The Longest Journey

[DGFone]

Nala watched in interest as Simba lay down, almost pushing her out of the way. If Simba was going to invade her space, then so be it. Nala lay down on top of her best friend, finding the perfect spot to lie between his body and the seats. Snugging up against Simba, his gentle breathing dulled Nala, and she closed her eyes, wondering what this adventure will bring to the two of them. "Hey, Simba, I'm wondering," she said sleepily, "do you really think we're going to the moon?"

[Regulus]

"Well, I don't know," Simba answered. He wanted to say yes, but the fact that Nala was skeptical made him reconsider. "I mean, sure we are... why wouldn't we be?" He began to wonder what would really be going on. The idea of intensive training before going to the moon seemed a bit suspicious to him.

[DGFone]

Nala didn't really listen to Simba's answer, having gone too far to sleep to care about what he said. She instead made some small noise to tell him that she wasn't paying any attention anymore before allowing herself the luxury of falling unconscious.

Dan drove the car for a few more hours until he finally reached his destination. They hadn't reached the airport yet, but he was already told that whoever he would bring, they will need to pass security like any other human. But as Simba and Nala didn't even have anything like that, Dan wanted them to know what they would soon be dealing with.

He stopped the car on the outskirts of the city and looked behind him at the two sleeping lions. "Hey, come on, Simba, Nala, wake up..." Hesitantly, he reached out to prod them awake, and hoped that they won't bite his arm off for doing so. "Come on, there's some stuff you need to know about..."

[Regulus]

"What? I'm awake," Simba mumbled. Though he hadn't actually been sleeping, he was still very tired. He intentionally moved over a bit, attempting to wake Nala up. He looked out the window to find the dirt and trees of his homeland gone, and replaced with concrete slabs and structures. "What's going on? Where are we?" His stomach began to feel heavy as he came to the realization that everything he once knew would be gone. However, he did remember one thing; Dan said they would be flying across the world. From this, he concluded that they still had far to go.

[DGFone]

Dan grinned slightly at Simba's confusion. "Relax, we're next to a city," he said, "where lots of humans live. I just need to tell you and Nala something."

In the meantime, Nala, who really did fall sleep, groaned when Simba began to move next to her. "Alright, I'm up..." she mumbled, "what?" She looked out the clear windows and saw that they weren't moving. She looked at Simba and then at Dan. "Where are we?"

Dan nodded when he was certain that he had both Simba's and Nala's attention. "Alright you two, listen up," He placed a small map of the world in front of them. "Right now, we are here, and very soon we're going to fly out to here-" he pointed at Florida, "and that means that we're going to leave this country. The thing you need to know is that for us humans, we have procedures that allow us to keep track of one another when we leave to other places. Such as me coming here to get you two." He waited to make sure that they both looked like they understood what he said.

"As of now, even though your not, you will be treated as humans. We will need to track you two, which means that you will need to follow these same procedures. Which means..." He reached into his pocket and took out his passport. "We will need to create one of these for you. We will do so very soon, at the same place that we will fly out. There will be lots of people there, and you will be asked a lot of questions. I will be next to you should you need help, but I felt like I need to warn you, even for me, it can get quite intimidating. Just stay calm and listen to everything you are asked or told to do. Alright?"

[Regulus]

Simba began to chuckle. Staying calm is exactly what he had been trying to do, with mixed results. What else could he do?

Instead of speaking his mind, Simba muttered an "okay" to avoid any further issues. After all, that was exactly what he had just been told to do. He didn't want to argue.

Simba got out of the vehicle and stretched his limbs a bit. He was pleased to finally get out of the car, although he had no idea if where he would be going would be any better. He waited for Nala to follow, before whispering to her, "don't worry, we'll be flying over the water, not swimming."

[DGFone]

Nala followed Simba out of the car. "Come on, Simba, even I know that!" she replied, signaling that while, yes, she did need him a lot to understand these things, she was not completely clueless. "Besides, Dan said that we'll be flying soon. Right, Dan?" After experiencing the car, she was quite eager to feel what flying would be like - for a long time the domain of Zazu and other birds, but not her and Simba, no matter the few times they tried. In the back of her mind, Nala recalled how they imitated wings when Tojo adopted that nest of birds.

Dan leaned out of the window. "Yeah, come on, you two! We're not there yet! Back inside!" He was glad that it was getting darker, as the chance of someone random walking up to him and asking why he has two lions with him was much smaller. As soon as Simba and Nala got back in, Dan strapped them in again and drove off towards their next destination.

Taking a back entrance into the airport, Dan's heart sank when he saw what was awaiting them. "Uh, Simba, Nala... we've got a... bit of a problem." What he was referring to was the large group of people, clearly all waiting to see who he brought back with him. "Remember how I said that there would be a lot of people? I didn't expect this many..."

[Regulus]

"That's just great," Simba sighed. "Well then, what are we supposed to do?" Kill Mufasa?

"We should have got out where we last stopped," he continued. "But, maybe, if they're expecting us, that should only make things easier... right?"

[DGFone]

Dan sighed and shook his head. "No, you don't understand... they were expecting us. And we have to get through them." He thought about what they should do, but the only thing that came to his mind was one solution: face the crowd. "Alright then, there's no point in waiting... Let's go. Just follow me." The sooner they can get through the crowd and into the plane that was right there, the better.

As soon as they got out of the car, and Simba and Nala were in full view for the assembled crowd, the entire area exploded into cheering and applause. Nala flattened her ears in annoyance. Never before had she been anywhere as loud as this. She moved closer to Simba, trying to seek refuge from the loud noise, only to follow him as Simba in turn followed Dan.

Dan lead the way through the crowd, often finding himself having to smile at one person or shake hands with another. What unnerved him was the large amount of officials around, although it was somewhat expected: they wanted to see the ones that NASA chose to represent Africa as on the moon. As he made his way slowly towards the waiting ladder of the plane, he realized in dread that he would most likely have to say something to the assembled crowd, and Simba and Nala would most likely have to too.

[Regulus]

Simba knew he would have to say something, although what he didn't know was what it would be. His understanding of the situation was very minimal; he was tired, somewhat hungry, and going to fly to someplace... for something which was supposedly related to going to the moon. His scope of knowledge ended there.

Simba had an idea, but he wasn't sure whether or not it was a good one. He stopped following Dan, and sat still. He took a deep breath and exhaled into a powerful roar. Just as he predicted, the crowd shut up immediately, at the cost of drawing attention to himself. He panicked momentarily, as he thought of what to say. "Uhh... thank you." In his mind, however, he was only thanking them for ceasing the noise.