Chapter 6: Simba's Second Chance

The purple python struggled to keep his left eye open after it hit the branch hard while enduring the sharp slashing to his right cheek. He looked back down where he found Simba glaring back up at him with the special kind of moxie a lion cub would only dare to exhibit. The seething serpent mentally kicked himself for being so cause up in Nala's torture that he never even paid attention to the former prince of the Pride Lands. A mistake he would fix as he slithered down...

Simba couldn't actually believe what he had done himself. The cub'd been this close to leaping down the tree and allowing Nala to become the purple python's midnight snack. Yet just as he was about to jump down to the lower branch, some kind of force from within caused him to bolt forward and slash the serpent in the jaw. He couldn't explain it. It just felt right. Even if he couldn't protect Nala, the former prince of the Pride Lands knew of once way to help her out of danger.

"Not gonna lie, kid," the purple python hissed with tempered fury, "part of me issss quite impressssssed by the ballsssss on you." He lowered his head down just before Nala and looked the scowling Simba straight in the eye, their faces a mere two feet from each other. "I've known adult predatorssss who would look out for number one when it came down to it." His tongue flicked out to pick up on Simba's anxieties on his scent. "Thisssss little wench musssst be sssspeccial."

Simba steeled himself further to not let his inner fear show upon his seering scowl while taking a step back slowly. "Yesssss, I've met your kind before too often," the purple python taunted while slowly moving his haughty expression closer. "The lovessssssick young boy who musssterssss up enough courage to ssssave the damsssel in disssstressss." Simba continued to move backwards with a hard swallow across the branch with the snake following. Just as hoped...

"Unfortunately, you all ssssseem to underesssstimate the conssssquencccccessss of your actionssss," the purple python hissed with an very condescending tone. Simba was tempted to banter back just when his right hind paw stepped off the branch by accident in his shock. "The heat of the moment hasssss passssed but you've only made it worssse for yourssself if anything." He regained his footing within the second and realized he reached the end of the branch.

Nala's fatigue gave way to dread as she saw Simba just barely keeping himself from falling off the branch with the purple python all up in his face. Even in her worn out state, the lioness cub could put two and two together much to her horror. The former prince of the Pride Lands planned to keep the snake busy while she escaped from his coils and got down the tree, leaving her friend for food. The female feline couldn't decide to be heartbroken or touched by such a sacrifice.

"It would've been ssssso ssssimple to jusssst leap off the branch," the purple python spat at Simba in an almost disdainful manner. "I would've been too dissssstracted playing with my food to realizzzzze my sssssecond courssssse had flown the coup." He could tell that the lion cub's strong expression hid the true terror that his heart was experiencing, looking down as such an act. "I all but handed you an esssscape on a ssssilver platter asss the humansssss put it."

Simba took a deep breath through his nose as he kept the purple python from getting under his skin. "Now your optionssss will be how you choosssse to die," the sadistic serpent sneered like a disapproving parent. "Either you fall towardsssss your death and hopefully go out in an inssssstant or I digest you slowly in my sssstomach." The memory of his father falling to the ground managed to shake up his strong facade no matter how hard he tried. "The choice isss your'sss."

All Simba could do at that moment was lower his gaze with a shameful expression to concede defeat without words. He could only pray that allowing himself to be swallowed whole would give Nala the time to climb down the tree to safety. This was what the lion cub felt he deserved, what was the only way to atone for the suffering he had caused to both his love and his family. To become nourishment for a superior predator was the disgraceful demise befitting of his misdeeds.

"For oncccce, you've made the right deccccissssion," the purple python hissed with a smirk, relishing in his prey's crushed spirits. "You bleeding heart-typesss do make for good appetizzzerssss if nothing else." He widened his maw out wide and positioned himself to start with Simba's head, planning to slurp him up like water from a stream. He could almost feel the young lion cub wriggling in his guts, begging to be spared from his slow and painful death. How he couldn't wait...

Nala slowly slipped her hind legs out of the coils ever so delicately to not fully alert the purple python, still shaken over how death nearly got her a third time. She almost couldn't breath again upon seeing Simba lowering his head in surrender while the scaly scoundrel widened his maw. However, glimpsing upon the bulk of coils that had her in a choke-hold gave her an idea. The lioness cub wasted no time in ramming her body against them, shoving it down the tree quickly.

The purple python was but an inch from Simba's head before his head was yanked away from his meal and into the trees. Too many branches to count smacked him around before he finally dropped down past Nala like a rock. His whole body sprawled across the Jungle floor like too much toothpaste in one squeeze. The sadistic serpent would've muttered a clever quip or two over this if the impact hadn't knocked him out cold. Far too gone to feel his huge humiliation fortunately.

Simba kept his eyes closed in accepting his fate and joining his father in the Circle of Life itself before hearing Nala's all too familiar laughter. He lifted up his head to find the purple python had vanished and that the lioness cub was out of the coils miraculously. She was clenching her belly in laughing over something down on the Jungle floor and led him to find the sadistic serpent sprawled every which way below. All his highness could do was walk up the branch in disbelief.

"How's this for 'degrading,' worm?" Nala sassed before turning around to brassily fart in the purple python's general direction. She crudely continued to chuckle at her own joke before noticing Simba coming her way, looking as though he's seen a ghost. The lioness cub ceased her laughter upon looking at how utterly overwhelmed his highness must be after believe he was about to be swallowed whole. Just thinking about his near sacrifice was overwhelming. In a good way.

"Nala..." Simba managed to utter, "you..." However, he was completely lost on what to say or even how to feel about all this. "It's just..." The former prince of the Pride Lands had been ready to die for his love. In fact... he actually felt that he had to for the grief he had caused. Yet it was as if fate itself was willing to pardon his sins by way of Nala saving him for once. "I..." Before he could fully process his mixed feelings, the lioness cub came on up and locked lips with him.

It was only a few seconds but they felt like an eternity of pure bliss to Simba as he closed his eyes and let it happen. Their lips parted as they looked into their eyes and saw the unfiltered love that one had for the other. They had no words to say to each other yet knew exactly what the other was thinking. The former prince of the Pride Lands felt his heart soar to height he had never known even before his father's accident. He shared his warmest smile with Nala at long last.

"Let me stay with you," Nala pleaded with a hopeful look in her eye, taking Simba aback. "It's sweet that you want what's best for me but..." She paused with a swallow and a slight frown. "...I could never go back to Pride Rock knowing you're braving the Jungle all on your own." The lioness cub could see her best friend's expression as bewildered for lack of a better term. "Even if I'm a magnet for trouble, you'll always have my back." His bewilderment shifted to sorrow.

"Will I though?" Simba genuinely asked with a mix of curiosity and self-doubt. "You wouldn't have nearly died in the wasteland if I didn't drag you into this." He lowered his gaze in shame. "That plant nearly made mulch out of you and wouldn't let me save you." His Highness gulped hard as he recalled his lowest point just minutes ago. "I saw you coiled up and... froze... while you suffered..." Tears began to form in his eyes when Nala nuzzled up to his face to his big surprise.

"And yet here I am," Nala happily responded, purring with all her affection, "safe and sound because you saved me against all odds." She backed away to see that bewilderment had returned to Simba's face. "When you got between me and Shenzi back at the Elephant Graveyard, I couldn't help but think you were so... cool." Her mind's own recollection of such a memories brightened her smile without fail. "And when you smacked that snake away, I knew I was in love..."

Simba kept silent for a few seconds in his surprise before finally finding the words to say. "I realized something too when I saw you suffering," he began with a more stronger tone of voice. "I wouldn't last one day out here without you." Nala's blush of surprise was a real treat. "You're a tomboy through and through but at the end of the day, you're the kind of girl that makes every day a bit brighter." A genuine smile returned to his face at long last, his real feeling laid bare.

"Guess Zazu knew what he was talking about, huh?" Nala sassed back with her smile mere inches from Simba's own. "Let's be outcast's together, shall we?"