Author's notes: Hi again all. And once more, sorry for the long delay in the update. I have no excuse apart from being horrendously busy. And suffering from writer's block.
I'm glad a few of you enjoyed the "Never Smile at a Crocodile" song inclusion. I think using it with Mamacala gives it an incredibly creepy edge, so I figured it was worth doing. So anyway, enjoy and please leave a review if you get the chance.
Simba – Adult male lion, King of the Pride Lands
Nala – Adult lioness, Queen of the Pride Lands, wife of Simba
Kiara – Adult lioness, Princess of the Pride Lands, hunting party leader
Kovu – Adult lion, Prince Regent of the Pride Lands, husband of Kiara
Vitani – Adult lioness, half-sister of Kovu
Amaryllis – Adult lioness, foster mother of Amabi, former loner, wanderer
Nadhari – Adult lioness, mother of Alyssa and Kelt
Sharhal – Adult lioness, a member of Kiara's hunting party
Aetti – Adult lioness, a member of Kiara's hunting party
Tumai – Adult male lion, competitive, aggressive, mocking
Juvi – Adult male lion, quiet, thoughtful young male
Salama – Adult male lion, old and wise but not as wise as he thinks, condescending
Lokanneoro – Adult male lion, Tenzer's father, veteran survivor, powerful
Maradi – Adult male lion, attractive and pleased with his appearance
Haya – Adult male lion, young, curious about the world
Tenzer – Half grown male lion, loner, quiet character but gentle with cubs
Ryana – Half-grown lioness, talkative and besotted with Tenzer
Amabi – Male lion cub, adopted son of Amaryllis, cheeky, inquisitive cub
Alyssa – Lioness cub, daughter of Nadhari, more reserved and careful cub
Kelt – Male lion cub, son of Nadhari, slightly insecure cub
Zazu – Adult hornbill, Simba's majordomo
Timon – Adult meerkat, Simba's friend
Pumbaa – Adult warthog, Simba's friend
Rafiki – Adult baboon- Simba's friend, shaman and advisor
Shenzi – Adult female hyena, leader of Graveyard Clan
Banzai – Adult male hyena, leader of Graveyard Clan
Ed – Adult male hyena, leader of Graveyard Clan
Ridikill – Adult male hyena, hunting pack leader, extremely aggressive and antisocial
Burudi – Adult male hyena, scarred face, Ridikill's 'lieutenant', less vicious, member of Ridikill's pack
Groco – Adult male hyena, weakling, low-ranking scout trying to improve his social standing, member of Ridikill's pack
Agiza – Adult female hyena, hunting pack leader, one of Shenzi's favoured, high-ranking
Sarkil – Adult female hyena, sarcastic huntress, member of Ridikill's hunting pack
Kapungu – Adult male hyena, fearsome hunter with a lust for blood, member of Ridikill's pack
Babaka – Adult male hyena, always hungry, member of Ridikill's pack
Shungi – Adult female hyena, rookie leader of small hunting pack
Cauron – Adult female hyena, currently heavily pregnant
Mali – Adult male leopard
Mamacala – Adult male crocodile
Kachero – Adult male rock python
Oocheva – Adult male plover bird
Kachero the python crashed down on his foes like a lightning bolt. His scaly body flattened Cauron, Kapungu and Ridikill to the floor. His companions hurried up from behind him and hurled themselves at the lionesses and the hyenas. The mammals fought back with sharp claws and snapping jaws.
Backbone Gorge became a pit of twisting, slashing, crushing, tearing violence. It was sheer, screaming madness.
And then, just as suddenly, it ended.
"Stop! Everyone stop! Cool it!" someone called out.
The piercing shrieks of the pythons and the frenzied, throaty snarls of the mammals were silenced. It was Amaryllis who had called for the break in fighting.
"We don't have to do this!" she cried, "There are other ways!"
Kachero reared up, "Other ways? What do you mean?"
"We're not your enemies. We have nothing against you and your kind", Amaryllis said, "And we don't hold grudges. There…"
"Cowardice!" one python spat, "You cannot destroy us and so you beg for mercy and peace! Cowards and weaklings!"
"Tell that to your comrade that we left back up the canyon", Kapungu growled.
"Cool it", Amaryllis said again, "Listen. I can see how loyal you are to Mamacala, but I also know it's been drilled into you for a long time now. You can all change".
"Amy, no", Ridikill interrupted, "You can't change these…freaks. They serve Mamacala to the end".
"I gave you a chance to change, didn't I? Don't they deserve the same?"
Ridikill paused, then shut his mouth and bowed his head slightly.
"He changed", Amaryllis nodded in Ridikill's direction, "He realized the error of his ways. Why can't you? Or, if you won't join us and actually fight Mamacala, why not just leave this battle in peace? We won't pursue you".
The pythons listened intently, swaying to and fro, heads cocked.
"Do you think Mamacala will really reward you for your hard work in his name?" Amaryllis asked, "He only cares for himself, that's obvious. So why not aid us and help to stop him from getting away with murder?"
Kachero swept his head forward until his blunt nose was almost touching Amaryllis', "You think we should turn on the Master? Because of his selfish cause, and his lack of concern for us?"
"Yes".
"Well…" Kachero's voice wavered a little, "One thing you should know…"
"Yes?"
"Serving the Master is its own reward. And you, lioness, I will enjoy hearing your bones break".
Immediately he clamped his vice like jaws on Amaryllis's throat and bit down. She roared in pain as loops of snake coils lashed around her.
Her startled companions lunged forward to help her, but the snakes were faster. The remaining five pythons formed a wall of needle fangs, muscular bodies and whipping tails. All hell broke lose.
Shocked and afraid, Amaryllis felt the big leader python's soft, silky body begin to tighten, ever so slightly, around her. At first it was merely uncomfortable, but then when she breathed in the coils tightened around her, and soon she was struggling to breathe.
Kachero released his hold on her throat and turned his head around to look her in the eyes. There was a cold glimmer in his alien pupils.
"It hurts, doesn't it?" he whispered to her, "Oh yes, how it hurts. First the breathing becomes difficult, then laboured, then impossible. And then your vision begins to fail you and all you can feel is the sensation of the crushing muscles tightening around you".
Even as he spoke blackness began to take Amaryllis.
"And then you may lose consciousness, and that would be merciful. Or maybe not. And then you will feel the cracking and crushing of your bones as the life is squeezed out of you, inch by agonizing inch".
Great pain wracked Amaryllis' body. She was unsure whether to fight to maintain consciousness or to give in.
"But it's the blood vessels that are most interesting", Kachero droned, "The way they stretch, until they reach breaking point. Almost as if they are about to go…pop".
All other senses were numb to Amaryllis now; all she could hear was the python's taunting and all she could feel was the immense crushing pain.
"You fool. You thought you could turn us against Mamacala. We are not weak like your pathetic hyena friend," Kachero hissed, "Lord Mamacala is the Master, and we are honoured to serve him, even if it is only for the barest scrap of acknowledgement, and that alone is more than we deserve. Now die, and die with the knowledge that you were just not enough to deter Mamaca…"
The python was cut short when Ridikill managed to get his head above the writhing conflict behind them, and then scramble on top of one alarmed serpent and use it as a platform to leap at Kachero. He tackled the snake's head to the floor.
"Die, traitor!" the python shrieked, "You shall not hinder the Master, or…"
Again he was cut short when Ridikill seized his head in his jaws. Immediately Kachero writhed fiercely. He began to quickly unloop himself from Amaryllis. She slumped to the floor, unmoving.
"Amy! Get up!" Ridikill yelled, but then Kachero whipped his tail through the air and struck Ridikill a blow that hurled him into the canyon wall, crashing painfully on the hard rocks.
Unfortunately for Kachero Ridikill did not loosen his grip on the snake's head, and so he too was jerked along violently into the cliff face by his own strike. Ridikill clung on grimly as the massive python thrashed about in spastic circles.
Amaryllis got to her feet, unsteady and nauseous. She ached all over and her legs were weak. As she took in the scene before her, her stomach turned.
The pythons and lions and hyenas were tearing into each other with savage abandon, reptilian speed and power versus mammalian endurance and numbers. Bloody flowed freely from most combatants
As much as it sickened her, Amaryllis realized she had no choice but to fight. She was about to hurl herself into the fray when she remembered Ridikill. She wheeled about to see Ridikill clinging to Kachero's head as the python whirled about and slammed his assailant violently to the floor and the gorge walls. However blood was trickling down the snake's neck in a steady, dark stream, and the resistance was gradually fading.
Kachero lashed frantic circles in the dust of the canyon floor with his huge body. He sent spasms through his muscular coils to shake Ridikill off. But it was too late. After a final thrashing rattle the python lay still, dust swirling around its huge form.
Ridikill looked up, his muzzle dark with blood. He looked about grimly, then nodded at Amaryllis.
"Thanks for saving me", she said.
"No problem", he replied, "We gotta go help the others".
Amaryllis stared at the twitching body of Kachero, "Why...why, Ridikill? Why wouldn't they help us? Why are they fighting to the death for Mamacala?"
Ridikill looked pained, "You can't save everyone, Amy. Not everyone can be redeemed. This was the only option we had left. But at least you tried".
With that he leapt into the battle. Amaryllis followed him.
For the next half an hour or more war raged in Backbone Gorge. It was a fight quite unlike anything that had been seen in the Pride Lands for many lives of lion or hyena. But as the battle wore on the stamina of the snakes began to wear down. Their strikes became slower, clumsier. One fell to vicious bites to the backbone from Sarkil and Burudi. Another followed soon after, head crushed by lightning blows from Vitani's paws.
But as traumatic as the fight would have been for any normal creature, the pythons did not relent. They shouted Mamacala's name to the heavens as they fought to the death, drawing blood from lioness and hyena and trying desperately to suffocate a foe in their coils. They whirled about to face their enemies, and though they gradually slowed and weakened, the fierce cries of hatred never subsided.
It was a harrowing experience for Vitani, Amaryllis and even the most ruthless of the hyenas. To be forced into a situation where you had to slowly kill a deranged and outnumbered foe was deeply disturbing. But they had no choice but to end what had begun as quickly as possible, and with just three weary pythons left, that end was near. Moments later, it was two. The end was near.
But the taste of victory, no matter how bitter, was short-lived. The combatants who weren't engaged looked up as the sun was blotted out for a moment by a great shape. A massive body plunged down the side of the gorge, sliding down the bank, dislodging stones, dirt, vegetation, dead branches and a small tree as it came, tearing the slope asunder with its weight as it entered the arena. The crocodile was completely unfazed by the collision of his one tonne body hitting the floor from such a height. He turned towards the fighting lions, hyenas and pythons, taking the situation in with his staring green eyes. Then he advanced.
Ridikill stared in horror at the sight of his former mentor approaching in wrath. His tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth: he couldn't say anything. Next to him Vitani raised her head. The crocodile was only a few meters away, approaching from the way they had come, unhurried but nonetheless terrifying. The two remaining pythons were putting up quite a struggle now that their Master had returned, and Vitani realized they needed to regroup.
"It's Mamacala! Retreat!" she called.
The lions and hyenas fled before the giant armoured reptile as best they could, but they were hindered by the pythons sweeping forward to block their retreat. The mammals engaged in a fighting attempt to back away down the gorge. The crocodile kept coming, slow but unopposed and unstoppable, more like a force of nature than a mere animal, like a storm in the mountains or a river cutting through the Pride Lands.
"We'll regroup further down the gorge!" Vitani gasped as she wrestled free from one of the pythons with the help of Kapungu, "We'll form a barricade and stop him from going any further!" she ordered, trying to convince herself it would work.
The pythons were strong and quick to strike but not so fast in a pursuit. The lions and hyenas managed to break free and back down the gorge, turning now and again to snap or claw if one got too close. The defending mammals managed to retreat successfully; even Ridikill regained his senses and galloped away.
All except one. Burudi found himself separated from his companions, winded and bloodied. Between him and his friends were the two pythons giving chase. Behind him was Mamacala.
The hyena turned to face the crocodile. He reasoned that he had more chance of getting past one cumbersome crocodile than two pythons, especially in a narrow ravine. Once he got past the croc he would exit the gorge, then run along the ridge to catch up with his friends and rejoin the battle when he could.
The crocodile waddled forward. His face was expressionless as always, but as he looked at Burudi he knew the scarred hyena was the 'near-friend' Ridikill had referred to several times before. Once or twice Mamacala had grown concerned that Burudi would influence Ridikill significantly and steer him in the opposite direction from his own plans. Those concerns hadn't arisen to anything in the end, but nevertheless it elicited something akin to a small amount of joy for the crocodile to have the troublesome hyena before him.
Burudi watched the croc approach, then he bolted forward, trying to get past Mamacala's left flank. Unfortunately the hyena underestimated just how fast the ponderous-looking reptile could move. In an instant the huge tail swept around and smashed into the hyena, launching him into the gorge wall and knocking the wind out of him.
Out of the corner of his eye Mamacala could see the lions and hyenas had stopped retreating and were just tackling the last two pythons, while watching him approach Burudi. One hyena, probably Ridikill, was trying desperately to fight through the pythons and break through to his aid. Mamacala would have grinned if he could. It was time for a little show of force.
"Hello, little half-grown", he gloated to Burudi, "I daresay you thought you'd seen the last of me. Not so, I'm afraid. Now, come here".
Burudi, vision swimming and body wracked with pain, got to his feet and snapped at the crocodile, seeing his end coming towards him. He was too weak to either fight back effectively or flee in time. All he could do was struggle.
"Back off, pond scum!" the hyena bellowed, managing to lunge forward and sink his teeth ineffectively into the croc's snout. He released and went to bite the leathery throat; however Mamacala swung his head and knocked the hyena over on his back. The reptile towered over him, jaws gaping wide, "This isn't over!" Burudi screamed defiantly.
"Perhaps not", Mamacala seized Burudi by the body, fatally impaling him with his crushing teeth, then thrashing his head so violently that he severed the corpse: half a torso, the front legs and the head and neck shot across the gorge while the abdomen and rear legs remained in the stinking crocodilian jaws, "But it is for you!"
"No!" someone wailed. It sounded like Ridikill.
Mamacala turned about to face his enemies. They had felled the last two pythons: now six huge snakes lay dead on the gorge floor. It was unsightly, Mamacala thought. But he felt no remorse at the death of his followers: loss was noted only from a tactical standpoint.
He realized he still had half of Burudi's carcass in his mouth. He opened his jaws and titled his head and the remains spilled out over the floor. Glancing about, he noticed that a surprising amount of the hyena's blood had sprayed over the cliff face. How interesting. It was like he had burst a…
He caught something hurtling towards him out of the corner of his eye. It was Ridikill, foaming at the mouth and snarling like a rabid jackal. He was only a few meters away. The lioness Amaryllis was calling him back.
Mamacala turned slowly to face Ridikill. His cold green eyes locked with Ridikill's blazing yellow eyes. They held the stare for a moment, then Ridikill suddenly skidded to a halt. He cowered down low before the great crocodile, unable to make eye contact any more, and trembled like a frightened cub.
"Ridikill! Come back! Don't face him alone!" Amaryllis shouted again.
"Yes Ridikill, run back to your friends. You're clearly upset", Mamacala's stony expression did not change, but there was a glint of cruel satisfaction in his eyes as he nodded in the direction of Burudi's torn upper torso, "You mammals really do…go to pieces so easily".
"No…no…" Ridikill shuddered, "You…you just…"
But despite his outrage at the death of his would-be-friend, he had enough sense, or fear in him, to retreat to his allies' side.
Mamacala looked at the lionesses and the hyenas. They had formed a line that blocked off further access to the gorge. They watched him approach with horror, but also grim determination. So this was it, Mamacala thought. Now two traumatized lionesses and seven battle-weary hyenas were all that stood between him and Pride Rock. And it was up to him to deal with it too, now that his followers were all…
"M…Master…" a thin voice gasped.
Mamacala and the mammals looked, startled, as Kachero the python twitched and shuddered. Despite the terrible wound on his cranium, the mighty python managed to look up at Mamacala and wheeze coherently.
"O Master, I have failed you. Please…please, as I die, show me a sign that you forgive me!" he pleaded.
Mamacala watched the pathetic dying Kachero for a moment, unflinching, then raised one foot and brought it down on the snake's head, crushing it beneath his great weight. He then resumed his steady advance on the mammals, unceremoniously stepping over and on his lieutenant's bloodied body as he came.
"You didn't need to do that", Cauron was furious, "He lived only to serve you! He only wanted your approval. And you…"
"I gave him a quick death. It was the kindest thing to do", Mamacala drawled, "If I had it my way you'd not be so lucky. I'd cripple you all and leave you to die slowly in the sun, gnawed by the jackals and vultures. I've done it before.
"But unfortunately I don't have the luxury of time right now. Nor can I afford witnesses, even dying ones. So I'm going to have to kill you all relatively quickly".
"You assume you can", Babaka snorted, but he was badly shaken by the death of Burudi and it showed.
"I won't be lectured on what I can and can't do by a mongrel hyena who hasn't even seen five seasons", Mamacala drew closer, "And I'm afraid I've no more time for talk".
He stopped ten yards short of them, a terrible leviathan coated in amour of scales, scarred from nose to the tip of his tail nearly twenty feet away. His iron-hard head was pointed in their direction like an arrow and he opened his crooked jaws slowly.
"I hope you've thoroughly enjoyed your little rebellion: because now it's over, my restless little warriors! Now you die. Now you all die. And who will be there to witness your noble end? None. And all your efforts will have been in vain because I'm going to kill you all".
"Nonsense!" someone snapped.
Mamacala grunted in surprise. Everyone looked at Ridikill, who was staring the crocodile in the eye, fiercely defying him.
"There's just as much chance of us killing you! Did you think about that before you waddled that ridiculous bloated body of yours down here? We're all predators, the same as you. You're so blind you think everyone is simply prey to you. Well I've got news for you, pal.
"We can all fight. Sarkil over there's as savage as a leopard when she gets going. Kapungu's got the temper of a hornet. And even little Groco can get nasty when he's backed into a corner.
"Vitani's a member of the royal family and she fights twice as hard when she remembers what she's fighting for, and as for Amaryllis, well, when she gets angry she's got a killer instinct to match even mine!"
"Oh", said Mamacala.
"And that's not all! Even as we speak Kiara is on her way to stop the battle and warn them of your plan!"
"Would that be the plan that was only possible because of your assistance?"
Ridikill ignored him, "Soon the entire lion pride and hyena clan will be on their way to deal with you, and I'll bet they're not going to be pleased!"
Mamacala was still unreadable and maddeningly calm, "Simba's on his way huh? Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!"
Then in an instant he changed. His body tensed, his eyes blazed, his jaws flung open wide and he arched his back. He looked, for the first time, furious.
He spat in a screeching voice, "That is if we ever come to it, fool!" with a throaty hiss he barreled forward, catching them all off guard.
He closed the distance between them in an instant. He was in their midst in a second, jaws open wide and reaching out.
"Everyone! Move!" Vitani screamed.
The defenders leapt away from the gaping maw. The mouth slammed shut with a crash. Angrily the crocodile lunged forward again, nearly catching Shungi.
But as the mammals were still recovering from the shock of the lightning fast attack, Mamacala thrust forward again, uttering a throaty hiss. His spiked lips of stony scales grasped for them, but as they all scrambled away he suddenly pivoted on his back legs and used the momentum of his attack to swing his body around 180 degrees.
The move caught the defenders by surprise. One second they had been pulling away from Mamacala's jaws, the next his massive tail was sailing through the air towards them. It caught all of them: a lucky few were just tripped by the tip of the tail, but the others were hurled into the air, flattened by the blow or slammed into the cliff wall.
Amaryllis gasped. She had been flung to the floor painfully. She felt like she had been run over by a rhinoceros, and she wasn't even really sure what had happened. Looking up, she saw she was in the direct path of Mamacala. The giant crocodile was charging at her.
She decided not to leap aside any more but to fight back. She leapt to her feet and raised her paw. As the crocodile barreled into striking range, she unsheathed her claws and swung her paw with all the might she could muster.
To her horror it had no effect on the crocodile. The paw bounced harmlessly off the skull, and her enemy didn't even flinch. In fact the attack only served to snap two of her claws and sprain her paw. As she winced in pain, the jaws reached to engulf her…
"Move!" Vitani tackled Amaryllis, shoving her out of the path of the oncoming crocodile. The reptile trundled on for a few steps, snapping.
He blundered past Sarkil and Cauron, who took the opportunity to leap on his tail and tear at it with their teeth. They bit savagely at the spiky scales running down the length of his tail, unaware that they were inflicting no pain on the behemoth.
Mamacala tilted his head slightly to look back at the two hyenas, and for a moment his crocodilian smile seemed to broaden, "This is getting annoying", he smirked, and flicked his tail. Cauron and Sarkil were tossed away like leaves on the wind.
Kapungu attacked Mamacala's armoured neck, but his teeth couldn't penetrate the scutes and scales. Mamacala struck right with his head and flattened the hyena.
The battle went on in this way, with Mamacala dominating the lionesses and hyenas by lashing out at them with his tail, body and jaws. He was unscathed despite the best efforts of his enemies, his thick hide rendering the most savage attack to feeble scratch marks.
"Oh yes", Mamacala hissed to himself as he charged forward and knocked Vitani on her back.
"Oh this is superb. After so many years…" he chuckled as he swiped away Ridikill, Shungi and Groco with a sweep of his tail.
"After so many years of defeating opponents only with plans and stratagems, as satisfying as that is…" he planted one clawed foot on top of the struggling Babaka and pinned him to the floor.
"Nothing quite compares to the thrill of crushing an inferior being…personally. Nothing like it to remind you of your superiority", his jaws slammed shut mere inches away from Amaryllis.
"You're sick", Amaryllis gasped as she barely managed to edge away.
"Perhaps, but I'm not going to die any time soon. You are".
Vitani led Babaka, Shungi, Cauron and Groco in a charge against the crocodile. He waited until they had pounced on him, then shuddered his massive body and shook them off.
"Don't get overconfident, you old fool", Ridikill spat, "You've been scarred. You've come close to losing fights before. You're not immortal".
"I might as well be to you short-lived vulnerables", the crocodile retorted as he wrestled with his attackers, "And my scars are from my younger days, before my prime. Before I attained my current power and wisdom".
Ridikill skipped aside from a lunge from the crocodile. A thought struck him like a lightning bolt, and he didn't know why he found it so important, "Oh yeah? Well, you told me about all your scars. But you never told me how you lost your toes".
Mamacala froze. He was still assailed but he ignored his antagonists as, slowly, he looked down at his left foreleg. It was missing all but one of his claws, and it was deformed and mangled. He stared at it, and to Ridkill's amazement, the crocodile began to tremble.
"Touched a raw nerve, have I?" Ridikill laughed callously.
Amaryllis looked at him. As unlikely as it seemed, Ridikill's innate ability to locate a weakness and mock it, the very trait that had made him so unbearable to know, seemed to have found a use.
Mamacala looked up, and his eyes were dark with murder, "You insolent little traitor! I'll crush you and your foolish mutiny now and forever!"
He roared. It was a strange, awful noise, more like a strangled gargle or a throaty rattle. It was a scream from another time, a time when reptiles ruled the earth. Then he charged at Ridikill, blind to all else.
Ridikill galloped away, the crocodile close on his heels. But as the reptile charged past them, the other hyenas and Vitani and Amaryllis leapt onto his back. They sank their teeth and claws into him and held on grimly.
Blinded by rage and consumed with destroying Ridikill as he was, Mamacala seemed not to notice the enemies tearing at his body and clinging on to him. He began to slow though, and it was easier and easier for Ridikill to avoid the crocodile.
Little did the hyenas and lionesses know that they had hit upon a crocodile's greatest weakness: fatigue. Despite their great strength, they were not built for sustained periods of intense action: just short bursts of power. Mamacala's movements were becoming more and more sluggish and he seemed not to realize it.
At last however, crawling along the floor after Ridikill, he eventually stopped dead, seemingly unable to take another step. He lay under half a tonne of lion and hyena tearing at his inert body. Ridikill took a chance and darted past Mamacala's still head to gnaw at his neck. The crocodile did not attempt to seize him.
At last, reptilian armour began to crack. The persistent hunters tasted crocodile blood for the first time, and also an end to the conflict. It was an awful, horrendous way to kill an enemy, but it was the only way. And they knew Mamacala would have shown them no such mercy.
"You fools!" Mamacala wailed, "You…don't know what you've done!" he hissed pitifully.
It was a sound Ridikill would never has thought he would have heard – the dying breath of Mamacala. With mixed feelings he released his hold and looked up.
The other hyenas and the two lionesses climbed off the crocodile's body.
"Is he…?" Groco asked.
"I don't know", Vitani crept closer to the body and peered at the throat. After a moment she looked up, "Yeah. He's dead".
They looked at the great carcass. Nobody spoke. The wind was still and the heat was suddenly stifling and uncomfortable. Cauron shifted uneasily.
Shungi looked at the corpse, shuddered, and then glanced about, "Everyone okay?"
"Yeah", Sarkil said quietly, "Except Burudi".
Ridikill looked at his companion's severed body, then looked away quickly.
Amaryllis glanced at him "It's not your fault".
"It is", Ridikill whispered, "All of this is my fault. If I hadn't…"
"We don't have time to dwell now", Vitani interrupted, "We need to get to the pride. We don't know for sure that Kiara made it there okay. If she didn't, we're there only hope. Come on everyone".
She led the way back down the gorge, towards a slope in the cliff that led up to the plains.
Amaryllis took one last look at the giant body behind them, and the dead pythons slung about the floor about him. The blood was drying already in the relentless sun. Flies were gathering in clouds. Soon the vultures would arrive, then the jackals. And the evidence of any battle would be gone; flesh gobbled, bones cracked and shattered, even the bloody sand and stones swallowed. Nothing would be wasted. What a macabre, undignified end for a deluded 'Lord', his fanatical followers and one decent, brave hyena.
She remembered Burudi coming to her, admitting to her of his despairing of trying to befriend Ridikill for years. She had hoped that she had put Burudi on the path to warming up to Ridikill. And now his life had been savagely cut short.
At least he had been avenged. Amaryllis would have been horrified with herself for thinking like that twenty four hours ago, but it was difficult not to. The crocodile was such a despicable monster that she felt nothing but a grim sense of justice at his death.
She turned away. The hyenas began picking their way up the slope. Vitani stood at the rear of the group, giving out orders. Amaryllis nearly smiled. Vitani had a wonderful talent for leadership, and the hyenas seemed to respect it already.
"Go on Amy, get up there", Vitani nodded in the direction of the slope, "We need to hurry. I know we're all a little sore but we have to remember that our friends will feel a lot worse if word doesn't get to them soon. And although Kiara probably made it there fine, we can't take any chances. So everyone…"
Just as Amaryllis was beginning to clamber up, out of the corner of her eye she saw Vitani being jerked back violently. She twisted about to see Vitani clutched in the jaws of a giant crocodile, conical teeth puncturing into her soft flank.
"No…!" Amaryllis screamed helplessly, paralyzed with horror and shock.
The crocodile released his hold on Vitani and she was flung into the cliff wall behind. She struck the rock head-first and landed in a twisted, broken pile. Blood poured out of her forehead.
"No!" one of the hyenas screamed.
They stared at the lifeless body of Vitani, and then at Mamacala as he reared up, blood-soaked, eyes blazing, teeth glinting and grinning eagerly.
"Now", he said with venom, "We play for real".