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Kovu was forcing himself through the tangles of underbrush when it struck. Likely it had been its plan all along, Kovu realized the second that it sunk its teeth into his shoulder and he saw the great glistening coils move through the vegetation beyond. Kovu yowled in pain and struck the great snake on the head with his paw. His claws slid off the surface on the first blow, but he adjusted and made ready to rend through the snake's protective skin. Kovu was determined that it'd lose at least an eye in exchange for his life.

However before he could bring his claws to bear a second time, the wily old snake released him and slipped its head away. In its place, it threw a huge coil at him, thicker around than Kovu's chest. The lion slipped away, barely. His blood ran freely from his shoulder and he clawed desperately through the vines entangling him. "There's got to be a way out of here!" he roared. He had to roll through the muck supporting the myriad plants to avoid the heavy snake again. It seemed content with simply tiring him out now with huge, slow moving blows. Eventually, he knew however, it would bite him again. "As soon as she gets a coil around me, I'm done." thought Kovu, knowing it to be true.

Just as he was losing hope of escaping, what with the snake blocking off the route he had taken to get into this vine-filled hell, he heard a voice calling his name in the distance. "...Kovu..."

Kovu's ears perked in surprise. "Mipa!" he shouted, "Im here, Mipa!"

"...Kovu!" he hear her shout, this time a little closer.

The black maned lion now had a heading. Though he hated the prospect of exposing Mipa to danger, he didn't know what else to do. He didn't stand a chance one on one with the half ton snake. The massive creature slithered unseen nearby. Kovu couldn't see it, but he could smell it.

"If Mipa's near the game path, we can both make it up the mountain and away from here!" he thought as he broke and fumbled his way forward, crawling over the fragile stems and vines. He hoped that he was not simply providing the snake with a second entrée.

"Mipa!" Kovu roared when he saw her at last. His heart fell when he saw that she'd come far from the beaten path in her search for him. Then it seemed to leap out of his chest when he saw something shiny moving towards her close to the ground.

"Kovu. Hey Kovu!" shouted Mipa. She sat on her haunches and raised a paw to wave it at him.

Kovu cursed under his breath, "No! Mipa, run! There's a snake, Run!"

Fortunately, Kovu did not need to repeat himself. The snake made little attempt to conceal its bulk as it rushed towards her with a single-mindedness that would have been astonishing if he had not know of her general reputation in the oasis.

Kovu trundled after them as Mipa turned and ran, the snake on her heels. His head swam. Either the snake was making good on an unexpected opportunity or this truly had been its plan all along. Kovu couldn't live with himself if Mipa was delivered to her rivals because of him.

Mipa was on flat ground, but she was rather slow carrying all her extra weight. The snake, however seemed to slither forward with exuberance despite its handicap of being out of the water. It seemed almost to exalt in perceived weakness. Kovu hurried after them as fast as he possibly could.

He saw an opportunity when he saw the tail of the snake run by him. The thing was simply enormous! Perhaps as much as 40 feet in length. It had undoubtedly survived many decades of harsh predatory life. Nevertheless, Kovu struck out at it with all the fury he could muster. He raked it deeply, exposing the red meat under the scale and a convulsion of pain raced up the entire length of the reptile. It pulled itself away from him however, leaving Kovu to break through the last of the fronds holding him before he could give chase.

Cursing constantly, the lion broke free and tore after the snake and Mipa ahead of him. When he heard Mipa scream, he redoubled his efforts...

When his fleet paws brought him to them, though, the scene was not at all what he expected. Mipa leaned against a tree, panting and shivering with exhaustion. The snake lay a body length away from her, coiled and hissing in agitation. Two thirds down the snake's body length from the head, the snake was supported off the ground by a tight loop. One of Mipa's snares! It was not nearly large enough to incapacitate the snake, but it was keeping it immobile for the moment. Mipa, however, looked totally spent.

Kovu went to her, pressing his face against her soft neck "Mipa...Mipa, I'm so sorry."

She seemed bewildered, even as she fought for breath, her pigeon chest heaving. "For...what?" she asked blearily. "I...I..."

Kovu shook his head, she seemed slightly dazed and in no shape for fighting. He tried nosing her up. "Come on, girl. We need to get out of here before that snake breaks loose."

"Run? No...no running..." said Mipa a little more lucidly. She spared a look at the snake. It stuck out its forked tongue in response. The part of its body that was trapped kept writhing and pulsing as it sought to burst from its bonds. She looked at the lion with the black mane, "Kill it..." she breathed. "It's no good...kill it." she closed her eyes and then opened them, "For me...please?"

Kovu didn't know what exactly was going on, what sort of history she had with the great constrictor, but honestly he didn't care. He saw nothing in it worth preserving during his brief conversation with it. He'd kill it just to make the oasis a safer place for Mipa. As an answer to her request, he strutted boldly forward, chest puffed. His hackles rose and he let out a fierce battle roar right at the snake.

It opened its mouth and hissed back at him, its black mouth gaping and filled with tiny fangs.

Kovu, with blood still seeping down his left shoulder hunched and made ready to pounce the snake. Its greatest strength - stealth - was gone now and it couldn't move around as well anymore either. Still, Kovu felt like he would only get one good shot at it. "Go for the head." Kovu assured himself. Then, feeling the course strength pervading his lean body, he leapt and dove into the writhing snake.

It all went wrong so quickly. Kovu landed on a fat coil. The snake had tried to protect its head by pulling back at the last instant, but Kovu got a paw around the other side of its neck and soon had it in his mouth. He felt a tooth sink into an orbital cavity, popping the eye in the process, but the snake's skull was still too stout to crack with his jaws. The snake twisted under him and in a moment, Kovu's bottom hit the ground, scaled muscle surrounding his entire body.

It squeezed Kovu and he squeezed the snake's head in his jaws. They both saw the need to quickly subdue the other. Now was not the time for compromise or examining the situation. It was only strength versus strength. When the snake got another coil around him, then another, Kovu knew. The snake was too strong for him.

Kovu kept trying to crush the snake's skull, but the bone held up. The snake squeezed him then with brutal efficiency as it held the big cat in its grasp. Each time he exhaled left less room for the next breath... The world began to grow dark, but he never relented, he would die with the taste of cool blood on his tongue.

Then something was tugging on the snake's head beyond. Kovu could not tell exactly what was happening, his vision gone all blurry. He had to concentrate just to retain consciousness. His body was squeezed so tightly, it felt as if he were being compressed into paste. More movement from beyond, hurried, and calculated movement. Then he felt the snake's head move in his jaws. at first, it felt like it were simply jerking it again, but this time the movement was different, it was uniform, persistent and far, far stronger. Kovu had to fight to hold on.

"...-et go, Ko...vu!" the voice came to him as if from underwater. Oh, how sweet it was, a siren of the deep.

"Let go of it, Kovu!" Mipa shouted again and the lion came aware enough to understand. The snake shifted in discomfort all around him as the tugging continued on the snake's neck and his skull continued to bleed between his fangs. "Let go?" he thought mussily. It seemed like the last good thing to do, but if Mipa wanted it, well, at least he would pass from the world that much more quickly; his body to rejoin the Circle here in this beautiful oasis.

The snake's head whipped up out of its own coils as soon as Kovu let go, yanked away by some unseen force. A shiver went through its entire body and before Kovu was completely aware, its hold on him had weakened.

"Kovu! Please, hurry up and kill it!" Mipa was shouting.

A mindless desire to obey made Kovu worm his way out of the serpent's coils as it squirmed and writhed, struggling with something. He gasped for breath when he won his chest free of the creature's enormous body. He looked around for Mipa, wondering how they might still escape the old reptile, but he didn't see her. Then he looked up.

Mipa clung to a rock supported by a crudely woven cradle, adding the weight of her body to the balance of the former snare. Somehow, Mipa had reworked the ropes of her trap, however for it was a snare no longer. It was a noose. The snake's head was suspended even higher than Mipa and her formidable bulk. A tight loop wrapped about a foot below its jaw. It struggled and writhed with its titanic strength as it fought for breath. Kovu could tell that if Mipa moved or lost her grip, the entire assembly would collapse and the snake would be utterly free.

"Kill it Kovu!" She shouted at him. "Kill it now!" Her claws left white streaks on the stone as she slipped a few inches, her plump bottom pointed to the ground.

Seeing the situation and what Mipa had cleverly accomplished gave Kovu no right to slack now. It was a heroic effort to extract his hindquarters from the snake's last coil, but he did it. His legs pulsed uncomfortably as blood rushed back into them so he half stumbled, half dragged himself over to the snake's head. Taking a deep breath, he lurched up and sank all of his fangs deep into the snake's neck, tearing it ruthlessly.

The coils tossed in every direction, smashing the undergrowth flat and threatening to smash Kovu as well. There was tortured creaking from above and Mipa let out a shrill cry as something in her makeshift trap snapped and she fell. She let out a harsh breath as the heavy stone hit her round belly and then she lay still.

The snake's head fell as well, but Kovu moved with it. He grabbed it a little lower down and opened the flesh there as well with his powerful jaws. Air bubbled in the snake's throat as it aspirated futilely. It quickly bled out, though its coils continued to twitch for some time after it had died. As quick as he could, Kovu went to Mipa and dragged her as far as he could from the tossing snake; which was not far, she was still very heavy! She remained unconscious for some time, but Kovu did not dare rest. Instead he sat over her protectively for the hours it took for her to come around.

It was a few hours before dawn when she did, fluttering her eyelids as she awoke. She coughed a bit and held her tummy. Kovu saw two bruises there, a large one from the boulder and also a smaller one. She moaned unhappily.

"Is it dead?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Good." she said and they both turned to stare at the massive snake. It had been a 40-foot giant, undoubtedly weighing more than half a ton, now reduced to nothing so much as a pile of twisted meat and scales... fresh meat.

Mipa's belly growled with true hunger. "Would you like some breakfast, Kovu? I think you earned it."

A grin spread across his face. "Only if you would join me, Mipa." He let her lean on him as she got heavily to her feet. Together, they helped each other limp to the feast in front of them.