Chapter 47:
Sly caught up to Buzz, who was standing there and rubbing his chin. "Hmm... at what time of that day do I want to take you there? It can be so hard to decide when you've got so little time," he said to himself.
"What do you mean, so little time?" Sly asked.
"I can only show you these events while you're still asleep. There's really no telling how much longer we have here, so I'm trying to decide how much I actually need to show you."
"If you show me all of that day it'll take longer. Why don't you just show me that moment Timon decides to leave and tell me what happened before-hand? Quicker that way, right?"
Buzz grimaced slightly and nodded. "I guess that's the best way of doing it. All right." The scenery once again changed. They were at the rock and tree sentry point, where Buzz's grave was. Timon, two years old, was sitting on the rock and sighing to himself.
Sly walked around the rock to see Timon's face. "Does he look blue. What'd he do, break one tunnel too many?" Sly asked.
"No, but he did set a new personal record for Most Tunnels Collapsed in a Week. See, since my death he's been trying to get on the colony's good side again, but only seems to try too hard and messes up. He was trying to make me and your mother proud, but..." He shrugged. "Today he was put on sentry duty for the first time to keep off the digging crew, but he broke into song and hyenas attacked. We didn't lose anyone, but they caught Uncle Max and chewed most of the fur off his tail."
"Ouch... that's a bad place to get bitten," Sly winced.
"Needless to say, the colony couldn't even look at Timon without giving him a dirty look that day." He noticed Panya walking up towards Timon and began to speak with him. Sly walked back around to Buzz. "He knew it was hopeless, but Panya wasn't about to give up just yet." They turned to the mother and son.
"... Besides you, Ma," Timon said.
Panya began to think out-loud. "Uh, besides me? Um, there's, uh..."
"I have to find my place... but it isn't here," Timon said as he began to stand.
Panya pulled him back down to a sitting position and began to play with his hair. "Yes it is. We just haven't found it yet, but we will. Oh, here's an idea. You could run a-"
Timon got up and pawed her paws away. "Enough with the hair already." He looked out towards the open grasslands. "My place is out there, Ma. Oh, I may not know exactly where, or how far, but I gotta go!"
"No, wait, wait, wait. I know. If we just..."
Timon bluntly interrupted her. "Ma."
Panya paused for a moment, and then sighed. "Well, I hope you find what you're looking for, honey." Timon turned, smiled, and then walked over to her to hug her. She returned the hug. "Oh. Oh, I love you."
"I love ya, Ma."
Sly folded his arms in front of his chest and arched a brow. "Hmm... and Zuri told me he had trouble saying the 'L' word."
"This was a few years before he met Zuri," Buzz said. "He didn't have too much trouble saying it until then."
"You mean he started having trouble saying it after he met Zuri?"
"A little while after he met her, yes. And there was a reason why every time he began to say it he got tongue-tied, but it's not the time." They turned back to Timon and Panya, who were just finishing their hug.
Timon took his mother's paws into his own and gave her a reassuring smile. "I'll be OK!"
"Oh, I know you will!" Panya added in a soft, sad voice, "You will." She looked down at her paws, and slowly let go. She watched as Timon gave her another smile, turned, and began to walk away.
Sly watched as Timon faded away, and the sun had completely set. "So, what happened to him?"
"He came across Rafiki, who told him about Hakuna Matata and to find it you had to look beyond what you see. Shortly after that the same night, he met Pumbaa and they eventually found their oasis," Buzz said. He grinned, "I gave Rafiki a spiritual message to point Timon in the right direction and to help him find a friend to watch after him. Didn't do too bad a job, eh?"
Sly rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, sure. I haven't officially met Pumbaa yet, so I'll just have to take your word for it, Pop." He glanced around the area and noticed Panya was still standing in the same position as when Timon was walking away. "She's still standing there."
"Kind of frozen in time, I guess. She knows Timon's chances of survival are slim. As far as she knows she lost the last important meerkat in her life."
"Panya!" Panya didn't react to her name being called. Pete poke his head out of the tunnel and glanced around. "Panya!" He noticed her and then climbed out of the tunnel. "There you are. We've been looking all over the tunnel for you." He walked towards her. When she didn't react again, he poke her in the shoulder. "Panya?"
Panya shook her head to clear it and looked at Pete. "Huh?"
"We've been looking for you. What are you doing out here by yourself?"
She sighed and looked out to where Timon walked away. "Is it so late already? I didn't realize."
Pete blinked and leaned forward to look at her. "Are you all right?"
"... Timon's gone."
His eyebrows jumped slightly. "What do you mean, gone?"
"I mean he left. He's a rogue now. He's going to find his place..." She bowed her head. "Where he won't mess up in front of his father."
Pete swallowed and rubbed the back of his neck, trying to think of something to say to her. "It... may be for the best, Panya. He's been wanting to go out there and find a better life, and who knows? Leaving might be the best thing to happen to him since Buzz died. He'll be happy, and if he isn't... well, I'll try to get everyone to agree to letting him back in. He'll probably be demoted to nest potato though." He nervously smiled.
"Don't make promises you can't keep, Pete."
Pete softly sighed and put an arm around her shoulders. "Come on, it's getting cold out here." Panya allowed herself to be lead back to the tunnels.
Sly watched them leave. "That is a nice scar," he said as he looked at Pete's back. He turned to Buzz. "So what happens next?" He blinked when he noticed Buzz fading slightly. The scenery faded to black. "Forget then; what's happening now?"
Buzz took a look at himself. "Looks like you're beginning to wake up," Buzz said. "Sorry, pup, but you won't be able to see what else you missed."
Sly ran over to Buzz and put his paws on his shoulders, as if that would keep him in place. "You can't! I'm not ready for you to leave yet!"
"Still not ready, are you?"
"This is different than facing the colony! Pop, please, help me go back to sleep! I have to know what I missed!"
"Why do you want to know?"
Sly bowed his head and closed his eyes tightly. "I want to know more about this family of mine! I want to know the laughter, the tears, the mundane... everything I missed until now!"
"What about the family you grew up with? You said earlier if you went with your blood family it'd be like you were replacing them."
Sly turned his face away from Buzz, like he did when he watched him die. "They'll never really replace the family I grew up with. No, the family I grew up with will always be in my heart. But... I just want to feel like I belong somewhere, earn a place to call home!" He reopened his eyes. "I know a little about my real family... and I want to know more about them."
Buzz shook his head. "I can't show you anymore while you're waking up-"
"Forget that! I don't want to just see them. I..." He turned his face back to look at Buzz. "I want to actually meet them!"
Buzz stood there for a moment, and then pulled Sly into a hug, to which Sly was not expecting. "That's what I wanted to hear. When you find someone who loves you for you, Sly... you'll know you belong." He then held him out in front of him. "Right now, you need to head back to the Outlands and go to the geysers cave."
Sly wrinkled his eyebrows and pulled away from Buzz to look at him. "The geysers cave? What happened?" Buzz only stood there, as if it was pointless to tell Sly. He faded away a bit more. "Wait, don't go! Pop! Why do I have to go to the geysers cave?"
"I don't have enough time to explain the situation. Just go."
"But I'm not ready for you to leave yet... This is the closest I'll ever get to getting to know you... I don't want you to leave!"
Buzz tilted his head to the side, and fingered the doll that was hanging off Sly's vine belt. "You remember what I said when I buried this doll the day you disappeared?"
"You mean earlier... when you had me watch my dream from a different point of view?" Sly thought hard to remember. "You said that... I'll be in your heart until we meet again."
"That's right." Buzz took Sly's paw and placed it over his own heart. "I'll never leave you, Sly, as long as you remember that I live in you... here." He softly chuckled and then ruffled his hair. "And I'll always be there. Don't ever forget that." He began to fade from sight.
"Wait... don't... please..."
"I'm sorry, Sly, but I can't."
Sly swallowed and then said, "Pop... I love you."
"I love you, too... Titus." He then disappeared.
Sly gasped and then examined where Buzz was standing. "Pop..." His eyes widened as he saw his paw was beginning to fade. He looked down at his feet, which had faded completely. He noticed his body was quickly following. He looked around, a bit frantic. "What's going on? I don't think this is suppose to happen! Pop, wake me up!"
He sat up in the nest he was asleep in and shouted, "Wake me up!" He gasped when he realized he was awake and back in the abandoned tunnels. He panted and wiped his forehead. "That was creepy... I think I almost prefer falling out of a tree and waking up compared to that." He looked at the meerkat pup doll that was lying next to him and picked it up, looking at it. "That all felt so real... Did all that really happen?" He put a paw over his heart. "Are you really...?"
"You need to head back to the Outlands and go to the geysers cave," Buzz's voice said in his head.
Sly nodded to himself, took a piece of vine that was lying outside of the nest and tied the doll around his waist like a belt. He collected the rest of the vine to throw away and headed to the surface. He began to run past the rock and tree, and paused. He looked at Buzz's grave, knelt down to it, and put a paw on the meerkat-sized rock. He mused to himself, "I know I'm awake now..." He then softly smiled, "Thank you. I... enjoyed your company." He closed his eyes as he felt the wind brush against him. "At least what little time we had there." He then frowned. "Something bad must've happened if you told me to go that way. But... how am I gonna get back to the Outlands in time?" He noticed a shadow looming overhead, and he looked up. A large white bird landed in the tree above him and picked the bugs out of its feathers. Sly rubbed his chin in a scheming manner and noticed his other paw was still holding leftover vines. He grinned as he looked up at the bird again. "Hmm..."
To be continued...