something about that. Problem was he could use some extra jaws to take the load off of him, and securing those was only possible with Shenya’s permission.

“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 about that. Problem was he could use some extra jaws to take the load off of him, and securing those was only possible with Shenya’s permission.

“Come on, Shenya, don’t you at least hope he’s ok?” Seko whispered in Shenya’s ear.

“I do… but I know he’s not… they killed him, and I’m going to make ‘em pay. No false hope can get in the way of that,” she whispered back, “But I can't let you go on your own either. I wouldn’t want to lose you as well… Certainly not now, not now you’re going to be a dad…”

Overflow. Too much information to cope with. Seko needed a couple of seconds to realize what Shenya had said: for one, she was allowing him to search for Vincent, and she was lending him some protection as well. That alone was enough to rejoice him. But that gratification was instantly shoved aside by a deeper, more intense and more sincere feeling of absolute joy. Finally she knew for sure! Finally he knew for sure! He absolutely forgot all about the incidents with Vincent, lost his calm and lost control, but still kept on whispering, probably to the annoyance of Shetani and Banzaï.

“A-are you sure? You-you’re absolutely sure? It’s happening? When?”

“Soon, not overnight, but soon.”

By now, Banzaï was fed up enough about the whispering to declare his annoyance.

“Hey? How ‘bout letting us in on the news too? Is he going to search for Vincent or isn’t he?”

“Huh? Eh… yeah… yes… I’m… going any minute now… no time to waste,” Seko grumbled as he fell back into reality, “And I’m taking some of Kali’s packmate’s with me…”

“I suggest we keep Kali here. We can use a set of yaws like hers…” Shetani suggested.

Kali, who had been feeling very uncomfortable throughout the entire meeting, felt relieved as she was offered both the chance to quit the meeting and not go along with Seko on his search (or rather hunt). Taking her vengeance she could handle, but the scheming to cover it up afterwards she wanted to get away from as soon as possible, not to mention the fact that Seko’s swift and effective response to the possibility of Vincent being alive pretty much scared her. She got the feeling Seko was a bit to dangerous to hang around with.

“Well, that’s for a fact. But no time to waste: Seko, I’ll introduce you to your new companions, so you can begin searching for Vincent immediately. And I’ll stick around while you’re gone,” Kali quickly replied.

Seko, still a bit confused, nodded and turned to Shenya.

“She’s right, I gotta go, no time to waste… Just watch yourself, ok? I can’t imagine going on without you, not now that you’re gonna be a mom,” Seko quietly told Shenya as he licked her muzzle as a manner of saying goodbye.

“Stay safe. And… and if you find him…”

She hesitated.

“No, why bother… you won’t find him, he’s dead…” Senya uttered, and for a moment there, her sadness overcame her calm. But while looking in Seko’s large, yellowish-green eyes, she regained her confident tone again. She quietly whispered in his ear again.

“Don’t turn this into a farewell, ‘cause it isn’t. See you at the rock, in three sunrises time… dad.”

So she was going through with it. She was bent on taking the priderock, and if they would ever meet again, it would be under its shadow. If. And even though she told him it wasn’t a farewell, Seko couldn’t help but lick her muzzle one last time, stare into her compassionate gray eyes one last time, and tell her something he actually really meant one last time.

“Love you,” he quietly whispered, after which he and Kali took off without further ado. To Shenya it felt like a farewell after all, at least until she could convince herself they would indeed meet in three sunrise’s time, at the rock. She was sure of it. And she was equally sure her brother was dead. And she would make his alleged murders pay, starting now, or at least when Seko would have ventured out of sight. Seko looked back however, and for a moment it seemed as if he wanted to turn around and head back to Shenya, but Kali, who accompanied him, applied some mild pressure, pushing him out in front of her.

“Watch yourself!” Shetani shouted as Seko took of.

“See ya…” Banzaï grumbled as well, even though he couldn’t stand the sight of Seko. But he meant a lot to Shenya, and that’s what mattered to Banzaï. When both Seko and Kali had disappeared, Shetani addressed Shenya.

“Ma’am, maybe now's a good time to decide how to react to the lions’ aggression.”

“Not a whole lot to decide there I’d say…” Banzaï mumbled, “We make ‘em bleed.”

“Indeed. And it’s happening in three sunrises time, when we take the rock” Shenya replied, calm and confident again.

Shetani seemed a bit disturbed at the idea.

“Isn’t that a bit… well, ambitious? In such a short time?”

“We’ve trained five years for this, we can take ‘em,” Shenya noted, “And the sooner we do it the better: I’m confident that with their murder, they were hoping to disorganize and confuse us, so we wouldn’t retaliate after what happened on the hunting trip. But we’ll prove them wrong… dead wrong.”

“But going after the rock? The outlanders’ pride is in between us and the rock; we ought to take them out first.”

“No, that’s what they’d expect, if anything. And besides, they’d just pull back and amass at the rock: the outlanders’ den isn’t worth a rat’s ass to them. But if we get the rock first, the residents there‘ll defend it to the end, they’ll never give up their precious home. And then, in stead of facing one big pride, we can crush them one at a time.”

“We’ll need the whole clan to pull that stunt… It’ll be hard getting them there undetected.”

Shenya smiled.

“And that’s where you come in, you and your gang.”

“Yeah, that’s the perfect job for you Graymanes,” Banzaï grinned at Shetani. Shetani was the leader of the so called Graymanes, who were by the way named after her (or to be more precise after the abundance of gray hairs woven all through her otherwise dark manes). They compromised the best the clan had to offer: big, tough and intelligent, not to mention that most of them, like Shetani, were Northlanders. Right after the clan’s unification, Shenya’s father had formed a small band of the best and brightest of the three former clans with the explicit task of reconnaissance and infiltration deep into the pridelands. After a year of constant travel and sneaking, without one single detection by the lions, it’s needless to say they now knew the angle of every leaf on every bush by hard, and they had the stealth to put that knowledge to good use. Shetani, along with three companions, had even managed to study the pride rock (from a distance be it) and word had it they now knew their way around better than Simba himself (that, of course, would be giving them too much credit, but the assessment came pretty close nonetheless).

“You think you could handle that?”

“Probably,” Shetani nodded, “But we’d have to take one big detour, and it’ll be hard keeping eighty of us out of sight for the duration of a twenty-four hours march, not to mention we’ll have to take a rest in enemy territory if we want everyone combat-ready.”

“Right then. That settles it. Banzaï, you assemble the clan at the den, as quick as you can manage. Don’t tell them why; leave that to me, I’ll address the clan myself. Just get everyone at the den. Go!” Shenya commanded. Banzaï, who had been sitting down for the better part of the meeting, got up compliantly and took of towards the main den. As he left, Shetani addressed Shenya again.

“I couldn’t help but notice… you’re handling Vincent’s death pretty… well, calm. You feeling