[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Umeme didn't get to hear the end what Muroki wanted to tell her, because what sounded like a nasty fight tore the relative peace inside the den, and the next thing she knows, Muroki is running out to investigate. Following him behind, she got to the guarded cave just in time to see him strike Sanders hard, knocking the lion out with one blow. Despite this violence, she felt rather proud of Muroki, but noticed with concern as he sat back down, he rubbed his wounded shoulder, wincing in pain.

She licked the wound carefully, ignoring the disgusting taste of the paste that the queen had applied earlier. "Let's go back inside, you really need to let that shoulder heal up first." She did see the second lion who was kept under guard, and her stomach fell when she identified him as Hatari. She gave him a weak smile in order to try and tell him that he will be alright, but the guards were already getting impatient with the uninvited guest, and were just about getting ready to throw them out.

Helping Muroki walk back to the den, they entered, noting how the commotion woke Kato up, and he once again looked rather afraid. Even Delano seemed to have been shaken out of his misery long enough to see Muroki limp in next to Umeme.

Delano rushed forwards to his brother. "Muroki, are you alright?" He looked at the wounded shoulder, but didn't see any blood coming out. He let out a small sigh of relief, having worried that something bad could have happened. Letting Umeme take care of her mate, he returned to Lina's side.

He had heard the fighting in the other cave, but had ignored it, only realizing what was going on after Muroki had ran off. He knew that he should have stopped his brother from interfering and hurting his shoulder, but he was already so close to the breaking point that he didn't know if he would have helped or made things even worse.

With the prisoners under close guard again, it was again a matter of settling down and waiting for the king and queen to come back.

[TheWhistlerify]

At first, when Sanders was knocked off of him, Hatari thought it was because of one of the guards. He was naturally surprised to see that Muroki was actually the one responsible, but before he had a chance to exchange a word with either him or Umeme the guards had already forced the two away from the cave he and Sanders were to be confined in. At least after this little incident, the guards took Hatari and placed him inside a different cave. With Muroki and Umeme there, he should have an easier time explaining himself to the king.

Muroki slowly walked back into the royal den with Umeme. Despite not being one for violence and despite the pain it put his shoulder through, Muroki wasn't regretting hitting Sanders in the slightest. It actually gave him this feeling of satisfaction. Giving his brother a small nod, he and Umeme once again lay down next to Kato. The prince looked quite startled from all the noise. "It's fine, Kato." he said reassuringly as the younger lion tried to take comfort by resting his head in Muroki's mane.

"Let me know once he wakes up." They all looked in the direction of the speaker and saw the king and the queen walk into the den. The king looked in their direction, smiling as he saw that his son was looking beter than when he had left yesterday. "Kato... How are you holding up?" he asked as the prince got up and ran over to his father, obviously happy to see him.

[DGFone]

Umeme lay her head on Muorki's mane. Now that the king and queen were back, she felt like things will be safe enough to allow herself to fall asleep. "It's been a really long day," she muttered sleepily, "you should get some sleep as well. Tomorrow could be important." She didn't mention that she also wanted Muroki rested so that they can potentially help Hatari, since they were basically the only ones who knew that he had switched sides and was even largely responsible for saving Kato's life.

Lying next to Lina, Delano watched as Kato rushed forwards to his parents. Even though he was glad for the prince, he also felt a pang of jealousy for the younger lion. No matter how tired he was, he was simply too scared to allow himself to fall sleep, and he had no idea about who can help him, if it was even possible to get rid of his nightmares. If they were still alive, would his and Muroki's parents have known what to do? However, thinking about it only made him feel even worse, so Delano buried his face into Lina's fur before he could start crying again.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki was about to walk straight over to the king and tell him absolutely everything about Hatari and how he's changed, but he decided to listen to Umeme's advice. He really was feeling quite exhausted after this long and tiring day, and it wasn't like there was any rush seeing how the king wasn't going to do anything for the time being. "It's already late," said he king after a short silence, looking at the four of them. "You may spend the night here if you wish." Then, with his mate and son, he walked deeper into the den and disappeared.

Letting out a sigh, Muroki briefly rubbed his head against Umeme's, also licking her forehead once. "Do you think the king will listen to us?" he asked with concern in his tone as he rested his head down on his paws. True, Hatari had saved his, Delano's and Kato's lives, but would the king be able to ignore all of his previous crimes because of that? With another sigh, he wrapped a paw around his mate and closed his eyes.

~~~

Lina was quite relieved that the king and the queen were finally back and, not knowing that Hatari was being held captive, didn't bother worrying over Sanders and the rest of this ordeal. Her ears going flat against her head as she felt Delano bury his face into her fur yet again, she tenderly nuzzled her mate. "Everything will be okay now..." she assured him. "Sanders won't be hurting anyone anymore... It's over..." She placed a paw on Delano's and licked his cheek, smiling as she heard him purr in response.

[DGFone]

Having almost already fallen asleep, Umeme almost missed Muroki's question. "Hmm? Oh, yeah, I think he will listen to us," she mumbled sleepily, "after all, we saved Kato, and you and Delano helped him a lot before. Why would he not listen to you at least?" Another point was very simple: why would they try to help Hatari if he didn't help them? After all, the only other option for Hatari;s guilt was that he was working with Sanders the entire time, which won't make any sense considering the lion's recent actions.

"I hope so, Lina... I hope so." He didn't tell her that he wasn't worried about Sanders anymore. He was much more worried about himself, if even if the nightmares would start to go away as they did last time, that he won't be able to tolerate them long enough to keep his sanity intact.

He felt Lina's tongue as she licked him on the cheek, and he couldn't help but purr at the contact. Despite how afraid he was of the dreams, he knew that he won't be able to stay awake for long. "Lina... if I start... will you wake me up?" He smiled at her, trying to show her that he is at least trying to get better. "It's over, right?" He closed his eyes, fighting his fear of the nightmares, knowing that he needed to get the rest that he was denied. "Good night, Lina." He allowed her to wrap him around with a paw, smiling as he drifted off to sleep.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki yawned as he listened to Umeme's opinon. "I know, I know..." he said with a sigh. He knew she was right, but there was still this slight worry that things would take a turn for the worse. As unlikely as the possibility was, Muroki was still worried about it. "Goodnight, Umeme..." he said with a sigh as he licked her one more time before closing his eyes and falling asleep shortly afterwards.

As much as Lina wanted to say yes, she knew that there was a chance she wouldn't notice he was having another nightmare before it got out of hand. "I'll try." she said, already starting to feel her sleepiness kicking in. "Yes, it's finally over now..." Keeping her first paw on his and wrapping the other around him, she rested her head in her mate's mane. "Sleep tight..." Purring from the warmth of his mane, she fell asleep.

Spoiler: show

Will be out of the base again starting tomorrow (hopefully tomorrow and not this evening) until probably Thursday. I should be able to post again before going.

[DGFone]

It felt as though no sooner he had closed his eyes, Delano again found himself wandering around the dark plains.

Recognizing the fact that he would soon come across that bird-beaked lion again, he felt his heart beat faster and his breathing increase as his fear slowly took over him. Backing away from where he was going before, he saw the silhouettes of two lions approaching him. Both of them lacked any beak-like features, so he carefully approached them, and soon identified the as Muroki and Lina. Relief swept over him, and he ran forwards, only to stop dead in his tracks when he saw that they were once again somehow torn u and reattached. Both were very much dead, and the fact that they were moving caused him to panic and run. From behind him, he heard that haunting voice telling him that he shouldn't worry, and that the cure would help him.

Something pushed against Delano's body, and he jumped away, screaming in fright. His head hit something hard and he crumpled up against the floor, groaning in pain and shaking in fear. He looked up, noticing that the darkness had turned into the soft glow of early morning, and that the beaked lion wasn't approaching him. It wasn't even a reassembled body of Muroki or Lina. Instead, it was the king, looking over him in worry. Delano realized then that he must have woken up, and sure enough, Lina was there on the ground, groaning at being woken up by the commotion.

Nearby, the queen was waking Muroki and Umeme up, while Kato waited next to a far wall. Delano whimpered quietly in fear as he curled up into a tight ball, but still finding some comfort in that it was the morning and not the middle of the night like before. At least he won't have to go back to sleep right away, but that was only a small comfort.

[TheWhistlerify]

When the king came over to Delano and Lina in order to wake them up, the last thing he expected was to have Delano react by letting out a frightened scream and accidentally slam his head against the wall. "Is everything alright?" he asked quietly as the lion in front of him regained his bearings, only for Delano to curl up into a ball and start whimpering. He sensed somebody approach the two of them, and looked over his shoulder to see Lina. The younger lioness gave him an apologetic and somewhat timid smile, silently telling him that she'd take care of Delano. Nodding in approval, the king gave them some space and walked outside.

Lina walked over to Delano, lying down beside him. There was no need for her to ask in order to know that he'd had another nightmare. "Good morning." she said softly, licking the area of his head which he was rubbing with his paw. "You slept through the whole night this time." she added. True, he did have another nightmare, but at least this time he didn't wake up in the middle of the night. "See? Things are starting to look up already."

Muroki was peacefully sleeping next to his mate when all of a sudden he felt somebody nudging him awake. "Mommy?" he asked sleepily, opening his eyes to see the queen looking down at him.

"Sorry. It's just me."

Muroki felt his cheek turn red with embarrassment as the queen chuckled and walked to her son, who was standing on the far side of the den. Letting out a yawn, he looked at Umeme. She was so much more beautiful when she slept that he felt bad at having to wake her up. "Umeme... Wake up..." he said quietly, licking her muzzle and gently nudging her with his nose.

[DGFone]

Delano tried to grin at Lina, but didn't feel well enough to do so. "I know... but these nightmares... they're driving me crazy." He lay his head on her shoulder, trying to calm down. "I want the to stop, Lina. I want... I want to be normal again... I just don't know how to deal with them!" He looked at the others in the cave, noticing how while the king was with the queen and Kato, he would still glance occasionally at Delano. It made him feel quite ashamed.

"Now even the king knows that I am not fine, Lina," Delano said quietly, "and you know how Kato looks at me now... he's afraid of me." His breath caught for a moment. "I'm afraid of myself." He hugged Lina tightly, as her presence was the only comfort he had right now.

Something wet tickled Umeme's muzzle, causing her to push the area with a paw. It only felt air, and she opened her eyes to find Muroki grinning down at her. "Is it morning already?" she asked. Letting out a yawn of her own, she spotted the queen and king together with Kato nearby. "So what happens today?" she asked, both curious as well as concerned for the fate of Hatari. Would she and Muroki be believed when they will try to explain that Hatari was helping them now?

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina smiled at Delano, resting her head on his. "Delano, you can't go on blaming yourself like that..." she said reassuringly. "Kato was almost murdered 2 days ago. It would only make sense for him to react like this." In a way, this was a little similar to what Delano was going through. "He just needs a little bit of time to calm down, as you do." She nuzzled him, hoping he'd see the logic in what she was saying. "You'll both be fine..."

Muroki chuckled, grinning at his mate. "Yeap. And an exceptionally beautiful one too." He couldn't tell why, but he's been more flirtatious with her than usual lately. However, once she asked him about today, his expression turned serious. "I don't know..." He couldn't care less about what would happen to Sanders as long as he never heard of him again. Hatari, however, was a completely different story.

Before Muroki could start talking with the king about this whole matter, he was going to have to make sure that he and Delano were on the same page. Sure, Delano probably still didn't fully trust Hatari, but that didn't change the fact that, if it hadn't been for him, the two brothers and Kato would have died back there. He hesitantly got up, walking over to Delano and Lina. It only then occurred to him that they didn't even know Hatari was there. "I found out who's that 2nd lion the queen found..." he said. "It's Hatari..."