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Barely the sun had begun to peek over the horizon that the newest leader of the Lion Guard struck out onto the savanna. Though she had attempted to get enough sleep, her overactive mind made it so difficult to get an shut eye, and so in-between pants she yawned. A bit of a dreading feeling came over her; part of it for the notion that this would probably be what most of her mornings would constitute as, and the rest coming from the uncertainty of where she had to go to meet up with Jibe. The clustered grove of trees was already hard and weird for her to navigate the previous two times, and she had really tried to get out early to be there on time, but now the thought in her mind was whether or not she should've maybe gotten out even earlier or even camped out nearby.

To her relief though, even as the sunrise's warm hues began settling into the familiar cool of morning, she spotted Jibe. Standing on the outskirts of the grove, the steadfast, serious baboon immediately spotted the speeding cub as she zoomed on over and all but slid down onto her side to stop, heavily panting and hutting her eyes while her heartbeat thumped loudly.

Jibe was gracious enough to give her a few seconds to breath, then get up and try to look like she hadn't run a mile to get here. Her chest still rising and falling quickly she seemed alert and awake enough to act.

'I'm.... h-here," she panted out. She legs shivered for a second, either from the cool morning air or the tiredness. Jibe looked neutrally at her, though Kiara took notice of how his head fur always made his eyes look more narrowed then they probably were. However, with Jibe's tone, she also surmised that his eyes, were in fact, narrowed at her now.

"You're late," he stated, a light harshness in his voice. She frowned.

"I got up before the sun rose and made here as quickly as possible," she protested.

"Pride Rock is a little while away from here, son. Plus she managed to come, so give her some credit," came an older male voice from in the treetops. Kiara directed her attention up into the large branch above Jibe's head where she saw Jibe's brother Gumba sitting alongside two other baboons, which Kara guessed were there parents. The male who had spoken seemed friendly and helpful enough in this situation, the female looks apprehensively towards her, and Gumba was smiling excitedly at her.

"Yeah, plus you said she didn't need to be here at dawn, big bro. You said yesterday that she needed to be here around the same time as yesterday, and that was way later. So actually, she's really early," he cheerfully chirped, before waving at Kiara. "Hi Kiara! Did you like that marula fruit I gave you yesterday?"

Kiara smiled at him and nodded, feeling a bit more relaxed now that she felt that she had some baboons on her side. "Good morning... Gumba." She inwardly exhaled in relief at remembering his name. "I did, it was really good. Thanks for sharing yours with me."

He grinned, his ears wiggling in joy. 'You're very welcome, and I'm glad you liked them so much, cause guess what," he cheerfully chittered and stood up proudly, hands on his hips before throwing them widely. "We're gonna be foraging for them this morning!"

"Gumba, that was your bother's announcement to make," came the stern, yet motherly voice of the female, who seemed to share the most color similarities with her youngest, though the most in terms of hair volume with her eldest. The young monkey suddenly gasped and covered his paws over his mouth, before offering a sheepish grin towards Jibe.

"Whoops, sorry Jibe," he offered. Jibe only responded to him with an exasperated snort, but looked back over to her.

"He is right, you will be accompanying my family in order to forage and gather marula fruits. Come," he said, striding past her and nodded at her to follow. His parents and brother went on ahead, gracefully an acrobatically swinging across the treetops into the grove, quickly outpacing the two land-walkers.

With them both alone, Kiara decided to use the opportunity to talk to hm. "H-hey, Jibe. Um, so what is the purpose of all of this? You didn't really give any reason why you wanted me to come and it seems pretty weird that you want me just go pick fruit with you and your family, no offense." Jibe was leading the way, making big strides with his long front arms and more rapid, short steps with his back legs, though Kiara still had to walk a bit more quickly to keep behind him. He kept on walking face-forward, not even sparing her a glance back when he replied.

"You came to me asking that I join your team, yet I see that you yourself are still trying to figure out how to lead and learn about the land and its inhabitants you will one day protect. Knowing all the interconnecting parts of the Circle of Life's web is one thing, yet understanding it is another."

"What are you saying?" She quickly stopped before she could smack into his backside as he stopped and veered around, standing tall and firmly at her.

"You, princess, have a lot to learn about this land and it's people before you can even think of defending it. I'm asking you to join in on the discussion, be able to see things from others points of views, recognize the different walks and ways of life, and internalize them to grow and develop." He stuck out a hand and pointed it right at her chest. "You want to lead the Guard and have me join it, then prove yourself. We'll show you our ways, our struggles, our lives, and you can learn through experience. In return, you may tell us more about yourself and your species, and in doing so we can both gain in knowledge and experience."

He dropped his hand and turned, though kept his eyes locked over his shoulder at her.

"If you can prove that you are willing to put in the effort, time, and work into investing into the lives of those you'll need to care about and protect, you will have gained wisdom and experience for how to lead, and additionally, earned my trust and assistance. Now come, there is a lot ahead of you."

Kiara was frozen for a moment, watching him in stunned silence and awe. This baboon was stern, cold, and stubborn, yet immensely wise and perceptive. Hew was able to look at her and determine her goal and intentions and offer advice of what she needed to do. She knew already that she would have to prove her new status to her father, pride, the Pridelands, and, most of all, herself, though she never expected to have to prove it to her own team. Still, it made such incredible sense to an almost irritating degree. She was aware that she was a bit sheltered, having been held indoors or around her home for much of her life and only recently could go out without needed an escort, plus she had never really interacted with anyone outside of her family and pride. It made so much sense that she needed to prove herself worthy of the title and that she would be a good leader by personally investing in the lives surrounding her own, connecting on a more personal level and relating to them, in order to gain the knowledge which could be beneficial and possibly crucial in ensuring their safety and happiness.

Really, what Jibe was asking of her was very reasonable and mutually beneficial. Of course he wouldn't want to join the team of a sheltered lion cub he just met yesterday, he wanted to ensure that she wasn't lying or dishonest by proving her adamancy to him about him being part of the team and her devotion to the cause. Open-mindedness and loyalty was clearly what Jibe was looking from her and she needed to prove it to him.

Still a bit apprehensive though about this entire thing she had signed up for, though willing to give it a shot, no matter the time and energy spent to earn his trust and respect, she quickly scurried after him.

If there was one thing Kiara could give Mbio over Jibe, is that the wildebeest's requirements were a lot more straightforward and obvious. Run with the herd, learn their culture and significance among creatures, and earn their respect and trust in order to gain her fastest member. The bluntness was a welcome method and Kiara initially appreciated directness.

Although, if there was a big thing that Kiara could give Jibe over Mbio, it was the fact that his trust exercise involved joining in on family foraging, a relatively harmless, safe task, and most definitely not running beside an actual stampede of wildebeest. A quickly sprinting group of massive, sharp horned and heavy-hoofed herbivores thundering across the savanna, kicking up large quantities of dust and grass. And among them was a terrified and desperately running lion cub, adrenaline-fueled and scared for her life.

The vibration of the hoofbeats all around her was so disorienting and frightening to the small cub, as the noise filled her every senses and the hard keratin hitting the earth send shockwaves which buzzed up through her else and body, numbing them and making it difficult to be able to know whether or not her legs were actually moving or not. The dust and grass being kicked up kept getting in her face, into her eyes, mouth and nostrils, making it so hard to be able to senses anything through the constant irritation and inability to be able to focus on anything when everything tasted like green earth, looked blurry with the very occasional hoof nearly missing her, and the constant sneezing and coughing to dispel the dust from her nose.

And had she mentioned the massive wildebeest stampeding around her? These massive, heavy cows surged around her, somehow both everywhere and nowhere at the same time as she was stuck in the midst of all the dust clouds. Terror filled her entire body and fueled her muscles to keep moving and try to get out of all this chaotic danger, as she painfully recalled her dad's tale of the stampede he ha survived when he was younger. Though that herd must've been a hundred times larger then this one, which seemed to be about only ten if she counted correctly, it could've been a thousand in her fear-fueled state. The constant brays and grunts of the wildebeest, their loud hoofbeats, the suffocating, polluted air, the overwhelming vibrations, and the inability to sense anything else as soon as she had joined in the stampede, she was out of it.

Due to some divine intervention or whatever, Kiara tripped and fell, and the rest of the herd moved on without her almost instantly. The scared cub was left sprawled on the ground; dust and grass in her eyes and mouth, wheezing and coughing painfully, shivering in fear, several bruises and scrapes forming on her dirt-covered body, and fully exhausted.

And to add insult to injury, as soon as she could gain some semblance of awareness to her surroundings, her first recognition was a braying laughter, lighter, yet swift hoofbeats circling her, and a prideful, condescending grin on the calf's face. She knew at the start of this she had tried to follow after him, but got separated and lost when the rest of his herd caught up and left her in the dusty danger zone. He now galloped circles around her, his laughter mixed with his braying, and he stopped on a dime before her, smirking haughtily down at her.

"Ha! You call that running?! My lame grandmother who died last season could run much better than you," Mbio taunted. Kiara was still coughing heavily, hacking up the irritants from her respiratory system, and tears had gathered in her eyes from the painful particulates clinging to her lashes and the overall ordeal she had to go through. As soon as she could get in a word between all the sneezing, her voice was filled with anger and lingering fear.

"I almost... cough cough... died and you've got nothing but....cough cough cough... insults! You... cough you jerk!"

Mbio paused and then glared at her, narrowing his eyes as the young calf stood above her. "Hey! Don't blame me for what you did! You're the one who got to close to the middle of the herd. You aren't supposed to get that close inside, you're supposed to stay by the edges so that you don't get trapped and knocked around. Secondly, you kept your head to low when you ran, so of course you were getting all that dirt kicked in your face. Third, you weren't focusing where you were going, so obviously you tripped and-"

"-I was following you!"

He flattened his ears and leaned back as she stepped up on wobbly legs and got right into his face. "When I came here, you told me to follow your lead and just run with the herd! You didn't tell me any of that stuff and so of course I got caught in the midst of it!" She got up really close into his face and practically snarled, "I almost died and all you can do is joke abut it! You're so mean!!!"

She collapsed onto the ground before him, head and face buried under her dirty paws, her dust and grass-stained back and shoulders shaking, and an audible muffled sob coming up in broken hiccups.

After pausing in surprise for a moment, the wildebeest calf then began to panic and immediately knelt down before her. "H-hey, hey, hey! Hold on, don't cry! Please don't cry. Look, I'm sorry, I didn't want his to happen, I just thought you'd know to keep away from the rest of the herd and stick to the sides okay. So please stop crying, I'm really sorry, I really didn't mean for any for this happen, please forgive me, I'M SO SORRY!!!"

The wildebeest calf had now hyperventilating himself up and was now shedding tears too as the severity of the situation and the guilt really began to set in. He collapsed before her, hoof touching her paws, and wept, blubbering and begging for forgiveness.

Kiara shrugged off his hooves and sat up, inhaling sharply to compose herself and dislodge the phlegm from her nose. Her tears had made muddy lines down her dusty face and her eyes were very shiny with more tears, though she tried to keep a straight face. "I think I should go home now." With that she wobbly got up and began walking away, tail between her legs, ears and head hung low, and a slow, shaky pace.

Mbio wobbled up, wiped his muzzle against his leg, then hopped after her. "Hold on, wait, wait, wait, wait wait," he called out to her. "Um, so are you gonna come back tomorrow? Because, if you do, I can teach you what to do, away from the rest of the herd. I can show you all I know, all the things you should know about running, and help you understand my herd and culture. What do you say?"

Kiara was still trudging away, though lowed down to a stop, though didn't face hm. "...I don't think so."

"C'mon! It'll be safe if we do it away from the herd, though we can still run with them, just from a very long distance away. I can help explain my herd's way of doing things, and gives you tips of how to run and build of endurance. You can still get in the experience, but there's no risk. C'mon, pleaseeeee!"

Kiara was quiet for a second. She started to move again, though spared a small look over her shoulder at him.

"I'll think about it."

Kiara's gonna work hard for bravest and fastest members. Jibe's a stern critic and Mbio's gonna have to restrain his teasing in order to appeal to Kiara. Next we're gonna get a training montage, probably next month in 2022.

Edit: So we have Jibe and Gumba's father and mother debut here: Mbegu(seed) and Matunda(fruit). Mbegu immigrated here with his family when Jibe as a young child from the Backlands and has been trying to settle down in an area and raise his family up to be happy, healthy, and well-adjusted, which is a bit of a challenge considering that, despite migrating here legally and rightfully, native Pridelanders tend to look down on outsiders, no matter the species. So having the get resources has become a bit of a struggle for Mbegu's family between them and the other, usually more-membered troops and groups. Mbegu is sort of pushing Jibe along with Gumba for Jibe to consider Kiara's offer, since having a family member on the Lion Guard would give them respect and more benefits, thus making their lives easier, but also to hopefully get his oldest son to let down his walls and be more social.

Matunda is Gumba and Jibe's mother, Mbegu's mate, and is based on Gumba's mother from the Lion Guard. Matunda is a reasonable, kind, and loving mother to both her sons and her husband, though is more like Jibe in terms about how apprehensive about other animals living nearby. Unlike in the Lion Guard, she is not a member of Big Baboon's Troop , though is instead trying to make efforts to convince him to let her family join his group, to some difficulty. She does see the struggles her eldest son is doing in order to both support them and shield his brother a bit from the cruelty of the world and does wish he would relax and a bit, so she does end up agreeing with her husband and youngest about Jibe potentially joining Kiara's Lion Guard too, though does actively support Jibe first examining Kiara's character and merits first. After all, with a dangerous duty of being the Pridelands' first line of defense against threats, and management of internal affairs behind the king, which had proven to be a lot more complicated and less pleasant then the general view of things being butterflies and rainbows, peachy-keen which many outsiders and even native animals ignorantly and/or unknowingly believe it to be.

As for Mbio and his herd, yeah the poor lack of communication of Mbio's part really was afoul on Mbio's part, especially since wildebeest can enter into an almost trance-like, instinct-fueled state when they stampede, making it near impossible to perceive things like a young cub they're nearly trampling, which sort of was obvious, based on Simba's original stampede experience, but neither Mbio or Kiara had any way of knowing that/knowing to bring up. Anyways, it looks like Mbio is gonna have to work as much as Kiara to earn her trust/respect after that near-costly, dangerous screwup.

Merry Christmas guys!

Kiara © The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride © Walt Disney Animation Studios
Gumba © The Lion Guard © Walt Disney Animation Studios
Jibe, Mbegu, Matunda, Mbio, Mkia, Story, Art © Vtoony

Description
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Barely the sun had begun to peek over the horizon that the newest leader of the Lion Guard struck out onto the savanna. Though she had attempted to get enough sleep, her overactive mind made it so difficult to get an shut eye, and so in-between pants she yawned. A bit of a dreading feeling came over her; part of it for the notion that this would probably be what most of her mornings would constitute as, and the rest coming from the uncertainty of where she had to go to meet up with Jibe. The clustered grove of trees was already hard and weird for her to navigate the previous two times, and she had really tried to get out early to be there on time, but now the thought in her mind was whether or not she should've maybe gotten out even earlier or even camped out nearby.

To her relief though, even as the sunrise's warm hues began settling into the familiar cool of morning, she spotted Jibe. Standing on the outskirts of the grove, the steadfast, serious baboon immediately spotted the speeding cub as she zoomed on over and all but slid down onto her side to stop, heavily panting and hutting her eyes while her heartbeat thumped loudly.

Jibe was gracious enough to give her a few seconds to breath, then get up and try to look like she hadn't run a mile to get here. Her chest still rising and falling quickly she seemed alert and awake enough to act.

'I'm.... h-here," she panted out. She legs shivered for a second, either from the cool morning air or the tiredness. Jibe looked neutrally at her, though Kiara took notice of how his head fur always made his eyes look more narrowed then they probably were. However, with Jibe's tone, she also surmised that his eyes, were in fact, narrowed at her now.

"You're late," he stated, a light harshness in his voice. She frowned.

"I got up before the sun rose and made here as quickly as possible," she protested.

"Pride Rock is a little while away from here, son. Plus she managed to come, so give her some credit," came an older male voice from in the treetops. Kiara directed her attention up into the large branch above Jibe's head where she saw Jibe's brother Gumba sitting alongside two other baboons, which Kara guessed were there parents. The male who had spoken seemed friendly and helpful enough in this situation, the female looks apprehensively towards her, and Gumba was smiling excitedly at her.

"Yeah, plus you said she didn't need to be here at dawn, big bro. You said yesterday that she needed to be here around the same time as yesterday, and that was way later. So actually, she's really early," he cheerfully chirped, before waving at Kiara. "Hi Kiara! Did you like that marula fruit I gave you yesterday?"

Kiara smiled at him and nodded, feeling a bit more relaxed now that she felt that she had some baboons on her side. "Good morning... Gumba." She inwardly exhaled in relief at remembering his name. "I did, it was really good. Thanks for sharing yours with me."

He grinned, his ears wiggling in joy. 'You're very welcome, and I'm glad you liked them so much, cause guess what," he cheerfully chittered and stood up proudly, hands on his hips before throwing them widely. "We're gonna be foraging for them this morning!"

"Gumba, that was your bother's announcement to make," came the stern, yet motherly voice of the female, who seemed to share the most color similarities with her youngest, though the most in terms of hair volume with her eldest. The young monkey suddenly gasped and covered his paws over his mouth, before offering a sheepish grin towards Jibe.

"Whoops, sorry Jibe," he offered. Jibe only responded to him with an exasperated snort, but looked back over to her.

"He is right, you will be accompanying my family in order to forage and gather marula fruits. Come," he said, striding past her and nodded at her to follow. His parents and brother went on ahead, gracefully an acrobatically swinging across the treetops into the grove, quickly outpacing the two land-walkers.

With them both alone, Kiara decided to use the opportunity to talk to hm. "H-hey, Jibe. Um, so what is the purpose of all of this? You didn't really give any reason why you wanted me to come and it seems pretty weird that you want me just go pick fruit with you and your family, no offense." Jibe was leading the way, making big strides with his long front arms and more rapid, short steps with his back legs, though Kiara still had to walk a bit more quickly to keep behind him. He kept on walking face-forward, not even sparing her a glance back when he replied.

"You came to me asking that I join your team, yet I see that you yourself are still trying to figure out how to lead and learn about the land and its inhabitants you will one day protect. Knowing all the interconnecting parts of the Circle of Life's web is one thing, yet understanding it is another."

"What are you saying?" She quickly stopped before she could smack into his backside as he stopped and veered around, standing tall and firmly at her.

"You, princess, have a lot to learn about this land and it's people before you can even think of defending it. I'm asking you to join in on the discussion, be able to see things from others points of views, recognize the different walks and ways of life, and internalize them to grow and develop." He stuck out a hand and pointed it right at her chest. "You want to lead the Guard and have me join it, then prove yourself. We'll show you our ways, our struggles, our lives, and you can learn through experience. In return, you may tell us more about yourself and your species, and in doing so we can both gain in knowledge and experience."

He dropped his hand and turned, though kept his eyes locked over his shoulder at her.

"If you can prove that you are willing to put in the effort, time, and work into investing into the lives of those you'll need to care about and protect, you will have gained wisdom and experience for how to lead, and additionally, earned my trust and assistance. Now come, there is a lot ahead of you."

Kiara was frozen for a moment, watching him in stunned silence and awe. This baboon was stern, cold, and stubborn, yet immensely wise and perceptive. Hew was able to look at her and determine her goal and intentions and offer advice of what she needed to do. She knew already that she would have to prove her new status to her father, pride, the Pridelands, and, most of all, herself, though she never expected to have to prove it to her own team. Still, it made such incredible sense to an almost irritating degree. She was aware that she was a bit sheltered, having been held indoors or around her home for much of her life and only recently could go out without needed an escort, plus she had never really interacted with anyone outside of her family and pride. It made so much sense that she needed to prove herself worthy of the title and that she would be a good leader by personally investing in the lives surrounding her own, connecting on a more personal level and relating to them, in order to gain the knowledge which could be beneficial and possibly crucial in ensuring their safety and happiness.

Really, what Jibe was asking of her was very reasonable and mutually beneficial. Of course he wouldn't want to join the team of a sheltered lion cub he just met yesterday, he wanted to ensure that she wasn't lying or dishonest by proving her adamancy to him about him being part of the team and her devotion to the cause. Open-mindedness and loyalty was clearly what Jibe was looking from her and she needed to prove it to him.

Still a bit apprehensive though about this entire thing she had signed up for, though willing to give it a shot, no matter the time and energy spent to earn his trust and respect, she quickly scurried after him.

If there was one thing Kiara could give Mbio over Jibe, is that the wildebeest's requirements were a lot more straightforward and obvious. Run with the herd, learn their culture and significance among creatures, and earn their respect and trust in order to gain her fastest member. The bluntness was a welcome method and Kiara initially appreciated directness.

Although, if there was a big thing that Kiara could give Jibe over Mbio, it was the fact that his trust exercise involved joining in on family foraging, a relatively harmless, safe task, and most definitely not running beside an actual stampede of wildebeest. A quickly sprinting group of massive, sharp horned and heavy-hoofed herbivores thundering across the savanna, kicking up large quantities of dust and grass. And among them was a terrified and desperately running lion cub, adrenaline-fueled and scared for her life.

The vibration of the hoofbeats all around her was so disorienting and frightening to the small cub, as the noise filled her every senses and the hard keratin hitting the earth send shockwaves which buzzed up through her else and body, numbing them and making it difficult to be able to know whether or not her legs were actually moving or not. The dust and grass being kicked up kept getting in her face, into her eyes, mouth and nostrils, making it so hard to be able to senses anything through the constant irritation and inability to be able to focus on anything when everything tasted like green earth, looked blurry with the very occasional hoof nearly missing her, and the constant sneezing and coughing to dispel the dust from her nose.

And had she mentioned the massive wildebeest stampeding around her? These massive, heavy cows surged around her, somehow both everywhere and nowhere at the same time as she was stuck in the midst of all the dust clouds. Terror filled her entire body and fueled her muscles to keep moving and try to get out of all this chaotic danger, as she painfully recalled her dad's tale of the stampede he ha survived when he was younger. Though that herd must've been a hundred times larger then this one, which seemed to be about only ten if she counted correctly, it could've been a thousand in her fear-fueled state. The constant brays and grunts of the wildebeest, their loud hoofbeats, the suffocating, polluted air, the overwhelming vibrations, and the inability to sense anything else as soon as she had joined in the stampede, she was out of it.

Due to some divine intervention or whatever, Kiara tripped and fell, and the rest of the herd moved on without her almost instantly. The scared cub was left sprawled on the ground; dust and grass in her eyes and mouth, wheezing and coughing painfully, shivering in fear, several bruises and scrapes forming on her dirt-covered body, and fully exhausted.

And to add insult to injury, as soon as she could gain some semblance of awareness to her surroundings, her first recognition was a braying laughter, lighter, yet swift hoofbeats circling her, and a prideful, condescending grin on the calf's face. She knew at the start of this she had tried to follow after him, but got separated and lost when the rest of his herd caught up and left her in the dusty danger zone. He now galloped circles around her, his laughter mixed with his braying, and he stopped on a dime before her, smirking haughtily down at her.

"Ha! You call that running?! My lame grandmother who died last season could run much better than you," Mbio taunted. Kiara was still coughing heavily, hacking up the irritants from her respiratory system, and tears had gathered in her eyes from the painful particulates clinging to her lashes and the overall ordeal she had to go through. As soon as she could get in a word between all the sneezing, her voice was filled with anger and lingering fear.

"I almost... cough cough... died and you've got nothing but....cough cough cough... insults! You... cough you jerk!"

Mbio paused and then glared at her, narrowing his eyes as the young calf stood above her. "Hey! Don't blame me for what you did! You're the one who got to close to the middle of the herd. You aren't supposed to get that close inside, you're supposed to stay by the edges so that you don't get trapped and knocked around. Secondly, you kept your head to low when you ran, so of course you were getting all that dirt kicked in your face. Third, you weren't focusing where you were going, so obviously you tripped and-"

"-I was following you!"

He flattened his ears and leaned back as she stepped up on wobbly legs and got right into his face. "When I came here, you told me to follow your lead and just run with the herd! You didn't tell me any of that stuff and so of course I got caught in the midst of it!" She got up really close into his face and practically snarled, "I almost died and all you can do is joke abut it! You're so mean!!!"

She collapsed onto the ground before him, head and face buried under her dirty paws, her dust and grass-stained back and shoulders shaking, and an audible muffled sob coming up in broken hiccups.

After pausing in surprise for a moment, the wildebeest calf then began to panic and immediately knelt down before her. "H-hey, hey, hey! Hold on, don't cry! Please don't cry. Look, I'm sorry, I didn't want his to happen, I just thought you'd know to keep away from the rest of the herd and stick to the sides okay. So please stop crying, I'm really sorry, I really didn't mean for any for this happen, please forgive me, I'M SO SORRY!!!"

The wildebeest calf had now hyperventilating himself up and was now shedding tears too as the severity of the situation and the guilt really began to set in. He collapsed before her, hoof touching her paws, and wept, blubbering and begging for forgiveness.

Kiara shrugged off his hooves and sat up, inhaling sharply to compose herself and dislodge the phlegm from her nose. Her tears had made muddy lines down her dusty face and her eyes were very shiny with more tears, though she tried to keep a straight face. "I think I should go home now." With that she wobbly got up and began walking away, tail between her legs, ears and head hung low, and a slow, shaky pace.

Mbio wobbled up, wiped his muzzle against his leg, then hopped after her. "Hold on, wait, wait, wait, wait wait," he called out to her. "Um, so are you gonna come back tomorrow? Because, if you do, I can teach you what to do, away from the rest of the herd. I can show you all I know, all the things you should know about running, and help you understand my herd and culture. What do you say?"

Kiara was still trudging away, though lowed down to a stop, though didn't face hm. "...I don't think so."

"C'mon! It'll be safe if we do it away from the herd, though we can still run with them, just from a very long distance away. I can help explain my herd's way of doing things, and gives you tips of how to run and build of endurance. You can still get in the experience, but there's no risk. C'mon, pleaseeeee!"

Kiara was quiet for a second. She started to move again, though spared a small look over her shoulder at him.

"I'll think about it."

Kiara's gonna work hard for bravest and fastest members. Jibe's a stern critic and Mbio's gonna have to restrain his teasing in order to appeal to Kiara. Next we're gonna get a training montage, probably next month in 2022.

Edit: So we have Jibe and Gumba's father and mother debut here: Mbegu(seed) and Matunda(fruit). Mbegu immigrated here with his family when Jibe as a young child from the Backlands and has been trying to settle down in an area and raise his family up to be happy, healthy, and well-adjusted, which is a bit of a challenge considering that, despite migrating here legally and rightfully, native Pridelanders tend to look down on outsiders, no matter the species. So having the get resources has become a bit of a struggle for Mbegu's family between them and the other, usually more-membered troops and groups. Mbegu is sort of pushing Jibe along with Gumba for Jibe to consider Kiara's offer, since having a family member on the Lion Guard would give them respect and more benefits, thus making their lives easier, but also to hopefully get his oldest son to let down his walls and be more social.

Matunda is Gumba and Jibe's mother, Mbegu's mate, and is based on Gumba's mother from the Lion Guard. Matunda is a reasonable, kind, and loving mother to both her sons and her husband, though is more like Jibe in terms about how apprehensive about other animals living nearby. Unlike in the Lion Guard, she is not a member of Big Baboon's Troop , though is instead trying to make efforts to convince him to let her family join his group, to some difficulty. She does see the struggles her eldest son is doing in order to both support them and shield his brother a bit from the cruelty of the world and does wish he would relax and a bit, so she does end up agreeing with her husband and youngest about Jibe potentially joining Kiara's Lion Guard too, though does actively support Jibe first examining Kiara's character and merits first. After all, with a dangerous duty of being the Pridelands' first line of defense against threats, and management of internal affairs behind the king, which had proven to be a lot more complicated and less pleasant then the general view of things being butterflies and rainbows, peachy-keen which many outsiders and even native animals ignorantly and/or unknowingly believe it to be.

As for Mbio and his herd, yeah the poor lack of communication of Mbio's part really was afoul on Mbio's part, especially since wildebeest can enter into an almost trance-like, instinct-fueled state when they stampede, making it near impossible to perceive things like a young cub they're nearly trampling, which sort of was obvious, based on Simba's original stampede experience, but neither Mbio or Kiara had any way of knowing that/knowing to bring up. Anyways, it looks like Mbio is gonna have to work as much as Kiara to earn her trust/respect after that near-costly, dangerous screwup.

Merry Christmas guys!

Kiara © The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride © Walt Disney Animation Studios
Gumba © The Lion Guard © Walt Disney Animation Studios
Jibe, Mbegu, Matunda, Mbio, Mkia, Story, Art © Vtoony