The Lion Guard: The Northern Crocodile

Chapter 37

After a few hours, the jungle began to thin until Kiburi and Makuu reached a wide, open area with cliffs outlined in the distance. By now, the gorge has disappeared, the only remnant of it in the area being the giant hole that it carved in the earth over a very long period of time. Kiburi thought about going down to investigate the hole, but immediately changed his mind when something caught his and Makuu's attention.

"Makuu, did you hear that?" Kiburi asked.

"That should be obvious," Makuu replied.

"I think it came from over by those cliffs."

"Is it just me, or did it sound a little like an echo?"

"They must be down in a canyon or something like that."

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Without the need for further discussion, Kiburi and Makuu left the confines of the jungle and rushed over to the barren ledge that lined the side of the canyon. Out of curiosity, Kiburi looked over the edge to see how far the drop was. From his vantage point, he could easily tell that a fall off of this cliff would be deadly. It was steep and gritty, with even the slightest disturbance, such as Kiburi's claws lightly tearing at the ground, sending a small avalanche of dirt and loose rock down the slope. Kiburi realized that being on this ledge wasn't all that safe if even the slightest movement of his claws was enough to disturb the ground beneath him, so he decided to move away before something bad happened. Unfortunately, he underestimated the stability of the ground that he was walking on, and when he tried to back away from the ledge, it gave way under him. Kiburi thought he would follow the rubble down the slope, but was spared the trip when something grabbed his tail and prevented him from falling. He hung in place for a few seconds before he felt himself being dragged backwards until he was on safe ground once again.

"Kiburi, are you okay?" Makuu asked.

"Could be better," Kiburi breathed. "And I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I'm glad that you came along, Makuu."

"Is a 'thanks for saving my life' too much to ask for?"

"Don't push your luck. You may have saved me from falling to my death, but I still pretty much hate your guts."

"And there's the answer that I was expecting. If it's any consolation, Kiburi, I feel the exact same way about you."

"Really? If that's how you feel, then why have you been so nice to me recently?"

Makuu didn't say anything. He kept opening and closing his jaws, but couldn't form any words, and so just kept his jaws shut. Makuu's indecisiveness surprised Kiburi, but he didn't linger on the strange behavior for too long. He knew that pushing Makuu for answers would only waste the amount of time that they have to find Tuma before who knows what happens.

"I guess we can hold off on that until after we finish our objective," Kiburi suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds like a better plan," Makuu agreed, breathing a sigh of relief.

Kiburi rose to his feet and followed Makuu as they searched for a safer way down to the canyons. After a few minutes of scouting, they found a rocky ledge that formed a narrow and steep yet somewhat climbable path. Seeing no other way down, the crocodiles swallow their fear of heights and make their way down to the bottom as quickly yet carefully as possible.

Once they were back on solid ground, they tried to pinpoint the origin of the sounds while they caught their breaths. However, finding out where the sounds were coming from was easier said than done, since there were multiple paths that the crocodiles could take. Kiburi and Makuu didn't want to guess and risk getting lost, so they stayed quiet and really focused on the sounds. After a while, it became clear to them which sounds were echos, and which ones weren't. The ones that sounded less like actual echos came from a passageway off to the far left.