Zazu was sitting on top of Pride Rock and looking bummed at the fact of him retiring now. Of course, his wings were sore from flying so much. He wanted to argue with his superiors so bad, but he was slowly facing the facts that; he is unable to work as the king and queen's majordomo anymore.
"I never thought it would come to this." said Zazu to himself. "Well, granted, I knew it would happen, but not this soon."
He pouted and recalled the good times he had as the majordomo for Simba and his father. The hornbill wondered what kind of person will replace him, and he wondered how his replacement will fail out of mild spite.
Normally, he didn't like to speak ill or poorly of others, but he was just upset that he needed to retire. "Oh, what am I thinking?" he wondered. "I hope the kingdom here will thrive without my assistance."
"Zazu?" said a kids voice. "Are you up here?" it was Kion with Rani walking behind him.
"Yes Kion." Zazu sighed. "I am here."
The two lions sat beside him; Kion on one side, and Rani on the other. "Are you ok?" asked the male cub.
"Oh yes, just dandy." Zazu tried to sound cheerful. "As a matter of fact; i was thinking thinking this over, and retirement will be perfect for me. As long as everyone in the Pride Lands doesn't fall into disarray, and i highly doubt anyone will he as perfect as me and-"
"You're not fine, are you?" Rani said.
"No! I am not!" Zazu admitted. "Do you both know how much i have contributed to your father and grandfather, Kion? I have contributed so much for them! and i never thought it would end this way!"
"Calm down!" Kion said.
"How can i calm down when these very lands might fall into shambles overtime with me retiring?" Zazu sounded frantic. "I mean there can be a fire in the valley because of me not he-"
He felt Rani grasp Zazu's arms with her paws, and she said: "Zazu! pull yourself together!"
Slowly and breathing hard, fhe hornbill said. "Sorry. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown."
"Yeah. I notice." Rani narrowed her eyes
"All things have their time Zazu. You can't keep hurting yourself like this."
"I know."
"Besides, you're not the king."
"I know that." Zazu narrowed his eyes. "I know that as much as any other animal around here." he sighed again. "I am juat worried that whoever will replace me will do a rather lousy job in being the new majordomo. This kind of job was my life."
"We know." said Kion
"But like Kion said. All things have their time."
"Right."
"Don't worry." said Kion. "We'll be fine, and everyone else in the Pride Lands will too. Besides, Timon and Pumbaa are still helping my parents out."
"Yes, but... they have... pardon me if i say this: grasshopper-sized brains."
"We'll find someone else. And you won't be forgotten." said Kion
"Yeah, many animals know who you are." Rani added
"True."
"Just enjoy your retirement. It'll be fun."
"But where will I live?" Zazu asked.
"I'm sure mom and dad will figure something out for you. Have they ever let you down?"
"Well when they were your age... you know."
"Right." Kion said.
"Look, thank you so much for trying to cheer me up. But I just need to be alone."
"Come on Rani." said Kion. "Let's just give him what he wants."
"Right behind you." Both of them walked down the stone steps and were back on the ground level. "So that was a romantic time between us. You know, us walking in the snow."
"Until Kutojali and his chimp family came and ruined everything." Kion narrowed his eyes away from her.
"Ah, stuff like that happens out of nowhere. They caught us by surprise."
"good point."
"And I'm sorry if I snapped at you up there."
"No, no it's ok." said Kion. "I'm the one who should be sorry. I wasn't really paying enough attention to you."
"no, I'm the one who's sorry." Rani said. "I know you and Chris really like each other. Besides, we enjoyed our walk and those hot springs together."
"We did." Kion smiled.
They walked up to Simba and Nala to greet them again.
"He seems upset about retiring." Kion pointed out.
"We know." said Nala sadly. "But it's for the best."
"It's the right thing to do." Simba added. "We can't let him hurt himself anymore."
"So who's going to replace him?" asked their son."
"We are still not really sure who." Nala admitted. "But we will look for the perfect candidate."
"So are you going to hold auditions for a new majordomo?"
"That's just what we'll do, Rani." said Simba. "I know we'll find a good majordomo for us. It will probably just take a little time."
"there's many good candidates." said Kion
"We know sweetie," said Nala. "But you don't have to worry about that. How was your time up in the mountains?"
"It was fun." said Rani.
"then a bunch of chimpanzees tried to fight Sowke and his family."
"Chimpanzees?" asked Simba
"Uh-huh. Their leader is named Kutojali and he had an intense fight with Sowke. Something about control over the mountains."
"But Sokwe managed to scare him away." said Rani. "But he might make a more smarter plan."
"We know how crafty chimps can be." said Simba. "They use tools."
"But it was good." Kion smiled. "There were hot springs up there."
"Really?" said Nala
Both Kion and Rani nodded their heads to them in reply.
"We'll have to look for them when we visit the Rwenzori mountains next time."
"Although, i think we might have found a candidate for Zazu." Kion pointed.
"And who's that?" asked Simba curiously.
"Bundi the owl. He's the one that told us about Zazu retiring." Rani pointed.
"Well, we'll take a look at that." said Nala. "Thanks for the suggestion."
"Like we said:" Simba noted. "don't worry about it. We have everything under control."
"We know."
Later on in the day, Kion was sitting on a hill with Chris, looking at the sunset. They were only many yards away from Chris' campsite, and the crickets were starting to chirp as the sun was going further and further down the horizon.
"I hope you had fun in the mountains, Chris." said Kion.
"So much fun. I got to see a fight between a gorilla and a chimpanzee. I know it looked ugly, but it was still fun to watch. I'm glad you guys didn't get hurt."
"I feel the same about you, Chris." said Kion. "So what do you want to do tomorrow?"
"Well, I wanted to take a look at more of your friends and see what they're like."
"Sure!" Kion smiled. "We can do that."
"And... I'm sorry your dad's helper had to retire."
"No, don't worry about that." Kion remarked. "He had to retire unless he wanted to hurt himself more. Besides, he's kind of a drama queen."
"Yeah. And i wanna say you're pretty cool. I mean, you having a power to blast away enemies with a roar? Thae's so awesome."
"Thanks Chris. "You're pretty cool too. When you do go back home with your family, will we see each other again?"
"I'll have to ask my mom and dad if that's possible." the human kid admitted. "I don't want to never see you again."
"Ditto."
