Cast

Hyenas

Sal: Mary's partner. Father of Kim and Micky. Brother of Louie.
Tries to crack the murder-case because it makes him feel less insignificant.

Mary: Sal's partner. Mother of Kim and Micky. Younger sister of Agathe and older sister of Malaika. Second in line for Matriarch of the clan.
Since she serves as the clan's second in command, she ends up doing or delegating most of the hard work.

Kimbiza (Kim): Sal and Mary's older daughter.

Micky: Sal and Mary's younger son.

Louie: Sal's brother.
Likes long walks.

Agathe: Mother of Chenga. Older sister of both Mary and Malaika. Matriarch of the clan living in the Clanlands (which are presently part of the Pridelands).
What's there to say, she's the Matriarch! You just shut-up and listen to what she tells you.

Chenga: Agathe's daughter. First in line for matriarch (although barely of hunting-age yet).

Makamu (Maka): Malaika's partner. Usually subordinate to Sal.
Dislikes work.

Malaika: Makamu's partner. Younger sister of both Mary and Agathe.

Cheetahs

Tibu: Represents hyena authority among his own kind.
Considered awkward and timid.

Shahidi: She lives next door to the dead guy.

Dead Guy: A cheetah with a broken neck Sal found dangling up a tree.

Leopards

Mgomo: He lives next door to the dead guy. Aki's brother.

Aki: Mgomo's hot-headed brother.

Others

Rafiki: Baboon. Shaman for the nearby prides and clans.

Zuzu: Hornbill. Specializes in law and protocol among the Pride and Clan-lands, along with Mary – they often work in tandem.

Three

"Excuse me, madam, I was told that your kinsman Sal was supposed to reside around here, somewhere..."

"Who? Sal? You mean Mary's little stooge? Doesn't he live farther out?"

"No, sis, wait, I think the cheetah is right. He's probably just "staying" at Mary's place... Just go up ahead, it's that den over there..."

"Thank you, madam. That den over there?"

Still more asleep than awake, Sal listened the conversation going on outside. The male voice sounded like Tibu, the cheetah representing the hyenas among his kin. It took a while to remember what business the cheetah had with him, but then it came back: right, the other – dead – cheetah up the tree... Tibu had promised a name, and he promised to have it by... yesterday. Not entirely punctual of the cheetah. Then again, Sal himself hadn't spent even a minute looking into the murder-case yesterday. Hunting with the family had kept him occupied at first, and after that he had followed Mary back to her den. And now he woke up the following afternoon, Mary's paws still wrapped around him. Pretty awesome day, all in all.

But now duty called, sort of, in the form of a cautious cheetah bearing news.

"Oh well..." Sal smiled, carefully maneuvering himself away from his sleeping partner. Suddenly, she pulled him closer to her purringly – insofar that hyenas can actually purr. It was more like moaning, actually. Not really all that relevant anyway, come to think of it.

"Aw... you leaving already?"

"Alas, duty calls..."

"Yeah, I guess it is getting kinda late," the now awake Mary admitted, "I still have to plan out our the digging of our new batch of dens... And I got to pass by the communal den to spend some time with the kids; after spending the day hunting with Kim all day yesterday, I almost didn't get to see Micky. You know what, I'll just drop those new dens entirely..."

"Yeah, those new dens can wait... I wish I had some time to spend with you guys. I'll wait and see how the cheetah-affair turns out; I might have some time left later today. By the way, you don't happen to be interested in spending some more time among our cheetah brethren?"

"No, I think I'll have to pass on that one. All the more fun for you, right?" Mary grinned. Just before Sal got up, the couple quickly nuzzled. "Have fun!"

Eventually, Sal wound up having to work his way through a lengthy goodbye-smooch before he could finally step out of Mary's den to go and greet Tibu. Understandably, the hyena was in a far better mood now than when the animals last met. Mary tended to have that effect on him, on some days anyway.

"And a good morning to you!" Sal exclaimed as he saw the cheetah.

"Ah, there you are. A good afternoon to you too, sir."

"Morning, afternoon, all just irrelevant details, as long as they're both good. And they sure are! So anyways... how've you been? You dug up a name already?"

"About that..." The cheetah hesitated fro a moment, "Well, first of all, I'm terribly sorry I couldn't deliver it yesterday, as I originally promised..."

"Don't sweat it; I wasn't available yesterday anyway..."

"Ah. For the better, I suppose. Anyway, what I wanted to tell you is that I did indeed come up with a name!"

"Bully!" Sal blurted, causing Tibu to react rather confused.

"Excuse me, what did you say?"

"I said: bully!"

"Ah..."

"You don't know what "bully" means?"

"I'm afraid I don't..." Tibu admitted.

"It's an exclamation of approval, and I just felt like throwing it out there..."

"Uhuh... Anyway, sir, now for the name..." The cheetah was quick to steer the conversation back to more substantial waters, "It took me a while, but I found a name eventually. Turns out the poor soul went under the name of "Wahanga"..."

"Great! So now we finally got a name." Sal was genuinely enthusiast, since he really believed it would be clear sailing from now on. Most of that had to do with the fact he had never before been confronted with an actual murder among predators (testament to the quiet nature of the Clan-lands). With that attitude he was bound to learn the hard way that no murder is ever a clear cut case. Or maybe not; some things do actually sort themselves out. You just have to get lucky every now and then.

"But I was just wondering, why did it take you so long?"

"Mostly because he was new to this land; he only moved here recently..."

"Ah? And how does that work? Don't they have to pass by you for approval or something?"

"No, it's more complicated than that..." Tibu took a small pause to think how to best make his case. "How much do you actually know about the way solitary felines acquire their territory?"

"I'm guessing: not enough."

"If you say so. But you do know how we determine our territory?"

"Sure," the hyena shrugged, "It's the same all over: scent marks. Hyenas do something similar..."

"Exactly. The territory you occupy as your own to is the one you marked. If a territory is not marked, the first one to do so gets to keep it. Think of it as calling shotgun. Now, if you mark into someone else's territory, creating an overlap, the oldest marking is supposed to be the legitimate one." The big cat paused for a breather, "By the way, sir, do interrupt me if I get a bit too professorial..."

"Don't worry, carry on. This stuff is usually more Mary's thing, but I'm supposed to know these things too, so I might as well have them explained to me," Sal admitted.

"Ah, great. All right, now the thing is, these scent marks aren't permanent – as you well know. So if you don't renew them on a regular basis, they disappear. This means that, if someone marks in your territory, and you don't move to have your territory confirmed – and the other guy kicked out – your original marking disappears, and you lose all claim to your land..."

"What does "getting your territory confirmed" imply?"

"Depends. Here, it means you address the ruling clan or pride. What usually happens here is that animals address Miss Mary – that would be your partner – after which she contacts me. I then check the scent-marks, and point to whomever is at fault. Miss Mary then forces a correction. In places where the clans, or prides, don't bother to steward their lands, these conflicts are resolved by force, with the predictable damage to the Circle."

"Right. And that's relevant with respect to that dead newcomer how?"

"It's actually pretty obvious; the only way for a new arrival in these lands to become an inhabitant – that means with his own territory so he doesn't end up being taken for a rogue – is if he marks out his own place. The way to do that is take land claimed by no-one, or take someone else's land. Obviously, if the land is already taken, the newcomer's claims get disputed and the rascal is kicked out. The victim, Wahanga, however, had the chance of being able to claim the land of a recently deceased kinsman of mine. Obviously, dead animals can't dispute any new territory claims, so it gets taken over fairly quickly and eventually, the old cat's marks disappear."

"So that's why you didn't know him, because he moved in only just now?"

"That about sums it up, yes. I'm not that good with names, but I did remember where his territory was. It's only by virtue of his territorial markings that I was able to somehow identify him. Then, I went searching for his neighbors – I figured they knew him better than I did. That's when the name turned up."

"Where is the dead guy's territory anyway?"

"Oh, just ask Miss Marry for old Ovyo's place – it's Wahanga's deceased predecessor. She keeps most of those things memorized."

"Right. Say, Tibu, do you think territory has got something to do with what happened?" Sal suddenly asked.

"Why would I think that?"

"For one, you just gave an hour long speech about territory-markings, so to speak. And without a point in doing so..."

"Well... It's not so much that I think it has anything to do with the murder," Tibu argued, "It's just something I found a bit odd; I must have been thinking about that while I was explaining, making me spew all that information unannounced. Thing is, I went over to inspect mister Wahanga's territory, and I couldn't help but notice he only occupied a small portion of what his deceased predecessor claimed. Turns out his neighbors grabbed large swaths of it before he even arrived. He must have had some territory elsewhere too, because that shrivel he took from his deceased predecessor was too small to sustain an adult cheetah. I didn't have time to find out where his other realm was, though..."

"Yeah, that does sound odd – and pretty important."

"So you think it's a conflict with his cheetah neighbors that killed him?" The swiftness of Tibu's remark pointed towards the possibility that he had been trying to devise his own theory about the murder, and that this whole conversation had been his way of showcasing it. On a gloomy day, this could have seriously peeved Sal. Now, however, he was just slightly amused.

"Nice guess, Tibu. But that's all it's ever going to be, a guess. And not even quite so nice, come to think of it. Thing is, he wasn't killed by a cheetah. Unless you know a cheetah who has retractable claws and climbs trees, that is. You don't actually happen to know one, do you? That'd make my work a whole lot easier for it..."

"He wasn't killed by a cheetah?" Tibu wondered, "My bad, I didn't realize. How do you know he wasn't..."

"Looking at his wounds, mostly. And we did find the dead body up in a tree – a pretty compelling argument against the possibility of death-by-cheetah."

"Ah. Sorry, I didn't know that. But you found him up a tree? Does that make the murderer a..."

"Leopard? Probably. But we don't have anything conclusive yet, so I'm not ready to go out and point the finger at anyone," Sal cautioned, "Tibu, you're a decent guy, a bit negligent at times, maybe, but you're a good man. So I trust you to... keep the peace. I know relations between cheetah's and leopards aren't always what they're supposed to be ever since the "Water Conflicts"..."

"I understand, sir. I admit, I'm not exactly comfortable around leopards..."

"I know. But just leave it to us hyenas to handle it, all right? No need to go all vigilante, I had that once before – big mistake."

"Will do, sir. That's probably the best idea, anyway; I think a hyena clan is better positioned to handle this: more paws on the ground, and more power."

"Funny that you would mention such a thing..." Sal's smile, which he had managed to hold on to for quite a while now, suddenly started to turn into a disillusioned smirk. Sure enough, Tibu noticed.

"What do you mean?"

"Yeah... eh... "hyena clan" might have been a bit of an overstatement, unless of course hyena clan meant "just Sal, and occasionally Maka"..." Sal confessed, recalling his conversation with Agathe the other day. She said the investigation would be nothing special – which meant as much as "I'm not reassigning anyone to help you."

"But... but I..." The usually calm, composed and timid Tibu seemed to freeze up fro a moment, and then erupted, kind of: "But a cheetah was murdered! And you're saying you're the only one doing anything about it? That... that's..."

"Madness? Sparta? Hardly," Sal chuckled. The cheetah's sudden outburst didn't really intimidate him, if only because a grown cheetah is considerably more puny than a hyena – not really qua size, but certainly for what concerned build and sheer power.

"Look, Tibu, I would appreciate some help too. But if the matriarch decides I don't need it, that's her call. And I can kinda understand her reasoning; we haven't had a murder here for years. No-one really knows how to handle this, so having thirty oblivious hyenas deal with this will just sort as little effect as having one slightly capable hyena working on it."

Slightly capable – how decidedly modest of me, Sal though smilingly.

Tibu wasn't convinced at all, however, and kept on ranting angrily: "But that's not the point! It's a matter of principle! You expect us to trust you with defending justice and the Circle while you clearly could care less! It's not that more help would be helpful, it's that you prove you care about what you are doing!"

"We do care, it's just a matter of combining care with cost-efficiency..."

"Spare me your drivel!"

"Come on now, don't..."

"I'm not coming on, no sir! If you won't dedicate yourself to protecting us from those brutish leopards, we'll handle it ourselves! Good day to you, sir!"

With that, Tibu left behind a flabbergasted Sal and ran off.

"Okay... Huh... I didn't see that coming... Crud... I guess that means I'll have to hurry my work up a bit," Sal grumbled, "Man, and this started out as such a great day!"

*

There were a lot of thing Sal would rather be doing. Things like teaching his daughter Kimbiza – Kim for the friends – to hunt, or goofing around with his young son, Mikhail – Micky for short. But unfortunately, due to his own blabbering mouth, he now found himself having no choice but to come up with a suspect for the murder of cheetah Wahanga. If he delayed that much longer, chances were the cheetah's themselves would select a victim – sorry, ignore that, I meant culprit – based on such persuasive and objective criteria as personal dislike, chance and relative strength to the cheetah's that would serve him his tasty cup of justice.

First thing he did was apologize to Mary for not being able to visit her at the communal den – and ask for directions to the late Wahanga's realm. He was careful to omit the detail of him accidentally provoking Tibu into a frenzy, though.

After that, he realized his task would probably be more bearable if he got himself a henchmen, to keep him company whilst mingling with the cheetah's. Because, don't forget, cheetah's are so painfully dull (although Tibu's sudden freak-out gave some evidence to the contrary).

First stop: Makamu.

"Wow, Maka, you look terrible..."

"Dude, tell me about it... That zebra yesterday, I'm telling you... urp... uh..." Makamu was apparently coping with some bowl-issues.

"Weak sauce, pussy. I ate the exact same thing, and I'm still fine. Now come on, get your skinny ass out here!"

"Up yours, Sal. I'm not going anywhere – save maybe for a dump," Makamu grunted weakly yet combative.

"Great... So Maka's out. Damn... And I'm not about to go hassle someone – if I didn't happen to be me, I'd definitely hate someone coming over and getting me to hang around cheetahs all night and day long..."

Slacking around among his clan's scattered dens a few hours before sundown, Sal considered possible company for his little excursion towards the cheetahs he was planning. He quickly reached the conclusion he'd be going at it alone. Or maybe not; there was still one hyena he could try; the only one he knew even before he joined his current clan.

You have to understand, Sal wasn't born in the clan he was with now. Like nearly all male hyenas, he left his land of birth when he reached a certain age. Female bloodlines can run for countless decades in one clan, but males switch homes every generation. And so it was for Sal. However, upon becoming a wandering "immigrant male" – a notably less romantic term than the adventurously sounding "rogue" used to denote lions in a similar position – he didn't have to go at it completely on his own. He had the luck of having his older brother, Louie, with him as he went. In fact, if it hadn't been for his brother, chances were Sal would have never found a clan, and simply perished. But once they found a new home, as the years progressed, they drifted apart a bit; Sal's partner was a lot higher up in the clan's hierarchy than Louie's, so they moved in different social niches. They had made a habit of getting together about once a week to do some scavenging, though – if only for old time's sake. Sal reasoned he might as well ask his brother if he felt like helping out with the inquiry a bit.

The only hard part would be finding Louie; he had a bit of a habit of disappearing, sometimes for days on end without anyone knowing whereto or why – he had always been a bit of a wanderer. No-one really minded, though, since he was always ready to help out whomever asked, especially his own partner and family. This time around, however, Sal got lucky: he found his brother snoozing outside his den, on the outskirts of the clan's nesting grounds.

"Yo, Louie! How you doin'?"

"Wow, I didn't see you there," Louie looked a bit surprised as he opened his eyes. He hadn't been expecting any visitors, obviously, "Hey, little man! You're looking cheery today – so, what's good?"

"It's all good, man. I had a great day yesterday; I went out hunting, spent some time with Mary..."

"I thought you hated hunting," Louie remarked.

"Yeah, I hate it when I'm doing it. But now that it's over, I like it again – things always look better in retrospect.! So, what have you been up to?"

"Not much," shrugged the hyena, "Hanging around my place, spending some time with the kids, making treks across the land – you know how I love those. So, anything new?"

"Yeah, well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about, actually. You already heard the news?"

"What news?" Louie was rarely up to date with the latest news – it appeared that now, it was no different.

"Haven't you heard? A cheetah got killed the other day..."

"What? Man, that's the first I heard of it. You mean like, really murdered, or just killed by accident or something?"

"No, it didn't look the least bit accidental to me..."

"Well, it's all news to me. Sounds pretty bad," Louie nodded gravely, "So, what's that got to do with me?"

"Huh? Not a thing, I guess – I don't even know why you'd think of that. Or wait, maybe it involves you a bit..."

Louie gave his brother a disturbed look.

"No, I don't mean like that," Sal quickly clarified, "I just mean I needed your help, 's all. Because it turned out – big surprise, right – that I'm the one who's going to have to figure this mess out. And I could really use someone to keep me company..."

"Ah, like that. Yeah... eh, I don't know if m helping you is such a good idea," Louie mumbled, "Not that I don't want to help you, obviously – it's just that I've got some stuff to look after. Plus, I don't know the first thing about dealing with a murder..."

"Don't worry, that makes two of us," Sal grinned, trying his best to still convince his brother, "Louie, don't worry, it won't be a minute. I'm just going to go over and talk to some cheetahs, measure some territories of theirs..."

"Ah... sorry Sal, that's a no can do. No bad feelings, all right? But have all these things that need doing... and, to tell you the truth, I really, really can't stand cheetahs, all right?"

"Wait, what?" That statement utterly caught Sal by surprise. When on earth had his brother suddenly turnrd into a hater? "Well that's novel. Since when do you..."

"Look, Sal, I'd rather not talk about this, all right? Just drop it, it's a wholly personal thing..."

"So personal you cant even tell your brother?"Sal frowned. Louie's response was a tense silence.

"Okay... So I guess you won't be coming with me then?" Sal eventually sighed.

"I'm afraid not, little man. No offense, all right?"

"None taken. If you don't want to..."

"No, sorry..."

"No biggie! I mean... I dunno... I'm certain I meant something. But you're still down for some scavenging in a couple of days, right?" Sal asked, rather disappointed.

"Yeah man, off course – I wouldn't want to miss that for anything in the world," Louie grinned, "Just not today, all right?"

"I suppose... Well then, I guess I better get going; it'll be dark in a few hours; no use in going to visit the cheetahs while there asleep..."

"Good luck in finding anything. Sorry I couldn't be of more help..."

"Hey, forget about it," Sal shrugged grinningly, "See ya!"

Well that's just great – the first murder in who-knows-how-long, and the only one trying to do something about it is me. I think I understand what Tibu was getting at now... Meh, maybe it'll turn out just fine. Yeah, probably...