The Lion King - Untold 2

Creepy Little Monkey

Simba

"Isn't this a great place?" I ask Nala as we're walking along a large log.

"It is beautiful.... But I don't understand something. You've been alive all this time.
Why didn't you come back to Pride Rock?" She questions.

I climb onto a hammock of hanging vines while I try to think of a reasonable answer, that won't make her hate me. "Well, I just ... needed to get out on my own. Live my own life. And I did. And it's great!" I say, not only trying to convince her, but myself too.

"We've really needed you at home." Nala says in a shaky voice.

"No one needs me." I say in a quieter tone of voice.

"Yes we do! You're the king!" She states.

"Nala, we've been through this. I'm not the king... Scar is." I reason.

"Simba, he let the hyenas take over the Pride Lands." She tells me.

"What?" I ask in shock.

"Everything's destroyed. There's no food, no water. Simba, if you don't do something soon, everyone will starve." She says, and it makes me feel terrible inside because while she's been going through all of this back at home, I've been lounging around, doing nothing to help. But I don't think I'll ever be able to go home and face my past.

"I can't go back." I tell her.

"Why?" She asks in a louder tone of voice than before.

"You wouldn't understand." I say.

"What wouldn't I understand?" Nala asks.

"No-no-no. It doesn't matter. Hakuna Matata." I say hastily.

Nala looks at me with a confused expression on her face. "What?"

"Hakuna Matata. It's something I learned out here. Look, sometimes bad things happen..."

"Simba!" She cuts off my last sentence, I guess because she knew where I was coming from with this topic.

"--and there's nothing you can do about it! So why worry?" I continue, now irritated.

I start to walk away, but she trots after me, obviously not ready to finish this conversation.

"Because it's your responsibility!" She answers, now yelling.

"Well, what about you? you left." I comment.

"I left to find help! And I found you. Don't you understand? You're our only hope."

"Sorry." I say quickly and almost carelessly. But I do care.

"What's happened to you? You're not the Simba I remember." She says angrily.

"You're right, I'm not. Now are you satisfied?" I ask.

"No, just disappointed." She answers.

"You know, you're starting to sound like my father." I start walking away again.

"Good. At least one of us does." She comments.

I feel a pang if guilt when she mentions my father. I turn around, frustrated. "Listen! You think you can just show up and tell me how to live my life? You don't even know what I've been through!"

"I would if you'd just tell me!" She pleads while shouting.

"Forget it!" I shout and walk past some bushes into an open grass area.

"Fine!" Nala shouts back.

I then run further into the grass.

"She's wrong. I can't go back. What would it prove, anyway? It won't change anything. You can't change the past." I say to myself while pacing in the grass.

I look up at the stars.
"You said you'd always be there for me!... But you're not. And it's because of me. It's my fault.... It's my ... fault."
I bow my head, choking back tears.

​"Asante sana!​
​Squash Banana!​
​We we nugu!​
​Mi mi apana!​" I listen to and look up at a nearby tree to find a mandrill who is chanting.

I begin to become slightly annoyed by the chant and start walking away. I lay down on a log over a pond. When I finally think I have found some peace and quiet, a rock disturbs the water. The monkey starts his chant again.

Will this crazy mandrill ever stop? "Come on, will you cut it out?" I ask.

He's laughing, and is doing random acrobatics in the trees nearby. "Can't cut it out. It'll grow right back!" He laughs.

I start walking away, and once again the monkey follows. "Creepy little monkey. Will you stop following me? Who are you?" I ask.

"The question is: whooo... are you?" He asks, now right in my face and somehow his head is turned upside down.

I get a little startled, then sigh. "I thought I knew.... Now I'm not so sure."

"Well, I know who you are. Shh. Come here. It's a secret." He pulls my head over to whisper into my ear. He starts his chant into my ear and laughs.
​"Asante sana!
​Squash banana!
​We we nugu!
​Mi mi apana!"

"Ugh! Enough already! ...What's that supposed to mean anyway?"

"It means you are a baboon-- and I'm not." He laughs.

I begin to move away. "I think... you're a little confused."

The monkey magically is in front of me...again. "Wrong! I'm not the one who's confused; you don't even know who you are!"

"Oh, and I suppose you know." I say irritated and sarcastic.

"Sure do; You're Mufasa's boy!"

I snap my head in his direction and gasp, surprised by his revelation. How does he know who I am, better yet, how does he even know who my father is?

"Bye!" The monkey says before disappearing.