Big Ironies

Sarabi, on a beautiful night while about to fall asleep, looked out to the night sky and couldn't believe how many ironic things she had been subject to as of late...indeed, in so short a time as they were dealt to her.

First, there's the way that, three weeks ago, Zira had, upon surviving what seemed to have been death by drowning, was tortured by just what Scar's poison had done to her so long ago and what it led to, broke down and cried and subsequently did whatever she could for it to be even the least bit possible to right her wrongs, eventually succeeding, though by a narrow margin.

When it was found out about, her granddaughter Kiara managed to convince the king who was Simba, to allow Zira to join Pride Rock and start fresh like that same Kiara was trying to make happen upon Zira falling into that raging river, though barely.

Then there was how, starting just before those three weeks began and continuing forward to now, Sarabi, despite maintaining all of her muscles and most of her beauty, had gotten increasingly fat due to various circumstances leading to it, and was now noticeably obese with a big belly, a deep belly button and additional fat all around her body, even though whoever saw her could still tell who it was and even though she could still walk and, albeit to a very lesser extent, jump and run.

Yet she still got the same amount of respect that she always did from everyone who respected her and her family, her son, granddaughter or otherwise, loved her no less...heck, she even got sympathy from some Pride Rock members, since she did whatever she could to avoid getting so fat, but her luck was awful enough so that this was not to be.

Finally, there was how, earlier in the day, there was a handful of ironies which, while initially quite the set of predicaments for her, would turn out to be quite the shining moment and a reminder to her that she was still useful, after all, old or not and fat or no fat.

During a time she was going out for some exercise, the instances of which were plenty both during the time she had been fattening up and certainly after she got so corpulent, she saw a cheetah who was running by her fast.

Fast enough so that she knew there was something wrong, since it wouldn't be running at top speed and have the scared look on its face that it did if there wasn't something dire and dangerous occurring.

And sure enough, she heard what turned out to be the noise made by a van with poachers in it, guns and all, and they were clearly trying to bag that cheetah for its pelt.

Sarabi wanted to save it, though she knew that, if the poachers saw her and she had no way to deprive them of the chance to do so, she would get gunned down, the former queen selflessly took the risk, especially when she saw a big log and got quite the idea, quickly thereafter knowing it was the only chance she had.

Leaping at the said log and picking it up with her teeth fast so that she could throw it in the air, she capitalized on the surprise of the poachers both from seeing her appear and seeing what she did with the log by smacking it right at them with the foreleg and forepaw equivalent of a backhand punch, using her left foreleg and the paw thereon for the job.

Attempting to shoot her just after she whacked the log at them and to shoot the log away, none of the poachers reacted fast enough and the log nailed them and caused their gunfire to blast each other down and shoot various parts of their vehicle, which caused it to spiral out of control until it crashed and became a big pile of what one might call road debris with the corpses of the poachers tangled into it.

Said crash, though, had hurt Sarabi's ears enough so that she roared in pain and was unable to not close her eyes, stumbling around and about while barely managing to keep on her feet, eventually making her way into the village of humans which was just a few feet away from the place in which this had all happened.

Collapsing on her left side afterwards, she heard a voice say: "What in the world?" and another one went: "A lioness?"

Realizing that these were the kinds of humans which wielded spears and shields, and having been taught to fear them and consider them deadly enough so that encounters with them were things that the animals who had said encounters would never survive, Sarabi thought to herself sadly: "I'm done for...well, at least my final actions were heroic ones, and there is a way to make this last for as little time as possible."

Rolling on her back to give them a target that was impossible to miss, she put her head back and tensed up for what would surely be the painful impalement of one or more spears.

Only...that wasn't what she felt.

She felt her belly getting rubbed, squeezed, poked, pinched and circled around on by one or more index fingers, along with an index finger inserting itself into her belly button and poking hard before circling around in it just as hard, plus her massive gut would have fistfuls of its fat grabbed, pulled hard and let go of to snap back onto where it was pulled from.

Just after she opened her eyes and both saw what these humans were doing to her and heard another one say: "Wow...I thought that she looked kind of big." she did what she would then believe was the last thing she should have done, fittingly at the time in which the hardest pinches, grabs, pokes, pulls and release snapping hand actions and squeezes were done and since this was when the belly button finger grinding had gotten painful.

She pulled her head up and said: "Please, humans, stop...it hurts."

Opening her eyes widely and seeing them look right at her with their eyes opened just as widely, with all of them going still, they released her belly and the one who'd had his finger in her belly button pulled said digit out of it and stood up before the other members of the tribe did.

The one who was clearly the chief then said: "And it talks!"

Seeing that this was the only chance that she had to explain everything to them, which was most likely her only hope of getting back to Pride Rock alive, she quickly told them: "Yes, I do, and I need to fill you in on everything that happened and how it led to this."

Doing just that as succinctly has she could, she would get another surprise when the tribe's chief said: "Well done."

"Well done?" asked a confused Sarabi, and one of the tribe's members said to her: "Previously, those very same poachers drove by our village and, while we only saw them and heard them speak briefly, it was enough for us to be able to tell that they weren't just any poachers."

"They weren't?" asked Sarabi, paying full attention as another tribe member further explained.

"They have, or, thankfully, now HAD, worked for an extremely greedy, immoral and dangerous organization. Don't know the name or the location, but it was clearly one of those organizations which gains money, power and pleasure alike from the misfortune and/or losses of humans, animals, your kind or otherwise, or, at their absolute worst, both."

"So I figuratively and literally struck a blow against them..." Sarabi said, her face lighting up upon the realization that she might have caused the start of their downfall, which another member of the tribe confirmed by saying: "Indeed, you did, and the things that cause you and other animals to find it impossible not to fear and distrust humans?"

Sarabi nodded, and he continued with: "The members of that organization, poacher or otherwise, represent everything that would cause both that feeling and, in some cases, the difficulty some humans have trusting or feeling safe around others."

"And blatantly so." the chief added.

"It...it would seem I'm the heroine of the day! I'm so honored..." Sarabi began, but then she exclaimed: "WAIT! MY PRIDE! MY SON! MY DAUGHTER IN LAW! MY GRANDDAUGHTER! MY GRANDSON IN LAW!"

Improvising, she said: "Cover your ears as tightly as you can, humans."

Knowing what she was about to do, they nodded and did said ear covering, and Sarabi let out as loud a roar as she could to signal where she was to whoever was in hearing range, especially since there was no way her family and friends weren't worried sick about her by now.

Once done, she saw them uncover their ears upon being able to tell that her roar was over(since a lion's roar is loud enough to carry for five miles, so they were obviously still going to hear it to an extent), and then heard the unmistakable voice of her son call: "Mom?"

"That's him. My son. The current king. Simba." she informed them, and then, as he went to where she was, he also went pale.

"Simba, it's fine." Sarabi said before telling him everything that he needed to know, causing his face to light up and its paleness to fade along with a smile forming on said face, and then he said: "Thank you for telling my mother everything she needed to know after hearing her out, AND WAY TO GO, MOM!"

He ran over and nuzzled her in a way that mirrored how he'd done so upon returning to Pride Rock and seeing the position that she was in after Scar whacked her across the ground, then helped her up and said: "It's so great to know that you're going to live, still have some of what you had left and, along with stopping those poachers, proved that there are actually humans who belie what us animals were made to believe about them while growing up."

"By the way," the king asked as he looked at the tribe's chief, "have any of you ever been told stories about different humans that were meant to teach you fear and distrust?"

"Us and many additional people, tribe or otherwise, as a matter of fact," the chief replied, "though one way or the other, they were quickly debunked."

"Gotcha. Glad to hear it. Sure wish us animals, my own or otherwise, could have been that lucky, though." Simba said as he got his mother to her feet.

"It's worth pointing out," said another member of the tribe, "that when we saw the poachers that your former queen of a mother here nicely destroyed, they took turns continually looking over their shoulders."

"They did?" Simba asked, and then he went: "That would signify cowardice! Think that might amplify the chances that it's just a matter of time before that organization meets its end?"

"Very much so." the tribe member who pointed out the literal shoulder looking over did. "Let's hope it happens in as little time as possible."

"No disagreement here." Simba told them, with Sarabi nodding to show that her feelings matched those of her son.

Then Sarabi said to the tribe: "Anyway, you have our utmost appreciations for everything and I am glad to have accomplished what I did, but my son and I really must go."

Nodding, the chief spoke for everyone in his tribe when he said: "Understood. Farewell, heroine of the day and her king son."

"Farewell, great tribe." Sarabi said, Simba being the one doing the nodding to make clear the echoing of the two this time.

Upon meeting back up with everyone else who'd come looking for Sarabi and making sure they knew everything on the way back alongside his mother, Sarabi was given further congratulations in various ways alongside all of everyone feeling the same kind of delight their king and his mother did concerning all else that had happened...well, except for the hand-induced pain to Sarabi's belly, but Simba saw no reason to mention it to the tribe and neither did the belly's owner while both her still there.

Eventually, with some effort in Sarabi's case, they got back to Pride Rock, by which time it was late at night.

That brings us back to where we began, with Sarabi thinking to herself: "What a day this was, and I have never come across so many ironies in as short a time as I have...there actually being another one with how more than half of them occurred today, both before and after I became the heroine of the day, but all the others count just as much, and the latest in how this is the best I've ever done in terms of accomplishments despite how it was when I'm no longer queen and have put on so much weight that a noticeable amount, though obviously no the entirety, of what I could do before was lost. How many more might present themselves, I've no clue, but with the way things have been going, there might be one that occurs to me shortly after I wake up. Anyway, time to go to sleep."

And go to sleep she did, with the most wonderful dreams immediately making themselves known.

THE END