The Upendi Day Celebration

Sunset over the Pridelands

"Kion! There's one coming right towards you!"

The Egret yelled out to Kion, who was standing in the flowing waters of the Maji Safi river. The Lion Cub saw the tuna fish that Ono had spotted out swimming towards him and he immediately unsheathed his claws. With one swipe of his paw, Kion threw the fish across the river before it landed on the embankment.

"Well, that's one down… and 49 more to go," Kion sighed as he watched the fish flopped around on the ground and gasping for air before eventually lying motionless. He felt uncomfortable with what he saw, but he reasoned with himself that it was all part of the Circle of Life. But then again, Kion felt that catching 50 pieces of tuna and turning them into a gift seemed rather selfish.

"Ono, I'm starting to have second thoughts about all this," Kion called out to the Egret, who was still flying above him. "Do you really think I should go ahead and fish out 50 pieces of tuna just for Fuli?"

Ono swooped down towards Kion and perched himself on his back. He was somewhat relieved that Kion was starting to have doubts about following Mwongo's idea, but he didn't want to dishearten his friend either.

"Well err… 50 tuna fish does seem rather um… excessive, Kion, but err… I'm sure you will make the right decision, like you always do!" Ono replied, trying to sound encouraging to his friend.

Kion looked at Ono and then looked at the river where he could see several species of fish swimming freely in the water.

"Well, you might be right. 50 pieces of fish does seem a bit too much," he considered, as he observed several trout fish swim past his paws. "I guess we'll just catch twenty pieces of tuna first."

"Yeah, that sounds like a better idea," Ono happily agreed as he took off to the sky to continue spotting for tuna. "Kion, there's two tuna fish swimming your way now!"

Kion proceeded to pounce on the fish and toss them aside onto the embankment with the other fish while Ono continued to spot for any more tuna fish that were headed towards Kion. Little did they know, that a pair of eyes was silently and stealthily observing them at work from behind a nearby bush…

As the hours passed by, the sapphire afternoon sky slowly turned a bright amber as dusk was making its arrival. Kion swiped his paw and threw a tuna fish towards the embankment in the pile with the other 13 pieces of tuna that he had caught. He sighed in exhaustion as he eyed the fish before turning his attention towards the evening sky.

"Hevi Kebisa. I've spent the last three hours in this freezing river and we only managed to catch 14 pieces of fish?" Kion commented as he started shivering from being so long in the cold river.

"Well, it looks like we definitely won't be following Mwongo's plan and catch 50 pieces of tuna today," Ono replied while he was still up in the air. "Should we make do with only 14 fish?"

Kion shook his head. "No, let's try to make it 15. Ono, do you see any more tuna in the river?"

Ono used his ability as the keenest of sight to search the river. All he could see were several trout and some sturgeon fish, but he couldn't find any tuna headed towards Kion. "Negative! I don't see any more tuna fish in there. I think you've caught them all, Kion!"

Kion frowned. He was still persistent in reaching his target of catching 15 pieces of tuna.

"I don't think so, Ono. I think we just need to look at a different part of the river," Kion suggested as he made his way across the water and towards the embankment. "Come on, let's head upstream."

Ono sighed as he watched Kion dry himself before the Lion cub walking ahead. "Right behind you, Kion."

They both walked ahead upstream for fifteen minutes until Kion finally stopped at went to the river's edge. "Ok, I think this is far enough. Ono, do you see any tuna?"