Heri was certainly happy to meet a good and honorable lion like Kion was. Thanks to him, Heri and his family would be happy to visit the Pride Lands any time as they pleased, and Janja and his clan wouldn't be able to terrorize the Pride Lands and the Outlands as well. Yes, Janja and his cronies have been known to terrorize the Outlands at times, too, and they do give all hyenas a bad name of any species. Striped, spotted, doesn't matter, there can be good striped hyenas as there can be good spotted hyenas
Another thing that the funny Heri was happy about was that; those pied crows wouldn't be around to terrorize him or his family again now that he, Kion, and Rani killed all the three passerine birds. Of course, there were other dangerous for him, his mate, and his children. But alas, hyenas had powerful jaws and they can withstand most obstacles that can come in their way.
Today, the male striped hyena was doing a usual free time with his loved ones in the Outlands, and the kids were having fun in pretending to tackle their father. Belang smiled as she saw here mate and kids having so much fun outside while she was laying in her den. "Come on dad, you can do better than that!" Ujinja said playfully. "Just come on and get me!"
"Oooh, you're just like your mother." Heri said with a playful snarl.
Kupendeza felt her dad pin her to the ground with his right paw and began blowing raspberries on her tummy, making her laugh and cackle from how ticklish it was. Ujinja tried to escape, but Heri caught sight of him just in time, and a devious smile appeared on his face.
"Oh ho ho, thought you were trying to get away from me, buddy?" Heri asked, walking towards him. "No one escapes a hyena's grasp." he pinned his own boy down and began blowing raspberries on his tummy as he did with his son's own little sister. "Tickle tickle tickle!" Heri said playfully before he clew raspberries into his daughter's belly. Kupendeza was laughing uncontrollably and twitching from how ticklish the raspberries was. At last, Heri stopped the playfulness and let his children go from his friendly clutches. "Did you kids have fun?"
"Yeah!" both his children replied with adorable smiles on their dog-like faces. Of course, it was mostly their faces that was dog-like and nothing else. "But, i'm getting hungry." said Ujinja.
"Me too. I feel like having an eagle carcass." said his sister
"Well don't worry. I'll look for any food out there."
"Can we come with you?" Ujinja asked
"Whoa whoa whoa, absolutely not." said the male striped hyena. His two children frowned and groaned, sounding really bummed that they wouldn't go looking for food with their daddy, and they bowed their heads, looking sad. "Hey, it's not that I don't want you to come with me. It can be dangerous out here. You remember those bad crows that tried to attack you and your mother? There could be more dangers out there. Buffalo, rhinos, hippos, and venomous snakes for instance."
Belang went up to her kids, and said: "Your father's only saying that because he loves you both, as much as he loves me. He's right. You kids are too young to be going out there and look for food now. Just wait in a few months or a year."
"Okay mom." both the kids said
"But don't worry, I won't be gone for too long. Okay? I'll be sure to bring back a tasty carcass for you guys to eat from. I promise you."
"Okay, dad." said the kids in unison, still sounding bummed. But they know that their dad will be back once he would get a good corpse to feed him and his family. Heri wondered and looked around the area for something good and dying. This striped hyena was a real family animal who would do anything to help them, including dying for them if need be. Alas, there was no danger coming to him or his family right now, especially since Kion and Rani helped him kill the wicked pied crows before.
Alas, there were, indeed, bigger dangers in the world besides passerines that are out to eat another animal's offspring. Jackals can be a pain if one animal is not careful. Looking around, he heard the faint sound of a few vultures cawing from above, and he knew that if there were vultures, there had to be a dead animal nearby, ripe for the picking hopefully. Heri stood still and waited for more cawing to know where it would come from
Hearing another row of cawing, he sensed it in the southwest region and it wasn't very far now. Without wasting time, Heri ran over to where the cawing was heard, and ultimately, he found the vulture flock and noticed that there was something big and dead. The carcass was still fresh, for it still had most of it's flesh over the bones. It appeared to be a cape buffalo that probably died of exhaustion from the scorching sun. "A-ha! Jackpot!" Heri said, rushing over to the carcass. This buffalo was perfect for him and his family to feast off from. "This is going to make everyone so happy."
A couple of vultures landed in front of him, and the leader said: "You're not hogging the buffalo, are you?"
"No. Of course not. I just need to get what I can for my family. Besides, i may have a strong mouth, but I can't just drag this buffalo back to my home. It's too big."
"Good point." said a second vulture, who sounded like a female. "Just at least save some for us."
"Kinda got here before you, buddy."
"If you don't attack me, I won't attack you." Heri remarked, looking a little cautious
"Same." all the vultures said. They all agreed to let the striped hyena get some food of his own, and take some for his family to eat off as well. After all, cape buffalo were huge animals and they had plenty amount of meat from their stocky, beefy bodies. Yes, it was a good feast for Heri, and as soon as he was finished eating his share, he took out a gigantic chunk of meet for his mate and kids to eat off from.
Heri was glad to have seen this dead buffalo, and it was not very common for large animals to be led astray. Cape Buffalo never travel alone, unless if they were outcasts from herds they were apart of, but kicked out by new leaders. Although one or two buffalo could be led astray, according to the size of the herds. "Well, this is done. Now I gotta get back to my family and make them all happy." It was not easy for Heri to try and drag this gigantic piece of juicy meat with his strong mouth. By the tracks, he was almost home, when a bunch of jackals came in front of him
"So, you going to share some of that meat?" asked a female voice. It was Reirei the troublesome jackal and her annoying and mischievous family.
"Who are you?"
"I am Reirei and this is my family. Come on, let us have some of that."
"No, this is for my family." Heri said. "There's a buffalo corpse over there if you would like some."
"ooh, but we also love to mess with other animals." Goigoi said. "You gonna give us that meat quietly?"
"Or are we gonna have to take it from you?" Reirei added
Heri snarled and he replied: "I would rather do this the hard way."
The jackals smiled and tried to look for a perfect moment to strike at the striped hyena. Reirei lunged with her mouth, but Heri dodged and bit the female jackal's right front leg, making her yelp in pain. The striped hyena locking his teeth on her skin and Reirei was hurting by the look on her face. "Let me go! Gah! LET ME GO!"
"You need to leave me alone or i will rip your leg off!" small streaks of blood were coming out of the matriarch's leg, and she can feel the teeth about to his her bones.
"Okay! Okay! We'll look somewhere else. GAH! JUST LET ME GO!"
At last, Heri couldn't hold on much longer and did just that. Ole Reirei was limping and her leg was slightly broken and hurt from the powerful bite. Yelping, all the jackals of this dysfunctional family scattered like sheep, and Heri won the fight, making him smile proudly. "That ought to teach her how to mess with my chow. Finder's keepers, loser's weepers." Heri sang in triumph before continuing to drag his family meal home.
