Private [DGF and Noah]

[DGFone]

Nala found herself intrigued by these two lions. They seemed so out of place, it was obvious that they were not from here. It was immediately noticeable at how bad even their basic survival skills were, and half the words they used, she couldn't understand. "So what's ... India like?" She asked, hoping that she said the name correctly.

Delano walked next to Nahaai, preferring to stay close to his friend. "Well, we're from a zoo. So we were enclosed in a building all the time, much like that," he pointed at Priderock, "And didn't really see much as far as what was around us..." he trailed off, trying to describe his home, and at the same time, starting to suffer some homesickness. "We were surrounded by humans all the time. They are some crazy animals, those humans... can be quite funny as well. To pass the time we would listen into the conversations human would have. You can learn a lot from them..."

He continued to chatter on about his home, eager to release tension that had built up inside of him ever since he realized that he didn't know where he was.

[Noah]

Time after time, Delano kept using the word 'human' to describe their backgrounds. He would never have dreamed that absolutely no one in the Pride Lands ever saw a human, much less knew of their existence.

Simba thought that 'human' was a type of animal, and that perhaps everyone around here called it by a different name. He had been to every part of the Pride Lands numerous times and even journeyed to places outside their borders to meet with Kings or other heads of state. During those trips, he learned about every type of beast, bird, and plant there was. Humans were never mentioned in any shape or form. He spoke up "Can you describe a human for us?".

Unlike his best traveling companion, Nahaai began to suspect that they had never seen a human before, which caused his stomach to sink. He began to weigh some possible alternatives: Maybe these lions were reclusive or simply joking with them, but Nahaai prided himself on being a good judge of character and could tell deep down that these strangers were neither of them. They had truly never seen one before. "Well, they're tall and walk upright".

"Ahh. You mean a giraffe." He said, confident that he had solving their little guessing game. "No, humans walk on two legs" Puzzled, Simba began to think of other animals to guess. "Are they some sort of monkey?" he inquired. "No." Nahaai answered. Both Simba and Nala racked their brains to discover this creature's identity. They both slowly realized that they had never seen one before. For the first time, all four of the felines felt uneasy.

[DGFone]

Delano also realized that neither Simba nor Nala knew about humans. "Well, they are somewhat like monkeys," he said, correcting Nahaai, "but very different." He proceeded to try and best describe what humans are like, but wasn't sure that he was able to say anything properly. Simba and Nala looked as clueless when he finished as when he started his description. "never mind," he said, giving up. "They're... humans."

Nala shook her head, unable to picture a human in her mind. What she did get is that both Delano and Nahaai were on the crazier side. They walked somewhat outside of the Pridelands, something that made her slightly uneasy, when she saw that the savanna looked different. Two stripes of crushed grass flowed though it, as though a herd of elephants passed by. But elephants never walked in pairs like that. "Hey, this looks strange," she said, motioning at the grass. "Might this be where you two woke up?" She asked Delano and Nahaai.

"What?" Delano asked, caught off guard by the question. "Oh, well..." He looked around, but wasn't sure. The area surrounding them looked like that where they woke up, but it looked the same for the past hour as they walked. "I can't really tell," he finally said, trying to hide the fact that he was starting to feel increasingly lost.

[Noah]

Simba leaned down to examine the trail. "I think I have seen something like this before" He recalled having seen Rafiki rolling a rock and it leaving a similiar inprint. He quickly strained his neck to search for any sign of a boulder but found none. "You don't suppose Rafiki could have been out here. His tree is on the opposite end of the savannah." Nala shrugged, it seemed farfetched for him to journey this far, but she couldn't put anything past that little devil.

"I think we ought to keep going. We should find out what exactly left these strange markings."

Nala was about to agree when her extra sensitive hearing picked up Delano's stomach rumbling. Her maternal instincts couldn't let a helpless lion go hungry, regardless of their age. She voiced her concerns about Simba's earlier offer of a hot meal.

[DGFone]

Nala heard Delano's stomach rumble, and stopped walking. "You can find where these tracks come from, Simba," she said, with a hint of amusement in her voice, "I will get these two some food. They don't sound like they can keep going for much longer." Delano and Nahaai both looked embarrassed at this, Delano even more so.

He tried to ignore his hunger, but when his stomach rumbled loudly, Delano couldn't leave it for later. Nala was right. He was extremely hungry, and he suspected that Nahaai was as well. "You can go on," he told Simba, "I think that I'll wait here," he said. His hunger was also making him tired, not to mention that still without water, the heat was making him dizzy.

Nala was able to tell that neither Delano nor Nahaai were fairing well. "I think you should go to the waterhole. It's not to far from here, and it has shade." She turned to Simba. "You better lead them there. Just wait for me until I will bring something."

[Noah]

Simba began to wonder whether Nala was taking him seriously. She has never had to deal with matters of invasion before. He had once been to a dictator-like pride which came about when two roughs ran off their leader. He prayed to the Great Kings of the Past that something like that would never happen in the Pridelands. "Very well then. Come along." Simba managed to keep his cool.

Nala took off to find food while Simba led the two to the watering hole. They arrived just in time to see Mufasa and Zazu walking in the opposite direction back towards his cave at Pride Rock. Delano could have swore he saw Zazu give him an nasty look.

They ran over to the water and immediately began to drink. "By the way" Nahaai managed into between gulps of water. "How long will be able to stay?" Simba responded with a slight grin at seeing the two grown males drinking as they were. "Three days, three nights". Both Delano and Nahaai knew that Simba was being overly hospitible to them, so they didn't push the issue.

[DGFone]

Delano was grateful for the time that was allotted for them, but he didn't want to stay here anyways. Living in a zoo was the only life he knew, and therefore he was desperate to get back there. So he was going to use the time to find out where the nearest humans were.

But at this moment, he was grateful for the water that Simba lead them to. It tasted completely different than water that he was used to, but Delano didn't care. Water is water, and right now, it was the best thing in the world.

But even with Simba and Nala helping them, Delano couldn't help but feel that he and Nahaai were unwelcome here. "Do you always act like this with strangers?" Delano asked before he can stop himself, "All alert, like we might be dangerous or something?" The look that Simba gave him then caused him to shrink back with fear.

[Noah]

Nahaai quickly stepped in to ratify the situation. "What he means is, have you encounted dangerous threats before". Simba's mood changed from anger to a slight sense of embarrassment, almost as if he were reminiscing about a past failure. "Not really. Hey! You both seem very bad at hunting." He said trying to change the situation. "If you stay the night, I might be able to show you a thing or two."

"I'd like that." Nahaai knew they would at least spend one night. Being out in the wilderness opened up a new plethora of emotions that he never knew existed. Suddenly the metal bars of the zoo seemed cramped and unnatural. The curious cat was also anxious to meet other lions. Up until an hour ago, he had only met one, but now he had met three with even more waiting at Pride Rock. Before he got ahead of himself, he glanced over at Delano and said "We can stay at least one night, right Delano?". Delano didn't exactly feel one hundred percent welcome here, but nodded in agreement.

Suddenly two pink flamingos flew in on far side of the watering hole. "Excuse me for a minute." Simba walked over to the pair. After he taken a few steps away Nahaai turned to his companion. "What is wrong with you?" Nahaai angrily whispered to Delano. The still fear-stricken male gave Nahaai a look that he knew meant "I wasn't thinking properly". Nahaai responded by saying "I know you want to leave, but it would be best to wait until the tomorrow. Don't you think?"

[DGFone]

Delano knew that it would be a bad idea to argue with Nahaai. His friend seemed to know what he was doing, and Delano trusted him. So despite wanting to desperately get back to humanity, Delano had no choice but to trust Nahaai for now. But this didn't prevent him from arguing back. "But we are not welcome here. Can't you see that? They want us gone."

It wasn't exactly true. Simba had already offered to teach them some hunting, but Delano wanted out. "Besides, they only gave us three days. And I think that they will be happier if we left sooner." He was about to say something else, but Simba came back, and Delano closed his mouth.

[Noah]

"Just needed to check on something." Simba had asked the flamingo couple on the whereabouts of Rafiki and had been informed he had sustained a minor back injury a couple of days prior. Since the trail was fresh, it could not have been made by him moving any sort of rock. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his mate carrying something in her mouth

Nahaai and Delano turned around just in time to see Nala lay some meat at their feet, which they both wasted no time devouring. Simba asked "Did you talk to the hunting party about getting some extra meat for lunch?" Nala smiled and nodded at first, but once she determined that neither of their guests were looking at her, she mouthed words that indicated her and Simba needed to talk.

Simba was unsure when the best time would be. He obviously couldn't just leave them by themselves. Not only would that be rude, but they would know he and Nala were discussing them, regardless of what Nala what to discuss. He wanted the guests to feel at home. Although literally everyone was uneasy about the arrivals, Simba wanted them to be treated both fairly and comfortably. Beneath his regal exterior, he was excited to meet these new people. He hadn't been to visit a neighboring pride in quite sometime and talking to same lionesses on a daily basis can get repetitive quite fast. He proceeded to mouth the words "Later."