The Upendi Day Celebration

Fuli's Past

"Fuli! Hold up!" Kion shouted after Fuli as the Cheetah slowly disappeared ahead of him from his sight.

After running for several hundred yards, Kion finally drained up all his energy to run after Fuli and was forced to rest on the ground and catch his breath.

Ugh. Why can't Fuli be born as a tortoise instead of a Cheetah? Kion rhetorically grumbled to himself as he panted heavily out of exhaustion.

Eventually deciding that he had rested long enough, Kion got off from the ground and walked ahead. He took a deep breath and instantly caught a whiff of a sweet-smelling scent that was lurking around in the air. He smiled as he instantly recognised it as Fuli's scent and decided it was time to use his tracking skills to locate his Cheetah friend.

Kion kept his nose close to the ground as he followed the trail of Fuli's scent. He knew that he had to move quickly or the scent will dissipate in the air andmake it harder for him to track Fuli down. The scent trail led him towards the outskirts of the Pridelands, where the wide, dusty land was dry and bare, with the exception of several withering trees scattered around the godforsaken land. The whole area reminded Kion of the Outlands, and he was now starting to question himself whether he was still within Pridelands territory or not.

This was a part of the Pridelands that he had certainly never been before, and he was sure the same could be said for the other members of the Lion Guard. He now wondered why Fuli had ran off towards an unfamiliar territory. Seeing how the area closely resembled the Outlands, Kion's instincts were on full alert for any possibility of an attack while he navigated around the dusty tracks.

After several minutes of tracking in the foreign territory, Kion realized that Fuli's scent had gotten stronger, indicating that she was not far away from him. He looked up to scan the area and could almost instantly make out a slender, yellow figure resting on a slab of rock several hundred meters ahead of him. Kion let out a sigh of relief when he saw Fuli resting on the rock and immediately picked up his pace as he approached her from behind.

"Fuli?"

Fuli gasped and turned her head when she heard Kion softly called her as he sat himself on the rock next to her.

"Hi Kion…" Fuli replied half-heartedly and tried to look away from her friend.

Kion instantly noticed the fur around Fuli's eyes were damp and realised that she had been crying. "Fuli? Are you okay? Why'd you run off all the way out here?"

The young Cheetah wiped away a tear before patting on a particular spot on the rock near Kion's paw. That was when Kion noticed a distinctive claw mark was embedded on the particular spot that Fuli pointed out.

"This flat piece of rock was where my Mom gave birth to me," Fuli answered him in a shaky voice.

Kion's jaw instantly dropped when she said this. "Wait. This was where you were born?" he asked in surprise.

Fuli slowly nodded and managed to lift a tiny smile. "This area was where I lived when my parents were around. Some of the best memories I've had were made here."

She then pointed over to a small, bare hill a few meters away from where they sat.

"See that hill over there? It used to be covered with all sorts of wildflowers. When I was a few months old, my dad would bring me up the hill and then we would tumble down the hill all day and just have a really great time together," she reminisced with a small laugh that even Kion couldn't help but smile along.

"I guess rolling down Maua Hill kinda brought up those memories again, huh?" he chuckled while giving Fuli a friendly nudge.

"Haha. Yeah, I guess it did," Fuli replied with a smile as she relived her fond memories with her parents.