Ok so here is the next chapter Friends Forever to all those reading again I'm sorry for not getting back to this sooner. I do hope that you'll continue to read my chapters as I put them on here also please check the war of kings OC thread I made to see the new characters added in this chapter.
Chapter 11: (marafiki milele) Friends Forever
The sun rose on a clear day hitting the dew on the grassy plains making its light shine in all different directions. Kopa was woken up by the sound of Tojo’s blue birds chirping as they flew into the den and onto his mane. The loud chirping that they made waking him up as he slowly got up that night was one of the few that he hadn’t woken up in a cold sweat because of his nightmares. Kopa walked out of the den seeing the sun shining over the savannah, it brought back memories of the days when he was a cub and he would get up early in the morning and sit up atop Pride Rock with his father. Kopa decided to take Tojo’s advice and head towards the rising sun to see this supposed lion that he would know. The tall grass felt good on his fur as he watched the animals running through the plains but keeping an eye on him. It wasn’t long until he saw a lion that must have been the King of the other pride. The lion ahead of him he was a light gold with a light tan color as well only to be offset by his dark brown mane. The lion was sitting at one of the many watering holes in this part of the savannah getting a drink of water as Kopa started walking towards him. Once the lion caught Kopa’s scent he was instantly up and ready for a fight but once he saw Kopa he relaxed. Kopa looked at the lion and couldn’t place him he seemed so familiar but he couldn’t think of where or when he could’ve seen him. “Kopa is that you?” The Lion asked causing Kopa to give him a puzzled look, “Kopa it’s me Mheetu, your mothers little brother.”
Kopa’s eyes lit up with excitement at what the lion said, he could tell he was telling the truth but he couldn’t believe it the fact that he met both his father’s old friend and his uncle was amazing. Kopa ran up to Mheetu bumping their heads together. Kopa jumped around Mheetu his excitement couldn’t be contained at all, it was something wonderful to see his old friend and uncle who he had spent most of his time with until he left on his own to start his own pride. The air blew through his mane as he made a few more rounds before coming to an abrupt halt in front of Mheetu when he noticed tears in his uncles eyes “Mheetu why are you crying that’s not like you at all.” Kopa gave a concerned look but also a smile to try and cheer Mheetu up.
Mheetu used his paw to wipe the tears from his eyes, “It’s just that you’re back from the dead Kopa everyone thought Zira had killed you but yet here you stand before me.” Mheetu slowly walked around his nephew a few times giving him a slight nudge on his right shoulder. “Look at you, man you sure did grow up and from the looks you got stronger too. If only your mother could see you now I doubt she would know what to say or do except cry her eyes out.”
Kopa’s joy instantly turned to despair, looking down at the grass as it swayed in the wind he was getting closer and closer to getting home but it still seemed so far away. He also knew that proving to his parents that it was him would be hard and that the ascension of the throne would be called into question. Kopa dug his claws into the grass “I’m excited to go home but I’m not sure how things will go. The last thing that I want to do is to cause a rift between us all so soon after me returning home.”
Mheetu placed his paw on Kopa’s shoulder easing some of the burden that he was having “Kopa you’re reading too much into this. They’re our family Kopa they won’t care about anything other than the fact that you’re alive and with them again.” Mheetu kept his paw on his shoulder and stood next to Kopa putting him in a head lock and messing his mane up. “Besides you guys will be spending too much time catching up to cause something like that to happen trust me.” Once Kopa had wiggled his way out of the head lock he calmly fixed his mane while being stared at by Mheetu. They both burst out into laughter tears of joy and laughter flowed from Mheetu’s eyes. “Come on Kopa spend some time with me and my family.” Mheetu motioned in the direction he’d come from his three birds flying ahead of him.
Kopa was taken aback he had forgotten how much older Mheetu was than him and was probably the leader of a big pack of lions already. He smiled thinking back to when Mheetu first left the pride to go out on his own. The heartache Kopa felt was almost that of what his mother probably was feeling since she had pretty much taken care of him since he was a little cub. He smiled as they continued walking through the grassy plains of this open savannah, the cool wind hitting Kopa’s face made him think of home when he would spend time just sitting on ride rock with Vitani watching the clouds roll by. He wondered if Vitani still lived at home. He didn’t know what became of her, all he knew was she must have been in terrible pain when he didn’t show up the next day. Mheetu could see the pain in Kopa’s eyes and gave him a light shove while they walked through the grassy plains. They arrived at a large rock formation and outside were some lionesses laying in the afternoon sun a few cubs ran around playing tag making Kopa smile. Out of the group walked a lioness with a dark red coat of fur with brown on her belly and paws. “Kopa this is my mate Furaha she’s quite the mother and queen of my pride.”
Kopa bowed eliciting a look of shock from Furaha “Please Kopa there’s no need to stand on such formal grounds. You are Mheetu’s friend and family so please treat me like you would treat anyone in your family.” Furaha smiled back watching Kopa rise with a smile. Out of the shadows of the cave came another lioness this one smaller about half the size of Furaha but looking just like Mheetu. “Oh yes Kopa this is our daughter Hatia. Hatia this is your father’s best friend and nephew Kopa.” Kopa smiled as Mheetu walked over joining his family sitting down next to his daughter. His daughter on the other paw was staring at Kopa studying him as she tilted her head from side to side, it was starting to give him the creeps.
“What?”
“Dad is this really Kopa? From what you’ve told me about him he seemed like he should be cooler.” Kopa raised an eyebrow at her comment before hearing a little whip as Mheetu smacked her ear with his paw. “Ow daddy why’d you do that?”
“This is my friend and your family so behave yourself.”
“I was just making an observation dad; I mean he really doesn’t look like much.” Kopa’s head dropped in depression.
“Ow.”
“That’s enough Hatia go back inside and I’ll expect to see a little more respect from you when we come in.” Mheetu barked making sure his daughter went back inside the cave. “Sorry about that teens you know how they get.” Mheetu rubbed the back of his head with his left paw before hearing Kopa burst out in laughter.
“Man Mheetu you’ve changed since I saw you last when I was a cub you were all like I’m never going to have to discipline my kids I just want them to have fun like you guys and now look scolding her it’s too funny.”
Mheetu gave an ironic and grumpy look to Kopa who was now rolling on the ground. Mheetu blushed a bit when he saw Furaha chuckling a bit now at the thought of it “Come on Kopa lets go inside where you can explain everything to us.” Mheetu motioned towards the cave. Kopa slowly got back up one paw on his stomach trying to control his laughter before following them inside. He wasn’t going to like explaining this it was part of his life that was filled with pain and suffering but he had to get it out and let his story be heard. As Kopa walked into the cave his mind drifted back to his brother Toko he did leave him with Tojo but he didn’t really seem to mind, he wondered what kind of trouble his brother was getting into now.
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Toko woke up with a crick in his neck rotating his head until he heard the crack that he wanted before stepping out into the morning sun. The bright rays of the morning sun hurt his eyes as he stepped out of the den. The grass blowing in the breeze while he took a deep breath of the savannah air, looking around not seeing Kopa he came to the conclusion that he’d been left behind. Toko let out a sigh and slumped down in the grass. He didn’t know Tojo or the others really well for now he was just content with just lying in the warm sun.
“Hey you look lonely want some company?” Toko looked up and behind him to see Uzuri standing behind him wearing a sweet smile. “We might not know each other very well yet but that doesn’t mean that we can’t start right now.”
Toko smiled back “Yeah I like that idea a lot Uzuri. So what would you want to do or talk about?”
“Well did you and Kopa ever do anything fun and exciting?”
“Not really other than the time that we beat out a full grown leopard but other than that we just wrestled a lot.”
“Hmm that’s a little on the boring side how about we do something fun…” Uzuri’s eyes lit up with excitement “How about we go tip some Rhino’s.” she giggled.
Toko gave her the strangest look “Uh but isn’t that dangerous I mean we could get hurt or worse die?”
“Oh come on you’re on an adventure with Kopa and you’re probably too scared to have fun anyway.”
“Oh yeah I’ll show you who’s gonna have the most fun between us.” Toko stood up grinning cheekily as he followed Uzuri into the savannah. He didn’t understand it but there was something about her that made him feel all funny inside. Regardless of what he was feeling he was still curious to what she meant and why she wasn’t like this around her parents. The walk wasn’t long at all as they reached a lower part of the plains dirt was all that covered this area from the constant walking by the rhino’s. Toko looked around and he could see a whole heard of rhino sleeping still even though the sun was rising over the plains.
“Come on Toko it’s easy they’re so out of it they don’t even notice it until I’ve already gotten one.” Uzuri could see the confusion on Toko’s face when they got right next to one of the rhino’s. “All you do is put your paws on their side and rock them a bit and then give them a good push and they fall over it’s so funny.” Uzuri put her paws on the side of one of the rhino’s and started rocking it back and forth before putting all of her strength into one push. Toko’s jaw dropped as the rhino leaned heavily to one side and dropped to the ground without even waking up with a loud thud. Both of them burst out into laughter and before long Toko was joining in on the fun tipping one rhino over before heading to the next.
“Man I didn’t know you could have fun like this, why don’t you do this more often?”
“I only do this when I need to blow off steam when dad has me do something that is boring concerning the pride. It makes me feel like I’m a cub again without a care in the world.” Both of them continued pushing rhino’s until it happened one of the horns stuck another rhino waking him up with a howl on surprise waking the rest of the herd up. Toko and Uzuri stood motionless as all of the rhinos were now staring at them including the ones they had tipped over which were now standing up.
Toko slowly leaned to Uzuri “Maybe if we don’t move they won’t notice us standing here and go back to sleep.” Uzuri just face pawed. The leader of the herd roared and both Toko and Uzuri screamed and took off running followed by the herd of very angry rhino. They bobbed and weaved through the trees which were easily knocked down as multiple rhinos ran through them. They ran as fast as they could and thankfully were able to lose them as the grass got taller. Both panting heavily as they took a minute to catch their breath. They took a moment and looked at each other and for some reason couldn’t take their eyes off of each other. Uzuri could feel her heart pounding inside her chest never in her life had she felt something like this. Neither of them move for a while it was like they were staring into the deepest part of their souls and learning everything about each other. Toko put one of his paws on Uzuri’s as they put their heads together. It wasn’t long before the two of them were walking through the savannah close together they would nuzzle every now and then. This was something new for both of them and they didn’t want to mess it up but they both felt that this was something that could survive anything. Toko noticed a tree looking over a large hill that seemed like it would be the perfect place for them to relax. Climbing up the hill was another matter it was steep and rocky and while he was sliding a little bit it wasn’t hard for him to keep his footing nor was it hard for Uzuri. It wasn’t until nearing the top that Uzuri slipped when she stepped on a rock screaming feeling like she was going to slide all the way back down. “You can stop screaming now Uzuri.” Toko laughed seeing her open her eyes to the sight of Toko holding onto her paw with his. He pulled her up until she was on the top with him, both of them laying down under the shade of the tree and looking over the savannah. The view was something indescribable. They could see far into the distance even where the land started to turn to dessert, both of them just laid there watching the animals of the savannah move and go about their lives.
Suddenly Toko felt a lump form in his throat and looking down he could see Uzuri’s paw resting on top of his. He looked up at Uzuri and smiled and placed his forehead against hers both of them closing their eyes and enjoying their embrace. Toko would be fine if Kopa didn’t come back, he was just fine with staying here it was peaceful and he could be with Uzuri all the time. Toko nuzzled Uzuri softly before she stood up letting out a sigh “Come on Toko we should get back there are things I need to take care of and if dad finds out I’m gone he’ll have a hippo.” Both of them slid down the hill and made their way back towards the den staying close together. It wasn’t long before they both arrived back at the den to be met by Uzuri’s parents.
“Well did you two have a good time together this morning?” Siri asked giving Uzuri a sly smile. Uzuri just blushed as she followed her mother into the den and got her tasks for the day from Tojo. Toko spent the rest of the day with Uzuri helping her with the issues of the herds and any other problems that seemed to pop up. While he was helping her with the herds when he had time he told her about what life was like back home and was surprised at how much she comforted him about the bad things that happened. Once all of her tasks were done they spent the rest of their free time just lying out in the sun together. Toko was lying on his stomach and he could feel Uzuri’s head resting on his side as she slept. Toko really enjoyed it here he had always thought about leaving and finding a place he could call his own and this place was perfect, plus it had Uzuri here which was a definite plus. Uzuri woke up to the site of the setting sun shocked that she had slept the day away but was happy to see Kopa walking back towards the den. She got up and shook waking Toko up in the process she just smiled as she headed back into the den to get Tojo and Siri but not before running her tail under Toko’s chin.
“Hey Toko had a good time while I was away?”
Toko looked back as Uzuri smiled walking into the den before looking back at Kopa “Yeah you could say that.” Toko chuckled at the confused look on his brothers face.
“Well I guess if you had a good time that’s all that matters but we’re leaving.”
“What right now!?” Toko questioned in shock.
“Yeah I want to make it home by the mornings rise and if we run through the night we’ll just make it.”
“Oh you’re leaving then without saying goodbye that’s not like you Kopa.” Tojo remarked stepping out of the den with Siri and Uzuri. “But if you must go then we can’t stop you but we do wish you a safe journey home Kopa.” Tojo smiled as Uzuri and Siri nuzzled against him wishing him well and hoping to see him soon. With some final words and a long loving nuzzle shared between Uzuri and Toko the two brothers were off there next destination the Pride Lands and Kopa’s family.
“So Toko I didn’t interrupt anything personal between you and Uzuri did I?” Kopa started laughing when he heard Toko stumble at his question. Kopa quickly regained his composure his gaze on the setting red sky his mind set on seeing his family but more importantly his one true love again if she remained.
Authors note: Most of my time will be spent writing here the next few days since the next chapter is the reunion chapter so expect this one to be a big one.