him. "We have to stay patient."

"Yes, you cannot let your nerves get the better of you when attempting to catch prey." Tanya told them when she heard this. "You have to focus on the task at hand and perform every trick that you know get your feed, otherwise your excitability could cause distraction and then you fail. But I want you to leave this to us. We have our own little tricks to catch our prey, so we will use them; and I want you hyenas to back us up in the case that they may escape. This is how we will do it..."

She then explained, again quietly so as not to allow the prey ahead of them to hear anything or they might flee - to the hyena clan, their 'Cage of Death' maneuver that they used for hunting, forming a circle of lionesses around the prey and trapping them in the middle, which would then allow the lionesses to attack from all angles and block any possible gaps for them to potentially break through and escape.

"You can help us on this..." Tanya continued to them. "...by creating an 'outer circle' around the exterior of the Cage, so you have you own 'Outer Cage of Death', if you will, to back us up and attack any prey that may escape the Cage, and then we can pretty much guarantee that from every hunt, we will not miss out on a feed."

"Well thought out." Shenzi replied, impressed with this hunting leader's experience and broad thinking ability.

"And yes, I believe that we can handle this."

"Oohh, ha ha ha ha ha, yeah!" Ed excitedly laughed, renowned by his two counterparts for not saying much at all except just crazy hysterics.

"Shut up, Ed!" Banzai exclaimed with a lowered voice as he gave his crazy friend a light slap. "They are going to hear us. So stay put!"

Ed obliged by ceasing his laugh and nodding, while also breaking out a sheepish smile.

"Alright then, listen up, the rest of you." The hunting leader commanded to her fellow lionesses. "You know what must be done. Half of you go to the left and half of you go to the right. Each group forms each half of the Cage. But remember to keep hidden in the long grass, creep slowly and keep a sharp eye for any twigs or rocks in your path. Then once you are in position, raise your tails; but ensure that you raise them enough to allow me to see the tips. Try and not show too much of the full length or that may indicate to the prey that we are here if they look up." She then directed her head towards the hyenas. "I want you to do likewise, but remember to stay where you are and let us do the attacking." The wild dogs nodded their heads before the hunting leader then moved her attention back to her own kind. "I will then raise my own tail to signal when to attack. Understood?"

"Yes." Replied most of the pride, while the others nodded.

"Alright, then. Go to your positions."

And the lionesses split up into two even groups and headed to the left and right 'buffer zones' around the grazing antelope, each lioness obeying instruction and practically crawling slowly at a low position in the long grass so that they would not be heard or seen. As for the hyenas, they did likewise but also took the liberty of observing the positions of each lioness so that they knew where to situate themselves. They did so by distancing themselves more than fifty yards further back from the 'inner circle' of the big cats. While moving to get into position, several hyenas were not quite as silent or steady with occasional rustling being made, but the antelope did not hear this as they were further away and the sound would be too faint for ears to pick up on, so the wild dogs managed to find their positions without trouble.

Tanya waited patiently in her position on the south of the inner circle of the Cage for the signal from her hunting crew and the hyenas that they were ready. She continued to stalk the prey while she waited, and as it turned out, they continued to graze without moving much more than a few yards at a time, so she knew that the pride would not have to abort their plan and move away.

Meanwhile, It had taken a little while for each individual to find their place of attack as they needed to crawl slowly to avoid being noticed by the prey. But after several minutes, Tanya eventually spotted a couple of brown fur tips just above the high grass canopy on the west side. She knew that they were the tail tips of the hunting group, and soon enough, she spotted several more tails emerging from the high grass from the east side; then eventually the remaining ones belonging to both groups appeared. Tanya knew then that they were ready to attack, but she also had to wait for the hyenas to follow suit before she was ready to raise her own tail and signal to go. Soon enough, several hyenas were seen raising their hips to show their black tails, but their rumps were also fairly visible. She took note of the fact that their darker green and brown colouring stood out from the yellow high grass and therefore would not be able to camouflage as well as lions usually could. The small but amusing issue of their rear ends showing was also on her mind.

I think we have to change our 'game plan' here a little bit. The hunting leader thought, reflecting on the strategy that she had set for the hunt and found out that it might not work as well for future reference. I can't just have the hyenas’ rear ends showing up all the time. The prey might see them and they would get embarrassed, seemingly 'mooning' all the time. I don't think that the animals of the savannah would want to see that either. She then snickered lightly to herself. But she only took a little time to think this as she had to concentrate on the task at hand.

Very soon, all the hyena's tails were arched, and Tanya then knew that the time to attack was now. She immediately raised her tail and every single lioness confirmed that they saw it when they began to charge at their prey in the centre of their created radius. 

The antelope caught the sound of pounding paws and rustling grass immediately and looked up, but this was all that they would be able to do without being able to react in time as several lionesses hit them with hard tackles into their sides. From all angles, the remaining pride then entered and did likewise. The attack resulted in five antelope down on the ground and at the mercy of their predators; the remaining numbers escaping from them to the west. But these escapees were heading to the 'outer circle' of the Cage of Death, unaware that they were about to encounter a bunch of surprise predators.

"Here they come!" Shenzi, who was hidden on the west side, commanded to her fellow hyenas when she saw the prey attempting to escape and come straight in their direction. "Attack! Now!"

Out of the high grass, she and two other of the green and brown predators jumped and stopped one antelope in their tracks. As soon as it did, Shenzi reacted quickly and bit it hard on it's hind leg, at which a snap was heard. The thin-legged animal let out a cry of agonized pain as its ankle bone had just been crushed by the powerful jaws of the female hyena. Sensing their opportunity, the other two hyenas charged at it and knocked it down to the ground. As soon as they did, one snapped its jaws on the throat and held on very tight. The antelope cried in agony again and tried to break free from the grasp, but the wild dog held on very tight and squeezed to make it suffocate. Then after almost a minute of struggling, the antelope stopped moving completely: It had been killed. 

The hyena then let go of its throat and let its lifeless head drop to the ground. Blood was smeared around the mouth and on the fangs of the predator as he satisfactorily looked on at the successful kill that he and his counterparts had made. Shenzi and the third hyena smiled and did likewise.

"Beautifully executed." She proudly said to them. "Well done and good instincts, you two. This should be enough to last us for a couple of days, but with the other catches made I hope that it will last longer until we will have to hunt again. I have to say that we haven't been able to do this for a while since we got kicked out of our home, so it will be so good to taste the sweetness of meat again."

"I know what you mean." The blood-mouthed hyena responded. "The belly is starved and I can't wait to eat again."

"Yeah, let's dig in!" The third hyena, eager and excited to get a feed in, insisted to them as he advanced onto the antelope's dead body. But before he could take a bite, Shenzi jumped in his way.

"Woah, woah!" She exclaimed to him, giving him a stern look but then calming down. "We have to wait. We need to check on the others and see how they went with their catches. Then we will have to drag it back to the den so we all get a feed together. Come."

The other two obliged and followed their co-leader to check on the pride and their fellow hyenas.
Meanwhile, all hunting lionesses had formed a circle around the kills that they had made. In the middle, three bodies of dead antelope lay with blood coming from their necks and throats where they had been attacked. All were looking very satisfied with their efforts, and Tanya agreed.

"This is a sufficient amount to last us all for at least a few more days." She was saying, impressed with the efforts from the clan. "There should even be enough for the hyenas."

"And a bit more!" A rough voice called from behind them, who had seemingly tuned his ears to that  comment.
They turned around and spotted Banzai and several