twitchy manner, but she paused to take a breather first.

“It’s a message from one off Kali’s girls. She said, you’re not going to believe this, they’ve captured a lioness! No kidding, they say they’ve got a lioness! So I was all like, no way, so I went over to check it out and, dig this, there really was a lioness! And the funny thing is, I mean, what are the chances; she actually asked to see you, Vincent! Said she was like, an envoy or something, but I don’t know what the hell that is so I thought like, no way, buzz off. But then she said like, tell him it’s me then he’ll come over, and I was still like, yeah right. But I was kinda curious too and then Kali suggested I’d come get you so I did and…”

“And here you are, right, I get the picture,” Vincent kindly interrupted her, “Calm down, will ya, or you’ll drawn in your own verbal flood.”

“Hehe, that’s for a fact. Anyway, sure sounds like one arrogant furball… Considrin’ what they did to us we ought to eat that lioness alive…” Banzaï grinned, “By the way, you mentioned she said you ought to ‘like’, tell us who she is. I kinda seem to have not heard that part.”

“Oh right, gosh I like, forgot ‘cause I had to tell a lot and I was like hurried and… oh, right… whoops… eh, I think she said her name was Vitani or something.”

Vincent and Banzaï paused and looked at each other for a while, partly to annoy the messenger. Nothing more irritating than you having to hurry so others can loaf around. After a while, Banzaï finally addressed Vincent.

“What are you looking at me for, who were you expecting? ‘s Not like you know that much lionesses you know.”

“Yeah… still, it’s been a while… Didn’t really think she’d remember us…”

“You remembered her, didn’t ya?”

“Yeah, sure did… damn, this blows… I mean, I wouldn’t like to see her get ‘eaten alive’, you know?”

“No? Anyway; you’d better step on it then: if Shenya decides to make those killings earlier public, I don’t think your lioness will last long.”

“Yeah, especially with that creep Kali ’round… Figures she had to be the one to bump into her. Better get this over with quick. Meanwhile, do me a favor and try talking some sense into that blockhead Shenya, would you please?”

“You really shouldn’t be calling her names like that, you know. She’s the only sister you’ve got, and besides, she was kinda right.”

“I know… that’s what bugs me the most... It’s not like I enjoy having to act all sociopath, but someone’s got to voice reason ‘round here. Well, gota go… tell her I’m sorry, will ya?”

“I’ll tell her you want to talk things out tonight and you’re prepared to admit you were wrong.”

Vincent had the urge to correct that last one a bit, by adding his errors lay mostly in the way he voiced his opinions, but the messenger, all annoyed and worked up by now, practically dragged him from the scene. As Vincent disappeared, Banzaï looked around: talking about Shenya made him remember Seko. But where the hell did that pussy sneak off to? Must’ve buggered out when that messenger was all talkative, Banzaï considered.

***

“So eh… what’s up, boss?”

“Don’t call me boss, I ain’t no-one’s boss.”

“Right… but what’s going on? I mean, with the lioness and all.”

Vincent sighed. Seeing as the story of him meeting Vitani involved a lot of not-following-orders, he wasn’t really inclined to share too much information. But the messenger was quite persistent.

“We eh… we met at the border… on patrol. And in stead off trying to kill each other, we decided a chat would be more desirable. Things like that were still possible, back when them outlanders weren’t just another flavor of pridelanders.”

And when Vitani was still just a lioness and not a relative of him.

“That’s nice… We ought to do that more often, just having a chat instead of like, killing each other.”

“Indeed…”

Suddenly, out of the dense vegetation, Seko appeared. He seemed a bit shocked to bump into Vincent, but made his way back to the den without even bothering to acknowledge the other’s existence.

“Nice day to you too, creep…” Vincent grumbled, “What the hell was he doing here?”

“I’m sure he went to check out the lioness, ‘cause if like, someone told me ‘hey we’ve captured a real life lioness’ I’d sure love to go see it.”

“Yeah, probably…”

Vincent didn’t pay any further notice to it, and they continued towards where the lion was kept. Vincent noticed they were nearing the White-pass cliff. The scenery of the river and the White Passes across the stream you got there was about the only sightseeing one could do around hyena territory. When you do, always watch your step though. After about half an hour they suddenly spotted a tall, broad hyena blocking their path. Judging by both her size and light fur, it had to be Kali, former heir to the Westclan. As they approached, Vincent also noticed Kiuma and Umwa, the ever present acolytes of Kali. Her other four cronies were nowhere to be seen though, probably guarding Vitani. As usual, Kali seemed a bit disgusted at the sight off him. Them not getting along at all wasn’t a big secret. And who could blame her, seeing as Vincent’s dad was responsible for the death of Kali’s mother, the first and last Westclan matriarch.

“Evening, Vincent. I presume you’ve come to check out our lion-friend over there?” Kali asked. Vincent couldn’t help but notice she was trying to act way nicer than he had come to expect of her, but didn’t pay further attention to it.

“I’ll take it from here, Kim,” Kali suggested, looking at the messenger. She nodded, and took off, leaving Vincent alone with Kali’s group. Kali apparently wanted to keep the lioness hush-hush too, or so Vincent presumed.

“Right, now where is this mysterious lioness of yours?” Vincent asked, attempting to avoid conversation with Kali, who seemed inclined to do the same and lead the way. After a few meters, they reached a small clearing. There was Vitani, casually stretched out on the ground, trying to look all at ease. Vincent recognized her instantly, as she seemingly hadn’t changed one bit. Apart from the fact she had gotten fatter, that was: an abundance of food undoubtedly was one of the many positive effects to the reunion of the prides. Vincent still remembered when they heard about the reunion, about one year ago.To the hyenas, there had been nothing positive about it, quite to the contrary: it had seemed like a nightmare come true.

As Vincent looked behind him, he noticed Kali had disappeared. Come to think of it, neither her nor her cronies, ‘the last ones loyal to the Westclan’, were anywhere to be seen. Then again the foliage was as dense as it gets in the wastelands, so they were probably keeping a low profile: being stuck in the past didn’t stop them from displaying some much appreciated professionalism. Vincent turned to look at Vitani again, and suddenly realized he had just turned his back to a lion and lived to tell about it…It at least proved she wasn’t out to get him.

 Not sure what to say, they just stared at each other for a while, until finally Vincent decided to take the initiative and break the eerie silence.

“Awkward?”

“Kind of.”

“Well, seeing as you came looking for me, I’m guessing there’s something you want me to know or something you plan on doing to me…”

Vitani sighed. This was harder than she had expected, maybe Kovu ought to have sent someone who was a bit more eloquent. She’d better cut the small talk.

“Yep… Eh, I’ll be brief, I’m no good at speeches: Kovu wants to cut a deal with you.”

“And who’s Kovu?” Vincent lied. He knew who Kovu was, who didn’t, but he decided to play dumb for a while.

“Hey, come on, I’m cutting the formalities here, you should too. ‘The boss’ not knowing who Kovu is? Go fool the other one.”

“What makes you think I’m some kind of ‘boss’?” Vincent frowned, “I’m just a humble male, ’s all.”

“You ought to know lying only works if everyone is in on the deal,” Vitani smiled, “Out of three hyenas I’ve spoken today, two called you ‘the boss’, and you’re the third one. Busted. What’s up with that anyway? You don’t have a ‘matriarch’, or whadaya call her?”

Busted indeed. Vincents spirits dampened further, as this was turning out to be a really tiring day. He figured he’d better stop lying, only to start avoiding. And insulting, as he had been using some of his spare time to find out about the ‘mystery lioness named Vitani’ he met about a two or three years ago. He hadn't liked what he had come to find out.

“It’s a long story, and I ain’t in the mood for talking. Yeah, I know who Kovu is. He’s your brother. And I know who his father is too. What do you call him again, nowadays? Taka? Hey, I guess even the lowest of all beings to ever stalk the plains needs a name. I should’ve known when I first lay eyes upon Kovu, and your other scruffy, now stone dead brother. I should’ve known when I first looked at you,” Vincent grinned viciously, and this time he actually meant it to be vicious. Vitani tried to remain stoic: losing her temper would be unfit to a lion. Yeah right, unfit to a pridelander maybe. She glared back, just as vicious.

“What, you expecting apologies or something? I ain’t blaming myself from being born, and besides, last time I remembered, it wasn’t me who was stupid enough to follow late Taka to a certain doom,” Vitani noted. Vincent grumbled, barely noticeable, but decided he’d better cut the