The Lion King

Chapter 5 - The Elephant Graveyard

Chapter 5

He was more than a prince; he was a genius.

Simba felt himself doubling over with laughter as he and Nala raced away from the scene of the tower, where animals were still stumbling around in confusion, clouds of dust rising into the thick savanna air. As for Zazu, he was nowhere to be seen.

"All right, it worked!" Simba came to a shuddering halt in the sand, panting for breath. His eyes shone with glee despite his heaving sides, and his grin stretched wide as a crescent moon as Nala slowed beside him, gulping for breath herself.

"We lost him," she got out through ragged gasps.

Simba watched her with the same impish look on his face, his smile stretching ever wider.

"I am a genius," he proclaimed, and, to his delight, she stiffened.

"Hey, genius, it was my idea!" she retorted, scowling.

"Yeah, but I pulled it off," Simba shot back and let his white-toothed smirk show.

"With me!" Nala snapped back playfully, finally realizing that it was a joke, and Simba bunched his muscles together, challenging, "Oh, yeah?"

Suddenly, he leaped.

"Rawr!"

Laughter echoed across the plains as the two cubs scuffled in the dirt, dried plants crunching beneath their clumsy paws. For a brief moment, Simba thought that he had the upper paw. Then he felt her tiny pointed claws in his flank, and he was being flipped into the dirt. As he landed flat on his back, stunned, Nala's dainty paws landed squarely on his chest.

"Pinned ya!" she giggled into his face, and Simba felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment.

"Hey, let me up!" he pouted.

Nala complied but not without a smirk. As she turned away from him, chin to the sky, eyes shining, he crouched down in the dirt and waggled his haunches.

"Rawr!"

More laughter, and they were rolling, rolling, rolling down a steep embankment, dust springing up to meet the stale air. Nala's gleeful shrieks were in Simba's ears as he fell, and the world spun around him. Head over paws, paws over head. They landed in a heap in the gray dust, and it took a moment for Simba's head to clear. When he could finally make out the world once more, Nala's fluffy face grinned down at him.

"Pinned ya again," she cooed.

WHOOSH!

Simba's heart leaped into his throat, and he stumbled away from Nala, ears flat against his head. The geyser was still steaming when the smoke cleared, and the cub's eyes moved past it to the endless gray landscape that stretched out before him. Slowly, tentatively, he took a step closer.

"This is it," he whispered, the fur on his neck falling flat. Then with more certainty, "We made it!"

The two tiptoed around the still-seeping geyser, as if it would blow its top again, and began to climb a gently rising slope. The dust grew more thickly here, and Simba had to shake out his paws every few seconds to free himself of it, wrinkling his nose at its pungent smell. Through the fog, an enormous shape was gradually taking form in the shadows. A round flat head, long tusks, bulging eye sockets . . . it was an elephant skull.

Simba boldly padded up to the edge of the tusk, his eyes sweeping up, up, up into the hollow face of the dead elephant. Nala, forever loyal, meekly followed after him, eyes darting all around as they approached the enormous skull. As one, the cubs jumped up on the tusk and looked out over the land beyond.