***Chapter 2***

"Unless you really understand others, you can hardly attain full self understanding."

(((0)))

He looked at his reflection neutrally. It changed into Oojiro, then into his mangled corpse. Then it returned to him, and then it turned into Kya. She cried, and the water rippled in its usual way that somehow affected the land and the air in addition to the stream itself. He grew dizzy and fell to the ground solidly, only to find himself back where he had fallen asleep.

Kiota scowled and picked himself up off the ground, his joints cracking from the stiffness. Over the past week, he had dreamt the strange dream over and over again for every night! It was driving him insane with its weirdness. Every night he went to sleep knowing that he would have it, but every time he had it, he felt it with complete freshness without any memory of it before. Each time his reflection transformed into the lioness he hated, he saw it with new and complete shock as if he had never seen it before. He woke every morning, irritated at being 'fooled' again by his own dream.

He groaned as he stretched in the morning sun and glanced over at the sleeping lioness with disgust. Her side rose and fell rhythmically and the sun seemed to make her fur glow with a golden hue that was rarely seen. To most, the sight would have been enough to expel any bad mood, but to Kiota it only made him bitterer. Kya had been the bane of his existence for almost two weeks now, and she was showing no sign of getting bored. She truly wanted to kill him, and he was just beginning to accept the fact that she wasn't going to leave.

Her eyes opened suddenly and locked onto him. "Why are you staring at me?"

Kiota shrugged and walked past her. "I was trying to think of a way to get rid of you." He remarked over his shoulder.

"I'm staying, get used to it." She replied as she got to her feet.

"I am getting used to it, but that doesn't make you any more tolerable."

"Yea, yea…" she said dully. "I'm such a pain with getting you food and everything."

"I would be fine on my own. I was before you were here, and I will be after you leave."

"How would you have gotten your paw the unstuck other day if I hadn't loosened that log?"

"I would have managed."

She nodded doubtfully. "Sure… whatever." She was quiet for several minutes as they walked aimlessly through the savannah. Just as Kiota had accepted the fact that she was staying, she had come to accept the fact that he had no idea where they were heading.

Kya opened her mouth as if she was about to speak, but was cut off by a sudden flurry from the side. From a small bush burst a pair of wrestling squirrels. They rolled across the dirt between the two lions with giddy playfulness, causing a small cloud of dust to form around them.

"Haha!" Kya giggled as the two rodents landed at her feet. They looked up at her with startled eyes, having not realized that she was there. In a flash, they ran back into the bush that they had burst from. The lioness's giggle turned into a full laugh as the pair disappeared from sight.

"Did you see the look on their faces?" she asked Kiota with a wide grin. "It was hilarious!"

"You thought that those rats were funny?" Kiota asked in surprise.

Kya blinked as she realized that he wasn't even smiling. "Didn't you see them? The way they were playing and how they were so surprised when they saw me?"

"That wasn't funny." He replied dully as he turned back to continue on his path.

"Well then what would you call it?"

"Disgusting, irritating, stupid, boring-"

"You're just cynical."

"No, I'm just not as easily entertained as you."

She huffed in annoyance. "Fine then, what do you consider to be funny."

Kiota was silent a moment as he thought about it. No one had ever asked that before… he couldn't remember the last time that he laughed freely. "I don't know…"

Kya chuckled. "You just don't have a sense of humor."

"I do too; I'm just not sure what it is."

"Well then, Kiota," she said with mock pleasantness. "I hope that you'll let me know when you figure it out."

He nodded. "You will be the first to know."

"I'm glad that I'm your first priority."

"First place in a single-entry competition isn't that significant."

She shrugged. "At this point, I'll take any victory that I can get."

"If that's what keeps you going, then fine."

She sighed irritably, but was silent. In a way, Kiota was envious of his unwanted company. At least she knew what drove her; he on the other hand, wasn't so sure any more. He had been walking for almost two weeks, hoping for some revelation or something to make things make sense again. So far, he hadn't come up with anything. The strange guilt surrounding Ojiro still persisted, as did the fascination with Kya's eyes. Try as he might, he just couldn't hurt her; he had watched her sleep and tried to get himself to kill her while her eyes were closed, but he just couldn't do it! Every time he even thought about hurting her, the image of her determined eyes shone in his head like the sun.

He was trying to figure it all out, he truly was. She just seemed to block any and all potential progress with her incessant talking and breathing and just existence in general. God he hated her. He had considered going back to smaller prides and continuing to challenge them as he had before, but what was the point? He had fought the greatest that anyone could offer and had emerged victorious. Fights didn't even give him the euphoria that they had before; there was simply no danger anymore. The fact that he would win was a simple given.

Suddenly, the pair emerged from the foliage onto the edge of a vast desert. Kya gasped in awe as she looked across the seemingly endless expanse of sand that was mounded into miniature mountains, only to be blown away and rebuilt by the relentless wind. Behind them lay the thick, albeit desolate, brush that they had traveled through for so long. In either direction lay the abrupt boundary that separated the two distinct terrains.

"Wow." Kya remarked. "That's a big desert."

Kyota nodded. "I don't think that we're where I thought we were."

"Are you saying that we're lost?" she asked unsurprisedly.

"No, just a little off course." He answered dully as he surveyed the land in either direction. Off to the side he noticed a small oasis of sorts. It wasn't much, just a small pool of murky water and a few trees around it. "Come on." He told Kya. "I'm thirsty."

She sighed irritably and followed.

As they neared the water, Kiota noticed a dark figure not too far away from the oasis. It lay almost fifty yards out into the desert, covered by a thin layer of sand. Out of curiosity, he changed his course slightly so that they would pass the object on the way to the waterhole.

"What is that?" Kya asked as they neared the dark thing.

Kiota stopped as he realized what it was. "What it is… is dead."

Kya stared in interest as she neared the body of the dark wildebeest. "Huh…" is all she said.

Kiota looked at it for several moments, analyzing the corpse. Judging by the pallor of the animal's face, it had probably died from dehydration. In the direction of the desert lay a slowly disappearing trail of the animal's footsteps. As the lions watched, the sand slowly blew over and filled the imprints.

"You asked me before what I thought was funny…" Kiota said quietly.

Kya just looked at him curiously. "Did you think of something?"

A grin spread across the lion's face. "Yea, I did…. This is funny as hell!"

"What?"

"This… this wildebeest… it's hilarious!"

She just stared at him blankly. "What is so funny about a dead animal?"

"Think about it. His tracks are coming from the desert, so he must have been traveling through the sand dunes towards wherever he could find water."

Kya just stared. "You think that it's funny that he didn't find water soon enough?"

"No, I think that it's hilarious that he collapsed fifty yards from an oasis. It's irony at its best."

"Or worst… depending on how you look at it."

He shrugged. "I guess so..."

They stood there for several moments, staring at the body with waning interest as more of the dry sand blew across the stiffening body and into its coarse fur.

"Well…" Kya said eventually. "Unless you want to keep staring at a dead body, we should probably head back to-"

An angry growl split the dry and windy air, causing both lions to look sharply to their rear. Standing there was a skinny and disheveled looking lion with a wiry black mane.

"THAT'S MY KILL!" he shouted furiously.

Kya blinked. "Wha-"

"GET AWAY FROM MY KILL!"

"I'm pretty sure that you didn't kill this wildebeest…" Kiota said slowly. "There isn't a mark on i-"

"IT'S MINE! I SAW IT FIRST!"

Kya and Kiota exchanged a glance of uncertainty before returning their attention to the frantic lion.

"I don't think you did… we've been standing here for quite a while now…" Kya said with a slight amount of fear in her voice.

"I DON'T CARE, IT'S MINE!" he roared as he bared his teeth and sunk into a combat stance.

Kya took a step back while Kiota watched with vague amusement. "Calm down, okay?" she said nervously as the aggressor's eye began to twitch uncontrollably. "We weren't gonna take the body, you can have it if you re- AAAAHHHH!"

The lioness screamed in fear as the scrawny lion lunged out at her with his claws outstretched. A long strand of saliva hung from his curled lip and his pupils were tiny as pinpoints. She stared in horror as the intimidating beast flew towards her through the air. She clenched her eyes tight as her only brace against the impact.

"WHUMF!"

Kya opened her eyes, surprised to have not felt the expected collision. On the ground in front of her rolled the strange attacker and Kiota. They grappled aggressively, the unnamed assailant releasing grunts and growls as he went. Suddenly they released each other and stepped away. Kiota grinned as the crazy roared and lunged out. Maybe killing THIS lion would help him figure out why he couldn't kill Kya.

He ducked under the awkward swing and came up with a blow of his own under the crazy's chin. The insane lion reeled back from the strike and a thin line of blood trickled down his mouth. He tried to regain his balance, but the ground seemed to spin around him. Suddenly it stopped as a firm grip caught his throat. He stared into Kiota's gleaming eyes as his fate revealed itself. In a sharp and fluid movement, the rogue ripped his claws out from the strong grip, taking a large chunk of the lion's neck with it.

Kiota watched as his victim gasped for air, making an unpleasant sucking sound from where his neck once was. After a few moments, he collapsed to the ground with his blood absorbing into the dry sand. A soft breeze blew a fine layer of dust across the fresh corpse, the first layer of what would eventually cover the entire body.

Kiota tried to pull away from the spectacle, but he just couldn't. There was something about this lion too! The familiar sickening feeling returned to his stomach, and he felt dizzy. It was just like after he had killed Ojiro, it wasn't guilt, but it wasn't not guilt either. For whatever reason, the only thought that passed through Kiota's mind was how he had fought for food against others before. After he had left his home pride, barely past his teenage years, he had struggled often in finding enough food to keep him going. He was a great fighter even at the early age, but not so great of a hunter. Often times he stole kills from other predators, even going so far as to killing a few who refused to give up their food. All he could think about was how this unnamed, if crazy, lion was doing the same thing he had. Though they may have been completely different in all other aspects, they shared this small piece of history. To Kiota, it was enough to make him feel like he had killed another of himself.

"Huh…" Kya said softly. "I don't think that he was quite right in the head…"

Kiota just stayed silent and unblinking as a warm desert breeze rustled his mane.

"I never thought that I would say this…" she continued. "But thanks… thanks for stopping him before he could get to me."

Kiota growled and turned back towards the nearby oasis. "Shut up." He hissed angrily.

Kya blinked in surprise, but it soon turned into anger as he passed by her. "Well excuse me for thanking you! I didn't think that I was being that intolerable… I mean really! What did I do that called for you getting angry at me?"

"KYA!" Kiota shouted at her face. "FOR ONCE, THIS ISN'T ABOUT YOU! I DON'T CARE AT ALL WHAT YOU SAID, OR DID, OR WHATEVER, I'M NOT EVEN ANGRY AT YOU! I JUST WANT YOU TO SHUT UP!"

She was silent in shock for a moment as she took in what he said. "Oh…" she said softly.

Kiota growled and kept going towards the waterhole, stopping to kick a branch out of the way with a great deal of emotion. Kya just watched him go with a mix of anger, confusion, and amazement. He had just killed an insane lion, arguably out of necessity, and he was actually upset about it. She shook her head and followed his already eroding trail. She had seen him end countless other lives without caring at all, but now he was actually bothered by this.

Kiota stared into the water with a blank expression, unsure of himself. Whatever was wrong with him, killing the crazy hadn't helped at all. In fact, it seemed to make it even worse; now he was troubled by Ojiro, Kya, and the insane lion. He groaned inwardly as he remembered his strange and recurring dreams. Surely they would be plagued by this new kill, just as it was filled with Ojiro and Kya. Great… he thought irritably. Even more stuff to lose sleep over.

"Kiota…" a voice said softly from behind him.

"What?" he replied in almost a growl.

Kya stepped up alongside him and looked into the water at their reflections. "I just wanted to say… sorry."

He blinked in surprise. "What?"

"I don't know what's going on with you, but I thought you were just being the usual jerk that you usually are… I'm sorry for getting mad at you for being upset."

"I'm not upset." He relied with disgust.

"Whatever, I just wanted to apologize."

Kiota sighed exasperatedly. "Fine… I'm sorry for yelling." He said shortly and reluctantly. "If you're thirsty, then get a drink now. We're leaving soon."

She nodded in dull amusement. This was more like the usual Kiota she had come to know and hate.

***Author's Note***

Here's the newest update for you all! Thanks for all the reviews; I'm glad that you all like it so much. Unfortunately, I've got a crazy week ahead of me with a huge football game and an even bigger security detail, so I probably won't be able to update for a while. Be patient though, it will come!
REVIEW AND COMMENT!

-Ben

PS-

To all of you who have stories that I've suddenly stopped reviewing, IM SORRY! I feel really bad, I just have bee so insanely busy lately with everything. I promise that I'll get to them as soon as I can!