Chapter 5: Peril In The Pride Lands

Simba laughed heartily as he scampered about the Jungle like the cute cub he was. He didn't know what he was going to find but knew that it felt so good to be free. Free from responsibilities and especially free to have fun. The precocious prince was eager for excitement when one look into the treetops made his heart sink in dread. His sprint slowed to a stop as he saw a panther fully cocooned by awfully familiar coils. The predator's eyes practically bulged out of their sockets as he was strangled...

Simba's eyes went wide themselves as horror and guilt both washed over him, the panther uttering what could barely pass for wheezing. He began to back away when Kaa's head suddenly dropped down before he knew it and looked him in the eye with his hypnotic rings of color. "Thank you for sssserving up my lunch, my ssslave," he hissed haughtily. The lion cub felt like he was hyperventilating as he struggled desperately against the powerful gaze. "It would indeed appear I've taught you well..."

"NO!" Simba shouted, shutting his eyes to snap out of the trance. He rushed off in the opposite direction without caring as to where he ended up. His eyes darted all around for any sign of Kaa whatsoever until he looked ahead and skidded to a stop almost instantly. His heart sank at the sight of a bear laying before him and bleeding out with his throat practically shredded to bits. The lion cub's horror only grew as he looked down at his paws and found them to be all drenched in the very blood. "No."

"You might tell yourssself that I made you do it," Kaa's voice hissed, sending shivers down Simba's back, "but all you're doing issss running away asss usssual." The lion cub turned all around frantically to find the serpent himself but to no avail. "You murdered with no real reasssson and go off to sssstart a family assss king." He felt these words hit him right where it hurts the most. "What would your father sssay?" That phrase in particular brought him to tears. "You're no better than Ssscar."

Simba tried his best to not cry pathetically when he heard someone approaching behind him. "D-Daddy?" he heard, getting him to turn around swiftly. Kiara was by a few feet away from him with the most horrified expression on her face with tear already soaking her furry cheeks. "How could you?" she asked in her heartbroken tone of voice. Simba looked back down to find his paws still soaked with blood and right back up to find his daughter backing away, looking at him like he was a real monster.

"He made me do it!" Simba stammered as he stepped towards Kiara. "I was like a puppet to him!" His distraught daughter just stepped away as if scared that her own father would take her life next. "There you go, deflecting your guilt," Kaa hissed all around the lion cubs. Simba stopped upon spotting the python come into view just behind a oblivious Kiara, his head looming over her. "Yet you know full well that you don't desssserve sssssuch happinesssssss." The young king's heart sank in dread.

"Ssssooner or later, your ssssinssss will come back to punissssh you," Kaa claimed as Simba saw his maw become wider, "and sssshe'll be the firsssst to ssssuffer." He cried in terror as he saw the snake's jaws sharply descend upon Kiara before his eyes snapped wide open. The king drew in sharp breaths as he found himself in the den and the dawn's sunlight illuminating his surrounding. His heartbeat continued to race as the night terror remained fresh within the adult lion's mind.

Simba hung his head and shut his eyes out of shame. It was the same type of nightmare he had for years on end. At first, Nala was the one almost swallowed alive but Kiara was taking that position more recently. He didn't need Rafiki to tell him what it meant when his mind would spell it out through Kaa. The king of the Pride Lands began to stand back up when he noticed that neither Nala nor Kiara were anywhere near him. His heartbeat raced as he assuming the worst.

"Good, you're awake!" Simba heard Nala call out. "I was going to let you sleep in but something's come up." He looked towards his right and saw he come into the den much to his relief. "Zazu's just came back with the morning report and found out about a few disappearances." This previous relief was swiftly stripped away as the king's face sank into a frown. "Who's gone missing this time?" he asked. He was hoping to hide the effects of the night terrors with a calm facade.

"Adongo's been searching for Zuri all morning," Nala said, heartbroken for a close friend of her's. "Some of the other lionesses have spread out already but it doesn't seem like her daughter's turned up." She lowered her gaze, feeling so helpless and frightened. "Do any of her friends know anything?" Simba asked, coming over to nuzzle with his wife for comfort. "I know Tiifu was very close to Zuri." The two looked each other in the eye, sharing their solemn second as one.

"The poor girl seems too broken up about it to even speak about it," Nala sighed. "Everyone I spoke too is beginning to fear the worst with these vanishings." She could hear Simba's tense gulp. "If they were eaten, something would've been left behind but it's as if they were erased from existence." Her eyes widened upon the most horrifying thought suddenly crossing her mind. "Unless they'd... been swallowed..." She looked up at Simba to find his expression mirroring her's.

"What's all the doom and gloom about?" Kiara's voice rang out, disturbing the tense atmosphere. "You sound like it's the end of the world or something." Both of her parents immediately looked her way and found their daughter coming from deeper in the den. "Where have you been?" Simba sternly demanded from his daughter, getting a perplexed frown in return. "Um, from the stream for my drink," the princess sassed back. "My throat dries easily in the morning, remember?"

Nala stepped forward to defuse any growing tension. "Things have been going crazy in the Pride Lands that have us worried," she explained, giving Simba a mean sideways glance ever so subtly. "We're going out to learn all we can and help in any way." The queen could see Kiara smile in excitement with her tail swishing so adorably much to her delight. "You just stay around Pride Rock and make sure that you stay safe." The princess's smile died down in her dejection.

"Can't I help?" Kiara whined, tired of being on the sidelines. "If I'm going to be queen, shouldn't I help my people whenever I can?" She could see Simba's expression becoming stern as she had expected. "If you're going to be queen, then you should know not to get in over your head at your age." The princess rolled her eyes at such a predictable response as her father turned around to head out of the den. "This time, you're not going anywhere without Zazu's word."

Kiara exchanged uneasy glances with Nala before her mother turned around to join her husband. "As if I listen to that birdbrain anyways," she snarked under her breath while walking away from her parent. The princess couldn't help but think about what Kaa said about them. They rarely bothered with teaching her how to face danger fearlessly to help her people. "At least, there's someone out there I can rely upon," she warmly said to herself, heading for the secret exit.

"Now where are you sneaking off to?" Zazu whispered to himself, observing Kiara with but one eyebrow raised.

---

"Zuri!" Adongo cried out for the umpteenth time, tears appearing in her distress. "Answer us!" The mortified mother looked all around the woods for her daughter but found nothing but trees and the critters living there. "Are you sure you tracked her scent here?" she asked her sister by her right as she sniffed the ground for her niece. "I can barely pick up anything in the air." The lioness felt a deep pit in her gut as she couldn't help but begin to fear the worst for Zuri.

Adanna sighed as she raised her head back up to her grieving sister. "It's faint but just along this way for sure," she informed, mirroring Adongo's fearful expression, "or at least it was when I found it earlier." She sighed in discomfort over what she was about to say. "Even then, the whole thing just goes cold further down like she, well, really did vanish into thin air." Adanna swallowed hard at the mere thought of it. "We... might need to consider that Zuri really was-"

"Adanna!" Ebele exclaimed from Adongo's left in a hushed but appauled tone of voice. "That'll be enough from you." Adanna looked towards her lover along with her sister and found the strong spoken lioness glaring daggers back at her. "Pessimism never solved anything." Ebele raised one of her eyebrows in an expression of disbelief straight towards her girlfriend. "Your sister needs all the support she can get in case you have forgotten." Adanna's head sunk in shame.

"Thank you, Ebele," Adongo warmly cut in with a slight smile before it faded again, "but I... really should brace myself for the worst." She hung her head and cast her gaze at the ground. The mourning mother didn't notice that her pace was becoming slower and slower like stepping deeper into tar. Anxiety ate away at her when something colorful shimmered in the corner of her eye. Just one single glimpse to her left seemed to quell most of her fears, piquing her curiosity...

"I know I crossed a line back there," Adanna whispered to Ebele, "but I really hope that we can find Zuri." She shared a worried look with her partner, relieved that Ebele wasn't holding it against her. "Sis has been more busy with the hunt lately so she's barely had time to connect with her cub." She felt helplessness seep into her heart more by the minute. "She acts so strong but I can't imagine what she's really going through deep down." A few tears appeared in her eyes.

"It's the same with my little Tiifu," Ebele sighed, recalling how her daughter wasn't holding up too well either. "She's trying to put on a brave face but it's all too clear she's scared of never seeing Zuri again." She can only slightly smile warmly before giving Adanna a coy look. "They think nobody knows that they're dating but even a warthog can see two hopeless lovers in them." Her girlfriend chuckled with her in agreement. "I just only pray the two may stay together after this."

Adanna smiled back at Ebele with her spirits lifted. "We'll just have to see to that," she declared with a touch more gusto. "Won't we, Sis?" However, her smile faded fast upon finding no sign of Adongo by her left or even trailing behind. "Sis?" Ebele looked behind her as well and similarly became increasingly distressed by the disappearance of her lover's sibling. "S-she was just behind us... wasn't she?" Adanna asked anxiously, fearing the potential answer as her heart raced.

"Stay calm, sweetheart," Ebele declared with a firm front while sniffing the air. "Adongo's still here but... there's something else." She turned herself around to follow the fresh scent as Adanna anxiously came alongside. "W-w-what kind of 'something else' are we talking here?" her love demanded to know, her voice quivering as the couple made their way towards the thick bushes. "Something... foreign," Ebele claimed with a hard swallow, following her nose very hesitantly.

As they reached the bush, neither Adanna nor Ebele could help the dread they felt upon hearing what sounded like wheezing and choking. They were both fast to rise over the plant and use their fore-paws to push down for a better view. What they stumbled across was almost too horrify to process for either one of them. There was Adongo herself totally pinned down upon her back with her entire body nearly encased within scaly coils that slowly slithered across her torso.

Both of Adongo's hind legs were free and barely moving in a pathetic attempt to escape as if she could just slip on through. Her fore-arms were stuck up in the air but could barely stay up. She stretched out her toes in a seemingly desperate attempt to gather air. Perhaps the most harrowing sight for Adanna and Ebele was how two sizable coils looped around Adongo's neck. She can barely manage to turn her head toward the couple with a desperate look in her bulging eyes.

"Help... me..."

However, neither Adanna nor Ebele could make out Adongo's pained plea with how they were still processing her plight. It was only a few seconds but just enough time for a python's head to pop up from behind the bush and into their faces. "I don't recall inviting either of you to my brunch," Kaa claimed with an indignant tone of voice. The two lionesses wouldn't backed away immediately but had the misfortune of looking into his eyes and the colorful rings pouring out.

Adongo let out a horrified hacking as she helplessly saw both Adanna and Ebele becoming enthralled by Kaa's gaze, their eyes immediately radiating the exact colorful rings that had lured her into his trap. Their faces started with an expression of perturbed puzzlement before a silly smile stretched across each of their mouths. "No..." she tried to cry out despite how much it hurt. "Don't... give... in-URK!" A sharp squeeze to her throat cut of her begging, her eye widening more.

"Thissss issssn't the lionesssss you were looking for," Kaa smugly declared to Adanna and Ebele upon putting them deep under his spell. "You musssst go back the way you came and completely forget that you had ever ssssaw anything here." He relished having control over two full grown lionesses and wished he had a big enough appetite for all three. "You never found Adongo nor any sssnakesss for that matter." They looked almost as cute as Kiara. "Do you underssstand?"

Adongo's heart sunk as she saw Adanna and Ebele nod mindlessly before turning around from the bush to walk back home, their dopey smiles never faltering. "Had they not've hesssitated," Kaa hissed maniacally, slowly turning his haughty gaze upon his prey, "they might've actually ressscued you." Adongo could only look on with a special kind of despair in her eyes as the serpent's head slowly descending towards her. "Fate truly hasssss dealt you a bad hand, hassssn't it?"

Adongo hacked a pathetic wheeze in an attempt to beg for mercy but found the strangulation sapping away her strength even further. She prayed that some sort of savior would rescue her but Kaa's sadistic smirk told her that her fate had been sealed. "Then again, you might not mind much becoming my meal," he hissed in her face. The way his tongue flicked at her added to her dread, knowing she was a morsel to him. "After all, you were ssssearching for your daughter."

Kaa took in the way Adongo's eyes shrunk slowly with a new wave of despair overcoming her. "Ressst asssure that I put her under my thrall to let her accccept her fate assss my midnight ssssnack," he gloated in her heartbroken face. "And what a ssssucculent ssssnack she wassss indeed." He tighten his grip around the mourning mother's chest to force air out through her coiled throat, making her wheeze painfully. "I can only hope her mother hasssss a more refined flavor."

The fact that her own flesh and blood had been eaten alive by the monster before her brought tears to Adongo's eyes in droves. All those times she left Zuri behind for the hunt flashed before her eyes. Times she'd never be able to make up for because she had allowed her little girl to become prey. She saw Kaa's maw widen before her eyes and realized that this was to be her penance. The lamenting lioness hoped to see her daughter soon as her head was swallowed.