[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Delano walked into the small cave, noting with envy that Hatari was held up in a place that allowed even some night light in. He saw Hatari sleeping against a wall at the far end, and so he walked over to the lion. Delano sat down in front of Hatari's muzzle and waited for the lion to wake up, thinking of what he wanted to say.

However, Hatari did not seem to notice his presence, and so Delano started to grow impatient. He reached out an nudged the lion, but Hatari didn't react at first. Staring down at him, Delano found it almost amusing at how easily he could kill him. Sure, they will know who had done it, but by then it will be too late... All he needs to do is reach over and use his claws to slice Hatari's neck...

Delano reeled back, feeling sick about his thoughts. He doubted that he would ever forgive himself if he took Hatari's life like that, not to mention that it will ruin his relationship with Muroki, and then Umeme and Lina as well. No, he would have to settle for letting Hatari go through the trial. As much as he hated it, Delano thought, if he himself wasn't held on trial either, he would almost certainly be dead right now as well. As much as he resented letting Hatari live at the moment, it wouldn't be right if he took the lion's life.

So instead, Delano reached out and nudged the lion again. And again, until Hatari began to show signs of waking up. Delano sat back, waiting for the groaning lion to wake up enough to know that he has a visitor.

[TheWhistlerify]

Hatari was having a rather restless but continuous sleep when Delano came into his cave. Seeing Muroki's aunt and uncle again had been quite a shock, but at least after the encounter the lion was left with a slightly bigger hope that he would be okay. Completely oblivious to Delano's presence, he only realized that he was not alone when he was conscious enough to notice the outline of Delano's form against the star-filled night sky. "Who is this?" he asked sleepily, unable to tell because it was dark. What could anybody want from him in the middle of the night?

[DGFone]

Delano had to repress the urge to growl at Hatari. "It's me," he said after he somehow calmed himself down. Right away, Hatari jumped backwards in fear. Delano didn't know whether he should feel glad about this or not. In his nightmares, Delano was afraid of Hatari, but while awake, it seemed to be the other way around. The irony.

"I am here for you to give me some answers," Delano said after a while. "I am not here to hurt you... or kill you." He added the last bit with a hint of venom in his voice, not knowing just how many lions and lionesses woke up to find Hatari about to kill them.

Hatari seemed to calm down after some time, most likely because he noticed the guards looking in from the outside, making sure that Delano wouldn't get out of line. Now it seemed they were not there to keep Hatari from getting out, but rather to make sure that he would be alive for his trial.

Delano watched Hatari in annoyance. His thoughts were very confused, and it didn't help him that the reason why he was here in the night was because another nightmare had woken him up. "Why did you do it?" He asked eventually. "Why did you kill all those innocents? How could you have done it?" His voice caught in his throat. He forced himself to talk again, but couldn't hide the quivering in his voice. "Why did you kill my parents?... They weren't even in this kingdom! I need to know why you did all of it!"

[TheWhistlerify]

Since Hatari no longer saw killing other lions as an option, with a single exception being one of Sanders's lions, he was naturally scared to find out that Delano was there. It's not like he could hurt Delano in order to defend himself should anything happen. Even if Delano probably wouldn't be able to stand up to him in a fight, this was still Muroki's brother he was looking at.

"After being exiled," the former member of the underworld eventually said, "I began to look for another place where I could live. It soon occurred to me that such a place couldn't be found even if I walked for days. Back then I didn't come accross that waterhole ourside the border, which was where I lived for the past few months. I was about to give up, but then I found a rather well hidden area. I didn't know that that's the underworld's base of operations."

"They seemed like completely regular lions at first and they offered me to stay. I didn't know that their kindness came with a price... You'd probably ask me why I didn't just run away when I found out that I was going to start killing. But they would find you. No matter what you did, if they wanted to get you they'd get you. I couldn't get myself to take that risk, and began to lie to myself that I was doing it all in self defence."

"Listen to me for a moment..." he paused, trying to think of how to properly explain the next part. "Killing... If you start, it infects you. Once it does you'll never rid of it."

"As for your parents... I don't know. I never chose my targets. They were given to me. Sanders might have an answer to that, but I don't. I though that helping you out earlier would ease my guilt, but it didn't. Nevertheless, I don't regret it. At least it's a nudge in the right direction, and now Sanders will get what's coming to him. So will I, if the king sees fit. I'll respect his judgement..."

[DGFone]

Delano didn't know what to say. It seemed as though Hatari was more ready to accept his fate than Delano was. "My brother wants to let you live," he said, "I can't say that I completely agree with that. But... I really don't know if I disagree either." He let out a sigh. "Listen, ever since you came into my life... it's been very hard for me."

He didn't know how much he wanted to tell Hatari, if anything at all. But now that he started talking... "I thought, after they released me from those false charges Sanders placed on me, that everything will be fine. And then you showed up a few days ago, and it all went bad again." No, he wasn't actually going to tell him about his nightmares. Although, if Hatari could remember anything from the day, he most likely would have already seen some of the results of them at least, and it wasn't something Delano wanted Hatari to have seen. "So I guess what I want to know... is that if you are set free, how do I know that you won't cause any more trouble? That I will be able to relax and not have to worry all the time? To look over my shoulder?"

[TheWhistlerify]

Hatari couldn't exactly tell what Delano meant by saying that it's been very hard for him. So, he went with assuming that Delano was talking about paranoia, which seemed like the most reasonable explanation. It would be completely understandable if Delano felt unsafe with somebody like Hatari around, not to mention that Sanders being involved probably wasn't helping either. So Hatari didn't ask for an explanation and he didn't try to tell Delano that he was wrong by being paranoid either.

"Like I said, since the underworld has been wiped out I've lived just outside the border." said Hatari, unable to think of anything else he could say. "During those few months I didn't hurt anyone and only crossed the border once in a while to hunt..." he fell silent for a short moment. "Other than that, I don't think there's anything I can say that'll make you trust me when I claim that I won't be trying to hurt anyone anymore... I wish I could make that worry disappear from your life, but I can't... I'm sorry, but all I can give you is my word for it..."

[DGFone]

Delano found himself growling at Hatari. "Shut up!" he said sharply, causing the other lion to close his mouth right away. He didn't know why he was so agitated now, but he felt that he could no longer stay here. He had doubted that he would get much out of talknig to Hatari, but he didn't expect to last this little.

Not saying anything, he backed out of the cave and fled, rushing back into the main den. On the way there, he nearly ran into Muroki. Delano skidded to a halt, not having expected to run into his brother. He tensed, knowing that Muroki had most likely had gone out to search for him. "What?" Delano hissed at Muroki, "I only talked to him! No, I didn't hurt him. Is that what you wanted?"

He shoved past his brother and quickly found the corner where Lina was still asleep. He lay down next to her, shivering from grief. What had caused him to snap at Muroki like that? Whimpering quietly, he drifted off into a restless sleep.

[TheWhistlerify]

Hatari immediately stopped talking when Delano snapped at him all of a sudden (even though he didn't have anything else to say, he still closed his mouth). He thought Muroki's brother would appreciate it if he told him the truth instead making up reasons as to why Delano didn't have to worry. For once, Hatari didn't seem to mind the hostility. Paranoia was known to be a cause for that sort of behavior, especially towards lions like him. As Delano rushed out of the cave, Hatari simply let out a yawn before lying back down and clsing his eyes.

He hoped Delano had no intentikn of talking to Sanders like this too because, had the former leader of the underworld been in Hatari's position, he would have already gone for Delano's throat and most likely killed him right away. Perhaps Hatari should have told Delano that. But, on 2nd thought, doing so wouldn't have been a very bright idea.

Muroki had woken up a few minutes earlier because, simply enough, his throat felt dry. Disregarding the fact that he knew nothing of the locations of any of the waterholes nearby, the first thing he had done was to check on his brother in order to see how Delano was doing. Only to find out that Delano had vanished. Seeing how Muroki knew that Hatari would never hurt his Delano, findng out that his brother had only gone to speak with him was actually a relief considering how, if it were otherwise, Delano could have been wondering about in the middle of the night instead.

Since Hatari was experienced enough in order to not get hurt by Delano, who was both inexperienced as well as tired and unable to think too clearly, Muroki wasn't worried of the possibility of Delano trying to harm him. Still, he couldn't prevent himself from slightly baring his teeth as his brother shoved past him. Not wanting to even think about the whole incident anymore, he asked one of the guards about the nearest waterhole. Fortunately enough, there was one very close nearby.

[DGFone]

Despite being very tired, Delano couldn't get himself to fall asleep. He lay restlessly next to Lina, trying to calm himself down, but finding that he wasn't able to. After what felt like forever, the outline of Muroki filled the entrance of the cave as his brother came back from wherever he had went. As Muroki walked over to him, Delano pretended to be asleep, hoping that his brother would go away.

But even as he waited for Muroki to walk back to Umeme, Delano was already having second thoughts about that. Not only was he feeling utterly terrible again, he also... felt rather bad at getting angry at his brother again. He heard Muroki turn to walk away, and quickly raised his head. His lower jaw quivered. "Muroki... wait..."

He sat up as Muroki stopped in his tracks, waiting for Delano to speak again. Delano stared at his brother for a few moments before quickly closing the distance between the two of them and embracing his brother in a hug, crying into his shoulder. "I didn't... Muroki, I didn't want to... I'm so sorry!" Even if he couldn't find forgiveness for Hatari, there was no reason why that should ruin his relationship with his brother. Plus, he was already having a hard enough time as is. Making things worse within his family would only slow down his recovery, not speed it up. While Delano did not intentionally get angry at Muroki, the least he can do is apologize for it.

[TheWhistlerify]

After a short, not so eventful trip to the waterhole, Muroki turned around and retraced his steps, finding the royal den without any trouble. Slowly walking back inside so to not accidentally wake anybody up, he could tell that his brother had gone ahead and laid down next to Lina thanks to the very poor lighting provided by the cloudless sky outside. The moon was almost full, making it a rather well lit night. Still, inside the den, it was difficult to see.

At first Muroki was about to walk straight back to Umeme and go back to sleep but, after a slight hesitation, he decided to check on Delano just to make sure he was okay. He walked over, discovering that his brother was sleeping rather motionlessly, which led him to believe that Delano wasn't having any nightmares and that all was well. Sort of.

With that checked on, the still sleepy lion held back a yawn as he turned around, wanting nothing but to get back to his mate's side and go back to sleep. Just as he once again began to wonder what Delano could have possbly talked to Hatari about, his brother's voice reached his ears. Somehow, having his brother begin to cry into his shoulder was the last thing he'd expected. "Oh, um, it's fine..." Muroki didn't know what else to say. All of his agitation towards Delano seemed to vanish in an instant as he supportively wrapped his forelegs around his brother's body.