"Kion! There's one coming right towards you!"
The Egret yelled out to Kion, who was standing in the flowing waters of the Maji Safi river. The Lion Cub saw the tuna fish that Ono had spotted out swimming towards him and he immediately unsheathed his claws. With one swipe of his paw, Kion threw the fish across the river before it landed on the embankment.
"Well, that's one down… and 49 more to go," Kion sighed as he watched the fish flopped around on the ground and gasping for air before eventually lying motionless. He felt uncomfortable with what he saw, but he reasoned with himself that it was all part of the Circle of Life. But then again, Kion felt that catching 50 pieces of tuna and turning them into a gift seemed rather selfish.
"Ono, I'm starting to have second thoughts about all this," Kion called out to the Egret, who was still flying above him. "Do you really think I should go ahead and fish out 50 pieces of tuna just for Fuli?"
Ono swooped down towards Kion and perched himself on his back. He was somewhat relieved that Kion was starting to have doubts about following Mwongo's idea, but he didn't want to dishearten his friend either.
"Well err… 50 tuna fish does seem rather um… excessive, Kion, but err… I'm sure you will make the right decision, like you always do!" Ono replied, trying to sound encouraging to his friend.
Kion looked at Ono and then looked at the river where he could see several species of fish swimming freely in the water.
"Well, you might be right. 50 pieces of fish does seem a bit too much," he considered, as he observed several trout fish swim past his paws. "I guess we'll just catch twenty pieces of tuna first."
"Yeah, that sounds like a better idea," Ono happily agreed as he took off to the sky to continue spotting for tuna. "Kion, there's two tuna fish swimming your way now!"
Kion proceeded to pounce on the fish and toss them aside onto the embankment with the other fish while Ono continued to spot for any more tuna fish that were headed towards Kion. Little did they know, that a pair of eyes was silently and stealthily observing them at work from behind a nearby bush…
As the hours passed by, the sapphire afternoon sky slowly turned a bright amber as dusk was making its arrival. Kion swiped his paw and threw a tuna fish towards the embankment in the pile with the other 13 pieces of tuna that he had caught. He sighed in exhaustion as he eyed the fish before turning his attention towards the evening sky.
"Hevi Kebisa. I've spent the last three hours in this freezing river and we only managed to catch 14 pieces of fish?" Kion commented as he started shivering from being so long in the cold river.
"Well, it looks like we definitely won't be following Mwongo's plan and catch 50 pieces of tuna today," Ono replied while he was still up in the air. "Should we make do with only 14 fish?"
Kion shook his head. "No, let's try to make it 15. Ono, do you see any more tuna in the river?"
Ono used his ability as the keenest of sight to search the river. All he could see were several trout and some sturgeon fish, but he couldn't find any tuna headed towards Kion. "Negative! I don't see any more tuna fish in there. I think you've caught them all, Kion!"
Kion frowned. He was still persistent in reaching his target of catching 15 pieces of tuna.
"I don't think so, Ono. I think we just need to look at a different part of the river," Kion suggested as he made his way across the water and towards the embankment. "Come on, let's head upstream."
Ono sighed as he watched Kion dry himself before the Lion cub walking ahead. "Right behind you, Kion."
They both walked ahead upstream for fifteen minutes until Kion finally stopped at went to the river's edge. "Ok, I think this is far enough. Ono, do you see any tuna?"
Ono gained altitude and flew above the river. The water at that part of the river was flowing at a very rapid pace and Ono struggled to even see anything in the water. His sharp eyes finally caught sight of a single tuna fish hiding behind a large stone next to the river's edge.
"Kion, I see one! It's behind that huge rock just towards your left!"
Kion went over towards the stone and instantly spotted the tuna fish hiding behind it. Eventhough the fish was near the river's edge, it was still too far for Kion to catch it from where he stood on the embankment. The feline still had to wade in the water to reach the tuna fish.
"Be careful, Kion. The water currents is flowing too fast!" Ono warned from above as Kion began to submerge himself into the river.
"Don't worry, Ono! I think I can handle this!" Kion assured his friend with confidence. Slowly, Kion waded his way towards the unsuspecting tuna fish. Using his claws, Kion was able to swipe the tuna fish from the water and onto the river's edge behind.
"Okay, you got it, Kion! Now quickly swim back to the ground!"
"Haha! You don't have to tell me twice!" Kion chuckled as he began wading back towards the embankment. But just before his paws could reach the river's edge, Kion's left hind leg accidentally slipped on a slippery stone hidden in the water and the strong water currents instantly swept him off his paws.
"WHOAHH… UGH!"
Kion groaned in pain when the strong river currents caused him to slam hard against the massive stone that was right next to him.
"Hapana! Kion, are you okay?!" Ono cried out in panic when he saw his friend slam against the rock.
"Ugh… yeah I'm fine, Ono! Just a little bruise on my shoulder but I can still swim towards the embankment," Kion assured him as he continued wading towards dry land, much to the Egret's relief.
Ono landed on the grassy ground just as Kion pulled himself out of the river before drying himself up.
"Whew! I'm glad you were able to make it out of there, Kion. I was worried for you back there!"
"Sorry about that, Ono. But you don't have to worry, I've been through a lot worse than that," Kion chuckled to his friend assuringly. "Now, come on! Let's put this tuna together with the other fish."
"Affirmative!" Ono replied as he took off in the air while Kion clenched the tuna fish in his jaws as he walked ahead downstream.
Several minutes later, they arrived at the spot where they last left the other fish… and got a horrifying shock. There, they saw the pile of tuna fish were eaten and replaced with fish-bones, and a spotted Serval hungrily eating the last piece of tuna fish.
"MWONGO!" Kion shouted out of pure anger, startling the preoccupied Serval.
Mwongo gasped and dropped the tuna fish that he had been eating and instantly noticed a furious Kion and an equally enraged Ono staring angrily at him.
"Oh! Err… Kion! Didn't see you and your Egret friend coming… heheh. Thought I had some lunch while waiting for you two to um… to finish," Mwongo nervously replied and began to cower down when he saw Kion snarling at him and revealing his razor-sharp fangs.
"Mwongo! Argh… I should've known better than to trust you!" Kion snarled, as he unsheathed his claws and with every intention to pounce on the cowering Serval.
Mwongo flashed a nervous smile and tried to reason with the hostile Lion cub. "Look, kid. I… I… can explain! I was just…"
"Save it, Mwongo! We know you lied to us and used us to get you food for free!" Kion continued as Mwongo slowly backed away from him.
"Grrrargh!"
"Whoah, watch it kid!"
Kion had leapt towards the Serval but Mwongo anticipated this and was able to jump out of the way in time. Kion's breathing intensified as he narrowed his sights onto the runaway Serval. Dark clouds suddenly formed overhead that somehow began to resemble a pride of four Lions, as Kion prepared himself to use the Roar of the Elders on Mwongo.
But before he could even open his mouth to unleash the Roar, Ono unexpectedly appeared right in front of him and blocking his sights on Mwongo.
"Kion, don't use the Roar! You'll wipe out half the forest if you use the Roar while you're angry!" the Egret quickly warned him.
Kion realized his potential blunder and immediately backed down, as the dark clouds overhead suddenly dispersed the moment he did so. Kion let out an exasperated sigh as he watched the golden-yellow spotted Serval run through some underbrush before completely vanishing from Kion's sights.
"Kion! I can still track him from up here and you can-"
"Forget it, Ono. Let him go," Kion abruptly cut him off, much to the Egret's astonishment.
Ono landed on the ground and looked towards the underbrush where Mwongo had disappeared before looking back at Kion with confusion. "Um… I'm sorry, Kion, but I don't understand… why are we letting Mwongo go?"
"There's no point in catching him, Ono. Even if we do catch him, we can't make him do anything else. It's already too late in the evening and Upendi Day is coming to an end," Kion sighed as he looked up past the tree branches above and towards the evening sky that was slowly turning a bright hue of orange as the sun was slowly setting in the horizon.
"I'm really sorry, Kion," Ono quietly apologized while putting a comforting wing around his friend.
"Nothing to be sorry about, Ono. It was my fault. If I hadn't let my emotions cloud my better judgements, I wouldn't have trusted Mwongo in the first place," Kion sadly admitted while staring at the ground. He then spotted a yellow-coloured rose in a nearby bush and immediately went over to pluck it using his teeth.
"What do you plan to do?" Ono inquired when he saw Kion clenching the single yellow-coloured rose in his teeth,
"Well, I'm still going back to hopefully cheer Fuli up, so this rose will have to do as my gift for her," Kion replied, still clenching on to the rose.
"That's very sweet of you, Kion," Ono smiled, touched by Kion's effort to brighten up Fuli's day. "Do you want me to accompany you?"
"That's okay, Ono. If you don't mind, I err… prefer to meet up with Fuli alone."
"It's okay, Kion, I understand," Ono cheerfully assured him with a smile before taking off into the air. "I'll get back with the other at Big Springs. Good luck with your meeting with Fuli!"
Thanks, Ono. I have a feeling I'm gonna need it, Kion thought to himself as he watched the Egret gain altitude before taking off into the skies above.
With a sigh, Kion picked up the rose with his teeth and left the forest to head towards where he last saw his Cheetah friend. As he walked through the Serengeti, he could see the beauty of the day of Upendi all around him. Wherever he looked, he could see animals; zebras, gazelles, impalas and many others gathering together and showing their love and friendship together as they all enjoyed the view of the setting sun slowly sinking in the horizon.
Kion couldn't help but smile as he walked past the animals, feeling happy for them that they were able to enjoy the Upendi Day with each other. However, he felt that he couldn't really say the same for himself, as the day seemed to be going nowhere but downhill for him. Because of that, he was feeling rather optimistic with his meeting up with Fuli.
He walked for about ten minutes until he arrived a familiar path that would eventually lead to the very edge of the Pridelands. Kion continued ahead on the path, still clenching the rose in his mouth. As he walked on, he saw that he had an unobstructed view of the setting sun directly on his left. Suddenly, he could make out the outline of another animal heading his way just ahead of him. He squinted his eyes and saw that the animal had familiar golden-yellow fur coat that was broken by several circular black spots. Kion's jaw instantly dropped when he recognized who the animal was.