[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Hesitantly, Delano separated himself from Lina. "I need to speak with Muroki," he told her, and separated himself from her. He went over to Muroki. "I need to talk to you. Alone." Muroki got the hint and followed Delano away from the others until they were out of earshot.

"So you know the lion I told you about? Gakuru? He's still alive," Delano said, "I followed him, but he had two others with him, so I couldn't attack him... He wants to kill Laini." He sighed, "I don't know what he will do or when, so we will still have to be on alert for him."

But then Delano smiled. "But the underworld is finished. They tried attacking the kingdom before they were ready, and now their gone. We only have to worry about Gakuru. And he's only one lion, three if he brings his pals along. We'll be able to handle him."

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki's immediately mind was immediately filled with questions; like why was this lion after their aunt, or how on earth did he out of all underworld lions stay alive, or whether Kasi knew that Delano knew who was responsible for that attack on his parents a few weeks ago. But that question soon seemed unimportant as Delano said that the underworld was finally gone, causing him to let out a huge sigh of relief. "It's about time." as for Gakuru, Muroki wasn't too worried about him and two other lions. He doubted they'll come back any time soon.

Smiling at his brother, Muroki turned around in the direction of the waterhole. "Come on." he said, beginning to walk back with his brother. "Look, I don't think we should tell this to everyone... It'll just make them upset. And beside, Lina just got you back..." he doubted Delano wanted Lina to think that he just might leave again in order to look for Gakuru. Lina and he probably had a lot of catching up to do, "She missed you so much that even we had to fight the urge to go looking for you..." but Delano was back now, and that was the most important thing.

[DGFone]

Delano grinned slightly as he followed his brother back to the others. "You didn't really need to. I nearly went mad from loneliness a few times myself, but unlike you guys, I knew where to go..." He laughed a little. "I really missed you guys. But especially Lina." Delano frowned slightly. "How did Lina react recently? I wasn't able to leave her anything for a long time..."

Muroki stopped suddenly, and Delano nearly walked into his brother. It took Delano a short while to realize that he had asked the question right next to Lina, and she didn't look to pleased with it. "Uh, hi?" Delano saw that she wouldn't forgive him for the silence. Not for a while.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki was about to remind Delano of when he saw him earlier that day and told him that Lina ran and that they couldn't find her anywhere, which should kind of be the answer to his question. Before he could begin his answer, he noticed that they were already back at the waterhole with everyone and that they have all heard his question. Lina was obviously upset at it, "You know you can ask me." she said with a frown. Was he not asking her directly because he was ashamed of what his departure ended up nearly causing her?

[DGFone]

Delano hesitated, seeing how upset Lina was. "Lina..." He sighed, looking at Muroki for help, but his brother had already walked away. He looked back at Lina, knowing that he would have to explain himself on his own. For some reason, the reunion was not going as well as he hoped it would. "Lina, I... I really missed you." He said. "And I really wanted to leave more messages to you, but I wasn't able to." But in his heart, he knew that this really wasn't a good answer.

"Lina, I'm sorry," Delano whispered, walking closer to her.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina was not upset about the fact that Delano wasn't always able to leave her messages but was actually annoyed at the fact that Delano couldn't even get himself to ask her in person about how she's been while he was gone. "I can tell you by myself all about how lonely I felt and all about how I nearly went mad. I don't need anyone to do it for me." it was certainly not about the messages he couldn't always leave her. It was about how he didn't even have the guts to face everything that he had caused her by leaving.

[DGFone]

Delano pawed the ground nervously. He didn't really even know himself why he didn't ask Lina. But at least she could have seen that maybe he wanted an answer from someone else as well. "Well want do you want me to do?" He asked her, feeling angry. "Change the past? You know I can't do that!"

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina took a few steps back, her ears flat against her head. Did Delano just yell at her? He never even came close to raising his voice at her before, not to mention yell at her. Everybody else who weren't paying attention to the conversation untill now were now staring. She couldn't even bring herself to open her mouth to say anything. It might sound a little too much but she was actually feeling scared of him at the moment.

[DGFone]

Delano looked around, realizing with dread that everyone were staring at him and Lina. He saw how hurt she was, and even the flash of fear in her eyes. Delano took a small step forward, wanting to get closer to Lina, only to have her take the same step back away from him. "Lina..." He whispered, "Please, I didn't mean it..."

Now he too was at a loss of words, not daring to speak, afraid that he will only deepened the hole he dug himself into.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina backed away one step with every step Delano took forward. She seemed to become even more apprehensive when Delano said that he didn't mean it. Nobody could fake something like this, in her opinion at least. Eventually Delano stopped coming closer. She however was still slowly backing away from him, her tail between her leg like a horrified puppy. At one point she turned around, taking a few more steps away from Delano before lying down away from the others, her head under her paws.