the bold move of eliminating Vincent only for her, for Shenya. From all his days spent with her, each one more brilliant than the one preceding it, he had learnt one thing: the clan belonged to her, and only her. She had it all: charm, compassion, intelligence, charisma, determination… If anyone could ever lead the hyenas to greatness once more, it would have been her, if not for her cold hearted, power hungry brother who was prepared to do almost anything to follow in his father’s footsteps. But since Shenya just couldn’t bring herself to stop loving her only brother, or see his through his manipulative schemes, Seko had had no other option than to bide his time and plot with Kali, until the opportunity presented itself. Seko had been reluctant to see his plan through to the end though, as he knew how much it would hurt Shenya if he did, but after this day’s events he had realized he was out of options. So he did what he had to do, to save the clan, and to save his one true love who could now finally step out of her brother’s shadow and arise to become the greatest matriarch as of yet.

But first, he had to break the news to her. He quickly silenced Kali as he saw Kim, the messenger, approaching.

Poor Kim, who had hoped to finally get a good nights rest after half a day of running everywhere and nowhere, hadn’t really been to enthusiast when she had seen Seko and Kali rushing her way, and even less so as they ordered her to assemble Shenya and Shetani. Shenya, accompanied by Banzaï, hadn’t strayed too far off, and in a stroke of fortune, it appeared Shetani had been around the capital den as well. For the better: otherwise Kim had had to search for her far north, where Shetani had been the Northlander’s matriarch for a while, or down south, where she might have been spying on the lions again.

Shenya was the first one to appear on the rocky plaza at the edge of the rocks and caves that compromised the den, where Seko and Kali had called the meeting, away from possible listeners. She looked a bit confused when she saw Seko and Kali. Meanwhile, both Banzaï and Shetani had approached as well. Kim halted at the edge of the plaza.

“Now can I like, get some sleep, please?” she complained, even before Shenya had had the chance to ask what was going on. Seko nodded, and Kim took off with a big yawn. Shenya addressed Seko.

“Seko? Kali? What’s this about? I heard Banzaï saying something about a lioness and Vincent, but I didn’t really get it. Where’s Vincent anyway?”

“Lioness?” Shetani frowned, looking at Banzaï, who was still trying forming a coherent sentence when Seko interrupted him.

“I think it is best we talk this over from the start… Kali, can you tell ‘em what happened this afternoon?”

To make sure she gave them the ‘official’ version, Seko cast one last glare at her, and she nodded compliantly. She started telling them about the hunting incident first, as Shetani hadn’t been informed yet, followed by a detailed account of how they had encountered the lioness, up until the point where Kali claimed that Vincent had ‘inexplicably’ asked Kali and her girls to get out of hearing distance. It was about the only weak point in their whole make-believe story, and Shetani didn’t fail to notice.

“He asked you to back away? That’s dangerous, why would he do that?” she asked Kali suspiciously. Kali hesitated for one second, but was then saved by Banzaï who, without knowing it, filled the only gap in the conspirators’ story. Nervously, he told them about the border-meeting with Vitani and her brothers way back, and how he had gotten the impression Vincent had gotten along quite well with the lioness.

“He probably trusted her, and I can imagine that when she would have asked him for a bit of privacy, he’d have been trustingly enough to allow it…” Banzaï concluded.

“What? Is he out of his mind? Alone with a lioness, talking about taking a risk…” Shetani sighed. Meanwhile, Shenya hadn’t said a word since Kali had started recounting. Then suddenly, with a slight hint of panic, she addressed Kali.

“But if you are all here... where is Vincent then? Why isn’t he…”

She looked Kali in the eyes, who almost immediately averted her head away from Shenya’s grey, steel gaze. She then turned to Seko, moving towards him.

“Seko, where’s Vincent? What…”

Seko forced himself to look her straight in the eyes, knowing that the only thing which would hurt her more than his lies was the truth. He even tried to put some sincerity in his voice.

“He must have known he was taking a risk when he was alone with the lioness, but still… I’m afraid he misjudged her. He’s gone, Shenya.”

Both Shetani and Banzaï growled in disbelief, then anger. Shenya on the other hand, just remained motionless, paralyzed it seemed. Shetani demanded an explanation from Kali.

“He’s gone? What do you mean? How? What happened?”

Kali sighed, hoping she had remembered the ‘official’ account of what had happened.

“Well… as soon as we had left Vincent and the lioness, or maybe a minute later, I’m not really sure, we heard this terrifying roar. Of course, it didn’t take long before we knew what was going on, so we rushed to Vincent’s aid. But we couldn’t intervene as he tried to run of towards the cliffs, the wrong way. Then, when he stopped only inches away from the edge of the cliff, the lioness caught up with him. But before we got a chance to help Vincent, his struggle with the lioness had already pushed them too far… before we knew it they plunged down into the river… We then immediately ran here to tell you what happened…”

As Kali finished her story, Seko suddenly realised something he hadn’t noticed before, not even when Kali had told him what had really happened.

“Wait, you didn’t check if they were…”

“What’s the use, nothing can survive a fall from there, not into that rock-ridden river…” Shetani interrupted. But Seko didn’t listen: he panicked. Genuine panic.

“He’s not dead!” he exclaimed.

“If he fell, he’s dead Seko. I know it’s hard to accept…” Shetani continued.

“He’s really dead, isn’t he?” Banzaï stuttered, alternating between anger and sadness while Shenya remained motionless and silent still.
But Seko on the other hand was neither angry nor sad, he was frightened. Kali hadn’t seen the bodies, she had explicitly told him she had rushed back to him immediately. What if Vincent was still alive? Impossible… but it was a risk he couldn’t afford. The only question was what he could do about it, and he had to figure out real quick. Working in overdrive, his brains quickly produced the second improvisatory scheme of the day, the first being the hastily organised (and possibly failed) assassination of Vincent. But to make it work, he had to work swift, before the initial confusion and anger that had taken possession of the others had faded away.

“He’s not dead! I won’t believe it! Not when there is still any chance he’s alive,” Seko shouted out again, now back in control. But then, suddenly, Shenya erupted, her voice filled with anger and her eyes full of tears.

“He’s dead! He’s dead! Don’t you see, he’s gone, Seko! They killed him! Those rotten backstabbers murdered him! They butchered him in cold blood. He trusted them, he gave the lions his trust, and they slaughtered him in return. He’s…”

Before she could end her sentence she burst out in tears. But Seko kept on playing his game.

“I tell you he’s not dead! I won’t have it. And I’ll get him back, even if I have to swim down the river myself,” Seko uttered with the necessary pathos to fit the act. He then walked over to Shenya, and whispered in her ear while lovingly stroking her manes.

“He’s alive, I know it. And I’ll get him back, I promise.”

But Shenya turned away, continuously mentioning whilst crying “No! He’s gone, they murdered him…”

“Face it Seko, he’s gone…” Shetaini tried to calm him. But Seko didn’t calm down, as he had everyone right where he wanted them.

“He’s alive and I’m going to try and find him, whether you like it or not. Kali, get your pack together, I’ll need all the help I can get if I were to run into a lioness myself…”

“Stop it!” Shenya suddenly commanded. All of a sudden, she sounded calm and confident, although still a bit shaken, “Stop it! No-one is going anywhere. We’ll need every hyena we can get…”

“Ma’am?” Shetani asked confused.

“We’ll need everyone who still has the strength to grind a bone, if we ever want to make them bastards pay for what they did…” Shenya spoke determined. Seko on the other hand was on the verge of panic again, as his plan seemed to have been thwarted. But he had no choice to try and push it through either way.

“Shenya, I’m going through with this whether you like it or not. Vincent is alive, and I’m going to find him. If you want me to do that on my own, that’s your choice.”

“Ridiculous… Vincent is dead. You going out searching for him, alone or with a group, is just a waste of good yaws. And we’ll be needing those if we’re going to do what I think we’re going to do… get back at the lions on their own ground,” Shetani frowned.

“I can’t believe you’re all just giving up on him!” Seko shouted out again, as he knew how important it would be for him to find Vincent, if he were still alive. After all, if Vincent would just show up all of a sudden, Seko’s days were numbered. So if there was even the slightest chance of Vincent still being alive, Seko had to find him to and do something