[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

"I don't know if I can trust him," Delano said after some time, "I think... he could have set this whole thing up. It's not something he wouldn't do." Despite the fact that Hatari had just left to go and get something to help Kato, Delano didn't know if it was or wasn't some sort of trick to gain their trust. It won't be the first time he would be betrayed by those who claimed to be on his side.

Looking down at his brother, he saw some of Muroki's blood that seeped through his paws, and he had to look away. Now that he was just sitting here, he recalled staring as the water overtook the gorge, where he had seen Muroki not long before. While Muroki was safe from that, he was now here with a bleeding shoulder wound. It made Delano feel sick.

His gaze swept across Kato. The prince was unconscious, but still breathing. Delano suddenly felt very guilty. "I only wanted to help..." he blurted out, "I didn't want any of this to happen..." He buried his face into Muroki, trying to hide his tears.

---

Umeme lead Lina through the tunnels, looking for any clues. When she would see one, she would go there. After a long search, they came to the side of a slope, and almost running headfirst into the body of a dead lion. Backing away in disgust, Umeme looked up and saw the ones she was looking for. "Muroki!" She bolted up the slope and grabbed Muroki in a hug, extremely glad to be reunited with him. "I was so worried!"

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki, not knowing that Hatari had pretty much just saved Delano's life a few moments ago, was about to try to explain why he believed that Hatari has truly changed when Delano suddenly buried his face in his mane, expressing his guilt about everything that was going on. "That's not your fault..." It's not like Delano could have predicted something like this was going to happen. He was about to say something else when an all too familiar voice called his name.

He managed to turn his head just in time to see Umeme arrive next to him before she embraced him in a hug. As happy as seeing her usually made him, this was an occassion where he wasn't very thrilled about her presence. "You promised me you'd stay away..." he said as he stood up, much to his brother's dismay, and tried to gently nudge his mate in the direction she'd come from. "You have to go..." The thought that she could end up getting hurt was enough to make him unable to lie still. In standing up and turning towards her he also ended up revealing the nasty wound on his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Muroki looked around over his shoulder and saw Hatari making his way towards them. "Lie still." he said as he dropped whatever he was holding in his mouth, gently forcing Muroki back onto his stomach. The blood loss has already started to get to him, so takng the risk of him losing even more was out of the question. With that taken care of, Hatari picked up the hard shell coconut-like fruit he'd brought and walked over to Kato. He snapped the fruit in half and then poured what was in it into the unconscious prince's mouth, making sure he swallowed it.

"Right... Now let's get out of here." As much as he wanted to get Sanders, trying to do that was simply too dangerous at the moment. He picked Kato up and placed the young lion on his back, gesturing for Delano to do the same with his brother.

[DGFone]

Umeme simply grinned smugly at Muroki. She didn't like the look of his wound, but she didn't want him to see that. "Okay, suppose I listened to you and stayed away. From the looks of it, you need everyone you can get on your side." She smirked at Delano, who looked back at her, both confused and somewhat ashamed, knowing that he probably did something he shouldn't have. "Besides, I didn't run here for you, I ran here because your brother over here ran off before I was able to finish explaining everything to him. So if it makes you feel better, I did listen to you, it's just that I had to catch up to Delano." Dropping her smirk, she moved quickly to Muroki's side as Delano picked him up. "I'm just glad that you're okay," she said quietly, "at least, mostly okay."

Beneath Muroki, Delano grinned slightly at Lina, despite the fatigue he felt making it all the more worse about carrying Muroki. But he was't bitten by a snake, and he didn't take a claw to the shoulder, so he didn't have much to complain about. "Come on, let's go home..." Perhaps the reason why he felt so tired was because this ordeal left him quite emotionally drained, and he really wanted to get back to a nice den and just go to sleep. Too many things happened today, and he needed a break.

Hatari lead the way, for he seemed to be the only one who actually had an idea as to where they were going. Feeling somewhat guilty about his attacking of the lion, Delano cleared his throat a little to get Hatari's attention. "Hey, listen... I don't know yet if I can get myself to trust you, or even to forgive you... But... at least for today, you have my thanks." He knew he still harbored many negative thoughts about Hatari, and it was the lion's actions in helping Muroki and Kato that prevented Delano trying to finishing him off right here and now.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki couldn't really understand the logic behind what Umeme was saying, but he was havng too huge of an headache to even try. He also had an almost unresistable urge to sleep, feeling quite drained, but he doubted he'd be able to do that before they got back to a safe place. So, for the time being, he said nothing, trying to focus on the fact that Hatari was able to bring Kato the medicine he needed in time and that the prince was going to be alright. His shoulder still hurt, and being carried by someone wasn't too comfortable, but he shrugged it off.

Hatari looked at Delano in the corner of his eye when Muroki's brother cleared his throat. While he hadn't expected Delano to try to bite his head off again after all that had just happened, Delano's confirmation of that was a nice thing to hear. He was glad that Muroki and the prince were going to be okay. From the looks of it there wasn't anything to worry about in that regard. Silently leading the way, he made sure to keep an eye out just in case anybody else decided to show up all of a sudden.

Lina looked at Delano a little worriedly, giving her mate a short nuzzle as he carried his brother. "Are you hurt?" she asked, sonding concernd. Delano appeared to be perfectly alright, but she wanted to make sure there wasn't some severe injury she wasn't aware of like the wound on Muroki's shoulder.

[DGFone]

Delano smiled, making sure that Lina saw. "I'm fine... Just tired, that's all." He would have returned Lina's nuzzle, but with Muroki on his back, he didn't want to do anything that might risk dropping his brother. As things stood now, he was too busy concentrating on walking evenly enough to keep Muroki from falling off to even talk. Combined with their very slow progress, the walk back to the border was very nerve wracking for him.

Somehow, they made it to the border without incident, but that was when Hatari just suddenly stopped. Delano didn't have to think for too long to know that Hatari would fear crossing the border because the chances of getting attacked by someone who might recognize him were too high.

Umeme already knew that, and so she figured that it was time for Hatari to leave them. "Here, let me carry him," she offered, and with Lina's help, got Kato on her back. "Thank you, for helping Muroki." She smiled at him, showing her gratitude towards his actions today. Turning back, she began to walk. "Come on, let's get Kato back. The king's probably worried sick."

Delano's stomach tightened at this suggestion. The last time he tried to do something like this, he was closed off in a dark cave and nearly executed. But what other choice did they have? At leas the king was somewhat reasonable, at least he hoped, and wouldn't execute them for coming back with his son unconscious. "Alright, let's go. I just hope he won't bite our heads off."

[TheWhistlerify]

Hatari wanted to tell Lina and Delano that he was sorry for everything he's put them through but something held him back. Maybe it was the almost complete certainty that they wouldn't hesitate to tell him to get lost. After all, the fact that he'd just helped them didn't undo all of the horrible acts he'd committen in the past. So, allowing Umeme to carry Kato instead, he silently bid them farewell. Obviously going back to his "home" would be too dangerous, but Hatari knew of a place within the pride's territory that was well hidden and where he doubted anybody would come to. Hopefully he'd be able to think of what to do next soon.

Muroki, even more out of it than he was before, only noticed the fact that Hatari was no longer there after maybe a few minutes. "Where did he go?" he asked quietly, trying to get a better look at his surroundings. "Where are we?" Being on Delano's back, the only direction he was able to look at was the one in front of him. "Can we stop?" he asked all of a sudden, feeling like his entire vision was spinning, something which made him feel like he was about to throw up.

Meanwhile, on Umeme's back, Kato began to stir. The overall feeling of, well, being bitten by a snake was gone, leaving him only with a sensation of weakness. Regardless of that, the prince slowly woke up. He somehow managed to tell that he was no longer at the exact same place he last recalled being at and that he was moving, somehow. Umeme then came to a stop, either at her mate's request or because she sensed he was waking up.

[DGFone]

Delano stopped instantly when Muroki woke up from a daze. He became worried again at how his brother sounded. Carefully setting him on the ground, Delano sat down in order to give his aching limbs some rest, but still concerned over Muroki's state. The shoulder wound had stopped bleeding by now and looked as fine as wounds can be, but Muroki didn't sound well at all. "You need to rest. Try not to talk..." Nervously, he held onto one of Muroki's paws, trying to take some comfort in the faint heartbeat he could feel from there.

Umeme was also concerned for her mate, but she was carrying someone else who needed help as well. Not knowing that Muroki felt sick, she didn't want to just leave him out here. "Delano, take Muroki home. Lina and I will drop Kato off and come back to you guys." She rubbed a paw over Muroki's head. "Take it easy. I don't want you hurting yourself even more because you want to look strong."

Adjusting Kato on her back, as well as being slightly surprised when he moved on his own as well, she motioned with her head to Lina. "Come on, let's go and drop Kato off at the king's place." She only had a vague idea of where to go, but hoped to get a better idea the closer they got there.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki didn't take too much notice of his brother's comment, not seeing how talking was going to make his situation worse. As much as he hated being carried by his brother because of the effort it was putting Delano through, he could feel just how much he needed the support. "What? No..." he said, shaking his head. "I just feel a little sick..." he had not even the slightest intention of trying to walk on his own again. "Hey... Hey!" he said with a chuckle after Lina and Umeme left. "Do you think she'll go out with me?"

Kato continued to stir some more before finally opening his eyes. Not able to tell exactly where he was, he ended up rolling off of Umeme's back and falling onto his stomach. "Ouch..." he looked up and, having never seen Umeme before, paniced for a short moment as the events of the past hour returned to his memory. However he calmed down when he saw Lina. She was a face he did recognize. "Where am I?" he asked, becoming worried all of a sudden. "Where's Muroki?!" he remembered how the lion had ended up getting hurt while protecting him, and was obviously concerned for his well being. "Is he okay?!"

[DGFone]

"-Do I think what?" Delano was already starting to fall asleep, so when he realized just how tired he was, he knew that it would a good idea to get Muroki somewhere safe first. He carefully picked his brother up, grunting at the effort. "Come on, let's get you home." Ever so slowly, he walked home, making sure that Muroki was safely rested on his back and was not in danger of falling off and getting hurt even more.

Ironically enough, it was Muroki and Lina's new den that he reached first, but too tired to keep going, he walked inside and placed Muroki on the ground before curling up into a ball, trying to get the day's events out of his head.

---

Umeme heard something from Kato, and it took her a few moments to understand what he had muttered. "Muroki's fine. Delano just took him home. We're taking you over to your dad's." She got an idea. "Speaking of which, now that you're somewhat awake, where exactly do we go?"

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki let out a groan of annoyance when he felt himself being picked up and placed on his brother's back again. His headache returning, he remained silent for the rest of the way until they arrived at his den. "I live here?" he asked in a somewhat confused tone as Delano placed him down, looking around at the den. "Oh, right... I do..." Exhausted from the day's events and the blood loss, he finally fell asleep shortl y afterwards.

~~~~~~

Kato was about to insist on seeing Muroki when Umeme mentioned his dad. It hadn't occurred to him up until that point that his parents were probably worried sick about him since the noise from the dam crashing must have been heard throughout the entire kingdom. "Oh, er... It's this way." He began to lead the way, slowly and a little unsteadily at first. When Umeme suggested that she helped him walk he declined the offer. "There's no need... You've all done enough for me as it is..." he said with a sigh, a guilty expression on his face.