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"She doesn't give up, does she?" one of the hyenas cackled as Uru was pinned to the ground. "Quite the brave little thing!" "Ha ha!" "We should keep her as a pet!" "I am not little!" Uru yelled, by now completely furious, "and I am not a pet! I am a free lioness, answering only to my king!" "Oh, but your king isn't here, is he?" a hyena taunted. "He will be!" Uru spat. "Just you wait. He'll come here and kick your sorry little butts." "He will, eh? And what does a lonely subject like you do to deserve such treatment from your king?" "I just so happen to be his queen," Uru said proudly. The hyenas all looked at each other. They had scheming looks on their faces. Oh, no. That was the wrong thing to tell them. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" one of the hyenas mused. "It's perfect!" cried another. "We have the queen of their kingdom! What a bargaining chip!" "Yeah! We could hold her for ransom!" Uru was promptly ushered through the graveyard towards some cliffs. There was a wide gap leading deep into the rock face, and before you could say "laughing hyena" they had entered a dark valley that was partially cloaked by steam and glowed with an eerie green light. Uru was led to a small precipice and ordered to sit beneath it, which she did grudgingly. Poor Uru was confined to that strange land of geysers for the entirety of that day. The cliffs were too steep to climb, at least not with her injuries, and the only ground-level exit was guarded by a sentry. She constantly heard, smelled, and felt more hyenas as they moved and quietly mocked her from the cliffs high above. How could she be so stupid? At one point somebody threw an old zebra bone at her. She hissed at the perpetrator up on his perch, but she soon drew the bone to her out of hunger. Of course, there was no meat left on it. Straining, she cracked the bone in half with a crunch of her powerful jaws and began to lick out the marrow. She heard a new wave of cackles from above and growled. She couldn't believe it. She had been reduced to accepting the scraps of these mutts and being publicly ridiculed for it. Uru had a sleepless night. She kept feeling eyes on her, and those hyenas who slept had a tendency to snore. It was maddening. But, at last, a small group of hyenas returned to the valley with a large male lion and two lionesses. The three felines were each dragging a gazelle, which they dropped on the floor. King Ahadi looked wearily over at his queen. "It's all right now, Uru," he reassured her. "You can come home now." Uru shakily stood and followed her mate and his small entourage out of that forsaken place while the hyenas noisily descended on their half of the bargain. She felt like a total idiot for making her pride come after her. GAME OVER |