Chapter 4.

"Hey Vitani" a bass, booming voice sounded from the cave entrance. Vitani, who was now alone due to Kito going back to her own tree to retrieve more salve, as well as to eat and drink, looked up from the ground and stopped pacing the floor.

"Who's there?"

Her answer came in the form of an elephant's trunk trumpeting.

"It's you!"

"Yes, the pachyderm you saved. My name is Makonnen. As gratitude, why don't I carry you around the Marshlands so you won't get bored out of your mind."

"I'll have to inform my caretakers," she replied. Makonnen immediately volunteered himself for the task, and departed saying he could easily find the white lions and mandrill with his nose, just as he'd quickly found Vitani's location.

Vitani resumed her pacing, and three hours and forty-five minutes after they'd left, her rescuers and benefactors returned.

"You should be proud of your achievement lioness of war, few of our kind have ever managed to dispatch an elephant, let alone a rogue bull one in Musth."

"Thank you Chinua. I couldn't just let Makonnen die."

"You have a good heart Vitani, and you are very brave."

"Yoruba speaks the truth my child. I approved his proposal to carry you around this kingdom."

"Thank the spirits," Vitani said with great relief. She couldn't imagine being confined to this dark space for ninety days.

"You'll have to wait awhile to meet my babies. I know you saved them, but I don't yet trust you around them," Yoruba said firmly but politely.

'Nor should you,' Vitani said to herself guiltily, remembering her past.

'I'll have to tell them eventually. What will they do?' she worried. Her concern didn't go unnoticed by her hosts.

"Are you alright my child?" Kito asked gently, not wanting to pry. The ex-outsider quickly smiled and said she was fine. Chinua put his paw on Vitani's and told her that she wouldn't be judged and that everyone had skeletons in their closet. Yoruba added that getting stuff off your chest was healthy. Vitani thanked both lions for their patience and advice and the mandrill for her consideration for her feelings. She also promised to tell them her story when she was fully healed.

"Glad to hear it. Now me and Yoruba brought you some dinner."

Both lions exited the cave and returned in second with two baby zebras.

"I've got a taste for some crocodile Chinua. I'll be back."

"Save some for me!"

After his favorite lioness left, Chinua took a bite out of one of the Zebras, chewed it thoroughly and approached Vitani, who warmed up like a firestorm. Despite her embarassment, she didn't turn away as the King's lips connected with hers.

"Very tasty!"

"My lips or the Zebra."

This time Vitani did turn away, and her blush got worse. Chinua held back a laugh.

"S-Shut up!"

After finishing her lunch, Vitani said she was taking a nap, and her two comrades bid her sweet dreams When the lioness woke, she was outside and the ground was moving below her.

"I didn't want to wake you up, but I wanted you to see the sunset and the stars," the elephant she saved said to her as she lay on his back. Makonnen had placed Vitani on a large piece bark to stabilize her head.

Nodding her head with gratitude, but keeping it prone, the daughter of Zira saw the sun slowly go down and the stars gradually appear and was mesmerized by both. She'd never taken the time to enjoy simple things like that when following her vengeful mother and deeply regretted it.