My SINCEREST MOST SORRY APOLOGY FOR THE EXTREME LATENESS OF THIS CHAPTER! I WILL DO BETTER NEXT TIME!

Tabani froze. The lion that killed Kuni. Kivuli.

The instant Kwami realized who it was, his eyes opened with with rage.

"You, you, KILLER!" Kwami sprang forward. Tabani reacted just in time and grabbed his tail in between his teeth. Kivuli turned tail and ran into the sunset.

Kwami struggled madly. The young prince tried his best to hold onto his friend's tail.

Kwami quieted slowly, his fighting giving in to sheer exhaustion.

"Kwami, just breathe, ok? You've been through a lot today, but chasing after a deadly assassin is probably not the best way to end it."

Tabani soothed his friend, eventually managing to take him back to the sleeping dens. Kiara was waiting there, her eyes filled with sympathy.

"Will you bury the body tonight, Mom?" asked Tabani.

Kiara nodded. "I think you had better take Kwami to his mother." Tabani nodded, and guided his best friend to his family.

After returning to the royal den, Tabani lay down and thought about Aina. We had such a short friendship, he thought. But it was a good one, She didn't deserve death, especially not murder.

He dozed off, and began to dream.

He was standing on the bank of a river, wide and rushing. He looking across it and to his surprise, saw Aina, her silver coat glittering.

"Aina!" Tabani called. She didn't look up, or even seem to hear him. Tabani suddenly heard a growling. Then his heart jumped.

Stalking towards Aina with expert stealth, Kivuli. His eyes shone with menace, but also...with sorrow. It was as if he didn't want to kill Aina.

"Aina, behind you, run! He's coming! Please, Aina, run!" yelled a voice. Kwami, where are you? thought Tabani.

He couldn't see his friend.

Kivuli kept coming. The silver cub was still rolling in the dust, playing. Tabani jumped in the river and began swimming.

The current was strong, and suddenly Tabani noticed that he wasn't making any progress, the river was just getting wider.

Tabani noticed a metallic scent in the air. He looked down at the water and gasped.

A ribbon of red smoke was drifting toward him through the water. Blood! Did Kivuli kill Aina!?

The river carried Tabani towards a great waterfall. The prince struggled in the water, trying desperately to get to shore. The river didn't seem to care. It washed him over. everything went black.

Tabani woke with a gasp.

Kiara and Kovu were asleep, but something was poking him in the side. Tabani turned over and gave a quiet cry.

Kwami was there, poking him with his claws to wake him. "Kwami, what is it? You look awful."

His red marked friend's eyes were bloodshot, and his fur looked like he had been through a thorn fields and back.

"I'm going to investigate that noise," whispered Kwami.

"What noise?"

"It woke me up a few minutes ago. It sounded like falling rocks. Do you think there was a landslide?"

"Maybe. Ok, but I'm going with you. It could have been a small earthquake too."

The cubs left the cave. Dawn had not yet come to the Pridelands, and the gray sky reminded Tabani and Kwami of Aina's pelt.