Hali frowned at what the king said. She'd been there of course but to hear of the panthers' numbers again...

She suddenly didn't really care about getting back to play or not, she just wanted to be safe, "A-and we'll be safe too, right?" she asked. Vitani smiled down at her and spoke to all the cubs, "Yes, we'll be safer there".

She'd wanted to say they would be completely safe but wasn't sure if even with all the assurances of such, she could honestly make that claim. The Pridelands were suppose to be safe as well.

Namita nodded, "Yes, I think so, even if I don't expect him to take it well, but for both his own sake and the jungle's, we should, only thing is we don't know where...".

Her half question was answered by a roar.

"I'd say they're probaably that way..." the kite answered what she'd been thinking.

~~~~

With a nod the monkey led on back to the estate where he'd seen the two cubs. He glanced about now, trying to spot them through the trees. "I think they left the man structure..." he said, still searching.

~~~~

Kaa was surprised to have caught another mouse now and with a smile did settle down again, again not showing whether or not he was done.

~~~~

Miko at first looked curious as to the stuff Maharajah had packed up, but believed him that they would probably be useful later.

He gasped and then frowned at the story, "Gosh...that's aweful. Yeah, I heard alot of stuff like that has happened here too. In fact we have this  one tiger here, Shere Khan, who is sort of in charge unofficially in the jungle. My dad and aunt knew him when he was younger and he was just bossy, but now, because of alot of what man's done I think, he's really angry and mean. He tried to kill that man-cub friend of mine and Elliott's, Mowgli, so that's why the grown-ups had to take him to the man-villiage".

"This Sir Kipling sounds like he cares about animals, and I know Mowgli does since he grew up here too, maybe soon there won't be a problem between man and the jungle" it was a very naive thought but Miko smiled with thinking it might be possible.

He remembered he was a tour guide of sorts and looked about, "So far, besides the trees we haven't spotted anything different but...oh, we're probably getting close to where Elliott and his herd might be!" he noticed some bent branches and trunks of trees, "Yup, those look just like they Colonel Hathi came through" the cub giggled slightly.

Even if the adults reactions didn't surprise Hali, who had come to see that they were very kind and understanding since they took her in, the cub smiled in relief as they graced over Damon bumping into Kiara.

"See, no problem" she skipped over, "they know it was just an accident. Oh and by the way, you're it!" she tapped Damon's head before giggling and skipping off.

Vitani nodded to what Simba said, turning back to watch the cubs, "Well I know from watching her that Hali could play all day if you let her, so if they do take too long just let me know and I'll let her know it's time to move on"

She then smiled though, "It is nice to see cubs having a childhood though, Damon's seemed to be a bit ruined and goodness knows I could have had a better one as well" Vitani shook away these dark thoughts that seeing Zira had brought up.

Hali giggled as Damon suddenly tagged her and took off. She quickly gave chase, yet paused as Damon bumped into Kiara's leg and tumbled back. She didn't think the princess would do anything really, so just watched as Damon backed up.

As Vitani awoke and noticed Hali wasn't there, she frowned in worry. Standing she made her way over to where the others were and thankfully spotted Hali. She was there with the other cubs, but Damon seemed to look tense over something.

"What happened?" she asked, glancing to Kiara and just curious what the cub might have gotten himself into now.

Miko glanced in curiosity at the book as Maharajah pushed it towards him. "Wow this Mr. Kipling sounds awesome" he smiled. He tried to imagine somewhere so cold that water turned to this thing called ice.

He thought on the last question as he looked through the book. Learn how to make man's fire...Miko wasn't sure if he should. He'd heard man's fire was dangerous. He flipped past some more pictures of forests and stuff and on into the frozen landscapes. The cub was starting to understand this book thing, it was like man collected up lots of leaves and put them in a pile, only they were all one shape and a white color instead of green.

"Y-yeah, I'd like to see how man make's fire" he said, "...if it's not to dangerous. I've heard man's fire is dangerous".

Kaa struggled to stay still and not move or snap at the mice as he wanted to, waiting until they were right up on him to lunge for one, but patience wasn't the snake's talent and he soon lunged, perhaps a bit premature, going after the mice.

~~~~

Meanwhile Exavier had left just the right clues as to lead Shere Khan to where he wanted, and he waited until the right moment to reveal himself.

Khan kept on, unaware of any of this.

~~~~

"Ok" Miko followed Maharajah eagerly. The fact of the tiger being white wasn't so odd to the him, as he'd heard of such kinds before, but also that they weren't usuallly in the jungles as they weren't able to camoflauge well.

He followed the other cub into the giant building and library, just gaping about at everything. "Woah..." even Mowgli would be impressed with this place he felt.

"yeah, I bet both Mowgli and Elliott would love this place" Miko said, "Oh, Mowgli being the man cub I mentioned and Elliott's Coloniel Hathi the elephant's son. Hey, maybe I can introduce you to them some time!" he offered with a smile, "that is if Mowgli's allowed to come out of his viliage and into the jungle again, sometimes he can't".

Miko just looked about again in awe at the many books in the library. Even if he had sort of just met the man-cub, Mowgli had ever said anything about writing down stories or anything, even if it sounded kinda familiar from what Miko knew of. "yeah I heard about that" the little panther said, "that...somehow they can tell stories even after the story speakers not there to tell it. You can do that too? Wow!".

The cub was even more fascinated by the globe, "How do you know that's what the places really look like?" he asked.

Hali shifted, sighing as she woke up a bit early, giving it was still night. Glancing over she noticed that those new cubs weren't there anymore. She slowly stood. Oh no, what if something had happened to them! Sneaking up and past Vitani, she padded over to atleast the edge of the cave to glance around as she if she could see anyone. She knew leaving the actual cave could be bad so didn't do that yet.

Chapter 1

Cera sighed, laying her head down on the grass, "the Log Running game again Ducky? Really?!". The threehorn was mainly only bothered by this suggestion for their next game because she couldn't participate.

Littlefoot smiled, "It's still fun for us four footers to watch them" he said.

"If you say so" Cera sighed. As usual Spike muttered something and nodded.

Ducky climbed up on her log and prepared to go before noticing something. Ruby and Chomper were there, just like last time, but...

"Where is Petrie?" she asked, looking about. None of the others knew, yet the question seemed to be answered anyway. "He got the sniffles again".

Ducky and the others glanced over to where the voice came from to see someone Ducky liked very much and counted a pretty good substitute for if Petrie couldn't be here and also for the log running game.

"Hi Kit" she said, jumping off her log and swimming over to the little flyer. If Kit had just been Petrie's cousin who hung around them and tried to help him out wherever she could, Ducky would have liked her well enough, but Kit's mother, Lily, was also a swimmer, that whistling type.

The whole issue was a bit too big for any of the kids to have ever really grasped but like Kit told them, from what the girl had picked up herself in listening to her parents and the other grown-ups talk, her father, Tylr, had been afraid his siblings wouldn't understand since when she and the other kids were born the herds still stayed apart.

Petrie's mom seemed more than understanding though, and even seemed to genuinely like her mom, Lily, which was good since Kit had lost her father in that trip with the grown-ups to the Valley and now her aunt was a big help in helping her mom watch after her all on her own.

The dinosaurs of the Great Valley had become use to a lot in their forming a herd and traveling. The little flyer's green color with yellow splashes streaked all along and crest with a whistlers talent showed very much her resemblance to her mother but they treated her the same as they treated young Spike in his adopted family. An indifferent type of tolerance, yet Lily still caught the looks from a few.

Yet as far as little Ducky was concerned, she just found it great to have that much in common with Kit as for the girl to be familiar with a swimmer lifestyle, even if she didn't swim.

Ducky saw it as no excuse to shy away from water, though. "Come on then" she pulled on Kit's wing "You can take Petrie's place in the log running game, you can, you can!".

Kit frowned, "I don't know, Petrie fell off a lot and I have a feeling it'll just happen to me too. Those few times I tried it it did".

"Then you can just fly up like Petrie did" was Ducky's answer. Kit found that, like most times, Ducky was so eager and encouraging that she was hard to turn down. "Well...ok" the little flyer agreed, flying over to land on a log.

They all started running and trying to stay on their logs as best they could. Kit tried to keep her wings out to steady herself yet not so much as to fly off too soon and give up the game, but figuring out the exact right time to fly up was tricky, still she hadn't left the log yet.

Ruby and Chomper were also doing well, as well as Ducky, until Chomper let out a wail as he felt himself slip and fell into the water. "Aw..." he spit water and frowned, climbing to the shore with a sigh. "I almost had it".

Littlefoot smiled, "Don't worry Chomper, you still did better that last time, so in a way you did win". The little sharptooth grinned.

Ruby giggled, "Ok girls, now it is just us girls to see who is better at running on the log that is also moving" she said.

"I still think Ducky's just gonna out do us all, she's just so good at it" Kit got out shakily as she paid attention to not falling off as she wobbled slightly side to side.

"Just because Ducky won before does not mean she will be winning again" Ruby pointed out. Unfortunately she put too much attention on what she was saying and she was the next one to slip off.

"Oh no, no it can't be just me to try and do better than Ducky" Kit frowned, wobbling again but catching herself.

Ducky giggled, "You are doing good, Kit, you are, I may just not win". The little swimmer didn't sound like she believed her words though. The two kept on and everyone watched with a slight gasp as Kit leaned over almost falling forward. Her feet, facing back and not able to be seen by anyone, by the barest margin, came up to where just her toes remained on but with her wings she soon righted.

Had she been a ground walker she'd have fallen, but she stayed on and soon righted, tipping the other way with a sigh. It had all happened so fast even Kit hadn't fully taken in what happened. Ducky seemed shock too and as she grinned and went to cheer she slipped, falling off her log.

Now everyone did gasp. Kit flapped up off her log and over to help Ducky up as the little swimmer giggled standing. "Wow Kit, you beat-ed me, you did, you did!" she said, surprised but a good sport.

Kit smiled, "Wow, I did?" she was there of course though and quickly thought back on how she had been the last one on the log! Yet as she recalled the events she suddenly realized how that might not be completely true and she should have fallen before, or at least flapped off.

Ducky giggled again, "I guess as well as being a flyer like Petrie you are very much like your momma and can log run just like a swimmer!" it wasn't an exclusive talent of a sport, but Ducky being good at it had given the kids that kind of a thought on the game.

Littlefoot chuckled as the others rushed over to congratulate Kit, "Yeah, I guess" he commented. With this new praise, on being like her mom too, Kit paused and smiled, forgetting she didn't really deserve it all. Like her mom…she liked the sound of that.

Kaa just sat curled where he was, seeming to rest yet not letting the mice really know if he was going to strike again or not.

~~~~

Exavier continued on, sniffing along until he came to a scent he recoqnized as a dominate male tiger anyway. Shere Khan. He was at his uncle's clearly marked territory. Good.

For his first plan, Exavier looked about to avoid any sight of tigers, going for a different, almost calling card angle and glancing about until he caught sight of a deer.

~~~~

The whole jungle, it seemed, was suddenly alerted to a problem by Shere Khan's angry roar at finding a dead deer, killed right on his territory, and left tauntingly by an intruder. By jungle law it was the highest insult to the all but king of the jungle.

Yet he spared enough thought to go find Allison, even if she was probably already looking for him. "Someone who shouldnt' be is here" he said, "keep to the den until I find out who".

~~~~

Meanwhile, Namita's little nephew, Miko, sighed as he was bored again. Elliott had had to go off with the elephants and now he was left with not much to do.

The little cub didn't notice how far out into foreign parts of the jungle he was wandering, coming closer and closer up on something that suddenly made him pause and tilt his head. It was a...man structure of some kind...

Mr. Bagheera knew all about men, Miko realized. He was unaware his aunt had just admitted to her crush on the other panther and that he might be seeing more of Bagheera anyway, but the kid also looked up to Bagheera as seeming just plain cool!

He could find out stuff about humans too! Yeah, then impress Mr. Bagheera with the knowledge! Oh that was a good idea. Miko crept closer to the human estate.

I paused and just had to put it up for caption! Hehe, funny face. Hope it hasn't been done.