The Lion Guard: The Northern Crocodile

Chapter 23

Walking through the jungle in the cool quiet of the night, Kiburi felt his stress levels drop. Looking up through the canopy, he spotted the moon's silver light barely brightening the sky. In the dead of the night, everything was silent, except for the rustling of leaves and chirping of insects. Kiburi found it all very peaceful, until he accidentally stepped on Zula's tail, causing her to disturb the silence.

"Sorry," Kiburi mumbled under his breath just loud enough for Zula to hear as he picked his foot up off of her tail. "Wasn't exactly paying attention to where I was going, but to be perfectly honest, you are moving awfully slow."

"Apparently," Zula responded, dragging her tail closer to her side and away from Kiburi. "But how fast do you want me to go, exactly? I'm not as stupid as you think I am! The reason we're going slow is so we don't disturb the underbrush as much, and that way we are less likely to run into any problems."

"I didn't need an explanation!"

"Too bad, you got one. Let's just...oh, wait, never mind. We're here."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Nope. Take a better look around and see for yourself."

Kiburi did as Zula suggested, but he kept a suspicious eye on her, just in case there were any tricks. He poked his head through some bushes and saw an open stretch of savanna with some lone trees and a small lake. Crocodiles were lying under the trees and floating in the lake. The ones under the trees resembled Valley crocodiles, but the ones in the lake...

"My float," Kiburi breathed, absolutely relieved to see that his float was still alive.

"Surprise!" Zula exclaimed, sidling up next to Kiburi.

Kiburi looked at Zula, his feelings of mistrust and dislike for her being pushed aside for the moment. He felt like saying something, but nothing came to mind, so he instead just stared at her. It took Zula a minute to realize what Kiburi was doing.

"Um, Kiburi, you're staring."

"Huh? Oh, sorry. Just...trying to think of something to say."

"Is a 'thank you' really too much to ask from you?"

"...Maybe. I'm not exactly big on pleasantries."

Zula quietly chuckled.

"I can tell. Well, I'll take that 'maybe', since it seems like the only good response I'm gonna get out of you tonight."

"I hope you weren't expecting something else."

"Nope, but we really should get going, you know, before the two of us get into trouble."

"Wait, you said you would take us somewhere to talk. Are we going to talk, or did you just use that excuse to get me to come along with you?"

"We can talk, if that's what you really want to do, but I thought you would be pleased to know that your float is safe. Isn't that something that you wanted?"

Kiburi was a little taken aback by the question. Of course he wanted his float to be safe, but he also doesn't want to be lied to, either.

"I'm glad that my float is okay, but I came with you expecting to get answers."

"That's fine with me, but we'll have to do so on the way back for obvious reasons."

***

"Kiburi, you've been awfully quiet back there," Zula said as she glanced back to look at the male trailing behind her.

"I know I am," Kiburi responded. "Just thinking about how things will turn out."

"What do you mean? Come on, you can't seriously be afraid to ask little ole me a question or two, are you?"