The sun began to set on the Pridelands as Simba walked down from Pride Rock and over to the waterhole. He was meeting Nala there because he had something important to say to her. As Simba reached the waterhole, he waited around for Nala to show up. About five minutes later, he heard something rustling in the in the grass. He remembered what his father taught him about pouncing and stayed low to the ground and began creeping up on the thing that was hiding in the grass without making a sound. Simba then leapt towards the grass and onto what was making the noise, but the next thing he knew it, he was lying on the ground on his back with his shoulders being pinned down by…

"Nala!" Simba shouted upon discovering that the thing that was hiding was his best friend.

"Pinned ya," Nala said cheerfully.

"Okay, you had your fun," Simba said with irritation, "Now let me up."

"Sorry Simba," Nala said, "but you're too easy."

"Hey! No I'm not!" Simba said.

Nala giggled, "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, you see," Simba said, "I wanted to apologize for what happened yesterday. You know, with the elephant graveyard and the hyenas."

"Oh, that," Nala said, "Well, you didn't have to apologize, Simba. You couldn't have known there would be hyenas there."

"I know, but I wanted to make it up to you," Simba said.

"How?" Nala asked.

"Well, wanna go swimming?" Simba asked.

"Well…okay," Nala said as she and Simba ran towards the waterhole and jumped in.

As Simba and Nala began splashing each other, Nala felt something tugging on her leg. Suddenly, it began pulling on her even harder.

"Simba! Help!" Nala shouted as it began to pull her under.

"NALA!" Simba shouted as whatever was down there pulled Nala under the water. Simba dove down to rescue her. He found Nala sinking to the bottom of the water and grabbed her paw and then began kicking towards the surface. But there was a problem. It was taking Simba longer to get to the surface than it had been for him to reach Nala. It was as if the waterhole had somehow become deeper than it used to be. Just as Simba thought he wasn't going to make it to the surface, he and Nala finally came up. They then began to swim towards the shore. When they got to shore, Simba and Nala started coughing to get the water out of their systems.

"You okay, Nala?" Simba asked.

"Yeah, I think so," Nala said as she looked around, "but something tells me we're not in the Pridelands anymore."

"What?" Simba asked.

Simba then looked around and saw that Nala was right. They weren't in the Pridelands anymore. They were at the base of a castle, seemingly carved from black stone. Towers that reached towards the diamond-filled heavens were crumbling away due to years without care. The forest surrounding it was full of trees and bushes that might've once been a beautiful garden with pathways but now was a gnarled forest filled with cracked paths and weeds. The forest wrapped around most of the castle, leaving a damaged aqueduct to lead from a high cliff to the castle. The aqueduct split the lake in half, yet still allowed the moon to shine it's silvery rays on the water's surface.

"Wow," Simba said.

"Where are we, Simba?" Nala asked.

"I don't know, Nala," Simba said, "but I don't think our parents will be happy when they find out we're missing."

"You're probably right," Nala said, "but in the meantime, how about we try to find our way home?"

"Right," Simba said, "but first, let's try to find some food."

"Uh Simba," Nala said, "Do you even know how to hunt?"

"No, but remember when our moms took us on a hunting trip two weeks ago?" Simba asked.

"You mean the one where you fainted at the sight of your mom killing a zebra?" Nala asked.

"I didn't faint!" Simba shouted in embarrassment, "but I doubt there are any zebra around here. So let's try to find something smaller."

"Okay," Nala said. She then heard a splashing sound coming from the lake and turned her head to see a swan in the shallow part of the lake, "Hey, Simba," she whispered, "Over there."

Simba turned to see the swan.

"Dinner time," Simba said in a sing-song tone.

He and Nala then got down and started creeping up on the swan. Suddenly, the moon came into view and as the reflection of moonlight reached the swan, a disc of light began to glow underneath the swan. Suddenly, the water began to swirl upward around the swan, encasing it in a swirling sphere of water. The sphere then died down, but when it disappeared, the swan was gone and in its place was a beautiful young woman with golden-blonde hair and violet eyes wearing a white dress with puffy white sleeves with blue shoulders. Simba and Nala looked at each other with wide eyes and then back towards the woman.

"Did you just see a swan turn into a human female?" Nala asked.

"Oh thank goodness it wasn't just me!" Simba said.

"Well whoever she is, she's very pretty," Nala said.

"I guess so, but if you ask me, humans a weird," Simba said, "but I take it we can't try to eat her anymore, right?"

"Of course not!" Nala said, "She's a human! And remember what our moms said?!"

"Only attack humans if they themselves attack you first," Simba said with a sigh.

The woman then started walking towards the shore. Simba and Nala started running away, but before they got at least five feet, Nala tripped and fell, "OW!"

The woman heard this and rushed over to wear she heard the sound, only to find Simba and Nala.

"Oh my," she said, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I think so," Nala said.

"We didn't mean to, uh, intrude," Simba said, "But we saw you turn into a human from a swan."

"Oh, you saw that," the kind woman said.

"Yeah, but you're very nice to us," Nala said before turning towards Simba, "And you wanted to eat her, Simba."

"Eat me?" the woman asked.

"Yeah, we're kind'a hungry, and, well, we ARE lions," Simba said.

"Oh," the woman said, "Well don't worry. Bridget usually comes with food around midnight."

"Well, okay," Simba said, "I guess I can wait until then."

"Yeah, me too," Nala said.

"But in the meantime, I don't think we've been properly introduced," the woman said, "I'm Odette, Princess Odette."

"Nice to meet you, Odette," Simba said, "I'm Simba, and this is my best friend, Nala."

"It's nice to meet you guys," Odette said.

"You too, Odette," Nala said, "and did I hear you say that you're a princess?"

"Yes," Odette said.

"Awesome," Nala said, "because Simba happens to be a prince."

"Really?" Odette asked, "Because you're the second animal I've met to say he's a prince. The other one is my friend Jean-Bob. He's a frog who thinks he's a prince."

"Well it's true about me being a prince," Simba said, "One day when I'm older, I'm gonna be king of the Pridelands."

"The Pridelands?" Odette asked, "What's that?"

"Our home," Nala said, "but somehow, when we went swimming in the waterhole, something started tugging me down. Simba dove down to rescue me, and when we came up to the surface, we found ourselves here."

"Oh," Odette said, "Well I'm sorry to hear that, but you're both more than welcome to stay here until I can find a way to get you both home."

"Thanks Odette," Simba said.

"No problem, Simba," Odette said, "but you both will have to be careful so he doesn't find you."

"Who's he?" Nala asked.

"Odette!" a voice called out.

"Quick! Hide!" Odette instructed Simba and Nala.

Simba and Nala dove into the bushes and watched as Odette was approached by an unpleasant-looking middle-aged man with a bald head, but with red hair around the rim of his head and a very large mustache.

Me: I hope you guys like my new story. I know, it's not something I usually do, but I do enjoy the Swan Princess movies. Yes, I actually said that. I don't own The Swan Princess or The Lion King. Please review.