A week passed before Epesi knew he was in trouble. No matter how hard he worked, he never seemed to get anywhere, and this left him drained, both physically and emotionly.

Nala had also noticed the change in Epesi, and was worried, not about the fact that he wasn't losing weight, but about the fact that he was almost killing himself trying to do so. Finally, she could take no more, and approached the cheetah, who was resting after yet another grueling exercise regime, "Epesi."

"What 'dyou want Nala," Epesi asked, bitterly, "come to crow your superiority over me?"

"No, not at all," Nala said, "I just wanted to talk to you."

"Go ahead then," Epesi said.

"Well, you've been going on like this for a week now," Nala said, "you've barely lost any weight and you're an emotional wreck, maybe it's time you finally accepted the obvious, you're never going to be thin again."

"Don't you ever say that," Epesi growled, "I will be thin again, I will."

Nala had been taken aback by Epesi's sudden change, but then changed herself. "Look around you," she replied, "this place is tiny, there's no where to go, and no reason to go there, there's no reason for you to be thin." With that, she turned, and waddled off.

It was Epesi's turn to be taken aback. What Nala had said had never occured to him before, and even though his brain sought to reject it, he knew he had to consider what she'd said. Finally he had to admit it, being thin was never going to be more than an intellectual bonus in here, so would it worth spending the time to get there?