Altering the plan

[summerrain]

Three days had passed since they had attacked the Sani, who had taken shelter with the Pridelanders. They had left with the weaker of the Sani cubs, as well as the Pridelander Queen, who had interfered.

"Salai, what should we do with the old lioness?" asked one of his followers.

"We leave her," he responded. "She'll only get in the way of our objective. If we bring her with us, the Pridelanders will follow. All we need is the remainder of the royal Sani."

"Yes sir."

They arived. It was after sunset. Stars were shimmering in the heavens. The water shone with the reflected stars.

"Leave her here," Salai spoke. "She's far enough from our hideout. Leave her here. If she wakes, she survives. If not, she dies. We have no quarrel with her, nor are we on the same side. She is the message. All who protect the Sani's old queen and her family will deal with us."

His followers rushed to comply with his order. How many of them had he threatened before they followed him? Too many. The others simply knew how he was when he was angry, and they didn't want to see him like that.

It was late. The sky began to pale toward sunrise on the fourth day since the battle. The band of rogues moved past the waterhole, and the grass swayed as it always does. The sun rose on a waterhole that it normally did. The rogues were long gone. As was the Sani princess known as Layla.

[Narifia]

      Two pairs of eyes peered anxiously and curiously out from beneath the bush under which their owners had ducked when they'd caught scent of the approaching rouges. Their late night tryst by the waterhole had been cut unexpectedly short and, being frustrated with their confinement to the bush and having nothing better to do (well, that they could have done noiselessly, at any rate), they'd opted to watch and listen.

      "Leave her here. She's far enough from our hideout. Leave her here. If she wakes, she survives. If not, she dies. We have no quarrel with her, nor are we on the same side. She is the message. All who protect the Sani's old queen and her family will deal with us."

      A lioness was dumped by the waterhole--right in the spot where the two in the bush had just been getting acquainted, causing one of them to stifle a giggle-snort and the other to elbow her companion in the ribs irritatedly. She gave him a look as if to say "Cut it out or you'll get us killed," then they looked again at the lioness--she looked very familiar somehow--and exchanged intrigued glances. They watched carefully as the rouges left, and once they were well out of sight, sound, and smelling range, the two pairs of eyes emerged cautiously from their hiding spot.

      "Yer kiddin' me," said the male as he stepped into the earliest rays of sunlight, revealing the burly figure of a hyena as he stooped to study the battered lioness. "Yer seriously kiddin' me. Shim'ra, are you seein' what I'm seein'?"

      The female hyena known as Shim'ra grinned a toothy grin and let out a slow, hearty chuckle. "If you're seeing an easy way for me to become the new Roh'mach, I am."

      The male grinned. "I was thinkin' 'royal buffet' myself, but that sounds good too. So what do you want to do with 'er?"

      "What do you THINK I want to do with her, Kal'chak? C'mon, help me carry her."

      Kal'chak hesitated and fidgeted nervously. "Hey uh, Shim'ra?"

      "Yeah?"

      "We gonna finish what we wer' doin' first...?"

      "With a half-dead lioness layin' next to us and those nasty Pridelanders prolly out for blood lookin' for their monarch?" Shim'ra scoffed. "Forget it."

      Kal'chak was visibly vexed. His hopes dashed, he did the only thing he really could do and let out a disappointed sigh as he bent down to help her lift Queen Nala. The two hyenas nosed underneath Nala's unconscious form and, grunting with the effort, lifted her from the ground. By Shim'ra's direction they started walking back home towards the Elephant Graveyard. As they walked, Kal'chak glanced at Shim'ra uneasily. "H-hey, what about the Tournament? That's still goin' on, ya know. And it's not like the Tournament can be stopped. It's ordained by Roh'kash 'erself."

      "There are loopholes for every tradition and ceremony, my friend. Just wait and see what your ol' girl Shim'ra comes up with and don't worry your pretty little head about it, hmm? There's a good lad."

      Kal'chak grunted in reply, grinning. From then on the two walked in silence, struggling and stumbling occasionally under the weight of their burden, until they had reached the border of their dreary home.