Authors Note: I'm so very, very sorry for taking so long to get this one out. Just know that I haven't stopped or given up. I still love writing this story, my brain just kinda hit a wall, combine that with other responsibilities and a short attention span, and you get this. Stupid brain :(

The sky outside the poacher's storage cave, Dusk

Daja, the Long-crested Eagle and now unofficial messenger for Prince Kovu has just left the cave where she and many others had, and even more still are, been held captive. Being from the Pride Lands, she's unfamiliar with the area, and after flying around for a short time looking for this Tarzan and/or his "nest", she needs to stop. It's almost dark and she's not nocturnal, but more than that, after all that time crammed into a small cage her wings are weak and stiff. She finds an abandoned hole in a tree to rest for the night, the first good night's rest she has had in a while.

Before going to sleep, she thinks to herself "This Tarzan person better be worth this trouble. *sigh* If I can't find him by midday tomorrow I'll just head for the Pride Lands." she yawns and lowers her head "The Pride will be more useful than one, uh... wait, no one even told me what a 'Tarzan' is."

Early the next morning, Simba's lakeside hideout

The light rain of yesterday had stopped during the night, and Tarzan wakes up early this morning to check in on Simba and his friends and to let him know the Professor wants to do a check-up on Simba. Tarzan himself has an appointment with Quinton to take them on another guided tour to the Rangi Valley that day, where he will also get his "payment" for Mr. Dumont, so he needs to be quick. Tarzan approaches the lakeside cave where everyone is sleeping, with Pumbaa and Timon using Simba as their mattress, and Vitani off to the side by herself closer to the entrance. Vitani, being the dutiful guard she is, wakes up with a growl as soon as he gets close, but settles once she sees it's him. She gets up and walks out to Tarzan, who politely greets her.

"Good morning. How did you sleep?"

"Fine." She says flatly, "You're here to see Simba?"

Vitani is still cautious around the human, having spent only a few minutes with him. Tarzan is more relaxed and trusting, though still a little uncomfortable around predators since he grew up as a gorilla.

"I am." Tarzan answers "The Professor wants to check on him to see how he's healing. I also wanted to introduce you to my family before I leave to take care of some business today."

"Wait here, I'll go wake him up." She says as she goes inside. "Simba." she quietly says as she gently nudges him. "Simba, that human is here. They're going to do a check-up on you."

He wakes up and begins to stand, causing Timon and Pumbaa to fall to the ground. "Hey, what's goin' on!" Timon shouts at the rude awakening, Pumbaa barely seems to notice and continues sleeping.

After a big stretch and vigorously shaking to wake himself up, he answers them "Tarzan is here to take us back to his home."

Tarzan greets Timon "Good morning."

Timon, who isn't much of a morning person, grumbles "It was good until we got woken up." He elbows Pumbaa to wake the large warthog up. "Come on big guy, rise and shine, we gotta get movin'."

"Huh, what? Is it breakfast yet?" Pumbaa asks with half-open eyes.

As they walk toward the treehouse, Vitani asks Tarzan, "So... who is going to be there?" She tries to avoid sounding distrusting of him. However, everyone could feel a certain vibe from her. This didn't bother Tarzan, who understood the reason for her unease.

"Just my wife, her father, and two of my friends." he tries to assure her. "But as I said before, I have to leave once we get there to take care of something. But they will take good care of you."

Vitani doesn't say anything more beyond "Hmm", although to herself she says, 'more humans? And are his friends' humans or gorillas, or... what? I guess I'll find out, but I hate walking in blind.' Despite her apprehension, she trusts Simba's judgment and continues.

As they continue forward, Simba and Tarzan chat, with Timon regularly throwing in his opinion. Pumbaa kept wandering off the path to look for bugs since they didn't have breakfast yet, and Vitani walks a few steps behind the rest to keep an eye on everyone.

When they make it to the Treehouse, they're greeted by Tarzan's family. Jane, with a big smile, is the first to welcome them, "Good morning your majesty! We were just setting out some breakfast for you." As she sets a large fish Tarzan caught earlier down, she notices the new faces, "Oh, these must be your friends." She walks over to them and introduces herself, kneeling as she does so, "Hello there, I'm Jane, Tarzan's wife."

Pumbaa, being the most sociable of the three, is the first to introduce himself, "Nice to meetcha! I'm Pumbaa, and this is my buddy, Timon." As he says this, Timon climbs on top of him to get a better look at Jane.

After looking her over he says, "So your what a female human looks like hah? Not exactly what I was expecting."

Pumbaa then asks "Well what did you expect?"

He responds "How should I know? I ain't ever seen one before."

Simba rolls his eyes with a smirk and tells Jane, "These two are my closest friends." Turning back to look at Vitani, he gestures for her to step forward, and then introduces her, "And this is Vitani. She's the leader of the Guard, and as Kovu's sister she's part of our Royal family."

"A pleasure to meet you, Your Highness." Jane smiles.

Vitani was unsure how to respond, no one had ever called her 'your highness' before, and most others would show a level of fear or caution, even among other lions. "Um, thank you." She says after a moment. "And thank you for taking care of Simba," and with a small bow of her head she continues, "we are in your debt."

Timon quickly jokes, "Yeah, but I'm gonna need to write you an IOU, I left my wallet at home."

Tarzan replies, "Don't worry about that, I don't help to get anything in return."

"He right my dear!" the Professor jumps in to say "This boy is a true humanitarian, or would that be an animal-itarian? Let say a philanthropist to animal kind, haha, there we go, that's a bit less complicated. Anyway, don't concern yourself with any remuneration."

Timon quietly says to Pumbaa, "Oh boy, looks like we found the monkey's shaved brother here."

Jane chuckles at her father's statement and introduces him "This is my father, he's the one who took care of Simba's injuries. And behind me are Turk and Tantor."

After everyone had been introduced to one another and some brief socialization, Timon asked "Okay, now that the meet n' greet is over what are we doin' now?"

Jane answers him, "Well Tarzan has to leave soon, but we recently figured out the area Kovu might have been taken. So we were planning on looking around that area today."

As soon as she said this, all four of their faces light up, even Vitani shows an uncharacteristic smile, "Really?! Where?!" "How did you find him?" "Is it close? Can you see him?" Everyone is quick to ask.

"Easy now, let's keep our wits about us!" The Professor says, trying to calm the eager group. "There is no guaranty the fellow is there, it's simply a promising lead. But we are hopeful."

Although slightly disappointed they don't know EXACTLY where he is, they didn't lose their smiles, overjoyed to know that they're so close to Kovu. After everyone had some breakfast, Tarzan pulls Simba and Jane aside and says to them "Please make sure that if you find anything, not to doing anything without me. I know we've all dealt with dangerous situations before, but these people are different."

Simba agrees, "Don't worry, I'll make sure none of my friends do anything." As does Jane, "Of course darling, we'll get as much information as we can, and then come right back here."

After their conversation, they rejoin the group. A short time later, Tantor hears something. "Hey Tarzan, I think your friends are here almost here."

He tells him "Great. Have Simba and the others hide while they're here. I'll be back before sundown."

Tantor, a bit concerned for his friend, asks him "Um, are you sure about this Tarzan? Going with them to the Rangi Valley. Isn't that place crawling with predators?" He begins listing the different predators, slowly getting louder as he scares himself, "Like leopards, and large snakes, and spiders, and eagles, and SPIDERS! That place is a death trap!"

"Don't worry Tantor the valley isn't as dangerous as sounds." He assures him, "And besides, there are five of us so we won't be an easy target."

Tantor relaxes slightly, but is still fairly tense, of course for him that's normal. "Alright, but I still have a bad feeling about this. Watch your back... and your front, and sides. Also..."

Tarzan laughs at his friend's earnest, although overly cautious, protective attitude. "I'll be careful."

Then Tantor goes to tell Simba and the others while Tarzan meets with Quinton and his friends. Even though Turk and Tantor have already met Quinton's group, they go with the Pridelanders. As they're walking away to take cover in the brush, Vitani decides to take a look at these other humans. Partially out of curiosity, partially for security, knowing what's going on and with who sort of thing. "I'll be right back." She says as she turns around.

Turk yells back, "Hey! Where ya goin'?! Tarzan said ta keep your head down."

"I'm taking a look." She said, trying to muffle a growl. In the short hour or so she's known her, Turk's loud and mildly excessive personality has already started to annoy Vitani.

"So much for you guys steering clear of the other humans." Turk comments.

"I'll go get her". Simba says trotting off after her, slightly limping because of his injured arm. When he meets up with her, she's behind a patch of ferns, and Tarzan and his family are already talking with Quinton's team. "What are you doing here?" he whispers.

"I just wanted a look at these other humans." She says without looking at Simba, focused on the humans. "I don't understand what they're saying but they seem friendly with each other."

The two sit there for two or three minutes before Simba insists "Okay, we've seen them, we should go now. They seem harmless enough."

"I guess, but something just smells... strange to me."

Simba quietly chuckles, "Well we've never met humans before, so I guess they would smell strange to us." Vitani simply nods in agreement and takes one last look at them.

When Tarzan and Quinton leave, the animals regroup with Jane and her father. They begin moving toward the coast where the forest thins and hills slowly turn into mountains, where Kovu and the poachers cave might be. When the trees begin to thin out and the terrain starts to change the Professor makes a suggestion, "We have much to explore and it goes without saying that time is of the essence, so perhaps it would be best to form two groups?"

"Well I think me and Pumbaa should keep an eye on Simba," says Timon, "so we can make sure he doesn't go for another swim in the river."

"Of course," Jane agrees, "but I think Turk should go with you so you have someone who knows the jungle with you if that's okay?."

Simba accepts, "I think that's a great idea."

Turk simply shrugs, "Alright, I'll keep the tourists safe."

So Turk goes with Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa, while Vitani goes with Jane and the Professor. Tantor stays behind since an elephant would stand out in the mountains and also because he'd have difficulty on the narrower paths. He wasn't happy about being alone, but that fear was outweighed by the fear of falling or being seen and shot at by the poachers. Both teams begin the search and go their separate ways, Simba's team going closer to the coast, and Jane's team searching higher up. After some time, neither team has found anything yet, and Vitani is feeling mentally tired from the Professors' constant talking.

"Another interesting legend the locals have," he continued "is the Grootslang. A monstrously large beast is said to be a combination of an elephant and a snake and that has a fondness for diamonds. Preposterous of course, but all legends, even the most far-fetched examples, have seeds of truth. I hypothesize..." As he was talking a loud screech came from the sky. The Professor, using a pair of binoculars he brought, looks up to see where the sound came from. "Hm, strange."

"What is daddy?" Jane asks.

"Well, it appears to be Long-Crested Eagle. However, that species is endemic to savannah and forest ecosystems, so what would bring it here to the mountains?"

The eagle, having caught sight of them, begins to circle. After getting a good look, she swoops down, landing on the ground in front of them. "*panting* I know you! Um, Kitani, no it's something with 'tani'. Uh... whatever, that's not important right now, you're part of Simba's Guard right?"

A little confused by what's happening, Vitani answers "It's Vitani and yes I am. Who are you?"

"Daja. I was trapped in a cave with a bunch of other animals, including Prince Kovu." At the mention of Kovu's name and a cave of animals, Daja gets rushed with questions.

Fortunately, Jane speaks up "Now now, let's give the poor dear a chance to explain herself."

Daja is relieved, and after taking a moment, she tells them what happened. After, she looks at Jane and the Professor and asks "Um, so are either of you Tarzan?"

Jane giggles "No, Tarzan is my husband. I'm Jane and this is my father."

Vitani, quick to get back on track, says "We should find Simba, then you need to show us where you were kept. Please."

"Of course, that's why I'm here."

Authors Note: Okay, I know this is late, but considering that I've been doing this story for a year and this is the 13th chapter (averaging 1 chapter a month) I think I'm doing good. I hope you guys can forgive that long dry spell and hope that you enjoyed this chapter.