The hot spring was as relaxing as it should be for Kion, Kiara, Kovu, and Rani. Yes, this day just couldn't get any better than this right now. The feeling of the warm, cooling waters was making Kion feel a little sleepy, for he was a little tired from another usual day of patrolling the Pride Lands with his cohorts. He yawned and tried hard to keep himself awake while enjoying the hot spring with these three lions he cared about.

Kiara noticed and smirked. "Aww," she said. "Not getting sleepy. Are you?"

"What? No, no, of course not." Kion protested. "I just had another long day of patrolling, and my legs feel a little... a little..."

"Sore?" Kovu asked.

"Yeah. That's it." Kion said with another yawn. "I just need to get out of thisbsoring for a moment." he slowly got out and looked at a black, shadowy figure in the jungle bushes, and it looked a little suspicious. It looked like something of a large mammal like an elephant or a rhino

"Oh Kion, it's okay if you feel tired." said Kiara. "We're here and no one else would be watching."

"I know, Kiara. I know." he tried looking harder at the slowly moving creature that stopped about ten feet from where he was to the left.

This creature didn't really have a trunk like an elephant but he was almost as big as a rhino, or possibly larger. "Kion, what's wrong?" asked Rani.

"I get the feeling we're being stalked. Look,"

The other three lions got out of the spring and fired themselves off before looking at this strange creature that was still in the shadows in the brushes. "You're right." said Kiara. "What is that?"

"Probably a rhino or a buffalo." Kovu said.

"Yeah, good point."

"Hello?" Kion called out. "Who's there? Look, we just want to know who you are and why you're spying on us. We mean you no harm."

The figure made bo response to the cub and didn't move a muscle. The four were becoming a little scared and they were beginning to worry that this creature, whatever it was, was a hostile enemy like Janja or a grumpy hippo who was looking for trouble.

"Can you talk?" Rani asked the figure.

The beast suddenly, with a very quick spurts ran away with the sound of his feet thumping the ground with every gallop, and it made the ground mildly shake like a small earthquake, not as much as an elephant would create, but still a little powerful in making the ground shake.

It was quite concerning, but Kovu said: "ah, probably just some think it buffalo that thought we were going to eat him."

"Oh come on. Kion said that we meant no harm" Kiara noted. "Maybe we should go after him. Or whatever he is."

"Well, maybe later." said Kion. "But, i think i'm a little done with the hot spring for now. Don't want to make my body wrinkled for being in the water for too long."

"Yeah, me too." Rani added. "I don't want to look like a dry watermelon. The inside of a watermelon I mean."

"Yeah, I think you guys are right." Kovu chuckled. "Besides, I can go for a nice zebra to eat."

"Well, I'm just going to go back to Pride Rock." Kiara said. Her stomach began growling as well. "Oh second thought, I think I should go hunting with you guys. I feel like eating a buffalo right now."

"Now you guys are making me hungry too." Rani smirked. "Wanna look for something to eat, Kion?"

"Well, I guess I can go for a little snack, something like a dik-dik, but That's probably it." The four then went in a group together to look for some food to eat out in the grassy plains. So far, there wasn't anything in particular that everyone wanted to eat, but they will find the perfect meal for them, and it just needs time.

Finally, Kiara eventually found a young cape buffalo calf that got separated from it's herd, and Kovu found an average-sized zebra that he ambushed while the rest of the herd was grazing in the fields without noticing the sudden ambush.

Rani found a saddle-bill stork in a nearby pond and it was a very nice kill for a teenage cub like her. As for Kion, the dik-dik antelopes were a little bit of a rare sight in the Pride Lands, but he did managed to find one that was already dead, presumably killed by an unknown predator, or died of thirst under the sun.

It looked ripe for the picking like a fresh apple in a tree that was ready for harvesting. Kion licked his lips and began eating the dead antelope. It tasted so fresh and so nice and he hoped that no other predator would come and try to steal this from him.

This dik-dik had to have die of dehydration before it didn't really have any claw marks or bite marks on it's body at all. It didn't take long for a couple of vultures and jackals to come and look at the carcass with some of its skin eaten by the cub.

"Ooh, that looks yummy." said a jackal. "Mind if i... had a bite if it?"

"How do I know you won't steal it from me?" Kion asked.

"Because, I see how hungry you are." the male jackal replied.

"I... can't take any chances, sir. Besides, the flesh is almost gone."

"That's okay. I can est some of the guts."

"Well... alright, as long as you let me share."

"No problem." said the black-backed jackal

More and more vultures came to eat the marrow of the antelopes bones, and some more flies were coming every second.

This Jackal came and ate a few gut pieces from the carcass, thanked Kion for sharing she walked away, feeling satisfied and grateful.

"What's that?" Rani said, coming up to him with Kiara and Kovu. "A duiker?"

"A dik-dik actually."

"So, about that creature, I think we should look into it." Kovu suggested. "I mean, if it was stalking us like that before, there has to be a reason."

"Good point." Kiara agreed. "He didn't look like an animal I have seen before."

"Well, I would love to stay some more, but I have to get back home to the Back Lands. My parents are probably worried about me. Thanks for letting me use the hot spring, Kiara."

"No problem Rani, see ya soon."

The dark-coated lion went off in the grass and it was just the three of them now. One thing that was certain was; whoever this creature was stalking the four earlier, he must have some connection or wants to talk to them.

All in all, they didn't know what it was, but they know that they want to get to the bottom of this.