...12 o clock noon...
"Alright Ramonda, we ready to leave for the hunt now." Janja shouted to me getting my attention.
"Ok, coming!" I replied as I ran to catch up with them, grabbing a tranquilizer hand gun from one of my suitcases as I passed the remains of my plane once more.
They were going pretty fast now and I soon figured out if this was going to work I would need them to slow down.
"Hey guys! Wait up!" I called out desperately through strained pants, almost collapsing to my knees, but managing to hold myself up.
They all stopped while Janja shot me a strange look.
"Should of told you this before, but i can't run as fast as you guys can. You're gonna have to take it down a notch ok?" I said as I finally regained my breath.
"Oh right, two legs and all I can understand that...alright guys slow it down a bit." He ordered as we continued on.
As we traveled at a much more manageable jogging pace, I was able to make it up to where Janja was. He looked at me from the side view and gave me a strange look as he noticed the tranquilizer attached to my belt.
"What's that thing?" Janja asked.
"In case." I replied plainly.
"In case of what, what do you mean?" Janja asked confused.
"In case I have to intervene. If what you say about the guard is true, then I best come prepared." I explained.
"Ok then..." He trailed off still very lost as to how some shiny stick was going to help them against the guard.
"Hey Janja what we hunting today?" Cheezi laughed as he licked his chops.
"I was think gazelles today boys, alright with you Ramonda?" Janja asked.
"Yeah, just do your thing Janja." I replied without giving my plan away to the others.
"Great I thought I spotted some over there no more than about a 100 yards from here, let's go check it out. Remember to stay low in the grass though so that we won't get caught." Janja commanded as they all crotched down and approached the gazelles from the tall grass.
The first thing I noticed as we crawled under the grass was that the grass was moving very obviously. If only the creature were to merely turn their head in our direction they would know something was up. I also noticed Janja was paying very little attention to the direction the wind was blowing, in this position our scent could easily be caught...I made a note to remind him of that later...
As we approached closer, by some miracle the herd of gazelles managed not to notice us, much to my relief.
"Ok, on three, one, two, three!" Janja said as they burst out of the foliage, leaving me behind in the grass in disbelief. However, despite a foreboding sense of their utter failure I forced myself to watch.
As I expected their sudden and unplanned attack was only meant with chaos as the animals scrambled away, Janja even getting kicked in the face a few times by their powerful hooves. As they came back I held in a laugh at the site. The looked like they just been through a tornado, their hair all matted and rough and leaves, twigs and almost covered their entire bodies.
"Wow...that was just wow, are you ok?" I asked as I collected myself.
"I'm fine, except maybe my pride. This was just downright embarrassing!" He grumbled.
"Hey don't worry boss, if you want I can point out a few things I noticed that you might want to consider working on." I replied.
He frowned slightly at the idea of being told what to do, but he knew I was smart. Although at the word boss...his demeanor softened almost completely.
"Hey sure, but as you can see it's pretty hopeless." Janja said in a depressed tone, but with hints of hope.
"Well for one when you approach through the grass like that it seems a bit too obvious and noisy. If the gazelle were to turn their attention to you they would know something was up and you wouldn't have even got as far as you did. Although mostly the only cover around here is grass, if you're are very careful about it you can go through it with the lest amount of noise and movement possible. Make sure that you pay attention to the direction of the wind as well, or your prey could easily catch your scent. Also I noticed you actually verbally say commands, it would be much less risky if you were to come up with inaudible ways of communicating, like with signals of some sort. Also it's important to go into a hunt with a solid plan beforehand, not just an idea. I know hunting situations can be unpredictable, but planning out different courses of actions beforehand can really increase your chances of being successful. In others words strategy and tact are a must in the hunting world." I explained hoping Janja wouldn't take it the wrong way.
"Holy pride lands that's a lot to take in! I don't know if I ever told you this, but you're so smart it's scary...you almost remind me of Scar." Janja exclaimed in disbelief, but grateful for the information.
"Who's Scar?" I asked puzzled.
"Oh, well he's a guy I used to work for...a lion." Janja replied.
"I thought you didn't like lions? Isn't that what the whole lion guard thing is about?" I asked.
"I don't like lions in general, but Scar was the exception to the rule. He helped us try to take over the lions rule, but we failed. And by the way, the lion guard isn't made up of only lions if that's what you're thinking." Janja explain with a little sharpness to his voice.
"What happened to this Scar, and what are the lion guard made up of then?" I asked growing ever more curious.
"As for Scar he's dead, the lions killed him...and as for the gua..." Janja started but was stopped mid sentence as he was tackled by some sort of bird.
"Gah! It's the lion guard Ramonda, run!" Said Chungu as he a Cheezi took off leaving their boss to deal with the bird.
In the distance I could also make out a few more figures approaching us at a rapid pace. A hippo, a cheetah, a honey badger, and a lion cub. Honestly they didn't look all that threatening, that is until it clicked in my mind for the first time where I actually was. Somehow seeing guard had refreshed my memory, and I remembered that I had in fact seen them before...in a tv show...
It then dawned on me the real gravity of my situation...I had somehow been sucked into a childish tv show based on lion king. This was both exciting and terrifying at the same time. Exciting because this is like one of my favorite episode series ever, and terrifying because I now knew exactly what I was up against. Or maybe I could use that to my advantage...
"Get off of me you bird brain!" Janja yelled as he shook the bird off and it went flying through the air.
"Janja." I whispered as the the guard was closing in. "I've got an idea just play along ok." I finished as he looked at me weirdly, but nodded none the less.