Saturday's morning was showily blazing with rays of the sun, which deeply and curiously peeked at the outskirts of Pride Lands municipality like its' own fiercest caretaker. The children of neighborhood, either large quadrupedal or tiny bipedal mammals, birds and reptiles, goofed around the jungle parks and watering holes in the peak of the hottest morning, eventually freed from their responsibilities for two days.
Kion awakened on the good side of the bed. His good humor was very evident from the stature of the childish sounds playing outside like a melody.
"Silence out there!" the deep voice echoed like a mix of most intense words. "The royality is sleeping!"
The adult quadruped slid his belly across the hard stone, already used to melody of its shuffle and laid down next to his offspring. "My child is still in a slumber..."
The young one yawned, but his eyes were still heavy enough to render any surrounding.
"Come back to rest, my son." the voice snarked. "The certain brats can't disturb your nap, can they?"
"Dad... My nap was not disturbed..."
"You're still holding their side, do you?" his voice went even deeper, probably from chagrin. "...Listen... I know these monsters are your friends... But they can't interrupt your sleep, like in their own house."
Kion felt disturbed the moment he more listened to the voice. His eyes soberly opened. "Dad... Your voice..."
"...My voice?..." the adult remarked. "...Pardon me, son, your behavior is outrageous."
The young one paled, as the structure of scaly body instead of fluffy fur rubbed his side, giving a strong and uncomfortable feeling of tiny peebles attached to each other.
Unable to bear this feeling, Kion decided to look at his right.
Along with eagerness, his heart stopped.
Kion found himself in the presence of something else that looked nothing like his father, but still was very well-known creature for the gaze.
"KIBURI!"
"Oh, what a shocker..." the adult crocodile rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Admit it, son. How long have you been avoiding sleep for yourself, and messing around with your fellows?"
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY FATHER!?"
The brown-eyed crocodile quirked an eyebrow, this time, looking very worried. "Kion? Are you feeling okay? Did you hurt your head somewhere? I am your father..."
"N-no... You are not, Kiburi. Where is my father? Did you hurt him?"
The adult crocodile sighed and immediately calmed down. The reptile crawled around the moss and boulders distressed and pondered a short while. He peeked at the young one.
The only sensible of idea strucked to him.
"I will call Tamka to check if you have some nasty kind of fever," Kiburi said. "He should find a way or either know what to do for you... Rafiki is busy right now."
"...R-Rafiki betrayed the Pride Lands?..." Kion caught his breath, devastated. "He betrayed us?..."
The adult crocodile frowned, still strongly worried. "Enough is enough, Kion..."
Looking through the lianas obtrusively growing on the exit, the reptile called someone.
"Tamka! Can you come here, please!?"
"Ye-yah, your majesty!"
Kion sensed strong vibrations giving its' signs on the ground. Kiburi still whispered something, but slowly stood aside.
The bigger and bulky reptile entered inside, passing by his slouching leader and stopping right in front of the youngest one.
"OH! The wittle pwince has a boo boo?" the giant childishly asked. Probably to make the little one feel comfortable or make him red-faced from a shame.
Tamka stretched out and stared with Kion in a direct contact. "Now, I'm gonna check youw tempewatuwe, be cawefuw."
"Zip it, Tamka... Kion is not in the mood for this..." Kiburi declared.
"Fine, fine." Tamka awkwardly grinned and then patted the boy's upper jaw. "This will do a trick..."
Kion felt a sudden and bothersome urge for his muzzle to open up, he didn't understand why. Maybe because of those tickles.
The bulky reptile grasped it in perfect moment before it could close. "Here you go..."
The youngster sneezed and opened his eyes afresh. He blinked confusedly, as he spotted some green at his vision. It couldn't be Tamka's green, since he has been combing the area of the boy's teeth.
Kion trembled the moment he saw the nostrils moving with nerves... HIS nerves...
He screamed at the top of his lungs, his eyes filling with tears from realization WHAT he is. "WHAT" that was not a familiar sight.
"Shhh... Shhh... Don't get nervous..." Tamka uttered busy some words. "I'm capable of no harm, I'm capable of no harm... Shhh... Shhh..."
The former lion was full of adrenaline, his voice whimpering in a rush of panic. Tamka's words were only making him feel worse than he was.
"Mistake... That's a mistake!" Kion's narrow snout barely sounded. "That must be a dweam... That must be a dweam..."
Kiburi only stared at his son begging for mercy in a distance, his heart wretching, but hardly trying to show it. The adult crocodile only stared.
"Well, your majesty..." the bulky reptile stated with a worry. "It is a fever... and flu... But caused by a storm of unknown factors..."
"How do you guessed, my subject?"
Tamka rose up to his standing position and turned back to his leader. "His whole gullet red like fruits from rashes."
"What a nonsense..." the crocodile leader shook his head in unamused reply. "What on earth would he get this blotch from?"
The bulky reptile shrugged. "No idea, my king..."
Kiburi let out a sigh. "Fine... Can you give some way to deal with it?"
Tamka smiled.
"Do not worry about it. I am sure that if the prince lies warm for a while, he will feel better."
His leader nodded. "Maybe you lack in intelligence, but clever enough to figure out something like that. Alrighty then, what would be the perfect source of contained warmness for him, then?"
"This would, of course, be your scaly person, your majesty."
"W...W-what?"
"Your son needs you, your highness. You are his father, and no one can replace your paternal instinct, after all."
The king of Pride Lands glanced at his hatchling. Kion trembled from cold. The adult walked closer, laid down and expanded his body around the lizard child, enough to cover him under own light green underbelly.
"Yes, I know what do you mean."