Two Brothers Under the Sun

Chapter – XVI

Three Styles

Hakuna Matata Falls, northern Bukuvu

The rains had yet to come back. The grass, the brushes, and the leaves of the trees were brown and brittle. In time, the migrating herds found themselves facing the one thing all of them had hoped to avoid by coming to the Bukuvu, hunger. This part of the jungle had become very different from the plains the cubs had grown accustomed to since the day they were granted asylum by Baloo. One thing that made them very confused was the ways the grazing herds used to deal with food shortages. As they roamed around the area with one or more of the adults by their side, the younglings watched the grazers ripping off the tall grass and gathering it into great, exposed piles to dry beneath the scorching sun; occasionally turning the nibbled bits so they would absorb as much heat as possible.

Eventually, Bagheera explained it to them: while the grasses don't grow much in the Dry Season, the plant still grows as long as it's left alive; eating or cutting the grass causes more to grow in its place, producing more food. So, the herds pile up the bits they don't eat so there can more for later.

One thing that stayed the same regardless of the season was the gigantic tree growing on the edge of the cliff next to the waterfall, its exposed roots dangling over the drop-off. Although alive and strong, the tree's fat base had almost completely hollowed into a grotto-like den with an interior spacious enough to house a whole platoon of the Colonel's herd, a small gentle stream flowing through it from the river, plants of various kinds and vines growing jumbly along its walls, and a section of the trunk that had broken off to reveal a great view of the landscape below Hakuna Matata Falls.

Life also wasn't all that different in Baloo's Cliffside Dwelling.

"Baloo, Bagheera said you were going to help us today," Simba argued.

"What do you think we are doing here?" Asked the bear to the lion cub. Right now, the ursine and the two cubs were sitting around the base of one of the many termite mounds on this side of the fields just a short distance away from the den, using twigs to poke the holes. "Poking for termites is part of a bear's Spiritual Journey."

He said that, denying all who would say he was only doing this because he didn't feel like scrapping off the colony's nest.

"Oh, it's a journey, all right." Timon's voice came from the other side before his head popped from behind the nest. "Down the throat and into the belly." The meerkat gobbled the insects in his stick with gusto. "Mm, extra crunchy."

Pumbaa joined his side, his mouth was full. "They're local."

"Oh, are they?" Timon questioned.

"They're from right there." Replied the warthog.

Simba turned his attention back to the twig in his paw. He pulled it back to reveal a bunch of bugs crawling into it. A few days ago, that would cause him to shudder in disgust; now, his mouth was gathering water. He cleared up the twig with one bite and chomped on the grub with bliss. "Umm, crunchy."

"There now, isn't this great?" Baloo flicked his eyes to the blue sky as the lion cub went back to enjoy his snack. "Now, let me tell you something, Little Britches." The bear then stood on his hind legs, twig in hand, and addressed the two feasting younglings. "You never know when you will be called into battle. So when it's mealtime, you have to eat as much as you can." He told them, his tone with a tiny twinge of seriousness present even as he smiled. "That's a very important part of being a warrior. Remember it well, you two." He pointed out, lifting his finger as he did so, before savoring his delicacies.

"Sounds like my type of lesson." Timon mused between chews.

After he was satisfied, the bear tossed the twig aside and regarded the younglings again. "Now, let's do some training."

The cubs immediately perked up, especially little Simba. "Finally! What are we gonna do?"

Baloo responded as he led the duo to a clearing in the woods, waiting until they positioned themselves in front of him. "Well, you two wanna become big and strong like Papa Bear here, right?"

"Yeah!" They responded as one in excitement. Tarzan stood on his feet and swung his fists two and fro. "I'd give anything to be as big and strong as you or Bagheera... fighting leopards and tigers and man-eating dholes."

Baloo smirked cockily from the praise before getting on to business. "Then let's do some tests so I can figure out your potential." He bent down to the two younglings. "You see, the trick here is to be scarier than whatever's scaring you, that way you can win a fight without even having to throw a punch." He addressed the little lion. "Remember what I taught you, Simba? You scrunch up your eyes like this." His eyelids narrowed. "And show your teeth like this." The sides of his mouth pulled back to reveal his fangs. "And roar like this."

'ROAR'

The noise didn't come out as powerful as it could have but it was enough to almost make the cubs buckle from it and spook the hell out of the two grownups walking towards them.

After that, Simba jumped in to do the same. He narrowed his eyes, bared his fangs, and then...

"...Roar?"

Baloo was starting to see a pattern by now. "No, no." He shook his head. "Like you mean it!" He did another demonstration.

'ROAR' Second verse same as the first.

"See?"

"Timon, you look like a squirrel," Pumbaa commented at his friend, who was hanging on to his head for dear life like the rodent in question would do to a tree after hearing the ursine's roar.

"What is this?" The mongoose cried out as he regained his stupor. "Scare The Hairs of the Meerkat Day?!"

Tarzan tried his own personal battle cry he had been working on since the day he first met the others. He did the Troop's famous Primal Chest-Pound and let out a long, wavering, high-pitched vocal sound resembling a howl with a trilling quality.

Baloo shook his head at that. "You need a much better battle cry than that, Little Britches." He gestured for him and Simba to pay attention one more time. "Perhaps some inspiration is in order. Watch me." He assumed a threatening instance. "Stand very straight." Buffed up his torso, making him look bulkier. "Stick out your chest. Take the deepest breath you ever took in your whole life." He inhaled a huge quantity of air into his lungs. "Now let it out:"

'ROAR'

The resulting sound was so powerful that blew everyone all the way back and over an exposed tree root.

Baloo laughed at that. "You're gonna need a lot of practice."

Tarzan and Simba laughed back as they got up. Timon let a pained groan as he shook the daze out of his head. "Yeah. Meantime, do you mind pointing those things in another direction?" He puffed his cheek in a glare aimed at the ursine while cleaning the dust off his sides. "You are gonna poke somebody's eyes out of the head."

"They are just having some fun, Timon, that's all," Pumbaa interjected.

"This is supposed to be a training session." Remarked the still scowling meerkat. "You know, to prepare them for our self-preservation plan, meant to ensure our continued good health by running off to safety while they scare off whatever it is that's trying to eat us!"

"No worries, Timon." Baloo waved him off reassuringly. "After I am done, there won't be a predator around here they can't handle. Hakuna Matata."

"Hakuna Matata?" Timon repeated, his eyes bulging at the bear as if he was crazy and his voice cracking. "No worries?! May I remind you that we now have dogs and crocs to worry about here?"

"But Timon, Baloo is our friend, and if he is confident he can train the boys to take on any predator, then my brain believes him." Pumbaa stood proudly.

By the dry look on his face, Timon didn't feel as obliviously confident as the pig. "Well, my brain, the brains of this operation, says we gotta whip these two into shape."

Like that, Baloo's training program started.

"Come on. Do what I do." The sloth bear instructed his students as he stalked amongst the bushes, ready to pounce.

'ROAR' He leaped out of his hiding place to the path ahead.

Simba nodded and jumped into the foliage while Tarzan looked around confused for a moment before he remembered the lesson and did the same. They crouched down in the foliage, got in position, puffed up the chests (making the man-cub look like a frog more than ever), and let it out.

'ROAR' Good News, Simba could roar... as weakly as it was.

'ROAR' Tarzan's had a higher pitch.

Baloo shared a silent look with Timon when the latter came riding on Pumbaa's head. Those two had a long way to go.

Soon, the bear was leading the group through the jungle, the excited students trekking after him while he encouraged and urged them to continue. "Come on. You can do it."

'ROAR' Baloo roared like a bear worth of his great bulk.

'ROAR' Tarzan tried as he could to imitate him. Keyword being tried.

'ROAR' Simba's attempts would alternate between weak roars and medium yowls.

Baloo persevered. "Come on, watch this."

'ROAR'

'ROAR'

'ROAR'

A pair of songbirds watched the odd bunch walking beneath their tree branch, looking on confused at the noise they were making.

"Come on, you two. Cut loose with your most frightful roar." Now Timon came over to coach the younglings.

'ROAR' Tarzan still wasn't making much progress.

'ROAR' And neither was Simba for that matter.

Timon pinched the area between his eyebrows. "Okay, let's try something else." They all stopped. The meerkat landed on the floor in front of the boys and pointed to the swine beside him. "Try with Pumbaa here, turn him white like a zebra who lost his stripes." He moved aside to give them space before calling to the warthog. "Ready, Pumbaa?"

"I am ready!" The pig responded with enthusiasm. Tarzan narrowed his eyes in determination and roared.

'ROAR'

"I am not scared." Pumbaa declared, his tone unchanged like the man-cub's Warcry. Now a bit frustrated, Tarzan moved along for Simba to try.

'ROAR'

"I am still not scared." The pig remained obliviously upbeat. Simba dropped his ears.

Baloo noticed that and let the pig have it.

'ROAR'

Pumbaa screamed and jolted, making him jump back and fall off the edge of a rock into a dried section of the riverbed.

'SPLASH'

The bear snickered a bit before looking back at the dejected younglings. "Yeah. That was good." He said in an attempt to cheer them up. "Let's try again, come on!"

"Baloo, I don't think this is working," Tarzan spoke for the two of them.

"Don't give up yet, boys. You are gonna find your voice eventually." Their teacher responded before making his way to a hollow log and roaring into it.

'ROAR'

All the birds in the trees took off and the group on the ground had to cover their ears to deal with the deafening ring of the throaty echo.

"See? There's nothing to it." He smiled and turned back to the currently disoriented cubs. "All it takes is one good grrr. Soon, you two will roar like two swell bears."

Timon groaned in pain as he rubbed his ears. "Great. Then you can finally blow my eardrums."

The great bear let out a bemused chuckle. Then suddenly, his whole body stiffened when a familiar smell invaded his nostrils. His ears raised instantly and his eyes became entranced for a second before they closed; right after that, Baloo sighed in complete bliss and started walking guided by his nose. The ursine was sniffing like crazy as made his way towards a cliff nearby, for there was a sweetish-sourish smell in the air, very similar to the smell of a big ant hill on a hot day.

But his sense of smell had found something else.

Honey.

So distracted was Baloo by the aroma that he didn't pay attention to where he and, by extension, the others were heading. A mile or two beyond Hippo Springs the river narrows between a gorge of marble rocks from eighty to a hundred feet high, and the current runs like a mill-race between and over all manner of ugly stones. And the split and weatherworn rocks of the gorge were almost completely covered by honeycombs.

The bear had come almost five steps away from the hives when the sound of Tarzan's roar got him back to his senses.

'ROAR'

"Uhm?!" The bear blinked like an owl. Cocking his head to the side, he took notice of the man-cub practicing his roar by trying to scare a bee. A very peculiar-looking one.

"Say, this bee looks familiar." Baloo raised an eyebrow, his claw lightly scratching his chin as he looked up to the rocky summit. That was when he finally realized just where they were. "Oh no!" His eyes bulged in alarm. "The Honey Cliffs!"

In an instant, Baloo had covered the boy's mouth before he could create a possible disturbance and scooped the lion cub as well, holding the two cubs protectively. Everyone was caught by surprise by the bear's sudden action until they all heard a terrifyingly loud and very recognizable sound. And this one was not a roar.

'BUZZZZZZ'

The length of the gorge on both sides was hung as it were with the black shimmery velvet of a thousand deer stags, and the entire group sank as they saw the color take off into a buzzing golden cloud, revealing it to be a huge swarm of millions of bees, floating right above their heads.

"...Hey, guys?" Pumbaa whispered with panic building up in his voice as Timon latched and trembled behind his hair tuft, both clearly horrified despite the fact they were surrounded by two of the things they loved most: bugs and honey. "Is this what you call too much of a good thing?"

"Now, don't panic, fellas," Baloo said even as he swallowed back a gulp, the cubs mutely holding onto him and staring in fear at their predicament. "We just gotta use Plan 'B'."

"What's plan 'B' again?" The meerkat's question came out like a whimper.

'BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ'

"Bailout!" Baloo shouted. "Bailout!"

Demonstrating great speed for an animal his size, the ursine hightailed to the edge and jumped off to the river below. Pumbaa, too blinded by panic to think twice, did the same. The swarm followed, and three members of the group screamed frantically; the man-cub, for some reason, decided this was a good time to go back to testing his battle cry, the bear braced himself and the cubs, and the water got closer... and closer...

'SPLASH'

###

riverside near Hippo Springs, eastern Bukuvu

Waingunga Gorge or The Honey Cliffs. The cliffsides of this great cleft have been used since the beginning of the Jungle by the Little People of the Rocks—the busy, furious, wild bees of Africa; and, as the locals knew well, all trails turned off half a mile before they reached the gorge. Far longer than one could remember, the Little People had hived and swarmed from cleft to cleft, and swarmed again, staining the white marble with stale honey, and made their combs tall and deep in the dark of the inner caves, where neither man nor beast nor gale nor water had ever touched them. There were other lumps and flowers and leaves and things like decayed tree trunks studded on the face of the rock, the old combs of past years, or abandoned men dens built in the shadow of the windless gorge, and huge masses of spongy, rotten trash had rolled down and stuck among the trees and creepers that clung to the rock-face. As he listened he heard more than once the rustle and slide of a honey-loaded comb turning over or failing away somewhere in the dark galleries; then a booming of angry wings, and the sullen drip, drip, drip, of the wasted honey, guttering along till it lipped over some ledge in the open air and sluggishly trickled down on the twigs. There was a tiny little beach, not five feet broad, on one side of the river, and that was piled high with the rubbish of uncounted years. There were dead bees, drones, sweepings, stale combs, and wings of marauding moths that had strayed in after honey, all tumbled in smooth piles of the finest black dust. The mere sharp smell of it was enough to frighten anything that had no wings and knew what the Little People were.

Baloo emerged out of the pool, soaking wet, and walked till he came to a sandy bar at the head of the gorge. Once on the shore, he shook himself off, which caused his fur to fluff up, all the shagginess and hair going every which way. Soon, he was joined by a gasping and wheezing Pumbaa; Timon was clutching on the warthog's head, shaking like a leaf and his eyes were ghostly-white. Baloo let go of the kids, allowing them to collapse exhausted on the ground and Pumbaa wasn't too far behind them. Timon came to and groaned, sliding down to the pig's snout. The swine shifted his eyes to look at him.

"Timon?" Pumbaa asked concerned. "Timon? Are you okay?"

"Sure." The meerkat moaned as he struggled to lift himself up from his position. "As long as you define okay as 'in massive agony.'"

"Here is a lesson for you," Baloo addressed the younglings now that the shock had worn off. "If it's smaller than you but has like four thousand ninety-nine friends each with their own sting, they are gonna eat ya." But then he scrunched his brow. "Well, I think they will," The bear shrugged mostly to himself. "I never stick around to find out what they do."

"Glad to know you are taking this so seriously."

Everyone jerked their heads to the side to see Bagheera walking down a tree toward them. The panther stopped just a short distance through a minuscule shallow stream between himself and the group, his eyes set right on the boys, offering them an impish smile when he couldn't help but ask:

"Are you all ready for your lesson?"

The cubs promptly passed out.

A moment or so afterward, the afternoon sun stirred up the boys from their slumber. Their rest had been brief but just enough for them to regain the strength to jump excitedly when Bagheera told them it was time for some serious combat training. Their teacher decided they would have the lesson right there by the riverbank. Timon and Pumbaa were long gone, both had agreed with the cubs' idea and went to get some shuteye back in the den. Baloo stayed on the sidelines as the panther spoke to the two now restless younglings.

"Pay attention, you two," Bagheera told them in his usual serious voice, reserved especially for situations such as this. "The jungle can be a very dangerous place. Right now, the both of you are at the bottom of the Food Chain, as such, there are few creatures here that you could fight on your own." The cubs absorbed the leopard's words attentively. "If you are to survive, you must become stronger." His tail wagged gently behind his sitting form. "That's why I shall teach you how to fight. First, let me brief you on the Three Styles of combat."

Man and lion cub alike stared off confused at the bigger cat. Tarzan tilted his head. "Three Styles?"

"What is that?" Simba dropped his ears in puzzlement.

"Listen well," Bagheera stated. "These are the basic fundaments of all fighting techniques." He raised his paw to show them as he lectured. "Those are Grappling, Rushdown, and Spacing." For each type, the feline retracted one claw back into his paw.

"Let's start with Grappling." Bagheera's eyes shifted to the bear, the boys followed his line of sight. Right on cue, Baloo moved over towards the foliage, checked over a tree fern at least five heads taller than him, and started scratching his back furiously against the trunk, taking a moment to enjoy the relaxing sensation. Still confused, the boys looked over to Bagheera, who, surprisingly, didn't do anything more than roll his eyes, a strangely chill response to the bear's goofing off in what should be a relatively serious situation. Simba sent a confused glance to Tarzan, expecting him to explain what exactly was going on, only to see he was matching his expression.

'CRASH'

The pair were snapped out of their stupor and jumped at the sudden noise of a falling tree, eyes darting back in the bear's direction. Now the two gobsmacked cubs looked on in surprise at the tree fern the bear had uprooted, yanked over his back, and slammed hard to the ground in front of him.

"Grappling is all about using grabs and holds to catch your opponent and immobilize them, pinning them down so they can't escape or fight back," Bagheera explained to them while Baloo continued with the demonstration by getting on top of the log, making use of all his weight as well as maintaining an arm locked around its trunk. "Also gives you an opening to land a good blow." He looked back to his pupils dead in the eyes. "Be careful, the bigger the opponent, the harder it is to maintain your hold of him. And if they break free, they will be in position to counter-attack." He warned them before continuing. "Do you remember the Mashindano between Pua and Makuu?"

One moment later for them to process the question, the two disciples nodded.

"Remember how they would try to bring the other to the ground and keep them immobilized?" His feelings regarding the results of that match aside, Bagheera knew that would provide great educational value for this particular lesson. "That's how crocodiles take down their prey, firmly grasping them and dragging them to the water to finish them off."

"They do it in the Troop as well." Tarzan pointed out in stupefied realization, remembering his wrestling sessions with Terk and the training matches they watched between the grownups and the juveniles back at the Troop's dwellings. Simba was also reminded of his lessons about pouncing and pinning.

"The following two are Rushdown and Spacing." Bagheera walked over to Baloo and nodded to him. The bear nodded back and raised his arms defensively to intercept a series of swift swipes from the panther.

It started so fast that they startled the younglings again.

"These are all about landing solid hits on the adversary." The predator said without ceasing his flurry of attacks, weaving from side to side as he tested the bear's guard. "In a Rushdown you have to dish out as many hits as you can, be it with claws, fists, or fangs." They separated for a second to catch their breath before proceeding on, under the attentive yet fully wide stare of the younglings. "If the strikes are powerful enough, they can overwhelm the opponent." He stopped again, wanting to make sure of cautioning them about the next part. "But there's a drawback, to do that you have to get on the opponent's face which makes you open to a counter-attack should the adversary power through your blows." To show what he meant, he bared his paws and launched himself at Baloo, who intercepted him with ease and pinned him to the floor. Once the ursine let him go, the teacher focused back on his students. "So you have to take them down before they get the chance."

Simba was sharing the same thought with Tarzan this time. The Bandar-log ganging up on the pythons in the Siege of Monkey City.

Bagheera moved to get in full frontal view of the boys. "These two styles are the most important ones to a predator." Having stated that, he elaborated: "When the pack is hunting for the big game, one group keeps the prey in place while another moves in to deliver the killing blow. If the prey is smaller, they will try to grab it so it won't get a chance to run away, and if the quarry fights back, they try to evade the blows before attacking in turn."

His features hardened as he said the last part. "Whether you are hunting or being hunted, be sure to remember that."

The two stiffened a bit but, nonetheless, nodded in affirmation to him.

"But... what about S-Spacing?" Tarzan asked after bumbling a bit with the word.

Bagheera said nothing, only gesturing for them to follow him as he walked forward. The cubs complied and trailed after their master, who had sat down on a grassy rolling hill overlooking the scenery further into the plains. All eyes fell on what at first the boys mistook for a large grey rock until they noticed the horn sticking out on its end. The cumbersome rhinoceros walked very slowly, then stopped at the command of the tick bird on his forehead. His horns aimed straight at a tree in the periphery of the nearby woodland, twice the size of the one Baloo had taken down a few moments ago. Herr Rhino scraped the ground with his right frontal hoof, once, twice, thrice. His nostrils blew, his orange eyes turned crimson.

And he charged. The Earth shook with his footfalls.

'CRASH'

Tarzan nor Simba could stop themselves from looking on in disbelief when the rhino's bulk collided against the tree at top speed, the horn going under the base of the trunk, and launching the whole plant high up to the sky before it fell down more than just a few meters away.

"Spacing is also called Battle Crown Style, for it's used by all animals with horns or antlers." At the sound of Bagheera's voice, the pair finally managed to shift their gaze away from the mighty rhino and back to their teacher, who maintained his serious expression even after witnessing the pachyderm's show of strength. The panther gazed back. "Unlike Rushdowns, Spacing attacks usually focus on delivering one or two blows instead of a flurry. But that's usually all they need." He emphasized the next bit. "One hit, with the full power of the body behind it, and delivered with all speed one can muster, devastating enough to finish the fight right then and there." He glanced back at the plains. "There are things in the jungle that not even the tiger dares to stand and face." The cubs did the same, not missing anything that he said. "The tusks and trunk of the elephant, the jaws of the hippopotamus, and the horn of the rhinoceros." Herr Rhino was the center of their attention. "The Pachyderms. The three greatest animals of all, whose power commands the most respect, be it from a fellow herbivore or a carnivore." A family of gazelles bowed in respect when he passed by, stoic and somewhat imposing. "Even with the best training, your strength will always be inferior to theirs." The bewildered younglings turned back to look eye-to-eye with the panther. "But you can still make something good of it, that's how the Great Circle made you, after all." With that, the leopard made his way towards the bear, who had spent this entire time sitting against the same log he had dislodged so as to give the big cat some time with the students. "We will start with the basics."

Simba just stood there. Sitting down and staring off disconcerted as the rhino escaped his field of vision. Ever since that day in the gorge, it felt like his entire world had been flipped upside down. His father was dead, he couldn't return to the Pride, and he managed to stumble into a place where his kind had never roamed before. A place where another cat reigned, alongside giant monkeys and thick-skinned giants who used to sing praises to him and his father whenever they wandered around on their lands; hunting grounds divided between cats and dogs while crocodiles lurked about the wetlands.

A place... where he will need to fight to survive.

"Simba!"

Looking back, he saw Tarzan and their teachers staring back at him.

"Come on, let's go!" The man-cub shouted excitedly, the two adults couldn't help but smile at his antics, although Bagheera shook his head in light amusement.

The lion cub just gazed unblinkingly at him, his ears perking up...

Before he smiled back in equal eagerness.

"All right, let's get stronger!" He leaped to join them.

Okay, Bukuvu... challenge accepted.

From that day, the boys' training started. Baloo showed Tarzan to a banana tree and instructed him to practice his punches on it. The stem could take on his blows as well as weave them off while not bruising his hands. Bagheera was using a different tree to show Simba a special move very common amongst big cats like them, grabbing the middle section of the trunk with the foreclaws and ripping the lower section with the hind claws.

'THUMP'

~When things aren't right and times aren't good, life isn't going as it should~

When Simba tried it, he lost his grip and fell on his back. Meanwhile, Tarzan was completely buried by the bananas. Bagheera leveled his eyes at Baloo's snickering, despite the bear's attempts to hide it.

~Don't give up, don't give in. Hold your head up, tomorrow a new day begins~

Come the time for sparring, Bagheera was easily able to avoid Simba's pounces.

~Hold your head high, hang on to your pride~

After one last failed try from the kitten, the panther decided to check on Tarzan's progress, only to be greeted by the sight of the man-cub climbing on the bear's back, struggling to get on top and scratching him in the process, tickling the ursine much to his not-very-convincing protests.

~Just give it your all, and don't be denied~

All the panther could do was facepalm.

~Win, lose, or draw, what counts, in the end, is that you take what each day has to give~

Aiming to build up the younglings' muscles, Bagheera was back to leading the boys through the undergrowth, jumping, climbing, and evading obstacles in their way. Poor Baloo was being left behind.

"You guys... are going too fast." The great bear wheezed as he tried to keep up with the nimbler creatures. "Anybody ever taught you how to jog?"

Even so, he kept moving forward.

~And give your all to the life that you live~

Later, Baloo had come up with a very unique training exercise for the boys. While still working on their roars, the two cubs rushed across the grasslands, scaring off numerous grasshoppers in the process.

~When things go wrong and times are bad, life conspires to make you sad~

Lurking in the foliage, Baloo saw them approaching. He gave the thumbs-up for Pumbaa and Timon also concealed under the foliage, who signaled back, a huge leaf on the ground between them and the bear.

~Don't lose your faith, don't lose your pride. Hold your head up, tomorrow is on your side~

Once the cloud of bugs got right close to their position, the grownups sprung their trap: jumping out of the tall grass and raising the leaf to catch the grasshoppers.

~Hold your head high, hang on to your pride~

They all cheered. From afar, Bagheera admitted Baloo's herding exercise was a success.

~Just give it your all and don't be denied~

With all the grub they captured and the nearing dusk, the group voted to continue the lessons tomorrow and stop right then and there for a lunch break. Soon, they all gathered around in a circle with the leaf full of now-dead bugs in the middle. The boys didn't forget Baloo's 'lesson' and ate as much as they could. Tarzan offered some of their 'game' to Bagheera, who politely declined, albeit without bringing himself to look at the feasting group.

~Win, lose, or draw, what counts, in the end, Is that you take what each day has to give~

Kala joined in when she came over to check on them and take Tarzan home for the night.

~And give your all to the life that you live~

Before they could return to the Wakalu, Kala went to ask her son about his day. The others had briefed her but she still wanted to hear it from the mouth of her child, who was eager to share it with her, as usual.

"Well, today didn't work out too good." He admitted, his earlier demeanor jolly subsided. "But we will try again tomorrow."

Kala raised a concerned eyebrow at the look on his face. "So what's wrong, Tarzan?"

"Well, all I can do is throw some punches." He stared down at his bare skinny hands. "If I was a cat or a bear, I could fight with claws and fangs. My blows aren't even that strong." The most he had achieved was when he managed to strike Baloo with a right Hook but the bear was clearly pretending, that much became obvious when he effortlessly sent Tarzan rolling with a simple swipe from his paw.

His mother offered him her ever-compassionate look before a thought came to her. "Well, let's see." She contemplated it as she arranged his hair behind his ears. "Do rabbits have fangs?"

He blinked for a second then raised a funny eyebrow back to her "No, they just have buckteeth."

She smiled. "And the antelope?"

"No, they don't." The boy shook his head, still slightly confused.

"Then tell me: do you think Bagheera has an easy time trying to catch them because of that?"

"No, the antelope have long legs to kick and horns to bash." He replied. "And rabbits are really quick and can hear him coming because of their big ears."

"That's right." He nodded at him. "So you see, not every animal needs claws and fangs. They all have something special that helps them survive. Even the bugs we eat can hide in places we can't reach because of their size."

"But I don't wanna just run and hide." Said her son. "I wanna fight to protect everyone."

She felt a warm feeling within her heart, just like that day back on the Floodplains. "Then why don't you try and see if you have anything to help you do that?"

Tarzan only answered with silence, his eyes shifted away from his mother and now he seemed to be pondering something.

Simba looked straight down from high in a tree; Timon and Pumbaa were at the bottom and the meerkat was sending a stern look to the cub. "Young lion, get down from there!"

The youngling didn't pay them any mind, he was having too much fun jumping around in the branches. "Whoo-hoo! All right!" He looked down at the pair. "Hey—you guys look like ants down there."

"I'm counting to three," Timon warned him.

The lion leaped onto a smaller branch. "Yahoooo!"

'CRACK'

But it broke under his weight.

"Uh-oh," Pumbaa muttered as Simba fell, silently, while Timon was too focused on his counting.

"One... Two..."

The moment Timon counted "Two", Pumbaa threw himself on top of him; allowing Simba to land safely on the warthog's back.

Timon muffled under the swine's weight and his arm collapsed. "...Three."

"Heh, I thought cats always landed on their feet." Commented Baloo from the sidelines.

"What did I tell you?" Bagheera sent a pointed glare to the now sheepish lion cub. "Always look before you leap."

When it was time to go, Tarzan had yet to find an answer as to whether or not he had something to compensate for his lack of claws or fangs. Suddenly, he yelped in pain when he felt something pointy stinging his toe. He lifted his foot and saw it had dragged across the wooden branch and rammed into a small slab, which broke in half, giving him a splinter. The man-cub plucked it off and tossed it towards the broken branch. He was just about to leave when something came to him. He stopped, turned back, and stared at the piece of wood, more specifically, the sharp end of the branch stripped of leaves due to the hot climate.

~Life's not always fair, life's not always kind, but the way you take it is all in your mind~

The next day, the quartet of two teachers and two students made their way up a rocky incline covered by slanted stepstones. Tarzan looked on disheartened, unsure if he could climb up the slick surface, nonetheless, he tried. Unsurprisingly, he couldn't maintain a steady balance in the ascent, it didn't help there was no room for him to gather speed to run up the slope. The boy returned to the ground and tried to find another path, scratching his head and looking around the area in thought, the man-cub's eyes found the same branch from yesterday, abruptly his memory jolted to the time Timon and Pumbaa helped Simba when he got his claws stuck in a log.

That gave him an idea.

~So hold your head high, hang on to your pride~

He grabbed the branch, planted it firmly on a crevasse between the rocks, and supported himself onto it to get halfway across, far enough for him to reach higher ground and make it through the rest of the way on his own.

~Just give it your all and don't be denied~

Bagheera bared his claws as he scratched the trunk's surface, stripping off the bark as well as sharpening his claws. These trees would mark the new boundaries between his range and the dholes'. Simba was doing the same on the opposite side, working on the base. Not too far away, Baloo was also scraping his claw onto wood, only he was doing it on a branch and it wasn't his nails he was trying to give a sharp edge. After finishing his side, Bagheera inspected Simba's progress only to then shift his eyes to the side and quirk an eyebrow when he noticed the bear handing something over to the man-cub, who happily grabbed it.

Now the panther could see the object was a long, thin stick of wood with a point at the tip. Many Seasons had passed since the last time he saw a man with one of those. Men's tricks to this day impressed and scared him at the same time.

A creature that makes its own fangs the size of a paw.

~Win, lose, or draw, what counts, in the end, Is that you take what each day has to give~

Since then, Tarzan would come to Zulu almost every day when he had free time; he observed the Colonel and his elephants' training and then tried to imitate the way they fought with their sticks using his own, which he took to calling his 'fang'. Swinging it around like a trunk and thrusting it like tusks before aiming and tossing it at a target.

And with a relentless drive, he and Simba trained every day to get stronger.

~And give your all to the life that you live~

###

plains near Pinnacle Rock, northwest Bukuvu

Bundo bounded to the edge of the trail and overlooked one of the last pastures with green grass in the jungle, where grasses with leaf-like swards grew, and a herd of topi grazed peacefully. He squinted excitedly at the herd, then glanced over her shoulder to give the signal for his hunters to move. One by one, his clanmates followed him as he prowled to the edge of the trail. His daughter stalked towards him. From ahead of their hunting party, they stared across the savanna, eyes fixated on the topi.

It was early afternoon and this particular herd of antelopes had waited a while to congregate in this part of the riverside plains. As such, they dispersed into smaller groups to forage, as they were allowed to in the Dry Season, as well as to start piling up the fodder for later, making it easier for his clan to hunt them down despite their size.

Even so, this would be dangerous.

"Red dogs!" Their watcher gave out the alarm call. "The red dogs are coming!"

The spooked topi lift their heads at the noise and run away. That gave the cue for Bundo to take off with his clan, jumping out of the grass in the herd's direction to attack. Most of the females were leaving with the young. The remaining ones joined their husbands, doubled back, and started running toward the dholes, this was to be the most dangerous part of the hunt. They take on the dogs, who scattered in order to avoid their horns. Bundo's hunters are fluid, fearless, and energetic but the threatening factor of impalement was enough to make some back away, one good hit and they would be done for. The clan's approach to deal with the larger antelopes was to cut them off from each other and bring them down with persistent, team-based attacks. While the dholes tried to get close to give a good bite, the topi waved their horns and kicked high up to ward them off.

While the Warriors fought, another of the clan's detachments pursued the fleeing herd. By relying on their endurance, they managed to catch up to the faster antelopes and tried to straggle off some of them away while also evading the Alpha males and females trying, in turn, to keep as much space between them and their fellow herd members as possible. Lala spotted one galloping off into the woodlands. She looked back for a moment and then decided to give chase as the lone topi turned and dashed away from her, the two of them vanishing inside the forested area. The panicked topi jumped down a drop-off by the riverbank, gaining distance and forcing Lala to use another route to get to him. She caught sight of her prey running near the shore when...

'SPLASH'

A massive crocodile surged out of the water from nowhere and crushed his powerful jaws around the neck of the topi. Lala skidded to a sudden stop in surprise and fright. The antelope fought to get out of the grip to attack the croc with his horns but Makuu's grappling was too strong for him to use his Battle Crown. Using his great strength, Makuu dragged his prey to the water and proceeded to finish him with a Death Roll. He brought the now-dead grazer to the shore and gave out a hungry sigh in anticipation.

"Hmm. Lunchtime." He was prepared to feast when a feminine voice interrupted.

"Hey, that's mine!" Lala argued, getting the croc's attention.

Seeing the small dog staring at him, the reptile smirked in amusement. "Is it? Did you catch it?"

"I had him exactly where I wanted!" She declared.

"You mean between my jaws?" He snarked.

"Who do you think you are?" Scowling, she got on the face of the bigger predator. "This is my antelope!"

His mocking stare persisted. "I think I am the one who took it down, so it's mine to eat."

"You can't do that!"

"Oh, are you going to challenge me for it?" He lifted himself up, becoming taller than the cheeky dhole, and smirked wickedly when she recoiled under his gaze.

"Yes, we will."

They both look up beyond the sandy bank where Bundo was snarling down at the crocodile with several of his hunters flanking him. Some of them scarred from the fight with the herd.

"Move along, croc," Bundo said to Makuu, not a suggestion or a request but an order. "We are the owners of this jungle."

The Leader was not intimidated. "Why should we leave?" The moment he asked, a small group of crocodiles, previously hidden underwater, revealed themselves and formed an arc around the dead topi with Makuu in the middle. "The herds in the riverside taste great. I think we're here to stay..." Then he narrowed his eyes. "That is unless you want to fight, newbie."

"Careful crocodiles." Bundo's hunting party, big even for their kind's standards, started growling collectively in defiance of the giant reptiles. "You don't want to mess with us. Leave!"

Makuu just laughed at them. "The crocodiles from the Mouth of the Dirisha don't take orders from a bunch of foxes. If you think you can make us..." He hissed and opened his mouth full of teeth. "Just try it." A threat.

Now a smile came to Bundo's face. "So if I kill you, I won't have to deal with your float anymore?" He answered the croc's hiss with a feral snarl. "We won't back down from a big fat lizard." An insult.

"Tough talk, Bundo. Can you back it up with action?" A challenge.

Both sides seized each other up. Lala had retreated a few paces to stand near her clan. Glares were exchanged alongside hisses and growls. Bundo smiled murderously at Makuu who responded by merely smirking wickedly with visible arrogance, pissing off the dhole Leader even more. They continued staring heatedly at each other for a good moment.

"ATTACK!" Bundo shouted and leaped. Makuu bellowed...

And all hell broke loose.

A/N: Thanks a lot to TierZoo for his video about Animal Combat Styles. I decided to not include projectile builds because it's not very widespread among most animals, especially since, in the context of this story, the most successful projectile users are Bandar-log, whom Bagheera is not at all interested in letting teach Tarzan.

A/N 2: Seriously, can anyone please translate the cutscenes from the Jungle Cubs VHS? Or, at the very least, send the subtitles to me?