“But my hearing’s still ok!” the mandrill grinned, after which he suddenly thrust his stick forward and hit the hyena on the nose, “Ha ha!”

“Aw, my nose!” Vincent groaned, “You little piece of…”

“Hey, cool it,” Vitani suggested as she held back Vincent, “And you, Rafiki, display some sanity! Hitting a hyena in the face won’t do your life expectancy any good.”

“Aha! You did notice!”

“What?”

“Your smelly companion. You have a strange taste in friends!”

“And you have a strange taste in herbs, giggling old fool. What are you doing out here anyway, Simba is worried sick ‘bout you. And considering your eyes are all messed up, I’d say he’s right to worry.”

“Enough, talk to the hand!” Rafiki suddenly exclaimed, sticking out his hand holding the stick, “My face is tired of listening and I’m tired of talking.”

“Ain’t that supposed to be the other way ‘round?” Vincent suggested, earning him another punch of Rafiki’s stick. The hyena tried snapping at the mandrill, but Rafiki swiftly swung back into the tree, laughing out loud all the way through.

“That was… unusual…” Kiruhu noted.

“Man, my head… Who does he think he is?”

“Yes, I should probably apologize for that…” replied a green hornbill that suddenly appeared out of the tree. Vitani recognized him as the bird she’d seen earlier.

“Huh, Zazu?” Vitani wondered a bit too preemptive. Then she realized how stupid that question was: Zazu was both blue and deceased.

“Yes and no, with a strong emphasis on the no,” the bird noted with a whim of sarcasm, “Zazu is my uncle. The name’s Tiko.”

Especially now that we've been nearly assassinated – again.

“You've got everything back under control, she's one of ours?” Tiko shouted down from safe altitude.

“Yeah, don't worry. You can come on down now.”

The hornbill cautiously flew down, taking post upon Vincent shoulder again.

“I'm dreadfully sorry, but you must t protest as Vincent bowed down to look at Seko.

“I bet you didn't see this coming, now did you, backstabbing rat?”

“Drop dead!” Seko hissed barely audible. To Enyi's shock, Vincent didn't verbally reply but in stead chose to hit his opponent in the face with his blunt claws, resulting in particularly raffled and nasty scratch marks. Seko hollered in pain, now able to squeeze enough air through his windpipe to be audible. Vincent's stunt was immediately greeted by growling from Enyi, who again looked at Vitani to instruct her on how to handle the unfolding argument. Vitani's response, however, surprised her.

“Hey, it's hyena business. And besides, after trying to kill me and Vincent twice, a wee bit of punishment won’t hurt…”

Just don’t overdo it.

“You heard the lady, scumbag, time for you to meet a traitor’s fate. But first, we’re going to have a little chat…” Vincent smiled viciously at his victim, “Sunshine, I hope your friend here won’t mind helping me out a bit, while you guys watch over the rest of them traitors?”

“Sure…just don’t do anything stupid. Enyi, keep it clean, will ya?” Vitani accepted, not one bit concerned, though she should have been if only she had noticed Vincent’s gradual change in mindset ever since they had gotten down the White Passes. Ever since his dream.

“All right. Miss Enyi, please take our friend Seko here to the riverbank, if you please?”

With a mixture of reluctance and indifference, Enyi complied with Vincent and Vitani’s orders, and dragged Seko towards the riverbank only a couple of yards away, though she wasn’t really sure why Vincent wanted her to take the other hyena there. Seko was of course freaking out by now, squirming and cackling along the way, but as his attempts just resulted in bruises and scratch marks, he quickly gave up his resistance once Enyi had come to a halt on the slightly sloped, stony riverbank.

“All right, I’ve got some questions I’d like to see answered. You’re answering them,” Vincent commenced.

“Starve and die!” Seko replied.

“Too soon, I haven’t posed a question yet. First of all… you were the one who set me up, didn’t you?”

“Ain’t we quite the detective…”

“I’ll take that as a yes. Why?”

“Screw you!”

“Wrong answer,” Vincent sighed, “Enyi, you see that big, solid rock next to you? That’s why I wanted you to come here. Hit him against it.”

‘What?!’ Enyi communicated nonverbally, finding the order both awkward and repulsive. Meanwhile, Seko voiced his fear and anger in a much more audible fashion.

“What? You psycho! Let me go, I said let me go!”

“Do it!” Vincent commanded, now with a distinct authoritarian touch to his voice. Enyi never quite understood why she did, but for some reason she never really grasped, she complied, even though there was no reason except for Vincent’s (non hierarchal) order why she should  have. Hesitating, unaccustomed and a bit clumsy, she swung her head sideward, scraping Seko’s head against the rock, who immediately cried out in pain. Not because of the physical pain, mind you, but because of the immense fear that action instilled: this wasn’t going to be just another inquiry. All those present to hear the piercing scream turned pale behind their fur, and even Vincent seemed a bit startled.

“Are you insane? Stop this! Let me go!” Seko shouted desperately, having lost his defiance instantly as he had come to appreciate the graveness of his situation.

“Vincent, Enyi, what the hell are you doing?” Vitani shouted at them, not actually seeing what was happening because the riverbank was obscured from her sight. She couldn’t go check, however, as she was still detaining three wake and one downed hyena. And for some reason, she didn’t want to go check, she’d rather just stay inert and oblivious, and so did all of her companions, something they’d often wonder about later.

“It’s ok, Sunshine, just a small misunderstanding here,” Vincent shouted back at Vitani, regaining his nerve again, though he too sounded a bit shaken, “Now where was I… Your motives for trying to kill me. We’ll eh… we’ll leave that be for now… Let’s in stead focus on who was in on it. You, and your four accomplices over there, obviously. And I also remember Kali, as well as her followers Kiuma and Umwa chasing me. That accounts for all seven thugs who chased me down the cliff. And their motives were obvious: they’re all fervent Westclanners, and as such are loyal to Kali. But why did she want me dead?”

Fearing more ensuing mistreatment, Seko figured it’d best to strongly reaffirm Vincent’s theory, and complete it as well. But doing so brought him back to an episode of his life he’d rather have forgotten altogether, of when Seko too had been a Westclanner. The Westclanner to betray his clan, and prove instrumental in the murder of his own matriarch, Kali’s mother. But that had remained his best-kept secret up until today. What irony, Seko argued, that Kali tried to avenge herself on the son of one of her mother’s killers, with the help of the one killer that was still alive… But that is a different Tale to be told.

“It was your dad…o:p>

“Do it!” Vincent commanded, now with a distinct authoritarian touch to his voice. Enyi never quite understood why she did, but for some reason she never really grasped, she complied, even though there was no reason except for Vincent’s (non hierarchal) order why she should  have. Hesitating, unaccustomed and a bit clumsy, she swung her head sideward, scraping Seko’s head against the rock, who immediately cried out in pain. Not because of the physical pain, mind you, but because of the immense fear that action instilled: this wasn’t going to be just Your dad had her mom killed, remember? You’d get annoyed for a lot less than that… She wanted to take it out on you, ‘cause you’re so like your dad. That’s all she told me, and all I needed to know.”

“Aha… I knew it! I always figured she was a liability… I should have dealt with Kali way sooner… So you just used Kali’s hate for me to get her to try and kill me as soon as an opportunity presented itself? And when you walked up to her and proposed your little scheme, she simply agreed, out of the blue? Sounds way too improvised. There had to be more to it,” Vincent reasoned. The irony of it all was that there wasn’t anything more to it: Seko’s plan had been ad hoc and immediate, set up in a flash of ingenuity and on impulse, and executed likewise. But Vincent wouldn’t have that, as it felt too unreal.

“Who else was in on it? Who else worked behind the scenes, like you did?”

“No-one, just me and Kali!”

“Stop lying, traitor! First you try and murder me, and no you’re lying to me! Enyi, hit him again! Now!” Vincent snarled.

“No please! I’m telling you the tru…” Seko uttered desperately.

“Enyi, please continue.”

This time, however, Enyi hesitated.

“What’s the matter now? I take full responsibility for this. Now, I require you continue!”

Enyi still remained inert, feeling more uncomfortable by the second.

“Hit the rock! You have no choice, you must go on!”

And once again, much to her own shock, Enyi’s will was almost magically overpowered by simple commands. It didn’t take more than