I don't own any of the animals, apart from Habusu (Swahili for 'prisoner').
Zazu turned at the voice, and found himself facing an egret. "Who are you," he asked.
"My mother called me Habusu," the egret replied, "the humans call me 'wader'."
"Hum..." Zazu began to ask, then realised, "oh, you mean the ones that walk on their hind legs?"
"That's right," Habusu replied, then turned her head and gave Zazu a sideways glance, "you're not from round here are you?"
Zazu had meant to say 'I should hope not', but realised that this sort of attitude was unlikely to help him here, and instead, replied, "no, I'm not, what about you?"
Habusu's expression of interest fell for a moment, revealing sadness, before it recovered, and the egret replied, "my whole life."
"Your whole life," Zazu asked, shocked, "you've lived here your whole life?"
"I have," Habusu replied.
"But, wasn't it boring," Zazu asked.
"It may have been," Habusu sighed, "but when you've got nothing to compare it with, how do you know?" She seemed to contemplate for a moment, then asked, "so, where do you come from?"
"The Pridelands," Zazu replied.
"Never heard of them I'm afraid," Habusu said, "that's not another pet shop is it?"
"Pet sho..." Zazu began to ask, then realised what Habusu meant, "oh, no, no, not another pet shop, the Pridelands is open savannah."
"Open savann..." Habusu began to ask, then seemed to get slightly more excited, "you mean the wild?"
"Well, not really very..." Zazu began, then though better of it, and said, "basically yes."
"What, what was it like," Habusu asked.
Vitani found the constant noise to be, oddly, both calming and aggravating. Time passed, though she couldn't be sure how long, then the noise changed, to a deeper pitch. Soon, there was a bump, followed by several more, and a screech.
There was another sound, almost like two smooth rocks sliding, then the air was filled with sounds, many of them new to Vitani, and all of them loud. There were new smells as well, as there had been before, when they'd put the cave or whatever it was, well, wherever it was now.
The cave suddenly jerked, then jerked a few more times, then thumped down onto something. There was another roar, similar to the one she'd heard when she was in the cage. There was a sense of movement, but seemed to be much more sedentary this time.
Though most of the noises remained the same during the journey, one seemed to get louder, an obscene, painful scream. At first, it worried Vitani, then, when it didn't stop after a reasonable period, she took it as another of the mysteries that surrounded the strange, upright creatures. Nevertheless the sound was still unnerving, and even, before it was cut off, at least somewhat, louder to her than her own roar.
When the sound was muted, Vitani took the opportunity to go over her recent experiences, but could still make no sense of them. Fairly soon, whatever the cave was in seemed to move again, and like before, the cave and whatever it was in vibrated, though for somewhat longer than before, and then stopped.
Zazu was surprised to find, as evening began to fall, that he was quite calm, in fact, he was almost enj...no not enjoying it, never enjoying it, but nevertheless, it was more bearable than he'd have thought. Humans, he finally had a name for the odd creatures, were the oddest things he'd ever come across, then and all their strange ways and stranger 'machines'.
Habusu had helped him along, both by telling him a lot about what she knew or suspected, but also, in asking him about the Pridelands and his part in it, stopped him from dwelling on his current circumstances.
There were other animals in the 'pet shop', though many were too far away to really talk to, and many of the others were either disinterested, or chattered so relentlessly it was almost impossible to converse with them. Still, there were a few, and they were good to talk to.
Suddenly, the cage went dark. Zazu gasped, startled, then said quietly, "Habusu?"
"Yes Zazu," Habusu replied, "is something wrong?"
"What's going on, "Zazu asked.
"What do you..." Habusu began to ask, then realised, "oh, the covers, don't worry, this happens every night."
"Really," Zazu asked.
"Yeah," Habusu replied, "why, did it scare you?"
"It, startled me for a moment," Zazu replied, "it's never happened before."
"Hasn't it," Habusu asked, "but I thought you'd been in a cage for a while."
"Several days," Zazu replied, "but it's still never happened before."
"Oh," Habusu said, "well, it's normal in here, nothing to worry about."
"Mm," Zazu said
Vitani was jolted awake when the cage jerked. She was surprised that she'd actually managed to get some sleep at all, but that didn't matter at the moment, as the cave jerked again, and again, and then there was a faint screech.
After a while, there was a click, and the sudden roar of noise that followed made Vitani cringe. The smells, too, were strange, and almost seemed to burn in her nose. There was another jerk, and suddenly the cave was moving again.
The first scene Vitani saw at the cave was removed from wherever it had bee stunned her, outdoing even the noise and the smells. A long way away, great birds, probably larger than elephants, and with all sorts of colours roared as they rose, lumbering, into the sky. Had anyone merely told her of such a sight, she'd have laughed at them, but seeing with her own eyes, it amazed her.
Suddenly, the view changed, and now Vitani was staring up at one of the birds, and continued to stare. She only stopped looking when the bird, or whatever it was, was no longer visible around the mouth of the cave.
Another bump jolted Vitani back to reality, followed by some shouting, and strange noises out of her view. Suddenly, the cave jerked, and they were moving again. As they moved away, she was further stunned at how big the plain was.
Gradually, the scene changed from wide open space, to what looked like dark canyons, and the smells changed from nose stinging, to something almost nauseating. It wasn't long before they were caught in a stampede, unlike any other she'd ever seen. She'd never seen any animals of the sort before, if they 'were' animals, and while they were obviously wanting to go somewhere, they seemed to dislike actually touching.
The journey continued for a while, then they turned, and were suddenly out of the stampede. Stopping a moment later, there were some more noises, though again, Vitani couldn't see what was going on, and then the cave jerked, and rose, wobbling slightly. The journey was much shorter this time, and ended with the 'mouth' of the cave against some kind of wall, which opened up at the same time as the grey barrier across the front of the cave did. Not wanting to spend any more time in the cave, she raced out.
