[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

If anything, Kato's little stunt to make the king go away left Delano even more confused and afraid. What what going on? Why did the king leave? While it was true that he was more weary of the king,

He found himself cornered by the queen, unable to run away as he started to shake in fear. Despite her calm voice, he wasn't thinking clearly enough anymore to relax much. However, something about how she spoke to him made him move so that she could see his wounds. He whimpered quietly as she examined the cuts, wincing as she poked them a few times, trying not to cry out in pain at the sharp stinging caused by the contact.

He looked over at Muroki, who was watching from nearby, but his brother was away in order to give the queen room to work with. Delano glanced back, wanting nothing more than to finally calm down, finding it very hard to do so.

[TheWhistlerify]

Spoiler: show

Don't ask me how I'm posting right now... Just keep going...

Kato most certainly did not know what was going on, Muroki figured, but the prince seemed to have noticed that Delano was once again in a rather delicate mood. It was quite a surprise to see how the adolescent came to Delano's rescue despite the way he's been afraid of him for the past few days. Noticing that the queen was anything but angry, he allowed himself to relax a little and remained silent as she examined Delano.

The queen didn't need to ask Delano why he'd wanted to talk to Sanders, nor was it that big of a mystery as to why the young adult had ended up trying to attack the former leader of the underworld despite it being strictly forbidden. "So did Sanders have anything useful to say?" She doubted that was the case, but who knew?"Or did he just waste your time with his nonsense?"

[DGFone]

Delano looked away from the queen, not saying anything. He didn't need to, though. His face told her everything that she had suspected: the visit didn't accomplish anything that he hoped it would. He waited to find out what she would say, preparing himself for a verbal beat down from the queen. He knew that he wasn't supposed to attack Sanders, but he had lost his temper again, and this time, it could potentially be very bad for him. He shrunk away from the queen when nothing happened initially, not daring to look.

Then, to his surprise, he heard her walk away. He glanced nervously to see here disappear down a tunnel, the same one she went into when she needed to help Muroki's shoulder. Letting out a breath he was holding, Delano trembled slightly as he wondered just what the queen was thinking.

[TheWhistlerify]

The queen hadn't really expected Delano to say anything to her, having noticed how nervous and worried he was, so she didn't think much of it when he remained silent. She returned after a short while, once again carrying something with her. "Since your situation isn't nearly as bad as your brother's had been, this time I'm not lying when I say that it won't hurt." What she had with her this time definitely didn't smell as bad as what she'd brought for Muroki, and when she began to apply it it immediately soothed the area without causing any discomfort.

Despite it being quite silly, Muroki couldn't help but feel slightly jealous that Delano was getting a less painful treatment. So when the queen asked him how his shoulder was doing all of a sudden, as if reading his mind, he hurried to say that it was much better, causing her to chuckle in amusement. Looking back at his brother, he felt quite guilty at having allowed his brother to go and talk to Sanders, knowing that it could have ended up with something far worse than some claw marks.

[DGFone]

Apart from an initial sting from pressure being applied on his wounds, Delano was quite surprised at how quickly the pain went away as whatever the queen placed on him went into effect. Despite his fears of what was about to happen, he managed to mutter a few words of thanks to the queen.

While the queen was distracted with Muroki, Delano looked at the entrance of the den, contemplating the possibility of running out. Will it make things even worse for him? He was having a very hard time trying to figure out if it was a good idea to run or not.

That was when Umeme and Lina came in, carrying what looked like a fresh gazelle. Delano froze. They didn't know what happened. How would Lina react? Would she be mad with him?

[TheWhistlerify]

Noticing that the queen was beginning to take her leave, Muroki was just about to return to his brother's side when Umeme and Lina came back inside with the gazelle they'd caught. He couldn't help but get the urge to shrink away in shame. He'd promised to look after Delano during Lina's absence, and all things considered he didn't do a very good job.

Lina was still excited with the thrill and the result of her hunt with her sister when the two of them walked back into the royal den. She slowly placed the dead gazelle on the ground, already unable to wait to see her mate's reaction considering how he hasn't eaten anything in quite some time, only for her enthusiasm to disappear altogether whwn she noticed the wounds on his side.

"Delano, what happened??" she asked worriedly, rushing over to him and forgetting the gazelle. Had Delano done this to himself again, like with his paw? No, the location of the injury made it seem quite unlikely, and she seriously doubted that Muroki had done that to him. All of her joy from before at was immediately replaced with shame and remorse as pressed her head against his. For all this time she's been worried about leaving her mate's side and this made her feel even worse.

Muroki meanwhile could only look on as he saw the results of what should have been him keeping an eye on his brother. When Umeme walked over to him, obviously wanting an explanation, he looked down at the floor in shame. "I'm sorry..." he said. "I promised I'd look after Delano, but..."

[DGFone]

Umeme didn't know what was going on as approached Muroki, frowning when he looked away from her. That wasn't how he normally welcomed her. Had something happened to them? "Muroki?" Her voice was filled with concern. "What happened? What's wrong?" She sat down next to her mate, gently using a paw to slowly move his head so that he can look at her. She nuzzled him gently, seeing that he looked quite ashamed of something, and hoping to make him feel better.

Delano tried to shy away from Lina, but couldn't get himself to move. "I thought... I thought that talking to... Sanders might help," he muttered, starting to really get an idea on how stupid his plan was. "Muroki tried to stop me... but I insisted. The things he said... I lost control and tried to attack him, but..." He felt Lina's eyes look over his wounds again. "I thought it would help..." he whispered again, "I really did..."

Next to him, he heard what his brother told Umeme. "Muroki, don't! You know you couldn't have stopped me." He placed his head on his paws. "It's my fault. I was stupid enough to think that talking to that... lion would help." He closed his eyes in shame. "Go ahead, Lina. Tell me that I was an idiot. I won't get mad at you."

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki did find himself calming down a little when Umeme nuzzled him, but that didn't change the fact that Delano and or he could have been killed just because he hadn't insisted on them not going to talk to Sanders. "Delano thought that talking to Sanders might help him somehow..." he said, knowing just how dumb that idea sounded. "I tried to convince him not to, but-" he was cut short by his brother. "I should have tried hader..." he added quietly after Delano had finished talking. "We were lucky it ended up with just a few claw marks..."

Lina listened as Delano slowly explained what had happened, her eyes becoming wide as she realized in just how much danger her mate had put himself through while she was gone. The guards had definitely not paid enough attention, which meant that Delano could have been seriously hurt. "I don't think you're an idiot..." she said quietly, nuzzling him and taking comfort in the fact that he was okay. "You're just desperate to get better. Desperate times do call for desperate measures, but..." she sighed. "Be careful... Please..."

[DGFone]

Umeme gave Muroki a quick lick. "I know you well enough to know that you let him go there without much of a fight," she said quietly, "but I am not angry with you. If I were you... I think I would have let him go too. We don't know what is going inside of him, but it's bad. As long as his ideas don't involve jumping of a cliff or something, I think we can still try anything that he thinks he can help." She motioned at Lina and Delano. "Look at them. It's not nice seeing them like that. I am worried for Lina, you know. And you too. Would you really deny Delano the chance to get better just because you think the idea carries some risk with it?" She grabbed one of Muroki's paws, just so that she can hold on to him. "Yes, you didn't look out for him as well as you should have. But you're not the only one. We did get very lucky, but can you really say that letting him go there was entirely a bad idea?" She looked at Muroki. "When you let him go there, did you believe entirely that it would be futile? Or was there a shadow of a doubt that it just might work, even for a little?"

She then grinned a little. "On the brighter side, Lina and caught a really nice meal. We already ate, so you and Delano can have the rest." She poked Muroki's side gently at a rib. "You could really use the meat. When was the last time you ate?" She quickly got up and moved the meal over to Muroki before sitting down by his side again.

Delano couldn't get himself to look at Lina. "I try to, Lina. I really do..." He then returned her nuzzle, not feeling like saying anything else, but still being extremely grateful for the contact.

"He said things..." he whispered to Lina after some time had passed, "really bad things... and I just... lost it. I don't even remember what happened. I remember getting angry at him, and I remember him clawing me after I missed him, but... I don't remember jumping at him." He let out a low groan. "How can I be careful if I can't even remember the times when I need to be so the most?"

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki had to admit that he did have that little doubt that Delano's plan would work. While that hadn't made him think that Delano should talk to Sanders, he still knew that Umeme was right. "I don't know." He admitted, chuckling at just how worrying enough about something could get him to forget about food. "You didn't really have to push it over to me, but thanks anyway..." he gave her a quick lick and nuzzled her, only stopping when she cleared her throat, returning his attention to the dead gazelle. "Oh, now?" he chuckled. "Okay then."

Lina didn't know how to answer Delano's question. After all, she didn't know what was going on in his head. "Let's start by staying away from him." she advised, licking him on the cheek. "Now come on, Umeme and I brought some food for you and Muroki. You should eat."