Subtle diplomacy

"Hey? Anyone in here? Yo, Seko, you in here?"

Seko leapt up, startled, panicking. Darkness all around him. For a second, he feared he was out on the plains again, but the damp darkness of the cave around him brought him back to his senses. He was still in his cave. It must have been hours by now since he sought refuge here, angry, scared, and dead tired. But for all his fatigue, he hadn't slept, not even for one second. He'd been living it over and over again, hours on end: the hunt, the encounter, the fight, the chase… and the return, adter which he witnessed the seemingly endless struggle, after which death must've felt as a release.

"Hey Seko? Come on, spineless creep, I know you're in here. Come on out, the boss needs a word with you."

He had no chance but to obey; he felt troubled enough without having to face the boss' wrath. With all the strength he could muster, Seko got up and dragged himself to the entrance of the cave. Once he reached the exit, he had to avert his eyes because of what seemed like blinding sunlight. That, and Banzaï's hideously scarred face. You'd avert your face for less. Once his eyes had adjusted to the light however, he noticed the sun was already setting. Dusk would kick in soon. Banzaï looked at Seko with disgust as he emerged from his cave.

"Jeez, you look like you been eaten alive by a lion and puked out again… Than again, that almost happened to be the case, right?"

Seko suddenly felt a new burst of energy, anger. How dared he ridicule that what had happened earlier? Weren't even the dead spared from being the tools of Banzaï's ever ongoing effort to humiliate Seko?

"At least I'll get over looking like a corpse in a day or two. You, on the other paw, are stuck with that ugly face of yours for the rest of your days," he gnawed at Banzaï.

Banzaï sighed in nonchalance and turned around: he wouldn't even dignify that with an answer. Seko presumed he had to follow Banzaï to wherever it was they were going. But as every hyena they passed turned around to stare at him, he realized his older clan mate might have had a point when he mentioned Seko wasn't exactly looking like a bundle of flowers: apart from his usual spot ensemble, he still had splats of dried blood all over his fur, not to mention the terrible state of his otherwise quite fashionable manes. Then again, it made him blend in nicely with his surroundings: the wastelands weren't exactly eyecandy to start with, and late Shenzi's husband (by now as dead as she was) hadn't really picked the least of all evils as founding site for the new capital den. To the contrary, their den was located in the single most eerie rock-formation in the whole Wastelands. "Least we not dilute our anger nor forget the pain, even our home shall serve as a grim reminder for all the injustice that is still being wrecked upon us," was how Shenzi's husband (who had chosen this particular den, as previously mentioned) had supposedly put it. Damn psycho, Seko couldn't help but think as he watched the grisly rocks they called home.
After a minute's walk, they reached a clearing in the scarce vegetation surrounding the desolate den. Two hyenas had been waiting for them, locked in a tense silence. They looked a lot like one another, both dark off fur, with thick manes and large, fuzzy ears. The taller female however, had longer manes and a face both sly and suspicious, looking more like her mother. Her notorious (not to mention rare) gray eyes followed Seko in a worried and compassionate stare as he approached her.

"Right, 'ere he is. I guess you want me to bugger off now?" Banzaï grumbled as he presented Seko.

"No please, stay 'round," the darker male quickly said before Banzaï got the chance to leave, "I'm sure we'll need your experience on this one."

"Besides, we wouldn't want to keep a good friend like you ignorant. If anyone got the right to know what's going on at all time, it's you," the female added.

"Thanks Vincent, Shenya. What's all this fuss about anyways? And what's up with him?" Banzaï asked, pointing at Seko.

"Sis, you wanna tell him, or should I? No, wait, maybe it were fitting if we leave that to the hyena in question, he might have some interesting contributions to make…" Vincent proposes, gazing at Seko.

"What, me?"

They nodded.

"Quite frankly… I'd rather not…"

"You're not helping here, you know…" Vincent sighed, Come on, do yourself a favour and make yourself useful for a change."

"Hey, give him a break, will ya?" Shenya snapped upon hearing Vincents thinly veiled insult. She moved closer towards Seko.

"It's hard enough for him as it is…"

"Apparently," Vincent noted scornful, "Right then, I guess it's up to me to summarize the past night's events… Right, so last night, our sensitive friend over here was out on a hunting trip, beyond the border, with two companions…"

"Keavy and Nya," Shenya interrupted.

"Yeah, them. Anyway, it seems like they either didn't quite follow foreign hunting protocol, or weren't careful enough, because they got spotted by a group of lions."

"Hey, it had nothing to do with that, it was the tall grass! We were as careful as one could be!" Seko exclaimed to his defense.

"I bet you were. And now stop interrupting me, will ya? To make a long story short: two of ours, Keavy and Nya, didn't make it back. But fortunately, Seko here was able to flee the field and save the day," Vincent concluded, suggesting rather bluntly that cowardice was at the base of the tragedy. This, of course, enraged both Seko and his life partner, Shenya, who responded immediately and fiercely.

"For heavens sake, Vincent, shove it! Try showing some damn respect for a change! We're talking about our clanmates here, not some piece of prey we lost on the way, like you make it sound. And another thing, our group was outnumbered two to one, what did you expect Seko to do? The only thing he could do in the given circumstances was run for it. And need I remind you he even returned only just after the lions had left? He tried helping out our fallen comrades while he knew those lions were still at large, I'd like to see you do the same."

"I'd prefer he'd have stayed around when the lions hadn't left yet…" Banzaï whispered.

It all came back, again. He found himself sneaking through the grass once again, tense, scared beyond reckoning, shaking like a leaf. He looked around, listened, tried to catch the lionesses' smell, but they were apparently gone. He crept forward. Why hadn't they known those lions were around? Why did she have to take the prey, why didn't she just ran? Too late now. He could still hear the screams. The sound of them was long gone, but those shrill screams of pain, agony and fear still echoed in his head. Whose were they? One thing he knew for sure, it weren't lions'. Then suddenly, he found them. Nya he saw first, her once mighty posture now reduced to a grayish pile of dirty fur, casting no shadows in the pale moonlight. With dead, empty eyes she stared out into the darkness in front of her, her mouth slightly opened and her back lodged in an unnatural twist. But even her broken figure looked peaceful when compared to Keavy.
Seko didn't see her at first, and he'd long wish he hadn't: she was laying on her side, eyes closed, and paws lying limply at her side. Gutted. At first, Seko wanted to run away, but then he imagined seeing her chest slowly moving up and down. As he approached to investigate, he saw her head was covered in scars. But she was still alive, he could tell because she was crying softly, breathing irregularly. He sat down next to her, whispered in her ear. She could just barely open her eyes, doing her utmost best to get a glimpse of Seko. He could tell she knew she wouldn't last long just by the look she gave him. Fortunately, she wasn't in pain anymore; there's only so much one can take before your body shuts down your perception of physical pain, Seko had seen it countless times with prey he caught.
Now it was just the knowledge of dying, of never seeing her family and friends again that tormented her. So Seko tried comforting her, keeping her head close to him, softly licking her muzzle and gently caressing her manes to let her know she wasn't alone. He couldn't think of anything more fearsome than the thought of having to die alone. And for what seemed like an eternity, he just sat there, as she cried, asking about her mother from time to time, recounting in bits and pieces what the lions had done to her. Only moments ago a strong, proud and optimist hyena trying to keep everyone's spirits up by making up puns involving mainly cheetahs, now beaten broken, her belly torn open, only to be left to die. Seko continued talking to her and stroking her, until finally, after what seemed to have been the better part of a lifetime, she closed her eyes and stopped breathing.

"I fail to see how that makes any difference," Vincent sneered at his sister after she was done applauding Seko, "But enough of this. We didn't call this meeting to discuss the past. I'd rather hear your thoughts on what ought to be done now."

"First thing of all, we ought to cut this ridiculous secrecy. The clan doesn't even know what happened to their friends yet, and I don't find it appropriate to keep them ignorant any longer. We ought to announce what happened, and we need to do it now, without any fancycrap," Shenya suggested, provocatively staring at Vincent.

"In time, we will, sis."

"Why not now?"

"Please, don't play stupid. I get where this is going at, you know. We just have to make sure our 'announcement' doesn't spark too much tension."

"I knew it!" Shenya exclaimed angrily.

"Knew what?" Banzaï asked, attempting to figure out why the two hyenas he considered closest to him in the whole-wide world were about to enter a fierce argument.

"Come on, Banzaï, don't you see it? He wants to cower out, again! Our clan members don't return home, and he wants us to sit and do nothing!"

"It's called caution, and it keeps most of us alive… Not that you would know, dear sister, as caution isn't exactly a virtue common to femmes. You prefer to rush in, leaving me to clean the mess."

Instead of responding to her brother's sexist comment, Shenya just sat there and glared at him. The careful observer could have heard the sound of her blunt claws scraping over the rocky surface below her. Meanwhile, Seko stepped in to his partner's defense, his temper fueled by his recollection of that one fatal night.

"Caution? You call that caution? Letting those savages pick us off, one by one? Nya left one orphan already, how many more before you finally get it through your thick skull? We've waited long enough, now's the time to stop your fancy talk and act."

"What do you suggest we do then? We storm the lion den head on? You talk about one orphan; the best we can hope for is twenty more if we were to avenge the damage done this far. Thanks, but no. I prefer we sustain some… marginal losses over absolute obliteration."

If it wouldn't have been for his dark fur, Seko would've turned pale as the moon. 'Marginal losses'. In a single sentence, Vincent reduced Keavy's suffering to mere 'marginal losses'. Seko just couldn't grasp it; it felt as if something snapped within him. The creature sitting in front of him was no hyena; it wasn't even a living creature. In front of him sat the embodiment of indifference, cold and power hungry indifference. He couldn't care less about his clan's suffering; they were just tools to further his ambitions. And like all tools, they were susceptible of marginal loss in efficiency. Vincent didn't care how many died, as long as he could just continue ruling them at his whims, Seko figured. From what Seko could tell, Shenya seemed to think likewise.

"How… how dare you even say that? And all those who gave their lives at Priderock, all those years ago, those were marginal losses as well?" she yelled out in anger. Banzaï tried to defuse the situation, but Vincent brutally interrupted him.

"Please, Banzaï, don't bother. Femmes are immune to reason. That's why dad had to take over in the first place, because female dominance failed us. What happened at Priderock weren't marginal losses; it was just the result of plain old stupidity."

Insulting females was one thing. Him mocking the clan, Shenya could handle. Even a lack of respect for the dead she might have forgiven him. But in desecrating their mother's heritage, Vincent crossed the line. Rage enflamed within her, she couldn't control it anymore nor would she have wanted to do so. Without a seconds notice, Shenya pounced Vincent, her otherwise sympathetic eyes now burning with anger. Whilst uttering various screams and profanities the likes of which I shall not describe here, the two of them engaged in a bitter twist. Banzaï couldn't bring himself to pick side for either of them, as he felt deeply for both. But when Seko appeared to come to the aid of Shenya, Banzaï was quick to slam him onto the ground. Then, while Seko was still somehow what stunned and unable get up, Banzaï intervened to the aid of Vincent, trying to calm down the much larger and more powerful female. When they finally had her more or les pinned down, she seemed to come back to her senses.

"Get off me already! I said get off!" Shenya yelled yelled, as she kicked back Vincent. After she got up, she cast one last angry glare at both Vincent and Banzaï, before taking off with a final angry whoop. Chances were she'd go sobbing in her personal cave, or grind some bones between her teeth to let of some of her tension.

Seko now knew. He had felt it before, but now he was sure of it. Vincent's existence couldn't be tolerated anymore. That hyena's mere presence was a threat to him, Shenya and even to the clan as a whole, a threat he could not stand any longer. If he ever was to do anything for Shenya, this should be it: eliminating Vincent, so his sister Shenya could finally surge out of his shadow. And it had to happen fast, before he led the whole clan to ruin.

Vincent, beat up and still in his adrenaline-rush, was just about to turn his attention to the still present Seko, when another hyena, seemingly exhausted suddenly appeared. As one could have come to expect, she was quite surprised when she saw Vincent in his present state: panting, his fur full of dirt, and blood dripping down from his nose.

"And what do you want?"

Seeing as she had just run her paws down to the bone to find him, he could have been a little nicer. However, since the newly arrived hyena was utterly exhausted, she limited her speech to a minimum, for the moment.

'I-eh…I've… I got a message for you, sire," the messenger gasped, "Real urgent."

"Yeah, I guessed as much… This better be good news, Sunshine."

For a moment, it looked as if the newly arrived hyena would start talking again, in her very distinguishably hurried and twitchy manner, but she paused to take a breather first.

"It's a message from one off Kali's girls. She said, you're not going to believe this, they've captured a lioness! No kidding, they say they've got a lioness! So I was all like, no way, so I went over to check it out and, dig this, there really was a lioness! And the funny thing is, I mean, what are the chances; that lioness actually asked to see you, Vincent! Said she was like, an envoy or something, but I don't know what the hell that is so I thought like, no way, sod off. But then she said like, tell him it's me then he'll certainly come over, and I was still like, yeah right. But I was kinda curious too, and then Kali suggested I'd come get you so I did and…"

"And here you are, right, I get the picture," Vincent kindly interrupted her, "Calm down, will ya, or you'll drawn in your own verbal flood."

"Hehe, that's for a fact. Anyway, sure sounds like one arrogant furball… Considrin' what they did to us we ought to eat that lioness alive…" Banzaï grinned, "By the way, you mentioned the lioness said you ought to 'like', tell us who she is. I kinda seem to have not heard the part mentioning her name."

"Oh right, gosh I like, forgot 'cause I had to tell a lot and I was like hurried and… oh, right… whoops… eh, I think she said her name was… Vitani, or something."

Vincent and Banzaï paused and looked at each other for a while, partly to annoy the messenger: nothing more irritating than you having to hurry just to find others taking their time, staring at each other. After a while, Banzaï finally addressed Vincent.

"What are you looking at me for? What lioness were you expecting anyway, it's not like you know that much lionesses, you know."

"Yeah… still, it's been a while… Vitani… Didn't really think she'd remember us…" Vincent shrugged.

"You remembered her, didn't ya?"

"Yeah, sure did… damn, this blows… I mean, I wouldn't like to see her get 'eaten alive', you know?"

"No? Well, the I suggest you hurry to your lioness: if Shenya decides to make those killings the lioness' pridemates committed earlier public, I don't think your lioness will last long."

"Yeah, especially with that creep Kali 'round…" Vincent frowned, "Figures she had to be the one to bump into Vitani. Better get this over with quick. Meanwhile, do me a favor and try talking some sense into that blockhead Shenya, would you please?"

"You really shouldn't be calling her names like that, you know. She's the only sister you've got, and besides, she was kinda right: we can't just let what the lions did pass without a proper reaction."

"I know…" Vincent mumbled, "That's what bugs me the most... It's not like I enjoy having to act all sociopath, but someone's got to voice reason 'round here. Well, gota go… tell Shenya I'm sorry, will ya?"

"I'll tell her you want to talk things out tonight and you're prepared to admit you were wrong."

Vincent had the urge to correct that last one a bit, by adding his errors lay mostly in the way he voiced his opinions, rather than in his actual opinion. The messenger, however, all annoyed and worked up by now, practically pushed Vincent from the scene with her anxious stare.
As Vincent disappeared, Banzaï looked around: talking about Shenya made him remember Seko. But where the hell did that weakling sneak off to? Must've buggered out when that messenger was all talkative, Banzaï considered.


"So eh… what's up, boss?"

"Don't call me boss, I ain't no-one's boss."

"Right… but what's going on? I mean, with the lioness and all."

Vincent sighed. Seeing as the story of him meeting Vitani involved a lot of not-following-orders, he wasn't really inclined to share too much information. But the messenger was quite persistent.

"We eh… we met at the border… on patrol, long time ago. And in stead off trying to kill each other, we decided a that it would be more desirable to just have a quick chat and then return to our respective duties, ignoring each other. Things like that were still possible, back when them Outlanders weren't just another flavor of them murderous Pridelanders."

"That's nice… We ought to do that more often, just having a chat instead of like, killing each other."

"Indeed…" Vincent yawned.

Suddenly, out of the dense vegetation, Seko appeared. He seemed a bit shocked to bump into Vincent, but made his way back to the den without even bothering to acknowledge the other's existence.

"Nice day to you to, creep…" Vincent grumbled, "What the hell was he doing here?"

"I'm sure he went to check out the lioness, 'cause if like, someone told me 'hey we've captured a real life lioness' I'd sure love to go see it."

"Yeah, probably…"

Vincent didn't pay any further notice to it, and they continued towards where the lion was kept. Vincent noticed they were nearing the White-Pass cliff. The scenery of the river and the White-Passes across the stream you got there was about the only decent sightseeing one could do around hyena territory. When you do, always watch your step though.
After about half an hour they suddenly spotted a tall, broad hyena blocking their path. Judging by both her size and light fur, it had to be Kali, former heir to the Westclan. As they approached, Vincent also noticed Kiuma and Umwa, the ever present acolytes of Kali. Her other four cronies were nowhere to be seen though, probably guarding Vitani. As usual, Kali seemed a bit disgusted at the sight off Vincent. Kali not getting along with Vincent wasn't that big of a secret. And who could blame Kali, seeing as how Vincent's dad was responsible for the death of Kali's mother, the first and last Westclan matriarch?

"Evening, Vincent. I presume you've come to check out our lion-friend over there?" Kali asked. Vincent couldn't help but notice Kali was trying to act way nicer than he had come to expect of her, but he didn't pay further attention to it.

"I'll take it from here, Kim," Kali suggested, looking at the messenger. Kim nodded, and took off, leaving Vincent alone with Kali's group. Kali apparently wanted to keep the lioness hush-hush too, or so Vincent presumed.

"Right, now where is this mysterious lioness of yours?" Vincent asked, attempting to avoid conversation with Kali, who seemed inclined to do the same and lead the way. After a few meters, they reached a small clearing. There was Vitani, casually stretched out on the ground, trying to look all at ease. Vincent recognized her instantly, as she seemingly hadn't changed one bit. Apart from the fact she had gotten fatter, that was: an abundance of food undoubtedly was one of the many positive effects to the Reunion of the prides. Vincent still remembered when they had first heard about the reunion, about one year ago. To the hyenas, there had been nothing positive to it, quite to the contrary: it had seemed like a nightmare come true.

As Vincent looked behind him, he noticed Kali had disappeared. Come to think of it, neither her nor her cronies, 'the last ones loyal to the Westclan', were anywhere to be seen. Then again, the foliage was as dense as it gets in the Wastelands, so they were probably keeping a low profile: being stuck in the past didn't stop Kali's gang from displaying some much appreciated professionalism. Vincent turned to look at Vitani again, and suddenly realized he had just turned his back to a lion and lived to tell about it…It at least proved she wasn't out to get him.

Not sure what to say, they just stared at each other for a while, until finally Vincent decided to take the initiative and break the eerie silence.

"Awkward?"

"Kind of," Vitani admitted.

"Well, seeing as you came looking for me, I'm guessing there's something you want me to know or something you plan on doing to me…"

Vitani sighed. This was harder than she had expected, maybe Kovu ought to have sent someone who was a bit more eloquent… She'd better cut the small talk, hoping to get this official talk over with as quickly as possible.

"Yep… Eh, I'll be brief, I'm no good at speeches: Kovu wants to cut a deal with you."

"And who's Kovu?" Vincent lied. He knew who Kovu was, who didn't, but he decided to play dumb for a while.

"Hey, come on, I'm cutting the formalities here, you should too. 'The boss' not knowing who Kovu is? Go fool the other one."

"What makes you think I'm some kind of 'boss'?" Vincent frowned, "I'm just a humble male, 's all."

"You ought to know lying only works if everyone is in on the deal," Vitani smiled, "Out of three hyenas I've spoken today, two called you 'the boss', and you're the third one. Busted. What's up with that anyway? You don't have a 'matriarch', or whadaya call her?"

Busted indeed. Vincent's spirits dampened further, as this was turning out to be a really tiring day. He figured he'd better stop lying, only to start avoiding. And insulting, as he had been using some of his spare time to find out about the 'mystery lioness named Vitani' he met about a year and a half ago. He hadn't liked what he had come to find out.

"It's a long story, and I ain't in the mood for talking. Yeah, I know who Kovu is. He's your brother. And I know who his father is too. What do you call him again, nowadays? Taka? Hey, I guess even the lowest of all beings to ever stalk the plains needs a name. I should've known when I first lay eyes upon Kovu, and your other scruffy, now stone dead brother. I should've known when I first looked at you," Vincent grinned viciously, and this time he actually meant his grin to be vicious. Vitani tried to remain stoic: losing her temper would be unfit to a lion. Yeah right, unfit to a Pridelander maybe. She glared back, just as vicious.

"What, you expecting apologies or something? I ain't blaming myself from being born, and besides, last time I remembered, it wasn't me who was stupid enough to follow late Taka to a certain doom. If you decide to blame me because your relatives followed Taka all the way into his and their demise, that would come to show a lot about your intellectual capacities," Vitani noted coldly. Vincent growled at Vitani, barely noticeable, but decided he'd better cut the 'niceties'.

"What do you want? I'm sure Kovu didn't just send you here to piss me off, so spit it out and leave."

Vitani sighed profoundly. She had envisioned this meeting to be a bit more… a bit more what actually? They were enemies, after all, and Vitani's pride had only just killed two of their friends. She decided it be better if she gave in a bit, reluctantly.

'Ok, ok, I'm sorry, let's… Let's try starting over. Kovu sent me over here to negotiate," Vitani explained.

"Negotiate what? Getting more of us killed?"

"Try dropping that negative attitude, I like you much better when you're only mildly gloomy. He has a proposal to avoid certain… unpleasant situations, like what happened tonight."

"Keavy and Nya."

"Huh, what?" Vitani frowned.

"Your unpleasant situations, they got names, you know. Keavy and Nya are the hyenas your pride killed. And Nya's pup growing up without a mom, if she grows up at all, do count her in too… yeah, real unpleasant situation indeed."

"Hey, drop the pathos already, will ya? Look, I'm sorry for you loss, but I had got nothing to do with that; I'm just trying to make sure it don't happen again. Just try being a bit constructive, if you please?" Vitani sighed, "Jeez, you weren't even half the jerk you are now the first time we met."

Vincent considered responding that the first time they met, they hadn't butchered two of their clanmates, but he changed his mind. He knew he was acting like a jerk a little too often nowadays. He tried to smile without looking mean, or sad.

"I know, I know… I'm sorry… It's just… everything... the clan, tonight, your lineage. It's kinda hard to talk to you as if I nothing were wrong, you know. It would have been a whole lot easier if you weren't a lion…"

"Eh, Vincent…" Vitani suddenly asked, a bit confused. She was looking at something behind him. Vincent turned around. Three hyenas had appeared out of nowhere, Vincent immediately recognized Kiuma, one of Kali's subordinate's. He turned to Vitani again. Four other hyenas had appeared behind her, Kali being one of them. Vitani turned around, saw Kali, then turned to Vincent again.

"What's going on?" she hissed, suspicious. Vincent couldn't answer; his mouth had turned dry all of a sudden. He feared he already knew what was going on.

"Kali, what on earth do you think you're doing?" he uttered, at the verge of panic. Kali grinned.

"Sorry, boss, I don't do the thinking. From now on I'm leaving that to our sly friend Seko: turns out he's good at something after all…" Kali growled viciously, "Don't worry, Vincent, Seko explained it to me: it's a win-win. I take my payback, starting with you, and your girlfriend here takes the blame. A lioness killing her brother, now that ought to give good old Shenya something to get worked up about… and if I'm lucky, she'll even smash her own skull on a lions' paw in her fury, good riddance. But first things first… Time for you to pay for what your murderous father did…"

Vitani didn't need Vincent's explanation on this one: she had engaged in enough plots herself to know one when she saw one. It didn't take a genius to see those hyenas were about to get rid off Vincent, and Vitani was to get blamed for it. Needles to say that involved both her and Vincent getting killed, Vitani considered.

"Turn around, and just run like hell…" she whispered at Vincent, and before the petrified hyena even understood what she said, Vitani already leapt forward whilst uttering an incredible roar, landing on one of the hyenas in front off her, smashing it against the ground. But in stead of finishing the job, she jumped forward again, ignoring the hyena she had knocked down, and took a run for it, closely followed by Vincent. As they ran, neither knowing nor caring where they were going, Vitani noticed Vincent was gaining on her, he even passed her by. That could only mean his clanmates were gaining on her as well. But as they ran forth through all sorts of sharp grass and thorny bushes, Vincent suddenly came to a clumsy, hasty halt. Vitani didn't react fast enough and slammed right into him. But in stead of feeling the sharp fangs of Kali and her gang gnawing into her flesh as she had expected, she tumbled down a steep, rock-ridden slope, pushing Vincent out in front of her. She tried to get a hold on the slippery surface, to no avail: she kept sliding faster and faster. Then, suddenly Vincent disappeared, and only moments later, so did Vitani as she fell down from the White-Pass cliff, into the roaring stream below.