All right, we got more votes! With the Wind is at 3 votes, Out of the Blue is catching up with 2. And by the way Pichooi, I got the title Out of the Blue from The Road to El Dorado, which features music by Elton John and Tim Rice. Gotta love their music, neh? Oh, and the thing Pumbaa and Bango were gulping at at the end of the last chapter wasn't the creature I call the Nunda, but much worse... ::grin:: Just read ahead and you'll see what I mean.
Chapter 20:
The wind blew lightly as Timon marched forward in the direction he remembered the Outlanders' cave was. He had a determined look on his face as he saw the termite mounds up ahead. He suddenly stopped when he heard a low grunt a fair distance straight ahead. He furrowed his brow and continued. "Growl all you want, guard monster. I'm not leaving until I get my son back." The grunt turned into the familiar roar as Timon drew closer. Timon gnashed his teeth and covered his ears, ignoring how big the roar sounded. The roar died down, and Timon ran ahead.
Sly was sitting on top of the cave as he watched a meerkat run towards them. A meerkat climbed out of one of the skylights of the cave and met with Sly. "The Nunda's roar didn't scare him off. What'll we do?"
"Very determined, isn't he?" Sly said with a raised eyebrow and a grin. "Normally the roar's enough to scare even the biggest animal away. So he's either a very determined rogue aiming to fight to get into our colony or he's that pup's father. Either way, I'm going to meet with him." Sly grabbed a nearby vine and climbed down it.
Timon stopped running when he noticed the meerkat climbing down the vine on the side of the Outlanders' cave. Meerkats. Good, it's easier to fight a kidnapper without Pumbaa if he's my size, Timon thought as he marched ahead towards the meerkat.
Sly dropped to the ground and watched as Timon came towards him. If he starts a fight first, then he's a rogue, Sly thought as he walked towards Timon.
They stopped mere feet from each other, neither looking away nor saying a word. Timon was about to break the silence when the meerkat Sly was talking to a moment ago came up from behind Timon and put him in a sleeper hold. "I've got a hold of him, Sly!"
Timon growled and threw the meerkat over his head. "So, a sneak attack, huh?" he asked as he rubbed his neck. "Well, bring it on!"
Not afraid to fight, huh? Sly sneered as he approached Timon. Before Sly could say anything Timon leapt on him and started to wrestle with him. Sly fought back, merely as defense.
Inside the cave three meerkats ran past Kito, who was still sleeping, when they heard one of their own was fighting an outsider. The wave of wind caused by the running meerkats woke Kito up.
The pup sat up, stretched and yawned. "Morning already? Nights are never long enough." He scratched his head and noticed the meerkats exiting the cave. "Where's the fire?"
Yasmin was about to run past, but stopped to tell him what was going on. "There's an outsider fighting Sly. A few of us are going out to help him," she explained. She was about to run off when she realized Kito didn't know Sly's name. "Oh, uh, S-Sly's the one who rescued you from the Nunda."
Kito blinked as he watched her run out of the cave. He kicked the leaves that he was using as a blanket off and walked towards the exit to see.
Outside, Timon was pulled off Sly by the three other meerkats. They held onto him tightly as others helped Sly up. Timon struggled as Sly dusted himself off and approached him. "You were wasting your time," he said to Timon.
"What do you mean?" Timon growled.
"If you were trying to kill the leader to get into this mob, you were fighting the wrong guy. I'm not the leader... not yet anyway."
"I'd never join your mob, but I do want to meet with your boss."
"Our 'boss' isn't well, so if you want to keep your life, you'll leave."
Timon growled as he struggled against the meerkats holding onto him. "I'm not leaving until my son back! So hand him over!"
Sly arched an eyebrow. "Your son?"
Timon used his paw to motion Kito's height as he dryly said, "You know, 3 months old, 'bout ye high, red hair, blue eyes... but why am I telling you this? You should know since you kidnapped him!"
"That's your son?" Sly asked, and then signaled for the meerkats holding him to release him. The kidnapped part didn't phase him. He didn't exactly bring the pup back to his parents because of the storm, so the parent would think he was kidnapped.
The meerkats released Timon, who quickly grabbed the front of Sly's chest fur, growled, and pressed his nose against Sly's. "Don't play dumb with me!"
"Calm down. I know what you're thinking, but I didn't kidnap him. I saved him from a predator attack!"
"Oh, I see," Timon said with a sarcastic air. "So you save him and bring him all the way back to this cave with no concern about his parents?"
"I was lucky I managed to bring him back here where it was safe in that storm last night," Sly retorted. "I was going to--"
"Last night?! He and his warthog cousin disappeared from our oasis two nights ago!"
"I've never been to your oasis, so it wasn't us, pal!" Kito pushed his way through the crowd of meerkats to see Timon ready to draw his fist back.
"Dad?" Kito blinked as he walked over towards Timon.
"Not now, son, I'm trying to find out what this guy did to you," Timon said without looking at his son. He was about to open his mouth to say something more to Sly, but then he suddenly blinked. "Kito?" He looked down at the pup.
Kito nervously smiled and waved. "Hi, Dad."
Timon looked to Kito, and then he turned back to Sly. "I'll come back to you in a moment." He shoved Sly over to the meerkats who were holding him earlier and then he knelt down to Kito and hugged him tightly. "Kito! You're not hurt, are ya?"
"No, but Dad... choking... not breathing..." Kito squeaked out.
Timon gulped and eased his grip. Kito coughed a bit when he was able to breathe again. "Oy, I'm turning into my mother." He held Kito out to look at him. "Aside from the shortness of breath, are you OK?"
"I overslept breakfast so I'm a little hungry, but other than that, yeah," Kito said as he rubbed his arm.
Timon arched an eyebrow as he watched his son rub his arm. He lifted the tiny paw up to see he was rubbing the cut on his arm. "Where'd you get that?"
"Before you accuse us of doing that to him, he had that cut before I found him," Sly spoke up as he smoothed his chest fur out.
"Excuse me for a minute, son." Timon got up and went back to Sly. "You're saying you found him last night?"
"What do you want me to do to convince you I'm telling the truth, swear it on my mother's grave?" Sly growled, folding his arms in front of his chest.
"That would work, but how do I know your mother isn't still alive?"
Kito was rolling his eyes. Shani told Mom and Dad I was kidnapped? Sheesh! He shook his head, and then he noticed some approaching figures. He gulped, "Um, Dad?"
"Not now, Kito, I'm trying to get this guy to--"
"Dad, would you look already?"
Timon heaved a sigh and looked where Kito motioned towards, and gulped. Pumbaa, Bango, and Morake approached them, with Jina right behind them. Bango sat down, looking down at the ground, looking very sad.
"Jina, what a surprise!" Timon nervously said with a smile. "Visiting family?"
"I will be, as soon as you know what's been going on," Jina replied.
"Jina?" Sly said softly to himself. Sudi dropped down from Jina's back, and helped his sister Zuri down. Sly softly gasped and ducked back behind Yasmin and the three other meerkats.
"Oy vey..." Timon said to himself as he rubbed his eyes. He spoke up, "Didn't Pumbaa and I ask you ladies to stay home and take care of the girls? You only had to wait another half a day."
"Who are you calling a lady?" Sudi joked.
"Don't talk to him, Sudi," Zuri softly growled, to which Sudi held up his paws in defense. She turned to Timon as she walked towards him. "Our parents are watching them." She knelt down to Kito, hugged and kissed him. "Are you all right, sweetie?"
"Uh-huh," Kito nodded.
"Good, because you are in so much trouble." She kissed the top of his head again before standing up.
"He's in trouble? For what?" Timon asked, looking confused.
"Shani told on us, didn't she?" Kito sighed.
Zuri chucked Kito's chin softly. "If it makes you feel any better, I made her tell me." She turned back to Timon. "As soon as we found out, I had to come and tell you. Kito and Bango weren't kidnapped; they left the oasis."
"What?! Why?" Timon looked down at Kito.
Kito looked down at his feet. "Bango and I, uh... overheard you and Grandma talking about Uncle Titus."
Timon's expression softened a bit. "Titus?"
"You both looked so sad, and I'm not used to seeing you like that. I thought if we could find him for you, everyone would be happy again."
"Kito--"
Kito lifted his face up to meet with Timon's. "Before you get mad we went to Rafiki first before we went looking and he told us he was alive and in the Outlands somewhere with a colony of meerkats!" He rubbed his arm with the cut. "He needed a sample of his blood for a location spell, and I had some trace of it from you."
"Titus is alive?" Pumbaa asked. He smiled as he looked to Timon. "Timon, it must be true if Rafiki said it!"
"It may be true, but there's no one by that name here," Sengbe said as he walked towards the group.
Zuri nearly did a double take when he stepped up. She approached him. "You're not just saying that, are you, Sengbe?"
"Sengbe?" Sudi softly said.
"I respected you, Zuri. Why would I lie to you because of what your father did to Sylvester and me?"
Yasmin, who was standing next to the group of local meerkats, tilted her head slightly. "Zuri...?"
"I promise you, no one here goes by the name of Titus."
Kito, bored with the conversation now, started to look around the area, since it was the first time he was actually there. He then noticed Sly started to walk back into the cave. "Mr. Sly, where are you going?"
Sly stopped and cursed himself for walking so slow. Sudi and Jina looked and gasped. Zuri paused for a moment, and then slowly turned to see. She walked past Timon and Sengbe and walked towards Sly. When she reached him, he was still facing away. She put a paw on his shoulder and turned him around to face her. Neither said a word. Zuri began to reach up to touch his cheek to see if he was real, but she pulled it back. A few more moments passed, and she finally just hugged him, to which he returned the favor.
Timon's jaw dropped, as did Pumbaa's. Kito and Bango stood there, blinking. Morake just shrugged; he didn't know them all well enough to know this was unnatural for this family. Yasmin stood there, aghast. The rest just stood there.
Sudi walked over to Timon and closed his mouth. He said with a sarcastic air, "Leaves ya kinda speechless, don't it?"
To be continued...