[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Umeme smiled, but got slightly disappointed when Muroki broke away from her. That disappointment faded, however, when he began to ask her a question. She thought she knew what he was going to ask, but before he finished, and before she could answer him, Muroki stopped, and stared off into the side. Umeme followed his gaze and saw Lina, looking lonely and sad.

Umeme got up and walked over to her sister, sitting down besides her. "I hate seeing you like this," Umeme told Lina. "I really want you to try and cheer up... Delano is able to take care of himself..."

---

Delano shook his head. "I can't prove it. But I saw him in the underworld. With my own eyes. Sander's leading them! I don't know why, but he is." He looked away. "I don't think it's possible to prove anything like this... What if you get someone to follow him?" He asked suddenly. "Watch where he goes, does anything..."

He felt eyes watching him and quickly turned to look, but didn't see anything. It could have simply been his imagination getting the better of him. "And you mustn't let him or anyone close to him know." Delano added, turning back to the lion. "Nor that I told you this. You can't let anyone know... I don't know who's in on this or not. And it's not safe either way..." He stared at the lion, trying to convince him with his mind. "Please do it..." he whispered, "Because I can't. Not on my own."

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki was really disappointed that he didn't have time to finish his question. He and Umeme were together for a really long time now, and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. He wanted to be her mate. However, ensuring Lina's well-being was more important, and the question could always wait for sometime later. Muroki followed Umeme, sitting down by Lina's opposite side. He didn't know what to say to her though. Lina also said nothing for quite a while, but after a few moments she opened her mouth and said. "I... I don't know... I just... I want him back. I know he can take care of himself but as long as he's not here next to me..." she stopped, her tone and figure shaky.

---

The lion said, "Look, we have more important things to do here, you should know that yourself considering the training you must have gone through." then again, they were working and working and working yet achieving nothing. The lion could not believe himself, but after a short silence he let out a short sigh of defeat. "Alright, I'll follow him myself..." he personally always thought there was something strange about their chief. "This better not be a prank of yours though." he said with a frown.

[DGFone]

Umeme was able to tell that Lina was close to losing it, so she leaned against her, providing comfort and warmth. She knew that so far, everything they told her didn't work, most likely because they were empty words. But then she got an idea. "But he is with you," Umeme told Lina. "Remember, when he left, what he said? That he's here," she touched Lina's head, "...and here" her heart. "Delano might not be physically here now, but he is next to you even now as we speak."

----

Seeing as this lion was turning out to be useless, Delano got up and was about to leave when the lino spoke up again. "Don't worry," Delano said, "It isn't." He left the cave and followed the tunnels outside. It was already dark. Breaking into a run, Delano headed back to the underworld caves. He would have to explain why he was so late, but the various cuts he got would actually help him. He can say that he was captured and broke free.

But as he ran, Delano's thoughts turned towards Lina, and he stopped. Perhaps he should run back and quickly leave her a message, perhaps even find her in person and actually talk to her. But he looked back and saw that he was too far away for him to do either of those. Despite the fact that it was the last thing he wanted to do, Delano continued to run towards the underworld caves. He will find the time to talk to Lina.

He knew he would.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina, despite Umeme's attempts to comfort her, was not convinced. How could Delano be with her if she could not see him or talk to him? She wanted to at least see a message from him, to at least know that he was not hurt. She looked from Umeme to Muroki a few times, Muroki could already tell what she was about to say "Could you come with me?" usually they checked for messages during the evenings, and if they left now they would have just enough time to come back before they would be forced to be inside the den by law. Muroki looked at Umeme. He himself didn't mind going with Lina.

[DGFone]

Umeme smiled. "Yeah, sure." Together, all three of them walked to the waterhole. Umeme hoped that Delano had left a message. If he did, Lina's mood would lift considerably. But as they walked, Umeme was able to tell that Lina needed the walk, even if there would be no message. Because as they walked, Lina could hope, and that made things better.

---

Delano finally made his way to the underworld caves. Unlike with the police, these were not guarded, in order to create the illusion that they were unimportant. Walking inside, he quickly made his way though the pitch darkness towards the sleeping area, not knowing that the others inside will think of him. He had his story all set for the telling, but he didn't know how much they would believe him. Still a new guy, being gone for a long time would raise a lot of alarm.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina was the one walking in the lead the entire time, which only showed how eager she was to get there and how badly she wanted to see a message from Delano this time. Once they got there, she took off a bit ahead of the two towards the patch of dirt where they always left each other messages, and then her enthusiasm disappeared. There was again no message from Delano. Now Lina wished to have not decided to go there in the first place, because she was feeling even worse now.

---

Gakuru, having been looking for Delano and wondering where he is, rose to his feet when Delano arrived. "Where have you been exactly?" it was too dark to notice Delano's gashes without taking a very close look, but as far as Gakuru remembered Delano was not captured or chased after by either of the police lions who attacked them. The rookie's entire absence was way too strange and random, and he better have some good way of explaining it because the other lions there seemed much less patient than Gakuru was.

[DGFone]

Umeme watched Lina rush ahead, but chose to stay behind with Muroki. "So what was it that you were going to ask me?" She looked at Muroki hopeful. When Muroki opened his mouth to answer, she stole a quick glance at Lina. Even if Muroki replied, Umeme din't here anything. Instead, she quickly moved over to Lina, who was looking close to collapsing from sadness. Looking at the bare ground, Umeme knew why Lina felt so terrible now.

---

Delano grunted as he lay down at his spot at the far end of the cave, stretching his sore limbs. "Got captured by another patrol," he said, "had to escape them. Took a while to lose them after I broke free." He closed his eyes, needing the rest. "And no, I made sure that I wasn't followed," he added. He said this solely to calm the others down. He didn't really check if he was followed or not.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki became slightly nervous when he was about to start asking his question again, but as a force of habit he also looked at Lina. The words didn't even begin leaving his mouth and he was already quickly moving over to her side, noticing that there were no new messages from Delano. While it was naturally worrying him as well, it was Lina who concerned him the most, as she now seemed even worse than before. He slowly put one of his forelegs around her shoulder and held her slightly closer, allowing her to rest against him for comfort if she wanted to, and he wasn't surprised when she did.

---

Gakuru was just about to ask Delano whether he was followed or not when Delano already answered for him. Delano was a new guy, and a new guy disappearing for such a long period of time was always capable of bringing up everybody's suspicion. However, most of them had too much of a busy day in order to care about the new guy and his whereabouts, and were going to stay as careless unless what happened today would start repeating itself. Gakuru said nothing to him and also lay down and closed his eyes, feeling tired himself.

[DGFone]

Umeme went around Lina and sat down on her other side, so that she was in between Umeme and Muroki. Lina was shaking noticeably, even as she sought comfort in Muroki. "Come on," Umeme said softly, "let's go home." The sooner they left this place, the better.

---

The next morning

Delano was shaken awake early in the morning. Grumbling, he looked at who was shaking him, and came face to face with Gakuru and a few other lions. The lions behind Gakuru looked rather angry, even more than usual. Delano got up quickly in order to face them. "What?" He demanded.

[TheWhistlerify]

Gakuru, after shaking Delano awake, looked at him with a frown. "Change of tactic. Instead of wondering around like goons, we'll go in bigger groups and take the police out directly." Sanders was not pleased with what happened yesterday, and now he decided that instead of going for the pride members they should go to the actual force of defense, the police. Also, Sanders was also informed of Delano's little mess up that other day, and decided that anyone who did that would be simply executed. While he knew he had to take things slow, he'd rather lose one of his soldiers rather than an entire group. "Also, you might not want to make another 'accident'." the lions behind him growled at the mention of that. They didn't seem to like Delano very much.