"Why is this making my head hurt? I shouldn't be too bothered by this, right?" Kilio thought, not noticing a second shadow appearing besides hers. "Ugh! Why is this so hard for me?!"
"What's so hard for you, Kilio ?" She jumped at the sudden voice, nearly falling off the edge of the hill if she didn't unsheath her claws in time to grab a hold of the Earth and hoist herself back into balance, her heart pounded against her chest as she slowly turned around, praying to whoever was up there it wasn't who she think it was. "Please, please don't let it be Mzingo."
And there he was, the vulture himself. She gulped.
"I sure hope you aren't nervous around me with what you're hiding, believe me I already know." He said, as if it was the most obvious thing on Africa.
"Y-You know?" Kilio asked. Mzingo nodded, with a calm look. "B-But how? When?" Kilio stuttered.
"Well, I was flying around when I came to notice you took the short tunnel heading towards Jasiri's territory, of course I doubted you were interested with them but something in my gut told me to follow you," He paused, noticing how Kilio is seeming to hold her breath. "And so I did, and my, I was surprised." He said.
"You're not mad?" Kilio asked, sounding a little hopeful but surprised.
Mzingo raised a brow; "You hoping I'm not mad? I know we haven't been seeing eachother as often but what happened to the cub I used to look after when the clan's away? The cub who used to pluck my feathers out when playing? The cub who introduced me to Janja's "Birdie boiler" ?" He said, faking his disbelief.
Kilio then took a stance Mzingo hasn't seen he do before, "Well that cub grew up."
Mzingo could see it, she has grown up. Not in the sense of her body developing and her muscle taking finer tones, more of the sense of maturity. And that stance proves it.
"And no, I'm not mad." He said; "But my, Kilio. I never thought you'd be so.... open about that." He said.
Kilio's eyes downcasted as she let out a huff. "And that's been bothering me."
"Why?" Mzingo asked. Kilio looked at him.
Mzingo cleared his throat; "What I mean is, why did you tell her?"
"Is this a test? Like the ones you tried on little me back in the day?" Kilio asked.
Mzingo shook his head. "I mean it, Kilio. Why did you?"
Kilio sighed. "I dunno." She said; "I just thought..... I don't even know anymore."
"I just thought that maybe..... I got this feeling that she isn't like how Janja says she is. And she seems to actually care and I guess that got me to open up." Kilio hanged her head in defeat. "I know, that was stupid of me."
Mzingo knew this side of Kilio, the side of her that's pretty much says she's still in need of guidance, guidance Janja can't really provide given how he is and how young too he's still.
Gently, Mzingo used one if his wings to lift Kilio's head up and kept his wing under her head to keep her from hanging it again.
"What are you doing?" Kilio asked, finally lifting her head on her own.
"There, that's better." He said, "You're still a cub, Kilio. I don't blame you for wanting to interact with someone your age."
He then leaned closer and whispered to her ear; "Even Janja would've gone a little coo-coo without those furballs by his side." This caused Kilio to giggle.
"Nah, Janja would've been fine. He is tough isn't he?" She said.
Mzingo shook his head. "Oh I'm serious, Kilio." He said; "He wasn't a good listener to Shenzi and when he snuck out of the volcano to play he found those two."
"Shenzi?" Kilio said questionably, tilting her head slightly to the left.
"I can't tell you, it's not really my place." Mzingo said, before he went back to the elephant in the room. "But Kilio, you can't let Janja know about this, he may be your brother but there are simply things siblings cannot share."
"I understand that." She said.
"Good, now off you go, you don't want Janja thinking you've ran off again." He said in a fairly dismissive tone. "And remember, not a word."
He turned around and was about to take off until Kilio called him.
"Mzingo," Kilio said, he turned around and saw a small smile on her face. "Thanks."
Mzingo returned the smile, "It's no problem." And took off.
