***Chapter 10***

***The Villain***

Amari yawned and stretched his limbs as he slowly woke from his deep sleep. The golden light of the early morning crept through the mouth of the cave, and slowly the bittersweet memories of the night before emerged from his dreamy thoughts. Leander… Mela… Relief of finding help mixed with the familiar sting of rejection that he was only just beginning to get used to.

'CRACK!'

Amari leapt to his feet in a flash at the sharp sound; he bared his teeth and unsheathed his claws to confront his would-be attacker. He scanned the cave intently, the sleep and exhaustion gone from his body.

"Mela?" he asked confusedly when he saw the familiar lioness standing not too far away. A large slab of stone lay shattered on the hard ground next to her. She looked at him with big and embarrassed eyes.

"Sorry…" she said in a small voice. "I swear it was an accident. I just bumped it and it fell."

His racing heart slowed gradually to a normal speed as his mind caught up with his body's reaction to the false danger. "Y-you made that noise?" he stammered. His lips weren't quite warmed up for speech yet.

"Yea…" she said as she glanced down. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

He shook his head slowly. "Uh, no actually, you didn't. I was already awake."

She smiled slightly. "Sure you were."

"I was!" He declared indignantly. "Just not all the way."

"Right. You can go back to sleep now, I was just going to go look around. I never really got a chance to do it last night."

"Nah, I might as well stay up." He declined as he walked over to where she was standing. "How is your paw?"

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Stiff, but not that painful as long as I don't go too fast."

"Well take it easy. We've got a long ways to go before we get home."

An amused gleam appeared in Mela's eye. "Oh so now you're warning me about getting hurt?"

"Funny how the tables turn, isn't it?" he asked her as he walked by into the bright African morning.

She followed him out of the cave and into the middle of their host pride. They walked past several lionesses sunbathing on large stones, drawing the occasion glance of curiosity and approval from them. It was clear that being associated with Leander carried some positive weight around here.

It didn't take long for the duo to find the heroic lion; he was under a nearby acacia surrounded by a handful of the local pride members.

"It had me by the legs and was leaning back to go for the throat." He said in a suspenseful tone as his listeners hung onto his every word. "I couldn't even move let alone swipe at the thing!"

Amari and Mela stood off to the side of the small crowd and listened to the gallant tale with interest.

"How did you fight without being able to move?" a small cub asked, drawing a grin from some of the older lionesses.

"That's a good question," Leander said with a sparkle in his eye. "You see, I may not have been able to move my body, but my head was a different story all together. When the snake lunged out to swallow me whole, I head-butted it with all my strength. I hit it so hard, that it loosened its grip on my legs and I was able to free myself!"

Amari couldn't help but smile at how enthralled some of the cubs were with the story. To be fair though, he was getting pretty into it himself.

"Once I got the serpent off of me, it was my turn to bring the fight. I was on it before it could even look up from the floor." He leaned back against the tree behind him and looked up at the sky dramatically. "From then on it was sort of a blur to me… All I know is that the snake is dead, and no one has been hurt by it since."

"Wow…" an anonymous murmur came from the crowd while similar remarks echoed through the amazed pride. Leander just watched them all with amusement as he bathed in the glory of their awe. After a moment, he became aware of the two Pridelanders standing on the outskirts of the gathering and waved for them to come over.

"Everyone," he announced boldly. "This is Mela and Amari; they've come a long ways to find help for their family and soon I'll be going with them to be that help."

Ooh's and ahh's of approval rippled through the pride as Amari and Mela stood there with mild embarrassment. Neither of them liked all the attention that he was bestowing upon them, but they accepted it nonetheless.

"How are you two this morning?" Leander asked them directly, though he seemed to direct the question more at Mela than to Amari.

"Very good, thanks." Mela answered quickly before turning to the rest of the lions. "And thank you all for giving us a place to stay for the night."

She was met with empathetic smiles and looks of approval from the pride; for once it seemed to Amari as though they were actually welcome here, even if it was simply due to association with Leander.

After the talking died down, the great lion turned to the crowd. "Now if you'll excuse us," he said politely. "I think that we have a few things to discuss." With that, he rose and walked over to the two as the crowd began to disperse.

"Nice story." Mela said with a shy smile. "Wish we could have heard the whole thing."

"Oh it wasn't much." He said modestly. "These folks were just having some trouble with a big snake. It killed a few of their friends and hurt a few more before I finally caught up to it."

"Good thing you were able to kill it." Amari remarked.

Leander nodded with a strange look in his eye, one that was slightly unsettling to Amari. But as soon as it appeared, it was gone.

"Not to change the subject," Mela began hesitantly, "But when can we leave to go home?"

"There are a few things that I need to take care of here," the great lion answered simply. "But it shouldn't take long at all. "If you want, we can leave this afternoon."

"That would be great." Mela replied happily. "Besides, I wouldn't mind a little more time to rest my paw."

"You know, in my experience I've found that one of the best ways to get an injury back to normal, is to work it."

"Work it?"

"Yea, move it, use it, you know. Not hard or anything of course, but you need to keep it loose."

She nodded appreciatively. "Okay… maybe I'll go for a walk then."

"King Muba has a trail that he patrols on a lot; it goes along the full perimeter of this territory and is a pretty easy walk. By the time you finished walking it, I'll be ready to go."

"Okay, maybe I'll do that then." She turned to Amari. "You wanna come with me?"

He shrugged. "Eh, I don't know. Maybe there's something for me to do around here."

She glared at him. "There isn't. Come on, you're coming."

He chuckled slightly. "Alright then, I didn't realize that you wanted me to come so badly."

"I just don't want to be bored. The scenery gets repetitive after a while."

"I know what you mean." He replied with a smile. "Like we haven't seen enough of the landscape lately."

"Come on, it'll be fun." She insisted before turning to Leander. "Where did you say it was again?"

Leander chuckled softly at her enthusiasm. "Over there down the hill," he said, gesturing across the field. "It's a pretty worn path, so you shouldn't miss it."

She nodded in appreciation and smiled warmly. "Thanks, Leander."

Amari resisted the urge gag as he watched her blatant (and poor) attempt at seduction. He watched the lion out of the corner of his eye as they walked away and decided that he must have taken the bait; he stared at Mela fervently as she left.

"What was that?" He asked her after they were out of earshot.

She looked surprised. "What was what?"

"Thanks Leander, baby…" he mocked, batting his eyelashes and swaying his hips.

Mela seemed taken aback. "Oh come on… that's what I'm supposed to do if I like the guy, isn't it?"

Amari just laughed aloud.

"Stop it!" she hissed. "I like this guy!"

"But it was sooo bad!"

"It wasn't that cliché!"

"It was pretty cliché."

She snorted in indignation. "There's the trail… how about you shut up now?"

Amari grinned. "Alright, alright. You won't hear another word from me about Leander." He agreed as he batted his eyelashes on the word Leander.

He was about to laugh at his own mocking, but tripped over Mela's paw instead.

He looked up at her from where she had tripped him with a wide smile, thrilled with the amount he had managed to annoy her.

"Shut. Up." She demanded, clearly trying to stifle a smile of her own.

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Amari made a mental note to thank Leander once they returned from the walk; it was quite a scenic route that managed to entertain his weary thoughts despite the rather redundant lands he had passed through in the weeks prior. But then, maybe it wasn't the land itself, but the way he was now looking at it all. No longer were these the lands of cruel and selfish lions, void of any noble individuals; now it was the land of hope and success. For the first time in a while, he felt good; the sensations of success and self worth surrounded him and filled his very existence. He inhaled the sweet savannah air and closed his eyes as he walked alongside Mela who looked as though she shared the blissful experience.

"This is nice…" she said softly, breaking the long silence. "…to walk for fun."

Amari nodded in agreement. "It is… it's very relaxing."

Something caught his friend's attention and she veered off of the trail towards a small pool of water. Amari had been about to do the same thing as soon as he saw the pool, and smiled at their similar thought process. He followed close behind her, and watched as she bent down for a drink.

Suddenly, she stopped and raised her head in apparent epiphany. She turned and looked Amari dead in the eyes.

"What?" he asked with confusion.

She shrugged, and gestured to the water. "Look."

He obeyed and walked up alongside her to stare down at the water's surface. It was a calm pool of crystalline water that was seemingly immune to the light breeze that passed through the air. Their reflections shone vividly without any ripples or disfigurations from the surface. "What?" he asked again. "Our reflections?"

Mela nodded. "Look at us…" she stated simply. "Look how different we are."

"I don't feel any different."

"Me neither, but look at us. I look old… and worn."

Amari frowned; maybe she had a point. They both looked significantly older from when they had left Priderock, and the signs were obvious. Their fur was longer, eyes more tempered, and body's more rugged. For himself in particular, Amari couldn't help but notice the faint scars that ran across his front from his fight with Urak as well as the way his fur had lightened from the constant exposure to the African sun. More importantly though, was his structure. His youthful 'fluffiness' was gone from his body, though he didn't look skinny. No, the baby fat had been replaced with lean muscle, surely from the laborious physical toll that he was subjected to as part of being in this harsh landscape.

The more he looked at the foreign creature in the water, the more Amari began to realize the truth; the young lion was no longer young at all. He was just a lion; a poorly trained, awkward, and clumsy lion who would surely spend his life alone. It was almost upsetting for him; now there was no excuse for his flaws. As a kid, Amari had always clung to the belief that his ineptitude was just a phase… a temporary speed bump on the way to maturity. He had always just assumed that he would be better when he was an adult, but now he knew that he had been wrong. He had changed, but not really. He was who he had always been.

"Are you going to have any?"

Mela's voice snapped him out of his self pity. "Oh… uh, yea."

"You okay?" she asked quizzically as she analyzed his facial expression.

"I'm fine." He replied quietly, dipping his head down to the water and taking a drink. When he lifted his head, he saw the ripples from his action blur his reflection. It was strange, but he took satisfaction from the image's destruction. "How's your paw? Is it loosening up?" he asked in an attempt to change the subject.

"Eh." She replied neutrally. "I guess a little, but I won't be moving faster than a walk any time soon."

Amari was about to reply, but a foreign voice interrupted him instead. "Well that's nice to know."

The two whirled around in a flash to see a trio of dark lions in between them and the trail a few yards away. Mela gasped in surprise, but Amari felt strangely; the normal fear of being surprised by nasty looking strangers was masked by sudden anger.

"Why does everyone around here have to sneak up on us? I mean really, what the HELL?"

The trio looked taken aback by his anger and exchanged confused glances.

"I mean really!" he continued indignantly. "If you got our attention from farther away, it's not like we'd run, we'd probably come up and talk to you willingly!"

A couple of the lions chuckled softly to themselves at the show before a fourth, and previously unseen lion emerged from behind them. "You should really stop talking, Amari."

The Pridelander's blood froze. "Urak." He gasped in a near whisper. "What are you doing here?"

The cruel lion's eyes narrowed in amusement. "If you recall, I serve King Farole and this is his land."

Mela frowned. "What? No, this is King Muba's land."

A toothy grin spread across his face. "No, my dear… Muba's land starts on the other side of the path over there." He said, gesturing to the path that the two had left a mere minutes earlier. "You left the trail, and entered into private territory. In short, you're trespassing."

Had the circumstances been less dire, Amari might have laughed. Were they really being held accountable for trespassing a whole six yards into another pride's land for a drink of water? It seemed ridiculous to say the least.

"We're sorry, okay?" Mela tried to negotiate. "We didn't know that the path was actually on the border… I assumed that there was a little more space before we left Muba's land."

"It's good that you're sorry." Urak said eerily. "But Farole doesn't usually care that much. Not that it won't help; I just doubt that it will."

"Wait!" Mela protested. "Are you really going to take us to King Farole over this? We don't have time for this!"

A smirk appeared on Urak's face and was mimicked by his cronies. "Actually, I was only going to take you to king Farole. You're friend, on the other hand…"

Amari frowned. "What about me?"

Urak grinned a nasty smile. "I think you and I have some unfinished business to attend to. We never got to finish our little game from before."

"Yea we did!" he replied. "You nearly killed me!"

"I think the word 'nearly' proves my point. I'm not done with you yet."

The Pridelanders' eyes widened in shock. Urak was going to kill him for fighting with him before?

"Back away from him." He told Mela coldly.

Amari's head was swimming with the speed at which the events had developed. He was dead, and he knew it. They couldn't run because of Mela's paw, and he was outnumbered and outmatched against a lion that had already nearly killed him.

"Did you hear me, miss?" Urak repeated. "Back away from him."

Amari suddenly realized that Mela wasn't moving. She only glared at Urak with an intensity that he hadn't seen from her before. It lifted his spirits slightly to see her determination to stay with him. But still, it was for her own protection; he didn't want her to get hurt from his fight. "Mela… you need to back away." He said in a near whisper.

She shook her head without taking her blistering glare off of Urak. "No, Amari." She replied quietly so that he alone could hear. "You need to run."

He statement shocked him. "But you're paw?"

"I said 'you', not 'we'."

"What? No!" He protested. "I'm not going to leave you alone with these guys!"

"You have to; you'll die if you fight him and they said that they would take them to Farole. I'll be fine."

"No!"

"YES!" she growled loudly, before returning to a whisper. "Go get Leander, and he'll be able to help. If you don't, he won't know what happened to us and that will be the end of everything!"

She was right, he decided. If he died here, then everything would be for nothing. He needed to find Leander and maybe he would be able to get Mela out of King Farole's hands. "Fine." He said darkly after a moment. "I'll go."

A faint smile was barely visible on her face. "Good."

"Are you two done saying your goodbyes yet?"one of Urak's cronies asked in a bored tone.

Amari nodded. "Yea… we are."

Urak's eyes narrowed, as if sensing a ploy, but before he could say anything the Pridelander dug his feet into the ground and pushed off with all his might, launching himself to the side. He raced to his top speed in a matter of seconds and ignored the thwack of branches and other foliage on his face as he bolted through the brush. Behind him, he could hear shouting and the padding of paws close behind him, but it was muffled by the deafening beat of his heart.

He crossed the trail back onto Muba's territory and kept running for fear of his pursuers. He hoped that they would stop at the border, but he doubted that they would. He kept running, ignoring the burn in his legs and lungs, in the direction that he thought was Muba's Pride.

He ran for what seemed like forever, and though it soon became obvious that no one was following him, he didn't slow down. The thought of Mela being a prisoner to a king that punished very harshly just made his skin crawl and his mind race. He needed to find Leander fast!

He burst from a patch of trees onto a part of the trail that he remembered walking on earlier. He turned back towards where he now knew the pride to be and sprinted off again. He was getting tired… his lungs and mouth were dry and agonizingly painful. Small cuts had appeared on his body from ripping past think bits of brush and his feet were a throbbing red from the continuous pounding against the hard and rugged ground. He refused to stop.

The sudden sight of Muba's Pride suddenly appeared on the horizon at the end of the long trail and relief flooded his weary mind. He pushed himself even harder for the final stretch, feeling his muscles reach their limit. He had been running for many minutes now, and he was nearing his breaking point. As he neared the pride, another great sight greeted him. Leander was right there between him and the pride. He thanked the kings that he wouldn't have to hunt him down.

The great lion caught sight of him and eyed him with confusion. He dropped the sticks he had been carrying for some unknown task and walked over to meet the still sprinting lion.

"What are you doing, Amari?" he asked him with confusion as Amari slowed to a stop in front of him.

He tried to answer, but he was breathing too hard. His breathing was ragged and his limbs weak. He tried to speak, but only a spattering of Saliva came out.

"Relax!" Leander commanded him. "Catch your breath, then tell me what happened!"

Amari obeyed, and tried to slow his breathing to a bearable pace. Once he felt as though he could force out a few words, be began. "Urak s-showed up and t-took Mela. He said that we w-were trespassing!"

A look of astonishment crossed Leander's face. "What? The trail is Muba's land, not Farole's."

"W-we stopped for a drink at a pool on the other side of the path… we were only a few yards in, but he said that it didn't matter."

The hero nodded slowly and looked up at the midday sky without speaking.

"We have to get her out of there, it was an accident and we didn't mean to, and it wasn't her fault, and-"

"Calm down, Amari!" Leander said sharply, quickly silencing him. "We'll get her out of there, but you need to get a grip!"

He nodded, and lowered his gaze. "Sorry… I'm just really worried."

Leander was silent for several more moments, clearly deep in thought. Amari wanted to rush him, but he knew better.

"Have you told anyone else about this?" he asked after several moments of quiet.

"No… you're the first person I've seen since it happened."

He nodded. "Alright, follow me." He said before heading out into the open savannah, away from Muba's Pride.

Amari fell into step alongside of the larger lion, but was confused. "Shouldn't we go talk to Muba? Maybe he can negotiate her release?"

"No." Leander replied simply. "There is a lot of tension between Muba and Farole right now, asking him to deal with this would be asking him to go to war against his neighbor. Besides, we can handle this by ourselves."

"Won't he wonder where we went?"

"He knows me well enough to know that I often have to move around more than most."

Amari still wasn't too convinced, but he let the matter rest. It seemed like a tremendous task to free Mela without the help of an entire Pride, but this was Leander, the hero. If anyone could do it, it was this guy.

The pair of lions walked through the savannah, seemingly without direction, for a long while in silence; it seemed to Amari that Leander was thinking, and he didn't want to interrupt his train of thought. Instead, he thought about what had happened. Now that he had time to think, he reviewed the events in the detail of his memory. The more he thought about it, the more he began to blame himself. He should have known that stopping at the pool was probably on someone else's land. He should have said something; he should have gotten a drink faster and moved back onto the trail sooner. In the back of his mind, he knew that such thoughts were useless and unrealistic, but he couldn't stop them; they came in waves that brutally crashed upon his mind without repent.

Eventually, the question that burdened his mind had to be asked. "What do you think they'll do with her?"

Leander looked over at him. "Honestly?"

He nodded.

The larger lion looked away. "Farole has never been known for his forgiveness… especially in matters of trespassing. There's a good chance that he'll execute her or at least hold her indefinitely."

"What?" Amari asked with horror. "He can't! We have to stop him!"

"We will." He assured him. "Farole has crossed the line."

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They walked for most of the day, and soon the sun began to set, bathing the two lions in a blood red light that seemed to mimic the seriousness of the situation. By now, they were far out of Muba's territory, and Amari assumed that they must be circling around to a different side of Farole's land. Leander seemed to know where he was going, so Amari hadn't asked up until now. However, with the sun setting ominously in the background, he felt as though he needed to know.

"Um, Leander?" he asked slowly as they approached a small open area.

"Yes?"

"Where are we?" Not too far ahead, a dark spot in the ground caught his eye. It looked like some sort of depression or something.

"We're a little ways outside of Farole's pride."

"Okay… what are we going to do when we get there?" As they neared the dark spot, Amari realized that it was in fact a very steeply sided ravine. That extended a ways in either direction. The only way across was a fallen log that looked strong enough to support their weight.

"I'll explain in a minute." He replied shortly.

The look on Leander's face was a bit unsettling for him, but he accredited it to the circumstances at hand.

"We need to go across here." He told Amari simply, gesturing to the log across the ravine.

Amari looked at the log hesitantly before turning back to Leander. "Are you sure this is safe? It's kind of a long fall." He eyed the ground below with caution; it looked soft enough, but it was still nearly twenty feet down. He couldn't quite see in the light, but there was something white down there. Maybe it was a rock or something?

"It's fine," Leander said with a winning smile. "Trust me, I come through here all the time."

Amari still wasn't tremendously comfortable, but he trusted Leander. Careful to keep his balance, Amari stepped onto the log. It wobbled slightly, but not too much. He took a step towards the other side and looked back at his friend.

"You're doing fine." The great lion assured him.

Amari took a deep breath and tried to focus. This was for Mela. He took another step. Suddenly and without warning, the log moved. It rolled sharply to the side, destroying his balance making him gasp in fear. The Pridelander tried to fix the situation, but it was too late; he fell to the side and off the log, but managed to latch his claws onto the log. He hung there, his heart racing and his arms tight with adrenaline.

"LEANDER!" he yelled out. "HELP!" He looked over to where the lion was standing, only to see him sitting. Why wasn't he doing anything? He was hanging precariously onto the side of a log! "LEANDER!" he cried again.

To his horror, Leander only looked at him with a cold stare for a moment before turning his attention to the log. Amari stared in shock as the large lion gripped the log and jerked it to the side. The force was too great; Amari lost the grip of one of his paws.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" he screamed. "I'M GOING TO FALL!"

Leander smiled cruelly. "Exactly." With that, he jerked it again and dropped it back to the ground.

He couldn't hang on; Amari tried to dig his claws in more, but he couldn't get a good grip on the smooth wood surface. He felt his claws release the fallen tree, and as if in slow motion he felt himself fall away from it. He watched as the walls of the ravine rose up on either side of him and the light diminish as he fell deeper into the pit.

With a solid 'thud,' he hit the ground, knocking the wind out of his lungs. Everything went dark for a moment as pain shot through his body and he lost consciousness for a brief moment.

As the pain began to ebb away, he looked up at the edge of the ravine, twenty feet above him. Leander was standing there, watching him. "WHAT WAS THAT?" Amari screamed. "YOU ALMOST KILLED ME!"

To his shock, a smile appeared on the supposed hero's face. "Sorry about that, Amari, but I think this is where our paths split."

"What are you talking about?" He cried. "What about Mela?"

He shrugged casually. "She's as good as dead. Going into Farole's pride would be hopeless to say the least. We would probably get killed ourselves."

His words fell upon Amari's ears like strikes. "I DON'T CARE!" Leander's words infuriated him. "I'll do it on my own if I have to!"

"No you won't." he replied simply. "You see, if I let you go without my help, then you would surely tell everyone about how un-heroic I was and that would really hurt my image."

"But you said you would help us! How is this any different from protecting us from a gang?"

"I can manage a gang, but Farole's pride is a different story. I'll fight for the title of hero, but I won't die for it. What good is being a celebrity if you aren't around to take advantage of it?"

"So you threw me into this pit?"

"Actually, I'm taking care of a few things by doing this. The first is that now I don't have to help you and your pride, the second is that my name is preserved; I can just say that you ran away when your friend disappeared mysteriously… who knows, maybe I'll even blame her death on you."

Amari was horrified.

"And the second thing that I'm taking care of…" he continued slowly. "Is a payment to an old friend."

"What are you talking about?" Amari asked, growing wary of Leander's dark stare.

"You remember the story about me and the snake from Muba's pride?"

Amari nodded.

"Well, I made it up. All of it."

"How? What about the snake?"

"I made a deal with her; she would go out deep into the wilderness, and every week or two, I would lead some pour soul right to her. That way, Muba's pride would think that I heroically killed the monster, and I wouldn't have to do hardly a thing except give some bad directions to travelers. Overall, it has been a pretty great deal for me, I mean you saw how much they loved me."

Amari's heart chilled as he began to put the pieces together. "Leander… where is the snake?"

A grin spread across his face. "Her name is Xana, and she found a secluded little ravine out near Farole's place. Folks would fall in and not be able to get out… kind of like yourself."

"Just SAY it!" he cried. "Is this where the snake is?"

"See that cave behind you?" Leander asked as he gestured to it. "She lives in there and comes out every night to see what has fallen in for her to eat. Judging by the sun, I would say that you have less than an hour before she comes to meet you."

"No…" Amari whispered in denial. "You can't!"

"I did." He said simply. "Don't bother trying to climb out; the walls are too steep and too slick to do that... You'll just tire yourself out."

Amari was speechless. The cold, heartless lion that stood above him now was not anything like the Leander that he thought he knew. This was no hero, this was a villain! "How could you?" he asked in a hushed voice. "You were supposed to be the hero…"

A cold laugh erupted from Leander's belly. "Please, Amari, grow up. There are no heroes out here, anyone who is willing to give his life for another already has. Heroes don't exist!"

"You're a monster!"

"I get that a lot from folks that fall down there. Funny how they never seem to appreciate me." Leander paused for a moment and looked up at the setting sun as it painted him a blood red. "I think I'll leave now. No offense, but I don't like to watch Xana eat… it's a bit nauseating."

Amari just glared at him in pure hatred.

"One last thing…" Leander said before turning away. "If you were still set on saving your friend, that cave is really more of a tunnel. If you follow it, you'll come out right at Farole's feet. Though, you might have some trouble with the cave's occupant. Good luck though!"

Amari watched as the villainous lion turned away and disappeared from the ravine, with him, all his hopes of salvation. Not only for himself, but for Mela… for his pride. Everything was lost. He had lost. Leander was right, the walls were far too steep to climb. All he could do was wait for Xana, or whatever the snake was called, to emerge from her cave and end him.

He scanned his surroundings in the dimming light with dread. His eyes locked onto a white object not too far away, maybe the one he had seen from above. He approached it warily and felt his soul fill with dread. It was a lion's skull.