doom'', when there was a loud Crack! from somewhere down the trunk area of the Palm Tree.
Gantua looked at Ebon. 'Uh-oh.'
'Eeeeeeeee,' whispered Ebon. 'Ganny. Whatever you do. Don't let Wafa up here . . . Especially after all those bugs he's eaten.'
Wafa's head erupted from out of the foliage.
'Yaaah!' Gantua cried, clutching Ebon tightly.
Ebon glared with narrowed eyes at Wafa, as a foreboding Crack! resounded from below.
'You did a bad, bad thing, Wafa my friend,' growled Ebon; he saluted the sky, pulled up his tights as high as they would go, kissed Wafa's bonce and hugged Gantua.
'When you've got a huge lump the size of Kilimanjaro on your not-so-very-sensible head, Wafa,' sighed Ebon, 'do tell me how it feels.'
CRRAAAAAACCKKKK!
'Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa - !!!'
Their screams were cut off by the WHUMPP! of the tree, as it hit the ground.
*
Ebon's legs stuck out of the flora of the snapped tree. He squiggled his toes.
'Lost me tights,' he muttered in a muffled voice. 'Dwat.'
'What a pity,' came Gantua's voice from under some branches. 'They suited you.'
Wafa crawled out of the greenery; his eyes were unbelievably huge.
'How's our little monkey, then?' asked Ebon, who had managed to struggle out from the leaves, apparently with large coconut in each cheek - he spat these out. 'Fthwawfp!'
'Oh, dear. Look at Wafa,' moaned Gantua, hiding her face with a paw, but then peeking through her claws. Wafa had the biggest bump history had ever known on his head; it was the size of thirty Kilimanjaros!
'Crashing coconuts!' shrieked Ebon, before he suddenly began scuffling around in the tree foliage.
'Ah-ha! Got 'em!' He whipped out his stripey tights from somewhere and gave one of its feet to Gantua, who had scuttled out from under the branches.
'We are gonna stretch these tights,' Ebon explained, 'And then whip them over Wafa's mountain to bandage it. Ready?'
Gantua squealed, 'Let's do it, Ebi!' and began pulling at the tights with the strength of The Incredible Hulk.
'Pull, Ebonny!' she cried with laughter.
Ebon strained until his eyes began to bulge. Then he staggered up to Wafa's bump, clambered heroically over it, and flopped down exhausted on the other side.
'Phew!' he gasped. 'That was just like climbing thirty Kilimanjaros!'
Wafa sweated buckets full after carrying Ebon's weight on his bump.
'Look, Ebon,' Gantua said, gaping at the tights.' We have really stretched them...!'
Rriiipppp!
'...Oh, dear.'
'Aaeaaaaaaaa!' cried Ebon, letting the torn-in-half tights go suddenly (so that they twanged into Gantua's face) and nibbled his paws in anxiety. 'What are we going to do! What can we use instead of my tights?'
'Let me help!' said a voice, and all of a sudden there was a baboon with a big staff in his hand standing next to Wafa.
'I am Rafiki!' said the baboon.
Gantua fixed her little eyes on the new-comer.
'How?' she murmured, looking Rafiki up and down twenty times.
'How what?' said Rafiki, frowning.
'Ho-o-o-o-w can y-o-o-o-u help Wafa?' answered Ebon for his mate, putting a protective paw on Wafa's shoulder and scowling.
'Yeah!' said Gantua with a nod. She walked up to Rafiki and stuck her face infront of his. 'That's what I said!' Then she smiled sweetly and bounced back to Ebon's side.
But the baboon ignored the two lions. He was already tearing off a handful of palm leaf and peeling a banana which hung on his staff. Then he began squeezing the torn leaf and banana together in his fist. As he squeezed, he sang:
'When someone has a bump,
As big as the moon,
The best way to heal it,
Is to heal it up soon.
A-ya A-ya!
Co-co-co!
'So take a mashed banana,
And the leaf of a palm,
Then mix the two together,
To make uponyaji* balm!
A-ya A-ya!
Co-co-co!'
Gantua and Ebon watched, gobsmacked.
'Where did you learn to sing?' Gantua stammered.
'Oh, Ganny, Ganny!' said Ebon in patronizing tones. 'What do mean, where did he learn to sing?! It's obvious that he went to singing lessons in the town of Hebo Kuimba on the Island of Atlantis where the Bomba Howler Monkey's live . . . Didn't you, Rafiki?'
Rafiki gave Ebon a funny look, but then he shrugged and smeared the mixture he had made all over Wafa's forehead.
Nothing happened . . . Then . . .
Pop!
Gone was Wafa's thirty-Kilimanjaro bump!
'Golly!' gasped Ebon. He inspected Wafa's head.
'Uh?!' cried Gantua, looking through Wafa's hair for the lump.
'Hey, old, wise monkey of great healing wisdom!' yelled Ebon to Rafiki, who was about to leave. 'Don't go yet! How can we repay you for your help?'
Rafiki smiled and shook his head, but Ebon insisted. 'Oh, but we must give you something,' he said, looking around. 'Hey, Gantua, how about giving him those stripey tights?'
Gantua looked at Ebon out of eyes the size of tea trays, and she stuck out her bottom lip.
'But I thought those tights were yours, Ebi!' she protested, sulkily. 'They were my prezzie to you.' Then she pulled off her tu-tu and handed it to Rafiki. 'You can have this instead, baboon.'
Rafiki looked at the pink, frilly tu-tu, with a dead-pan expression on his face, and he stammered: 'Eh-hem, no thanks. Really, I couldn't.'
'No, really,' Gantua smiled, as she pulled the dress over the baboon. She stepped back to stand beside Ebon. 'Awww!' she commented.
Rafiki found the tu-tu rather uncomfortable to wear - it was extremely itchy.
'Look,' the baboon said, after a couple of minutes, and wriggled out of Gantua's ballet garment. 'If I'm to have anything, I will have ... hmm ... this!'
Rafiki had found Wafa's Calming Machine, and crammed the device on to his head.
Gantua nodded.
'Take it, take it. I am feeling generous today! But ... are you sure you don't want the dress? It sort of ... suited ... you.'
' ...Gantua!' squeaked Ebon suddenly. 'We can't let him have that terrible machine. Remember what happened to me?!'
But alas, Rafiki had already pressed the ON button.
'Oops!' gasped Gantua, as she grasped both Wafa and Ebon at the same time. 'Oops! The baboon is gonna get it!'
And the two lions and the baby monkey waited with bated breath.
Actually Rafiki seemed quite normal. Looking at the others, confused at their sudden silence, he sat down; which was quite an expected action, rather normal, nothing unusual really.
Then he casually picked up a speck of dust and studied it; kinda strange, but again, not exactly unusual.
'I'm sure he'll start acting up any moment now,' muttered Ebon.
'Ahh, moments,' sighed Rafiki, lying down. 'I quote: Life isn't a matter of milestones, but of moments. Rose Kennedy.'
'I told you!' cried Ebon, stamping a paw in triumph. 'He's lost it!'
*
A short while passed, spent by Ebon and Gantua playing American football (using Wafa as the ball), and by Rafiki uttering as many quotes as he could remember.
'To be or not to be, that is the question, William Shakespere. Never, never, never give up, Winston Churchill . . .' babbled the baboon, on and on, until at long last he ran out of quotes and went over to observe Ebon and Gantua's game.
'Come on, Ganny!' cried Ebon, running in a tight circle with Wafa in his arms, as Gantua just stood, grinning. 'Tackle Wafa from me!'
'I will, I will,' giggled Gantua..
'Och, whit rubbish footba' players you are,' remarked Rafiki, putting on a Scottish accent. 'Throw the wee monkey to me an ah'll show you how to play properly!'
Ebon, with a doubtful shrug, passed Wafa to Rafiki, who picked up a coconut and cracked it open. Then the baboon started drawing pictures on Wafa's head with the coconut milk.
'Hey, what about your football expertise!' growled Ebon sarcastically.
'Even as a footballer,' murmured Rafiki, 'I was always being creative. I quote Eric Cantona.'
Then suddenly Rafiki snatched up Wafa again and leapt away like a speeding bullet.
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