A/N: Thank you to Liongirl09, TwilightHues, and SunRise19 for reviewing so
far! You inspired me to continue this story and I have the next chapter up,
and it's the longest one so far! Thank you all again and here's chapter 5!
Chapter 5: Encounter
"So where exactly are we going again?" Sumba asked Kovu.
"Wherever it is, I hope we get there soon, because I'm starved!" Chaka groaned.
"I'm sure Kovu is going to lead us somewhere with lots of food, right Kovu?" Kiara smiled hopeful at Kovu.
Kovu looked down at the two infant cubs that were half his size. He had never seen cubs smaller than himself before, obviously because he was the youngest in his pride. He felt a strange new feeling he'd never felt before when he gazed upon them. Before his thoughts could go any further, Kiara gave him a firm nudge against his shoulder.
"Hello? Kovu what is up with you today?" she asked frustrated.
"Sorry, it's nothing. Geez, lay off will ya?" Kovu growled and rubbed his shoulder.
Chaka and Sumba looked back and then quickly turned around and remained silent, and huddled next to each other while continuing to walk in front of Kovu as he had let them lead while instructing them where to walk.
Kiara was taken aback and stopped walking. Her ears lowered as her facial expression changed from frustration to concern. She sulked a bit, but then jogged to catch up with Kovu again. She came up close beside him and cleared her throat. Then in a quiet gentle voice she asked, "So where are we going, your majesty?" and gave a small smile.
He sighed and then looked at her. Upon seeing her smile, Kovu began to see that Kiara wasn't so different from him after all and began to wonder if they really had any differences at all. Maybe it was all in his mind. His upset expression immediately softened and he returned the small smile. "We're going to find some food."
Kiara raised her eyebrows and smiled content at him.
Chaka and Sumba whirled around and began jumping for joy and yelling happily.
"Yay!"
"Yay food!"
Kovu smiled and laughed along with the cubs, feeling proud that he was really being a leader now. Leader-that reminded him of his mother and her dream for him to become future king of Pride Rock. He wondered if he would ever get to climb up that majestic rock that he had seen from a far. Suddenly their laughter was halted by a distance ear-splitting screech.
"Kovu, what is that?" Kiara asked worriedly.
"My ears hurt!" Chaka whimpered and lay down to cover them.
Sumba cried out and copied Chaka.
Kovu glanced worriedly from the cubs to Kiara. Then he began frantically looking in all directions for the source of the shaking. "I don't know, I-
He caught a glimpse of something tall and white in the distance coming towards them. He squinted trying to make out what it was. The tall white animal thrust its wings out and began flapping them as it ran. Kovu gasped, realizing it was the ostrich him and Kiara had rescued the cubs from earlier.
"It's the ostrich!" Kiara gasped.
The infants screamed, as they became paralyzed with fear again from this morning.
The ground began to vibrate as the ostrich stormed closer and closer to the four cubs.
As the sun beat down on Chaka and Sumba, making them perspire even more, as they were already dehydrated, they began panting hard in fear. When they looked up, they saw Kovu and Kiara; both frozen in-place with fear. They were sure this was the end for all of them. The parched and dehydrated infants' eyelids lowered as they looked at each other still huddled together. Then, both of their eyes rolled up and they let a small, helpless noise and collapsed against each other.
Both Kovu and Kiara collected themselves and Kovu turned to Kiara.
"We each grab a cub and run, follow my lead!" he blurted out.
Kiara nodded her head understandingly and looked down at the cubs. She was so startled; she let out a scream.
"Kovu help!" she cried frantically.
Kovu was just as taken aback by the scene as Kiara was, but quickly yet gently scooped up Chaka as Kiara glanced behind them. The ostrich was now about 20 feet away from them and getting closer. It wasn't until then Kiara felt the ground shaking. She bent down and got a firm hold on Sumba's neck and swooped him up as she took off from the ground, fleeing for her and Sumba's lives. She caught up with Kovu and looked to him, as both of them breathed deep, frantic breaths through their noses.
Kiara concentrated on keeping up with Kovu as everything around them continued to become blurred.
Kovu hadn't the slightest idea where he was going, he just knew he wanted the ostrich to go away. Suddenly he smelled something familiar that made all his body fur stand on end. He winced as he whipped his head behind him, with an unconscious Chaka dangling just inches from the ground. His eyes went wide and he made a muffled scream.
The ostrich was right behind them, flapping its wings aggressively. It let out a furious screech. "STOP!"
Kiara turned around and whimpered as she saw the ostrich and whirled back around, continuing to run.
"I said STOP!" the ostrich screeched again.
Just then Kiara felt safer, but wasn't sure why. She whirled her head back around and saw the ostrich getting farther and farther away from them, in defensive position, standing still. She immediately slowed down and stopped running. She set Sumba down gently for a moment as the ostrich began to slowly proceed towards her. She backed up slightly and looked around frantically and remembered Kovu. She whipped herself back in the direction Kovu was running as he was getting farther away from her.
"KOVU!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.
His ears flickered and he stopped instantly, almost dropping Chaka, as he realized Kiara was no longer near him with Sumba. He set her down gently, and whirled around. Instantly, he spotted the looming ostrich and Kiara's bright orange coat, along with a limp ball of creamy tan fur close to her. His eyes watered as he grabbed Chaka and tore off towards his best friend.
Kiara looked around and pulled Sumba close to her and lay down, protectively cradling him as best she could, as she was still a cub herself.
"No, not him. Please don't hurt him," she begged as she nuzzled her warm cheek against his cool one. Her heart stopped for a moment. What had happened to him? Was he going to be all right? Was it her fault that he was unconscious? Questions flooded into her head as the ostrich loomed just feet away from her.
"All this cub chasing gets me nothing, except tired out. It's time to punish you viscous creatures for invading my wife's nest and attacking our eggs the ostrich way," the ostrich's deep, furious voice squawked.
"I didn't- Kiara began.
"Grraaargh!" a high-pitched muffled roar and angry snort rang out.
Kovu with Chaka in his mouth still leapt into the clearing next to Kiara and Sumba, and faced the giant bird.
The ostrich blinked, surprised. "I told you to stop along time ago, but since you didn't listen, I guess I have no choice but to squash you first!" he screeched and lunged his powerful neck forward at Kovu.
"NO!" was all Kiara could yell as she protectively cradled Sumba.
Kovu's eyes widened as he sprang to the side of the attack. He set Chaka down for a moment at his paws.
"Kiara! Get out of here!" Kovu yelled, panting while the ostrich struggled to pull his beak from the large "dent" he had made in the earth.
"No, I won't leave you and Chaka!" she protested.
"I'll distract him, now go! Get Chaka out of here too!" Kovu growled as the ostrich flung its powerful beak out of the ground.
"Kiara! Get Chaka!" he yelled, standing his ground as the ostrich proceeded to attack again.
She gave a cursory glance at Sumba who was still at her paws, and sprang in front of Kovu.
The angry bird looked down at Kiara after shaking dirt out of its eyes, and let out another attack screech as it snapped its beak at them.
Kiara turned to Kovu and pounced on him, just barely missing getting crushed by the ostrich's giant beak and muscular neck.
Kovu stared up at Kiara, mouth agape, until his brain had fully processed what had just happened.
Kiara, who had closed her eyes while in mid-air, slowly opened them and stared back at Kovu, too scared to move. Just as the ostrich again yanked his enormous beak out of the ground after missing Kiara, a sound rang out in the air. As the two cubs and ostrich were slowly brought back to reality, they realized it was getting louder, and it was some kind of defensive call.
"Ahh-ooo-owwooo-oooo-ahh!" the cry rang out again and suddenly the grass rustled and a tall, skinny dark creature emerged on two legs. It waved its arms in the air and stomped its feet, and jumped up and down. In one hand was a thin, but sturdy walking stick, resembling the one Rafiki owned.
The cubs froze and fixed their gaze on the challenging creature, wondering what it was and what it would do next, for they had never seen a creature like this before.
The ostrich surprisingly jumped back, alarmed, and squawked once more, but this time it was a frightened squawk. Then it turned and retreated back to its cave.
Kovu and Kiara could barely breathe as many emotions over took them after witnessing the new creature "defeat" the ostrich. However, they had never seen a kind of creature like the one who was standing before them, and wondered if it was a friend or foe.
The tall, dark creature walked on its two legs to Kiara and Kovu.
Kiara got off of Kovu, and they both backed up warily.
The creature stopped moving and surprisingly knelt down to their level. Despite its dark eyes, the creature seemed to radiate warmth and protection from its body, letting the cubs know that it meant them no harm.
Kiara was the first to sense this, and stood up slowly and took a step forward. She stared curiously and innocently into the dark eyes of the creature as it stared back into her bright orange-yellow eyes.
The creature slowly held out his paw to Kiara. She stepped forward to sniff it, as Kovu hung back. There was something inside him that told him not to trust this creature so much, for he felt it might make a quick movement and harm them. His ears went down, warily. Then he heard Kiara giggle and purr. He looked over and saw her nuzzling the creature's paw! That's when he remembered. That creature was no ordinary creature, and it didn't have normal paws; they were long and bony and moved freely, and it had an extra long, skinny muscle on the side of its paws, that looked like a baboon's!
Kiara looked at Kovu and beckoned with her head for him to come over.
The creature turned its attention to Kovu and smiled, holding out his other paw, like he had done to Kiara.
Kovu took one good look at the creature's paw and screamed. He sensed the creature was going to harm him and jumped to protect Kiara. However, he was so overcome by emotions from the past 15 minutes, he fainted as he looked up and the human once more, winced, and shut his eyes.
Kiara gasped and nuzzled Kovu and licked him, trying to wake him up.
However, the creature came over to her and gently scooped up Kovu in his arms and stood up on two legs again.
Kiara looked up at him, worriedly, but he spoke to her calmly in a tone as warm as the sun. "Come, I will take care of you, little cubs."
She looked up at him, with a confused look on her face, as she couldn't understand the words he spoke, but his tone and body language got his point across to her.
He turned around, signaling for Kiara to follow him.
She remembered Sumba and turned around; the small cub was still on the ground behind her. Bending down, she tried to figure out how to lift Sumba onto her back, so she could give her neck and his a rest. The creature was slowly walking away, with Kovu in his arms. Although she couldn't understand what he spoke to her before, she tried to communicate with him.
"Wait!" she called out.
He turned back to face her, as she struggled to lift Sumba onto her back.
"You have a cub?!" he said surprised, staring at the cub who was half her size.
She nuzzled Sumba, and tried to hoist him onto her back.
"Oh is this a friend of yours maybe? Yes, you are far too young to be a mother," he chuckled. "What was old Timsu thinking?" he grinned a toothy grin, resembling that of Rafiki's. He gently lifted Sumba up onto Kiara's back. "You be ok to walk back with me now?"
Kiara licked Sumba's creamy tan, cheek and smiled proudly up at Timsu.
"Ok, let us hurry before your friends become worse," he said in a serious tone.
Kiara sensed this, and balanced Sumba on her back and trotted alongside Timsu as he led them away from the savanna.
Chapter 5: Encounter
"So where exactly are we going again?" Sumba asked Kovu.
"Wherever it is, I hope we get there soon, because I'm starved!" Chaka groaned.
"I'm sure Kovu is going to lead us somewhere with lots of food, right Kovu?" Kiara smiled hopeful at Kovu.
Kovu looked down at the two infant cubs that were half his size. He had never seen cubs smaller than himself before, obviously because he was the youngest in his pride. He felt a strange new feeling he'd never felt before when he gazed upon them. Before his thoughts could go any further, Kiara gave him a firm nudge against his shoulder.
"Hello? Kovu what is up with you today?" she asked frustrated.
"Sorry, it's nothing. Geez, lay off will ya?" Kovu growled and rubbed his shoulder.
Chaka and Sumba looked back and then quickly turned around and remained silent, and huddled next to each other while continuing to walk in front of Kovu as he had let them lead while instructing them where to walk.
Kiara was taken aback and stopped walking. Her ears lowered as her facial expression changed from frustration to concern. She sulked a bit, but then jogged to catch up with Kovu again. She came up close beside him and cleared her throat. Then in a quiet gentle voice she asked, "So where are we going, your majesty?" and gave a small smile.
He sighed and then looked at her. Upon seeing her smile, Kovu began to see that Kiara wasn't so different from him after all and began to wonder if they really had any differences at all. Maybe it was all in his mind. His upset expression immediately softened and he returned the small smile. "We're going to find some food."
Kiara raised her eyebrows and smiled content at him.
Chaka and Sumba whirled around and began jumping for joy and yelling happily.
"Yay!"
"Yay food!"
Kovu smiled and laughed along with the cubs, feeling proud that he was really being a leader now. Leader-that reminded him of his mother and her dream for him to become future king of Pride Rock. He wondered if he would ever get to climb up that majestic rock that he had seen from a far. Suddenly their laughter was halted by a distance ear-splitting screech.
"Kovu, what is that?" Kiara asked worriedly.
"My ears hurt!" Chaka whimpered and lay down to cover them.
Sumba cried out and copied Chaka.
Kovu glanced worriedly from the cubs to Kiara. Then he began frantically looking in all directions for the source of the shaking. "I don't know, I-
He caught a glimpse of something tall and white in the distance coming towards them. He squinted trying to make out what it was. The tall white animal thrust its wings out and began flapping them as it ran. Kovu gasped, realizing it was the ostrich him and Kiara had rescued the cubs from earlier.
"It's the ostrich!" Kiara gasped.
The infants screamed, as they became paralyzed with fear again from this morning.
The ground began to vibrate as the ostrich stormed closer and closer to the four cubs.
As the sun beat down on Chaka and Sumba, making them perspire even more, as they were already dehydrated, they began panting hard in fear. When they looked up, they saw Kovu and Kiara; both frozen in-place with fear. They were sure this was the end for all of them. The parched and dehydrated infants' eyelids lowered as they looked at each other still huddled together. Then, both of their eyes rolled up and they let a small, helpless noise and collapsed against each other.
Both Kovu and Kiara collected themselves and Kovu turned to Kiara.
"We each grab a cub and run, follow my lead!" he blurted out.
Kiara nodded her head understandingly and looked down at the cubs. She was so startled; she let out a scream.
"Kovu help!" she cried frantically.
Kovu was just as taken aback by the scene as Kiara was, but quickly yet gently scooped up Chaka as Kiara glanced behind them. The ostrich was now about 20 feet away from them and getting closer. It wasn't until then Kiara felt the ground shaking. She bent down and got a firm hold on Sumba's neck and swooped him up as she took off from the ground, fleeing for her and Sumba's lives. She caught up with Kovu and looked to him, as both of them breathed deep, frantic breaths through their noses.
Kiara concentrated on keeping up with Kovu as everything around them continued to become blurred.
Kovu hadn't the slightest idea where he was going, he just knew he wanted the ostrich to go away. Suddenly he smelled something familiar that made all his body fur stand on end. He winced as he whipped his head behind him, with an unconscious Chaka dangling just inches from the ground. His eyes went wide and he made a muffled scream.
The ostrich was right behind them, flapping its wings aggressively. It let out a furious screech. "STOP!"
Kiara turned around and whimpered as she saw the ostrich and whirled back around, continuing to run.
"I said STOP!" the ostrich screeched again.
Just then Kiara felt safer, but wasn't sure why. She whirled her head back around and saw the ostrich getting farther and farther away from them, in defensive position, standing still. She immediately slowed down and stopped running. She set Sumba down gently for a moment as the ostrich began to slowly proceed towards her. She backed up slightly and looked around frantically and remembered Kovu. She whipped herself back in the direction Kovu was running as he was getting farther away from her.
"KOVU!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.
His ears flickered and he stopped instantly, almost dropping Chaka, as he realized Kiara was no longer near him with Sumba. He set her down gently, and whirled around. Instantly, he spotted the looming ostrich and Kiara's bright orange coat, along with a limp ball of creamy tan fur close to her. His eyes watered as he grabbed Chaka and tore off towards his best friend.
Kiara looked around and pulled Sumba close to her and lay down, protectively cradling him as best she could, as she was still a cub herself.
"No, not him. Please don't hurt him," she begged as she nuzzled her warm cheek against his cool one. Her heart stopped for a moment. What had happened to him? Was he going to be all right? Was it her fault that he was unconscious? Questions flooded into her head as the ostrich loomed just feet away from her.
"All this cub chasing gets me nothing, except tired out. It's time to punish you viscous creatures for invading my wife's nest and attacking our eggs the ostrich way," the ostrich's deep, furious voice squawked.
"I didn't- Kiara began.
"Grraaargh!" a high-pitched muffled roar and angry snort rang out.
Kovu with Chaka in his mouth still leapt into the clearing next to Kiara and Sumba, and faced the giant bird.
The ostrich blinked, surprised. "I told you to stop along time ago, but since you didn't listen, I guess I have no choice but to squash you first!" he screeched and lunged his powerful neck forward at Kovu.
"NO!" was all Kiara could yell as she protectively cradled Sumba.
Kovu's eyes widened as he sprang to the side of the attack. He set Chaka down for a moment at his paws.
"Kiara! Get out of here!" Kovu yelled, panting while the ostrich struggled to pull his beak from the large "dent" he had made in the earth.
"No, I won't leave you and Chaka!" she protested.
"I'll distract him, now go! Get Chaka out of here too!" Kovu growled as the ostrich flung its powerful beak out of the ground.
"Kiara! Get Chaka!" he yelled, standing his ground as the ostrich proceeded to attack again.
She gave a cursory glance at Sumba who was still at her paws, and sprang in front of Kovu.
The angry bird looked down at Kiara after shaking dirt out of its eyes, and let out another attack screech as it snapped its beak at them.
Kiara turned to Kovu and pounced on him, just barely missing getting crushed by the ostrich's giant beak and muscular neck.
Kovu stared up at Kiara, mouth agape, until his brain had fully processed what had just happened.
Kiara, who had closed her eyes while in mid-air, slowly opened them and stared back at Kovu, too scared to move. Just as the ostrich again yanked his enormous beak out of the ground after missing Kiara, a sound rang out in the air. As the two cubs and ostrich were slowly brought back to reality, they realized it was getting louder, and it was some kind of defensive call.
"Ahh-ooo-owwooo-oooo-ahh!" the cry rang out again and suddenly the grass rustled and a tall, skinny dark creature emerged on two legs. It waved its arms in the air and stomped its feet, and jumped up and down. In one hand was a thin, but sturdy walking stick, resembling the one Rafiki owned.
The cubs froze and fixed their gaze on the challenging creature, wondering what it was and what it would do next, for they had never seen a creature like this before.
The ostrich surprisingly jumped back, alarmed, and squawked once more, but this time it was a frightened squawk. Then it turned and retreated back to its cave.
Kovu and Kiara could barely breathe as many emotions over took them after witnessing the new creature "defeat" the ostrich. However, they had never seen a kind of creature like the one who was standing before them, and wondered if it was a friend or foe.
The tall, dark creature walked on its two legs to Kiara and Kovu.
Kiara got off of Kovu, and they both backed up warily.
The creature stopped moving and surprisingly knelt down to their level. Despite its dark eyes, the creature seemed to radiate warmth and protection from its body, letting the cubs know that it meant them no harm.
Kiara was the first to sense this, and stood up slowly and took a step forward. She stared curiously and innocently into the dark eyes of the creature as it stared back into her bright orange-yellow eyes.
The creature slowly held out his paw to Kiara. She stepped forward to sniff it, as Kovu hung back. There was something inside him that told him not to trust this creature so much, for he felt it might make a quick movement and harm them. His ears went down, warily. Then he heard Kiara giggle and purr. He looked over and saw her nuzzling the creature's paw! That's when he remembered. That creature was no ordinary creature, and it didn't have normal paws; they were long and bony and moved freely, and it had an extra long, skinny muscle on the side of its paws, that looked like a baboon's!
Kiara looked at Kovu and beckoned with her head for him to come over.
The creature turned its attention to Kovu and smiled, holding out his other paw, like he had done to Kiara.
Kovu took one good look at the creature's paw and screamed. He sensed the creature was going to harm him and jumped to protect Kiara. However, he was so overcome by emotions from the past 15 minutes, he fainted as he looked up and the human once more, winced, and shut his eyes.
Kiara gasped and nuzzled Kovu and licked him, trying to wake him up.
However, the creature came over to her and gently scooped up Kovu in his arms and stood up on two legs again.
Kiara looked up at him, worriedly, but he spoke to her calmly in a tone as warm as the sun. "Come, I will take care of you, little cubs."
She looked up at him, with a confused look on her face, as she couldn't understand the words he spoke, but his tone and body language got his point across to her.
He turned around, signaling for Kiara to follow him.
She remembered Sumba and turned around; the small cub was still on the ground behind her. Bending down, she tried to figure out how to lift Sumba onto her back, so she could give her neck and his a rest. The creature was slowly walking away, with Kovu in his arms. Although she couldn't understand what he spoke to her before, she tried to communicate with him.
"Wait!" she called out.
He turned back to face her, as she struggled to lift Sumba onto her back.
"You have a cub?!" he said surprised, staring at the cub who was half her size.
She nuzzled Sumba, and tried to hoist him onto her back.
"Oh is this a friend of yours maybe? Yes, you are far too young to be a mother," he chuckled. "What was old Timsu thinking?" he grinned a toothy grin, resembling that of Rafiki's. He gently lifted Sumba up onto Kiara's back. "You be ok to walk back with me now?"
Kiara licked Sumba's creamy tan, cheek and smiled proudly up at Timsu.
"Ok, let us hurry before your friends become worse," he said in a serious tone.
Kiara sensed this, and balanced Sumba on her back and trotted alongside Timsu as he led them away from the savanna.