Chapter 13. Beast

Asafa started walking towards the snake.

Hamu closed his eyes and readied himself to get swallowed as all snakes inevitably do.

"Make sure that you swallow me whole and don't spit out my bones!" Hamu said, afraid of the pain of getting chewed on.

As he closed his eyes he waited... And waited... But he didn't feel any eating being done to him so he opened one eye carefully to see what's going on.

To his surprise, the panther, two lions, pig and rat had disappeared.

"What.. where did they disssappear? Did I awaken another power?" But he heard footsteps behind him so he looked back and found that the gang had just walked passed him and where disappearing into the Forrest.

"Huh? How dare you not eat this sssuper Sssnake!" He shouted as he followed them in anger.

"Not another one..." Asafa said as he noticed the snake coming after them.

"How obnoxious, what kind of brainless creature follows strangers like that!" Imani said, displeased.

"Hey! Wait! How dare you not eat me! Can't you see that I'm a sssuper Sssnake with with super taste!" The snake angrily chased them.

How dare they treat him like something that didn't taste good! He is a snake with excellent meat-to-fat ratio, perfect for grilled meat!

"Should we just ignore him, maybe he'll go away?" Imani asked.

"Tried that already, didn't work." Asada said.

"Huh when?" She asked, they had just met the snake.

"Way before when you started following us." Asada said nonchalantly.

"Disrespectful punk, this is why I chased you, to teach you some manners. You should be eternally thankful to me. If you ever get rich because you inherited your parents money, then don't forget to pay me back!" She was unaware of how close she was to hitting home.

"Timon, shouldn't we teach Asafa some manners as well?" Pumba said worried. Imani had complained a lot about Asafa's manners, but Pumba wasn't completely aware of what it meant so he started to get worried.

"Manners? Can you eat it? Pumba don't waste your time on such trivial things!" Timon waved his argument away.

"Oh."

"Imani, I for one agree with you, Asafa is a bit cheeky for his own good." Simba complained.

"Hmph, of course, why would I otherwise join your group." She said.

But all of them had understood that her mother died when she was young, so she must have been very lonely before meeting them.

"How dare you ignore me, I'm sssuper tasty!" Hamu tried once again, and once again he was ignored.

A month later, Hamu had integrated himself in the group and become the self proclaimed lord of their group.

Life had only become more joyful since Imani and Hamu had joined. They competed, debated, taught eachother but mostly, they were there for eachother.

"Oh I sssee, thatsss ssssmart!" Hamu exclaimed.

"And I'm the brain behind it all!" Timon said proudly he explained how he came up with the idea to take in Simba and Asafa as their own.

The idea had just hit him from nowhere as if someone else said it right before he did.

"And now we don't have to worry about anything anymore with lions gaurding us!" Pumba added happily.

"Mwahahah brilliant!... But where isss those three?" Hamu asked looking around.

"Asafa usually goes to the lake to eat by this time and sometimes Imani follows. As for Simba he lazez around, he should be nearby!" Timon said as he dug for some juicy, crispy bugs.

"It's surprising how lazy lions can be! Even more than me!" Pumba happily quipped in.

"Then how about...." Hamu stopped in his tracks.

One of the abilities that snakes have is that they feel the ground vibrate.. so they know when other animals are around.

"What's wrong?" Pumba asked noticing Hamu's odd behaviour.

"I can't find the right one, I want one that is crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside!" Timon said as he picked up a bug that didn't seem to satisfy him.

"Not you, him!" Pumba clarified.

"Oh"

Hamu suddenly shouted "Hurry back to the camp!" As he turned around and slithered as fast as he can!

Pumba and Timon looked at eachother... They don't need another warning as they hurried after the snake.

Suddenly from the bushes, a big monstrous gorilla stepped forward looking angry.

This gorilla had scars everywhere on his body.

He was a warrior since he was a child. He was born a bit bigger and stronger than everyone in his troop, family, and dominated with power.

He fought the previous alpha and killed him. And since then he governed with an iron fist.

Many tried challenging him but he violently disposed of all of them.

His violent tendencies led to years of dissatisfaction amongst his troop. In the end they all turned on him and attacked him together, but even then they couldn't kill him since he's in his prime.

He was unaware of this himself, but being the alpha of his troop wasn't just about physical strength, it was also about popularity.

It was common in ape families, for an oppressive leader to be replaced by a weak member that was well liked by everyone.

After being chased away, his violent nature couldn't be quenched so he chose a random direction and went straight ahead for a year, challenging everything in his path.

After a year of travel he had arrived in this place, and he had challenged almost every animal, from birds, hyenas, other gorillas and apes, panthers, he even found a lonely old lion that must have been thrown out of his pride, maybe replaced by a stronger, younger one. He killed them all.

And now he arrived here hoping for new challenges. But he hadn't found anything yet. Just as he was about to move on from this territory to the next, he heard small animals brazingly move about without worry, in his close approximaty.

He was already angry about the fact that he found no opponents to fight, and here, was these small creatures with guts big enough to behave so relaxed in his presence.

"ROAR!" He roared as he hit his chest with enough power to shake the leaves from the tree above him.

Then he sprinted towards the puny creatures.

The trio ran for their lives, Timon was on Pumba's back and they ran past Hamu. Timon picked up Hamu as they passed him and then continued running whil shouting all they had.

Soon they arrived close to where their sleeping area was and what met them was a lion that was hurrying towards them in worry.

"Pumba! Timon what's going on!"

"Sssimbaaaaa!" Hamu shouted in pure bliss that he had befriended an apex predator.

"Help uuuuuuss!!!" They shouted as they ran past him and continued running without looking back.

"Huh?" Simba stopped in his tracks, but it didn't take long for him to understand what's going on.

"ROOOOAR!!!"

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