Authors Note: Just so everyone knows, Vitani doesn't have the power of the "Roar" from the Lion Guard. One of reasons is never liked how overpowered Kion was in the show and to have Vitani have it like she did at the end of the show would, personally, make the fights short and boring. Honestly, don't know yet if I'll have Kion possess that power either.
A small cave in the rainforest
When they wake up, Vitani leads the team to find either Simba or the humans, hoping one will lead to the other. The heat of the rainforest is hard, but they are used to 80-90 degree temperatures since they live in the Savanna. It's the humidity that's taking its toll on them, especially Vitani who had grown up in the desert of the Outlands. Not only that, but the thick foliage, although beautiful with its greenery and flowers of all sorts, made every step difficult. Additionally the ground was still wet from yesterdays storm, which matted the fur and made everything slippery. They felt exhausted, hot, and irritated, and considering that their group is made of a predator and two snacks, it made Timon and Pumbaa a bit uneasy. To add to the already stressful situation, they were getting hungry.
Pumbaa groaned "Hey Vitani, can we stop for a minute? We're starving."
Vitani rolled her eyes and looks back at them, "Your hungry, not staving. Trust me, I know the difference. We haven't found any clues yet so we need to keep moving."
Timon then says to his hungry friend "Don't worry big guy, I'm sure if keep our eyes open will find some crunchy delicacies."
"Thanks Timon, but you know it's the slimy ones that are the best."
"Oh no my heat stroked friend, the crunchy ones hold the most flavor."
"Slimy!" "Crunchy!" "Slimy!"
"Both of shut up!" Vitani growled.
"Look kid, I know we're on an important mission and everything, but we ain't exactly hard core soldiers like you are, we need to refuel our tanks here." Timon defends.
"No, seriously. I think I've found something." she says while sniffing the air. "It smells like humans, it's similar to the scent from the river. They have some kind of animals I don't recognize."
As they follow the scent, Timon can't stand the hunger anymore. "Alright! Time out! I ain't movin' an inch till I get some grub." After a quick glance around he sees a dead fallen tree. Both run up and start tearing it apart, rotted wood flying everywhere.
Vitani starts walking up "Alright, five minutes." as she says this, a piece of wood lands in front of her, setting off a sharp toothed human contraption with a loud *CLANG*.
"What was that!" Timon says poking his head from the log.
"A clue. One that would've broken my paw." She said examining the trap.
"Oou fink if is da oomns?" Pumbaa said through a mouthful of bugs, which meant "You think this is the humans?"
Vitani had to think for a second to figure out what he said "Uh... wwell I have no idea what this is, but since this was so close to the scent trail it has to be them. We have to be getting close. You got your lunch so let's keep going."
Timon had lost his appetite, picturing what would've happened if he had been the one to set off the trap. And with a nervous laugh said "Hehe, yeah, right behind ya."
Pumbaa, who didn't quite comprehend the danger they just missed, grabbed a few more bugs before running after them.
Elsewhere in the jungle.
Tarzan had just sent Quinton and the others back to basecamp (aka. the treehouse), and now he had three poachers and their two dogs in his sight. They're in a clearing of tall grass that intersects with numerous game trails that lead to other areas of the jungle, where the sun has mostly dried out the ground from yesterdays rain. One man, short with brown hair, was in the truck keeping watch, holding a double barrel rifle. The other two, a tall Spaniard and one with dirty blond hair, search for signs of what kind of wildlife may be near, each carries a revolver and a knife. "Should I let them go and follow? Should I fight them now then question them?" He thought to himself. They had no cargo in their truck, just trapping equipment and some extra gasoline, so it was unlikely they would travel to their hidden storage area, although they may meet up with some others who may. However, his decision was chosen for him when the wind shifted and the large dogs picked up his scent in the air. Sniffing the air they walked around to find which direction his scent was coming from.
"Hold up, Balto and Caesar are picking up on something!" the Spaniard yells to the others.
When the dogs figure out where he is, they bolt after him. Tarzan gets ready to leave, but a gunshot almost hits him, startling him, causing him to fall out the tree. He lands on his feet, but the second he does he has to start dodging the dogs, and gunfire. One of the men gives the dogs orders with some whistles, moving them to cut off Tarzans escape and herd him toward the men, leaving Tarzan no choice but to fight. Fortunately for him, their shooting is slow and calculated to avoid hitting their dogs that are right on his heels, giving Tarzan an opportunity to make his move. He leaps at the Spaniard man, but he quickly dodges, jumping to the side. Before the man's friends can line up a shot, Tarzan tries to grab him, but the man uses his left arm to block his attempt, and then he used the right to land a fast, strong uppercut to Tarzan's jaw. The poacher then tried to thrust his knee into Tarzan's stomach, fortunately though he was able to block his blow, then jumps behind him. Tarzan then has to avoid the bite of the dogs, but after he dodges them, the blond man lunges at him with his knife, but he ducks and while moving behind him he grabs the neck of his shirt. The man however uses an arm lock on him, which bends him back, opening him up to a strong punch to the head. The powerful strike leaves him dazed, which took him by surprise, mainly because most hunters he fought where easy to beat, but these men aren't just strong, but skilled as well. They have been trained to fight.
The blond stands over him and says "I don't understand why Hatton let you live, but I'm not making that mistake." Just as he gets ready to take the killing shot with his revolver, a powerful roar shakes the air. Before anyone can react, the Spaniard is struck from the side, slammed to the ground by a tan blur, which gives Tarzan the opportunity to pull the blond to the ground, throwing the gun away and jumping to his feet. He hears yelping, turning to see the man on the truck flailing around, swatting at himself like something was crawling on him. When he turns around, he sees what saved him, a lioness, who is now fighting the dogs. Tarzan didn't understand what was going on, and while he looked around to figure out what was going on, Blond was getting up, knife in hand. He doesn't even make it two steps before a warthog crashes into him, knocking him to the ground and leaving him in a daze. The warthog turns around and charges for another run, headbutting the man, knocking him out cold. While that happened, the man in truck falls out, and a meerkat crawls from his pant leg.
"Hey! Just grab the shaved monkey and lets go!" the meerkat yelled.
Tarzan, now realizing that these must be Simba's friends and that they are here for him, grabs Blond, who is still unconscious, hoping to question him back at the treehouse. All of them turn and run for the cover of the jungle, and as they do so, the other two poachers pull themselves together to start shooting once more. Unfortunately for those men, the Spaniard had trouble shooting because his right arm was left with deep punctures when lion bit him as he was hit, besides other injuries she inflicted. The brown haired man was in better shape, but he had dropped his rifle in the truck when he fell off, and by the time he recovered it they had almost completely disappeared.
Even after the get a safe distance away they keep running, not knowing if the poachers have followed in their trick. Tarzan says while still running with the unconscious Blond "Thank you, you three saved my life."
Timon tells him "Don't thank us, I'd woulda let ya duke it out with those guy. It was the lady's idea, we just went along with her."
They stop for a moment to talk and catch their breath, Tarzan going first "Thank you," he said looking at Vitani, "You must be Simba's friends, Vitani, Timon and Pumbaa right?"
She was surprised when he mentioned Simba's named. "He knows his name, and ours. He must have talked with him. This must mean that he's alive!" she thought to herself. However, she kept her excitement to herself, keeping a calm and stoic attitude, sitting between Tarzan and her... 'friends' to be safe, though he knew them, they didn't know him. "How did you know we're with Simba? Or a better question, how do you know him?" Vitani asked, although she had many more questions, she needed to stay composed.
"Yesterday I saw him struggling in the river, I pulled him out and took him to my home so we could take care of him. If you follow me I'll take you to him, he's been waiting for you." He answered
Timon and Pumbaa cheered and Vitani heaved a sigh of relief on hearing he's alive. Timon then said "See kid, I told ya he'd be fine."
Before they continued though, Tarzan had a question for them, "I've been wondering though, why did you guys save me? After all I am human."
"Told ya." Pumbaa commented quietly to Timon.
Vitani answered "Those humans looked similar to ones we saw at the boarder loading captive animals and leftover scraps." Referring to the horns and skin, because that's usually all the lions leave after eating, "Seeing you fight them reminded us of what our Mjuzi told us before we left, 'let their actions speak for themselves'. I concluded that you may be an ally, or at least someone worth talking to." she says, still trying to keep an official air about her. Few creatures have seen her relaxed.
Tarzan assures them "Well don't worry, I am an ally, and friend. Simba and I formed an alliance to save your brother and everyone else they took."
Timon, as impatient as ever butts in "How about we talk while we go see Simba! I gotta kill'em for almost dying."
"Come on Timon lighten up! Everything's working out great, Simba's alive, we have new friends, and we're back on Kovu's trail."
"Your just perpetually happy, aren't you?"
"Hakuna Matata"
Simba's hiding spot by the lake
Tarzan lead the trio to where Simba was taken by Jane and the others to hide until Quinton's group went back to the Trading Post. He isn't able to stay since he still has Blond and wants to get back before he wakes up. They round a corner at the edge of the lake, and walking down to the shore, they come upon an overhang created by the roots of a large tree and clay of the shore. When they see Simba half-asleep in the shade, they couldn't contain their excitement and rush in cheering and asking him questions. Even Vitani was visibly happy on seeing him alive. Simba startles awake, caught off guard he jumps to his feet, but fortunately he realizes it's his friends before he slashes at them.
Simba almost yells so he could be heard over their clamoring, cutting them all off "Guys, Slow down! It's good to see all of you are okay. How did you find me?" When his pulse slows to normal, he lays back down, wincing at the pain in his arm that flared up when he jumped up.
Vitani answers "Tarzan brought us here. We found him fighting some poachers, we helped him and he's taking the man he captured back for interrogation." She pauses for a second, looking him over, just now noticing his injuries before asking "Your Highness, uh, Simba...Sir, what happened to you? How did you get your wounds?"
"Yeah big guy, you look like you lost a fight with an elephant." Timon says "You didn't did ya?"
"No" He replies "The river I fell in took me down some rapids. I lost a fight to a bunch of rocks and boulders." The bad joke only gets Simba weak 'ha' from Timon.
Vitani asks "How bad are the injuries?"
He answers with a positive tone "My head has a gash but nothing serious, and arm might have a small fracture so I need to avoid using it. That's the worst of it, nothing life threatening so I'll be fine."
"That's good news, Nala would probably kill you if died." Timon quips, getting a chuckle from Simba.
Pumbaa then asks "So where'd you get the fancy bandages?"
To which Timon adds "Even the monkey don't got anything like this."
"From Tarzan's father-in-law. He's a lot like Rafiki. Smart, kind, eccentric." he answers.
Timon sighs "Oh great, there another one. Well at least it looks like he knows what he's doing."
Vitani felt uneasy knowing that there are more humans with Tarzan other than himself. She then asks Simba something that's been on her mind since she saw Tarzan "Do you think we trust them? He's helped us so far, and he's definitely not with those other guys. But that doesn't guarantee that he is or will stay our friend. You've only known him a day."
Simba couldn't deny her reasoning, he did feel that his decision was a little rushed. However, he still felt confident in his choice "I believe we can, he saved my life, and in doing so risked his own, even though he didn't have any reason to do so. Even the locals tell me that he's someone who's trustworthy, they trust him with their life, which I think is worth something."
"Understood. But I'll be watching them." Vitani said with a subtle hiss, still wary of them, feeling a little extra protective because of his condition.
"I expected you'd say that. Thank you Vitani for looking out for us." Simba's praise delighted Vitani, it was something her mother Zira rarely gave, and most of the time her praise was reserved for Kovu.
Pumbaa questioned "Soooo, what do we now?"
"We wait until one of them returns to let us know it's clear for us to go back to their base. I'm sure everyone will be eager to meet you, and hopefully they have some information from that man. Until then, you guys must be tried, so you should relax until then." Simba answered.
"Ha, don't have to tell me twice." Timon said while flopping down against the wall of the cave-like overhang.
As everyone laid down to rest, the rain began to lightly fall upon the crystal clear water. Simba looked out on the lake, feeling a sense of calm watching the water simmer in the rain. However he noticed something peculiar on the other side of the lake, swimming in the water. Whatever it was, it barely broke the surface, but he could tell it was large, very large. Fortunately, it makes its down one of the side rivers connected to the lake, leaving Simba with a feeling of unease.
Authors Note: I named the dog "Balto" after my first dog, and the other dog "Caesar" because when I was writing that part I was watching "War of the Planet of the Apes". The next chapter will include Kovu and his fellow captives in addition to Vitani's group meeting Tarzan's, and maybe an explanation on Vitani's feelings toward Simba.