The Lion Guard Season 5

Chapter 15: The Serval's Den

{Nguvu's POV}
We kept walking but I couldn't get the thoughts of the previous day out of my head. Father... I know I saw him. He shouldn't be alive, he was sent so far away. But he was there, or maybe he was not. Maybe Firi was right and it was just my imagination. But I couldn't get it out of my head. Hope, Firi thought I had hope. Did I need hope? I'm loyal to King Kion, because HE gave me that chance. Whatever he does, I'll always be behind him. Because he gave me the chance to prove I'm someone worth it. So why do I have a problem with Nishan? I don't need his validation when I have somewhere to return to. I don't need their hope, because there will always be that someone who waits for me. Who I hope is still waiting for me.
"Are these the cliffs you spoke of?" Nishan asked
"Yep."
"You were right. They are pretty easy to pump over." I said
"Of course." Firi said "I am a cheetah."
I rolled my eyes "So which way are we going?"
"Northeast." Firi responded, motioning to the direction. "If we continued the path, we'd be en route to the Tree of Life."
"Let's go." Nishan said "We're burning daylight. We should try to be on the other side of these cliffs by nightfall."
"Didn't realize you were the leader." I said sarcastically
"If you want respect boy," He growled
I growled back
"You have to earn it. You can start by respecting me."
"You've given me no reason to respect you."
"The only reason you need is I am elder to you."
"You could say the same about a lot of animals," I retorted "Like the lions who scarred you or my father. You would never respect them."
Nishan just growled, he said nothing else. He walked ahead of us.
"Seriously man," Firi whispered in my ear "What's your deal with that guy?"
"Nishan?" I asked "He's just a jerk."
"Yeah, but you shouldn't entertain him." Firi said "We're going to be traveling for a while."
"So I should try to make friends with the animal who is disregarding me?" I questioned
"Friends, no. Allies, yes."
"Allies?"
"Get him on your good side."
"How? He's a racist prick."
"So show him he's wrong."
"How?"
"I think you're smarter than you let on. You'll figure out how."
I didn't say anything, I let him walk ahead. He's flattering, that's for sure. He's trying to get on my good side, why? He's trying to get into my life, and I don't think it's because he wants to be my friends. The answer is clear, they cannot get too close. They're here because their respective kings ordered them too, but how do I know that's the only reason. My father did that for me my whole life, he kept others away, where they couldn't hurt him. They can't hurt me if they aren't close enough.
"We're going this way?" Nishan asked, drawing my attention back to where we were going. I was so enveloped in my thoughts, I forgot to pay attention to what I'm doing, a fatal mistake.
Firi looked towards the horizon "Yep, we should be able to get across before nightfall. I recommend camping through the night rather than traveling blind."
"We can't waste that time." I said
"Use your brain, boy." Nishan said to me "We are approaching a forest. Animals in a forest at night are more likely to attack you when you walk by."
I growled, but Nishan was right. In a forest, animals are more likely to be threatened by an outsiders presence and attack us.
"Fine." I relented "But we should continue at dawn."
"No," Firi said " We should continue at mid to late morning."
"What?"
"We are going into a forest, and going at dawn means there won't be enough sunlight for us to go through without say falling in a lake." Firi explained
"I hate that that makes sense," I relented "Fine, mid morning."
"That works for me." Firi said like HE didn't suggest it.
We went across the multiple cliffs and we saw the forest in the distance. I tried walking towards the forest but was stopped by Nishan.
"It's dusk," He said "It's time to stop for the night."
"But shouldn't we get to the forest first?" I asked
"No," Firi answered "It's more dangerous in a forest at night. We talked about this." He
"We should make it to the outskirts of the forest," I told him "It would be better than staying by the cliffs which would also be dangerous to be near by at night."
"You are right." Nishan admitted "At least you aren't completely useless."
I rolled my eyes, it's going to be hard to get Nishan to respect me. We made it to the edge of the forest and found a small cave to camp in. Firi immediately fell asleep saying it was hard to be the smartest one in the group, Nishan rolled his eyes and I kindly reminded him he was not the smartest just because he wanders around more than the average animal. In the morning, we went through the forest and came out to a massive plain. It stretched on as far as the horizon, like the other Kingdoms. At the far edge, there was a cave, a den, that seemed to branch off into other caves. Without missing a beat, Firi exclaimed "Welcome to the Serval's Den." He walked towards the multi-room cave and we followed. Nishan admitted that he hates coming here because "The king acts like a fool." Which was his version of the nice way to say it. Firi corrected him saying he was just a bit eccentric. We came in front of the middle cave and a serval came out.
"You three!" He shouted "What is your purpose here?"
"We wish to speak to King Vahan." Nishan answered
"Whatever message you wish to tell him, you may tell me." The serval said "I will tell him."
"We are not here to deliver a message, we need to ask the king something." Nishan told the serval
"You are certain you wish to speak to the king?" The serval asked with a touch of suspicion
"Yes." Nishan said
The serval went deeper into the cave and didn't come out for 5 minutes, much longer than it took the other kings to come. When he came back out, he brought an elder serval with him. This elder serval had a trio of black dots on his forehead, and they were painted on. And he definitely looked like someone who is eccentric.
"Your majesty." Firi greeted "We have come to ask you-"
"Heeeey!" The serval king interrupted "Its my good ol' friend Fifi!"
"Fifi?" I whispered to Firi
"That's what he insists on calling me," Firi explained "I never understood why."
"And look!" The king exclaimed, looking at Nishan "It's Nichey! To what to I owe the honor of actually meeting my guests?"
They really weren't lying when they said he was eccentric.
"Your majesty," Nishan greeted "We have come to ask you an important question."
"C'mon Nichey! Let the new guy talk!" The king exclaimed
"By all means, your majesty."
Nishan stepped back, giving me a sly grin that screamed "haha, now you've got to deal with the crazy king." I rolled my eyes at him and stepped forward to greet the king
"Hello, your majesty, my name is Nguvu and-"
"Nguvu? No no no, it's too hard to say! I will call you Gruvy!"
"Um, but your majesty, I-" I was trying to tell him my name isn't Gruvy but Nishan shook his head, whispering to me that it's best I let the king call me whatever he wants if I wanted this to be over quick.
"I wanted to ask you a question." I just told the king "I wanted to know if you've seen a lioness pass through here."
"I see MANY lions come through here!" He exclaimed "They go here and there and everywhere!"
He came closer and whispered in my ear "Honestly these lions are crazy. Instead of staying in a Kingdom, they choose to go everywhere. These lions are weird."
The serval that greeted us came to the king and informed him "That cub you are talking to right now, he is a lion."
"Huh?"
"Sir, the animal you are talking to is a lion." The serval repeated
"Ohhhh! I see it now! It's the mane, isn't it?"
The serval sighed "Yes sir, every male lion has a mane."
"Apologies for interrupting your majesty, but about that lioness I was asking you about-"
"Yes yes, of course! But I cannot help you unless you help me!"
"And what is it that you would like me to do, your majesty?"
"Number 1, stop calling me that! It's so formal. I am Vahan!"
"Um, okay Vahan."
"AND, number 2, I need to know how she looks!"
"Huh?"
"I can't tell you if your mystery lion was here if I don't know what she looks like!"
"Oh, okay." I'm a little shocked that all he wanted was a description and he drew it out for that long, but I told him what my mother looked like and his ears perked up like he recognized her.
"Oh that one!" He exclaimed "Yeah she was here. She was even weirder than other lions! They usually walk around the Kingdom but she went into the Kingdom, started walking towards the Dens and then walked east towards the ...uh- Bears!"
"Sir, no one does towards the bears!" That serval, who seems to be King Vahan's right hand, explained. He then turned to face me and said "She didn't go to the bears, Nguvu. She went towards the Nest."
"Thanks," I said "What's your name?"
"My name is Saizi." The serval said
"Thanks Saizi." I repeated
"You're welcome Nguvu."
"Come on, we've got to go to the Kingdom of Birds." I said, turning to face them
"I'm surprised you figured out we're going to The Kingdom of Birds from the Nest." Nishan smiled
"Yeah," Firi laughed "We had to spell out what the Serval's Den was to you."
"Shut up."