In that moment, I can tell you, that Shuku's innocence didn't seem in the slightest bit improbable. I guess it's what they call the spur of the moment – sometimes the mind just abandons logic for a split second, you let down your guard, and it all falls apart. Whether Shuku ever sensed at that moment that my guard was down, however, I never found out and before she could really push the point, she was stopped in her tracks. Why? Well…

I stared back at Shuku, wondering. Could it have been Usiku? She looked at me, a gleam in her eye suggesting she had won some kind of mental battle over me. My mind raced, but my eye caught something up one of the sides of the valley where we had met. I focused upon it, as it came slinking down the side. I couldn't quite tell who it was. Could it have been a River Pride lioness, coming to offer her support for Shuku? Could it be a rebel to do the same? Could it be one of my own lionesses coming to offer her support?

Surely it wasn't…

The figure reached the floor and stood, slightly to one side, between us. It spoke.

"You are filth," it announced, "you dare to accuse me? To suggest I would sink to that level? To serve the tyrant who killed my beautiful cub? You suggest that?!"

It was Usiku. She looked thinner than I remember, more run down, but more angry than I had ever seen her. She faced away from me, toward Shuku, seething. I stood dumbfounded, listening to her. Shuku herself suddenly looked rather worried.

"But Usiku," she said, "you are guilty are you not?! You've come back here to boast to this trusting fool, isn't that right? There was a plan all along, between you and Jimbala, and he's on his way now!"

Usiku turned to look at me, as if in frustration at Shuku's insistence. But all of a sudden I was convinced. I stared back into the eyes of this cold, ruthless killer, she who had befriended the pride in order to stab us in the back, and felt no compassion. Her facial expression changed to one of horror. She then shook her head, but didn't say a word, and turned away to face Shuku.

"You try and accuse me of killing a cub born of my best friend? Of the one person in the entire savannah who means the most to me? You think I would do such a thing? You dare even to suggest it?!"
Shuku opened her mouth silently. No words came out.

"You are a nasty, manipulative… hyena! You are unworthy of any respect, and now you try and turn Simba against me! Well, let me enlighten you, Simba," she said angrily, turning back to face me, "about what this so-called loyal member is playing at. What evidence has she for accusing me?"

"There was an insider in the Pridelands, helping the Riverlanders. If not you, then how could Shuku have got to know them well enough to work for them?"

"How? That I don't know, but have my tales of what Jimbala has done not been enough to convince you that I have no loyalty to the River Pride?!"

"I… Tanabi said he saw a lion who…"

"Yeah. He saw Shuku. That's what you thought at first, wasn't it? Why do you doubt that now?"

By then, I simply didn't have a clue what to think. Any doubts that I had had of Usiku had been crushed because somehow what she said seemed much more logical than what Shuku tried to claim.

"I do not doubt that."

Shuku's jaw dropped and she started to mouth something, but no words came out. Still she would not admit to her guilt.

Usiku looked back towards Shuku and slowly advanced toward her.

But I couldn't let Usiku extract any form of revenge yet. First, I had to understand.

"Usiku?" I asked. She stopped dead in her tracks, not removing her gaze from Shuku.

"Yes, King Simba?"

"Will you step down? Before you are able to punish Shuku for what you say she has done, do you not think it would be better for us to hear her story first?"

"I do not see that she deserves it," she replied, bitterly.

"Please?" I asked, with respect.

She turned her head and looked at me quietly. Time stood for a second or two. "Yes," she said, simply, and stepped back aside.

I nodded to her in thanks. It was a tender moment where we both realised in our own way the journey in which we had come through, and had a respect for each other that went far beyond words.

"So, Shuku," I began, "Do you have some explaining to do?"

"Well, I see no reason to justify my actions…" she said, firmly.

"Why is that?"

"If I do not agree with this Pride's ideals, should I not be entitled to disagree and act of my own accord otherwise?"

"Yes, to a degree. But we are not talking of minor disagreements here. We are talking of the death of a young cub. An innocent cub, Shuku. Tell me, what possesses someone to kill one?"

She hesitated from a moment, before I heard a rustling from round the corner. A male voice spoke as another lion, with a bushy, golden mane stepped round to face Usiku and I. "Oh, I wouldn't want her to take all the credit," it said.