I hate Mondays

Sunrise. Day after day, each and every day, the sun rises. And day after day, each and every day it has the same effect as it still tender, warm rays hit the earth's surface: half of all life got up, the other half sought shelter for a good day's rest. After a few minutes, the sun would become a huge, reddish circle slowly creeping up over the horizon, followed by the warmth of a morning sun. A nice and tender warmth, not like the scorching heat past noon, or the ever chilling feel of dusk. Just a pleasant warmth, sustainable almost till noon. And thus the best time to chill out in the sun, Vitani concluded.

Ever since she had left the barren Outlands, after the death of her mother, to join the pride, it had become somehow what of a routine. A comfortable nap after a hard night's work. If only she had ever done a hard night's work ever since the reunion... Quite to the contrary, Vitani couldn't remember the last time she had had to go through any trouble or any hardship to accomplish anything. Ever since life had stopped to be a day-to-day struggle, after she joined the king's pride that is, her life, not unlike most of the outlanders', had become… well, empty. A glaring, boring emptiness, forcing her to fill her days by taking naps in the morning sun. Indeed, lacking both the harsh surroundings of the outlands that would always ensure a night of toil and hunger, as well as an aim in life (think overthrowing a king and putting her brother on the throne), life had become boring at best. Empty and boring. The only one who really been enjoying himself ever since the reunion was Kovu, who now of course got to play king over the Outlanders in their newly appointed domain, right next to their old one.
You see, the 'all-knowing' king Simba had noticed (or concluded, or even made op as an excuse to get rid of the Outlanders) the Pridelands could not support a pride too dense, so the Outlanders had been rebased from Priderock towards the north east corner of the Pridelands, right next to and even slightly overlapping their former residence, the Outlands (though no-one bothered to venture there ever again). Although their new residence (about one-third of the Pridelands in size) was considered the lesser part of the Pridelands, it was infinitely better than the Outlands themselves, where the Outlanders formerly resided.
No-one complained. To the contrary, because, let us face it: Simba had not split-up the pride because the lands could not support a pride so dense, but because the lions themselves could not stand it. It was common knowledge that, even in being reunited and having made peace with one-another, the Pridelanders were glad to again be rid of them smelly, rude Outlanders. The Outlanders, in turn, weren't afraid too admit they preferred not having those smug, up-tight Pridelanders (save for a few reinforcements, whose main duty was to keep tabs on Kovu) around. Besides, Kovu now got some practice at being a king, semi-autonomously ruling over 'his' Outlanders (at which he fared reasonably well). Everyone was a winner it seemed, the pride's cohesion most of all: no more internal friction in the pride meant it became less likely the lions would once again decide to turn on one another. And that, in effect, was the best guarantee for a peaceful and prosperous lion-pride. Who wouldn't sign for that? Well, Vitani, for one, wouldn't: she was bored out of her mind, living in peace and prosperity. Ever since the reunion, more than one year ago already, Vitani couldn't remember the last time she had had some excitement in her now dull life. She needed something thrilling to keep her occupied, or at least fun… Looking at it from that perspective, it's not hard to understand why Vitani actually enjoyed the worried look on Kovu's face as he approached the rock which Vitani had claimed for her daily sun-bathing. Maybe something bad and thus exiting had (finally) happened? To annoy her brother a bit, Vitani at first pretended she hadn't noticed him. Until she spotted a lioness trailing him, that was. The more, the merrier! Vitani rolled over to address both lions to have appeared.

"Why good morning baby brother (Vitani was about thirty seconds older than Kovu)! Looking all grim 'n gloomy, I see?"

Kovu apparently wasn't in the mood for irony, or any humor for that matter. Neither was the lioness, but then again, she never was.
Enyi never smiled, let alone laughed. She never cried either. It was her one true merit, being neither particularly bright nor strong: she seemed to have been born with a distinct lack of emotions, making her perfect for obeying orders, a quality seldom openly, but nonetheless often, appreciated. Vitani could already guess that it was the lioness who was the source of her brother's worrisome gaze.

"Morning sis… sorry to bother you like this, I know your o-so fond of sunbathing," Kovu replied teasingly, "Bbut I presume you've already guessed I didn't come here to discuss the weather. We've got a serious problem on our paws."

"Because of your uncanny talent for making things sound way too serious, I have to say you haven't impressed me this far… But you still continue making that serious face of yours… why?."

"Because my problem is serious. Real serious. Concerning you-me-and-who-knows-who-else serious."

"Sounds good," Vitani yawned as she leapt of her rock, next to Kovu, "You sure it's not just the nerves? You know, the usual panic you seem to descend into each time Simba comes over to visit his daughter, and spy on you while he does?"

"Hey, if you don't believe me, feel free to judge it for yourself, for all I care, Enyi'll gladly fill you in on the details," Kovu shrugged, "You can decide yourself whether you deem the events important enough to spent your precious sunbathing-time listening to me further elaborating on the subject."

"Goody… story time."

As always, Enyi couldn't even muster the faintest of smiles.

"Where do I start, sir? The hunt?"

Kovu nodded, and Enyi started explaining to Vitani what had happened earlier that night.

"It all happened while I was on hunting-duty, last night. As usual, I led a hunting party of six, myself included. However, we didn't seem to have any luck that night as we found almost no prey, and took down even less: nothing. But after a couple of hours spent on failures and screw-ups, we caught the scent of a leopard. Since everyone had become tired of hunting to no avail, I suggested we stalk the leopard a bit and see what he catches: nothing like a free meal. And indeed, as we followed the leopard into some of that annoying tall grass that seems to be poppin' up everywhere, we soon heard a dying groan: jackpot. Relying manly on sound, we then moved in to 'confiscate' the kill. It didn't take us long to find the leopard, who (wisely) took off when he realized his meal was goners. But then, as we were just about to grab the food, competition appeared…"

"I can feel were this is going at…"

"Please, Vitani, let her finish her story, will ya?"

"… as I said, we weren't the only ones who wanted to claim the leopard's snack. Some hyenas appeared, three of 'em. I ordered them scavengers to back-off and leave, but they chose to instead grab the prey. Then, as I was about to warn them they'd better reconsider before I would feel obliged to use lethal force, my overly rash companions decided to attack without orders nor warning, much to my annoyance. Two of them had already encircled the hyenas to that end. But the hyenas attempted a breakout. It was quite amazing really; they acted surprisingly effective and disciplined: all three of them threw themselves at one of our lionesses. Two of 'em grinded her forepaw, and when she tried to bite the third one (this I found particularly amazing), the hyena snapped at the lioness' mouth as she opened it, actually biting of her part of her lip, and more importantly, fending off the bite intended at her. Needles to say the lioness wouldn't be doing a lot of biting after that. Anyway, by then, the others, including me, had intervened. A close friend of the mangled lioness I spoke of earlier managed to pin one of the hyena's down, alive, while the rest of us overwhelmed the second hyena, killing it instantly. Meanwhile the third one was getting away, so me and two others tried to chase it down, but it outran us, probably because a night of hunting had exhausted us more than it had tired the hyena. After a minute or so, we gave up the chase and returned to the others."

"Right, that ought to do," Kovu interrupted, "I'd prefer not hearing the other part again, ever."

"Why?" Vitani wondered, still unnerved a bit because of Enyi's cold, seemingly uncaring manner.

"Trust me on this one… Thank you, Enyi, that's all for now. Go take a nap or something."

"Sir, ma'am," Enyi saluted, after which she took off.

"Why did you interrupt her all of a sudden?" Vitani asked when Enyi was out off hearing distance.

"Because her way of saying things is a bit too… graphic to my tastes. For one, she was just about to describe how they had to drag their wounded friend out here, only to have to drag her away again at my command, 'cause I wouldn't want her upsetting the pride. You know, them screams of pain and such…"

Vitani just stared at Kovu for a while.

"What? But… that's awful!" she finally exclaimed, shocked.

"Bah, you're just not getting the full picture here. Besides, it's not like I'm leaving her to die: her friend is with her as we speak, and with a bit of luck she'll live. No, I just needed to get her away from the pride till I got her story straight, 's all."

"Why would you want to… Oh, I get it… You want to look good in front of the big man, and having to admit you've got hyenas creeping over the border wouldn't really have him think highly of his ambitious son-in-law, now would it?"

Kovu couldn't help but look like he had been caught red-handed as Vitani grinned at him.

"Well, I guess you could persuade the wounded lioness if you talk nice to her… you know, a bit of comforting here and there. She'll definitely fold to a big 'n cuddly guy like you, 'cause if she's as helpless as I think she is, she'll definitely do just that. Who is that wounded lioness anyway?"

"Uh…" Kovu sighed, "Damn, I forgot again… One of the Pridelanders that are supposed to keep tabs on me… Nope, can't remember her name… Hey, what do you expect, Enyi never calls anyone by their names, so when she told me her story…"

"Yeah, I noticed too, why the hell does she do that? Quite frankly, she freaks me out… That aside, how are you going to convince the other lionesses involved to keep their yaws shut to Simba?"

"Well, luckily, Enyi came straight to me before even letting her party near the rest of the pride; we could still keep all this under wraps. And another 'stroke of fortune' (of sorts): as Enyi told me that story of hers, she also noted some of her companions had admitted to have displayed… 'disturbing' behavior while she had been occupied trying to chase down the hyena that got away. I think that information might come in handy."

"Huh?"

"You know how I said Enyi could get a bit graphic at times? Well, one of Enyi's companions had described to her, down to the nasty details, how they… well, kind of tortured the hyena they had gotten alive to death. Enyi passed on that disturbing report to me. Trust me; you wouldn't want to hear any of it. "To make her pay for their wounded friend", the offenders had explained. But Enyi got the impression they had actually enjoyed what they had done, and were proud of it as well. You can say a lot about Enyi, but at least she isn't very tolerant of cruelty (probably because she considers it a as just another distorted display of emotions). Anyhow, needless to say such crude behavior is unsuitable of any lion, which I thoroughly and brutally explained to the offenders once they got here, and the only way I would let 'em off without some 'pedagogic' punishment would be if they kept their mouths shut, now and forever."

"No wonder we're always gnawing at one another," Vitani sighed in disgust, "If idiots like them keeping pulling hideous stunts like that, we'll still be fighting the hyenas when hell freezes over…"

"Probably," Kovu agreed, "But on the upside, those lionesses' own stupidity has ensured they won't talk to Simba. We all know the king isn't really the sadistic type; those lionesses will think twice before telling Simba they enjoyed the suffering another living being, even if it only was a hyena. I'm pretty sure they won't mention their encounter with the hyenas to our king, fearing that I might reveal the more sinister details."

All right, so that's been taken care of, no?" Vitani reasoned, starting to lose interest, "I mean, none of the lionesses will mention the hyenas to Simba now that you can blackmail them. Case closed. So why on earth did you come over hear to let me in on your little cover-up? Where do I enter the picture?"

"Quite simple really: I'm confident everyone had already guessed hyenas were entering our lands from time to time, even without any of us openly admitting it, or talking about it. But all signs point in that direction. However, up until today, thanks to their apparently newly developed knack for secrecy, we never sighted a single hyena ever since I took charge around here, or at least no-one bothered to report it when they did see one. But I figured quite some time ago it was becoming obvious they were crossing the border on a regular basis, so I concluded it might not have been a bad idea to… well, broker some kind of deal with 'em, agree on some guidelines, to avoid situations like we had tonight: things like that could escalate. And good rules make good neighbors. But since we never actually got to see one of those sneaky bastards, and because the subject is rather… touchy with the Pridelanders, I figured it'd be best if I didn't rush the matter…"

"You damn right it's touchy," Vitani interrupted him, "Simba'll probably eat you alive if he finds out you, of all lions, are even as much as thinking about doing dealings with hyenas. Should bring back a nice pile of nasty memories."

"Well, yeah, if you want to put it that way…" Kovu shrugged, faintly annoyed, "Anyhow, I think it ought to be better if from now on, I gave those negotiations a somehow what higher priority: my procrastination has already caused injury to one of our lionesses. And now that Simba is coming over, I'd like to avoid him bumping into any hyenas; he'd be less than amused if that were to happen."

"And you want to make sure an agreement is reached before Simba visits us, right?" Vitani smiled, amused at the glaring transparentness of Kovu's intentions, "You want to make an agreement with the hyenas, to make sure they at least keep their smelly selves out of our domain for the duration of Simba's visit? I don't know… If Simba came here and encountered a hyena, he'd probably scold you and beat the hyena to a pulp. But if he found out you're doing deals with the hyenas, you'll be the one getting the beating."

"The old man, beating me up? Not likely!" Kovu grinned, "But you are right about me preferring him not hearing about those planned agreements I'd like to make with the hyenas. That's why I'm sending you to the hyenas as my personal emissary."

"What?" Vitani gasped.

"Well, it's obvious I need someone I can trust, sis. And someone who can keep things under wraps, if necessary, if I want to avoid Simba's wrath. Besides, from what I recall, last time we met some hyenas, you and them got along fine…"

"You mean you're sending me into enemy territory, alone, after we iced two of their clan mates? Isn't that a wee bit dangerous? Or do you think I'm too stupid to realize that?"

"No, I think you're a loyal and trustworthy sister to whom I would entrust my life. And I also think you're bored to death and in need of some suspense, before you were to vegetate. You have to admit, this can't be anything but exciting!" Kovu suggested grinningly.

"You got me there…" Vitani admitted. She was actually starting to like the idea. It had been an awful long time since she had done something exiting… and the thought of going against the will of 'her' king brought back some of her good, old rebellious spirit… But the idea still sounded a bit dangerous, though…

"Right then," she finally agreed, after a minute's though, "Where do I go, what do I tell 'em and when do I leave?"