[PRIVATE: AustralianChaos & TheWhistlerify]

[TheWhistlerify]

Marini always felt the need to again ask why Tanga was acting the way he was, but she pushed it aside the moment it came to her mind. At least he seemed a little better than he was yesterday, which was a relief to her already. She hoped that Tanga would decide to explain himself at one point or another, because she knew that she wouldn't be able to hold her curious side back forever, and she didn't want to end up demanding answers. Hopefully he would feel ready before she became impatient.

As Tanga suggested they went to explore the forest, the subject immediately disappeared from Marini's mind and the more energetic side of her came back. "Sounds like a great idea." she said with a smile, her usual excitement showing itself in her tone and her body language. Now that she was thinking, she was quite surprised that Nala and Simba hadn't gone there themselves yet, considering that they were the more energetic and adventurous of the four cubs. But now she and Tanga would be the ones to go there first, which made her twice as eager to get going. "Come on, let's go!" she said, turning and walking in the direction of the forest and waiting for Tanga to join her.

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga smiled as Marini jumped at the chance to explore a new area, quickly falling into step beside her, letting the wing in his face and the grass brushing his belly help him forget his troubles. It wasn't exactly like old times for them...but it was very close, his shyness only occasionally butting in, although he did manage to supress it rather well for most of the morning.

As they entered the trees, a new distraction was provided as Tanga looked around, smiling at all the greenery...he definitely liked this place. "I've never seen anything like it before...I guess this is what the lionesses meant when they were talking about a jungle, huh?" he said, clearly eager to see more. "There's so much to explore here, we'll be all grown up before we finish with this place!"

[TheWhistlerify]

Marini's eyes widened and a smile climbed onto her face as they entered the forest. She thought that the view from the top of Pride Rock was amazing, but upon seeing this the word amazing earned a new definition. "Look at this place!" she said, trying to look at everything at once and walking in circles for a few moments. The forest sure was bigger now that they were in it compared to when they looked at it from the bottom of Pride Rock.

But this was just the entrance to the forest, which meant in Marini's point of view that the deeper they went the cooler the place would get. She looked at Tanga, who probably had the same thought, "Let's go deeper!" she said, hopping where she was a few times and then breaking into a run, only to stop after a few meters and run back over to Tanga, "Come on!" she said, holding back from grabbing his ear in her mouth and pulling him with her.

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga paused at Marini's very sudden, very extreme excitement, before smiling and chasing after her, running ever deeper into the jungle. "This place is so cool! Why haven't we bothered to come here before?" he asked, wondering why they avoided such an awesome place for so long. Shrugging in the end, he kept following Rini as they went deeper into the forest...unknowingly heading right for danger.

Tanga first became aware of it when he spotted what he thought was a flash of movement in the trees besides them. But by the time he turned to look, it was gone. Passing it off as a bird or monkey, he shrugged and kept chasing down his friend, only to turn as the shadow appeared again, paling as he realised what it was...

"RINI!" he cried, all shyness forgotten as he pounced, slamming into her and pushing her aside...just as a massive shape leapt at them, missing them both by millimeters, Tanga's tail actually hitting the shape as it sped past...a tiger. The massive mass of orange and black fur stumbled away from them for a moment, caught off-guard by Tanga's quick thinking. But his desperate leap had caused him to send them both crashing to the ground, struggling to get up as the tiger whirled around, growling threateningly at them. "Run...RUN!!!" Tanga yelled, hauling himself to his paws and trying to help Marini, knowing they were in big, big trouble...this tiger clearly was not happy to see them.

[TheWhistlerify]

Marini ran and ran with Tanga by her side. She was clearly pleased by the fact that things seemed to be back to normal, even if it was just because of the excitement they both shared at the moment. She was so busy in her own excitement that she didn't even notice the leaping tiger, who was literally right in front her. Luckily for her Tanga was paying more attention to their surroundings, and pushed them both out of the way less than a second before the tiger passed them.

In fact she was so not paying attention, that at first she frowned and looked at Tanga in the corner of her eye, thinking that he was just messing with her. But then she heard the tiger's growl, which did not at all sound like Tanga's growl whenever he tricked her to gain advantage in a playful wrestle. She quickly got to her feet but was rather frozen by the massive shape of the tiger. Despite Tanga yelling at her to run, she was unable to do anything beside staring at the tiger with horror.

[AustralianChaos]

"Rini, what are you doing?" Tanga cried, giving her a shove, practically pushing her away as the tiger advanced on them menacingly, still growling. "Do you want to get eaten?! Come on, let's go!" But she still seemed to be frozen in place, and as the tiger got close, it's paw raised and ready to strike, Tanga swallowed nervously, and did the craziest thing he had ever done in his life...he attacked.

The tiger might have been several times his size, but Tanga still had a set of claws, and as he charged forward, he quickly swiped a paw across one the foreleg the tiger still had on the ground, before rushing under the beast's belly and out of the way, the tiger's deadly swipe hitting nothing but air, before it yelped at the scratch, backing off a few pawsteps in sheer shock at Tanga's foolish move.

Hurrying back to Marini's side, Tanga gave her another shove. "Rini, come on! We have to get outta here!" he yelled, hoping they could capitalise on the few seconds Tanga's brazen move seemed to have bought them...the tiger was already recovering fast and getting ready to hunt them down again. "Please, Rini, just run!"

[TheWhistlerify]

Marini continued staring at the tiger, her body frozen and filled with fear. She snapped out of it when she suddenly saw the last thing she expected; Tanga attacking the tiger. "Tanga!" she yelled, obviously shocked and worried about her friend. To her very small relief, Tanga came back from underneath the tiger without a scratch on him, but the tiger was still there, and Tanga's small claws probably wouldn't affect the tiger's large paw for long, if at all.

This time she heard Tanga yelling and telling her to run, and she didn't have any intention to stay there and wait for the tiger to attempt to strike at them again. She looked at her friend, who was obviously as horrified as she was. She gave him a slight nod telling him that she was okay now and was ready to make a run for it. Turning around, she and Tanga broke into a run. While they were rather fast runners for cubs, the tiger was not a cub. He was bigger, and therefor had bigger legs, stronger muscles and more endurance than both of them together. He could obviously run faster and for longer periods of time.

Marini ran and ran, not looking around her at all beside a few checks every once in a few seconds to make sure that Tanga was still next to her and not falling behind. She knew they couldn't run forever and she did not want to end up as a tiger's meal, but other than running, there wasn't much they could do. Suddenly something caught Marini's eyes, it was a small hill, and at the bottom of it was a tunnel that was large enough for them to run through, but small enough to keep the tiger out. "This way!" she yelled, running slightly ahead of Tanga so that he could follow her just in case he hadn't noticed where she was aiming for them to run to.

Despite not looking back at the tiger, she could hear that he was drawing close. Feeling as if she and Tanga were the luckiest beings in the world, the two cubs entered the small tunnel and didn't stop running until they were some good meters away from the exit. The tiger was probably even angrier now, but at least he couldn't reach them. Marini collapsed to the ground, trying to catch her breath and calm herself down. After a few moments, she looked at Tanga, ignoring the fact that the tiger was still raging outside, "We made it..." she said, barely managing to speak because of how scared she still was.

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga, noticing that Marini had finally snapped out of her shocked daze and was finally starting to run, took off with her, hearing the tiger take charge behind them, relieved to note that his attack earlier left the tiger with a distinct limp, making it unable to run as fast as it normally could. But it was still much faster and stronger than either of them, and Tanga was worried they still might not make it.

When Marini found the tunnel, he instantly followed after her, hearing the tiger growling and grunting behind them, putting in one last surge of speed as he heard in pounce...before the darkness of the cave surrounded him, Tanga actually feeling the wind of the tiger's leap buffet his tail as he heard it scrambling around the tunnel entrance, trying to get in. They'd made it...they were safe and alive.

Turning to Marini, panting hard from the exertion of the chase, he managed an exhausted nod at her words. "I don't believe it...but what was that thing? I've never seen anything like it before, it was huge! And what's it doing in the Pridelands?" he asked, looking back at the creature as it clawed viciously at the tunnel, trying to widen it enough to fit in and chase them down, clearly not about to give up for a while.

[TheWhistlerify]

Marini could also see the tiger clawing at the entrance at the tunnel, but to no avail. The hill they had just entered was made of solid rock, and even days or weeks of the tiger scratching at the rock wont help make the entrance wider. The pale-furred cub was still shocked by what had just happened, realizing now that both she and Tanga could have ended up dead. In fact they would have ended dead if it wasn't for Tanga. Not only did his sudden swipe at the tiger's paw made him miss his first strike which was aimed at them both, but it also slowed him down just enough for the two cubs to make it to safety.

Marini went over to her friend and hugged him close, relieved that he wasn't harmed. "I was so scared and worried..." If anything would have happened to him as a result of the way she froze in front of that tiger, she would never forgive herself. "That was so brave of you, and more than that... you saved my life..." she said, finally releasing her friend and pulling away. She looked at her friend for a few moments, before suddenly feeling her heart throbbing faster and her cheeks turning red. Confused, she shifted her gaze from Tanga and looked down at her paws. "Thanks you, Tanga..."

[AustralianChaos]

Taga watched the tiger clawing at the entrance warily, before gasping slightly as he felt Marini hug him close, leaving him blushing as she thanked him profusely, still quite rattled by the experience. "Rini, you're my best friend, I wasn't going to leave you. I couldn't live with myself if I did," he replied, managing to hug her back a little awkwardly, fully aware of how close they were, and his feelings for her.

It was an odd mix of relief and regret that Tanga felt as Marini let him go. "It was nothing, Rini..." he said softly. "I'm just glad we're both okay, even if we're kinda stuck here for now," he added, looking back out at the tiger, who had stopped his useless clawing, and was simply sitting by the cave mouth, watching and waiting for them to reappear.