Once Guvu, Maneno, and Juni had all trotted their way around the track and completed a second lap, Guvu pulled off to the outside: and fell to sleep. Maneno and Juni had planned to follow his lead. However, instead of sleeping like he was, they just decided to make their way over to the far outside of the track, and just walk their way around.
Wamariri, Lenny, Tumaini, Nakshi, and Ema had also been and completed two laps. They had all decided to walk as soon as the second antelope was brought down, and as a result, Maneno and Juni had actually passed on by them.
Instead of walking on the outside of the track, however, Lenny had taken to the inside of the track, and had actually been able to pass the rest in the turns, just by walking. A couple others were about to follow his lead as they realized that nobody else seemed intent on going and hunting the antelope down, but before they could do so: Lenny took off.
Because he was not heavily built, Lenny was actually very fast for a male lion. Most of the other competitors just glanced over their shoulders as they heard him coming, but then decided to just keep on walking. The track wasn't bone dry. In fact, there were more clumps of dirt flying off of Lenny's paws than what there was dust. He was still quite far behind the antelope, and so the antelope hadn't actually taken off yet, though a few of the audience members had got to their feet again to see if Lenny would be successful.
"Hey look Sarafina," said Anzi, looking behind them as the group of three walked through the second, long turn, "someone's decided to go after that antelope."
Sarafina looked behind her at Lenny. "Oh yes, so he has," she replied, not really expressing any particular emotion.
Zoea smiled. "This would be a good time to run, wouldn't it?" she asked.
"I'm not," replied Sarafina, "but if you want to, go ahead. Quickly! Before he catches up."
Zoea took off, but it was almost, too late. She was only just about a full body length in front of Lenny; who actually caught up with her a bit through the rest of the turn: he was more used to the track by now.
The crowd got to their feet and started hollering as Zoea and Lenny raced their way down the front stretch, behind the antelope that had now started running.
They ran by Rakusa, Winda, and Shairi, who displayed no intention of wasting their energy this early on.
At this rate, the two sprinting lions were going to catch the antelope right as they reached the first turn.
Zoea could hear Lenny from behind her. He was just peeking down her inside, so she knew that she had two choices: get the antelope before the turn, or cut Lenny off when they entered it.
She wasn't able to do the first in time, so she did the second.
The results were not good.
"Oh my goodness!" exclaimed Nala, "she doesn't have that much room!"
The crowds' cheers soon died down into an eerie silence as Lenny caught the back of Zoea's back leg. Zoea lost her balance and tumbled over onto the ground, rolled over and over, repeatedly slamming her head then body into the mud, until she came to a motionless rest on the outside banking in the middle of the first turn.
Lenny had stopped running. He hadn't meant to hit her. He had had no idea that she was going to try and cut him off.
The lion walked over to the outside.
Sarafina and Anzi hadn't seen the whole thing in detail, but they saw enough. They both continued to walk along the outside, knowing that there was nothing immediate that either of them could do, and knowing that it was best for them in the long run. In fact, instinct was telling them to walk, more so than anything else.
"Oh my goodness," said Sarafina quietly.
"Was it that bad?" asked Anzi, worried.
"I've seen worse," replied Sarafina, "but yes, that was pretty bad."
"Shall we run down there?" asked Anzi, seriously.
Sarafina bit her lip, and then after a moment's thought, shook her head 'no.'
"But Sarafina!" protested Anzi, "she could be seriously hurt . . . or worse."
Sarafina kept shaking her head. "The ground's soft," she replied, although that reply didn't even satisfy her.
Anzi looked over at the opposite turn. She was extremely worried. Zoea hadn't got back up yet, and Lenny was still leaning over her: like he had been, ever since her tumble.
"I'm going over there," said Anzi, and she trotted off.
Sarafina sighed. She'd seen so many similar accidents in the past in this event, which had been fatal, and she knew that she could never do anything about them. She had promised to herself at the start of the event, that until the sun started to set, she: WOULD NOT RUN; and she didn't break promises. But this was different. Her friend's life could be in danger, and she could help save her. But Zoea wasn't a friend; she was a competitor. No . . . no . . . that was Wamariri's way of thinking. Did Sarafina really want to be compared to Wamariri?
That was the only motive she needed. Sarafina took off into a trot.
Nala gasped. "Look Simba, she's opened her eyes," she said, signaling over to where Zoea lay.
"She's talking," added Simba.
Nala sighed out of relief.
Simba heard her. "Be careful Nala," he said.
"I know," she replied. For all they knew, Zoea could have been telling Lenny her will.
The king and queen were temporarily distracted as they heard and watched Anzi trot on by in front of them.
An instant later, they began to hear cheers from down towards the turn on the right of them. They shifted their attention back towards Zoea and smiled. She was getting up.
Before Nala could give out her round of applause however, she knew that there was something else she needed to do. She turned her head back towards the left.
"Mom!" she called, watching as her mother continued trotting down the straight. Sarafina looked up at her. "Don't worry, Zoea's okay."
"Oh, I know," replied Sarafina, just loud enough so that her daughter could hear her. Sarafina crossed the line and then slowed down. "I just wanted to get my second lap logged."
No sooner had Sarafina said this, when she suddenly decided to stop right in front of where the Pridelanders were standing and sitting in the audience. She lied down and rested her head down on her paws. Hopefully, for her, she would soon be drifting off to sleep.
Rafiki, meanwhile, had been watching the whole incident take place from his spot between the first two hills.
He wasn't in one of his best moods.
He had the knowledge, and he had the tools, to have possibly heeled Zoea better than what any of the other Siku Choka volunteers could have, had she been severely injured. However, he couldn't have done anything about it, because, at least until there were three pieces of prey out on the track, he could not leave his stick.
He looked back at the stick and the shadow that had been beginning to form next to it. He had drawn a line the first and second times that one of the antelope had been caught. Those lines resembled how long the shadow from the stick had been when each of them had come down.
While he rested his head on one of his hands, he moved his other hand over towards the shadow, and lied two of his middle fingers down next to each other, next to the line where the second antelope had been caught.
The shadow covered over both widths of his fingers.
He returned his hand.
Just as he had thought. Every single time since the Siku Choka started, the shadow had done nothing but cover his two fingers. Wait . . . no. The last time they didn't, anyway. Or the time before that.
Rafiki looked back down at the shadow. Suddenly, it came to him. Every time before now, the shadow had not covered his two fingers. He placed them back down. Now: it did!
He smiled.
Rafiki got to his feet and stretched his two hands straight up into the air. To a human, it would have looked like someone had just scored a field goal in an American Football game.
In the infield, Bwana Zungumza saw him.
In the middle of the front stretch, a zebra was now released: onto the track.
Lenny turned his head around as he heard Anzi approaching. Zoea had already collapsed back down on the ground. She had closed her eyes.
"How is she?" asked Anzi, still a little concerned.
"She's fine!" replied Lenny enthusiastically, "I tell you, we were going into that turn and I thought 'there's no way she's going to cut me off,' in fact, I never even considered that she might cut me off. But then I thought, 'well should I back off?' because tripping her up was the last thing I wanted to do of course. I don't like injuring lions; I've never hurt one in my life. Anyways, I kept running and then we got into the turn and I tripped her! I didn't want to trip her, tripping her of course was one of the last things I wanted to do, but you know that, I said that earlier . . ."
"Lenny," whispered Zoea weakly from below them, "can you keep quiet please? I really need to get to sleep."
Anzi looked back over to where Sarafina had fallen to sleep on the front stretch. She disapproved of her reaction towards the whole situation, but figured she best not tell Zoea about it, she had much more issues right now. Anzi crouched down on the ground, so she could look at Zoea eye-to-eye.
"Zoea, are you okay?" she asked.
Zoea tried to smile. "I've got a really bad headache, and I think I may have twisted my ankle, but other than that, yes, I think I'm okay," she finished off, closing her eyes.
Anzi got back up to her feet, realizing that Zoea was best left alone for a little while.
"Come on," she said to Lenny. They began to head off again.
The two walked over to the inside. That's where everybody was walking now. Providing nothing was being hunted, the inside of the track was the shortest way around.
"I thought you were going to go to sleep too," said Lenny.
Anzi shook her head. "I'm not that good at sleeping in the day, honestly," she replied.
"Nor am I," admitted Lenny. "Hey, you see that lion over there, though?" he asked, signaling towards Bahati who had fallen to sleep along the backstretch before he had even completed a lap. "That's my brother."
"Oh," replied Anzi. "Is one of you two the king?" she asked.
"He is."
"Oh. That never makes you . . . you know . . . jealous?"
"Not really. I don't think I'd really want to be king. Bahati never has that much time to play."
Anzi looked back over towards the other side of the track.
Lenny did too. "I wonder why they let the zebra out second?" he asked.
"Well the antelope may be faster, but the zebra's harder to bring down. They probably do it that way for the fans. More fans will be interested if they see everyone charging after an antelope at the start."
"Hey look," said Lenny, "that lioness is standing off to the side; she's waiting for that antelope."
Indeed, just before the second long turn there was a lioness, sitting down, towards the outside of the track. The antelope was making his way down the backstretch, calmly.
"I think that's Wamariri," said Anzi, squinting her eyes.
"Should we go after it too?" Lenny asked.
Anzi shook her head. "Rest for a minute . . . what's your name again?"
"Lenny."
"Lenny. Yeah, let's let her bring this one down, and then maybe she'll become satisfied and go off to sleep. Then they'll let a third piece of prey out and it will be less dangerous to hunt!" she exclaimed.
Indeed, around the track, five of the competitors had already drifted off to sleep.
"This is going to be a long day," said Lenny.