King

5 - Sectrets

The next day, things were different. Not only Fuli was constantly wondering and worried for Kion, but the animals of each Kingdom were becoming increasingly curious too.

"Umm, Taji..." The teen cheetah asked. She had gone up to the Royal chambers in the morning to speak with the tiger. Earlier, she had awoken by the river and soon remembered her late night hunt for her best friend, and before the Guard and most other animals had woken up too, she went to talk to her new striped colleague.

"Taji...?" She asked again, walking deeper inside the cave. Compared to the other ruler's caves, like Mbio and Sokwe, the tiger's cave was smaller, but a lot greener. The dark place was littered with moss, grass, flowers and lots of vines.

"Taji!?" Fuli asked one more time, now angered at the lack of response. She could see the orange and black tiger from the entrance to the cavern, and after the last, slightly aggressive call, the predator began to stir. She rolled over so she could see the pinkish light from the early morning sun, and a silhouette of a slender looking feline. Her eyes adjusted and smiled, finally recognising the colleague.

"Hmm... Fuli! Why'd you have to wake me up?" She complained like a sister.

"I'm worried... Kion's been gone for a couple days now. I tried looking for him but it's no use!" The cheetah said.

Taji smiled and giggled quickly, placing her two front paws in front of her head and picked herself up. "Don't you worry. Kion's just fine." She spoke in two very short and uninteresting sentences, still bothered by her waking.

"How can you be so sure?"

Taji rubbed her eyes with the back of her paws and stretched. "Let's take a walk..."

The two wondered into the grassy plains, next to each other, still with groggy eyes. As they walked, other animals started waking up and collected at the watering holes for a much needed morning drink, and this was the same for the pair of significant felines.

"You see Fuli," the tiger started as they neared the main lake, with groups of antelopes, wildebeest, even selections of emu and wild boars dotted around the coast. "Kion is King now. He has been for some time, so he has lots of routine responsibilities he is expected to perform."

"Okay..."

"Once a month, Kion disappears for a couple days, nobody knows where he goes or what he does. Even I, a dear and close friend to the lion does not know where he goes."

"Well, why don't you ask him?"

"I do. But he just ignores the questions, acts serious and bleak whenever we bring the subject up." They chatted and stopped when they got to the water. They both dipped their muzzles down and drank for a silent minute, then lay down.

"Overtime, we just gave up. We started expecting him to leave, and thought nothing more of it."

The cheetah thought for a moment. "So he just leaves without telling anyone?"

Taji nodded.

"That's weird."

She nodded again. "Since he left a couple days ago, he will probably be back tomorrow. If you could hang out with the Guard and keep things under control for the day, maybe us two can hang out more later." The predator winked.

Fuli flinched and took another drink from the coast of the lake. She then brought her head up and thought for a bit, eventually looking back at the tiger. "Is it just gonna be us, or others as well?" She probed.

Taji giggled, "I might bring a few of my friends, who's to know?" She teased.

Fuli awkwardly looked at the ground with wide eyes, not ever wanting to socialise in a group of strangers, only knowing one other animal. "Taji- I'm really not comfortable in groups! Could it just be us?"