Circle of Life Ch. 13

Kito had led his two new friends out of the Outlands and to a land like nothing they had ever seen before. The ground in this land was white and powdery, and it sparkled brightly in the daylight. The air in this alien land felt unnervingly cold.

Ahadi shuddered as he held his head down, struggling to stand against this cold climate. "Brr.... Kito, what is this place?"

"Thisss placcce is known asss the Sssnowlandss." Kito answered as he slithered forward, leading his companions onward. "Thisss iss the only way to the Wildlandss. Well, the fasstesst, anyway."

Ahadi raised his eyebrow suspiciously. "Fastest? What's the other way?"

"Ssstraight through a Sswamp." Kito replied. "But hey, if you wanna go through mossquito infesssted marshes, be my guessst." He smirked as he led on, leaving a winding trail in the snow behind.

Ahadi gave a small grunt before following the purple snake to the center of the Snowlands. A Towering Mountain that dwarfed Priderock back home. This mount, like the rest of the land, was completely covered with snow.

"That's where we need to go." Kito pointed at the mountain with his tail. "If we head up there, we'll be able to find our course to the Wildlands."

Askari's freezing mouth formed a smile after hearing this. "That's good! You hear that Ahadi?"

Ahadi gave another grunt. "Yeah, I did... come on." He motioned for his little brother to follow, which he did.

In a matter of minutes, the trio made their way up the slope of the cold mountain. The princes felt their paws begin to numb up. But did that stop them? Certainly not. The Hybrids also felt more flecks of snow slowly falling from the sky.

Askari's ears perked up suddenly.

He heard something.

He was so busy wondering what he had heard that he did not notice Ahadi and Kito going off without him. He searched around, hoping to find what made the noise he had heard.

His nose also helped with that.

And his eyes.

He looked down to his paws to see that some tracks had been made in the Snow. These tracks did not seem to be his. They were some other cat's tracks.

Askari looked around to see if he could find the Feline who formed these prints. He sniffed the air as well. There was no scent as far as his nose could smell. Being raised in the Pridelands the Hybrid had been taught the many scents of all the animals living there.

Suddenly, the wind behind him whooshed past swiftly.

He turned around quickly and saw no one. Then, the whoosh came again. He turned again. Nothing.

And then.

SHOVE.

Something had shoved him down to the ground. He let out a yell of fright as he quickly stood back up, looking under his belly to see what had rammed into him.

All he saw were eyes.

He jumped back as he looked at the ominous eyes in the snow. They were aqua blue and glaring right at him.

"What're you doing on my Mountain?" A female voice Askari assumed belonged to the one who owned the eyes demanded.

'I-I-I..." Askari stuttered as he stepped back as the eyes came closer.

The mysterious creature growled as she slowly came into view. She was a rather attractive looking cat, pinkish white and about Askari's age. She had spots in various places on her marshmallow soft pelt, and her tail was about two feet long. Her snarling face became level with Askari's.

"I-I-I is not an answer." The Leopard said dangerously to the intruder. "Why have you come here?"

"Please, let me explain." Askari answered. "Me and my friends are just passing through. I'm sorry if we were trespassing, we don't want any trouble."

The female's expression slowly lowered as she calmed herself down. "Oh, well... that makes more sense. Sorry about scaring you there. It's just... I'm pretty endangered, you know?"

'W-well, yeah..." Askari trailed off, glad that he was slowly getting on good terms with this cat.

"I'm Chuluun, by the way." The cat introduced herself. "What's yours?""""Askari." The young prince answered.

'So tell me, Askari." Chuluun looked rather curious of her new friend. "What're you doing out here all alone?"

"Well, I'm not alone." Aksari shook his head. "I'm with my brother and new frie-"

As he turned around to see the others he had been traveling with, to his shock, they were nowhere to be seen. It did not take Askari long to realize that he had been left behind. He began to panic as he looked around frantically.

--

"Does your brother always do this?" Kito asked Ahadi.

The eldest brother paced around frantically. How could he have lost his little brother like ths? He was right behind him!

"Where could he be?" He had ignored Kito's question, only thinking about his brother. "I should've stayed with him!"

"Now calm down, big guy." Kito tried to assure the hybrid. "Don't worry, We'll find him."

"How?!" Ahadi exclaimed to the snake. "The only way we could find him up here is if we could fly!"

"Fly you say?" Kito said in a suspicious manner. He then slithered onto a rock. "Funny you should say that, my friend. Stand back, if you please."

Ahadi raised his eyebrow. "What? Why?"

"Do you want me to find your brother or not, Tenderfoot?" Kito asked in an impatient manner before being engulfed in a bright white light.

Ahadi shielded his eyes as Kito's form slowly changed. Ahadi could not see that he was changing, as he was to busy keeping himself from going blind.

When he opened his eyes, however, he could not see Kito anywhere.

Instead, there was a big black Raven.

The bird that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere had a purple circle on the top of his head, and was standing in the same place Kito was.

"Uh, where'd you come from?" Ahadi asked the bird.

"Uh, duh! I'm Kito!" The bird answered sarcastically before looking at his appearance. "Oh yeah... well, see ya Buddy!"With no more being said, the bird who claimed he was Kito flew off to find Askari, with Ahadi following from below.

"Wait! Kito! Don't call me Tenderfoot!"

--

'So, anyways, that's why we're going to the Wildlands."

Askari walked along the snowy pathway with his new Leopard friend, searching for his brother and scaly friend.

"Wow." Chuluun said in awe. "I've heard of Queen Tiifu, and I've met those Gorillas."

"You have?" Askari turned his head to her.

"Yeah." Chuluun then shuddered at the thought. "They came through here once and battered Snow Leopards left and right. I don't even know if any survived or not. Anyways, their leader, Bambo, I think was his name... well, look at the mess he caused." She lifted her paw to a large mess of uprooted trees and torn up grown.

"Whoa..." Askari was also in awe at this sight.

"You bet Whoa." Chuluun nodded. "So you see why I was so fierce when meeting you, right?"

"I completely understand." Askari replied. "I'd be defensive myself if all that had happened to me."

Suddenly, something leapt from the Snow and right onto Chuluun.

Ahadi.

The eldest prince tackled Chucuun to the ground with an angered growl. "Get away from my brother!"

"Ahadi stop!" Aksari yelled as he pushed his big brother off his new friend.

Ahadi got up and growled at him. "What were you thinking?! Running off like that!"

"Running off?" Aksari looked surprised that his brither thought he ran off. "I didn't run off, you left me!"

"You were right behind me!" Ahadi shot back. "And who's this?"

"This is Chuluun." Askari calmed down. "And she's a friend. Chuluun, this is my brother Ahadi." He turned back to Ahadi. "Wait, where's Kito?"

Ahadi had to calm down as well. "Take a look up."

The three of them looked up to see a Raven flying above them. The bird was clearly the one who had told Ahadi where his brother was.

'Wait, that's Kito?" Aksari asked curiously.

Ahadi gave a chuckle. "Yeah, I'm just as confused as you, little bro."

Kito looked down and gave a sigh of relief that his friends had been reunited. As he flew, however, something felt off. His wings were beginning to feel heavier and harder to move. The winds from up where he was began to feel colder and colder.

"What's the matter with Kito?" Askari asked worriedly.

"He's sure flying funny." Ahadi observed.

"Oh that's not good." Chuluun looked concerned as well. "he Temperature's colder all the way up there, his wings are freezing up."

As they watched their friend struggle to stay uplifted, they watched in horror as he began to plummet down to the ground.

"Catch him!" Askari rushed to try and catch the falling bird. As he ran to grab him, however, he saw that his wings had become functional again, sending the bird into a clump of snow on a ledge several feet above them.

Everyone gave a sigh of relief that their friend had narrowly avoided a plummet to a cold death.

"Thank goodness." Chuluun sighed.

As if it was the Mountain sighing with them, a low rumbling could be heard from the peak above them.

"Did you say something?" Ahadi asked Askari, who shook his head.

"Guys?" Chuluun looked up to the top of the Mountain with a look of frozen fear.

The sight they could all see made them all freeze. A large white could tumbled down the Mountainside towards the small group, creating a sound of thunder as it made its way down to them.

An Avalanche like this could only mean one thing:

Run.