To guests: please stop using the comments to ask me to update other fics or anything that is NOT related to this one. I like to see feedback and opinions, but i get stressed when people pressure me to update another story. I take different times to work on each particular story depending on the depth and length i have planned.

Well, with that said, on with the chap.

While he managed to keep considerable distance-both physical and emotional-from the chick, Makuu grew a bit fond of him.

Sure, the chick drove him nuts, but there were other aspects of him that he found amusing. He made silly questions, but that look of wonder and admiration everytime he answered them (even if sometimes he only told him half-truths) had no price.

The only bad thing: every morning he'd wake up to find Kitwana sleeping on top of his head, no matter how many times he established the 'side of the nest rule'.

As days passed, however, soon he found himself less and less annoyed by this.

Speaking of which, with the passage of days his attitude towards his… foster son were not the only things that changed; Kitwana himself was changing too on a much faster rate than baby crocodiles did. He had already gained a few pounds from so much fish, and had grown a few inches tall; the only bad thing was that he often molted his baby down.

Yet no matter how much he grew, the crocodile mannerisms remained.

Unfortunately, though not affected by the fact crocodiles were carnivorous, Kitwana had turned more… daring. Now he was constantly running around the reeds trying to catch crickets and other insects (only when he was hungry, respecting the Circle of Life) or any small fish he managed to spot. Or he asked Hodari to teach him some moves; in fact, those two were technically inseparable by then.

Much to Makuu's amusement, though, no matter how hard Kitwana tried he just couldn't learn how to swim.

"Kiddo, you'll get a cold if you spend too much time in the water." He said, chuckling as Kitwana splashed the water with his wings, trying to catch a small fish.

The chick groaned in frustration when his 'prey' got away. "I don't get it! Why is it so hard to catch a stupid fish?!"

"Maybe it has to do with the fact you don't know how to swim."

"That's another thing I don't get! Why can't I swim like you and the others, Makuu?"

Makuu sighed. He just couldn't wait to tell the chick the real reason; until then, he'd have to cope. "Well, who said you had to swim exactly like me?"

"I'm a crocodile, I'm supposed to swim like one, am I not?"

"Not necessarily. All herds have an 'odd one out', just ask Kion about it."

Kitwana chirped in delight. "You mean about Kion's big, loud roar that sends hyenas flying?"

"That's right. He's the only lion that can do that, which technically makes him a sort of 'odd one out' among the lions."

"Yeah, but what he does is actually cool! I can't swim and I can't fish!"

Makuu felt a little guilty at his charge's frustration. But since it had been Akina's idea to let him believe that lie, he quickly bottled the feeling up. His most used tactic was to change the topic and hope he'd forget about it. "So, remember what day is it today?"

"Weellll…"

He rolled his eyes. Some things never changed. "We're moving unto lake Matope today, kiddo"

"Why?"

"What did I say about the silly questions?" Makuu said annoyed, but still answered. "Crocodiles live there. We only come to this part of the river during the first weeks of the Wet Season when the herds return to the Pride Lands and need to cross." He finished it there; he didn't need to go into details regarding what happened next, even if Kitwana was now aware of the feeding.

Kitwana nodded, not needing to ask why they didn't hunt like other predators anymore. Hodari had explained they were ambushers, awaiting for the right moment for prey to come closer, even if it took them hours of waiting, before catching their prey with their powerful jaws. However, the laws of the Pride Lands forbad them from killing young, instead targeting the old and sick individuals to put them out of their misery.

He had also heard from Akina that the females would soon lay their eggs, and by tradition they were always at Lake Matope.

The float left the river half an hour later. Kitwana's legs had grown a bit and he could move around a bit more easily now, so he could keep up to Makuu most of the way, though eventually he got tired and jumped unto his back. They arrived at the lake when the sun was at its cenit; Kitwana gazed in awe at the larger body of water, even bigger than the watering hole he had gone to a few days ago. He noted how despite it being the crocodiles' main territory, there were a few herds drinking from the lake.

"Makuu, what are they doing here?" he asked, signaling at the herds.

Akina had the feeling Makuu didn't want to recount the reasons that the herds could come to drink from the lake freely, so she answered for him. "Lake Matope is mostly crocodile territory, but we don't own the place. Other animals can come here to refresh as long as they respect our customs and the certain areas we have more control over."

"You could say it's half-crocodile territory, half-watering hole area." Makuu added.

"I could show you around if you wish, honey." Akina offered the chick. "Makuu has to take a look at something important."

Kitwana nodded eagerly at Akina's suggestion. He had grown quite fond of her, so he didn't protest as he followed after her into the water, this time jumping into her back. Makuu watched them go, feeling a bit guilty. He knew why Akina offered to do that; deep down she couldn't bear watching the other females laying their own eggs while she herself carried none because her mate didn't feel like it.

"Hodari." He spoke to the blue gecko.

Hodari approached. "What is it, Makuu?"

"Keep an eye on the chick, and let me know if he gets in trouble."

"No problem! You'll be the first one to know if something happens, but he's a good boy! I doubt he'll get into trouble at all!"

With that, Hodari rushed in the direction Akina and Kitwana had left.

It wasn't that he didn't trust the chick to behave-well, maybe a bit-rather, he was wary about those young egrets in Ono's flock.

Pushing the feeling aside for the time being, he went back to the others. Most of the float had gone into the water, only the females who carried eggs stayed on the bank of the river. Okay, this couldn't be too hard, he had seen Pua do it a lot of times in the past: all he was supposed to do was accompany them to the nesting site and make sure no one disturbed them while digging the nests and laying.

Afterwards, the females would look after the nests, but unfortunately for him he'd have to make sure there were no problems between the nesting females and the other Pride Landers.

"It certainly looks much more larger than the watering hole."

Akina nodded, smiling. "Because this is a lake."

"What is Makuu going to look at?"

"See, female crocodiles are going to dig a hole in a special soil and lay their eggs there. When they cover it with the soil, it acts as an incubator."

"Is that how I hatched?"

"Your case was a different one, Kitwana. You were a single egg, and you came when we were still at the riverside, so we had to use plants to incubate your egg."

" What about you? Aren't you going to have eggs?"

Akina felt as if someone had stabbed her in the heart with a thorn at that question, but she concealed it. "I'm afraid it's not my time for motherhood yet…"

"Why?"

"… Well, Makuu doesn't feel like having more children yet."

"What do you mean? I'm here! Maybe I could convince him to give it a try…"

"It's not that easy, sweetie…" Akina sighed sadly. "Sometimes animals don't feel they're ready for parenthood for… certain reasons."

"What kind of reasons?"

"I'm not the right person to tell you that, Kitwana. Besides, you're too young to understand how this part of the Circle of Life works."

Kitwana just couldn't wait to grow up and understand those parts of the Circle of Life, and to grow his teeth.

As they came closer to the reeds, he spotted some members of Ono's flock, Bakshi, Mshale and his 'cronies' among them. Mshale stared bitterly at Kitwana, but one warning look from Bakshi was enough to keep him in place; she knew this was the crocodile's territory, and Makuu could defend his charge more freely should he caught Mshale in the act.

Due to his maturation, though, the crocodile leader now knew better than to hurt a young chick, but he could give him a little fright.

Kitwana, however, ignored Mshale and instead his eyes fixed on another chick, a female. Her baby down was a beautiful shade of silvery white, and she had beautiful dark brown eyes. Curious, he hopped off Akina's back and went over to her. The female chick was preening on her down when she saw Kitwana approached, but she amicably waved a small wing at him. "Hi."

"Hi there." Kitwana said. "I'm Kitwana!"

"My name is Dalila. You're the crocodile leader's son, right?"

"Yeah, wanna play?"

"Sure!"

Akina watched fondly as Kitwana soon started playing tag with his new playmate, while Hodari had climbed unto a nearby tree a few meters back to have a better look. Still, she stayed around in case any of the other chicks came to bother them. Kitwana was clearly enjoying himself, much like Dalila; so much it started to annoy Mshale, who had been previously told not to mess with Kitwana. Well, they said he couldn't bully him, but they said nothing about a 'friendly' approach.

When he was certain Bakshi was distracted, he left his nest and tip-toed all the way to the two playing chicks.

"Hey, crocobird!" he called, making both Kitwana and Dalila stop their game to look at him; Kitwana looked wary, while Dalila looked unimpressed.

"What do you want now, Mshale?" she said with narrowed eyes. She knew his 'games', and noted a few days ago that he had taken it against Kitwana simply because he was being raised by crocodiles of all animals. She had nothing against them personally, but Mshale was a different story altogether.

"I just wanted to tell crocobird that maybe we started on the wrong talon," Mshale said with fake friendliness, leaning in closer to Kitwana. "My name is Mshale," he extended out his wings. "And these are flap and feather!"

"Well, I hope you have fun together." Dalila said in annoyance, gently dragging Kitwana away from the older chick. Mshale would have none of it, however, and decided to toy a bit with him.

"I wouldn't go too far away if I were you," He said, kicking a stone. "Don't you know there are hyenas and jackals around?"

Kitwana had never personally seen a hyena or a jackal, so naturally his curiosity got the better of him and stopped in his tracks, turning around to see him. "Hyenas? You mean you've seen one?"

"Aha." Mshale said with a smug grin, and spreading out his wings. "Once they tried to eat me, but I was too smart and fast for them! I flapped my wings and I was off in the air in less than a second, leaving those dumb hyenas dust as dinner!"

Dalila didn't buy it. "Interesting."

"It is, isn't it?" Mshale said, not noticing the disbelief and annoyance in her voice.

Unfortunately, Kitwana was still too much innocent for his own good. "That's unbelievable!"

Those two words seemed to annoy Mshale, and he bristled his down at Kitwana, narrowing his eyes. "You're calling me a liar?"

"No!" Kitwana tried to explain what he meant, but the older chick would have none of it.

"If you think I'm lying, why don't we fight?" Mshale said, getting himself into a battle position like he had seen the elders do during their quarrels. "Come on! One on one, you and me!"

"He's provoking you, Kitwana, don't listen to him!" Dalila told her companion, realizing what Mshale was playing at.

Even though he was a considerable distance, Hodari figured out what was going on before even Akina or Kitwana did, and climbed down the tree, then ran off to fetch Makuu.

"Kitwana? What dumb name is that?"

That did sting Kitwana, and he snapped. "Makuu gave me that name!"

Mshale snickered. "Your mean Makuu the crocodile? No wonder it's so lame!"

Before Dalila could do anything about it, Kitwana lunged forward; but instead of started pecking him, he closed his beak unto Mshale's neck.

Despite the pain, Mshale knew he had the crocobird where he wanted him, and yelled. "OW! STOP, YOU'RE HURTING ME! SOMEBODY HELP ME!""

Dalila panicked and ran to get Bakshi, while Akina realized what was going on, and cried out in dismay. "Kitwana-!" Before she could run over to him, another blur of green ran past her.

Dalila soon returned with Bakshi, and some members of the flock had come to see what was going on, including Mshale's mother, who shrieked when she saw her son was being attacked.

"Kitwana, that's enough!"

That single sentence was enough to snap Kitwana out of it, and when he realized what he was doing he released Mshale's neck, and the chick crawled hurriedly towards his mother despite his legs being unharmed, trying to make it look as worse as possible. Dalila and Bakshi saw through the façade, but the other Egrets immediately rushed to aid him. Kitwana felt a shiver down his spine when he looked at his father, who was giving him a disapproving glare.

"Mama, he attacked me!" Mshale wailed as he was helped up, and limped towards his mother. "He's nuts!"

"You provoked him, Mshale!" Dalila snapped.

"I didn't! I just tried to be friendly and he bit me!"

Kitwana grew frightened when Mshale's mother approached with a seemingly-murderous glare, and ran to hide behind his father. Makuu ignored him for the time being, and calmly addressed the female egret. "My apologies for this… unpleasant experience."

"Unpleasant experience?!" the egret shrieked. "Is that how you call it?! That chick of yours could have killed my Mshale!"

The crocodile raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? From what I saw, your child is older, bigger and probably stronger than mine. You expect me to believe he was completely defenseless?"

"Don't you dare change the subject, Makuu! Then again, what else could I expect from you?! Don't crocodiles teach their young any manners?!"

"Ena, that's enough!" Bakshi gently chided the female egret. "I don't mean to defend Kitwana's actions, but your son isn't precisely innocent either. He's often picking on younger chicks-"

"Excuse me, but Mshale is the victim here, in case you didn't notice! King Simba will be hearing from this attack!"

Makuu inwardly panicked, but his serious facade didn't falter. "I don't think it will be necessary to take this to King Simba, miss. I will make sure to punish my… son for this."

Kitwana trembled lightly, but he dare not speak in protest.

"You better do so, because if that… that… savage ever hurts my son ever again, I'll make sure King Simba banishes him from the Pride Lands!"

With that, Ena turned away and stormed off, covering Mshale with a wing, who was whimpering in fright, but turned a few seconds to give Kitwana a smug grin. The other egrets gave Kitwana a wary look before going after here, while Dalila glanced at her friend sadly before being led away by her mother.

Makuu spoke to Bakshi. "Again, I apologize for my son's behavior."

"It's okay, Makuu. Mshale is prone to picking on those he dislikes for one reason or another, but the way Kitwana reacted was not the right way to deal with it."

"I agree, and I assure you I will make sure he never repeats this behavior again."

When Bakshi went back to her flock, Kitwana stepped back nervously when his father turned around and looked down at him with a deep frown. However, instead of yelling at him like he expected, his mama just motioned to follow and then started walking away. With no other choice, Kitwana walked after him. Akina wanted to go with them, but she guessed her mate would want to deal with this issue personally, so she walked back to the float, glancing at their direction every now and then. Hodari was about to follow them, but Makuu glared at him.

"Hodari, go back." He warned sternly.

Hodari tried to defend Kitwana. "But Makuu, it wasn't completely his fault, the other chick started it-!"

"I'll keep that in mind, but I'll deal with his issue myself. Go back with the others, that's an order."

Whenever he used that tone, there was nothing to do. Hodari gave Kitwana an apologetic look and turned around, walking away.

They stopped underneath one of the nearby trees, far enough so they would not be disturbed. By then, the sun was about to start setting, but Kitwana had no time to awe at the scenery. Makuu was staring down at him with disapproval.

"A-Are you mad, Makuu?" Kitwana asked timidly.

He was mad, all right, but he could not bring himself to yell at the little one… at least not before hearing what brought him to attack that egret chick like that from his own beak. First he would heard his side of the story, then he'd decide if he'd yell or not. "What happened back there? And don't you dare try to lie, boy."

"I was playing with Dalila, then Mshale came and started making fun of my name, saying it was lame and-!"

"Even if that were an excuse, which it is not, you should never respond like that! What would have happened if you had seriously hurt him, or worse?! You have any idea of how that would make me look?!"

"I'm sorry…!"

"A simple 'sorry' won't fix this mess, Kitwana. I'm very disappointed of you, boy."

That single sentence almost made Kitwana cry. Makuu had done more damage with those words than he could have done had he shouted all night or verbally lashed out. "I'm sorry…" he whispered, this time the tears welled in his eyes.

Despite being mad, the sight of his charge weeping stung Makuu right in his crocodilian, cold-blooded heart, a sensation he disliked. Though he managed to calm down enough to avoid any more yelling, he had to punish Kitwana for this.

"You are grounded, Kitwana. You will not be going to any waterholes, you will not go anywhere at all until I say otherwise, and you're notcoming to the Kupatana. Do you understand?"

Kitwana whipped his head upwards to look at him in shock and despair. Akina had told him so much about the Kupatana Celebration he had been looking forward to go. "But Makuu, I wanted to see the flowers-!"

Makuu narrowed his eyes. "I said, do you understand me?"

Seeing he would not change his mind, Kitwana nodded. "Y-Yes, Makuu…"

"Good. Now let's go back, it's getting dark."

As they made their way back to the float's nesting place, Kitwana said nothing else to protest, his gaze was cast downwards, the tears silently rolling down his beak. It made Makuu feel an aching feeling in his chest, and try as he might, he couldn't just ignore it. It was a sensation he had never felt in a long time because he did whatever possible to avoid feeling it once he figured out what caused him to feel like this. He hated whenever anyone close to him was sorrowful, because it gave him this painful sensation, which was the main reason he there were few animals he cared about. The lesser bonds, the lesser pain he'd feel when the moment came to part ways. He learned it the bad way when he was but a hatchling.

Yet, he couldn't deny he but felt some genuine… fondness for this chick. It genuinely hurt him to make him cry, but taking care of an offspring including educating them, and he had to learn actions had consequences.

Even if this action hurt the both of them, this was for Kitwana's sake.