"Uh-oh," Zira muttered, turning to Malka. "Did you hear that?"

"I sure did," Malka whispered back. "There's something behind us. But come on. How bad can it be?"

"GRAAAAAH!"

Something dark and hairy suddenly jumped out at Malka from behind a bush. He yelped in fright and ran away, the creature close behind him. It was very muddy and had leaves and twigs matted in its fur, completely obscuring its face except for the open, sharp-toothed, slobbery mouth. In a few seconds it stepped on Malka's tail. The brown cub was terrified as the monster hovered over him. Hot smelly breath billowed over him. The creature slowly raised its grimy paw…and pushed the mass of fur and leaves up and away from its face, exposing two twinkling blue eyes.

Malka suddenly began to laugh. "Nyonda! I knew it was you the whole time!"

"Oh you did, did you?" The older male closed his mouth and wiped the drool off with the back of his paw.

Zira trotted up from behind, chuckling in her low voice. "I must admit, that was pretty fun to watch. You should have seen your face, Malka! You looked like you'd seen a ghost!"

Malka glared at her, though he couldn't hide his smile. "You were in on the whole thing, weren't you?" Zira responded with a mischievous, toothy grin.

The little clump of black fur that once adorned Malka's forehead had now grown into a considerably large tuft. He was quite proud if it; it was a comforting assurance that he was growing older and more respectable every day. Someday he'd have a mane to call his very own, but that day never seemed to come soon enough.

Nyonda, of course, was much closer to Malka's goal than Malka himself. Over the past few months the fur along the back of his neck had begun to grow longer and longer, as well as becoming a shade darker than the rest of his already-dark fur. His bangs were so long now that he could push them to the left side of his nose and have them stay there without falling back in his face. This gave him a perpetual one-eyed look, but Zira, Malka, and Ni had gotten used to it quickly. His voice seemed to be getting deeper, too…and oddly enough, so was Zira's, but not nearly as much. Her voice was a smooth alto now. Nyonda showed every sign of becoming a strong, deep bass, but right now his voice was still cracking every other sentence.

"Come on, Nyonda, we haven't got all day," Malka whined.

"Just…one…minute…" Nyonda answered. He was sitting up balanced on his hind legs, attempting to pick the leaves and twigs out of his hair.

"Maybe getting it wet will help," Zira thought aloud. "Why don't you let that go for now? We can go down to the river. You need to wash the mud out anyway."

Nyonda gave a final grunt of frustration and dropped back onto all fours. "Okay, okay. I'm coming."

The three trekked through the grass towards the river. It wasn't a long walk, and in a few minutes Nyonda was crouching on the bank, trying to get his hair wet but not lose his balance.

"Oh, here, let me," Zira huffed after watching Nyonda struggle for a few minutes. He seemed to be trying to use a paw to comb through his bangs while they were in the water, but he couldn't lean down far enough to reach the current. Zira waded into the river—luckily it wasn't very deep—and walked around Nyonda until she was facing him. "Malka, do you think you could hold his butt down?" she called to the younger cub. The latter snickered a bit but obliged, walking up behind Nyonda and half-climbing on him to keep him from falling into the water. "Nyonda, you can put your paw back now." Nyonda consented and pulled his paw back, feeling Malka's extra weight on his back and knowing that his friends wouldn't let him slip and fall.

That's more like it, Zira thought as she guided Nyonda's head down to the water and began to run her claws through his bangs. It was amazing how much immersion in water helped. The twigs and leaves came free quickly. The knots took more work. A cloud of dirt particles filled the water around Zira as she fidgeted with Nyonda's unruly mane. Carefully she combed through his black locks. When she felt a snarl beneath her paws, she meticulously separated the strands, trying her hardest not to hurt him. Despite her best efforts, every once in a while Nyonda gave a pained-sounding grunt. Each time this happened she flinched and relaxed her paws, mouthing a silent "Sorry."

Once she hit a tangle so big that her temper finally snapped. She wanted to scream in frustration and just yank out this horrible, untamable fur! But somehow she forced herself not to. Her best friend was attached to that fur. She clenched her teeth, wishing with all her might that she wouldn't give in to the sudden temper flare. All that came out of her mouth was a tense groan. She made herself handle the rest of the knots as slowly and gently as she could, and slowly her frustration eased away.

Finally Nyonda's bangs were clean and snarl-free. For good measure she cupped water in her paw and ran her claws through the black scruff on his neck as well. Since the fur there was much shorter it only took a few seconds. Eventually she told Nyonda to sit up. He obediently scooted backwards on the bank as Malka let him go. Zira climbed back up on land and shook herself.

"That took longer than I expected," she muttered, "but I think it was worth it. Look how nice your mane is now!"

Nyonda fingered his dripping bangs. "It's all stringy."

"That's because it's wet, Smart One."

Nyonda shook his head from side to side to get rid of the excess water. He gave the wet hair a surly look and sighed. "Oh well. When it's dry it'll look a lot nicer."

"I'll comb it if you want," Zira offered.

He gave her a questioning glare. "I'm perfectly capable of combing my own fur, Zira."

"Well, sorry, I was just offering…"

"Oh, no no no, it's okay! You can comb it if you want, I didn't mean…"

"No…I'm sorry. I-I shouldn't have snapped. It was a dumb suggestion."

"It wasn't a dumb suggestion at all, you were just trying to be helpful."

"Hey, guys! Look at this!"

Nyonda and Zira looked up. Malka had spoken, they were sure. They did a double take. He was out in the middle of the river!

They blinked. The grinning cub couldn't be standing on water. He was afloat on something; they couldn't tell if it was a tortoise shell or part of a tree. But however he was staying up, he was whizzing along with the current frightfully fast.

"Whoo-hoo! This is so awesome!" he shrieked. He was going so fast that his ears and head tuft flapped in the wind.

Zira and Nyonda took off down the river, eyes wide in fear for their friend. It seemed like the faster they ran, the faster he moved away from them. It wasn't helping that Malka was trying to go even faster by swishing one of his paws through the water. They shouted his name several times, though each time their voices sounded more and more strained.

The bank was uneven and scattered with the occasional rock. Because his legs were longer, Nyonda kept getting ahead of Zira, but she refused to let herself drop behind, churning her legs all the faster. She'd just put on a burst of speed when her forepaw slipped into a rut in the ground. As her momentum pushed the rest of her body forward, her paw stuck. Her wrist twisted in the mud. With a squeal of surprise and pain she fell to the ground.

"Oh, crud," she muttered under her breath. They couldn't stop now! They had to catch up to Malka! But as she tried to stand a searing pain shot through her arm. Her mouth opened in a silent scream. Her eyes burned. She eased herself back down to the ground and gingerly tried to lift her paw. She gasped as it cleared the ground. Just the slightest touch made her wrist feel like it was on fire. She couldn't even set it down. Tears trickled down her cheeks. Oh, great. Now she was crying.

"Zira!" Nyonda skidded to a sudden stop above her. "Zira, are you okay?"

Just when she thought things couldn't get worse. Here she was, playing the weakling again. How come she was always the damsel in distress?

"I'm fine!" she spat. Her hysteria-edged voice didn't sound at all like she wanted it to sound right now. "I just…" She sniffled. "I just tripped, that's all…" Why the heck was she acting like a sad, sorry crybaby?

"Don't be ridiculous, you're anything except fine. Here, lemme look." He leaned in.

Zira pulled her paw away. "Don't touch it."

"I won't touch it. I just want to look."

Obediently Zira extended her arm. She flinched. Sheesh, it even hurt to move. "There's no point. I can't do anything. And now we've lost Malka." She scowled. "You should have kept going. I was slowing you down anyway."

"You were hurt! I couldn't keep going if you were hurt!" He looked down at her with such a torn expression that she felt tears coming again. He'd had to choose between his two best friends. Yet the fact that he'd chosen her…

Nyonda pulled his gaze away from Zira's and looked worriedly downriver. Of course, Malka was nowhere to be seen. "Let's just pray he finds his way home."