"As a way of apologizing for putting you through all of that needlessly, I found you a nice breakfast." Sarafina picked Nala up by the scruff of her neck and turned her around so she could see out of the den. Nala spied a somewhat familiar-looking expanse of reddish skin just out of the way of the entrance. She gasped and sprinted over to it as fast as her legs would carry her.

Her instincts were spot-on: It was a fully-grown hippopotamus, bigger than the one Scar had fed her what now felt like years ago.

"Is this...is it all for me?" she asked, awed by the prospect of this much food after being denied for so long.

"If you'd like," Sarafina answered. Nala hesitated just long enough to thank and nuzzle her mother, and then she dove at the hippo like the ravenous lion she was.

She may not have lost any weight during her weeks of dieting, but the lack of food had definitely stunted Nala's appetite. She was barely a quarter of the way through the hippo when--horror of horrors--she found herself getting full. Her stomach had puffed out to where it had been before she started dieting, though since she was taller, that meant it was even a little bigger than it had been.

Nala looked behind her. Sarafina was still laying there, forepaws folded, watching her daughter binge. Nala knew that her mother wouldn't be upset if she stopped eating (since Sarafina wanted her to form her own eating habits, not to glut herself past the point of comfort), but stopping now still felt like a sign of weakness. Dammit, she'd eaten this much when she was just a tiny cub! Surely she could manage it now!

She tried to recall what Scar's words to her had been that fateful night. ...Once you free yourself of what you believe is the maximum amount you can eat... Scar had been right before, hadn't he? So this was nothing!

Determinedly, and after a lingering glance at her mother (who just watched silently, a faint smile on her face), Nala dug back into the hippo. It was rough going at first (and she remembered belatedly that the hyenas had had to force-feed her the hippo the first time, to her extreme discomfort), but she persevered. She would show her mother how she really ate!

After a while, Nala got back into her groove, and eating became easier. As before, the pleasure she derived from gluttony eventually overcame the pain of being far too full. Her pace quickened: As much as she wanted to savor the flavor of the first real meal she'd had in ages, her primary concern was eating as much as possible, and in her slightly food-addled head, that meant eating as fast as possible. She scarfed down huge chunks of the hippo and barely bothering to chew. Past a certain point, the distension of her stomach itself, as well as the act of filling it, became pleasurable to her. She remembered, back in Scar's den, wondering what it would be like to have a low-hanging belly. Well, she was far past that now. Her massive stomach lifted all four of her paws off the ground, and the thought that she had once again eaten herself into at least temporary immobility sent a thrill through her.

But all good things must end, and eventually Nala swallowed the last of the hippo meat.