A/N: I forgot to do a disclaimer again so here goes. I do not own the Lion King especially Zazu, I do own the names of his brothers and sister. And a few other characters you never heard of.
Also I have decided to thank everyone before I started each chapter since after Surviving the Stampede made me too tired to thank everyone after the tenth person in my last chapter so here goes.
Pichooi: Thanks for the review. You'll meet the two who ruined his special occasion in the next chapter. Good luck with your story as well. For those who have not read it I highly recommend it.
Katibu: Thanks for the review. I'm glad you liked the names. I hope you finish your Sarafina story, it's really good and I want to know what happens.
Sulkenwolfpup: From now On I am calling you "Silly reviewer" Because I think your reviews are silly. And I thank you for that. Keep it up with those Scar angst fics.
Sunrise19: Thanks for the review; I'm glad you liked Zazu's sister, and just so you know she will make appierences when Zazu becomes an advisor, just letting you know.
Nala5: Thanks for the review. I did try to review your story but for some reason my computer shut down on me and what's really weird was that it did that all the other times I reviewed too, and it drove me nuts. Sorry if you did not get it, it was a nice chapter.
Clara200: Thanks for the review, well reviews actually since you reviewed three others, I'm glad you like Zazu.
Nekoinnuhanyou: Wow that is a mouthful. Thanks for the review.
The Dishwasher: Thanks for the review; I'm glad you like it so far. Keep up the good work with that Sarabi story, it is so wonderfully written. If none of you reviewers have read her story I suggest you go do so.
Now on with the story.
I'm guessing that the hatching really wore us out because by the time all four of us were up, it was morning. I found myself in a very strange and awkward position when I opened my eyes. I seemed to be sandwiched between my two brothers. Azizi was on top of me but I some how got one of my legs on top of his back while the other was tucked underneath me. Sule was on the bottom but some how still managed to get drool on one of my wings that had lodged itself under his head. Kalifa had woken up a few minutes before us without waking us up so she must have been sleeping by herself.
I of course was the first to awaken from the weird angle and nearly freaked out when I noticed that my wing was now wet with saliva. At first I tried to move my wing out from under Sule but he seemed to have a death grip on it. Finally I did the only thing I could do, I yelled in his ear.
"Sule, get off my wing!" I yelled.
Luckily I was loud enough to make him wake up but I should not have done it so loud because a second later he jumped in fright causing me to also jump in fright and hit Azizi square in the face. Azizi then let out a loud squawk and hit his head on my mother's leg since of course we were under her. Azizi then rubbed his head and looked at me and my brother angrily.
"What did I ever do to you?" he asked and then jumped on me and started pecking me while I tried to defend myself. Sule was about to stop the fight when our mother got up and stopped the fight for him.
"Stop it you two or I will be forced to separate you," she said.
Azizi stopped what he was doing to me and looked up at our mother with innocent eyes. "Oh mother we were just playing," he said.
"No we weren't, you were trying to kill me because I ran into you by accident," I said.
"Oh you are such a tattletale," said Azizi.
"I was about to retaliate when my mother stopped me. "Enough arguments you two, my goodness only a day old an already squabbling like two old parrots, now say your sorry Azizi," said my mother.
Azizi looked at me with shyness and guilt and it took him a while to actually say he was sorry, and when he did, I could tell that he meant it.
My mother smiled and then began to speak. "Now then, remember how I promised you all a surprise when you woke up?" she asked.
We all nodded happily.
"Well it was one, now its two. First here is your breakfast," said my mother who then revealed a leaf to us that had a nice variety of berries sitting on it. We all squealed with joy and ran over to the food where we began to devour it as fast as we cold. Even Kalifa, who seemed to act like miss manners, was eating as fast as she could. My mother watched us gorge on the food for a few minutes before finally pushing us away from the food.
"Okay that's enough you four, I don't want any sick bellies," she said as she pushed the leaf aside and put some of the nest over what was left of the berries.
"That was good Mom," I said.
"Yeah it was, thank you," said Kalifa. As you can see Kalifa had the best manners right from the start.
"So what's the other surprise you are giving us?" asked Sule.
"Well I would like you all to meet your new baby sitter when I am out finding food for you four. This is your grandfather," said my mother who then stepped aside to reveal an old hornbill whose blue feathers had turned gray from age. He had a small smile on his face and he looked friendly, yet we were not about to go up quite yet and hid behind our mother.
"I see they like me already," said our grandfather with a chuckle. His name was Badu but the family rarely called him that unless they wanted to address him.
"Come on out guys, he won't hurt you, he raised me and he is going to help raise you," said my mother.
We all peeked shyly behind our mother and saw our grandfather waving at us happily yet we were not sure what to make of him until Sule decided to break the ice.
Sule then slowly hopped over to our grandfather and looked up at him. Our grandfather smiled and gave him a happy hello.
"Hello," said Sule shyly who then looked down at his claws.
"Oh don't be afraid, I won't bite, I used to but I'm too old for that now," said our grandfather.
That made Kalifa laugh and a few minutes later she hopped on over to greet him.
"I'm Kalifa, that right there is Sule, the two behind mom is Zazu and Azizi," said Kalifa.
"You gave your children such beautiful names Malaika, too bad their father is not here to see them," said grandpa.
"I know, he would have loved them but I am glad you are still around to help so I won't have to worry about them falling out of the nest while I am gone. Do you think you can take care of them for about an hour while I stretch my wings a little and find more food?" my mother asked.
"I don't mind one bit, you go and have fun, stay as long as you like, I need to teach these kids about life around them," said Grandfather.
"Thanks Dad, if they get in trouble just put them in time out," said my mother who then flew off in the distance. We watched her go before our grandfather started to talk.
"So you four don't mind if I teach you things?" he asked.
"Well it beats sitting in the nest all day from boredom," said Azizi.
"Well then lets see here," said our grandfather as he looked about the savanna wondering what he wanted to talk about until he saw a lone cheetah walking in the distance. "You see that creature down there with the spots?" he asked.
We all looked in the direction where he was pointing and saw the lone cheetah; it was not looking up at us but was more focused on a nearby gazelle herd. "Yeah I see him, can we meet him?" asked Sule.
"Oh heavens no, that there children is a carnivore, it will kill and eat you for its supper and it's a fast runner which means you will have to watch him when he is nearby or he will eat you before you even have a chance to fly," said our grandfather.
"What's he doing now?" I asked.
"He's hunting, and those gazelle over there will be his meal, sometimes he's not successful though and has to try again. And that could take hours," said our grandfather.
"Why is he not successful sometimes?" asked Kalifa.
"Because usually the animals he eats are the ones that are sick and sometimes he misjudges the animals and thinks they are sick until he finds out that they are much faster than he thought," said our grandfather.
We were all silent as we watched the cheetah slowly stalk the gazelle. It seemed like hours to us before he finally made his move and went straight at the herd. The herd then began to split and a minute later we saw a young gazelle running as fast as it could away from the cheetah. But it was too late, a few seconds later the cheetah brought it down and the young gazelle let out a piercing death call throughout the savanna.
"Oh how horrible, I can't look any more," said Kalifa who then hid her head under our grandfathers feathers.
"I thought you said they only go after the sick, why did it go after a baby, it looked healthy to me," said Azizi.
"Sometimes they go after the young too, but that's only to keep the gazelle in balance, if it did not go after a young gazelle then the heard would grow large and eat all the grass and die of starvation, he maintains the herd so that won't happen. Its all part of a circle known as the great circle of life," said our grandfather.
"Really, what's that like?" I asked.
"Well you see the circle of life starts out at birth, it goes on into childhood which you guys are experiencing now, and then it moves on to adulthood which your mother is in. Then your circle changes when you fall in love because then you start a new circle with your own child from the person you loved the most. Then once your child has grown up, you experience old age like me and then the next step which I will experience but hopefully not for a while, death," said our grandfather.
"What's that?" asked Azizi.
"Well death is where you go to sleep and never wake up again, kinda like that young gazelle out there," said our grandfather.
We were all silent for a moment, unsure of what to think about all that, until Azizi decided to break the silence.
"So are there any other animals that will eat us, besides that cheetah?" he asked.
"Oh yes, lots, including lions, jackals, hyenas, leopards, and foxes. I will show them to you whenever they pass by here just to give you a heads up," said grandfather.
We all began to ask him questions about everything we wanted to know and after about two hours of learning all that we could, we still had a lot more to ask, our mother came home with some more fruit. We invited our grandfather to stay and eat with us but he told us he had other things he needed to take care of. That was alright with us though, we knew he would be back again soon to tell us all we needed to know, and we could not wait.
A/N: Yay I finally finished this chapter and it took me two weeks. Shows how busy I've been. I've been having to do way too many papers in college and I cannot wait for it to be over which will be in two weeks. So I will probably not even put up the next chapter until two weeks from now since we are moving next week and the week after that I have finals. But any way sorry if this chapter was boring to you, I just thought it was cool for them to have a grandfather teach them the meaning of life and everything. He'll be with us for a few more chapters too before Zazu has to go out on his own. And so far this story is going to be about 33 chapters, just warning you. Well please review and have a great weekend.