Chapter Two – The Pride Deploys

As always, Zira strode onward heedless of the path she chose. It didn't matter if it was a swamp or a river, or a vast field of sharp, jagged rocks. She marched right through it or across it just the same. By now she had drilled the bulk of her pride well enough to follow her, but Vitani continued to try to temper Zira's zeal for directness when it became too dangerous or impractical.

Today, however, was not one of these days. Vitani, like the rest of the Outsiders, was heading straight for the Za Kodan Empire, no matter what stood in her way. Their goal there was simple: to find and kill anyone it might inconvenience Emperor Koba to lose, and then retreat back into the Outlands, where they could hide and vanish so effectively that no one alive could hope to find them. It was an admirably direct mission, and the mood of the pride on the move was as good as it ever was.

Kovu hung back at the rear of the group, with Sankai at his side.

"So you still don't like to actually preen yourself?" Kovu asked incredulously.

"I just don't see the need," replied Sankai. "I mean the whole point of the exercise is to remove foreign bodies from your coat isn't it? Do you really want to have them in your mouth, where they can do some real damage?"

"Yeah, but any other way, there's no way you can be sure you've gotten everything out."

"If you're that impatient about it. We live in an endless expanse of sharp, coarse, rocks. If you can't find one that makes a decent comb then I think you're just eager to savour whatever filth your fur's picked up."

"Yeah, but the reason you use your mouth and tongue in the first place is that they're so sensitive. You can tell how complete your job is. Any other way – you're just guessing, and you've probably missed stuff."

Sankai scowled at Kovu, daring him to carry his thought to conclusion. Kovu smirkingly obliged.

"And the way you'd smell after a year of that isn't worth thinking about," he smarmed at her.

Sankai briskly trotted a pace ahead of Kovu, then turned around and lunged at him, knocking him to the ground and pinning him.

"You're right it's not worth thinking about," she coolly said to him. She leaned in closer to him, bringing her mouth alongside his ear and continued, "Because everybody knows that for the last year I've always seemed to smell of you."

Kovu nuzzled her softly for that and pulled himself up. They held gentle eye contact for a second, but the moment was broken as a hard-bitten old lioness named Zataki sharply informed them that they were falling behind.

Kovu and Sankai both glared towards the front of the group. Zira and Vitani had just gained the top of a tall rock and for a moment stood silhouetted imposingly in the morning sun. Even from a distance, Kovu could tell Vitani was glaring contemptuously at him. He and Sankai grudgingly snarled and continued on.

Further up ahead, Vitani turned and continued onward. She hated having to incur her brother's dislike, but if she hadn't sent Zataki back to remind them, Zira would have gone back herself and harshly scolded them. And the last thing the pride needed this early on in a patrol was the bad blood that would create.

Vitani let go a small sigh. Kovu was by no means a joyful lion, but her brother had always been the more playful and rambunctious of them. They were twins. Vitani was only a few minutes older, but her dedication to their mother's cause was so much more humourless and ferocious as to make her seem years older and more hardened. Kovu, in spite of the rigorous and demanding training Zira had put them both through, had maintained a charm and slyness that Vitani had either lost or never possessed at all.

When they had physically matured, Kovu had wasted no time in discovering the joys of the lioness body. Vitani, however, had remained distant from the males she met, and became shy and reclusive. It was a few months later that she had opened up again and regained her authoritative edge, having finally found what she had been missing.

As Zataki returned to her side, Vitani let her tail brush hers for a few seconds, and purred almost imperceptibly.

As the pride reached the top of a ridge, a further barren, rocky landscape lay before them. In the distance, however, the fields began to grow greener as pockets of marshland dotted the plains. Beyond that, high cliffs loomed – the walls of the Za Kodan Empire elevating the outer rim of its territory above its surroundings. Zira paused long enough to snarl, then doggedly continued on.