have and the fact that you can't ever predict where they are going. That's the thing with me, if it is smaller than my hand and can move really fast, I'm not going anywhere near it. But now, since I am a lion cub in the African savannah, I don't really have a choice other than to deal with the bothersome pests.
Suddenly the butterfly landed on Janja's head, making it look like it was a hair decoration for a little girl.
"Huh? Where'd it go?" he asked cluelessly.
I giggled under my breath, the other Hyena's cackling laughter covering my muffled laughter up nicely. Janja seemed to get frustrated at the Hyenas surrounding him.
"What, what, what!?" he demanded. "What's so funny?!"
By now, I was trying to prevent myself from bursting out into full-blown laughter and the other hyenas were by now rolling all over the ground.
"What're you laughing at!?" Janja once again demanded. "Tell me!"
He then looked out the den opening and noticed something. I looked over still giggling but shut right up when I saw what he had seen. It was Bunga, he had found the baobab fruit in the pile of rocks and bones. I knew exactly where this was headed and I didn't like it one bit. I forgot about the incident with the butterfly completely as I went back into stealth mode and crept through the shadows towards Bunga.
Bunga picked up the baobab fruit and spun it around on one claw as I came up behind him. He threw it up the air and caught it. I then crouched and readied myself to pounce. Vaulting forwards I pushed Bunga to the ground with my front paws and pinned him to the ground, the baobab fruit rolling away to the cliff edge where Kion was.
The small Ed and the bigger Banzai looking hyenas were hiding in a small crevice in the rocks behind where we currently were. I noticed them and my claws immediately unsheathed from my paws on instinct. Kion had noticed the hyenas as well because he had stood up with a worried look on his face.
"Hevi Kabisa! Bunga, Sauda heads up!" he warned us.
By now I had let Bunga up and he was tossing the baobab fruit around in the air.
"Relax, Kion!" Bunga said soothingly. "Remember, Hakuna Ma-"
Bunga was interrupted by the small Ed looking hyena growling in his face.
"-tata..." Bunga finished the catchphrase slowly and with a scared tone to his voice.
"Get outta there guys!" Kion yelled helplessly.
My claws fully unsheathed and I turned around and hissed and growled threateningly at the hyena growling at Bunga. I stepped forward and slashed the air around the Hyena making him back up. Bunga being honey badger he is glared at the hyena and bravely began to speak.
"Okay, hyena you wanna see what this honey badger's made out of?" he questioned. "I'll show you what I'm made of!"
There was a chomping sound as Bunga was picked up by the scruff by the bigger hyena who had somehow gone unnoticed by me. The hyenas started to laugh at their victory but I snarled threateningly and that shut them up quickly.
"You better let him the fuck go or neither of you is going to escape my wrath!" I calmly warned, claws unsheathed and eyes narrowed with my pupils in slits.
They looked scared until the Ed looking one kicked a rock at me in an attempt to knock me to the ground. The rock flew and hit me in the joint of my injured leg and it sent me to the ground, the hyena pouncing and pinning me to the ground. I was helpless now, hopefully, Kion had something up his metaphorical sleeves.
"Hyenas!", Kion yelled. "Put Bunga down and let Sauda go! Pick on someone your own size!"
The Ed hyena cackled.
"Kion, you want your little friends? Come and get 'em!" he ended with a growling undertone.
"Let them go!" Kion shouted. "You hyenas don't want any trouble with my dad!"
Really, Kion? That's the best you have to offer in defense? Oh well, we're in deep shit now...
"Oooh, like you'd get in trouble if you came into the Outlands!" the hyena countered. Then the two hyenas began to laugh.
"Uhh, Kion?" I asked warily from underneath the hyena.
"He's too afraid to come down here!" the bigger hyena stated.
"Yeah!" the smaller one agreed.
They then began to began to chant over and over the phrase "fraidy cat!"
I looked up at Kion and noticed that he was frowning and looking down at the ground obviously embarrassed that he wasn't able to scare the hyenas into letting us go.
The smaller hyena then interrupted the chanting. "Alright, fun's over! Janja needs his lunch!"
"Lunch?" Bunga gulped.
I snarled ferociously. "You bastards!"
"Nooo!" Kion yelled. His pupils shrank and he began to stomp as he spoke.
"Let. Him. Goooo...!" His shouts became suddenly louder into an earth-shattering roar. I looked to the skies and saw lions forming in the clouds. Huh, so that's the great roar? Cool.
The bigger hyena's jaw dropped letting Bunga free and the force of the roar made the smaller hyena fly off of me. I struggled to my feet and hobbled up the cliff as Kion ended his roar. Bunga shoved the baobab fruit into the bigger hyena's mouth before climbing up to me and helping me up to the cliff's edge. I looked up at Kion as I climbed and saw him staring down at the hyenas with a ferocious look on his face. I also saw the flash of light as the lion guard symbol appeared on his left front shoulder.
"See ya hyena!" Bunga called down to the spotted canines. "Wouldn't wanna be ya!"
Bunga and I reached the top of the cliff and I sat down in exhaustion once we stopped.
"Hevi Kabisa!" Kion said as the thundering noises slowed to a stop and the lions in the clouds disappeared. "What was that?"
"Zuka Zama!" Bunga exclaimed. "Kion, how'd you roar like that?"
"I dunno, Bunga..." Kion said somewhat sadly. "Wish I did, though."
I limped towards the two friends as they stared up at the receding clouds. Kion the turned away from the sky and then towards me, ears going back on his golden fur-covered head. His muzzle was drawn into a frown and he trudged slowly towards me. He shoved me up with his shoulder and supported me as we began to walk back to Pride Rock.
"Sauda, are you sure you're okay?" he asked warily.
I nodded and laughed lightheartedly. "Yes Kion, I'm fine!" I laughed. "Now if you don't stop stressing your mane over my leg then I'll tell your dad that you came out this far!"
He smiled in relief at my lighthearted statement before laughing as well. "Yeah well, I just don't want you to be seriously injured or anything practically just after meeting you."
"She'll be fine Kion!" Bunga sighed dramatically. "Now let's get back to Pride Rock and find some grubs for dinner because I'm starved!"
As the sun was going down in the sky, I knew that something big was about to happen for me in this universe, otherwise I wouldn't have been brought here in the first place. I didn't know what exactly, but I knew that I was determined to find out.
ns 15.158.61.6da2
