Love Unites Us All

Fitting In

PS: This chapter is still going through beta, so I hope you're kind enough to pardon any visible spelling or grammar mistakes. Apologies in advance and I hope you're still able to enjoy the story.

The silentness of the still air slowly shifted as a particular Raven began wrinkling his face into a pained frown, letting out a low groan as he slowly opened his eyes after finally regaining consciousness. His head felt heavy and he felt like he had just woken up from a deep sleep that lasted for years. Through the slit of his blurred vision, he could just about make out the sight of several streaks of sunlight penetrating through the thick foliage of some overhead trees.

"Oh... where am I..." Rudo groaned weakly as he began rapidly blinking his eyes in an effort to rid the blurr that obscured his vision. The moment his sights were clear, he instantly realized he had been laying flat on his back on a patch of grass all this while. Not only that, his limited hearing senses soon picked up the sound of thundering, rapid-moving water somewhere nearby.

Not wanting to be on the ground for too long, he began shifting his weight onto his right wing for support in order to get up on his feet, but a sharp, stinging pain suddenly errupted within the same pinion he was using for support, causing the wing to become slack and sending him flat on his back once again.

"ARGH! My wing! Oh, Cripes... what happened..." The helpless Raven groaned in pain as he clutched onto his crippled wing with his good one, giving up all hopes of being able to fly away from wherever he was right now and back to his warm, comfortable nest in the Mukuni Woods.

His eyes suddenly widened with fear when a menacing-looking figure suddenly loomed above him. "Ah... finally, you're awake," The figure spoke in a familiar feminine voice.

Rudo's heart began pounding heavily against his chest when he realized the figure was that of a Lioness, the same one that attacked him and rendered him unconscious earlier. He gulped the lump in his throat as the Lioness narrowed her gaze onto him.

"A-Akina... please, why... how... why are you doing this?" The Raven stammered incoherently out of pure dread, his quivering with fear gave the smirking Lioness a sense of power and satisfaction as she stolidly stood over the cripled avian with bared teeth.

"You gave me no choice, Rudo. I asked you a simple question earlier... yet you refused to answer me," Akina softly spoke while maintaining a calm expression that was anything but genuine. "So now that you know what I'm capable of... I'm giving you another chance. Tell me where I can find them, and I won't rip you into pieces and make you my lunch!" She yelled out her threat before hovering her bared fangs just inches away from the Raven's beak to show that she meant business.

Rudo's eyes began wandering about in desperation as he debated with himself on what he was supposed to say next. The glowering Lioness watched him intently as she waited for his response, but after a few seconds, she saw the avian's expressions suddenly toughened, giving her a telltale sign that whatever he was about to say next was more than likely to inflame her even further instead.

"So... tell me, Rudo. Where are they?" She asked nonetheless, holding back her boiling rage to hear what he had to say.

As she expected, the Raven took a breath and tried to put on a stoic expression despite the nervousness that prevailed in his eyes. "Akina... all I can say is this; Wewe ni mbwajike na punda!"

The Lioness immediately let out an enraged growl when the avian spat the vile oath in Swahili right into her face, and it took every fibre of her being to hold back the urge of tearing the bird into pieces with her jaws right then and there, not yet anyways as she still needed to extract the important piece of information from him.