A Crocodile's Journey

Chapter 12

"Mshale!" Dalila snapped at him.

Kitwana didn't respond, and instead started walking away while trying to suppress his anger. Mshale wouldn't have anything of it, though, and a few seconds later he was blocking Kitwana's way again. "What? You don't like being told the truth?"

"Why won't you just leave me alone?" Kitwana snapped. "I never did anything to you, so why are you always picking on me?"

"What? I merely don't think you belong here with actual birds. Why don't you go back with your crocodile family? Oh, wait, you can't! Because you're not one of them, and they'll just eat you! That's what those animals do! Eat birds!"

"Mshale, get over it!" Dalila growled with a deep frown. "Sorry about your dad, but the crocodiles feeding it's the Circle of Life!"

"Please! If the 'Circle of Life' was fair, then crocobird here should have been eaten!"

Kitwana shook his head and walked away, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. Unfortunately for both, Mshale was already in an emotional turmoil, and he yelled at him.

"Then again, maybe he did intend to eventually eat you after all, that's why he gave you away!"

That was it. All the anger Kitwana had been so desperate to contain the past few days finally burst out. Without warning, Kitwana ran towards Mshale and pushed him with his body, sending him to the ground.

"Kitwana!" Dalila cried out in shock.

Once he recovered from the hit, Mshale glared at Kitwana with hate. "How dare you...?!"

Dalila took off and flew towards the flock when the two fledglings started to fight. Although birds lacked hooves or teeth and couldn't deal as much damage, they were much more fragile than other animals, and one strong hit could break their wing or dislocate a bone.

Mshale furiously spread out his wings and tried to claw at Kitwana by jumping and digging his claws into his face, but he was caught off guard by the ibis' technique. When he jumped, Kitwana tackled at him, sending him to the ground, and then pinned his neck against the ground with a talon. However, Mshale sent dust flying with his wing, temporally blinding his rival, and took advantage of it to get free and take flight.

With this new move, Kitwana found himself at a great disadvantage, and was pecked numerous times whenever Mshale dove down towards him.

"Not so tough now, are you, crocobird?!" Mshale called out smugly.

After being pushed down and unto the ground, Kitwana recalled something Ono had mentioned: you could bring down a flying bird if you altered its balance. When Mshale dove down again and spread out his wings in the last moment, Kitwana struck his wing joint with his neck. Mshale crashlanded against the ground, and was immediately pinned down again by Kitwana's talon, but this time he was holding his head.

"Not so tough now, are you, Mshale?" he said, smirking triumphantly.

"Kitwana, stop!"

Before they could separate them, there was a loud sound, something whizzed through the air at high speed, and hit a few inches away from where Kitwana stood. It was a tiny black stone.

The animals present raised their heads in alarm.

The loud sound and the whizzing repeated various times, and one of the black stones went right through the throat of one of the egrets, killing him on spot.

Kitwana turned towards the source of the sound, and spotted three of the two-legged animals hidden in some bushes on the other side, holding their black sticks and aiming at the animals.