Forbidden Love

Calm before the Storm

Chapter 3: Calm before the Storm

Kion and Fuli finally arrived at the base of Pride Rock, where Bunga, Beshte and Ono had been waiting for them for the past two hours.

"Finally! There you two are!" Bunga exclaimed while giving Kion a friendly punch to his side. "What kept you? We almost wanted to call for a search-and-rescue mission thinking you guys were in some sort of trouble!"

"Heh, sorry about that, guys. We had to drop by the Dessert Plains to help pull Dhalili out from some quicksand this morning," Kion explained with a grin, as his best friend clambered on top of his back and snuggled himself in the Lion's bushy mane.

"Well at least you two had something to do. We spent the whole morning just patrolling around the grazing grounds and listening to Beshte chattering about his first date last night with Bashira!" Bunga lamented, causing Beshte to blush a deep shade of scarlet while his other friends laughed and congratulated him on his first night out with his long-time crush (who was also a hippo).

"Well, I'm really happy and glad for you, Beshte," Kion said, giving his hippo friend a wink to which Beshte smiled awkwardly and tried to hide his bashfulness.

"So there weren't any emergency at all when you three patrolled in the North?" Fuli inquired, bringing back the formality in their meeting.

"Nope, all seems to be fine out there this morning," Ono cheerily confirmed and feeling somewhat relieved by it. "All the herds are grazing at their usual spots and we didn't find any signs of Hyenas or danger within the vicinity."

"And we didn't see any signs of trouble while we were heading South earlier," Kion stated, recalling his journey to the Desert Plains with Fuli. "Huh. I guess there's not much going on in the Pridelands today."

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I think this is exactly what we all need; an entire peaceful day to ourselves with not a single conflict or emergency to disturb us!" Fuli sighed, as she began stretching herself before comfortably settling down on the soft grass beneath her.

"Yeah, you got that right, Fuli!" Bunga exclaimed cheerfully in agreement as he began nestling himself against Kion's mane while Beshte settled himself on the grass with Ono perched on his back. "Hey, Kion! Anyone ever tell you how incredibly soft your mane is?! You can drown in all this plushiness!"

Kion was momentarily spaced out by what Fuli had said earlier and was noticeably startled when Bunga called out his name.

"What...? Oh, yeah sure..." he trailed off before suddenly lowering his head and carefully putting Bunga onto the ground.

"Hey! What gives?" the honeybadger exclaimed when he was removed from the comfort of Kion's mane and placed onto the grass.

"Sorry, Bunga, but I need to go up to the Rock's peak for a while," Kion briskly replied without explaining his motive and started walking ahead. "The rest of you can stay here and take a breather. You all deserve it."

The heavy tone of his voice when he said this clearly indicated that something was bothering him, but they knew that even as close friends, it would be disrespectful of them to pry into their leader's personal conflicts. Fuli's lips curved downwards with concern as she observed her Lion friend carefully walking up the narrow ledge at the side of the rock formation that eventually lead to the Rock's pinnacle.

Once Kion had reached the ledge of the Rock's peak, he took his time to observe and appreciate the view of the entire Pridelands that was beautifully spread right before him, from Mkuni woods in the West to the vast flood plains towards his East. But his main purpose for being up there wasn't just to enjoy the spectacular view. Taking a deep breath, he cocked his head upwards to focus his gaze towards the sapphire sky, just as a beam of sunlight passed through some clouds and focused its golden shine onto Kion, as if on cue.