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Red and Amini were laying down and enjoying the shade, as today was a pretty quiet morning. The hippo was on the ground while the lion was laying on a tree branch. The Lion Guard probably was out on patrol again, and everyone else seemed to be doing their own things, so the duo decided to just hang out and chill together. They were best friends after all.
“-And he’s been callin’ me Scales ever since!” Red said, retelling his conversation with Bunga to Amini, chortling a bit. It was clear he was a tiny bit frustrated about the nickname, but he was also amused at the same time. “Knowin’ him, he’s probably gonna call me that for the rest of time!”
Amini snickered, the lion’s tail swishing. “I don’t think the nickname’s THAT bad.” He snarked, earning a playful stare from the hippo across from him.
“So what if I called ya Green-Mane then?”
“Hey, I’m not the one named after a color here, Red!”
Red tried to shoot back, but the words instantly died in his mouth. He snorted some hot air towards Amini playfully, but then his ears perked up as he heard another hippo at his pod’s temporary home snort back.
“Sorry, Mwamba! I wasn’t talkin’ to ya!” He yelled out before turning his attention back to Amini. “Anyways, what’s been goin’ on with ya?”
“Kinda bored, actually.” Amini replied. “Not that much goes on during the night, except Daji taking me on his monster hunting trips. They’re pretty interesting, even though monsters ain’t real.”
Red let out a sigh of relief that he didn’t even know he was holding.
“You good, man?” Amini asked, concerned.
Red shook his head, nodding. “Yeah, I’m good! I’m fine! I just zoned out for a second.” He lied straight through his teeth, and tusks. But it wasn’t like Amini was noticing. The hippo stood up tall, bored out of his mind. There wasn’t anything to do at all. The dullness was knocking in his head like a brutal headache. The large hippo flopped down on the ground with a heavy thump, groaning. “Bored outta my mind though.. I wanna do somethin’..” He glared at the morning sun, thinking of anything to do. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we go on an adventure or something like that?”
Amini let out a chuff. “Why don’t you go explore a cave or something like that.” He snarked, snickering. His attitude was going to be the end of him one day.
Red’s ears then suddenly perked up, as he jumped back on his four legs. “Mins, bro, that’s a great idea!” He enthusiastically said, oblivious to Amini’s tone. That definitely earned an eye-roll from the lion. “We can explore a nearby cave or somethin’ like that!”
“Seriously? I was personally enjoying our nice relaxation time.” Amini stated as a matter-of-factly. "The things we do to beat boredom.."
The hippo was getting energetic. “Yeah, it’s gonna be awesome, man!” His stubby tail was wagging as fast as a hummingbird’s wings. “Imagine what we’re gonna find, we could find like, treasure! Or some Kingdom secrets kept by paintings by former Royal Mzjuzis of the past that have never been discovered until now!”
“Hm, next thing you know we’ll probably find a Dragon’s den.” Amini sarcastically claimed, rolling his eyes.
“Huh??”
“What, I’m just joking.” Amini sneered. “We both know Dragons aren’t real.”
“Hehe, yeah..” Red trailed off, chuckling, a bit nervous. “Anyways, you in?”
“Sure. I don’t really have anything to do.” Amini said, nodding, despite his lack of enthusiasm.
The hippopotamus started to charge off, his energy opposite to his best friend.
“Wait,” Amini interrupted. “You know where an abandoned cave is?”
“Nope. Maybe Chase can join us! He sounds like the type to know where a abandoned cave is.”
“Fair enough..” Amini groaned. He stretched his limbs, and started ambling behind.
First, Red went to the pod to tell them about where he was going. And by the pod, he meant his dad, Basi.
Red jumped in the water, and went to his adoptive father. “Hey, Pops!”
“Mornin’ Red.” Basi said, looking over at his younger son.
“ I’m gonna go explore with Amini, is that okay?” Red asked, grinning widely. “I promise I’ll be back by sunset!”
The older hippo thought about it for a moment, before nodding his head in approval. “Yeah, it’s okay. Just don’t go too far now and get yourselves hurt!” He said.
“Thanks Pops!” He returned back to Amini, who looked pretty darn sleepy, his eyes half-lidded, like he was about to go to sleep. “Mins?”
He shot awake again. “I’m up, I’m up! We going?”
“Yeah, we can go now, buddy!” Red smiled, Amini returning the gesture with a small smile of his own, before the two started walking.
The young lion stumbled along, the sun beating down on his light-green mane and brown fur. "Goddamn sun.." He grumbled under his breath. He typically did better at night.
“You alright?” Red asked, looking back, a concerned expression on his face.
“You know how I do under the sun, man. It just ain’t my thing.”
“Eh, I understand the feelin’!” The hippo nodded, slowing down and moving closer to Amini to give the lion shade with his shadow. “
Amini chuckled. “Thanks, big guy, I really.. appreciate that.”
“Happy to help out a friend, lil’ dude!” Red said, stopping to hug the lion with his snout.
Amini put his paws on Red’s snout aggressively nuzzling him, chuckling. “Red!”
Meanwhile, a cheetah was doing his own type of relaxing: by practicing his hunting skills. He was about to race with his older brother, Doa.
“You sure you wanna test me, Chase?” Doa snarked, stretching his light golden limbs.
“Hell yeah.” Chase smirked confidently. “I’m the best in the coalition!”
Mwendo, another one of Chase’s brothers, was standing by. “On your spots..” He started.
Chase continued his cocky smirk. “You’re gettin’ dusted.”
“Get set..”
Doa rolled his eyes confidently. “Try me. ”
“GO!”
The two cheetahs sped across the trail! The race was on! Doa sped ahead of Chase immediately, laughing. “See you at the finish line, Stripe-face!”
“Oh, you’re on!” Chase smirked, speeding up, catching up with his brother surprisingly quickly. I thought of him as a slow-poke, but woe is me. The two cheetahs continued to run across the lands, dodging obstacles, heading towards the finish line, where Injini and Hatari were waiting under a tree. Injini was grooming Hatari’s mane, much to the latter’s disamusement.
“You know you don’t have to clean me like this, bro.” The orange-furred cheetah complained. “It’s embarrassing..”
“And you know you didn’t have to run through MULTIPLE thorn bushes just to win a dumb bet!” Injini shot back, picking a thorn out of his brother’s fur, making the younger cheetah yelp. “It’s bad enough you get new scars on ya almost daily.”
Hatari grumbled something unintelligible. Well, I could hear what he said, but I don’t think I want to tell. It’s my little secret and I’m keeping it forever.
“Hey guys!” Red suddenly said, lumbering over to the duo.
“Sweet Cheetahs of the Past, where did you come from!?” Hatari jumped a bit, being caught off guard.
“The sky,” Amini sarcastically said, matching my energy whenever people I don’t like come into my life yet again. “Have you guys seen Chase?”
Injini’s ears perked up as he heard running sounds zoom towards them. “He’ll be here really soon.”
The two animals turned their heads to the two small incoming dust clouds. They sped past them, leaving the animals coughing up dust. Doa and Chase came to a screeching halt, both of them breathing heavily.
“Ha!” Doa boasted. “Beat you again, lil’ bro! And you said you were the fastest in the coalition..” He teased.
Chase growled. “Whatever, dude.”
“Sup, Chase.” Amini nodded at the cheetah.
“Hey, man, what’s up-” Chase was instantly cut off by Red tackle-hugging him to the ground.
“Me and Mins were gonna explore some abandoned caves, do ya know where one is?” Red asked enthusiastically with a wide smile.
Chase looked at Red up and down. It wasn’t that unusual that Amini had the hippopotamus around him, and don’t get it wrong, Chase liked Red, he was a good friend, but it didn’t stop him from somehow being a bit on edge whenever he was around, especially when the hippo in particular was talking to him.
“Uh, yeah, sure..” Chase replied. “Can ya get off me first? I can’t feel my bones..”
“Oh. Yeah. Sorry.” Red got off the cheetah, who got back up almost immediately.
“I remember seeing one near Maji Baridi Falls.” Chase said. “Haven’t explored it yet though.”
“Dude, that’s perfect!” Red said. "Ya can join us!"
"As long as I get credit for finding the cave." Chase mused, a smirk crossing his face, as he started to run into the distance.
Hatari grumbled. "And of course Chase gets to do somethin-" Another yelp escaped him as Injiri took out another thorn.
A little bit later, the trio had started on their journey, strolling around the lands. There were no caves in sight, abandoned or otherwise. Amini was flopped on Red’s back, and Chase was walking besides the two. Amini was barely awake, falling in and out of sleep over and over again.
They were near a lake, which gave Red an idea…
“Guys,” he said, “I’m pretty fast in the water, maybe we can get to the cave faster if y’all hitched a ride on my back!” The hippo proposed.
Amini groaned wearily, very sleepy. He looked at the lake Red was talking about.
“You sure, Big Red? This looks like the river leading to Maji Baridi-”
“Yeah, I’m sure!” Red interrupted, starting to run ahead, towards the water.
The shaking woke up Amini with a jolt. “DUDE, SLOW DOWN!” He yelled, hanging on for dear life.
Red jumped into the river with a SPLASH!
The resulting wave hit Chase straight in the face. “Hey, watch the face, dude!” He exclaimed, shaking the water off him.
“You gonna get in or not?” Amini asked, unamused. Chase sighed and jumped onto Red’s back, right behind Amini. And Red started walking through the water, his neutral buoyancy helping him stay up.. Helped that he was going with the current, making him a bit faster, even though he couldn’t really swim.
A few minutes later, it was getting… weird. Red was going faster, the current propelling him.
“Uh, does anybody notice the speed we’re going?’” Chase asked.
“Yep. We’re screwed.” Amini grumbled, flopping his head on Red’s back. The three could hear the peaceful sounds of water flowing. And also the not so peaceful sound of—
“...DOES ANYBODY HEAR A WATERFALL?!?”
Okay, cut me off. Rude.
Everybody looked ahead, and noticed that there wasn’t any water ahead in their field of vision, and realized.. They were on a lake heading to Maji Baridi Falls..
“Don’t tell me, we’re about to go over a huge waterfall like I said.” Amini bluntly growled.
Chase gulped. “Yep.”
“Sharp rocks at the bottom?” He asked.
“Dunno.” Red replied.
“Bring it on.” Amini said, fire of either determination or stubbornness in his eyes.
Red turned around to swim against the current, but it was the perfect time to realize that he couldn’t swim like that. It was too late. They were going to die!
The trio screamed as they descended down the waterfall.
Red was the first to emerge from the water down below, carrying Amini and Chase on his back. The fall actually wasn’t that bad, at least for him. He couldn’t say the same for the cats on his back, both of them were knocked out cold. He flopped down on the grass, praying that they’d be alright. From his eyes, while they were soaked, no blood had tainted either's fur. A sigh of relief escaped Red’s jaws as he quietly waited for them to wake up.
Eventually, Amini started coughing out water, waking up. His vision focused, seeing Red next to Chase’s unconscious body. Confusion immediately hit him. Shouldn’t they be dead? “Red..?”
“Mins!” Red ran and hugged Amini with his snout. “Bro, I’m so sorry—”
“Nah, it’s fine, bro.” A chill tone laced Amini’s voice as he shook any excess water off his fur, noticing the lack of major injuries that would usually occur from falling from that height. “I’m just wondering how we’re alive..”
Red’s eyes looked off, as if he was trying to find an answer that made sense. “Cartoon.. logic, I guess.” God damn it, I thought I told him to stop breaking the fourth wall.
Amini raised an eyebrow, confused. “Rrright.”
Chase coughed, coming to his conscious. “Are we in hell?” He immediately asked, drawing stares from the other two animals.
“No, Red’s here, so it’s definitely not Hell.” Amini replied, grinning.
“Hey, you’re here too, so it might as well be Heaven!” Red replied, smiling
Red’s ears perked up, as he noticed a cave up ahead. It looked pretty damn abandoned, like no animal had been in it for years. It was pretty close near the Outlands, though, but Red didn’t seem to notice that as his eyes lit up. “Guys, I found our cave!” He exclaimed, starting to charge up towards it. Chase followed, starting to run and Amini hitched a ride on Red’s back again.
Red skidded to a halt, with the lion on his back hanging onto his ears. “Demethi..” He groaned, getting his grip together as he slid off the hippo and flopped onto the floor, breathing heavily.
Red snickered. “You good, lil’ dude?”
“What do you think..” Amini muttered, letting out a chuff as he got up. The trio looked down into the cave. It was dark and had an eerie silence to it, which was really creepy compared to the Pridelands.
“Are we sure nobody lives here?” Chase asked.
“Let me check.” Amini stated before roaring as loud as he could into the cave. The roar echoed, on and on. No response. “Nobody lives here.” He simply responded, walking into the cave, his tail swishing behind him.
“Damn..” Red said, before laughing, as he trotted into the cave.
The light appeared to get further and further away as all of them continued to walk deeper into the cave, and deeper underground. Red was still visibly excited, walking beside his friends.
Even though it was getting kinda cramped. It seemed like the cave had less and less room..
Amini jumped onto Red’s back. “Don’t know how any animal can live in this place..” He grumbled.
Red nodded his head in agreement. “Yep. I think I see somethin’ up ahead..” He said, squinting his eyes.
“It’s a bunch of tunnels.” Amini said. “Night vision does a lion well.”
Chase scoffed. “Okay, Mins. But does vision do you well in a race?” He sneered, grinning widely.
“Helps me with seeing them, like how I SAW that you LOST.” Amini snarked back.
Red stifled a loud laugh, as Chase went completely silent.
The trio eventually felt the cave path widening again, and as Amini said, they came across three tunnels. The first one on the left was the biggest of them. And the other two looked the exact same. Amini smirked at Chase in pure victory, and the latter rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine, you were right. Which tunnel do we take then, Green-Mane?”
“Uh- Red?”
Red looked at all the options, his view weirdly fixating on the left one. He then leaned his head down to their height. “Well, I remember Beshte tellin’ me about one time he got in a cave like this.”
“What does that have to do with anything—”
“Maybe the left one! It looks cool, don’t ya think?”
“...I don’t know.” Amini then noticed something. Red’s eyes were slightly glowing in the dark? It was pretty unnoticeable, but looking in the hippopotamus’ eyes, there was definitely a glow. The lion stared for a bit, his own blue eyes studying Red’s pink, slightly jaundiced ones.
“Why are his eyes glowing like that?” Amini thought, curious.. “ They’re… beautiful.”
“Why is he looking at me?” Red thought. “ Did I do something wrong?”
After an awkward moment of silence, Chase decides to break it. “Let’s take the middle! Seems the least deadliest.”
“Yeah, but the right one looks the exact same!” Amini interjected, breaking his eye contact with Red, which silently upset the lion, but he didn’t show it in his expression.
Red stomped closer to the left tunnel. He could see something glowy and shiny emit from the inside of the cave, in multiple colors, even. He stared for a while, sitting down.
“Red? You good?” Amini asked.
“Yeah, this one’s glowin’! It’s beautiful!” Red said in response.
“Glowing caves?” Amini raised an eyebrow skeptically, going to see for himself. “Woah.”
He then heard something, it sounded like something had plugged up the entrance. “The hell?” He mumbled, before shaking it off.
“What are we waitin’ for?” Red exclaimed. “Let’s go in!” He grabbed Amini with his jaws and ran in the tunnel.
“Wh-HEY! RED!” Amini yelled as he was carried away.
Chase, witnessing all of this had no idea what to even say, so he just sped in as well, following the two.
Soon, the three were deep in the depths. It was dark, and scary.
“Yep..” Chase sighed. “We’re lost.”
“You sure you saw something glowing, and it wasn’t a naked mole rat or something?” Amini asked, skeptical.
“Yeah! I swear I did with my own two eyes!” Red said, sitting down. “Naked mole rats don’t glow, and they definitely don’t walk in big tunnels like these!” However, right on cue, one of those mole rats came around, sniffing around, and accidentally walking over Red’s snout, and back down.
“Scuse me.” The naked mole rat muttered as it went into a way smaller tunnel.
Amini, Chase, and especially Red were all speechless.
“But Reddie, I thought naked mole rats don’t walk in big tunnels like these..” Amini teased with a mocking tone smirking at the large hippopotamus, causing Red to blush in embarrassment.
“Shuddup..”
The three suddenly noticed a glow coming from further in the cave. Red immediately became excited again.
“HA! That’s the glow I was talkin’ about!” Red pointed out. “Take that, Mins!” He said, getting his snout in Amini’s face.
Amini pushed Red’s snout away. “Yeah, yeah, take in the glory, you big lug.” he deadpanned, rolling his eyes at the hippo, who proceeded to take in said glory by strutting ahead, humming a victorious tune.
Chase sighed. “I can’t win anything today, can I..” He complained.
Red continued to do his little victory dance, the hippopotamus bouncing everywhere. Then he tripped on a rock. “WOAH!” Red started to roll into a ball, and hit a wall with a thundering CRASH!
“DAMN!” Chase exclaimed. Amini sent the cheetah a side-eye before walking over with him to where Red had crashed. The lion checked for any injuries. Red sat up, dizzy.
“You okay, man?” Amini asked.
“Yeahhh, ’m……finneeeeee….” The big hippo slurred, his brain jumbled up. “Wha bout you, Amariii?”
“Amini.” Amini corrected, his ears flickering. He grabbed the big hippo’s head by the tusks, and started shaking him to get his mind in order. “You good now?”
“Who are ya…” he asked, dazed. “Gosh, you’re pretty cute.”
Amini decided to ignore that comment and shake Red as hard as he could, before letting go. Red’s head spun in a daze, stars literally circling above him. It seemed to do the trick. “I’m okay!” He exclaimed, shaking his head.
“Thank gosh, you were talking even crazier than usual.” Amini said to Red, as they continued walking around.
“You guys think we’re gettin’ close to Namdembo Caverns?” Chase wondered out loud. “We are kinda getting twisted and lost. And I’m thirsty..” Red and Amini shared the same feeling, nodding in silent agreement.
“I don’t know..” Amini said. He had no idea where the Caverns would’ve overlapped with these abandoned caves. “At least if we are, we could find an exit. Or we could be lost forever.”
“Guys..” Red said, staring at the glowing part of the cave again, finally seeing what had emitted the glow. He stared at it for a while…
“What is it?” Amini asked.
Red didn’t answer as he started to zone out, his brain focused on seemingly nothing, the only thing heard being his audible breathing. He felt like he couldn’t recognize anything else..
He was pulled back into reality by Amini stomping on his foot. “Agh!” He exclaimed, stepping back in surprise.
“You good now, big guy?” Chase asked, looking up at Red, a bit uneasy.
Red nodded. “Yeah.. sorry.” His ears perked up. Something sounded like.. like water. He immediately charged towards the light source, the other two following him. When they entered the bigger cave, they found it was a huge underground lake!
“Woah..” The boys had the same reaction, in awe and in sync. None of them had seen this type of thing before.
Chase was the first to walk towards the small body of water, seeing his reflection looking right at him.
“WATER!” Red yelled ecstatically , as he jumped into the pool, taking a big sip of the water like his life depended on it.
Amini shot him a look, as the lion lapped up some water of his own.
Chase also saw a neat detail of his own. It was a painting of some sorts, depicting the water like it exactly was right now. “Looks like a Royal Mzjuzi was here.” That sentence alone made Red bellow in joy.
“YES! Did Rafiki draw it?”
“No idea, it looks pretty old..” Chase continued.
Red ran up to it, and after looking at it for a second, I swear, his face lit up so much, you could light up the night sky with it. “Awesome..!”
Amini then got up. “I’d hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we’re still lost.”
Chase and Red looked at each other. “Not for long!” The hippopotamus interjected, seeing another way out. “Maybe that’s an exit!”
Amini’s face scrunched. “Reddie, there is no way that’s gonna work.” Red responded by running out said exit. Amini sighed and followed him, Chase coming straight behind.
The trio ran, and ran, and ran. They must’ve been everywhere in the caverns at this point, the tunnels almost never ended!
Eventually…
“Hey, I see daylight!” Chase pointed out, running even faster. Red and Amini didn’t even bother to keep up.
“See Mins! I told ya we were gonna get outta here!” Red said, grinning at the lion on his back.
“Okay, this time you were really lucky.”
Chase ran out of the cave into the Pridelander grass again, flopping on its golden, slightly turning green blades. “FINALLY!” He exhaled. “Sweet, sweet grass!”
“We were only in there a few hours, dude.” Amini said, chuckling, noticing the sun starting to set.
“Heh, didn’t know ya loved grass so much!” Red added, letting out his own laugh.
Chase arrogantly let out his own laugh. “Of course I liked grass, I was the first one out! And, to be honest, that cave was fun to explore.”
“Yeah.. same.” Amini said. He let out a yawn, the ever-encompassing feeling of tiredness and sleep hitting him. “I need to learn how to sleep..”
“And I gotta get back to the coalition for dinner before they get worried.” Chase added. “See ya guys!” He then sped off into the distance, leaving the other two in the dust.
Red then walked over to Amini, leaning down and hugging the young lion with his snout. Amini returned the gesture with a tired pat-pat. “Don’t worry about me, Big Red. I can make it to Pride Rock before I take a nap, trust me.” He said, his tail swishing around him.
The hippo in question chuckled, moving his head up. “Aight, man.” His eyes darted towards the sun then back to Amini. “G’night, Mins.”
“Night, Red.” Amini said, as he started to walk off in Pride Rock’s direction.
Red was pretty darn happy about today. He explored a cave with his friends, got lost in them, and found an underground lake! Not many hippos in the Pridelands could say the same. And he beat his boredom! Double win!
And as he walked home, seeing the sky painted in beautiful hues of red and orange, he couldn’t help but smile.