“And that makes my sis...”

“The Head of State, duh.”

“Right... hmmm...

“Okay, so you're negotiating with Vitani, don't lions usually combine the two to fit one monarch?”

“Yeah, but you're not a lion, now are you?” Tiko grinned.

“Nice thinking... nice twist to reality. I might just even consider a legal advisor like you interesting, if not even useful.”

“And I ain't even halfway yet!” Tiko exclaimed, obviously flattered, “Okay, so you're the hyena Head of State, someone official, important, immune. So when someone who is sent as an emissary abuses the trust invoked by that title and kills then you - an important and official representative of your clan - on orders from the king next door...”

“... that king next door commits some serious offense...”

“An offense? My good sir hyena, that's no offense, that's nothing short of a true Casus belli!”

“If only it were true, that is...”

“Ah, but that's the fascinating part!” Tiko smiled, “Your sister had no way of knowing it was all a lie, and acted in honest and reasonable conviction that a lion had indeed killed you. So if she retaliated for your presumed assassination, even though she acted on false grounds, no blame befalls her or your clan: they acted in perfect accordance to customary law based on the knowledge they had at the time, and thus cannot be blamed for starting an unjust war. I bet you didn't see that one coming, eh?”

“Now don't get too cocky,” Vincent replied, “Your theory might have been ground-braking and overly shocking, especially to the lion-pride, if not for a couple of flaws: you presume Shenya didn't have anything to do with the attempt on my life, but I personally doubt that. And presuming she was in fact not involved, which, as I said, is doubtful, those who were involved are still responsible for starting a justifiable (though this isn't true for them, of course) but still unjust war...”

“...and should thus be brought to justice,” Tiko concluded.

“Ah, now we're talking!”

“... but it might be... opportune to give your sister the benefit of the doubt,” Tiko quickly added, “Because if you do, your clan is pretty much off the hook for starting an unjust war (your sister, and your clan with her, were clearly exculpable), which might come in handy once you try negotiating your way out with the lions again. That is, if you  plan on resolving the conflict peacefully now. I can only hope that does happen to be the case, or is it not?”

“That was the plan. Besides, carrying on the fight now would be illegal, right?” Vincent giggled out loud.

“Quite...” Tiko replied, a lot less amused.

“There's one thing I don't get, though...”

“Yes?”

“You. Aren't you supposed to help out the lions in stead of handing me excused to silence them once I have to try and negotiate my way out of this mess?”

“What can I say, justice does not differentiate between hyena and lion...” Tiko grinned.

And neither do I, especially not now that the Priderock has changed sides. I can only imagine the look on Zazu's face... well yeah, of course I can only imagine; his face ain't around no-more...

Tiko's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a smooth yet uncouth, slightly high-pitched voice resounding through he night.

“Vincent?”

Both Vincent and Tiko froze, startled at the voice which suddenly and inexplicably seemed to have come out of the blackness around them.

“Who's there?” the hyena shouted with a slight hint of panic, not able to identify whoever it was that had called out his name. Not before long though,  four glistering eyes appeared out of the darkness, reflecting the pale moonlight in the most ghastly manner.

“Sir? Is that really you?”

As the glittering eyes moved closely, a dark silhouette formed around them. It didn't take long before Vincent recognized Shetani's imposing, regal posture, not to mention her peculiar manes. Well, he would have hat to run across someone at some point, it might as well have been Shetani: as far as Vincent knew, she hadn't been amongst the traitors, so her appearance did not result in instant panic. Vincent even felt kind of relieved; meeting Kali at this point, for example would have been a real bummer, to say the least.

“Phew, Shetani! Thank goodness it's you, you were just the girl I needed” Vincent replied, trying to sound way more confident than he actually was. Shetani seemed to be a bit less at ease than him, though.

“But sir, you... you... they said a lion killed you!”

“Well, as my avian comrade here would say 'Yes and no, with a strong emphasis on the no'.”

“Thank the Spirits your still alive!” Shetani suddenly exclaimed as she came racing towards him, acting way more intimate than Vincent was used of her , “We all thought you were...”

“Wow, easy there now... me being alive doesn't mean you have to treat me like I came back from the dead.”

As she seemed a bit embarrassed by that remark, Shetani immediately backed off and gave Vincent a more formal greeting.

“My apologies sir, I got carried away.”

“Hey, it could have been worse,” Vincent yawned, “Where did you pop up from all of a sudden anyway?”

“One of my scouting teams picked up your trail up near the border and kept stalking you, whilst one of them ran straight back to the den to come and get me...” Shetani explained.

“I didn't realize we had a border 'round these parts, or a den for that matter,” Vincent interrupted sarcastic.

“A lot has happened after you die... disappeared, sir. And by the looks of it, you've had a rough time yourself too,” Shetani pointed out, reminding Vincent of the fact that the past three days of falling down cliffs, fighting hyenas, cheetahs and deadly mountain-passes had had a considerable effect on his appearances, and not for the better, “In fact, I should be the one asking where you popped up from – especially if I take into account that you apparently already knew of our new den; you are heading straight towards it.”

“Touché. Well, I guess I do owe you an explanation – but you owe me one too. Tell, me, what are you doing here, in the midst of lion land, literally near the lion's den?”

“Phew... I wouldn't know where to begin,” Shetani admitted, “But I can say it's not quite the lion's den anymore...”

“Yes, I figured as much... let's start where I left, where you heard that I had, in some way or another been killed...”

*

Poor thing...

Kiuma couldn't help but feel sorry for the frail heap of misery that lay crying in front of her, on the cold rock-floor. Although she knew she shouldn't have the least bit of compassion with the likes of her, who had after all just killed over a dozen of her clanmates, Kiuma still felt that what she had just seen happing to the young lioness in front of her was undeserved, to say the least. That's why she had intervened in the first place after all. And even now, as all the other lionesses sat clustered together in the far side of the cave, they refused to cease their efforts to plague and try to break their former companion. One lioness in particular seemed to have taken the lead in the assault. Surprisingly, it was not the one they had identified as the aging queen, but in stead quite the opposite: apart from the one Kiuma had separated from the group, the agitator seemed to be the youngest member of what remained of the lion-pride. Like all her companions she too was badly hurt, crippled even, but she still stood firm and proud, her vivid but hard and unforgiving eyes piercing right through Kiuma.

“Yeah, that's it, cry, cry with your newfound 'friends', treacherous rat!” the lioness hissed viciously. The sound of her voice alone sent a shiver down Kiuma's spine. Only moments before, she had heard its sound for the first time, as it had broken the silence in which the lionesses had been locked ever since they had been detained in the cave. It had been a fell insult towards the young lioness that seemed to have been kept outside the tight group of surviving lionesses. Kiuma had immediately recognized the outsider: it had been the naive, hapless lioness that had tried to prevent the late Kim from bleeding to death (to no avail, by the way). It now seemed as if her compassionate yet futile action had not fallen all to well with her kin. The fact she had been one of the few Outlanders (and looked it too, with her dark fur and skinny yet soothe build) around Priderock didn't help much either.

“Kani, don't, please,” the queen had still sighed in a vain attempt at defusing the situation, but the combative and proud lioness that seemed to have picked on the outsider carried on relentlessly, ignoring the orders of what she had recently come to consider an overly weak queen, now stripped of all authority she might have previously possessed.

“No! I won't have it! While we all shed our blood for our king and our pride, this filthy worm found nothing better to do that to help out those murdering savages!”

“But I was only trying to...” the young lioness had tried to utter in her defense, when she was brutally silenced by the lioness called Kani, who, despite her crippling wounds, still found the power to viciously lash out