The Lion Guard | The Tree of Life

Chapter 2: Fuli's Family

"So, do you know why you were told to come here?"  Uponyaji asked Fuli

"No," Fuli replied, "could you fill me in on why you're bringing me to other cheetahs?"

"You'll see soon enough," Uponyaji replied as they came around to a den with two cheetahs in it.

"Mom?!? Dad?!?" Fuli exclaimed, surprised and confused that she would see her parents that she thought died in an accident in a river at the pride lands. "I thought you died when I was a cub, why didn't you come back to the pride lands when you came out of the river?"

"Because of this," Fuli's mom said, holding up a scraped, scabbed, and bruised paw.  "I can't walk, and your dad isn't willing to leave me alone here, no matter how much I pleaded for him to go back."

"Oh," Fuli said, "I never thought that could happen, how did you manage to get here like that?  And how did your paw get scraped like that?"

"Well," Fuli's dad said, "we passed out in the river, and the lions of the Night Pride found us as we washed up on the shore of the river here and healed us, but I'm still in no condition to walk all the way back to the pride lands. You should be aware of how long it takes to walk here from Pride Rock."

"I know how long it takes," Fuli said, "but is there anyway to save your paws from being hurt, so you can come back with my friends and I?"

"The lions have been helping my pads heal, I should be ready to come home with you tomorrow, or whenever you're ready to go." Fuli's mom said

"That's great!" Fuli replied, "I should tell my friends that I found my parents."

"Your friends?" Fuli's mom replied, "not that I'm against you having friends, but shouldn't a female cheetah be solitary?"

"You didn't hear?" Fuli asked, "I'm part of the new Lion Guard that the son of Simba, Kion assembled."

"Wasn't the Lion Guard always made out of lions?" Fuli's dad asked

"It was, but that was before Kion assembled it," Fuli said, then added with a slight chuckle, "he also added an extra member to the Guard.  It's now the Fiercest, Fastest, Strongest, Bravest, Keenest of Sight, and Smartest.  Kion's the Fiercest, I'm the Fastest, a hippo named Beshte is the Strongest, a honey badger named Bunga is the Bravest, a martial eagle named Anga is the Keenest of Sight, and an Egret named Ono is the Smartest.  Ono used to be the Keenest of Sight, but he lost most of his sight due to vog, after he saved Bunga from a volcano.  In the same volcano, Kion got bitten by an Egyptian cobra and got a scar over his eye, the venom is deadly, so because of that and Ono's eyesight is why we decided to go to the Tree of Life to help them get better."  After Fuli and her parents spent a while catching up, and seeing her new sister, who is named Haraka,  Fuli noticed the sun was setting and excused herself from the conversation to go check on Kion and Ono and see how well they're doing at the Tree.

"Our cub really has grown up to something, hasn't she, Duma?" Fuli's father asked his mate after Fuli left.

"Yeah, being the fastest and it seems like the second in command in the new Lion Guard, and defeating Scar for a second time.  She really has grown up to something, Kaso." Duma replied, then added. "The way she talked about Kion though, something else might be going on between them."

"True.  It's gonna be interesting to see how this plays out." Kaso replied, "especially with Kion being a lion, and not only a lion, but the son of the king and Fuli being a cheetah.  Albeit, we are king cheetahs."

"You really had to make that pun, didn't you?"

"Yep.  I did."