Chapter 18:
The gloomy night came to an end as the sun began to rise. Morake and Bango slept the entire night without realizing they were a meerkat short. Morake woke up first when the sun was up for about an hour. He stretched out and yawned, displaying his impressive fangs and claws. He then rotated his shoulders a bit, sat up, and smacked his lips.
"Why are days so long and nights so short?" he asked as Bango started to wake up.
"Probably because we have more fun during the day eating," Bango yawned and sat up. "Best sleep I've ever had." He looked around the burrow a bit, and blinked. "Where's Kito?"
"I dunno. I just woke up." Morake got up and walked out of the burrow, looking around. "Kito?" He sniffed the moist grass and ground, but found no trace of him. "I don't see or smell him."
Bango came out of the burrow. "You didn't eat him in your sleep, did you? I'm only asking because I've come to realize there is such a thing as sleep eating."
Morake blinked, blew onto his paw, and sniffed it. He wrinkled his nose and said, "Nothing but morning breath." He dropped his paw on a bug that was about to scurry by, and then he scooped it up into his mouth and chewed.
"Hmm. Wonder where he is then?" Bango tapped a hoof on the ground for a moment. "You don't think...?"
Morake swallowed his catch and looked at Bango, as if reading his mind. "... That Kito went out to find Titus on his own? I don't know, because I haven't known him long enough to know what he thinks."
"I'm thinking he did." Bango sighed and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hoof. "Great, now we have to find Kito before we can find Uncle Titus."
"He probably started in the Outlands. C'mon, I'll show you the way!" Morake started to march forward. He stopped when he realized Bango was still sitting. He walked back over. "What?"
"I don't know about this Outlands business... that roar we've been hearing comes from that way. Rafiki said so."
"Come on, Bango! He could be in real trouble. Fortune favors the brave, remember?"
"Don't you start saying that, too, Morake."
"Well, it's true," Morake pouted. "I'll be with you the whole time. Let's go!"
Bango sighed, "All right, lead the way." Morake grinned and then ran forward with Bango right behind him. "Why does my cousin have to be so impatient?"
Meanwhile...
"Grubs...grubs..." Pumbaa mumbled in his sleep.
Timon was curled up on top of Pumbaa's stomach, making his own snores, which didn't include mumbled words. He smacked his lips and sat up, yawning and stretching. He scratched his lower back and slid down the side of Pumbaa's stomach. Still half asleep he walked outside of the cave and jumped into the water. A scream from Timon woke Pumbaa up.
"Timon!" Pumbaa got up and ran outside. He looked at Timon, who was shivering in the water. "What's wrong?"
"This... water... is... freezing! It's like someone dumped an iceberg in here!" Timon shivered as he climbed out of the water.
Pumbaa grimaced, "Is that all? I thought some predator was about to eat you or something."
"No. I just forgot where we slept. Normally when I wake up in the oasis, I'd head for the hot tub." He shook the water out of his fur. "Well, now that I'm wide awake, shall we resume the search for our sons?"
"What about breakfast?"
Timon grimaced and pulled Pumbaa down to his level. "Pumbaa, how can you think about eating right now?"
"Easily. Thinking of how Kito and Bango might be hungry out there makes me hungry."
"Well, you'll have to take a rain check on that, my bwana buddy. First we find the kids, and then we eat."
"But you know how big the Pride Lands are... how are we suppose to know where to start?"
Timon climb onto Pumbaa's snout and sat down, looking at him right in the eyes. "It's simple. We start looking at all the dark and scary places where kidnappers would go to hide when they don't want to be found."
"You mean everywhere the light doesn't touch?" Pumbaa asked with a blink. "That's a lot of ground to cover."
"No, I wasn't thinking of everywhere the light doesn't touch. That would be the underground and the Elephant Graveyard."
"Elephant Graveyard?!" Pumbaa yelped, knelt down to the ground, and covered his eyes. "Not the Elephant Graveyard, Timon! There are carnivores there!"
Timon lifted a hoof from Pumbaa's eye and lifted the eyelid up. "In case you've forgotten, Pumbaa, there are carnivores everywhere. Our best friends include lions which, I remind you, are members of the food chain that eat meat, AKA carnivores." He released Pumbaa's eyelid, which snapped back into place.
"Ouch!" Pumbaa rubbed that eye.
"Anyway, I wasn't going to suggest the graveyard first. Even I have my limits."
"You weren't?"
"No. Look, you're hungry, right?" Pumbaa nodded. "And we want to start looking in scary places, right?" Pumbaa shook his head. "Right. So, why don't we start in the Outlands, the Termite Capital? You'll get to eat and look for the kids. Kills two birds with one stone."
"Gee, Timon, I don't wanna kill any birds."
"It's a figure of speech," Timon said dryly. He leaned his weight on one of Pumbaa's tusks and mumbled to himself, "And I thought I was the one who took things literally." He spoke up to Pumbaa, "Whaddya say?"
Pumbaa listened to his grumbling stomach and pouted his lips, thinking. "Well, I guess we could start there, as long as you're sure we can get breakfast there."
"Pumbaa, there are termite mounds all over the place. Unless the termites moved to a wetter environment, it's a pretty safe bet they're still there." Timon walked along Pumbaa's snout to his back and took hold of his ears. "So giddy-up." A moment passed, and Timon looked down at Pumbaa, who had not moved an inch. "Heigh-ho, Pumbaa, away?" Pumbaa only looked up at him with a slight glare. "Hut-hut?" Pumbaa arched an eyebrow. "... Vroom-vroom?"
"Vroom-vroom?" Pumbaa blinked.
"Would you just get moving before it's officially lunch time?" Timon asked with a furrowed brow. He gulped and hung onto Pumbaa's ears tightly as the warthog ran forward towards the dry lands.
Back with the kids...
Bango and Morake walked side by side as they walked over the dry ground of the Outlands.
"See, Bango? There's nothing to be scared of here," Morake said.
"Now anyway. But where's that animal with the scary roar?" Bango asked, looking around.
"There aren't exactly any places to hide out here. So unless it comes from underground--"
"We could be walking on it now!" Bango whimpered and stopped where he was. "And it probably doesn't like animals walking all over it."
Morake walked around Bango and then pushed against him to get him moving again. "Think of Kito. We're trying to save him and then we'll be looking for your uncle, remember?" Bango nodded and started walking ahead on his own. Morake walked up beside him again. "Why are you so afraid of everything?"
"I don't know. Where Kito and I live we don't have to worry about anything. There are no predators there to chase us and there are lots of bugs and stuff. I guess being outside such a safe place makes me nervous," Bango shrugged.
"That sounds nice. Why doesn't Kito seem scared?"
"My guess is he doesn't like to be safe all the time. He wants a little adventure, but he didn't want to be out here alone." He grinned, "He begged me to stay here yesterday when we got here, when he realized neither of us knew where Rafiki's tree was and I was ready to go back home."
Morake smiled and nodded. "Home. Must be nice."
Bango was about to respond to that, but they both stopped when they heard a low grunt. "What was that?"
"I don't know... I thought that was you." Morake gulped and then walked ahead a bit further. "I'm not seeing anything yet..."
Bango trotted to catch up to him. "Maybe it is coming from underground."
"Uh-uh, that was above ground. Didn't sound muffled or anything."
"Morake, you can't tell it's above ground if it's just a grunt." They both stopped when they heard a familiar bellowing roar straight ahead of them.
"How about that?!"
"Tell you later. Run!" They both turned and ran back towards the Pride Lands at top speed.
Back with Timon and Pumbaa...
"We should start with the Outlanders' cave?" Pumbaa asked as he walked over the log that lay over the river. He hopped off it and walked forward.
"Sure, why not? It's a scary place. Kidnappers would flock to such a place," Timon said. "And besides, there's lots of termite mounds there."
"These had better be good termite mounds," Pumbaa said with a furrowed brow.
"Would you stop focusing solely on the termites, Pumbaa? We've got kids out here somewhere."
"They could be anywhere else but here."
"We gotta start some--" the bellowing roar, heard in the distance, drowned Timon's last word out.
"What was that?!" Pumbaa asked, more surprised than he was scared for once.
"Nothing I've ever heard before... maybe it's the kidnappers' guard monster!" Timon replied, bending over to Pumbaa to look at him straight in the face.
"You assume too much, Timon."
"Yeah, maybe someone has bad gas." Timon pulled on Pumbaa's ear and shouted into it, "Would you get going so we can get the kids?!"
Pumbaa winced. "I'm not exactly standing still, you know. And if the kids are out here, I'll--"
Timon looked ahead and said in a flat tone, "Do you really want to say anything more?" He pointed ahead to two quickly approaching figures. Bango and Morake paid no attention to whom they were passing as they ran over the log and returned to the Pride Lands.
"Am I seeing things, or was that Bango being chased by a cheetah?" Pumbaa asked.
"Technically, you are seeing things. Bango and a cheetah are things, so--" Timon said casually, and then he smacked himself. "That was Bango! But I didn't see Kito on him!" Timon jumped off Pumbaa's head. "Bango must've managed to escape and they sent an attack cheetah on him! They still have Kito!"
"What do we do, what do we do?!" Pumbaa asked, panicking.
"You go after Bango and the cheetah, and I'll go to the Outlanders' cave!"
"Right!" Pumbaa ran back across the log towards the Pride Lands while Timon continued running towards the Outlands.
To be continued...