Given his underdeveloped wings, Kitwana could not take part in the flight lessons anymore, but instead Bakshi made him do certain mild exercises to strengthen up his muscles. Still, no matter how much he tried, he just couldn't open his wings as much as he wanted. Meanwhile, Mshale and Dalila had advanced pretty much in their flight classes, and they learned how to glide in the fifth day.

Mshale's picking was finally starting to drive him to his breaking point, despite his attempts at not snapping and 'behaving himself'.

When the Dege Kwanza finally arrived, the whole flock gathered at the base of the old tree to witness the fledglings' first flight... all but Kitwana. Instead he stayed in the water and among the reeds, hiding out of shame, and watching from afar. Now that no one was watching, he floated in the water like a crocodile in an attempt to calm himself.

The ceremony was rather simple. One by one, the fledglings would jump off the highest branch of the tree, spread out their wings to glide, then fly upwards in a circle, and finally land on their feet perfectly.

This year, only six fledglings made it to this stage of the lesson, Mshale and Dalila among them.

The first two did as expected, but at the landing part they tripped and fell to the ground with a thud. The third fledgling had to be pushed off the branch because she was too afraid to do so herself, and her wings opened in the last moment, but she managed to land on her feet. The fourth flapped his wings too hard and got himself tired rather quickly, which resulted in him landing before time.

Dalila and Mshale, however, were the best flyers. Dalila jumped off the branch, opened her wings at the right moment, and gracefully circled in the air before landing impeccably, which resulted in lots of praise. Mshale's first flight, however, was daring, fast and impeccable, and by the time he landed the whole flock applauded by stamping one talon on the ground, with many even whispering he might even get to become leader of the flock someday.

Kitwana felt very jealous of the attention Mshale was receiving, and walked in the opposite direction, towards the edge of the lake, muttering under his breath, and mentally cursing his stupid, underdeveloped wings.

He glanced at the direction of Lake Matope, wondering how Hodari and Akina were doing. Did they miss him? Makuu probably didn't, if he hadn't even showed around the waterhole to say hello. Now it turned out that because of him, he was flightless; he couldn't blame him completely, however, he hadn't known his wings needed such crucial development. He was a crocodile, after all.

He was about to turn back when suddenly, Dalila landed a few feet away from him. "Kitwana, where were you?" she asked, concerned. "I didn't see you among the others."

"I don't think they wanted me near them. Besides, Mshale would have probably started mocking at me again." Kitwana responded, though he did smile a little. "But I did see you fly. You were amazing!"

"Thanks!" she said, blushing. "It felt so... Amazing! It was like I was floating! I hope you get to fly soon too so we can go flying together."

"Like that would happen!"

Kitwana sighed in exasperation when Mshale landed a few steps away with a smug look on his face. Dalila frowned at the newcomer. "What do you want, Mshale?" she asked coldly.

"Well, the others wondered where you'd wandered off to, and turns out you came to talk to the flightless crocobird." Mshale said, snickering. "Did you see me fly, crocobird? Bakshi said I was the best flyer!"

"Well, congratulations." Kitwana simply said with a neutral expression.

"What, aren't you happy for us?" Mshale started leaning forward in an intimidating way. "Or are you envious that I got to fly while you'll be stuck on the ground forever, like your 'crocodile' dad?"

"Mshale!" Dalila snapped at him.

Kitwana didn't respond, and instead started walking away while trying to suppress his anger. Mshale wouldn't have anything of it, though, and a few seconds later he was blocking Kitwana's way again. "What? You don't like being told the truth?"

"Why won't you just leave me alone?" Kitwana snapped. "I never did anything to you, so why are you always picking on me?"

"What? I merely don't think you belong here with actual birds. Why don't you go back with your crocodile family? Oh, wait, you can't! Because you're not one of them, and they'll just eat you! That's what those animals do! Eat birds!"

"Mshale, get over it!" Dalila growled with a deep frown. "Sorry about your dad, but the crocodiles feeding it's the Circle of Life!"

"Please! If the 'Circle of Life' was fair, then crocobird here should have been eaten!"

Kitwana shook his head and walked away, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. Unfortunately for both, Mshale was already in an emotional turmoil, and he yelled at him.

"Then again, maybe he did intend to eventually eat you after all, that's why he gave you away!"

That was it. All the anger Kitwana had been so desperate to contain the past few days finally burst out. Without warning, Kitwana ran towards Mshale and pushed him with his body, sending him to the ground.

"Kitwana!" Dalila cried out in shock.

Once he recovered from the hit, Mshale glared at Kitwana with hate. "How dare you...?!"

Dalila took off and flew towards the flock when the two fledglings started to fight. Although birds lacked hooves or teeth and couldn't deal as much damage, they were much more fragile than other animals, and one strong hit could break their wing or dislocate a bone.

Mshale furiously spread out his wings and tried to claw at Kitwana by jumping and digging his claws into his face, but he was caught off guard by the ibis' technique. When he jumped, Kitwana tackled at him, sending him to the ground, and then pinned his neck against the ground with a talon. However, Mshale sent dust flying with his wing, temporally blinding his rival, and took advantage of it to get free and take flight.

With this new move, Kitwana found himself at a great disadvantage, and was pecked numerous times whenever Mshale dove down towards him.

"Not so tough now, are you, crocobird?!" Mshale called out smugly.

After being pushed down and unto the ground, Kitwana recalled something Ono had mentioned: you could bring down a flying bird if you altered its balance. When Mshale dove down again and spread out his wings in the last moment, Kitwana struck his wing joint with his neck. Mshale crashlanded against the ground, and was immediately pinned down again by Kitwana's talon, but this time he was holding his head.

"Not so tough now, are you, Mshale?" he said, smirking triumphantly.

"Kitwana, stop!"

Before they could separate them, there was a loud sound, something whizzed through the air at high speed, and hit a few inches away from where Kitwana stood. It was a tiny black stone.

The animals present raised their heads in alarm.

The loud sound and the whizzing repeated various times, and one of the black stones went right through the throat of one of the egrets, killing him on spot.

Kitwana turned towards the source of the sound, and spotted three of the two-legged animals hidden in some bushes on the other side, holding their black sticks and aiming at the animals.

Bakshi cried out. "EVERYONE RUN!"

Chaos followed suit. All the herds fled the scene in panic, but some were injured and brought down by the black stones. The flock took flight, but many egrets were shot and killed in less than a second. Mshale took advantage of the distraction to get free from Kitwana's grasp and fly away in fear.

As Dalila tried to followed, however, one of the black stones struck her in the leg, and she fell back to the ground with a piercing scream of pain.

"DALILA!"

Kitwana was about to go aid her when suddenly the two legs came running, and he froze in his hiding spot. He nearly had a heart attack when one large foot stomped the ground right next to him, but the two-legs were more interested in the dead birds.

Like rumors said, this two-legged animals stood on their hind legs, and were very tall, nearly the size of a zebras. Their hides were brown and green, and their large hind legs were fingerless, like hooves, but they had hands similar to Rafiki.

Two of them picked up the dead egrets, while the third one spotted Dalila trying to crawl away in terror. Dalila started trembling in terror when he approached her, he looked even bigger than before.

"N-No, please!" she pleaded with tears in her eyes.

The two-legs said nothing, merely bending down and picking Dalila by the throat, despite her wiggling and attempts at pecking at his hand. He noticed her injured leg and seemed to doubt for a moment, but then he made a sort of shrugging motion and turned around, heading back to where he came from.

Tears of horror ran down her cheeks and beak as she was carried away. Kitwana ran after the three animals, making sure not to get spotted, a few meters away towards the beasts they used as burden. There were also three, and even more two-legs around them, carrying strange cube-shaped objects or animal carcasses into them.

The two-legs holding Dalila approached another one who held out a strange object made of thin gray branches. The two-legs lifted a small part of the object, and put Dalila inside it, before closing it again.

Kitwana watched as the thing holding Dalila captive was put inside the large green beast, and then the two legs headed towards the front to get inside it. The ibis quickly ran to the side of the beast, hoping it wouldn't notice him, and jumped unto its ridiculously short tail, which looked more like a ledge. Then he jumped into the beast's interior.

Much to his confusion, there were no apparent organs, but instead it was a sort of empty space inside the beast. There were lots of those cube-shaped objects, and much to his shock many had animals-mostly small- inside them, kept inside by more of those silver sticks. The one that held Dalila captive was atop one with an aardvark inside.

"Dalila!"

She lifted her head and turned to him with bloodshot eyes. "Kitwana! I'm here!"

Almost immediately, all of the prisoners turned towards Kitwana with hope.

"Thank the Circle of Life!"

"Let us out of here!"

"Hurry, before they come back!"

Although overwhelmed by so many pleas, Kitwana's main concern was Dalila's wellbeing. As he ran towards the cubes, suddenly the beast shook, making him trip, and the floor started to vibrate.

"It's too late, they're moving!" a monkey said in despair.

Undeterred, Kitwana rushed to Dalila's prison, and tried to find the same opening he saw them use to put her in. It took him a few seconds, but at last he spotted the loosened part of the cage, and lifted the stick holding it shut. Then he lifted the sticks that acted as the door, and let Dalila out.

"Kitwana!" despite the state of her leg, she managed to tackle him, sobbing as she hugged him. "It was horrible, I thought he was going to eat me...!"

"Dalila, I'm glad you're okay! Can you fly?!" Kitwana asked her.

"I t-think so..."

"I need you to fly and find King Simba!"

"But Kitwana, you c-can't fly...!"

"I'll try to free the others, but we'll need more help!"

"But-!"

"Now, go!"

Reluctantly, Dalila limped forward towards the opening and took flight, her injured leg dangling.

Kitwana went towards the Aardvark's prison, but this one was different from Dalila's. It wasn't only a latch that kept it closed shut, there was also a strange object with a hole in its center. "How do I open this?!"

"The two-legs introduce a sort of stick in it and turn it to open it!" the aardvark said desperately. "Hurry!"

Kitwana inserted his beak into the hole, but try as he might, he couldn't find a way to open it, and had to remove his beak from the hole.

The floor suddenly shook violently, and sent Kitwana flying backwards, into the air and out of the beast. His shoulder came into contact with the hard ground, and his head cracked against a rock. Before his vision turned black, he saw the creatures disappearing into the distance.

The panicked herds fled to Lake Matope, which was a good distance away from the crime scene. It was still a chaos, to the point Makuu's float had to go into the water to avoid being trampled on. All the while, the herds didn't stop talking about the 'two-legs' and their attack, in which they ended many lives. Thankfully, soon the Lion Guard arrived to calm the animals down.

"Everybody, my dad is on his way! Please calm down!" Kion cried out in a loud voice.

It took a while, but they finally managed to soothe most of the animals, though many of them were still nervous. Soon Bakshi's flock arrived, landing in the shore of the lake, some of them carrying the still-flightless chicks, others weeping for having lost a mate or a child.

Ono immediately flew to his mother. "Mom, are you alright?" he asked concerned as they rubbed each other's heads.

"I'm alright, Ono..." she said, panting. "But we lost many to those two-legged animals."

"Did everyone else make it?"

Makuu had noticed when her flock landed, and almost immediately he started scanning the group of egrets for a particular fledgling... But he had a bad feeling when he didn't spot him amongst the youngsters. He might not be under his care anymore, but it didn't mean he couldn't ask Bakshi, right? If only to show he was not completely cold-hearted.

Reluctantly, he swam towards the shore of the lake and went towards Bakshi, followed by Akina and Hodari (who was on the former's back since he wasn't a good swimmer).

"Where's Kitwana?" he asked. "Is he alright?"

Bakshi was surprised he was asking that, since he didn't look particularly upset when he dropped the chick off at Pride Rock. "He's..." Realization came over her when she recalled he was flightless, and couldn't have gone too far by foot. Oh, no... This meant he had...

"I asked you a question, Bakshi." Makuu repeated, more impatiently this time. "Where is Kitwana? Why isn't he with you?!"

"I...!" Bakshi didn't know what to say. "T-They caught us by surprise, we had to take flight, and..."

"WHERE IS HE?!"

She jumped back at his suddenly hostile tone, and Ono had to intervene. "Makuu, calm down!"

"Calm down?! You expect me to calm down when she left him behind?!"

"It wasn't my intention!" Bakshi said, ashamed of herself. "We were in a hurry, and we didn't even have time to make sure all the fledglings were safe! I was so scared I didn't... I d-didn't..."

"B-Bakshi, why...?" Akina was glaring at her, baring her teeth alongside her mate. "We trusted you! We thought you would look after him! You promised you would!"

"You can't be too hard on her, guys." Beshte said, approaching just in case Makuu and Akina were considering trying to assault Bakshi out of anger. "She did her best, but she couldn't save everyone."

Makuu snapped. "Forget it! I don't have time for this, I'm going to find him!" Before he could go, however, Beshte stood in his way.

"Wait! What if those animals are still there?!" he said.

"I don't care, I'm not going to leave him there alone with those monsters!"

As he was about to go around Beshte, he spotted a speck of white flying clumsily towards them... soon it crash-landed a few feet away.

"Dalila!" the flock rushed towards her to see if she was alright, soon followed by the Lion Guard, Makuu and Akina. They saw her leg was bleeding, and she was panting heavily.

"What happened to you?!" Bakshi asked her in shock.

"One of those stones hit my leg and they caught me..." Dalila said, panting desperately. "They put me in a sort of cage... and then they put me with other captive animals inside one of those beasts they use to move around..."

"Did you see Kitwana?!" Makuu asked her.

"He w-was the one who freed me...!"

There were gasps of shock from the flock; they found it hard to believe the troublemaker had risked his life to save her. Makuu was the most surprised, but he felt proud of him. "Where is he now?!"

However, Dalila broke into a heap of sobs. "I d-don't know... the beast started to move, and he told me to come get help... He'd try to free the other animals, but I don't know if he succeeded... Or if they captured him too."

This time, he almost literally felt as if something sharp had struck at his heart.

When Kitwana started regaining consciousness, the first thing he felt was a throbbing headache. Soon after, his vision adjusted, and he realized he had been out for some time out, considering the sun had advanced considerably from its zenith. As he stood up, he felt a sharp pain in his left wing joint, and when he looked at it he saw it was hanging. He tried to move it, but an excruciating pain ran down his spine when he did so.

Wonderful, it seemed to be broken.

To make matters worse, it seemed the beast had taken him farther than he initially anticipated. He wasn't in the Pride Lands anymore, but rather it seemed to be the Outlands. He'd be lucky not to be eaten by a hyena, a jackal, or die from dehydration.

What mattered was that Dalila was safe, though... But he felt terrible at having been unable to help the rest of the captive animals.

Kitwana saw the beast's prints on the sandy ground, and realized they led somewhere farther on both sides. One side led back to the Pride Lands, and the other further into the Outlands, maybe even beyond, he wasn't really sure.

He found himself at odds. He definitely couldn't go after those creatures in this state, he'd be an easy prey, and would only get himself killed. But returning to the Pride Lands didn't seem like an appealing idea either. He didn't fit in the flock, and Makuu didn't want him, so what would he go back to?

Then again, he had better chance of survival in the Pride Lands.

With a sigh, and a limp broken wing, he started following the footprints back to the Pride Lands.

However, soon after the heat of the sun and the lack of water and food started getting to him. He was still young and needed both things on a constant basis, plus the tiredness at being unable to fly made it worse. Soon his feet started to hurt from the hard ground, and once more his vision started to fight, this time out of being completely exhausted and dehydrated.

As the sun began to set, Kitwana realized he might not even make it back home at all. When he tried giving another step, he finally collapsed with heavy pants, the hotness of the ground mildly burned his chest.

He guessed this was it.

He'd die alone in this place.

When his vision started fading into black again, a single tear ran down his cheek, wishing he could have at least managed to tell Makuu that he was sorry for not saying goodbye.

Would he miss him?

Perhaps he would...

...W-Would he...?

The last thing he saw before giving in to his exhaustion was one of those transporting animals stopping a few meters away...