The Lion King Novel

Elephant Graveyard

The four cubs made sure they were away from the watering hole. Wherever they were, Zazu was sure not to follow them now. So they took a break, trying to get their breath back.

"All right! We lost him!" Nala panted. She had never done anything this exciting before in her life.

"I know what you're going to say," Simba gloated, his chest puffed out. "I am a genius, right?"

Amaria glared indignantly at him. "Hey, genius, it was Nala idea."

"Why yes thank you Amaria."

"Yeah, but we pulled it off."

"With us!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah! We wouldn't get this far if it wasn't for your future queen," Nala retorted. She had been as shocked as Simba when Zazu said that they were betrothed, but the thought of being a queen really did sound interesting to her.

Simba snorted and waved a paw dismissively. "Aren't you forgetting something? There's not gonna be a future queen."

Nala's earlier thoughts of marriage vanished. If she was going to marry him, then she wouldn't want to be queen. "Fine by me," she retorted. "I'd rather marry an aardvark anyway."

"Good luck finding one that'll say yes," Simba said smugly.

Nala knew where this was getting to. They usually had friendly arguments that would lead up to taunting and then to wrestling. She decided to teach Simba a little lesson: he was the future king, but he wasn't a king yet. She would remind him of that.

Eyes narrowing, Nala dropped into a crouch. "Good luck getting out of here without a scratch."

"Bring it on," Simba responded, crouching as well.

The two ran at each other, wrestling and trying to pin each other to the ground. Play was an important part of a young cub's life. It could teach them social skills or even how to hunt. In the end, Nala managed to pin Simba, who had been going for strength rather than wits.

"Pinned ya." Nala smiled at the indignant look on Simba's face. "You owe me an apology."

"Hey, lemme up!" Simba whined.

Nala got off of him, satisfied. Simba glared at her before a smirk came over his face, finding a way to pay her back.

Kio and Amaria just looked at them, they didn't have that kind of friendship but would rather just have a conversation, yeah they would pounce on each other from time to time but they at least weren't like these two.

"Do you always have to fight just to prove a point" Kio said as Nala and Simba keep pouncing.

"I wouldn't call it pouncing more like seeing Nala win always' Amaria joked.

'Hey!" Simba protested by Amaria comment. He then got an idea.

So once Nala wasn't paying attention, Simba pounced again. The two tumbled and wrestled in their second round, this time rolling down a hill. But once they reached the bottom, Simba was expecting to pin her this time.