The Longest Journey

[DGFone]

Dan allowed himself a small grin when Simba roared. Sure, the roar scared him senseless as well, but at least it shut everyone up. Dan raised his hands to signal that he was going to talk. At that moment, he wished that someone had given him a prepared speech. But he didn't have one, so he had to improvise.

"Everyone, I came here to find someone who will be able to... show what Africa really is. And in my search, I found Simba and Nala." he waited as all attention fell away from him and to the lions. "And when we will stand on the moon, remember that through them, we are all connected." Dan tried to think of something else to say, but came up empty. "Thank you."

He crouched down next to Simba and Nala. "Want to add something?" he asked quietly.

Nala stared down at the assembled humans, wondering what on earth they could possibly want her to say. "I uhh... I just want to say that I'm glad that I am able to do this..." She hesitated, and nodded. "That's all, I guess."

[Regulus]

Simba nudged Dan before speaking softly to him. "Let's get going while we still have the chance. Go on, let's go! Let's get outta here!" Dan's lack of haste began to annoy Simba. It no longer surprised him that humans made such vehicles, because without them, they can't go fast at all. Occasionally, he would look behind, to make sure Nala was still there. As usual, she had no problem keeping up with Simba.

[DGFone]

Dan nearly doubled over laughing when Simba, clearly wanting to get away from the people and the noise, went the wrong way in his bid for freedom. "Simba, over here! You don't even know where to go!" Eventually, the two lions returned to him, with Simba looking extremely undignified.

Nala muttered complaints about the noise under her breath as she once again found herself and Simba surrounded by people. "Way to go, smooth guy," she told Simba, "maybe next time run in the right direction." Because she herself didn't know where to go, she was perfectly fine in letting Simba lead and then take the fall for it.

Dan ushered Simba and Nala back up the ladder and inside the plane, quickly shutting the thick metal door behind him. "Right, now that that's over with..." he turned to Simba, not looking pleased at the lion's little stunt. "Simba, mind explaining what you just tried to accomplish by running?"

The interior of the plane started to hum as the pilot prepared for their take off.

[Regulus]

"Oh, uh..." Simba replied, his eyes glued to the ground. "How am I supposed to know which way to go when I don't even know where I am, and I can hardly see?"

As he continued to think about it, he could not believe Dan would dare to ask such a condescending, yet foolish question. "What do you think I was trying to accomplish? You know very well what I was trying to do: get here."

"And, besides," Simba added, "if something is worth doing, it is worth doing quickly."

[DGFone]

Dan shook his head a little. "Just stay next to me like I told you to," he said, "look, there will be a lot of things happening around you now. You're going to get confused a lot. And if you get lost as well, we can't spend all the time looking for you."

Even though Dan was somewhat disappointed in Simba's attitude about this entire thing, he did like Simba's last comment. "But you're wrong there, too," Dan added with a slight chuckle. "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing correctly." He winked at Simba and Nala. "Speed comes after." He then started strapping Simba and Nala down once again in preparation for the flight. "Ready to fly?" he asked, "first time in your life."

[Regulus]

"I'm guessing there's not much to it?" Simba asked. He looked out the window to find a bunch of small lights; other than that, his visibility was limited. "But then... what are we waiting for?" He began to think that because it was taking so long, something must be wrong.

[DGFone]

Dan strapped himself down next to the lions, where he will be able to watch over them should something happen. "This time, it won't be too interesting," he agreed, "it's night time, so you won't see anything, and all you're doing is coming in for the ride." He grinned at Simba and Nala. "But I guarantee you that the next time you go up, it will get much more interesting."

Nala cringed slightly when the entire thing they were in felt like it began to move, and fast. "What do you mean with that next time?"

Dan laughed a little. "Today, the two of you only saw how things work. The goal is, however, that you learn how to fly as well. And I'm not meaning riding along, I mean full control, almost as though you have wings." In his mind, he was already planning to show them how an airplane flies as soon as they were above the ocean in a safe altitude. "Now the ultimate goal: On the moon, you will need to know how to fly. But without wings." He grinned at their stunned expressions. "The two of you have a long way to go, and not much time to get there."

[Regulus]

Simba's eyes widened in awe. "What did you just say?" he asked rhetorically, allowing himself time to grasp the idea of flying around the moon. A grin became visible on his face as his mind had been blown, trying to imagine what it would be like. "Whoa!"

"And if we won't have much time, we'll have to cut the crap and get right to it," Simba thought. "I like the plan so far."

"What else will we be doing?" he continued. "Or, what exactly will you be doing? You were sent to find us... but who sent you? Who are the other guys? Will you actually be going to the moon with us, or what? How does that even work?" He knew he asked a lot of questions, but he was growing impatient with a lack of answers. From what he could see out window, they weren't flying yet, and Florida was still far away.

[DGFone]

As the plane started to roll on the runway and accelerate, Nala sank back into her seat, watching Simba as she tried to figure out if she should be worried or not. She let out a yelp of surprise when it felt like her stomach dropped, and her entire world now felt like it was about to flip upside down. "What's going on?" she managed to ask, her voice barely louder than the roar of the engines. "What's happening?"

Moments later, the plane leveled out, and Dan unstrapped himself. "Can't you feel it? We're flying." He moved over to the lions and also unstrapped them, giving them freedom to move around. Nala quickly jumped down to the floor and lay as flat as she could on it. When Simba sat down next to her, Dan took out a computer and turned it on. If he was going to answer all of Simba's questions, he will need a lot of help.

"Alright, what am I doing?" he repeated as he waited for the device to power on. "I am, like you, going to go through the same training..." He looked up at Simba. "If everything will go well, we will be part of the same crew, doing the same job together." He then proceeded to explain various things about NASA and space exploration as he waited for the computer to catch up to him.

"-needless to say, a large group of people are all working on one goal. And whether it's us, or it's another team, that goal is to get not just humans, but all life, to this point:" He flipped the computer screen to where Simba and Nala could see it. On it, was the famous picture of Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface. "We want to do that again," Dan said, "do that, and more. the last time we've been there, we just visited briefly. Now we want to be able to stay there, live there. Spend enough time on the moon so that we will be able to learn so much more about it. Things we can only guess about before." He grinned at the two lions. "And you two are going to help us achieve that goal."

[Regulus]

"So, what's so special about the moon anyway?" Simba asked, watching as the ground slowly moved farther away. "If we can fly this easily, then going to the moon shouldn't be too much of a problem, right?" His blissful ignorance of the concept of an atmosphere led him to further questions. "Why do we need to go through training to live on the moon? What's it like there, anyway?" He also wanted to ask about Dan's computer, a device seemingly capable of God-like things to a lion, although he decided to save that question for another time.