New Angles

Episode Eighteen: Journey To The Pridelands

~Episode nineteen: Journey To The Pridelands~

(before the events of the episode; Jasiri and Janja meeting Azaad)

"Alright.. so.. where to now?" Janja wondered. "This place is awful strange, if you ask me.

"You're not scared,.. are you, Janja?" Jasiri smirked.

"Who me?! No! I'm just.. -I don't know, that last moja kwa moja stone didn't exactly make sense, and.. um.. Where exactly is the next one?" He mentioned, indicating their location amongst the rocky canyons and tunnels of the dusty, dry rockland. "How can't we even see where it is, in this crazy maze!"

"Hm.. now that you mention it.." Jasiri began to realize, as her eyes turned up and her ears laid back.

"Who goes there!?" Rumbled a voice in the silence, which made Janja jump and whine; cowering against Jasiri from behind. The new queen of the Outlands growled and took on defensive prowl, peering with sharp eyes amongst their surroundings.

"Who said that?!" Jasiri demanded. Silence only returned.

"We're just passing through!" Jasiri called out again. "We're looking for our friends,.. They were headed to the Tree of Life!" Suddenly catching motion to her right, her head shot over to it to find a proud looking cheetah emerge from the rocks to stand over them; with only a slightly judgemental stance which changed with his curious expression..

"Do they.. happen to be a group of different animals?" The strange cheetah quizzed, with the arch of an eyebrow.

"Yes.." Jasiri answered lightly, a bit taken aback by this too; their guard's falling a little as she stepped over to face him, and so Janja could now stand on his own again.

"..Led by a lion, with a scar?" The cheetah quizzed further. "All of them bearing a lion's head on their shoulders?"

"Yes!" Jasiri gasped. "Do you know where they went from here?" Azaad hopped down from his perch to stand on their level. When he approached them, they backed down a little, but not necessarily in fear.

"My name is Azaad.. and your friends?.. Are that way.." He said, turning his head back to the path behind him on his right.

"Can you take us to them?" Jasiri asked him hopefully. "I think we may have gotten lost out here, and.. have no way to know where to go from here. It's important that we find them as soon as possible."

"Hm,.. then I suppose we must get going." Azaad decided, turning to glide away a few strides; doubling back to his left. He then stopped to look back at them.

"And it just so happens.." He continued. "That I have an even faster way to get there from here. Follow me!" And Jasiri shot Janja a humorous smile, who straightened up a bit from his cowering in a bit of confused uncertainty.

"Uh..hey, what for us!" Janja called as he took off running after the cheetah through the dusty rock paths; Jasiri right behind him.

xxxx

"So.. why is it that you are in such a hurry.. to find your friends?" Azaad felt inclined to ask, when they had finally caught up with him, running at a pace they could barely keep up with.

"It's.. about some trouble back where we live.." Jasiri explained, already panting from all the running. "Our friends were sent out here to find the Tree of Life for their leader, Kion, who was injured in a battle against our greatest enemies for our homelands. But now.. some other members of their evil leader have returned.. to finish what they started. And.. that's why we need to find our friends. We need their help to stop them. When we left home they were planning to attack their homeland, the Pridelands, when we left our home, the Outlands, to come find them."