“Alright, this is far enough... How are you, Anana?”

“I've been better,” she whispered for the second time that day.

“Well, look at it from the bright side, at least you're out. Now, as I said I need you to transfer a message to Simba. You know where he is now, and how to get there?”

“Yes, he's at the northern den, with prince Kovu...”

“Excellent!” Tiko continued in Vincent's stead, “Now try remembering this, Vincent needs you to tell Simba the following:
Through a chain of unfortunate but seemingly inevitable events, it has come to be that the Clan has taken control over Priderock and all lands surrounding it. Unfortunately, a great deal of lives, both lion and hyena, were lost during this takeover. Lion survivors remain, however, and they are being held captive by the Clan, receiving a fair and decent treatment. They have not been harmed in any way, although most suffer from various battle-related injuries. Among these survivors are Nala, Queen of all Pridelands, and all of the Pride's most junior members. Although our claims on these lands as well as our cause is just, the Clan is willing and even pleading, to start civilized negotiations on a fair and equal basis, to avoid further needles loss of life. Through these negotiations, we, the Clan, are hoping to reach a fair and balanced conclusion concerning the ongoing territorial and legal disputes between our two Clans/Prides, once and for all eliminating the threat of new violent clashes over these issues, allowing our two Clans/Prides to co-exist on a peaceful but most of all equal basis... you got that?”

“The essence of it,” Anana coolly replied.

“And what might the essence be?” Vincent asked yawningly.

“Because of reasons that don't concern us, you stumbled into a war and took Priderock almost by accident. You didn't want a war, and you didn't want Priderock, but now that you've got it, you're not planning on giving it (along with some hostages you made along the way) back until Simba coughs up a exuberant amount of land and recognizes you and your clan as equals instead of treating you like vermin that is best exterminated,” Anana thoroughly summarized.

“Clever girl!” Vincent grinned satisfied, and a bit surprised too: it seemed this timid lioness had some linguistic skill in her after all, “Nala obviously handed me the right material in sending you... now, for the practical issues... Shatani, where do you suggest we stage the meeting for these negotiations?”

“There's a dried-up river separating our part of the Pridelands from theirs, I say we do it there. It also minimizes the threat of an ambush, as the whole dried riverbed is apparently infertile and thus empty; any unwelcome newcomer is thus clearly visible, especially if we pick the widest part of that dried-up river...” Shetani suggested, as she had in, contrast with Vincent, a very thorough knowledge of the surroundings.

“You mean the Golden River?” Anana asked.

“If that is what you mean by the dried-up river north of here: yes, the Golden River.”

“All right, sounds good enough. Tell Simba I'll meet him at the widest part of the Golden River, at next sundown (that ought to give me some time to sleep). Also tell him to only bring as much company as is required for a negotiation...”

“You know he'll just bring the whole pride,” Tiko noted.

“There's no harm in asking. Besides, So will I... Anyway, next sundown, at the widest part of the Golden River, you got that, Anana?” Vincent concluded.

“Pretty much...”

“All right, than you're off!”

“So I can go now?”

“Yes... or no, wait,” Vincent suddenly hesitated, “Do you know a lioness called Vitani?”

“Sure, everyone does; she's Kovu's sis, after all...” Anana replied, confused at the sudden change in Vincent's tone and look in his eyes.

“Right, right, I knew that... eh... if you meet her, and make sure you do, tell her I said hi. Or no, wait, tell her I eh... tell her I kinda miss her. Would you do that for me?”

“Okay... no problem,” Anana grumbled hesitatingly, feeling a bit awkward because of the sudden shift in Vincent's behavior, “I'll tell her Vincent misses her. Anything else?”

“No, that'll be all. All right, you're free to go now. But do hurry.”

“Okay then... bye, I guess...” Anana mumbled as she started hesitatingly walking north, looking back after every step to make sure the hyenas weren't coming after her (you never knew). But they didn't, they just headed back for Priderock. Last thing she heard was Shetani mentioning she'd position some sentry's (who knew Anana was coming, of course) at the Golden River to make sure Simba wouldn't retaliate by surprise. In doing so, she unintentionally mirrored Kovu's actions, who had done just the same in sending Vitani and Enyi to guard the new border.

*

“Bah, leave me alone...”

“But ma'am...”

“No, bugger off! I'm sleeping...”

“No your not, otherwise you wouldn't be talking to me. Now would you please get up? This is really important.”

“So is my sleep...” Vitani muttered as she slowly stood up, blinking with her eyes because of rising sun. From the look of her face, it wasn't hard to tell her mood had reached a new low now that Enyi had waked her up, for some reason. Vitani yawned ostentatious as to show exactly how tired she was after the worst sleep she had had in years, then she stretched in a manner that is common to all cats, great and small.

“Now, what's up? And it'd better be either good news or very serious news...”

“We've coma across a visitor crossing the border,” Enyi replied. Vitani just stared at her for a few seconds as if she were expecting something.

“... and? Come on Enyi, I haven't got all day here...”

“It's a lioness, one of our lionesses to exact. Says she came all the way from Priderock...”

“Yippee... She came all the way from Priderock as in 'I am a rurvivor from the slaughter that supposedly took place at Priderock' or as in 'false alarm, there are no hyenas at Priderock and it was all just a nasty dream'?” Vitani yawned cynically, “And it'd better be the second one...”

“Sorry ma'am, she said the hyenas sent her. They have a message for Simba.”

“Like hell they do,” Vitani grumbled, “She's telling Simba squat. I bet Kovu hasn't even bothered to tell our good King his ancestral home has been overrun by his arch-enemies... Imagine the look on his face when that lioness of yours just walks up to him and casually mentions a hyena probably is sleeping in his very cave as we speak? Then imagine his paw on our faces when he finds out we've been hiding it from him!”

“Don't worry ma'am, my lionesses are keeping her on a short leach until you have had the time to thoroughly explain the situation to her...”

“Ah, so you want me to explain the situation to her? Gee, how considerate of you...” Vitani frowned sarcastically. Much to Vitani's surprise, Enyi returned the favor with equal irony.

“My pleasure ma'am, always glad to be of service!”

“You know, Enyi, you should watch out with that newfound sense of humor of yours, it doesn't become you...”

“I'll go get the lioness, ma'am...”

She may have taken a liking to humor, but for all else she is still an apathetic bore... And she still refrains from using names. Who the hell is that lioness the hyenas sent anyway? I bet Enyi didn't even ask her name!

After a few moments, which Vitani put to good use to preform a much needed emergency-wash, Enyi reappeared, accompanied by another lioness much younger than her. From the looks of it, she was an outlander too. Vitani recognized her pretty quickly: it was Anana, the youngest of the Outlanders.

“Here she is...”

“Okay, I'll take it from here, Enyi,” Vitani yawned, “Good morning to you, Anana!”

It was pretty obvious to Anana Vitani didn't really meant what she said, and that she had very little patience.

“Vitani,” she briefly saluted.

“I'll cut to the chase here, if you don't mind,” Vitani commenced hastily, “We already know the hyenas attacked Priderock yesterday. Don't ask how we know, that's pretty irrelevant, at least to you. But even though we have some basic knowledge on what happened at Priderock, we still lack most of the details. So I suggest you start by telling us the more important details of what actually happened yesterday, right?”

Anana, however, seemed to have some doubts about that.

“Eh, wouldn't it be best if I did that when we've gotten the whole pride together, especially Simba? I'm mean, not that I wouldn't want to tell you guys...”

“Yeah, about that,” Vitani suddenly interrupted, “I forgot to add that when I said 'we know about what happened yesterday' I didn't exactly mean the whole pride but rather... a limited group including me, Enyi, Kovu and very few others...”

“Huh?” Anana replied a bit confused, “But why...”

“Look, I'll be frank with you: we'd have preferred it if we would have been able to bring Simba the news at a time that was... most suiting for that kind of an announcement... I mean, it would be rather blunt to just walk up to him blabbing 'Hey, sire, Nice day isn't it? Gee, sure was bad luck that some hyenas just took over your ancestral home, eh?'. You do agree with me on this, I hope?”

“Yeah... probably,” Anana mumbled a bit wary; she was getting the feeling