And on the Menu Tonight...

And on the Menu Tonight... is a short story inspired by The Lion King. It was published by Scholastic on September 19, 1997, as part of Short Stories.
==Synopsis==
After the death of Mufasa, Simba fled to the jungle, where he befriended a meerkat named Timon and a warthog named Pumbaa. One day, Timon and Pumbaa decided to eat a millipede. Since Timon was lethargic from eating, Pumbaa chased the grub, only for the millipede to take shelter under a heavy rock. Afterward, Timon blamed Pumbaa for the failure and began to insult him, even going so far as to call him "fat." This deeply hurt Pumbaa, who insisted that warthogs were supposed to be fat, but Timon merely complained that he was a "poor thin meerkat starving in the forest." Though Pumbaa offered to catch more grubs for Timon, the meerkat stormed off and declared that he would catch his own food. Pumbaa departed in the opposite direction and wondered which of them would catch more grubs. Meanwhile, Simba sighed and decided to follow them in order to ensure that they did not get into trouble. However, he did not know which one he should tail.
As Timon ventured deeper into the jungle, he got lost in the dense vegetation. Uneasy, he reflected on how Pumbaa could fend off predators with his sharp tusks, which made him regret having chased the warthog off. Eventually, Timon grew so tired that he had to sit down. However, he ended up sitting on an enormous python, who immediately took an interest in eating him. Despite Timon's best efforts to talk the python down, the snake did not desist, and so the meerkat was forced to take off into the jungle, with the python in hot pursuit.
Meanwhile, Pumbaa chased a cloud of fireflies until he got lost in the jungle himself. Frightened by the strange noises, he thought on how Timon would have been able to explain everything that he was hearing. Suddenly, Pumbaa got attacked by two wild dogs named Mbwa and Mwitu. As they fought Pumbaa, Mwitu asked Mbwa if they should kill Pumbaa or torture him first, to which Mbwa decided that they should go ahead and kill the warthog. Taking advantage of the pair's distraction, Pumbaa ran away, and the wild dogs hastened to catch up to him.
Timon and Pumbaa both ran from their pursuers until they crashed right into one another. After the two exchanged a happy embrace, they turned to face the predators that were closing in on them from either side. When the python and the wild dogs saw one another, they began to bicker and physically fight over who deserved the kills. While their attackers were distracted, Timon and Pumbaa fled, but the predators quickly regained their bearings and resumed the chase.
Just then, Simba leaped out of the foliage and roared at Timon and Pumbaa's pursuers, which caused them to back off. Once the predators had left, Timon and Pumbaa embraced Simba and thanked him for having saved their lives. Simba reminded them that they were still lost in the jungle and questioned where they should go next.
The three friends roamed the jungle for a long while and asked other animals for directions, to no avail. At one point, they asked a secretary bird for help. When she did not show interest in assisting them, Timon threatened to tell Mbwa and Mwitu about her, which made her begin to help them more earnestly. She told them to go "two miles northwest as the crow flies," and the friends followed her directions. However, after two hours of traveling in that direction, they were no closer to finding their home than before.
Eventually, the friends stopped to rest. During their break, Simba spotted a shooting star and suggested they follow it. Despite their doubts, Timon and Pumbaa agreed to Simba's plan, and the trio followed the shooting star until they made it home. Astonished that Simba's idea had worked, Timon asked the lion how he had known how to get home. With a wistful smile at the Great Kings of the Past, Simba answered that it was just something that someone had told him a long time ago.
==Appearances==
Category:The Lion King short stories
Category:Real world
Category:Short stories