Nothing like a little snowball fight in these sacred mountains between lion, gorilla, and human. It was so much fun and Kion was getting the most snowballs from Rani. Being his girlfriend, she wanted him to pay more attention to her and she figured this would be a perfect way to get his attention.
While she did like these humans, she also wanted Kion to pay attention to her more and still hoped that she and him can spend a little quality alone time together in these beautiful, snow-covered mountains.
She was laughing either way and still having fun with these snowball fights with her own friends. "Come on, Kion!" she felt a couple of snowballs being hit against her back. "Is that the best you can do? My mother throws better than you!"
"Well, I'm still a cub." Kion smirked.
"Come on and hit me with your best shot." said Rani playfully.
"Think fast!" said Chris before throwing a snowball at Kion in the back of the head.
"Oh ho, nice throw." Kion had a devious look on his face, turning his attention to human boy.
"Come and get me!" Chris playfully taunted. then he felt his back getting hit by Majinuni.
"Nice throw, Majinuni." Kion called out.
Rani threw another snowball at Kion to make him pay more attention to her. Over time, it worked a little bit, but Kion started to pay more attention to Chris a little more, since he became one of Kion's newest best friends.
He was unintentionally hurting her by paying more attention to the human kid than to her. Nonetheless, she was trying not to upset Kion, because Chris makes Kion so happy. "I am still going to take one for the team." she said to herself. "Chris is my friend too, and I like to see Kion happy. I mean, he still remembers having some quality time alone with me."
The snowball fight continued and after thirty minutes of nonstop playing, all of them were aittke worn out from all that energy. "That never ceases to be fun." Kocu panted a little. "I wish we would have come here years ago. I mean, if mom wasn't evil and wasn't swearing revenge against Simba."
"It would have been fun. But dad always said to not dwell on the past, Kovu."
"That's true, Kiara. Very, very true." her mate laughed. He looked at the human family and said: "did you guys have fun?"
"Oh yeah." said Tara. "That was fun. Good thing we brought our winter equipment with us."
"Otherwise we would kinda freeze up here a little." Persephone smirked.
"So what else is up here in the mountains?"
"This place is a safe haven to white-necked ravens." said Sokwe.
"At least Tuma isn't here to try to kill you anymore, dad." said Hafifu.
"Yes. It most certainly is, son. But is the Lion's Bane gone for good?"
"I honestly don't know." said Kion. "Joel's gun scared them off by killing Ramses. But I don't know for sure if they will come back."
"Well, I think," said Kiara, "they probably won't. They've never seen a gun before until then. Besides, thag thing is very loud."
"Very, very loud." Kovu added. "If the bullets, or... I think they're called bullets, don't scare them, then the blast of the gun will."
"Good point." said Rani.
"So this thing is called a gun?" Majinuni went up to Joel to look at the firearm.
"Yes. I use it to protect myself and my family." Joel replied. "It's to make sure I protect them with my life."
"Ooh." Gorillas were a rather curious bunch, and Majinuni couldn't help but gently grasp the arm guard in curiosity. "Feels a little heavy."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! don't touch it." said Joel. "This thing is extremely dangerous, especially if you don't handle it properly. You can easily shoot your eye out if you are not careful."
"Oh. That dangerous?" said Hafifu
"It is." Kion admitted. "You should have seen how the bullet got into Ramses before it killed him."
"Sorry." said Majinuni. "It looks shiny though."
"Don't worry about it. I can imagine a parrot wanting to take a look at it. Parrots love shiny things."
"Oh yes." said Rani. "I know some parrot friends, and they are addicted to shiny stuff. I don't know why."
"Probably because if it shines, it keeps away predators wanting to steal their eggs or their babies to eat them." Kiara speculated
"You're right. Not just parrots," said Persephone. "Ravens, crows, and other birds are attracted to shiny objects. It can be for many reasons. They can use it because it looks beautiful, or it marks their hunting skills. Or it might just distract them."
"That makes sense." said Kiara.
"So you rule over these mountains?" asked Chris to Sokwe curiously
"Yes. I do. I make sure there is order on the peaks of Rwenzori, and make sure there is no unlawful killing of any kind from any animal up here. Along with no unfairness and no stealing from others. If one finds a kill first, the other scavengers have to be contempt with it and wait their turn."
"What other animals live up here?"
"There are some chimpanzees that live up here, but we prefer to avoid their kind. Chimps can be a rather... rowdy bunch." said Sokwe. "Giant forest hogs make there home here, and some monkeys as well. A number of birds besides the raven live around here as well. One, in particular is the turaco bird that loves to make it's home in the mountains and the dense, jungle, lower levels of the mountains."
"Why don't you ever talk to chimpanzees?" asked Chris. "Aren't you guys the same kind of species?"
"Well, we're both members of the ape family, like humans," said Majinuni. "But that is just where the similarities end."
"Chimps are very sleazy and no-good troublemakers." Hafifu added. "And I don't mean like us, but like the bad kind."
"Yes. Never trust a chimpanzee." said Sokwe. "It's always best to never cross paths with one. Stay away."
"Well, we have heard a lot of bad reputation about chimps back home." said Joel. "They can be very nasty of someone isn't careful. They're very unpredictable."
'Yes. Yes, they are." Sokwe had his eyes narrowed just thinking poorly of chimpanzees. "but, nonetheless, there are other plenty of friendly faces up here in the mountains too."
Rani thought of this as a perfect chance to be alone with Kion for a while. Just her and him on a little date, and she went up to him. "So Kion," she sounded a little nervous. "You want to go for a little walk with me in the snow?"
"Sure. But Chris has something to shwo me on his phone. Something really funny." Rani's smile turned into a frown and she made a small groan of annoyance.
"Seriously Kion? Urgh! I can't do this anymore!" then, to everyone's surprise, Rani ran off into the snow in a huff, leaving everyone very confused, Kion especially.
"What was that?" asked Kiara
"I have no idea, Kiara. But, I'm going to go find out." the male cub said before running off after her. The continuous snowfall made it a little difficult for Kion to see where his own girlfriend was. "Hello? Rani? Are you out here?" There was no answer in returned, just the sound of Kion's echo. "Rani? Whatever I did to upset you, i'm sorry!" He walked many miles and finally, he found her laying in a small snow hill, pouting and looking hurt. "Rani?"
"Go away." she said with sadness on her face and her eyes closed
"Rani, what's wrong?"
"Look. It's just that... I wanted us to be alone together up here and spend some time, you know, as a couple. But It looks like you're too busy with Chris and his family. Playing and interacting with them and all. It's... it's almost like you're forgetting about me and blowing me off with them." Kion made a small face of guilt, and realized that Rani was right. He hasn't really been paying attention to her and more attention to Chris and his family members. Of course, he never meant to hurt her like this.
"Rani. Look. I'm really sorry. It's just that... Chris and his family are interesting. I mean, we've never seen humans before and that's why they're so cool." Kion tried to reason with her. "I mean, if you met a human and became one of your best friends, what would you do?"
"Just leave me alone!" Rani said. "I just want to be alone right now. Please."
Kion wanted to reason with her more, but didn't want to upset her even further, and said: "Ok. But if you want to come back, you know where to find me."
Rani didn't really say anything in reply for that sentence, and slightly looked away. Deep down, Kion felt like he really did it this time.
