The afternoon was well worth the wait.

Once the bull elephant had wandered off and the guides had decided that it wasn't going to circle back around and cause mischief, the teens had loaded into the sled, armed with their cameras, while the guards were armed a little more seriously – just in case. Peter was using the camera that he'd received from Elmer Rupp's wife and he planned on sending some of the better photos that he took to Elmer to let them see that he was making good use of the gift. He had the case with him but he had it hanging on the strap around his neck so he could have quick access to the camera in case something interesting showed itself.

They hadn't gone more than a mile or so before the sled slowed in order to allow the tourists to watch as a hippo with two calves wandered across an open area.

"Twins are extremely rare for hippo," Chai told them, also pulling out a camera to take a picture. "The tribes all consider it lucky."

"Wow…" Ned was snapping off several pictures. "Are you going to tag them?" he asked. "Like with Peter's zebra?"

The guides all smiled; they all knew about the young zebra stallion who was a special favorite of the boy's. In fact, they had been with Peter the day he'd first seen the little creature.

"No. We do not, normally, tag any of the wildlife. It is encouraged that they live freely – even the zebra that Peter is interested in will do so – in order to keep the balance of nature pure."

MJ nodded her agreement with that thought, and took a few more pictures of the hippo before they vanished into some brush that led toward the river. Since it was also the last known direction of the crazy bull elephant, they didn't follow. Instead, the sled headed toward open area where the guides knew there would be antelope and gazelle grazing where they could watch for predators.

The day was warm and beautiful – perfect for what they were doing – and the animals in the area were cooperating. The kids saw several small herds of antelope and gazelle – which were expected – but there were also a few scattered Cape buffalo, which they approached, carefully, but were reminded to stay in the sled, as the animals were unpredictable and could be dangerous.

They were good for pictures, though, and there were plenty taken before they moved on to look for other animals.

"This is awesome," Ned said, pointing out a couple of ostriches who watched them cautiously as they neared, and flared their large wings as a warning not to get too close. The guides were experienced enough to know what the safe distance was and stopped just short of that spot to allow more pictures. "I can't believe you guys ever get anything done. I'd be looking at animals all day."

Shuri smiled.

"Because they are new to you," she pointed out. "Wakandans see them every day. It would be like you getting excited about a taxicab."

"Some cabs are pretty cool."

She rolled her eyes, but before she could say anything, one of the younger guides drew their attention to a lone cheetah that was sitting on a low rock watching the buffalo. By now they were all aware that despite being a speedy predator the cheetah didn't have a chance at bringing down one of the buffalo. It was exciting to watch it, though – and they took plenty of pictures to add to their already growing collections. Then the sled (and the one following them) moved on to look for more interesting things to show off.

OOOOOOOOOO

"What are you doing?"

Tony scowled, looking over his shoulder and up at Natasha. He was on his belly on the floor of the lounge, next to one of the wide couches that were used for relaxing (and many times, napping).

"Looking for my watch."

She frowned.

"How did you lose your watch?"

"I didn't lose it," he replied, looking under the sofa. "It was taken off my nightstand sometime in the middle of the night."

Romanoff smirked. She didn't need to ask who had stolen it, since there was zero chance that some kind of outside burglar had crept through the security screens of the compound and only took Tony's watch – as high tech as it was.

"Your AI can't find it?"

"No. It has GPS, obviously, but not within the compound."

"Have you asked Nutmeg what he did with it?"

That earned her another scowl and both of them turned to look at the kitten that was napping on his cat tree, in a good position to be able to watch Tony's search, but not that interested in doing it, just then. Napping was important, too, after all.

"Friday saw him bring it in here, but nothing since."

"Did you try calling it?"

"It doesn't work that way, Natasha," Stark told her. He took another sweeping look at the floor of the lounge from his low position, and then got to his feet, wiping his hands off on his expensive slacks. "If I call it, my phone will ring, not my watch." He never lost track of it, after all, so there hadn't been the need for such measure. "And even if he could talk, I'm pretty sure that Nutmeg would deny being responsible."

She was amused and didn't bother to hide it. After all, she had been the victim of Peter's kleptomaniac cat and had been forced to put up with plenty of teasing from Tony about taking better care of keeping her things out of reach. It was fun to see him on the other end of things.

"I suppose you can ask Peter to talk to him when he gets back."

"I'm not waiting that long." The watch wasn't crucial, but he hated the idea of it being lost – especially for days.

"What are you going to do?" she asked. "Want me to call Stephen? Maybe he'll come magic it up for you."

"No." He wasn't going to admit to Stephen that Peter's cat had gotten the best of him. "I'm going to reprogram the Roombas to find it."

Romanoff smirked and rolled her eyes.

"Overkill much?"

"Well, Nick won't loan me the recruits to look for it."

"And you like the idea of messing with the programming of the Roombas…"

"That, too."

OOOOOOOOOOO

They returned to camp relatively early, considering that there was still plenty of sunlight left for the day. The guides were aware that the heat of the Wakandan day could make people tired, even when they weren't doing anything more than taking pictures and pointing out what they were looking at.

Besides, they needed to give them a chance to clean up the dust from the day before dinner, and time to just sit around the bonfire and relax after their exciting day. Glad for the shade of the tents, Peter used a wet, cool, washcloth to get rid of the majority of the dust and grit and then went to see if he could help cook dinner.

Shuri found him sitting on a log near where the fire would be, later, poking at the ashes of the fire the night before. She, too, had cleaned up, and Peter was amused to see that there was evidence on her face that she hadn't gotten all of the dust removed. She sat down next to him, leaning slightly against him.

"I though you were going to help with dinner?"

"They declined my assistance."

"Chai found out he burned down a cooking school," Ned told her with a grin as he walked over in time to hear the conversation. "Since our little cooking tent is much more flammable – and the only kitchen that we have, right now – he suggested that Peter find other ways to be helpful."

Shuri smiled, amused at the way Peter's ears reddened.

"That was most likely wise of him."

"Nothing would have happened," Peter assured them. "I'm a lot better than I was. Besides, it was Tony who made the fire so bad. Not me."

"Uh huh." She'd heard the story and knew the facts behind the spectacular end to the joint cooking lesson. "I wonder how he would respond if I were to ask for his side of things."

The boy rolled his eyes.

"He can't make himself look bad, right?"

"True," Ned agreed. He pulled out his camera – and his phone – as he sat down on the other side of Peter. "I'm going to check in with my mom and show her some of the pictures before dinner."

"Tell her I said hi."

"Are you going to check in with Tony?" Shuri asked, smiling at MJ when she walked out of the girls' tent, looking refreshed and also holding her phone.

"Not right now. He's probably working, or something. I'll call him later, when I know he's not busy."

"We're going to the mines, tomorrow?" MJ asked, joining them.

"Yeah."

"And we get to keep anything we find?"

Peter nodded.

"Yup." He and Shuri had pretty much cleared out the first mine, and Tony and Pepper had had a chance at another, so they were going to explore one of the others that hadn't been explored, recently – and not the one that housed the power stone, of course. "Unless it's dangerous, obviously. Or illegal in the states."

"So no rattlesnakes or underground gambling dens."

A snort of amusement.

"Right."