Zuberi woke up and walked outside of Pride Rock. He inhaled the cool morning breeze and began to make his way to the watering hole. He stopped walking and bent his head down to drink the water below his feet. Once he was done he looked around him.

Something about the Pridelands this early in the morning was just, calming for him. It was so peaceful and comforting. He heard some voices and turned to see Niah, Dalila and Shani. He smiled when he saw her.

He began to loose himself in his own thoughts, just sitting there smiling. He was too distracted to notice that someone was sneaking up on him.

"OW!" Zuberi shouted, feeling the jolt of pain from being smacked on the back of his head.

Zahour chuckled. "You do realize what you're doing is considered creepy, right?"

"Whatever, just don't sneak up on me like that again!" Zuberi complained.

"Just go and talk to her dude. It's not that difficult." Zahour suggested.

"Easy for you to say. What if I make a fool out of myself in front of her?" Zuberi countered.

"How would you make a fool out of yourself exactly?"

"What if I say something stupid? What if I give her a weird look? What if I do something clumsy? What if…." Zuburi said as he was on the verge of a panic attack from thinking of all the different ways he could embarrass himself as he was clawing at his hair tuft that would soon become his mane once he got older.

"I'm going to stop you right there dude. You wont do anything stupid as long as if you dont anticipate for you to do anything stupid, you got it?"

Zuberi began to calm down. "Kinda?"

"Listen, if you just watch her from a distance for the rest of your life, nothing is going to happen unless she wants to talk to you herself. And for all you know she's a nervous wreck so it might not happen."

"Or she just doesn't like me."

"Well fi you don't let her to get to know you, then you won't know." Zahour patted him on the back.

"Look i'll help you, HEY SHANI!" Zahour called out. Shani looked over to see Zahour waving his paw in the air. She was a bit confused, but she walked over to see what he wanted.

"What are you doing?" Zuberi freaked out.

"Please, at this rate it would be a miracle you could talk to someone when you're 40. I'm just giving you a little boost." Zahour said as he patted his back. Though by this point it's clear that he had no clue how Zuberi's social anxiety worked, much to Zuberi's dismay.

"I hate you!" Zuberi growled.

"Just try to be confident!"

"Sup!" Shani said, grabbing the two male's attention.

"Hey Shani, my friend here was just wanting to talk to you for a bit." Zahour said as he shoved Zuberi to Shani.

"So uhhh." Zuberi was internally freaking out. He was sweating, his eyes were trying to find an excuse to not be in this confrontation, and underneath his fur, he was blushing. "How's it going?"

"I've been alright. You?" She said in a calm demeanor. Despite it not being obvious, she was internally freaking out also. However she had gotten used to displaying essentially a calm expression that it was easier for her to hide most of her emotions from nearly everyone.

"I-I'm alright. Y'know just been working hard with the Guard to deal with those thieves y'know." Zuberi said as he scratched the back of his head, while nervously smiling.

"Oh yeah, what's the deal with them anyways?"

"I'm not sure. All I know is that they really get on Ayanna's nerves."

"Is that why I hear her yelling on the other side of the Pridelands?"

Zuberi chuckled. "If those words consist of 'those damn thieves' then yeah."

Shani smirked. "Yep, then it's her. So what's it like being the strongest on your team anyways?"

"I-it just means I have to do most of the heavy lifting," Zuberi joked. 'You idiot, that wasn't even funny!' He told himself.

However instead Shani chuckled, somewhat amused by the little quip. "I see." She spoke.

"ZUBERI!" Ayanna called out.

"JUST A MINUET!" Zuberi responded, before turning his attention back to Shani. "So um, if you want to hang out sometime, then that would be cool. I-I mean if you don't want to that's fine but-"

"Sure." Shani responded.

"W-what?"

"Sure i'll hang out with you."

Zuberi smiled. "Alright sounds goo-I mean great. I'll see ya." Zuberi turned around and ran off with his teammates.

Shani smiled as she watched Zuberi run off with the Guard. "What was that about?" Dalila asked as her and Niah approached her.

"He just wanted to talk." Shani responded.

"Don't tell me you actually like him?" Niah spoke, noticing the smile on Shani's face.

"So what, my life isn't your business." Shani spat back to her friend, which made Niah back off.

"So, what was that about?" Ayanna asked, as her and her teammates began walking along the dirt path they used when patrolling.

"I just helped Zuberi with his little problem." Zahour responded with a confident smirk on his face.

"What problem is that?" She inquired.

"He's intimidated by girls, so I helped him talk to one." Zahour responded while Zuberi face-palmed.

"Then why can he talk to me?" Ayanna said, sounding a bit offended.

"Just to be clear, you do terrify me." Zuberi butted in.

"How do I terrify you?"

"Well, you have a bit of a temper." Zuberi gently said, hoping the wouldn't rip his fur off.

"NO I DON'T!" Ayanna yelled.

"You're just proving his point dude!" Zahour responded.

"Sorry." The Princess calmed down as the three continued their usual patrol route.

Off in the distance were the Three outsiders, watching over the Lion Guard, making sure that they wouldn't catch them in the act of stealing another one of their artifacts from the Pridelands. "Is it really a good idea to go during the Daytime?" Barrack asked.

"They expect us to go in during the night. Besides after the stunt we pulled last week, it's best that we avoid an encounter with the Jackals. So as of now going during the daytime would be our best chance of making it out with out tails intact." Yazid explained.

Once the trio saw that the Guard was too far away for them to be noticed, they made their way into one of the cave entrances. The three's eyes were blacked out for a bit, until their eyes quickly adjusted to the low-light of the cave.

Once they could see, they began navigating through the cave, utilizing the clues that the painting gave the three. They looked around and saw symbols carved onto the cave's walls, as an indicator that they indeed, were going in the right direction.

Eventually they came across another room, unlike the last one, it emitted a turquoise color. Once they entered they saw the collection piece put up on a pedestal, with the thing being surrounded by water, and had a small little bridge connecting the entrance and the collection.

The three were amazed by how beautiful the room looked. In a way, it was calming, enough so to the point where the pain that they had suffered before, was all but a distant memory to them. They smiled in awe as they fully entered the room. Barrack grabbed the collection piece on his jaws, and the three began to walk out of the cave.

Once they made it out, they squinted as their eyes had to readjust to the Bright Sun. "Hello little cubs." Spoke a sinister voice.

Once the three's eyes readjusted, they saw Giza and his crew standing in front of them. "For the record, we're teenagers, not cubs." Yazid remarked.

However Giza wasn't amused by Yazid's little joke, as he was still furious for the stunt him and his team pulled back in their territory. "Do you know what happens to people who mess with me?"

"That question is usually followed up with a murder threat, is that it?"

Giza growled at Yazid, startling him a bit. "Enough games, it's payback time."

Giza attempted to pounce at Yazid, however he was able to quickly duck, and avoid his attack. "RUN!" Yazid ordered. His teammates nodded and the three began to make their way to the boarder of the Pridelands.

However the Jackals were in pursuit, and this time the had larger numbers. The three made a sharp turn and hid behind the trunk of a large tree so they could catch their breath. However the jackals were getting closer. But they were interrupted when they heard a loud roar.

"WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING HERE!" Ayanna shouted.

The Jackal leader turned around and faced the princess. "None of your business kid!" he retorted.

Ayanna growled at Giza. "You are in the Pridelands, so it is my business."

Giza was about to back down, but then he had an idea, as he remembered that Ayanna indirectly make Yazid and his crew invade his territory. Seeing this as a chance to have some form of revenge, he turned and faced his underlings. "Change of plans, get the Lion Guard!" He ordered.

The Jackals obeyed and began to charge at the three Guard members. Seeing this as a chance to escape, Yazid and his team made a break for the Prideland boarders, undetected by Ayanna and her team since they were distracted with the Jackal situation.

Meanwhile Ayanna and her team were doing their best to counter the Jackals, however since they were severely outnumbered, the best strategy as of now was for them to get them in a position for Ayanna to use her Roar on them.

However, they were so focused that they didn't notice Niah, Dalila and Shani were watching the battle that was going on. "This is a bad idea!" Dalila complained,

"Shut up, we're just seeing what's so important that would make Ayanna ditch us." Niah countered.

"Well we see that they are dealing with those guys, can we go now?" Shani butted in.

Niah groaned. "Fiiiiine!" She whined. The three lionesses turned around, but they were jumped by a few of the Jackals that had noticed the trio.

Hearing their screams, Zuberi quickly knocked away his current opponent and ran to their rescue.

He rammed himself into the Jackals, knocking them away. He got into a fighting stance as he growled at his opponents. One of the jackals leapt at him, but he used his strength to knock him into another Jackal. The other nearby Jackals weren't paying attention, so he used this as his opportunity to deal with his remaining opponents.

Zuberi pounced at one of the jackals, clawing at their face, before jumping behind another Jackal and quickly grabbing him by the scruff. Once he got a grip on his opponent, he swung the Jackal into the remaining surrounding ones.

Shani stared in awe at what Zuberi had just done. He noticed Shani and nervously smiled, before running off to help his other teammates.

Ayanna and Zahour managed to get the Jackals into one area. As such the clouds behind them began to move into their direction, and Ayanna closed her eyes, focusing her energy.

The Princesses eyes opened wide as she let out an enormous Roar, one so powerful that the clouds in the sky roared along with her, unleashing a powerful gust of wind, so strong that it blew away the Jackals back to the Outlands. This was the Roar of the Elders.

Ayanna collapsed a bit as she catches her breath. "You good?" Zahour asked.

"Yeah, but It's just hard getting used to this thing." She responded as she stood back up.

"Zuberi!" Zuberi turned around and noticed that her friends were already heading back to Pride Rock, and that she was staying behind. He gulped as he nervously made her way over to her.

"Hey, are you alright?" He asked in a soft voice.

"Y-yeah I'm fine. What you did back there was...cool." She said as she did her best to hide how nervous she was. "So um, do you want to hang out, later. I mean if you aren't busy and all that."

Zuberi was frozen, as his brain was struggling to process what was going on. "Y-you're serious?" He asked, wanting to make sure that she wasn't messing with him, although no answer she gave wouldn't eliminate the thought of this still being a messed up prank.

"Yeah." She responded. Zuberi paused for a moment. On one hand if it was a prank to mess with him, it would really mess him up, but on the other hand, if he ignored every chance he got, he would probably end up alone.

"Sure." He responded.

"Alright, I'll meet you back at Pride Rock!" Shani turned around and made her way back to meet up with her friends.

"See! It all worked out!" Zahour said as he ruffled Zuberi's mane.

"Yeah no thanks to you jerk!" Zuberi responded.

"She asked him out because Zuberi saved him!" Ayanna said as she joined in the conversation.

"I-Is that a good thing?" Zuberi asked.

Ayanna smiled. "You threw yourself out there without hesitation, so yeah."

"Thanks, though I'm still not sure if it is even a date."

Zahour face-palmed. "Dude, you and her are hanging out alone, how is that not a date?"

Zuberi shrugged. "It could just be a hang-out, with just the two of us."

"THAT'S A DATE!"

Sorry for not updating, but yeah here ya go, a longer chapter than usual, enjoy!