Kion's Tale Ch. 7

The bird sat in the den Kion had picked out for him. After some convincing, Muhungus had allowed them to borrow one of his dens. The wing on the right side of the colorful bird hung lifelessly, clearly broken. To help keep his strength up, Kion asked Bunga to collect some worms for the unusual guest, which seemed to be a somewhat inconvenience for the young honey badger.

And when the bird was done eating, Kion decided to introduce himself to the newcomer.

He approached the bird with Fuli by his side. Unlike Kion, Fuli was not so sure about this plan of his, considering how this bird was unlike any they had seen before. "Um, hi again." Kion gave a polite smile to the bird. "I'm sorry, I don't think we got your name."

I'm not saying that this bird showed any sign of rudeness, but he did seem to almost ignore the young Lion when he asked him of his name. The main thing he focused his attention on was the worms the Grey furry thing had given him. He soon paused his eating and turned his attention to Kion and Fuli.

"Tuca."

Kion suddenly raised his smile again, now knowing the bird was listening to him. "Tuca? Well Tuca, I'm Kion, and this is Fuli."

"Welcome to the Pridelands." Fuli gave a small nod to the colorful bird.

Kion stepped closer to Tuca. "If you don't mind my asking, where did you come from?"

For the first time since they had found him earlier that day, Tuca stood up on his legs and scratched the back of his head with his foot. On each foot, there were four toes: Two on the front, and two on the back. As he finished scratching his itch, he turned hi attention back to Kion. "From the Island of the true cross, redhead, Terra de la Cruz." His voice seemed so laid back and relaxed.

Fuli tilted her head with confusion clean on her face. "And where is this 'Terra de la Cruz?'"

"Oh far away, Spotty." Tuca waved his good wing to the sky. "It's a great place. Brilliant views, wide open spaces, Samba everywhere ya go, and a great bay side experience."

Fuli's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Well if it's so great, why'd you leave?"

Tuca gave a shrug with his good shoulder and gave a sigh. "True, it is great, but sometimes, too much of great can get boring after a while. Eventually, I decided to leave my flock and find new places, try new things, ya know? Soon enough, a got caught in a pretty rough typhoon. I finally found a stretch of land where I could wait out the storm. When day came, I flew off again and after good morning of flying, I got attacked by a big dog with black and white on her back."

Kion gave a look to his cheetah friend. "That sounds a lot like Reirei." He then turned back to Tuca. "What happened next, Tuca?"

Tuca briefly showed signs of confusion. 'They knew that mongrel?'  He then realized he had to answer the cat's question. "Well, during the fight, my wing got injured, and I managed to get away from that "Reirei" of yours. I got on a large rock and tried to fly, but then... well, I guess ya know the rest, huh?"

Kion gave a small chuckle. "Yeah I guess so-"

It was here that Kion suddenly was overtaken by a moment of realization. For the past month, The recent Outlander attacks had been more and more challenging. A little while before these events, a friend of his had joined the fight against Scar's forces, forming a resistance consisting of her and her clan. At first, Kion had doubts of his unusual friends decision, but when he saw how well they had been working, he decided that he wouldn't stand in Jasiri's way. But now, since the Outlanders and Outsiders had teamed up, and there was hadn't been any sign of the Resistance for several weeks, something had to have been wrong. And now, since this bird had been to places beyond the Pridelands...

"Hey, Tuca?" He asked the colorful bird. "During your flight, what all did you see?"

Tuca began to think on the subject for a while before giving his best answer. "Well, now that you mention it, I did see something. There was a large gathering of cats with black spots and Grey dog-like animals. Looked like some sorta weddin' or somethin'."

Fuli raised her eyebrows at this answer. Grey dog-like animals? Sounded a lot like Hyenas. Could it be? There certainly weren't a lot of Hyenas other than Janja's clan and Jasiri's clan. And since Janja's clan had not been seen for so long, it had to be Jasiri!

Kion appeared to be thinking the same thing as Fuli was. "Where were they exactly, Tuca?"

Tuca used his good wing to point in the direction his caretaker had asked of him. "Just East of the place ya call 'Maji Baridi Falls.'"

Kion's face lit up with happiness as he heard this. "Thank you very much, Tuca. I'll have Rafiki look at your wing later today. And we'll check on you again later, too." He gave Tuca a bow before motioning for Fuli to come to speak with him.

"What's on your mind, Kion?" Fuli asked him.

"This is good, Fuli." Came the answer of Fuli's leader.

She tilted her head at his answer. "What's good? Tuca getting his wing hurt?"

Kion shook his head. "No! I mean Jasiri and her clan being alright." His delighted expression turned to concern. "But what could they doing in the Backlands?"

"I don't know, Kion. Maybe something happened to their turf."

Kion turned his head to the lowering sun in the pink afternoon sky before turning back to Fuli.

"I'm going to get Ono to take a look later today."