[PRIVATE] A Rogue's Light

[Skittakallista]

"Tanga!" Auni ran to his side. The small pause that Tanga had done had left him open to Neru's sudden vicious attack. And now his best friend lay on the floor, blood running from his face and neck. "No! No! Tanga!" He stared around wildly, but all he saw was a stunned looking Imani. He put his paws to Tanga's neck to try and stop the flow. "Come on Tanga! You can get through this! Don't die! You can't die..."

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga roared as Neru's claws slashed across his muzzle, the force of the blow driving him to the ground, before his roar was cut off as Neru's mouth closed around his neck. As pain flared in his neck, Tanga realsied his one moment of hesitation had cost him his life. "Imani..." he choked, trying to warn both her and Auni to run before Neru could get them as well. But Neru's jaw clamped down tighter, and his words were lost.

Then Neru told him of how his hesitation was the exact thing that had gotten his parents killed. All Tanga could do was squirm feebly, and wait for the end, knowing he was beaten.

But it never came, Neru let him go and ran off, leaving Tanga on the ground, bleeding and utterly bewildered as to why Neru would let him go. The lion's voice called back to him, taunting him over his parents, and Tanga felt his convictions in his parents' feeligns towards him slipping.

It was when Auni ran to his side, yelling and pressing his paws against his neck, that he realised he was in trouble. "Auni..." he said, his voice croacking from the after-effects of Neru's choke hold. He was not coughing up blood, though, which was a good sign for him. "Auni, you did brilliantly there...I'm not a fighter...I think this proves it."

He looked over at Imani, smiling at her despite his wounds. She always gave him a little happy feeling inside him just to see her. He realised that his internal debates earlier had been pointless...there was no more doubt...he was falling for the lioness before him.

He also saw Ra and Mufalfa coming out, but directed all his attention to his crush's sister. "Ra...looks like I was able to keep my promise to you...in some way, at least."

But even as Auni tried desperately to stop the bleeding in his neck, Tanga knew it wasn't so bad...at least, it was nowhere near as bad as the throat-slashing Imani had given Mufalfa...right? "Auni...thanks. I think I should be fine with you...I just, I think I need some rest...it's been a really big day for me." He chuckled slightly at the reference to his lonely life, before laying his head down and letting the others do what they could. It had been a long day and night, and he was exhausted.

[oXButterflyKissesXo]

Imani's eyes were shaking at the sight of the blood of her friend. How had she been so stupid as to not be able to jump in there when she felt the need to when she knew the fight was going to get ugly? "Tanga..." she choked out, the tears practically bombing the ground by the second as she rushed over to him and let her head drop onto his side, letting his fur absorb the water from her eyes. The lioness looked over and up to Auni who was by his friend's side, and she let her eyes go back into Tanga's bright yellow fur.

"If you leave me, I'll never forgive you" she cried, looking into his blue eyes with her violet ones. Instead of putting her face back into his fur, she started to lick his wounds clean of blood before more would come cascading out again, and she would repeat the same act of desperation to keep her friend alive. When she couldn't stand the taste of blood on her tongue, she took a break and let her head rest beside him and the tears rolled off her cheeks and onto the ground. How could this have happened? It was Tanga. If it were someone like Neru, or Mulfalfa, she wouldn't mind and she would be admittedly fine with it. But Tanga had something special about him to Imani and she didn't want that to leave her.

This experience was something she had never felt before. She was feeling the sadness, but the hope and need to make him go on. If she could have done anything, she would do it. If she could have rewound time, then she would and she would make sure that Neru never landed a paw on Tanga. Tanga, the gentle, kind, shy, and depressed lion, was not one who deserved to die. He deserved to live a long life and she was wishing he could still have that, which is why she knew he was going to make it none the less. "I don't want you to go...," she looked back into his eyes and managed a smile through her tears, "we still have a lot of things to do together, my friend".

[VitanisMate]

Mufalfa then passed out again and almost drowned in the water. Meanwhile a vision of him appeared toward the three there after their fight with Neru. Mufalfa or a vision of him smiled and said, "I hope you like how my servant Neru made a fool out of all three of you." He laughed and disappeared again but the real Mufasa was still there unconscious.

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga's eyes widened, and he gingerly raised his head, as he heard Imani choke out his name and practically hug him. Somehow, the contact on her fur calmed him, while setting his heart racing at the same time.

Then she spoke, claiming she'd never forgive him if he left...knowing she meant death. He managed a small chuckle, then realised that she was being serious. "You...you really mean that?" he asked. But any thought of Imani's words vanished as she attempted to clean his wounds. "Imani, don't worry abo..." he found his words trailing away into nothing as he found Imani's tongue against his fur immensely relaxing, despite the stinging of his wounds. He actually managed to let out a small chorus of purrs while she worked.

When she finally stopped, Tanga felt a mild sense of disappointment, which quickly disappeared when he noticed Imani was now lying next to him. He also noticed she was crying, and wanted to say or do something he make her feel better. But he knew she was crying for him, and his injuries...and while he was touched to know that she cared deeply about him, he did not know what he could say to make her feel better.

Then she spoke once more, and smiled at him. And right there, right then...he knew which, out of living in this world, and dying to rejoin his parents, he wanted more. Taking a chance...and using Imani's advice during the fight in a way she probably would not ever have expected, he decide to run on pure instinct, and give a quick, completely innocent nuzzle across her cheek, showing how much it meant that she cared for him like this. "I know we do, Imani...and thank you, you and Auni," he gave the lion a smile as well. "are my first, and only friends...you have no idea what the both of you mean to me."

Especially you, Imani, Tanga added silently. The reason he did not reveal his feelings there and then was simple shyness...that, and he had no idea how Imani would react, and his mind was throwing up a lot of possible outcomes...few of them pleasant. As he closed his eyes, and began to process of recovering from his wounds, although he did not go to sleep just yet, he spoke up one more time. "And don't worry, Imani...I'm not going anywhere...my friend."

[oXButterflyKissesXo]

Imani felt his nuzzle and stayed completely still until he finished. And when he drew his head back, she couldn't hide the raises eyebrows and blinking eyes, plus the stunned expression on her face. She let her head sag a little and looked to the side as her cheeks heated, her violet eyes looking to the side and over to Auni's feet. "Uhm, good" she replied after the whole thing and got to her feet, avoiding contact with him. She knew her dark fur would hide the redness in her cheeks, but she was always so paranoid about these kinds of things.

Once the vision appeared of Mulfalfa like the one before, the lioness barely felt her body tense as she moved in front of Tanga's form and protecting him. Once it was gone, she whipped her head around to the male whom was now unconcious. It didn't matter what Ra had connected with him now, she was through with him. "MUFALFA!" She roared, going after his sleeping form but she stopped when she looked over to Ra and saw her and him together. She had something with Mulfalfa and as much as Imani didn't want it to be so, she had to respect it and it was for the best that she kept the father of her future nephew or nieces.

Though the rage was subsided a little, it still wasn't gone. Then she turned her head to where Neru had run off to and she narrowed her violets. "I'll be right back" she snarled to them before she darted off to where the lion had retreated to. There, she saw him in the waterhole, and she let her claws come through her toes and her teeth. "Neru, I'm not finished with you" she snarled, jolting down and leaping at him over the water, catching her claws on his neck.

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga never noticed Imani's stunned, shy response, as he was half-asleep by now, his exhaustion beginning to take its toll. He did, however, hear the vision of Mufalfa once more, and could vaguely sense Imani standing in front of him protectively.

But it was Imani's booming roar that caused Tanga to snap his eyes open, just in time to see Imani hesitate in her rush to charge the unconscious lion. He saw her look between Ra and Mufalfa, and knew she was putting all that had happened between the two together. Mufalfa may have done some horrible things...but they could not kill him now, not without hurting Ra, as well. Tanga did not want to do that, and he knew that, since Ra was her sister, that Imani definitely did not want to do that.

But when she looked in the direction Neru had run, and said that she'd be right back, Tanga knew what she was going to do. His eyes widening as Imani headed off, he realised that he had to stop her, before she did something she was going to regret for a long, long time.

With a huge effort, feeling his neck flare with pain as he did it, he hauled his bleeding, exhausted and weakened body to it's feet. He barely had the will to keep himself standing, but the thought of his friend pushed him on as he staggerred after Imani, determined to stop her before she could kill Neru. "Imani!" he croacked, ignoring the pain in his neck as he tried to get her attention. "Imani, stop! Please!" But his voice was hoarse, and he could not get it to carry.

So he staggerred on, until he found Imani and Neru by the edge of a waterhole. Neru had collapsed, and from this angle, it was impossible to determine if he had passed out or not. Imani, on the other paw, had Neru's neck in her claws, and seemed to be just about to finish him off. "Imani, stop!" he finally managed to cry out, almost collapsing from the effort it took to get his voice loud enough for Imani to hear. "Imani, please! Don't do this! You don't want to do this!" It was now taking a supreme effort just to remain conscious...but he had to do it. For Imani's conscience, and sanity, he had to stop her.

[VitanisMate]

Neru regained consciousness and laughed seeing that she had her claws around his thraot and saw Tanga as well. "You are a lot braver than the coward over there." He laughed noticing she was about to kill him. He looked at Tanga and said, "If she kills me I will not be able to reveal my secret to you. A secret not even Mufalfa knows. Would you like to hear it coward?" He sighed knowing he was dead either way and knew he would enjoy this anyway.

He smiled and laughed again and said, "Are you sure you wanna know because when I am done telling you the secret it will be you wanting to kill me not her." He laughed and looked at him with evil eyes. "Here is my little secret Tanga. Your mother was pregnant and so when I ate her and your dad that day I killed your sibling as well." He looked toward him and said, "So how is your feeling of being merciful to me seem now." He laughed again.

He looked toward the water thinking of a plan to get away from these fools. "So Tanga when you have a cub with this lioness will I have to eat it as well?" He laughed it up knowing that Tanga's ideal of mercy was slipping and knowing Tanga really wanted to kill him now. Once Tanga tried to kill him Neru would escape through the water and run as fast as he could.

[oXButterflyKissesXo]

Imani sank her teeth into his neck as quick as she could and before Neru could even flinch and she dunked him under the water. Taking her head out of the water but keeping him under still, she put her whole weight onto him and made sure he wouldn't be able to move. Once she felt him go limp, she let him come back up and there floated his dead body.

Just to make sure, Imani put her ear to his neck and heard nothing. Not a breath, a pulse, and no words. She pulled away and looked down at him with cold eyes, "death was sure to come to you sooner or later. Just be thankful it was I, not karma" she hissed, walking out of the water.

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga could only stand there and watch helplessly as Imani drowned Neru...he was in too much shock to do anything. Wh...what? he asked silently, staring at Neru's lifeless body, scarcely able to believe it was true. His mother had been carrying his sibling when she had brutally killed?

But in the end, Tanga realised that Neru was telling the truth. It all made sense now. His mother had not been well those last few days, and his dad was being really caring and protective of her, which was why he had been allowed out on his first solo hunt. And when they had intercepted Mufalfa, his mother had not been fighting the way she usually did...and nor had his dad, being really protective of his mate at the time.

But now Tanga understood...they had not only been protecting him, but had been trying to protect his future sibling, too. Questions flew around his skull; Would he have had a brother or sister? What would they have been like? What would they have looked like? They would be a around a year old by now, he realised, still a cub...and whoever his sibling would have been, they never got the chance to even see the world...killed whilst still in his mother's womb.

The grief started to build inside him again...he felt like he was losing his family all over again. He looked up towards the stars once more, feeling completely helpless in the wake of this new revelation. This, coupled with his weakened state, caused him to start losing the last of his strength. Without a sound, except for the thud of his body, he keeled over sideways and thumped into the grass, beginning to lose consciousness as he felt his life fading from him. His mane felt heavy with all the blood from his neck wound, and this latest, shocking revelation had destroyed the self-assurance Auni had given him just before. Where before, he was fighting to survive, now he was simply waiting to see which way fate sent him.

"Brother...sister...are you up there, too?" he asked the stars weakly, as he noticed someone, or a few someones, approaching him. But whatever they were going to do to him, Tanga did not know, for a that point, he finally gave in to his body's desperate desire to shut down, and slipped into unconsciousness. He did not know whether he was going to wake up again...nor did he really care. All he thought about as he drifted away was the sibling he had never known.