Chapter Eight: Scars and Spots.
It was finally time. Jifunze was going to have his bandages removed. After meeting with Rafiki a few days prior about the state of his bandages, Jifunze genuinely could not wait to have them taken off. In fact, Jifunze was so impatient that he decided to skip breakfast altogether, swiftly making his way to Mizimu grove once again.
As the young leopard closed in on Rafiki's tree he announced his presence to the older mandrill, "Rafiki! It's finally time," Jifunze shouted, trying to catch Rafiki's attention.
However, Rakifki didn't respond to Jifunze. In fact, the whole of Mizimu grove was silent, other than the sound of Jifunze's breathing. Jifunze found this quite odd, as normally Rafiki would be making noises, singing, and talking to himself while up in his tree. So Jifunze decided to climb up to see what exactly was going on.
As Jifunze reached the top of Rafiki's tree, he was once again taken in by the gorgeous nature of the location, "I will never not find this place majestic," Jifunze muttered to himself as he looked around.
Sadly, the young leopard had soon found that there was no sign of Rafiki. Most of the fruits were still, and were disturbed by only the wind. Rafiki's staff wasn't even up there, which had really clued Jifunze in to the fact that Rafiki wasn't at his tree.
"But then. Where would Rafiki go," Jifunze asked himself, "Maybe the Lion Guard would know," Jifunze said, answering his own question.
So Jifunze hopped down from the baobab tree and started to make his way to Pride Rock.
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As Jifunze approached Pride Rock, he felt a slight bit of hesitation creep in. Maybe this wasn't a great idea. After all, the Lion Guard was probably busy with defending the Pridelands, his little search for Rafiki wasn't worth their time.
Thankfully Jifunze's internal spiral was cut off, and by Kion too boot.
"Hey Jifunze," Kion said as he and the Lion Guard approached Pride Rock, "What brings you to Pride Rock?"
"O-Oh, well." Jifunze quickly turned to face the guard as he spoke, "I. I was gonna ask if you all knew where Rafiki was at."
"Well, last I saw Rafiki, he was painting in the lair," Beshte said, "Why were you trying to find him?"
Before Jifunze could answer Bunga butt into the conversation, "Hey, aren't you getting your bandages removed today?"
Jifunze stuttered out a response, "W-Well, y-yes. That's why I was looking for Rafiki."
"Well then what are we waiting for?" Bunga then started to head the Lion Guard Lair, "Let's go see Rafiki!"
Fuli and Kion rolled their eyes as they began to follow Bunga, followed shortly by Ono, then Beshte and Jifunze.
"So, are you nervous?" Beshte startled Jifunze with his question.
"N-Nervous. Why would I be nervous," Jifunze asked, very clearly nervous.
Beshte chuckled, "Because it'll be the first time we see you without those bandages. The first time we'll get a good look at your spots."
Jifunze turned his gaze away from Beshte. As much as the leopard hated to admit it, Beshte was right. The guard would finally see his spots, and worse, his scars.
"Heh. Yeah, I guess it is."
As the group entered the Lair they could hear Rafiki muttering a tune to himself as he painted what appeared to be a herd of impala.
"Hey Rafiki," Bunga exclaimed a little bit too loud, "Jifunze's here to get his leaves removed."
"Bunga, you don't need to speak so loud," Rafiki said as put down a paint filled fruit, "I am not dat far away from you."
"Oops, sorry Rafiki," Bunga said as he quieted down.
"Now what's dis about Jifunze?" Rafiki then wiped his hands off, before turning to face the group that had entered the lair, "Ah! Dat's right! Today we finally take off your bandages! Come come! Lay here." Rafiki gestured in front of himself.
Jifunze, not fully understanding what Rafiki was going to do, just did as the mandrill told and lay in front of him. Rafiki then swiftly began to pull the bandages apart slowly revealing Jifunze's body. As the Lion Guard watched Jifunze began to physically tense up, not from the pain of the bandages being removed, but from what he perceived to be the guard's judgemental stares.
"Aaaaand dere." Rafiki then pulled the last of the bandages apart, fully revealing Jifunze's body. Jifunze didn't even realize just how much of his torso was covered by the bandages. As he finally took a good look at himself, he realized that he actually had a lot more scars than he remembered, with most of them concentrated near his spine.
"Woooooah. Your spots are huge," Bunga exclaimed much to Jifunze's shock.
"My-my spots? Wait, what," Jifunze asked, a confused expression spreading across his face.
"Your spots. Y'know, the brown and black splotches of fur on your back? They're massive," Bunga exclaimed once more, "Way bigger than I thought they'd be! Honestly I thought your spots would look more like Fuli's."
"Well, he is a leopard," Kion said, "Though, I also didn't expect your spots to be that big."
"Heh. Well, they aren't exactly normal sized," Jifunze replied, "Most leopards have smaller spots than me, and a lot more."
"See! I knew they'd be more like Fuli's," Bunga exclaimed triumphantly, as though he had just won some sort of award.
"Well, not exactly," Jifunze replied, causing a disappointed expression to spread across Bunga's face, "Leopard spots are usually bigger than a cheetah's."
"What? Why would they be bigger? Aren't they all just spots," Bunga questioned whilst scraping his head.
"We'll yes they are all spots, but they serve different purposes," Ono explained, "Cheetah spots make it harder to see cheetahs in the tall grass, because cheetahs prefer to hunt in wide open plains."
"You got that right," Fuli interjected, "The bigger the plain the faster I go, and the faster I go, the faster I catch my prey."
"Right." Ono continued, "But leopard spots are usually bigger because they help them to blend into the shadows cast by tree leaves. Common knowledge really."
"Oh! That's really cool! Man I wish I had spots, I bet it would make it way easier to catch grubs," Bunga said while patting his stomach.
Everyone just laughed at Bunga's comment, thinking it was a joke.
"What? What's so funny," Bunga asked, not realizing the comedy of his prior statement.
"Now that that's taken care of," Kion said after he finished laughing, "Lion Guard it's time for some stealth training."
"Alright Kion, lead the way," Beshte said enthusiastically.
"Oh, do you mind if I come along," Jifunze asked somewhat awkwardly.
"Uh, are you sure? You just got your bandages taken off, and it might be a bit intense," Bunga replied.
"No, no, it would be a good thing," Rafiki interjected, "Jifunze needs to move around, let his fur feel the wind, and let his muscles loosen up after being restrained for so long."
"Well, I don't have a problem with it," Kion said, "But why do you wanna come train with us?"
"Well." Jifunze looked away out of embarrassment, "I don't. Really. Haveanythingelsetodo."
Kion chuckled at Jifunze's response, "Well, you're always welcome to hang out with us. We are friends after all."
"Thanks Kion," Jifunze said, feeling somewhat emotional as he never had friends his age in the Backlands.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Bunga exclaimed as he began to rush out of the lair, "Let's get going!"
The rest of the guard followed shortly behind Bunga, with Jifunze taking up the rear.
Author's Note: Man this chapter took longer than expected. See I wanted to make this Chapter significantly longer than it is but I realize I might end up making it too long, so I split the original draft into two parts to make it work better. But this front half still feels pretty good for a chapter and I like the writing for it a lot more.
Anyways, I'll see y'all later, whenever I update this story again. Bye!
