Lion King 3: The Chosen Ones
Tanabi's Arc
Chapter Twenty One: Kwetu
" Up, up up Gwala!"
Tanabi moaned grumpily and quickly turned away from the horrid, cheerful voice that belonged to Naima. The lioness laughed lightly as she walked to the other side of him, leaning close into his face.
" C'mon Gwala! It's morning! It's time to rise and shine!" Naima explained in a sing-song voice, incessantly poking the brown lion on his shoulder in hopes of waking him.
"Don't you have anything else to do?" Tanabi grated as he buried his face into his forearms, hoping that if he withdrew from her, she would just up and leave. There was no way he was going to wake up. Naima just grinned slyly at him.
"Oh, okay… I guess I could just tell Kufuru that his favorite lackey of the week doesn't want to be part of the pride's activities for the mornin'." Naima replied teasingly, swinging her tail back and forth idly. "I mean he did seem so interested in you and he has been asking about you allllllll morning and I'm pretty sure he'd be really, really, really, really disappointed. D'you know how disappointed he would be? He'd be very, very, very-----"
"Can you shut up now?" Tanabi cut her off tersely, glaring at the crème lioness as he sat up. "Your voice is annoying."
"At least it got you to wake up," Naima replied with a smirk as Tanabi rolled his ruby colored eyes at her. She then yawned widely and stretched out. "Most of the pride has already left to have a look around. Except for you."
And I care….why? The ex-prince retorted inside his head and quickly sighed. He was trying not to think sarcastic or mean thoughts whenever he was around the lioness, but it was near impossible. She was a bit immature and acted too much like a cub.
"C'mon Gunju is waiting for us outside. You know how cranky Chiumbo gets when he has to sit for too long," Naima said, turning her back to Tanabi and starting to slowly walk away. Sighing tiredly to himself, the brown lion followed after her.
Sure enough, Gunju and his son were waiting outside of cave entrance looking absolutely bored out of their minds. As soon as Tanabi and Naima walked out of the entrance, Gunju cracked an apologetic smile towards Tanabi.
"Good morning Gwala," The maneless lion said cheerfully, albeit in a nervous manner. Tanabi inwardly sighed, there was no reason for Gunju to be afraid of him. It wasn't like he was going to eat him or anything like that.
"Daddy, I wanna go now!" Chiumbo whined beside him, squirming around impatiently.
" Yeah, Daddy," Naima taunted teasingly, mimicking Chiumbo. Gunju shot her an unimpressed look.
"And, where exactly do you want to go? We can't go too far; Chiumbo will get tired."
"Whatever. Let him get tired, it builds character. I say we go to that huge wall over there," Naima replied as she pointed to the rock wall in the distance. It wasn't that high, as you could still see a major portion of the sky. The three males quickly gave Naima dubious looks.
She woke me up to go look at a stupid wall? Tanabi thought sarcastically, shaking his head. Way to go Naima!
"Aww, c'mon guys! It'll be fun, trust me," the ever optimistic lioness said with a grin.
In Tanabi's mind, there was nothing special about their supposed new home. It was like any other place he had been to: lots of mixed colored grass and the same typical animals that grazed along the plains. While there were some hills here and there, that was about all that this place had going for it. The only thing that actually caught the ex-prince's attention was the high rock walls that circled around the outside borders almost as if it had tried to enclose everything in this one specific spot. But the walls were wide as they were long, so it seemed to stretch out farther than what the eye could see. It made Tanabi question how they actually got inside the walls, but figured there must have been a hole somewhere that he had missed. After all, it was really dark last night from the storm and he was too exhausted to care at that point.
The four companions stopped at a small pond to rest, both Tanabi and Gunju had taken the time to sit down and rest despite Naima's complaints. Little Chiumbo quickly took chase to a butterfly that had been flying around, hopping in the grass like a rabbit. Tanabi watched him amusedly; the cub was just too slow to catch up with the insect.
"Don't go out too far Chiumbo! Stay where I can see you!" Gunju cried out nervously as Naima plopped down beside her brother in a huff.
"Let him go. You act like he's getting ready to fall off a cliff," the lioness replied nonchalantly, blowing her bangs up absent-mindedly.
"Of course, he's my precious little son," Gunju told her, smiling. "He's the cutest, sweetest most precious thing in the whole entire world. I have to make sure nothing hurts him."
"You're going to smother him like that," Naima pointed out.
"It's okay little sis, you don't have to be jealous. I love you too," Gunju replied smugly as he tried to lick his younger sister's cheek.
Naima jumped up in disgust glowering at him. "Eww, you freak!" she cried out before frowning. "You know something, between you and Gwala over there, you two most be the most boring lions who ever lived!"
"Whoo hoo. Nobody told you to drag us along with you." Tanabi replied flatly with a yawn.
"That's it! I had enough of you both just sitting there!" Naima replied as she walked into the small pond of water, the water barely going passed her paws. "I'm going to teach you both how to have fun."
"Have fun. We hope you drown."
Naima smirked at Tanabi's comment and quickly swiped her paw to the side, the icy cold water hitting both Gunju and Tanabi. Gunju let out a gasp as Naima started laughing.
"Naima, what was that for?!" the maneless lion complained, sputtering.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. You didn't like that?" The lioness asked coyly, before her smirk broadened. "How 'bout some more?" She then proceeded to splash around, soaking the two lions again with the cold water. Tanabi closed his eyes and grimaced; the water was freezing.
"C'mon Gwala. Let's see you smile!" Naima cackled again, tilting her head back with a haughty look, daring him to go after her. But Tanabi wasn't going to be baited by the childish lioness and just glowered at her, his patience wearing thin. She laughed again as she started the splashing again.
"Naima… Naima… I… would stop that… if I were you!"
"Pipe down Gunju! If Gwala's gonna be that stupid and just sit there, he deserves it!"
"But….b-but--"
Finally Tanabi's eyes flashed and he quickly retaliated, splashing the lioness in the face right back, a bit harder than he intended. Naima reeled back and started coughing; almost going slack jawed in surprise. A grin came to Tanabi's light brown muzzle at her reaction.
"What? If you're gonna dish it out you should be able to take it," the ex-prince replied, his grin becoming wider. "So… you going do something about it or what?"
"Yeah. That's the spirit Gwala!" Naima exclaimed cheerfully as she tried to get Tanabi who dodged her next attack, playfully splashing the side of her making her shriek in surprise. She tripped him, making Tanabi fall forward into the pond. He laughed slightly as the lioness started splashing him with water again near his face.
"You didn't think you could get away that easily, did you Gwala?" Naima teased as Tanabi shook his mane out. He then stood up, growling playfully at her.
"I'll give you till the count of three to run for your life."
"Make that two," she said with a giggle as she jumped away from the ex-prince, running forward to the rock wall. Tanabi smiled amusedly as he quickly took chase after her.
"…What are they doing Daddy?" Chiumbo asked with curiosity as he watched the two.
"That, my son, is called flirting," Gunju said, chuckling wryly. When Chiumbo gave him a confused look, he just chuckled even more. "C'mon, let's go follow your aunt Naima before she gets into more trouble."
Tanabi was hot on the light crème lioness' trail as the two of them raced through the plains, laughing despite scaring the animals around them. The lion had to admit, Naima was pretty fast almost faster than he was but this didn't deter him in the slightest. She glanced backwards, sticking her tongue at him before Tanabi was able to close the distance between them. Picking up her pace, Naima ran out further, stopping on top of a hill to rest. As Tanabi finally caught up with her, she lay down on her back, laughing her head off.
"Whoo! That was something else," Naima exclaimed between her laughter, closing her eyes. Tanabi sat down beside her, panting. "I thought you woulda caught me!"
"I was just being easy on you, that's all," he lied; fully knowing that she out ran him.
"Sure you were. Heh, see, I told you this would be fun!"
"Yeah, you did," Tanabi replied with a warm smile. He hadn't had that much fun in a long time. He then fell silent, watching the lioness relax before something caught his eye. Walking to the edge of the hill and peering over, he could see two huge rhinos talking to something, looking agitated. Narrowing his eyes, he noticed it was Kato who they were arguing with.
Oh, great you idiot. What have you gotten yourself into this time? The brown lion instantly thought as he stood up, Naima opened her eyes and looked up at Tanabi.
"What's wrong?"
"It looks like Kato got himself into trouble. I'm going to help him out."
"Mtoto wa nyoka ni nyoka, Gwala."
"Mto-what?" Tanabi asked cocking an eyebrow at his companion.
"He's just like his dad. It's no wonder why he's in trouble," Naima replied sarcastically. "Kato can go jump off a mountain for all I care."
"Stay here then, if you feel so strongly about it," Tanabi snapped back as she snorted. He walked down the hill with trepidation, trying to figure out what was going on. The two rhinos seemed to be so into arguing with Kato that they didn't realize Tanabi was behind them.
"This land belongs to my father! Move out of my way!" Kato spat angrily, his grey fur rising on his back. The two rhinos looked down at the prince unimpressed.
"I don't care who your father is! We told you to leave," one spoke up just as angrily. "Now go before we have to hurt you."
" No, you don't have the right to tell me what to do," Kato snapped, barring his teeth at them. Tanabi silently stepped in-between the rhinos and Kato, dully thinking that, like his father Kato, was an idiot.
"Is there a problem?" Tanabi asked as the two rhinos eying them with disdain.
"Where did you come from? We ran your kind out years ago!" The rhinoceros spat, leering down at the two lions. "You don't belong here and your little friend tried to order us around. We want him to leave!"
"…And? Is that it? I doubt this land actually belongs to you either, so just ignore him."
"Just get out of our way, little cub! We don't have time to play with you," The other rhino retorted as the two started to walk away. "If I see you in our territory again, I will kill you!"
The whole "I'm going to kill you" bit is really getting old….. Tanabi thought listlessly as they continued to walk to wherever they were going. He honestly felt cheated; couldn't they have at least argued with him more or try to intimidate him? Tanabi was indeed curious about their comment about no lions but let that slide, it wasn't his problem. The perplexed lion then turned his attention to Kato.
" They didn't hurt you did they?" Tanabi asked as the charcoal colored lion glared at him, knowing full well what he was going to say next.
" I had everything under control. I didn't need your help." Kato snapped as he shoved past Tanabi who snorted.
" Well damn. I'll just let you get squished next time." The brown lion retorted sardonically. Kato swirled back around, snarling.
"Oh, you want to mouth back to me! That was a stupid move, my friend. I will tell my father what you did and he will get you back for this." Kato threatened, his blue eyes flaring with anger." I would watch your back; you're not exactly part of our pride yet!"
So, that's basically it for this chapter ^^. Next chapter will actually have the pride interacting with the other animals in their new home and let's just say, the rhinocerous that Tanabi met are the least of their worries. It'll be interesting to see how Kufuru handles this....a thanks to robotminione, Prince of Pride, Pigs Go Moo, RunningWithTime728, spand, The Burning Red Rose and NALAxViTANi for reviewing. The rest of you, go review!