[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Despite her pretenses, Umeme did enjoy it when Muroki sat down next to her. Shuffling a little closer to him, she leaned her head against his, letting out a small grin as she felt that he too was allowing himself to lean on her. As long as the cubs wouldn't start complaining, she wasn't going to mind watching over them like this. Besides, with the three young furballs distracted by one another, it didn't look like the two of them were going to have to do much in terms of actual watching over the young ones.

Combined with the fact that there was nothing in terms of worrying sounds coming out from the den, so Umeme saw no reason why very soon, this whole episode with the mystery lion will go away and they will be able to all just forget about it all.

Spoiler: show

Sorry for not posting earlier. Still recovering from a 50K.

[TheWhistlerify]

Unable to not grin in an almost triumphant way when Umeme shuffled more closely to him and slightly leaned herself against him, Muroki took the liberty of doing the exact same thing while also playfully intertwining his tail with hers. He purred softly as the two of them just sat there together, looking at the cubs mainly because the little ones were hard to ignore. He often found it difficult to believe that he'd once been just as small and energetic too.

"So how long do you think it'll take for this whole thing to die out?" he randomly asked at some point as he and his mate decided to lie down in order to get more comfortable. Delano's brother didn't know who was looking into this, as Lina claimed to be the case. Not that he believed Sanders was, or could, in fact, still be alive. But... seeing Akili's parents behave in such a way and claim that they believed the former leader of the underworld wasn't dead made it impossible for him not to think of what would happen if he suddenly showed up again...

[DGFone]

Umeme was simply able to tell that Muroki was taking it as a victory when she moved close to him, but she ignored it. He can have his victory for now...

Her thoughts were interrupted by his random question, and it took her some time to come up with a proper response. "Well, I don't really know. Soon, I hope." Thinking back on how much more relaxed Lina was after they talked to the king in the morning, Umeme had to wonder just how long that would last until her sister would come back to being worried. After all, Lina explicitly mentioned that she still believed that it was Sanders. And then there was Delano as well...

"The king said he will tell us of any news," Umeme said after a while, "so I hope that even if there won't be any, that at least he will be free to talk to should we need to do so again."

[TheWhistlerify]

Not interrupting his mate as she talked, Muroki couldn't find any reason to disagree with what she was saying. He knew Kato's father to be a patient lion and whatnot; there was no reason for him to refuse to try to calm Lina and Delano down or hide any information in the future. He also believed that the sooner this whole matter was forgotten the better. His brother wouldn't react well to having to return to that old, bad habit of sleepless nights, not to mention that Akili didn't need his parents (his father in particular) to start acting all stressed out.

"Well, I'm sure they'll find nothing." he pointed out quietly, giving Umeme a soft lick on the top of her head. "Hopefully that'll get Delano and Lina to let this whole thing go." Since he hadn't been there with them, he saw no reason for the lion they'd seen to not be some random rogue.

[DGFone]

Umeme didn't feel like she needed to say anything in reply to what Muroki just told her, already agreeing with him since she too didn't think much of this whole incident. As far as she was concerned, there was nothing to worry about, and in the end, apart from an unusual reason why they were watching over Akili for today, that was all to it.

---

Inside the den, Delano gave up the miserable fight to try and get some rest. He stared at Lina, feeling rather jealous at how peaceful she looked in her sleep next to him. For a long time now, he had resisted disturbing her, but by now his patience had ran out, a victim of his fatigue and frustration. Reaching out, after only a short moment of final hesitation, he began to nudge Lina's side, hoping for her to respond. "Lina?.. Come on, Lina, wake up..."

As his mate began to groan in annoyance from his nudging, Delano only nudged her side harder, desperate to get her to wake up faster. "Lina... come on, I need you to tell me... tell me what you were told this morning."

[TheWhistlerify]

Obviously annoyed at being woken up and disturbed while she was so tired and trying to rest, it took Lina a few moments to realize Delano was talking to her and a few extra seconds to comprehend what he was saying. Partially opening her eyes, she blinked a few times before answering sleepily. "Some highly ranked lion of some sorts said they will send the patrols to where we saw him..." In her half asleep state, she really couldn't remember or think much of who it was she'd spoken to...

[DGFone]

Wanting to hear nothing more than that someone had confirmed seeing Sanders' execution, what Lina muttered in her sleep only caused Delano to shake her even more, needing more answers. "Lina, come on, you can sleep later!" he begged, "they didn't..? he's still alive, is that what they told you? He's..." Feeling as though someone clawed him in the chest, Delano fell back and backed into a wall, hardly able to believe that the nightmare was not over yet.

Until now, despite how much it had already effected him, a part still hoped, still believed, that Sanders really was dead. A part of him wanting for all of it to be over and willing to ignore what he saw in order to be able to pretend that he was just overreacting, like the others had told him that he was. But when Lina didn't say anything that was solid evidence, that part of him died.

Leaving his mate behind, he crawled out of the den, almost blinding himself from not being used to the bright daylight outside, and began to run, ignoring the shouts of concern from Umeme and Muroki behind him. He didn't even know where he was heading, just as long as at it somewhere... somewhere where he can figure out what to do. So even as he found himself running towards Hatari's direction, he didn't stop or even slow down.

He arrived at the waterhole out of breath, feeling like his legs were about to fall off, no doubt an effect of running so fast here after not having any rest. "Hatari!" he screamed up at the tree where the lion liked to rest at, "get down here!" And then quieter, almost in a whimper, he added, "I need your help..."

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki was busy nuzzling peacefully with Umeme when his brother came crawling out of the den (they were bound to forget about the possibility of the cubs complaining sooner or later), so he and his mate only noticed Delano when he stood up and broke into a run. Despite their confused and worried calls asking him to stop, however, he kept running. "What's gotten into him?" he asked with a slight frown on his face as he got to his paws.

Whatever the reason was, knowing the way his brother tended to act when upset to such an extent, Muroki knew he had to go after him. "I'm going to find him." he said. "Keep an eye on the cubs, okay?" Lina was anything but able to look after the little hairballs at the moment. Somebody had to, then, not to mention that it would be best if he went looking for Delano rather than Umeme. "I'll be back as soon as possible, okay?" Giving the lioness a quick nuzzle, he took off in the direction Delano had taken.

●●●●●●●●●●

Hatari was napping on his branch, as usual, when Delano came running towards his tree. Surprisingly enough, he was resting rather peacefully despite what he'd been told just the previous evening. Well, he wouldn't have given Delano's claims yesterday much credit if it weren't for the fact that Lina insisted he was telling the truth. After all, her head was far more well placed on her shoulders. At least in Hatari's opinion.

So, when he heard Muroki's brother scream to him all of a sudden, he was obviously very much annoyed. What did he want? To throw more accusation or some random conspiracy at his face? Was that why he came all the way to him and interrupted his slumber? However, when he heard Delano's quiet whimper immediately afterwards, his expression changed entirely.

Quickly standing up and stretching his numb limbs, the former member of the underworld extended his claws and "slid" half the way down the tree before letting go and landing down in front of the other lion. "Delano?" The expression on Delano's face was quite the opposite of what Hatari had expected. It was miserable and helpless; not angry. Something was clearly wrong. "What's the matter?"

[DGFone]

Seeing Delano what she can only describe as flee, Umeme was just as curious and concerned about her brother in law as Muroki was. But someone did need to watch over the cubs, and she wasn't going to trust Lina to do that, not right now. So as much as she wanted to know what was going on, she allowed Muroki to do that instead, returning his nuzzle and giving him a quick hug. "Come back soon, both of you," she replied as her mate tore after his brother. If the cubs noticed anything unusual, they didn't act like it, so Umeme was left alone to watch over the trio as they continued on with their blissful games. With a shrug to no one in particular, she settled down for what she was hoping wouldn't be a long day of worrying.

---

Next to Hatari's tree, Delano wasn't able to look at the other lion in the eye, or even try to explain anything for that matter. Taking in a few deep breaths, he tried to calm himself down enough to talk somewhat legibly. "This morning, Lina and Umeme... went to the king to find out what was going on..." He shook his head in anguish, recalling how Lina didn't say what he was hoping to hear. "They... no one actually saw... his execution. He's alive! He has to be!"

Glancing over at Hatari, Delano could hardly believe what he was going to ask him of. But after so long in the den with nothing else to think about, it was the only conclusion he could come up with. "But you... you know him... Better than me. I-" He hesitated, afraid of Hatari's reply, especially considering their history of not exactly getting along. "I need your help... to find him... I'm going to kill Sanders myself."

[TheWhistlerify]

While Hatari regularly didn't give much credit to what Delano had to say, especially when he was obviously not thinking clearly, he had to admit that this was very disturbing information to say the least. If the king himself couldn't confirm having witnessed the execution, especially because such a crazy lion was in charge of the entire police, the chances of Sanders being alive were higher than ever before...

That, however, did not at all prepare the former member of the underworld for what Muroki's brother then asked of him. "What?" he asked, a look of sheer disbelief on his face. Delano wanted to try and kill Sanders? By himself?? "Are you nuts?" Not only was Delano a far less experienced fighter, as was witnessed on many occasions, but who was to guarantee Sanders wouldn't be hiding behind some goons?

●●●●●●●●●●

It seemed logical enough to Muroki, since his brother's head was clearly in the clouds, that he was most likely running without paying much attention as to where he was going. So he kept running towards the exact same direction while hoping that Delano's exhaustion would make it easier for him to catch up. The possibility that his brother had gone to Hatari's waterhole of all places never occurred to him and he eventually arrived at the gorge. "Why would Delano come here?" he asked himself quietly, even though he doubted his brother had chosen any particular direction, let alone this one.