Oh come on Kellan! It'll be fun! You do know what fun means right?" Lololi's dark blue eyes looked into my own crystal blue pair as she continued to pester me about playing tag with her, Kali, and Mzuri.
I rolled my eyes, "I know what fun is, Loli, I just don't wanna play right now."
"Please? Come on, we're not cubs forever you know?" She begged once more. I scrunched up my eyebrows and stuck my tongue out at her. She giggled and pushed me with her white paw.
"Don't be such a stick in the mud, Kellan!" Kali said as she got closer to us. Oh great, just what I needed. Another girl to burst my personal bubble.
"I'm not a stick in the mud!"
"Oh yeah? Then prove it!" Mzuri spoke, the confidence in her finally becoming lose the more she grew comfortable around me.
"I don't have to prove anything." I growled and grumpily turned my head to the side to not have to look at the three lionesses any longer.
Then, out of nowhere, something warm, wet, and prickly, touched the side of my right cheek and swiped up. I gasped and jumped away from it. When I turned to see what happened, Lololi, Kali, and Mzuri were all cackling at the disgusting thing Lololi just did. She licked my cheek! That's so gross!
"You're dead, Lololi!" I said as I crouched.
"Oh no, I'm so scared," she mocked "catch me if you can!" She yelled before dashing towards the waterhole with Kali and Mzuri laughing behind her. I laughed silently before leaping and running behind them. My paws kicking up the dry hot dirt underneath me.
Maybe playing tag won't be so bad.
"Kellan, you've been resting forever, let's play some more" Kali and Lololi said simultaneously.
"Alright I'm coming, but I'm not it" I said beginning to get up from my resting place.
As I got up to go play some more, something caught my attention, or maybe a noise?
My ears twitched a few times making my paws stop moving and press softly against the ground.
"Kellan? Is everything alright?" Lololi asked coming closer to me. I gave her a small nod before hearing yet another voice coming from the distance.
"Did you hear that?" I asked now becoming a bit curious.
"Hear what?" Lololi asked sitting her unique pale body beside me.
"Shh," I whispered before perking my ears up, "listen." I encouraged making her scoff at me but she raised her ears and stood beside me.
"Oh come on, you didn't hurt your paw now did you?" Kali teased me as she padded her way towards us with Mzuri at her side.
I flicked my ears back and glared at her. She flicked her own rimmed ears back and gave me a toothy grin before she perked her ears back up and looked around.
"What was that?" She asked moving her ears every which way.
"It sounded like someone yelling for help." Mzuri said, her brown eyes searching the plains where we stood.
"Help!" My whole body moved to the left, that's where the sound is coming from.
"Come on!" I yelled before springing over the three lionesses and landing firmly on the ground and then easily running towards the sound.
"Kellan! Wait!" Lololi yelled as she chased after me.
"Sh-shouldn't we tell my father?" Kali huffed and puffed as she ran with us.
"What's he going to do that we can't?" I exclaimed, my head looking forward and my nose up in the air in case a scent came up.
"Well, we're cubs! We can't do much!" Mzuri's squeaky voice yelled back making my roll my pale blue eyes.
"Take a risk for once!" I screamed back already annoyed by their lack of cooperation. But, I couldn't think of them right now. Someone needed our help and I sure as hell wasn't going to let these three stop me.
My paws and nose and ears had taken me to a place I'd never seen before. It was vast and the ground was cracked from the heat of the sun.
"Kellan, we're far from our borders...nobody's here. Please, let's go back and-" Mzuri began only to be cut off by a young male voice yelling for help.
I quickly turned and noticed claw marks dug deep into the mud. My eyes bulged as I quickly padded over and noticed a young cub clinging onto the side of the ravine. The water inches from his tail.
"Hey!," I yelled causing the completely brown cub to look up and look eyes with me. His emerald green eyes filled with tears. "Hold on! We'll get you out of there!"
"Please, hurry! I-I can't hold on for much longer!" He pleaded as the water splashed harshly against his back making his gasp and cough.
"Lololi, Kali, Mzuri look for some type of branch!" I ordered as I look around myself. They all nodded and ran towards the grass or clawed away at a dead tree until one of the branches snapped.
"Here!" Kali yelled as she helped her cousin and Lololi bring over the large branch. I quickly grabbed it with my teeth and ran towards the dangling cub.
"Cub! Take hold!" I yelled as I lowered the branch to him.
"My paws caught in this root! I can't move it!" He whimpered back as he struggled to pull his dark paw free. It looked bloody and malformed.
"Don't move it so much, we'll figure out another way!" Lololi yelled back with an assuring smile though I knew she was as scared as we all were. The dark cub nodded his head and allowed more tears to escape his eyes before beginning to bite at the root entrapping his paw.
I groaned and looked around before noticing the ravine has some steady rocks I could hop onto and make it to the cub easily, free him, and get him on dry ground in less than five minutes.
"What are you thinking, Kell?" Lololi asked now at my side with worry in her dark blue eyes. I smiled and quickly padded away from her and made it to the other side of the ravine with ease before leaping into the closest bolder.
"Kellan!" The three of them yelled at once causing me to momentarily lose my balance and slip.
"Agh!" I yelled clawing at the bolder hearing them scrape against it made me cringe but I quickly scrambled to the top of it. I sighed and shot a glare at the three lionesses that were the cause of my almost death. They all sighed with relief before they nodded and all began to speak to the cub. I groaned and leaped onto the next bolder with ease and I continued to do so until I was two hops from being right next to the cub.
"Hey, kid, you got a name?" I asked as I slowly got closer to him. He whimpered and looked down at the water.
"Hey, no, no, no, don't look down. Just-just look at me. Everything is going to be fine." He gulped and nodded before answering my question.
"Ikkane," he whimpered before licking his dry rounded nose.
"I'm Kellan, now Ikkane, I need you to move as much as you can to your right so I can have enough space beside you." He nodded and did so before I leaped onto the muddy surface he was on.
"Don't. Move." I demanded before wrapping my teeth against the damned root and after a few chops I was able to free his paw.
"Ah!" He yelled as he slipped back but I quickly caught him by the scruff of the neck catching him in time. I sighed with relief and flicked my ears back hearing the girls all yelling with excitement.
"Alright, Kellan! Come on up!" Kali yelled down and I rolled my eyes at her obvious words. I smiled nonetheless and began to claw my way through the mud. Just as I was inches from the top of the ledge I felt the ground beneath me tremble.
"K-Kellan?" Ikkane whimpered knowing just how badly this could go. My eyes widened as the water got closer to us and sucked up all the mud beneath us. I gasped and began to run up the mud only to slip back down to the same spot I was before.
"Kellan!" I heard the girls shriek but I decided not to pay attention to them.
"Get ready." I mumbled to Ikkane before throwing him up in the air and luckily Lololi took hold of him with her own jaws before I myself leaped up just before the water made it to me.
"Th-thank you...you saved my life." The cub sniffled before running towards me and rested his dark body against my chest.
"You're safe now, Ikkane." I assured him as I wrapped my paw against his skinny little back.
"We should go tell my father about this." Kali said earning nods all around.
"Hop on my back, little guy." I offered and he quickly jumped on and cuddled into my fluffy back.
"You did good today, Kell." Lololi blushed before giving my cheek a quick lick. My whole body froze and I gulped down hard at the sudden sweet gesture.
"Th-thanks, Loli," I blushed making her giggle as we walked side by side with Kali and Mzuri goofing around as they reenacted "Kellan saves the day" as they called it.
It's been a long, yet interesting, day filled with excitement and fear. Lololi, Kali, Mzuri, and I all helped Ikkane walk safely over to Pride Rock where Simba and Nala accepted him with open paws. He was much younger than us and was in no way able to take care of himself just yet. He will be staying there for a while until his family is found if not I suppose the Pridelands will be his new home.
After some time of relaxing, Lololi pursued me to go for a walk with her. We passed along side one another, in silence, admiring our company and the sunset. Lololi giggled once we reached the water hole and darted inside, drenching me in the process. I laughed and shook my fur before slowly dipping my paws inside.
"Oh come on, Kell! Let's have some fun, just like old times!" She giggled again floating on her back as she did.
"This is so unnatural." I cringed feeling the mud seep between my toes.
"Kellan," I lifted my gaze and sighed seeing Lololi walk up to me. Her pale fur releasing droplets of water as she grew closer to me.
"Yeah?"
"You miss them, don't you?" She asked now in front of me. I was only a bit taller than she was. Her ancestors didn't allow for short genes to enter her bloodline. She was the tallest lioness I knew.
"Everyday," I sighed once more before turning and exiting the shallow end of the waterhole. She followed behind me and shook herself dry before she went and sat beside me.
"I wish I could bring them all back, Kell," I scoffed and rested my head against my dark paw. "I do. They were like my own parents." A pang of jealousy washed over me. She got to have her family, with a sibling on the way, while I got left with nothing.
"You know you're not alone right?" I raised a brow and raised my head.
"My parents are dead, Lololi. I'm pretty sure that means I'm alone." I flicked my ears back.
"No," she flicked her own ears back before retorting, "you have me and my family. You've even got Mheetu and Shanni with their cub on their way. Sure, they're a little on the eccentric side but they were kind enough to accept you into their family regardless of the consequences. You're loved, Kellan."
My ears teared up at her last statement and quickly gave her cheek a lick. Her dark blue eyes grew large before she blushed slightly and smiled.
"We-we should get back now." She stuttered before she lifted herself up. I nodded once before following suit.
"Hey, Loli?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks," I smiled before rubbing my forehead against hers. She giggled before tapping my shoulder with her paw and running away. I chuckled before running after her.
She always had a way to make my worst days the best and I would always appreciate her for it.