[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Umeme woke up shortly after Muroki did, and opened her eyes to see his already looking at her. "Good morning," she said softly, smiling. She reached out with a paw and gently touched his muzzle. "I'd hate to see you go, but I guess you have to," she said, "soon you won't have to leave anymore though, and we will be able to spend entire days together."

Even though she spoke softly, apparently it was enough to wake Moto up, because he soon was up and yawning. "Alright, Muroki. I see you're already up, so I think we should go now," he said as soon as he felt awake enough. "See you soon, Umeme," he added, before he gave her and the rest of his sleeping family a loving lick. "Let's go." He motioned for Muroki to follow him out the den.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki couldn't keep his smile from widening when Umeme opened her beautiful eyes. He gently grabbed the paw she used to touch his muzzle with his own when she said that soon they'll be able to spend entire days together. "I'm already looking forward to it." as much as he wanted to spend this entire day with her, he knew that the sooner he and Moto went the sooner they'll come back. "I'll see you later." he gave her a short nuzzle and then followed Moto outside.

[DGFone]

Moto bid Umeme goodbye and went with Muroki outside. Together, they started walking towards the police dens again. "It's going to be basically like yesterday," Moto said, "only this time I will be finding out the procedures and what to do tomorrow. And because I don't know how long it will take, again just head home once you're done." He was glad that they were finally at the end of this thing, but he wouldn't dare let any optimism hide any problems that might arise.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki nodded, "Okay, got it." the only bad thing about this, like yesterday, would be the eager waiting for Moto to arrive back and hope that he'll have some good news. But like yesterday, Muroki knew that they'll be able to deal with it. The most important thing was that soon Delano will be back with them. When they arrived at the police tunnel, Muroki went ahead and headed straight towards the area at the end where they always kept the prisoners, just like he did yesterday. He still had no idea about what happened to Delano just last night.

[DGFone]

When they reached the police caves, Moto nodded at Muroki and said "Alright, good luck," before the two of them split up and went down different paths.

In the dark cave, Delano was lying on the ground, trying desperately to ignore the pain he was in. He was also convinced that he would now be killed for trying to escape, so when he heard someone other than the guards outside, he tried crawling farther back, but wasn't strong enough to. He then tried to call out a threat, but his mouth was so dry that all he succeeded was coughing a few times. Realizing that he was entirely defenseless, Delano settled down to await his fate.

[TheWhistlerify]

This time when Muroki walked into the small cave, he was a little worried when he did not hear his brother's voice. All that came out of him was a few coughs. Even through his coughs it was easy to tell that Delano didn't get not even a single drop of water. "Delano?" he asked, slowly walking over and reaching with his paw until he touched his brother. "Hey, it's me..." he paused for a moment, "Listen, we're going to get you out... We already have the entire thing planned out..."

[DGFone]

When Delano felt something touch him, he recoiled right away as much as he could. But then he heard his brother's voice, and knew that he was safe, at least for now. Only moments later, he felt shame wash over him as he realized that he would have to tell Muroki about his attempted escape. He once again shied away from his brother, but unable to move very far, Muroki simply edged closer to him as he would try to move farther away.

Delano tried to speak, but once again only coughed when he opened his mouth. After a few more coughs, he was able to form some words. "Muroki," he wheezed out, "there's something I need to tell you..." He was interrupted by another series of coughs. "I tried... I tried escaping..." He fell silent, finding it too painful to try and continue talking.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki's jaw dropped nearly all the way down to the floor at what Delano told him. "You what?!" he said, his voice a whisper combined with a shout. This could risk their entire plan to get him out.

Just then, Muroki heard some other lion walking inside. "We had to break his leg." it was one of the guards.

"You did what?!" growled Muroki, feeling his anger rise.

"Before you do anything both you and your brother regret, hear me out." said the guard warningly. "We should have killed your brother as soon as he tried to run according to orders. You should be thanking us that we didn't. Also, we managed to keep this whole thing a secret, so you shouldn't worry." he went ahead and placed half a pumpkin on the floor with water in it. "Here's some water, give him this." he turned around to leave, "And when they ask about the injured leg during the trial, tell them that your brother hurt himself as a result of madness." prisoners hurting themselves was something common.

[DGFone]

Delano crawled over to the water, drinking it up almost right away. It was hardly enough, and the relief only temporary, but he was still grateful for it. When he finished drinking, Delano placed his head on the ground, and chose to listen without talking because his throat still felt like sand.

When he heard the excuse about his broken leg, he shuffled nervously and emitted a small moan of protest. While he understood that he wouldn't be able to admit the truth, he didn't like the idea of pretending that the wound was self-inflicted.

[TheWhistlerify]

The guard of course heard Delano's moan of protest. It wasn't too hard to hear things in a tunnel. "It's either that," said he, "Or have them find out you tried to escape. Just know that if they do your friends can talk all day and nothing will help you." even saying that Delano did it as a result of lonliness wouldn't help. While he wanted to bring Delano some food as well, it was possible for him to smuggle some water, but smuggling food will be impossible.