Chapter 10: Watch The Queen Conquer

Kiara's rush of adrenaline could only push her body so much until she finally slowed to a near crawl, her chest heaving like she just ran an marathon. Her head hung like a fruit ripe enough to fall from the branches as she began to actually process what had just happened to her. The princess had been eaten. Gulped. Consumed. Swallowed alive like she was actual food. It was hard to believe that she would've been melted down to mush if not for a sudden bowel movement.

"Note to self," Kiara began to tell herself, "as far as anybody's concerned, I clawed my way out like a badass." She hoped that it would take the edge off but it still freaked her out how easily Kaa made a meal out of her. The helplessness of it all shook her to her core but what made it most upsetting was that she had been eaten alive by the one who made her feel... special. Her eyes shut to remember all of their time together and wished that this was all just her nightmares.

Kiara's eyes snapped back open upon hearing a sharp hissing noise from a distance behind her, sending her adrenaline into overdrive. She got her second wind while forcing herself past several trees with her body still barely able to keep from wobbling. She could collapse at any moment and be all too easy for Kaa to swallow back whole again. Ironically, it was this very threat of her imminent demise that was the only thing making her pained legs put one paw after the other.

"Perhapsssss you didn't get the messsssage, your highnesssss," Kaa's barely restrained voice called out from by a few feet away. "My ssstomach isss a tomb." Kiara's sharp hearing made it seem like he was right on top of her and had her push her body even further out of sheer fear. "To be ssssswallowed whole by me isssss a death sssssentancccce than nobody hasss ever onccce defied before." The princess had to hold her tongue from giving out any of her witty replies.

"Thisssss transssssgresssssion you dared to commit will cossssst you dearly," Kaa's voice continued, his hissing still sounded awfully nauseous. "For assss long assss I live, you will be nothing but a helpless prisoner within your own body." Kiara urged herself to ignore the serpent as she struggled on towards the open plains, no matter how gruesome his tone of voice was becoming. "My eyesss will put your very deep under my thrall yet delicately allow you some awarenesss."

Kiara couldn't help but remember every time Kaa's eyes instilled that happiness within her and feel her heart sink upon realizing what he had been doing. It was always his subtle little way of making her trust in him implicitly and mixed in a few words of encouragement that her own father never gave. The princess grit her teeth in order to fight back the tears but knowing that she had already been the snake's little toy was a tough pill for even a python to swallow whole.

"While your father gorgesssss on the Pride Landsssss like a hyena," Kiara heard Kaa monologue further to her anxiousness, "I'll make your perform for me like my own court jesssster for dancing, playing and ssssqueezzzzing mosssst essspecccially." She could see the trees becoming more sparse as the tall grass came into view. "I'll let you wake up in time to exxxperiencccce the full forcccce of my coilsss." The princess could hear her "old friend" becoming more unhinged.

"I can almosssst ssssee it now," Kaa called out, getting closer according to Kiara's sharp ears. "Barely gasssssping for air with a pathetic look in your eyesss all assss they bulge out, your life teetering on the edge of death itsssself." The princess tried her best to keep herself from visualizing the snake's sadistic fantasy. "Every sssssingle day will have you wissssshing that you allowed me to consssssume your body but I'll ssssssee to it that I rip that hope clean away from you."

Kiara scowled hard and shook her head in attempt to get her mind off of Kaa's declaration of revenge. She entered the Savannah and used her sharp sense of smell to pick up the musty scent of wet mud. Her body began to pick up speed as hope filled her heart and her veins. The princess knew that it was a long shot but also knew that she had to do what she could. Her family. Her subjects. All of the Pride Lands were depending on her to wake them up from their nightmare.

"Keep dreaming, you overgrown worm," Kiara declared viciously under her breath. "Your death will be all the better..."

---

Kaa slithered through the tall grass as he followed Kiara's vomit-tinged scent with the most deranged grin stretched across his face. "Now then," he hissed haughtily, knowing his little kitten could hear loud and clear, "what ssssort of derring-do will our plucky princcccessss pull to get out of thissss jam?" The python kept his spirits high by imagining the desperation his prey must be wracked with and the despair she'll face once he gets her. "Ssssurely, this can't be the end?"

Kaa couldn't help but feel a rush to it all. It had been the very first time that anybody had ever escaped his stomach after enduring his constriction. He was utter livid at the disgrace that Kiara had put him through yet also relished the thought of the retribution she'd be put through. The python almost felt like laughing at the crafty cub's delusions of control when he began to recognize his surroundings more. A musty sort of scent also graced his tongue soon enough.

"Ssssay now," Kaa hissed in genuine intrigued, "what have we here?" He soon slithered out of the tall grass to recognize the tree hanging over the quicksand pit and soon spotted Kiara with her hind legs on the edge, one step from the bog itself. "If you get any closer, I'll jump right in," Kiara declared vehemently. "I would rather die on my own terms than become your toy." The python pretended to be taken aback by Kiara glaring daggers right at him before smirking again.

"Would you now?" Kaa declared, slithering out of the tall grass. "No, I think you would prefer to be my toy." The colorful rings soon poured out of his eyes at full force with every intention of brainwashing Kiara permanently. "I believe that you ssssstill dessssire the validatiiiion your father denied you." The princess was quick to shut her eyes and turn her eyes away but her scaly adversary knew that she lost when she saw but a glimpse. "The validatiiiiion I rewarded you with."

Kiara tightly had her eyelids shut while getting ready to step back onto the quicksand. "I am the only one you can find true refuge in," Kaa hissed, his words sounding so... tempting. "The only one who can make you into the Queen you're desssstined to become." A mere glance at the radiant rainbow had awakened the princess's desire to see more of it, one he had conditioned her for. "N... no...," she uttered as her left eye slowly opened, her urges overwhelming any logic.

"That'sssss a good girl," Kaa sniggered condescendingly, his head looming over Kiara. "There'ssss no reasssson to give your life up when I can make it all feel better." The way she slowly moved her head towards him and opened her eyes bit by bit was simply sublime. "Let my eyessss wasssssh away your negativity," the snake declared, seeing his rainbow rings reflecting in the resisting princess's eyes already. "Let my voice ssssoothe your troubled ssssoul forever and ever."

Kiara's eyes slowly became magnetically drawn to Kaa's with her gritted teeth already loosening up. The radiant rings pulsated from her pupils as the princess could feel the snake's stare actually eroding her anger and slowly replacing it with a new sense of tranquility. She tried to cling to her rage but her expression softened into that of curiosity with her brows knit and her mouth agape. It felt so invasive and yet good. All she had to do was give in and never feel bad again.

"It'ssss sssso mucccch better to jusssst give in," Kaa advised with an almost maternal tone of voice, moving closer to Kiara's face. "To jussst ssssurrender after all of your hard battlessss." He was pleased to see that the princess was still hanging on to her anger in sheer futility. "All you musssst do issss... trussst in me and jussssst in me." The snake delighted in his little kitten's helpless expression too much to see her left paw unsheathing its claws until she raised it up and...

Simba struggled through the tall grass with an exhausted Nala on his back just when a bloodcurdling screech cried out. Neither the king nor queen could help feeling the shivers down their spine as their sharp hearing respectively recognized it as Kaa's. Simba made sure that Nala was holding on tight before running faster towards the source and exited the tall grass where the quicksand was but a few yards away. Neither one of them could believe what they were seeing.

Kaa cried out further as he could still feel the claws pierce his left eye and the pain of it all. His head flailed about as if trying to shake off that pain while Kiara takes in deep breaths to shake off the heavy hypnotic effects. She couldn't believe that she had that much willpower to lift a paw, let alone strike the python himself. The princess decided to take this opportunity to try her plan out despite her mind only semi-recovered and began going backwards onto the quicksand.

Witnessing Kiara step onto the unstable surface gave Nala a real fright despite being too weak to rise. Simba's own fears subsided as he began to piece together what his daughter was attempting and found himself holding himself back from interfering. It would be simple for him to rush in and push the python into the pit but seeing his little girl attempting this gambit after resisting the radient rainbow filled him with pride. He had to allow his successor to prove herself.

Blind with rage as well as a bloody eye, Kaa fiercely flickered his tongue to pick up on Kiara's scent as she backed away from him. "Firsssst, you essscape my ssssstomach," he declared with barely restrained anger, "and now you actually fight off my hypnossssissss." He slithered forward onto the quicksand without even taking the time to distribute his weight properly. "Let'sssss ssssee how you'll endure the full forcccce of my conssssstriction if you're feeling bold enough."

Kiara felt her left hind-paw start to sink below the surface to her dismay but was relieved to see Kaa head her way with reckless abandon. "I will enssssure you exxxxpire in the mosssst exxxxcruciating way imaginable," he vowed while ignoring the bulk of his body beginning to go under. "Your facccce will cry out for help like the bitch that you are but not even wheezzzzzesssss will esssscape your throttled throat." The princess waited for his head to get in range and dive down.

Kiara pounced up off of the quicksand with all of her might and landed upon Kaa's head with perfect timing. Her body managed to push his face into the bog as she raced across his bulky body and hoped over the more sunken parts in order to reach firm ground. The princess turned around in time to see Kaa yank his head out and turn his snarl towards his feline foe. He began to slither back towards her but felt the muck entrap him no matter how many times he tried to pull.

"No," Kaa quietly said in his distraught. He managed to look with his good eye and was distraught to find that his neck was slowly being dragged down by the quicksand. "Oh no no no." He looked up ahead to find the rest of his body becoming pulled into the pit and couldn't budge an inch on that end either. "Thissss cannot be happening!" At last, his good eye landed its sights on Kiara glowering straight at him with a pitiful yet angry glare. "You- you can't do thissss to me!"

"You did this to yourself," Kiara declared vehemently, strutting away from the other half of Kaa's body. "You turned your back upon the Circle of Life and gorged yourself on any creature whether you needed it or not." She held back the tears upon recalling some of the fun times she actually had with the python. "You made me into some tool for your cruelest revenge." She gritted her teeth as the tears soaked into her fur. "This is the least of what you deserve, you monster!"

"No-," Kaa began to scream out before the quicksand fully engulfed his head before he knew it. Kiara looked on as bubbles rose up from where the one mighty terror was loosing air by the minute. Suffocated not unlike how he subdued his prey. Part of her felt relieved that the terror was over and that she managed to topple her manipulator yet... another part of her felt heartbroken to lose him again. Tears continued to flow as she sat down and hung her head as if mourning.

Kiara felt a strange sense of solemnness upon watching Kaa's tail become sucked down into the quicksand. Memories of all the fun she had with Kaa replayed in her mind as she closed her eyes. Despite seeing his true colors, the princess remembered how he was the first to treat her far less like a helpless little thing and more like a father figure that she could've truly confide in. She couldn't shake it off and began to tear up. It felt like her BFF was vanishing before her eyes.

"Swallowed whole and suffocated slowly," Simba's voice rang out rather happily, getting Kiara's attention. "If that's not karma, then I don't know what is." The princess turned around to find her father walking towards her with a rather proud grin. "That strategy honestly had me smiling the whole time." She couldn't help but smile back at the words of praise that the king had long denied her. "I always saw you as something to protect but you just defeated THE Kaa himself."

Kiara's slight smile sank when she remembered Kaa. "Maybe... you were right to keep me safe... from him," she lamented, her head sinking in shame. "He really made me think that I was ready to be Queen but I was the perfect stooge for him." She clenched her teeth to keep from really sobbing. "If I didn't get lucky, he would've killed Mom and made you into a monster." The princess finally broke down in tears that soaked her fur. "I should've stayed at Pride Rock like you said."

Simba sighed compassionately as Kiara's anguish felt all too familiar. "Kaa was able to get to you because I tried to keep you safe," he admitted, lifting his own daughter's head up with his right paw. "I should've been teaching you to hunt properly and to delegate but I let my fear of him play into his coily grip." The king wiped her tears away gently as her highness looked surprised by her father's empathy. "I provoked you into rebelling and gave him the hold that he'd needed."

Kiara began to remember Kaa's fixation on Simba in particular and soon widened her eyes in relaxation. "He... got to you too, didn't he?" Her father's sudden heartbroken expression was all the response that she needed. "He put me deep under after I... lost somebody," he lamented, closing his eyes in deep thought. "Nala soon got through to me but I can never ever forget..." He opened his eyes to look at his daughter. "I often question if I'm even actually fit for the throne."

"How did you get through it?" Kiara reluctantly asked, hoping for a solution. "I'm still doing my very best to get by," Simba answered honestly. "I can't say that there's a quick fix to this horrible experience but... Nala and I will be here for you to help." He reached out with his right paw and began to ruffle some of his daughter's fur to her bemusement. "You managed to survive Kaa's wrath just as I did." The princess soon began to smile back at him. "You'll be a great Queen."

Kiara looked back at Simba's proud expression with her heart filling up with that warm feeling Kaa had gave her. Except this wasn't some sort of slick tongued manipulation. Her father was speaking from the bottom of his heart. The princess teared up once again but out of sheer happiness and moved up towards the king. He was surprised by the way she nuzzled her head affectionately against his mane but soon smiled back and put his paws around his daughter in return.

"Wait until Zazu hears about this," Simba chuckled to lighten the mood, unaware of Kiara's eye snapping open in dread. "For your sake, I'll leave out the more, erm, gassy bits." He found himself surprised when his daughter slipped herself out of his hug. The princess backed away from her father with the anxious sort of expression every cub made when they knew they were in trouble. "Yeah, um... funny thing about Zazu..." she began before putting on the most forced grin.

Simba could only sigh like the beleaguered father he was, sympathizing with his own parents even further...