It's a hot, dry day, as the sun rises over the Pride Lands. Fuli is walking to Rafiki's tree to check on Kion, and the outsider. She was confused as to why Kion would push himself so hard just to save some banished lioness, a lioness who followed Scar. She remembered that Kion knew the lionesses name, Vitani. The name didn't ring a bell, although no outlander's name would have. She finds herself at the foot of Rafiki's tree, she calls out to Rafiki only to find Makini responding.
"Here to check on Kion? He just woke up, head on up. And by the way, Rafiki is out collecting more berries and healing herbs, so it's just me here." Fuli nods in understanding and she makes her way up the tree. When she's about to reach the entrance, she hears Kion's laugh, as well as an unfamiliar one. 'Must be the outsider,' she thinks to herself. As she enters, she sees Kion and Vitani are both awake, and have a friendly conversation. Kion notices Fuli and quickly turns to face her with a smile.
"Hey Fuli, It's nice to see you."
"Same, glad you're ok. And who's the outsider?" She knew her name, but she still asked.
"I'm Vitani, thank you for asking." Fuli shoots her a dirty look before looking back to Kion.
"Are you sure you can trust her?"
Kion's nods, "with my life, remember about a year ago when I went missing for 2 days?" Fuli nods and recalls the memories, the entire Pride Lands spent two days searching for Kion, and when they were about to give up, he was found at Hakuna Matata Falls by Bunga, Timon, and Pumbaa, completely unharmed. He said that he was there the entire time, and he told everyone that he was there, but no one seemed to remember. Eventually everyone dropped the whole situation and was just glad to have Kion back. "Yea well, if you couldn't tell, my excuse was a complete lie, and I'm surprised you all believed me, or at least stopped asking me questions, anyway, what actually happened was I was saving a few hyraxes from a rock slide, and one the rocks knocked me into the outlands. I sprain my paw and could barely walk. Thankfully, Vitani was nearby, and she helped keep me hidden from the other Outlanders. She brought me healing herbs, and kept me company here and there. I still don't know why she helped, but I'm thankful for it." He smiles at Vitani who gives him one of her rare genuine smiles back. "During my time in the Outlands, Vitani taught me a few tricks that I still use today, like how to get out a few pins, and how to correctly counter an attack. We got pretty close, and I was definitely sad to see her go. We met up a few times after that, but decided it was too risky to see each other so often, so I've only seen her 3 times since the incident."
"Oh, I see," says Fuli. She begins to feel a bit of jealousy build up in her, but she doesn't why.
"Oh and Vitani got kicked out of her pride, so I'm going to ask my dad if she can stay with us."
"She's staying?"
"Maybe, why?" Fuli's jealousy began to take control of her. Fuli thought that Kion would spend all his time with Vitani, and not leave anytime for her. All their late night walks and star gazing would be over, and she would only see him on patrol. For once in her life, Fuli became flustered, unable to articulate her thoughts.
"But Kion what about...when will...will I...fine forget it." She quickly turns and heads toward the exit.
"Fuli wait." But Fuli kept walking, as she felt a stinging sensation in her eyes. She rubbed her eyes to try and stop the feeling, but no success. She was at the foot of the tree about to begin running before she felt a paw on her shoulder.
"Fuli." She knew it was Kion. His voice was full of concern.
"What do you want Kion?" She didn't turn to face him, but decided to listen.
"I want you to stay Fuli. I don't know what I said that made you leave, but I'm sorry. I feel like I haven't spent time with you in days, and honestly, I miss the nights we spent together. I don't know what I'm trying to say...but please don't go" He moved her face gently to face his, and he smiled his goofy Kion smile. She felt tears begin to form in her eyes, but refused to let Kion see. Kion pulled her into a hug.
"You thought because Vitani was here, that I was going to forget about you?"
"How did you know?"
"How do you think I felt when Azaad was around." His tone seemed to change has he spoke, enough for Fuli to pick up on it. He lets Fuli out of the hug as he turns away and his ears drop.
"What do you mean Kion?"
"Well, you did hang out with him every day and all night, except for patrol. Even when I asked to hang out you kind of...pushed me aside, said you were already hanging out with him." As he spoke, he refused to meet Fuli's gaze, which was extremely rare for the leader.
"Kion, why didn't you say anything? You always smiled and said ok or have fun. Why didn't you say you were upset."
"You seemed happy, Fuli. And who was I to take that away from you. What kind of friend doesn't want their friends to be happy?" Kion's selflessness always overpowered his other character traits. He was always willing to sacrifice his own health and well-being for his friends, and Fuli had so much envy for Kion because of that.
"Kion I...I never knew, I'm sorry."
"It's fine." Fuli leaned on Kions shoulder, as the two shared a moment in silence, each not needing to say anything, as the company of the other was more than enough. After a few minutes Kion broke the silence.
"So...you have patrol soon huh?"
""Yes I guess so, and you have more sitting around today." They share a quick laugh before Fuli begins to head towards the lair.
"Fuli wait, come here."
"What is it Kion?" As she turns around, she can see a look in Kion's eyes, one that she's seen before but can't remember where. But before she can say anything, he leans in and kisses her on the check and asks "come back later?" Fuli nods with a slight blush as she turns around heads towards the lair. Kion watches her run until she disappears from his sight, he couldn't help but smile as he turns and heads back up Rafik's tree.
It's been two days since Vitani was helped by Kion. Somehow, Kion convinced Simba to give Vitani a chance. Kion had a lot more charisma then he realized, and when he was in the right state of mind, could basically convince anyone of anything. So although Kion did spend some time with Vitani, he still spent plenty of time with Fuli. As the sun was rising on another day, the guard was gathering at the lair. Although Kion was able to walk again, he still wasn't at full strength and was not allowed to lead.
"Hey Kion, glad you're ok," Says Beshte.
"Thanks Beshte, I wish I could be out there with you guys, sitting around all day is boring."
"Soon Kion, you just need a little patience," replies Beshte. Kion nods and smiles as Bunga enters next.
"Hey Kion, are you already back?"
"Not yet Bunga, but soon."
"Don't worry about it, I can take on any animal the Outland throws at us."
"Guess you're right, have you guys seen Ono or Fuli?" They both shake their head no. Kion thinks to himself, it's not like Fuli or Ono to be late. He starts running possible scenarios through his, trying to stay positive.
"We should probably go look for them, I'll head to Ono's flock, it's close so I should be fine. You two head to Fuli's favorite den, it's on the path to flat ridge." They nod in understanding and quickly head out of the lair. Kion heads out towards the trees that Ono's flock normally sleep in. When he arrives, he sees the egrets are awake, but he can't seem to identify Ono.
"Hey Egrets, I was wondering if you have seen Ono lately? He was late for early patrol and I'm worried about him." After a few seconds an egret flies down and lands near Kion.
"Hi Kion, im Ono's neighbor, I did see him last night, but when I woke up he was gone, which isn't unusual. He is normally awake very early in the morning to grab some food before heading to your lair, maybe he's still at the eating grounds, it's not too far from here, just past the large tree over there." He points his wing towards a large tree. Kion quickly recognized the area, the elephants found some underground water there, so it would make sense to find bugs there.
"Thank you, I'll see you around." He makes his way towards the large tree that was pointed out to him. As he passes into a small clearing, he notices egret feathers on the ground, which if this is an egret feeding, shouldn't be uncommon. He looked around, and caught a whiff of a familiar scent that he knew all too well, Ono. So Kion knew he was here recently, but where could he have gone? He looked around, and noticed paw marks on the ground, but not from any animal in the Pride Lands. His suspicion began to rise, to many conveniences at the same time. He turns to head back towards the flock, but he catches a glimpse of the tree.
"Is that...blood?" It all made sense to him, Ono was attacked while he was eating, but what happened to him? He had to tell the others. As he made his way over to the Bunga and Beshte, he thought to himself, Fuli was still missing. He stopped, was she kidnapped too? Or maybe even... He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, but began to panic as worst case scenarios began to swirl around in his head. He continued to one of Fuli's den, finding Beshte and Bunga had come and gone. He sniffed the air, getting a faint smell of Fuli, even though Bunga had been there previously, he also picked up another scent, hyena. He looked towards the path that led towards that lead to Outlands, he knew what he had to do, as he was about to head there himself, he heard a voice behind him.
"Kion?" He turned to see Fuli standing with a confused look. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm looking for you, where have you been?"
"The lair, where have you been?"
"Looking for you and Ono, I think Ono has been captured though, you can tell me why you were late later, we need to find the rest of the guard and head into the Outlands. Do you know where they are?" She shook her head no. Now Kion had to make a decision, find the rest of the guard, or head in with just Fuli. It didn't take him very long to decide.
"Looks like it's just me and you Fuli, let's go."
"But Kion, your injuries, you aren't ready for a fight."
"It doesn't matter, Ono needs our help, let's go." Fuli didn't want Kion to go, but he was right, and they quickly headed towards the Outlands. They were about to enter, but were stopped but a taunting voice.
"Going somewhere?" They both instantly recognized the voice.
"Janja, what did you do with Ono?" Demanded Kion. Janja and his clan appeared on the cliffs above.
"Ono? Oh you mean the Egret, don't worry, he's doing just fine, would you like to say hi?" As he finished his sentence, a huge grin appeared on his face. Kion and Fuli became weary, as they could feel something was wrong.
"Alright boys, bring him out." As Kion and Fuli looked up, they saw a hyena approach the cliff with something in its mouth, but with the sun in their eyes, they couldn't see.
"Here he is Lion Guard." He laughed as the hyena dropped whatever was in its mouth. The item was white like Ono, but wasn't flying like him. As soon as the it hit the ground, Kion and Fuli both take a step back, as they see in front of them a pile of small, bloody, bird bones. Both look at the pile in horror and disbelief, was he actually dead?
"You...you killed him?" Ask Fuli as tears begin to form in her eyes. She looks at Kion, who is fixed on the remains of their friend. She could see the disbelief in his eyes. Kion looked back at Janja, who had a huge, taunting grin on his face.
"Oh, and you might want to check on the main watering hole of the Pride Lands, there might be a small problem there." He and his clan begin to laugh. Kion turns to Fuli, they both nod at each other and take off towards the watering hole. When they arrive, they see Bunga and Beshte already there, they also see the banished lion pride along with all of the Outland animals, as well as the Pride Lands animals, surrounding it.
"Bunga, Beshte, what's going on?" Beshte turns to face him.
"See that dark brown lion in the middle? That's Kovu. He and the outlanders took over the watering hole, and for some reason, Makuus' float was woken up from their sleep. Simba said that they could use the watering hole, seeing as it's the only one that can fit his float. But when they arrived, Kovu challenged Makuu for the loyalty of his float. At first he refused, but when Kovu denied them the watering hole, Makuu had to accept, his float needs that water." Kion nods in understanding, but why is Makuu's float awake? As the fight between the crocodile and the lion raged on, it became obvious that Kovu was the superior fighter, dodging all of Makuu's attacks with relative ease. Kion could see that Makuu was slowing down as every attack that he missed and that Kovu countered was more wasted energy. In one swift and powerful motion, Kovu picked up Makuu, and slammed him on the ground. As Makuu hit the ground, a loud crack was heard from the crocodile. When Kovu got off Makuu, it was clear what happened, Kovu had broken Makuu's back, ending the fight indefinitely as Makuu was unable to move. He turned and faced the pridelands crocodiles, whose leader had just been defeated.
"Your glorious leader has been defeated in single combat. I believe it is the crocodile way that only the strongest shall lead, well I am the strongest, so I am your leader now," booms Kovu. The crocodiles looked around in confusion, as a non crocodile had just won a Mashindano. The confusion ends when one crocodile steps forward and bows, he is quickly followed by the rest.
"Good, this watering hole is only to be used only by the crocodiles, if anyone disobeys, they are going to end up like Makuu over there. Speaking of Makuu, Kibrui, as promised, he all yours, as is the float." Kibrui stepped out from behind the outlanders, an evil grin plastered on his face. He walks over to Makuus motionless body. A fews grunts were heard from Makuu, but his back prevented him from moving. Kibrui began to address the crowd.
"The penalty for anyone caught in my float's watering hole be.." he pauses and looks down at Makuu, and in an instant, bites down on Makuu's throat and rips it out, causing an almost instant death for Makuu. As he looks back up, blood covering his mouth and some of his face, "will be death," he finishes. The Pride Landers step back, as nobody could believe the brutal murder that happened, but one animal steps forward.
"Kovu?"