I don't own any of the animals, apart from Colin and Ibura (Swahili for 'wonderful').


Vitani awoke early this morning. She was tired, having only slept fitfully the whole night. This was it, this was the day she'd been, well, not exactly dreading, but certainly not looking forward to, this was the day she was going to leave. She wasn't going to leave because Alex was a good enough hunter to feed himself either, he'd been good enough for some time, but she simply couldn't put her departure off any longer.

Silently, she rose from Alex's side, being careful not to disturb the slumbering lion, and made her way quietly over to the tree where Zazu and Ibura were roosting. She paused a moment, then leapt and clambered up the tree till she was level with the branch the two hornbills were roosting on, and whispered, "Zazu, Zazu, you awake?"

"Mm," the hornbill murmured, then cracked an eye open, "wha', oh, it's you miss Vitani."

"Yes, it's me," Vitani replied, then went on, none too happily, "and this is the day."

"Wha', oh," Zazu said, realising what Vitani was saying, "are we leaving early?"

"The earlier the better," Vitani replied, "although not immediately."

Zazu nodded, and said, "I shall prepare then."

Vitani nodded, then jumped down, and made her way back over to Alex, who was still asleep. Shaking him with a paw, she said, "come on hotshot, wake up."

Alex snorted, then murmured, "wh'."

"Wake up," Vitani whispered hoarsely, "come on."

Still half asleep, Alex looked around, and spotted, Vitani, and asked, "wha', V'tani, wha's go'n' on?"

Vitani didn't reply, tilting her head instead, and saying, "come on."

Alex lay there for a few moments, then pushed himself up on limbs still half asleep, and padded after Vitani.

They hadn't gone far, when Vitani turned to face Alex, who stopped and sat down. It took him a moment to organise his thoughts, then he asked, "what's going on?"

Vitani bit her lip for a moment, before replying, "this is it, this is the day I leave."

It took Alex another moment to process this, then he asked, "so you think I can feed myself then?"

"Yep," Vitani replied, "actually, you've been good enough, for a while now, the only reason I didn't leave then was because I wasn't ready."

"You weren't ready," Alex asked, "what, I don't understand."

"No," Vitani asked, then though for a moment, wondering how to stay what she was thinking, then finally came out, "Alex, I loved you." Suddenly, her eyes were tearing, and even though it was too dark for Alex to see, she tried to blink back her tears, but several overflowed, dampening her cheeks.

"You love me," Alex asked, surprised. He'd had some inkling she'd had feeling for him, but he'd never really though she'd come out and say it, at least, not like that.

"I love you Alex," Vitani repeated, "I know I haven't shown it as much as I could have, but I do."

Alex wasn't sure what to say to this, considering several different replies, before finally deciding on, "really, that's, good." The wasn't enough light for him to see Vitani's expression change, but the sudden rise in tension was almost palpable, so said, "and I love you too."

The tension dropped slightly, then Vitani asked sharply, "do you really?"

Alex froze at this, he'd only said what he had because Vitani had seemed on edge, and he didn't want to be the focus of and outburst as he had been in the past, but now he was forced to examine his own emotions on the subject. He liked her, he couldn't deny it, but he wasn't sure about love, and so eventually replied, "I don't know, I mean, I like you, I really do, but love, I'm just not sure."

Vitani's response was not what Alex expected, he'd expected her to be angry, but instead, she looked away, sighed, and sagged, seemingly to become small and weak. This in itself was so unusual that he moved forward to investigate, "you okay?"

Vitani looked at Alex again, and he was shocked to see the vitality that had always been there gone. "I'd hoped, you know," she said in a hollow voice, "I'd hoped you'd say yes." He wasn't quite sure what to say to this, and before he could think of anything, she went on, "but I can't force you to love me, as much as I'd like to, as much as I wish I could, I can't."

After a few moments of silence, during which Alex still struggled to think of something to say, Vitani continued to speak, "you can give Gloria my apologies, she was right all along, I'm not nice, I try to be sometimes, but I'm not." there was a moment's pause then she went on, "and I want to thank you, and apologise to you."

"What for," Alex asked, not understanding in the slightest what Vitani was talking about.

"Being able to feed yourself is only half of being a lion," Vitani replied, "the other half is being able to get along well with others, despite not agreeing with them." She sighed a moment, then went on, "I never admitted it before, because I couldn't do it and you could, and I wanted to feel superior to you, and for that I apologise." After another moment's pause, she continued, "I apologise for keeping it from you, and I thank you for showing me how to do it, even if you didn't know you were doing it." Her tears were flowing freely now, and she finally looked back up at Alex, and said, "please don't hate me for what I've done."

Alex was still confused and baffled, but seeing Vitani's expression, he did the only thing he could think of in the circumstances, he moved forward and embraced the lioness, which she returned, even as she began to sob into his mane, and whispered, "please don't hate me."

Alex was no longer stuck for words, but still had to swallow the lump in his throat before he whispered hoarsely, "don't worry, I don't."

It took a little while for Alex and Vitani to finally separate, but when they did, the lion thought he saw a glimmer in her eyes, not like when she was angry or excited, but, hopeful? Before he could say anything though, she asked, "you know where I'm going, don't you?"

"Yeah, the Pridelands," Alex replied.

"And where's that," Vitani asked, for the first time seeming to regain a little of her old strength.

"Erm," Alex tried to remember, "south, west, was it?"

"Southwest, between half a moon and a moon," Vitani replied, then her expression seemed to become wistful, "I hope to see you there some day."

Before Alex could think of anything to say though, Zazu and Ibura turned up, and Colin as well. "Miss Vitani," the male hornbill said, "we're ready."

Vitani nodded never looking away from Alex, then said to the lion, "this is it then."

"Yeah," Alex said, "looks like it."

Vitani gave Alex one more nod, then said, "come on guys, let's go."