Studying (Fuli)

[Samwel Igwe]

Sam had finally started to take up research notes.

Thankfully he’d had his backpack and what few precious objects he had in it at the time of the crash. So keeping a journal on things in the Pridelands was easy. Thought who’d ever get a chance to read it? Who knew. Probably no one in his lifetime he figured, but he could at least have it for himself.

Today he was observing cubs again.

But moreso a whole group of them that had gotten together to play. It amazes him how in the Pridelands it seemed like all the species existed in harmony. If anything humans could learn a thing or two about that, he figured. Chewing the end of his pencil he frowned, wondering what he’d do when and if the led broke.

“Let’s not think about that.” He muttered as he lazed bellow a tree.

[Fuli]

Fuli was out hunting earlier that day when she picked up a weird scent. Not one she recognized, which was strange, since she knew almost every animal scent imaginable. Stranger still, the scent was accompanied by highly irregular, long and near identical tracks, which she also didn't recognize. Deciding to investigate, the cheetah began stalking.

A few minutes later, she found herself peeking through a few strands of grass at a figure about 20 tails away, which she could only describe as an incredibly scrawny, mostly furless baboon with no tail, draped in some kind of... pelt? Or was it a big leaf? And it had some kind of weird rock/leaf/piece of bark thing in its front paws, which it rubbed with a small yellow twig from time to time.

A new discovery! Now this was exciting.

Judging by how short its claws were, and its lack of any apparent muscle, it shouldn't be too much of a threat. And it looked just a little smaller than her. But you never really knew for sure. And judging by how unfamiliar it looked, she guessed it was a new arrival to the Pridelands. A traveller from afar perhaps?

At first she thought it was just lazy, sitting there all day long. But eventually she noticed that its eyes kept coming back to one thing off in the distance; a group of lion cubs playing together. Was it... a predator?

This wouldn't be the first time a random poacher tried hunting in the Pridelands without permission. But hunting lion cubs? She wasn't a huge fan of most lions, but still, that wasn't very nice. It had been a long time since she was officially a Lion Guard member, but Fuli still knew how to kick tails if need be. Slowly, silently, she retreated into the grass before looping around to approach the strange animal from behind. Then, with practiced precision, she crept up in a hunter's crouch, her tail kept low and still and her body close to the ground. Her back leg muscles tensed, prepared to pounce.

Maybe give it a warning? She'd be losing the element of surprise. But the thing looked too weak to fight back anyways. Besides, never hurt to give the benefit of the doubt.

"Would you mind explaining why you're stalking cubs?" she asked in a casual tone.

[Samwel Igwe]

Sam nearly jumped out of his skin.

But was quickly surprised to find a Cheetah… Whoa. A full grown cheetah. At first, he backed up with a little bit of apprehension before reminding himself he was actually interacting with an intelligent one. Good going, Irons, now you looked like a coward.

Taking a deep breath, he shook his head.

“Stalking!? No, no I’m studying. I’m allowed to be here,” Sam replied honestly. “Princess Kiara and the rest of them have been housing me in Pride Rock.”

He paused a moment before turning his journal around. Hoping the pictures may put the creature more at ease. “See? I was drawing… Taking notes,” he explained. “It’s not every day uh someone like me gets to watch cubs play like this.”

Honestly, he sounded more nervous than he should have been. But the last thing he wanted was to make a Cheetah angry,

[Fuli]

Fuli listened to the... thing explain himself. Her tail flicked with impatience as the animal stuttered through his explanation, but eventually, she tentatively raised herself out of her attack crouch.

Usually, someone this surprised wouldn't be able to lie effectively. But this explanation did raise some further questions.

Her ears and tail still raised in an alert stance, Fuli padded towards the creature. The cheetah approached to within a whisker of the animal, and leaned her head down to inspect the mysterious item. It seemed the animal's twig scratching had some significance after all. The patterns looked kind of like Rafiki's cave paintings, although the material was different and there was much less color, only white and grey. She reached out a paw to feel the substance, and to her surprise, it was kind of soft.

"And who would 'someone like you' be anyways?" she inquired, lowering her paw and looking the animal directly in the eyes, their heads now on the same level. Fuli's was a tiny bit bigger. Her vibrant green eyes held a great deal of suspicion, but weren't overtly hostile looking.

[Samwel Igwe]

Oh! Right, he kept forgetting that no one had seen a human before him.

All the same, he did decide to keep a big smile and at least attempt to speak friendly. At least she didn’t seem to be ready to attack anymore, he had probably made the right call keeping himself calm and remembering his training. Thanks David.

“Oh, I’m a human, don’t worry according to Rafiki no one has seen me so I’m “new”,” Sam explained in air quotes. “I come from a long, long way from here and I guess I’m kind of stranded now. Hence the whole weird situation.”

At this point, he’d just kind of accepted that, as was obvious by his matter-of-fact presenting of it. “I’m Sam, by the way,” he explained. “You’re a cheetah right? Pretty cool, I got to work with one or two of you with my er… Guardian before. Never this close though - not adults at least.”

Hell, he’d only gotten to work up close with a lion a handful of times before this. His job had been mostly to observe from a safe distance and learn what he could. “He’d probably lose his mind if he saw the amount of animals I’ve gotten up close and personal with the last two weeks.”

[Fuli]

In her time on the Lion Guard, Fuli encountered a lot of strangers. Some were good, but most weren't. She was pretty good at sniffing out the bad ones by now, and this "human" didn't fit the description. Thank goodness, she didn't need any more enemies.

The cheetah mostly relaxed at this point. Ears raised in a normal position, tail hung high but not too high, legs and neck nearly vertical. She tilted her head in curiosity as the human explained his situation, his name, and apparently some prior life experiences. Apparently he was a traveller too. Well, that was a start.

"Guardian? I... never mind."
Fuli assumed that was a term for some kind of parental figure, different context, different meaning. There was only one Guard.
"What work are you talking about? I assume you do this often," she said, pointing with her tail towards the strange tablet he'd been marking earlier. "Why? What's it for?"

[Samwel Igwe]

Thanking god that the Cheetah relaxed, Sam tilted his head.

He supposed maybe studying wasn’t something that animals did often, that was interesting. He could tell that they taught their young some stuff, but maybe they understood more about themselves than humans did about them.

Thinking carefully, he decided his next words. “So I got stranded here because I worked with a researcher - his name was David,” he explained. “Back home, humans don’t really understand animals… And we can’t just ask them things like you can here. So we study them, to learn more about your world.”

Looking up and deciding what else to say, he added. “David taught me everything he knows. He worked with animals like you guys for decades,” he explained honestly. “His specialty was lions, but he’d been all over the world - researching, helping… He told me stories that were just, wild.”

The lump in his throat reminded him how much despite himself, he missed him. Taking a deep breath, he added. “It really should be him out here. But he died protecting me,” he admitted, cringing. “I still don’t get why, honestly. I’ve only been working with animals for a couple of years. He was more equipped for all of this.”

[Fuli]

All of a sudden, the cat's suspicious glare crumbled, and she stifled a laugh.
"Don't understand animals? Do they have a hard time with self-assessment or what?"

The cheetah snickered, but then stopped as the human continued his story. As quickly as it came, her smile vanished, replaced by a calm blank stare. While cheetahs didn't care for families, Fuli knew other animals often did so very deeply. So while she couldn't really empathize, she could still try to offer support.

"Sorry for your loss," she said flatly. That was what everyone told her to say in this situation, and she supposed it worked well enough.

[Samwel Igwe]

Sam shook his head.

He guessed that did sound weird. After all, he was sitting there, talking to her like he would talk to anyone else back home. But still, after a long moment he decided to explain. "Animals back home can't talk. In fact, I think this is the only place in the world I've seen where you can," He explained honestly. "Mostly animals back home communicate through growls, barks, purrs... You know, sounds."

"Sorry for your loss."

There were four years he hadn't thought he'd have to hear again in his life. The first time had been when his mom died, and honestly he'd felt literally nothing since she had been a horrible person. Never really a mother. But now, he did feel something, real, honest pain. "Thanks... I guess. I don't know, still wrapping my mind around it," The teen admitted. "I've gone through eight different people in my life - lost a lot of them. I'm still trying to figure out why this one hurts so much."

After all, he wasn't much of a family person either. Yet, anyway.

[Fuli]

The cheetah shrugged, not really knowing what to say. Eight other parent figures dead? That was a lot. Fuli couldn't really imagine what that was like, but it couldn't be pleasant.

Fuli never even saw her father, nor did she care to, and didn't remember her mother's name. Their departure didn't hurt her, but maybe that was because she never really had anything to lose in them. Or maybe she didn't need anything from them. It was always tricky for her to figure out how love worked in the minds of other animals. Good thing she rarely needed to.

"Well, I just move on from stuff like that, but I don't know how you deal with it," she said in an unusually casual tone for the subject. "Good luck with whatever you're doing."
A little encouragement never hurt anyone, right?

[Samwel Igwe]

How he deals with it?

That was a good question, even if they weren't necessarily dead like Fuli said. Foster care and orphanages were after all, a thing. But still, he couldn't help but realize that he dealt with it sometimes by... Not dealing with it. Shaking it off however, he did have another thought that came to mind. "You know, I'd really be interested in a few things about you cheetahs, if you have a minute," He admitted. "Like I know it's silly... But you're the first one I think I've seen this close like I said."

After a moment, he offered. "Like how fast exactly do you guys go? No one back home agrees on a speed," He admitted honestly.

[Fuli]

As Fuli listened to the human, she couldn't conceal the growing smirk on her muzzle. Cheetah facts were one of the only conversation topics Fuli could reliably work with, given that she was, well, a cheetah. And she didn't mind him asking at all.

"Nothing to feel silly about!" she said enthusiastically. Her whole body seemed to perk up a bit, and she blinked a few short times. An indicator of excitement or interest in cat body language, not that Sam was likely to understand.

"Cheetah speed varies. Actually, that's probably why you humans can't agree on a speed. I'm guessing you don't all run the same, right? That's how it is for every species. But I think most cheetahs can do at least thirty tails a second, and some..."
The cat confidently stretched her forelegs.
"Quite a bit more. Either way, we're the fastest animals in the world. Some say we can outrun even the wind."

She placed a forepaw on her chest. "I've seen some real fast wind before, and I believe that story."

[Samwel Igwe]

Sam actually looked dumbfounded.

To hear a lot of theories confirmed by a cheetah? It really was the biggest “this is so damn cool” moment. Finally, he decided to reply to some of her questions. “Yeah, we do have different speeds. A lot of it is about body weight and endurance for us,” he explained. “Like, I’m pretty fast. But I got lots of practice back home. Running from adults - outsmarting them.”

Ok maybe not the best gloat, but whatever.

Either way. He added. “That’s pretty awesome that you guys can go that fast though. Even if it’s also a little scary,” he admitted. After all, you didn’t want to get chased down by a full-grown cheetah right? “How fast do you clock in at? Ever tried to see if you go that fast?”

[Fuli]

Fuli cocked her head in confusion at the comment about running from adults, but continued to listen. Other animals were always weird. Maybe they practiced infanticide or something.

She perked right back up though as Sam continued his rambling. Flattery wasn't helpful, but it certainly felt good.
When he asked his next question, she actually had to jog her memory a bit.
"Hmm, I think it was... about twenty-five moons ago. Yeah, I remember now." Her eyes wandered as the memory came back to her. "Ran from the Outlands border to Pride Rock in half a minute. Full sprint all the way. I think I hit 50 tails a second," she noted with pride. "I wanted to pass out by the end, but somehow I kept going. I guess the stakes were pretty high. The King's life was at risk."

The cheetah snickered softly. "I used to solve everyone else's problems for them. Sometimes I wonder how the Pridelands ever functioned without me."

[Samwel Igwe]

Sam could tell she was confused.

Of course, he didn’t mind at least sharing a little bit about himself. What with Fuli being so willing to offer up information, it was only fair right? “… It’s a long story. But back home, people didn’t like it when kids like me weren’t under their control,” that was how he saw it anyway. Especially when he considered they had wanted him to be in an orphanage - he shuddered. “So I was always kind of running - y’know? I don’t need to be thrown in with a bunch of other so-called “orphans” and told what to do all day. So I gave them a run for their money.”

Whoa. Sam’s mouth gaped.

Well she certainly had those bragging rights. It definitely sounded like Fuli had had an exciting life at least. “That’s really cool actually… Even if I’m sure it got annoying having to constantly help all the time like you said,” he explained honestly. “It actually kind of makes you sound like a hero, like The Flash! He’s the fastest man on Earth.”

Sam went into his backpack, and brought out one of a handful of comics he’d brought. Namely The Flash. The world’s fastest man alive. “People love him! I mean he’s kind of not real, but it’s still cool,” he explained as he pointed to the festively covered human on the cover. “He got that power from an accident, though, couldn’t be that fast without it. So you’ve kind of got a leg up on him.”