As the guard finally came out of the Snowy Mountains they came upon a small plains area.
"A savanna right after the snowy mountain area?" Kion said curiously.
"Hmm. It must be the change in elevation." Ono explained. "The higher you go up the thinner the air gets and when air thins the temperature drops. But when you go down the air gets denser and the temperature rises."
"You coulda just said that it's hotter down here then up there" Bunga said jokingly making the rest of the group besides Ono laugh.
"Anga, how long do you think it will take to cross the Savanna?" Kion asked
"Let me look. Anga-linga!" Anga squawked as she took off into the air and used her keen sight to see how far across the Savanna is.
"Anga! Can you look for a path with mud or water hole for Beshte?" Kion roared.
"Yep." Anga said as she looked for a path that Beshte can cover himself in mud on. The bird then flew back down to the group. "It looks like it could take all day to get across following the mud holes."
"That's fine, lead the way Anga." Kion replied.
Anga then lead the guard to the first mud hole where Beshte quickly got in and covered himself with mud, they stopped at that mud hole for about 5 minutes. As the group started walking to the next mud hole they soon realized that all of the local animals were avoiding them. Suddenly they heard a loud roar. As the Guard turned around they saw a lion, who looked to be around Kion's age, maybe a little bit older, but smaller than the Plantagenet. [Authors Note: Plantagenet is the family name I'm using for Kion's family, got the idea for the name from StoryMaker2]
"Who are you?" The Lion growled as he looked at Kion.
"I'm Kion." Kion growled back with a malice that scared each of the guard save Bunga.
"Well Kion, im Uovu. And this is my territory." Uovu growled with growing fury. "And you need to leave. Now!"
"I don't think we will" Kion growled back as the two Lions started to circle one another.
"So you want to fight?" Uovu roared
"I guess so" Kion roared back.
The two lions pounced at each other as they started trying to hit the other with that paws, claws extended. Uovu was the first one to land a stike as he hit Kion across the face forcing Kion to stumble back.
"gah" Kion growled
"Is that a good enough lesson?" Uovu roared.
The guard as well as the local animals had gathered around the two predators to watch the duel.
"You thought!" Kion roared as he lunged toward Uovu and hit him across the face with his large paw and cutting him across the face, causing a scar to form over Uovu's right eye.
"GAH!" Uovu roared in pain. "You'll pay for th-"
Before Uovu could finish his sentence he felt another paw strike across his face.
"At this rate Kion might kill him..." Fuli muttered
"Well Lions are very territorial and often fight for control of an area. Male lions even fight just for the sport or to prove who is the stronger lion. It is well within the nature of a male lion to kill his opponent." Ono explained
"Kion would never kill somebody, would he?" Beshte muttered
"I dont know big-b what he's doing right now would say something different" Bunga said in fear.
When the group looked back up Kion and Uovu were exchanging many devastating paw strikes, however, it was obvious that Kion's were doing much more damage. Once Kion had finally knocked Uovu back he quickly jumped in and bit Uovu in the back causing Uovu to roared out in pain
"GAH!" Uovu roared.
Kion then threw Uovu away from himself. Kion then walked up to Uovu while growling deeply, so deep in fact it reminded Fuli of when Ombre had growled at them back in the Outlands volcano.
"Are you done, you should i keep going?" Kion growled darkly.
"I'll never let you win!" Uovu roared "I have worked to hard to dictate over these animals!"
Once the guard heard Uovu say that they looked at the local animals who looked at Kion with fear but they looked at Uovu with disgust and hatred.
"Kion!" Fuli roared moments before Kion bit down on Uovu's neck.
"Fuli?" Kion said in a less angry tone.
"You beat him Kion, now he has to leave, it's your territory." Ono explained.
"You're right." Kion said as he looked back to where Uovu had been laying only to find that he was no longer there.
"Damned Kion" Uovu growled as he walked toward the forest on the other side of the Savanna.
He then heard a voice growl: "Yes, that damned Plantagenet. Come with me and we can defeat him, together."
Uovu just smiled at that and walked toward the animal.
Kion and the rest of the guard had finally made it to the forested area on the other side of the Savanna but it was sunset so the group decided to rest before they kept going.
When the sun was just starting to Rise Kion had woken up and was watching the sun rise.
"Hey Kion, Watching the sunrise?" Fuli asked.
Kion just sat there and sighed.
"Okay, what's wrong" Fuli asked with concern
"I'm fine." Kion answered
"Kion." Fuli said sternly.
"Fine, I guess I'm just feeling guilty for leaving my mom and dad and Kiara without telling them. Now they think I'm dead." Kion said with guilt and sorrow on his face.
"Kion, you did what you had to, to get better. Once you and Ono are healed at the Tree of Life then we will go back. I promise." Fuli said with understanding and reassuring in her voice
"Thank you, Fuli." Kion said.
"Of course, you're like a brother to me so it's kinda my job." Fuli said laughing.
Kion nodded while laughing "That is true. Should we wake everyone else up now or wait?"
"I think they deserve some rest." Fuli answered.
Fuli and Kion stayed watching the sunrise for about another 10 minutes until everyone else woke up.
"Alright everybody let's keep going" Kion said before walking inro the forest.
About 15 minutes after they entered the forest Makini noticed that Kion had patted his scar multiple times.
"Kion, would you like some Tuliza?" Makini asked the large lion.
"What's Tuliza?" Kion retorted
"It's a flower, the blossoms of the Tuliza plant can lower the pain of your scar. I only have enough for this one time though. But I'll bet you this forest has some Tuliza in it somewhere." Makini explained.
"Uh, sure." Kion replied as he walked over to Makini who had taken some purple blossoms out of a hollowed gourd and held them in her hand for Kion to eat. He ate the blossoms and instantly felt relieved. "Wow, those really do work."
"I'm glad that they worked, butttt... were out now" Makini said.
"Anga, do you think you can see through the canopy and look for Tuliza?" Kion asked.
"Yep. Anga-linga" Anga said as she took off and flew above the trees looking for Tuliza, however, she found none "Huh, no Tuliza?"
Anga returned to the guard "I didn't see any Tuliza at all." She squawked.
"None!" Makini yelped.
"None." Anga retorted with a straight face.
"Maybe some of the local animals know where we can find some Tuliza" Beshte said confidently "I'm pretty sure i saw a watering hole a little way back"
"Good idea Beshte, let's go" Kion stated before running to go find the water hole Beshte mentioned
Once the group had found the water hole they sent Beshte to go talk to one of the animals there, because he is the nicest and least intimidating of the group other than Ono.
"Hey guys" Beshte bellowed out as he flapped his ears.
"Uh, hey" A ferret replied.
"Uh, i was wondering, do you know where I can find some Tuliza." Beshte said
"T-T-Tuliza?" The ferret said in a terrified voice and ran off.
"Huh." Beshte said in a confused voice
Beshte walked back over to the rest of the group with a confused look on his face
"What happened?" Fuli asked
"I don't know, I asked them about Tuliza then he just ran off" Beshte explained.
"Huh." Kion sighed.
" .PSSSSSTTT." a voice from a nearby bush said.
"Huh" Kion walked over to the bush and poked his head inside. Inside the bush stood a ferret.
"You want Tuliza?" The ferret whispered
"Yea we want Tuliza" Makini practically shouted
"Shhhh" The ferret said putting one of his fingers over his mouth .
"Sorry" Makini whispered
"Mama has all the forests Tuliza." The ferret explained.
"Where can we find her?" Kion asked
"The Stone forest." The ferret explained as he pointed in the direction of the forest.
The guard then walked in the direction of the Forest and once they got there they just looked at the rocks.
"Sharp..." Makini muttered.
"Uh, I can't fit in there" Fuli said
"Me either" Beshte bellowed
"hmmm" Kion hummed while thinking "Anga, can you try and get in from the top?"
"Yep, Anga-linga!" Anga squawked as she flew to the top of the rock forest. She spotted something purple and used her keen sight to find out what it was "Holy Tuliza." She then tried to fly into the forest from the top but she got poked by the sharp rocks and decided to fly back to the guard.
"I spotted a huge pile of Tuliza, but the rocks are too sharp for me to fly in from the top" Anga explained
"That's fine, so we need someone that won't get hurt from the rocks and can carry the guard..." Kion thought for a second.
"Bunga!" The Whole group exclaimed.
"Huh?" Bunga asked while confused.
"You, my friend, are going to go into that forest with a gourd and fill it with Tuliza blossoms." Azaad explained to the badger.
"Oh. Okay" Bunga said before taking the gourd from Makini and then heading into the forest.
"Do you think he can do it?" Fuli asked
"Of course, i hope." Beshte bellowed
Bunga was jumping from pillar to pillar until he finally saw a little bit of purple. "Tuliza!" he exclaimed. He then resumed jumping from pillar to pillar until he finally reached the Tuliza.
"Well, well, well. Who do we have here?" Asked an animal.
"Names Bunga, who are you?" Bunga asked.
"I'm Mama Binturong. And all this Tuliza is mine. So you can't have any. Now get out" Mama Binturong snarled
"Uh I dont think I will." Bunga retorted
"Get him boys" Mama snarled. Suddenly a few porcupines came in and surrounded Bunga. The porcupines then turned round and started closing in on Bunga to poke him with their quills. Once the porcupines had gotten right up to Bunga and were poking him he just started to laugh.
"Hahaha. Stop" Bunga said while laughing
When the porcupines heard this they were confused then Bunga started kicking them out of his way, once the original four were gone ten new ones came in their place and started fighting Bunga. He was picking porcupines up and throwing them at Mama or just kicking them away. When those ten were gone bunga went to collect some Tuliza.
"NO!" Mama snarled "You can't have any!"
Mama then charged toward Bunga but by the time she reached him he had already filled the gourd with the Tuliza blossoms.
"Sorry Mama!" Bunga exclaimed before turning around and letting his stink out. Mama started coughing while Bunga ran out of the stone forest.
Mama then noticed that the Tuliza blossoms were decaying from Bunga's stink "I'll get you for this Bunga!" She snarled.
"Yes, yes you will. However, with my help" A voice said. Mama then turned around to see who it was that was talking to her.
"You-you're" Mama stuttered
"Yes." The voice said the grin on his face evident in the way he spoke.
Bunga had just gotten back to the Guard and handed the gourd back to Makini. She looked inside to see that it was completely full.
"Wow, good job Bunga!" Makini exclaimed.
"Alright so are we ready to get going?" Kion asked the group.
"Yep"
"Affirmative"
"mhm"
"yeah!"
"Alright Makini, lead the way.
The group had finally made it out of the forest when they looked upon a lot of blue. With an Island in the middle and a path leading to it.
"Makini, please tell me we don't have to go on that island" Fuli said concerningly
"Yup, we sure do." Makini responded earing a sigh from Fuli and Azaad.
"well then, let's get going" Kion said before going down toward the beach with the guard following him.
When they made it down to the beach they started walking on the path that lead to the island when suddenly they heard something like a click
"Run! Run!" Something said.
"What? Why?" Fuli asked the strange pink creature
Suddenly Anga came back around "RUN! RUN!" she squawked.
The guard stopped wondering why and just started running to the island. When they finally made it to the island the group looked back and saw that the path they were just on had dissappeared.
"Where'd the path go?" Beshte asked.
"The tide came in" The creature from before explained. "My names Lumba-Lumba" she said while clicking.
"From the sound of those clicks I'd assume your a dolphin?" Ono said curiously.
"That's right" Lumba Luma said while she jumped out of the water then landed back in it.
"You're UNBUNGALIEVABLE!" Bunga exclaimed.
"Uh thanks?" Lumba-Lumba said with confusion and gratitude in her voice.
"How far are we from shore?" Beshte asked
"About 2 miles" Lumba-Lumba answered
"I don't think I can even swim that far" Beshte said with sadness in his voice
"It's ok ill go get someone to help, but whatever you do don't go deeper into the forest" Lumba-Lumba said.
"Uh, ok. Thank you Lumba-Lumba" Kion said with gratitude. The dolphin then dissappeared into the water.
The guard then heard something from the center of the island that like animals in trouble. The guard all looked at the forest with concern.
"Should we go see what the problem is?" Beshte asked
"Well, Lumba-Lumba did say to stay on the beach" Ono replied.
"But we're the Lion Guard. It's our duty to help animals that are in trouble. Even if we're not in the Pride Lands right now.
"Kion's right." Fuli added. The rest of the group then nodded.
"Alright let's go" Kion exclaimed as he ran into the forest with the rest of the guard close behind
As the guard was running into the forest the group noticed that there were a lot of animals hiding.
"No! You're right towards them" One of the animals said.
"Who?" Kion asked
"Shh" The animal whispered.
The group just kept going until soon enough they saw three large lizards chasing a monkey. The monkey looked like his leg had been hurt but he climbed a tree despite the obvious pain.
"Hey!" Kion roared catching the attention of two of the lizards.
"Who daressss messssss with a dragon?" The lizard in front hissed.
"Dragon? Nwaza, Nwaza, Hapana!" Ono squawked "Guys whatever you do don't let them bite you!"
"Okay" Kion said as he looked back at the first lizard.
That lizard that was in the front charged toward Kion, however Kion was much more agile than the large lizard.
"Come back here! You're my next meal" The lizard hissed.
"I dont think so!" Kion growled.
Kion then lunged at the lizard barely avoiding it's powerful jaws and biting it on the tail. Kion then flung the dragon into a tree as he collpsed but was still awake.
"You won't be sssso lucky againssst me!" Another lizard hissed.
"Ora! He'ssss ssssstrong" The lizard that Kion had thrown hissed before passing out.
"So your names Ora?" Kion asked
"That'ssss right" Ora hissed as he lunged toward Kion and tried to bite down on his leg but Kion was able to get out of the way in time.
"You missed" Kion laughed
Ora just growled at this. Beshte however didn't have the same success as another lizard was able to bite his front right leg and he collapsed.
"gah!" Beshte bellowed out in pain. Makini rushed over and looked at the injury.
"Oh no" Makini muttered as she started to take out some herbs to cure the venom the lizard had put into Beshte's leg. She realized that she had all the ingrediants except one- the final ingrediant then fell into Makini's hand, as she looked up she saw the monkey from earlier had dropped it into her hand. She quickly finished making it and applied the cure to the injury.
Meanwhile Fuli and Azaad were fighting the lizard that had bit Beshte, the two cheetahs were racing around the lizard trying to make him dizzy, however the lizard smacked his tail into Fuli as she got sent flying into a tree and collapsed. Azaad had found greater success though as he continued to race around the lizard and made him dizzy, Azaad then cut in and hit the lizard in his side causing the lizard to go to where Kion had thrown the other lizard earlier in the fight.
Bunga and Anga were fighting the lizard that was chasing the monkey. Anga would fly down and hit him with her talons or beak and Bunga would jump on his face and slash it with his claws. Soon the lizard tired out and had collapsed after Bunga let out his stink on the lizard.
"Gah!" The lizard coughed.
Back with Kion and Oras fight Kion had finally been able to bite down on Ora's tail and thrown him to the other lizards.
"Everybody get behind me!" Kion roared
"Oh yea, roar time!" Bunga exclaimed.
Once the guard had gotten behind Kion he got ready to use the roar. He shot his head up, his eyes, narrowed, clouds had appearned in the sky, until finally, Kion let is go. The roar carried Ora and the other lizards into the water. When the guard had made it to the beach they saw the lizards get flung as far as the roar would've taken them. Suddenly a large creature surface from where the lizards had landed.
"Hey guys i got help!" Lumba-Lumba exclaimed between her clicks. "This is Mwokozi."
"Hop on my back" Mwokazi said.
The sun was setting and Kion was laying on Mwokazi's head.
"Kion was it?" Mwokazi asked.
"Yea" Kion sighed.
"What's wrong young one?" Mwokazi asked the lion.
"I'm fine" Kion said with doubt.
"I've been alive a long time Kion. Talk to me" Mwokazi reassured Kion.
"I guess I'm just worried about become like an evil lion. What if I can't get better?" Kion asked.
"Ah, that is a deep question young one. However, you must remember that when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too." Mwokazi said to Kion reassuring him.
"Yea i guess. Thank you Mwokazi." Kion said with gratitude.
"Of course young one." Mwokazi replied.
The guard has just made it to the beach that they needed to be on to keep going to the tree of life and Kion had been thinking about what Mwokazi told him.
Meanwhile Ora and the other lizards had landed near the same beach that the guard was on when they heard a voice.
"You listen to me now" the voice said with a growl.