Nala's heart sank when she saw Simba leap off of the end of the branch towards a lower one down the tree. Even suffering the purple python's stranglehold, she couldn't help but feel confusion over what she had witnessed. The former prince of the Pride Lands had seen that she was in danger before his eyes. He was visibly appalled and hesitant. The lioness cub wheezed in denial. There was no way that he would abandon her so easily. He would always protect her...

Right?

"Ssssseemsssss I wasssss a touch too noissssy," the python python hissed indignantly upon looking back to discover Simba's escape. "I had really wanted to tasssste two lion cubsssss for the pricccce of one." He turned back to Nala and couldn't stay mad looking at the purple hue her face was giving off. Her eyes were practically bloodshot with both lids drooping with her strength. "Of coursssse, I can't really ssssay that I blame him for being ssssenssssible at leassst..."

Nala felt the purple python's smirk rub salt in her wounded heart as her distraught was all too apparent even in her current condition. "I sssssee now," he hissed haughtily, never missing an opportunity to mock his victims. "You were praying for little Prince Charming to russsssh in and sssssave your life without fear." Tears began to well up in the lioness cub's eyes much to the sadistic serpent's further delight. "A dassssshing hero coming to help a young damssssel."

"URK!"

Nala desperately wanted to sob her eyes out but felt the purple python tighten his grip to cut her off. "I'm afraid that the Jungle hasssss no placcccce for ssssuch heroicsssss," he taunted, savoring the lioness's despair. "You'd only drag him down in thisssss cutthroat world." The coiled up cub felt all hope drain from her soul when the sadistic serpent began to widen his maw before her very eyes. "Becoming my nourissssshment will be for the besssst if you love him."

Nala could only look on in horror as the purple python's mouth engulfed her face within a second. She could feel the coils loosening up around her so the snake could consume even more of her body by starting with the rest of her head. The sticky salivating fluids soaked her fur while the throat's muscles worked to slowly pull her into the sadistic serpent's innards. Whatever air the cub could take in was all rank and foul but it was more than enough to cry out in her panic...

The purple python delighted in Nala's muffled screams from within him as he traveled down past her shoulder, savoring her flavor and suffering. His lower jaw pinned the cub's forearms to her chest as he swallowed her out of her coils like she were a banana from a peel. He clamped down hard so as to lift her lower half straight out of his scaly cocoon and found her hind legs wriggling all about in a vain attempt at escaping. Her screams for, "SIMBA!" were the cherry on top.

The purple python swallowed slowly to gradually slurp up Nala like the world's largest noodle and reached her butt where her tail swished wildly. Sure enough, her legs became pinned together despite their best efforts against his esophagus. Her thighs slid past his gullet before her paws were both left noth on display along with her bushy tail tip. The sadistic serpent felt the cub's sobbing grow into bawling just as the last of her disappeared into his throat, his mouth closing...

The purple python looked back to smile at the wriggling bulge that contained a frantic Nala slowly traveling down to his stomach. "You've done your beloved ssssomething usssseful for onccccce," he gloated, still enjoying the taste lingering in his mouth. "By now, he'sssss likely far away after offering you up on a ssssilver platter." His mouth salivated at the thought of a second course. "I jusssst know hunting him down will make him tassssste far more deliccccciousssss."

---

"Simba..." Nala choked out as her crying settled along with her hopelessness. From the coils to the purple python's throat, she had been exchanged from one prison to another. The lioness cub could barely budge an inch as the snake's esophagus pulled her down towards his guts slowly but surely. It became all too much to deny that this had become her fate. That she would die young in the most gruesome way possible. That Simba had left her to endure such huge agony.

"Why?" Nala constantly asked even as she slipped slowly into the stomach...

---

Simba could hardly hold back the tears as he raced further past the trees and refused to so much as glance back. He kept telling himself that it was better this way. The lion cub had failed to keep her from becoming plant food so what good was he to stop a python? Despite his mind's rationale, the image of his crush being crushed lingered in his mind. Her purple-hue face with those bloodshot eyes begging him for help. The lioness cub needed him to do something. Anything.

"Why...?" Simba constantly asked, the tears soaked his furry face.