preface: we meet back up with the gang from chapter nine, "Child's play" (which I have edited a bit for this occasion). Being kids, they were already quite capable of behaving like vicious little monsters... and that was before Zira took an interest in them.


The education of Chumvi

"But I don't want to be in a team with her!" Rinda gestured dismissively at the younger, cream-colored cub.

By now, Nala knew better than to speak up – it would only get her into more trouble. She simply looked down at her paws while the others decided on what was to be done with her – or rather, who would bear the burden of having her on their team.

"You always do this, putting her with me and Chumvi," Rinda continued, "How about you guys take her for a change?"

"Don't blame us, it's your own fault for wanting to be on the same side as your uncle all the time," Kali shot back haughtily.

"Yeah," Mheetu chimed in, "How many times I gotta explain this to you, you dummy? Chumvi's the biggest of the bunch, and Nala is the runt, so if you put them together, it evens out. Simple!"

Chumvi frowned, but said nothing. It felt weird for them to call him Rinda's uncle, made him sound older than he really was. Objectively speaking, they were right to call him that, of course: he was Winda's last cub, while Rinda was the daughter of Winda's first cub, Wana, who in turn was Chumvi's half-sister. Still, it seemed kind of odd to apply the term to cubs who were practically litter-mates, only about a year apart in age.

Not that it really bothered Chumvi. No, what really annoyed him was the larger argument unfolding once again, about who would be on whose team. It was an issue when they played tag, when they did playfights, and once again now that they wanted to play "pride versus rogues". Always the same nonsense: Mheetu decided he would be on a team with Kali, and that Nala and Chumvi would be on the other side. Then all that was left was to fight over who of the remaining cubs would get the privilege of being with Kali and Mheetu: Rinda or Zimua? And because Rinda preferred to be on Chumvi's side...

Chumvi didn't like any of it. He didn't like being told what side he had to be on by Mheetu all the time, and he liked it even less how everyone was so callous and indifferent towards Nala. Sure, she was the youngest, and that made her a bit of a liability if you wanted to win whatever game it was they were playing. But who cares if it's just a game! When you're playing, it should be about having a good time, Chumvi thought. It should be about everyone having a good time, not just Kali and Mheetu.

But, as per usual, Chumvi said nothing, and went along with whatever it was Mheetu decided on.

"You know, Mheetu, maybe we should have the runt on our team, just this one time," Kali said, "After all, how tough is Chumvi, really? He might be the oldest, but I think you're really the best!"

It was a mostly baseless compliment, the kind Kali was wont to make whenever she wanted to inflate Mheetu's ego. And as always, it worked, leaving the other cub beaming and feeling generous. Mheetu agreed to switch things up a bit and have Nala team up with them.

And again, Chumvi said nothing.

From a distance, Zira watched the spectacle with growing disdain. Her stare fixed itself on the largest of the cubs, a lithe young male with the beginning of dark, wavy manes - Chumvi.

Haven't I taught that young lion anything? she thought. There he was, still letting the younger, smaller, and weaker Mheetu push him around, just because the other cub could talk a better game. Zira snorted angrily, which earned her a questioning glance from the lioness called Wana, who lay nearby.

Cubsitting wasn't half as much fun now that another lioness was with her, Zira mused. Not that Wana had said or done anything to hinder her – quite to the contrary; she was very much of the paws-off type when it came to the cubs, which Zira could appreciate. Yet just by having her around, Zira felt herself shying away from doing things like intervening to break up the little cliques that were obviously forming among the cubs.

Still, having another lioness around was to be expected – with six cubs from six different mothers, they were never short on volunteers for watching the youngsters, no matter how much Zira would prefer to take them all under her wings alone and mold the little brats in her image.

Not that she would let a little company stop her from trying.

It was a strange thing – Zira never thought of herself as liking cubs, or wanting them, or even being able to stand them. Yet what she had discovered when she was roped into cubsitting a while ago, was that there was rather a lot for her to like about the whole thing. For one, cubs were weaker than her, even when they were all put together. That meant she had nothing to fear from them, no matter how well or little she knew or trusted them. Not to mention that, by and large, cubs were a rather transparent and obvious bunch, so backstabbing and betrayal were non-issues too.

And best of all, cubs could be made to act or think a certain way with minimal effort. Easy to manipulate, if you will; a nice word here, a taunt there, play up their insecurities and competitiveness a bit... It made Zira feel powerful, which she consciously enjoyed. Of course now that Wana was watching, she had to dial it down a notch. So Zira kept her head down for the time being, all the while keeping a watchful eye on the cubs.

Now that the youngsters had ironed out the details of what the teams would be, they could finally begin their play in earnest. Half of the cubs would be the "pride", and the other half the "rogues". The pride-members would position themselves on a rock, boulder, or a flattened termite mound, and the rogues would then try to push them off. To compensate for the pride's defensive advantage, members of team-rogue were allowed to climb onto and fall off the rock twice as often as members of team-pride. Usually they would go with a fall-and-you're-out-rule for the pride, so they could have quick, short games with teams switching positions in between, but it could as well be a five-lives versus ten-lives match.

It was more a variation on king-of-the-hill than anything else, but it sounded cooler to say "pride versus rogues," so that's what they played most of the time.

Mheetu, Kali and Nala took the first turn playing the pride, and positioned themselves on a round, flat boulder. It was low enough that all cubs but Nala could jump on it with a single leap, not needing to climb up or anything. With that type of set-up, the best bet for the rogues was to coordinate their jumps and attack all at once, while the pride had to hope for piecemeal attempts, so they could rush the individual rogues.

"All right, runt, you're in our team now, so don't you dare screw up," Kali growled, just before they started. Nala tried to ignore her, yet she couldn't help but tense up.

"You all ready? Ok... go!"

The rogues didn't immediately attack, in stead circling around the boulder for a bit. All three of them bunched together, so the pride followed suit, expecting an attack from only one direction. Then suddenly, Chumvi leapt forward, while Rinda and Zimua bounded off to the sides. The pride had expected them to make the jump together, so they all rushed forward as soon as Chumvi jumped, leaving the flanks undefended.

Pushing the oldest cub off proved easy enough, three versus one, but now the two other rogues had most of the boulder to themselves when they jumped on. Shoulder-to-shoulder, they went for the members of the pride, all three of them now perilously close to the edge after fending off Chumvi. Quickest on her paws was Kali, who spun around and handily jumped over a surprised Rinda and Zimua – though it did mean leaving Nala and Mheetu to fend for themselves. Mheetu wasn't about to let himself be done in that easily, though: he rushed forward and viciously rammed Rinda, who gave a pained yelp before awkwardly tumbling over the side.

That left Nala, facing Zimua alone. She dug in her heels, preparing to push back against the older cub that came charging at her. And lo! she didn't budge when Zimua pushed up against her, bravely and against all expectations managing to stand her ground.

Or at least, she would have, if not for the fact that Mheetu and Kali in turn dashed up against the remaining rogue, surprising both her an Nala. Now that the force of three cubs faced that of one, Nala fell backwards off the boulder, landing on her side, twisting one of her forepaws. Then Zimua crashed on top of her, and Nala cried out in pain.

"Nala! Your sacrifice will not have been in vain!" Mheetu called out from atop the boulder, much to Kali's amusement.

Chumvi rushed over to the prone cub. "Nala, are you all right? Do you need me to..."

"I'm fine!" she snapped, aware of how Chumvi's kindness was limited to those instances where it didn't go against Mheetu or Kali, and hating him for it, "You really wanna help? Then bring those two backstabbers down for me!"

"Humpf! You know, Nala, that's why no-one want to be on your team – you're just not a team-player," Kali commented, "No loyalty!"

"What? But you pushed me off!"

"Only for the greater good... of me winning!"

From her perch nearby, Zira let out a sudden and inappropriately loud burst of laughter, which momentary interrupted the game. They carried on as soon as it abated. The rogues all had one attempt left, while the pride was down to two defenders. Anything could still happen. Chumvi quickly huddled together with his crew and whispered a few instructions, after which they broke up and started running around the boulder again. Rinda and Zimua went one way, and Chumvi the other.

In an upset from their previous attack, it were the two rogue-lionesses who jumped first this time, on opposite ends of the boulder. Mheetu and Kali teamed up against Zimua, whom they quickly overpowered, but before they could turn around Rinda jumped up against Mheetu, causing the both of them to tumble over the edge, too.

Now that only Kali was left, Chumvi entered the fray, reasoning he shouldn't have too much trouble dealing with her one-on-one. He casually hopped onto the rock. Kali's agility provided for another upset, however, because she was on Chumvi as soon as he'd landed, meaning she was in the comfortable position of pushing outward from the safe middle, while his heels were dug in at the precipice.

Chumvi felt one of his backpaws slip over the edge. Solid tactics and superior strength notwithstanding, he was about to lose the match, and to that harpy Kali no less! Her ruthless sacrifice of Nala was about to pay off. Chumvi suddenly felt a rage burning inside, and that feeling of anger involuntarily made him think back to something that had happened a while ago. It had been the only other time he remembered when Zira had been cubsitting them, and at that time she had goaded him into trying to fight her. She'd hit him about the head a couple of times, and then...

That's it!

Chumvi swiped at Kali's forepaws with one claw, and aimed the other for her head, knocking her to the side. Because she was directing all her power at pushing forward, this immediately sent her flying; she hit her face on the edge of the boulder, tumbling down headfirst.

"Rogues win!"

His head held high, Chumvi grinned broadly as he waited for the others to jubilantly congratulate him on his victory. The only thing he heard, though, was crying.

"Chumvi, what the hell?"

Chumvi looked down from the boulder. Below, all the other cubs had gathered around a sobbing Kali. One side of her muzzle was all bloodied, some of it coming out her nose, the rest out of a gash in her upper lip. There was some blood on the edge of the boulder where she hit her face, too. Zimua and Rinda did their best to comfort her, while Nala looked on with a horrified expression. Mheetu angrily glared up at Chumvi.

"Oh... eh... oops."

"That's all you have to say?" Mheetu snarled, and he leaped up on to the boulder. Chumvi backed away as the younger cub kept chiding him: "Did you see what you did to Kali? What on earth were you thinking? This is just a game, you can't go around beating others up like that..."

Neither of the two adult lionesses watching the cubs had payed much attention to their play, but the commotion caused by a crying Kali and a raging Mheetu was a different matter. They both came over to have a closer look at Kali, momentarily ignoring the two male cubs.

"All right, what's the big deal?" Zira wondered. Before having even seen what had happened, she'd already decided it was probably nothing: "You two, out of my way – let me get a look at her."

She cupped Kali's chin in one of her paws and roughly turned her head towards her own. The cub was bawling all the while.

"Enough with the crying already! It's just a bit of blood... yeah, this doesn't look too bad." She stuck one of her claws under Kali's wounded lip and pulled it up slightly, eliciting a pained whimper. "Don't be a baby. Look there! you still have all your teeth. Can you still stand up? Say your own name? Yeah? Well, then it's nothing; you're fine!"

Wana, the only other adult lioness present, was a bit apprehensive of Zira's rough treatment of the cubs, and she'd mumbled something along the lines of "hey, take it easy" while Zira had been doing the check-up. All in all, she agreed with her assessment of the damage, though. She proceeded to comfort Kali, and cleaned her up a bit.

Zira, meanwhile, had lost all interest in the wounded cub as soon as she'd made sure she wasn't hurt too badly, and turned her attention to Mheetu and Chumvi, who were still arguing atop the boulder.

"Hey, I'm sorry she got hurt, but I didn't know she'd hit her head like that, it could've happened to any of us," Chumvi pleaded.

"Yeah right! I saw what you did – what did you think was going to happen when you knocked her paws out from under her and then smacked her on the head?"

"I dunno – look, it was an accident, okay?"

As they were arguing, Mheetu kept pushing Chumvi further along the boulder, until they came to the opposite side of where Kali had fallen down. Unable to back away further, the two youngsters were now so close their chests were touching, with Chumvi drawing back his head, and Mheetu extending his.

Zira thought it looked patently ridiculous, owning to their height difference.

"Look, I said I was sorry, all right – what more do you want?" Chumvi pleaded.

"What I want, is for you to apologize to Kali – not because she "got hurt", but because it was you that hurt her. And then you're gonna admit you would have lost the match if not for that nasty trick you pulled. You should have lost anyway; what you did was basically cheating!"

"All right, all right! I'm sorry, I shouldn't have hit Kali like that. I was in the wrong, you guys deserved to win the match."

"That's what I thought!" Mheetu declared. Puffing up his chest, he suddenly pushed forward against Chumvi. The older cub could have probably held firm if he tried, but he didn't, and fell backwards off the boulder.

"Pride wins!" Mheetu shouted, grinning triumphantly. He quickly made his way over to the others, while Chumvi was left lying dejectedly in the dirt.

Falling down hadn't hurt much, yet he still felt like he was on the edge of crying.

Suddenly, a shadow swept over him. Chumvi looked up, and saw Zira outlined darkly against the bright skies.

"Pathetic," she growled, "Wana! I'm taking your baby-brother for a little walk, you keep an eye on the rest of them."

Figuring a little time-out would do Chumvi good, Wana agreed without giving it a second thought.

The cubs had been playing in a spot not too far away from Priderock. Naturally, Zira took off with Chumvi in the opposite direction. They made their way through the high grass on the edge of the rocky clearing. The brittle yellow blades snapped and crumpled as the lions passed through them – it was proving to be a particularly long dry-season, and it started to show. Zira didn't pay it much heed, though – she was used to worse, much worse.

They walked in silence for the longest time. It unnerved Chumvi; he'd rather she just chewed him out right then and there, get it all over with. But Zira kept mum. Eventually, Chumvi had had enough and decided he might as well be the first one to speak.

"Look, eh, miss Zira, I think I already know what you're gonna say, so lets just get it over with: I'm sorry, all right? I know I was wrong – I should've been more careful with Kali, and I promise it won't happen again..."

Zira halted, and sighed audibly, before turning to Chumvi.

"You pathetic little shit," she growled, "Just get it over with, he says – how's about I bash your skull in? It'll be over real quick that way."

The look she gave him made Chumvi believe she meant it. He cowered back.

"I'd be doing us both a favor, too: I won't have to cringe every-time I hear or see you do anything, and you'll be spared from having to grow up a miserable excuse for a lion!"

"I already said I was sorry..." Chumvi uttered, oblivious.

"Sorry? What the hell d'you have to be sorry for? Except for being a pitiful worm, maybe."

"But... Kali..."

"Bah, who cares about that?" Zira snorted, "So you nicked her pretty little face, big deal. Back when I was still a cub, if we played and there wasn't any blood, we weren't doing it right. "Pride versus rogues" is supposed to be violent, that's half the fun! What'd you have to go and apologize for? You shouldn't apologize for being a winner."

Chumvi frowned. When he saw Kali with blood all over her face, he sure hadn't felt like a winner.

"Seriously, though: why did you apologize? You said yourself that you didn't do anything wrong, at first."

That was true: even though he didn't like how he ended up hurting Kali, he didn't think he'd done wrong per se. It had been a pretty rough match, after all: Mheetu and Kali had been brutally callous with Nala, if not quite as violent, and neither of the had apologized then. Just thinking of it made him angry again.

"Well it's not like I had a choice!" he snapped, surprising Zira with his sudden temper, "It looked really bad, with Kali all bloody like that, and then Mheetu started giving me hell – what was I supposed to do?"

"Well gee whiz, I don't know – uh, how about standing your ground, maybe?"

"You don't know anything! They were all against me, right then, so if I talked back I would have just made things worse... Whatever, it's not like you would understand..."

"Yeah, sure, how could I even comprehend your pain – you're just too deep for me," Zira replied sarcastically, "Listen here, kiddo: of course you get nothing if you're just being a whiny little puss. Nobody likes a loser."

"What, so I should have beaten up Mheetu, too?"

"Why not?" Zira shrugged, "Or you could have started with just talking back to him, in stead of groveling. You're almost twice his size, what's he gonna do?"

"You don't know anything," Chumvi repeated, more silently that the first time, "Everyone's always going along with Mheetu – him and Kali. I'd be an idiot to go against them. I'll just end up being the cub nobody likes."

"You think anyone likes you now? That pathetic display just now sure didn't make you any new friends, I'll tell you that. Here's who most definitely doesn't like you: Nala."

Chumvi tried his best not to look affected by what Zira said, and failed. She took notice immediately.

"Don't think I didn't notice," Zira continued, gleefully relentless, "She's just so small and helpless – you just want to keep her safe, don't you? It's instinct. But you're not doing a very good job of it. The others keep picking on her, and I can tell you want to put a stop to that. But you don't - you just sit there, saying nothing, doing nothing."

"I already told you there's nothing I can do," Chumvi mumbled ruefully, staring at his paws, "They wouldn't listen to me anyway..."

Zira was not a patient lioness – not for others anyway. For her own sake, she could bide her time endlessly, but she wouldn't waste any time indulging a mopey youngster like Chumvi.

She jumped him. The young lion was too self-absorbed to see her coming, and went down without as much as a peep. Both forepaws on his shoulders, Zira kept him down.

"See, now there's nothing you can do!" she quipped over his protests.

"Aah! What the hell! Let me go!"

"What'll you do if I don't?"

Try as he might, Chumvi could not manage to get from under the lioness. Though he was the oldest of the cubs, he was still about a year from being a full-grown lion, and no match for Zira.

"This... isn't... fair..." He struggled to get a word out, "You're stronger than me, and older."

"Well I couldn't hold you down if I wasn't, could I? And that's the point: I'm stronger than you, so you're not getting back up unless I want you to. Get it?"

"Get what?"

"Power, you idiot! I have power over you. Regardless of what you think of me, or might feel, I can physically hold you down, kick your ass. Heck, I could kill you if I wanted to. I know Mufasa and that crazy monkey of his liked to prattle on about the circle of life, but really, what it's all about is power. Power in strength, in size, even in numbers – ask the hyenas. It's a hard limit; like or dislike, right or wrong, laws, kingship... none of it matters if you measure up your power against that of someone else, and come up short. Most acutely felt when it comes to the application of physical force: if I keep you down, and you can't get back up... well, that's that.

"Now, think about this for a bit: do you think this might apply anywhere else, what I'm showing you now?"

Zira let go of Chumvi, and quickly jumped away. She needn't have bothered: he got up cautiously, and not intending to get back at her.

"Yeah I get it. I could fight Mheetu, and win. Great – I'm sure everyone will think much better of me once I start getting beating them up regularly."

"Well you shouldn't do that – probably," Zira agreed, "All the same, you shouldn't shy away from a fight, if that's what it takes to get your way. You're stronger than the other cubs, and admittedly, that's not fair - just lucky timing being born before them. But that doesn't make it any less so..."

Zira paused, licking her lips. She noticed that Chumvi was looking less sulky and more attentive than he had before. Was she finally getting through to him?

"Look, I'm not sure if this is the right way to put it, but... you're stronger than you think, Chumvi, and when I see you letting yourself get pushed around, that just doesn't sit right with me. Acting like that could get you killed one day, when you're out on your own. I don't need you to become a maniac – though that would be pretty amusing – but just to remember that, if it comes to that, against any of the other cubs, you could come out on top in any argument, if you really wanted to.

"If there's something – or someone, get it? – you really want to stand up for, you could, and you'd win every time. Sure, Mheetu might hate your guts, and Kali will look at you funny, but really, I'm pretty sure they already despise you. I would, if I were them; it's not like they can't see how you're twice their size, yet they still push you around... So really, there's nothing for you to fear: nobody can touch you, and their opinion of you has nowhere to go but up...

"But listen to me just prattling on!" Zira made a disgusted face, downplaying her own verbosity. She didn't have much else to say besides; if she hadn't convinced the young lion to "better" his ways by now, then no amount of talk from her would.

But Chumvi had indeed listened, and if he didn't give any reply, it was because he was carefully poring over Zira's words. In truth, she hadn't told him anything he hadn't known before, on some level. But it helped to hear these things spoken out loud, in a simplified form. The way things were going between the cubs of the pride was not at all to his liking, and neither was his place in their little group. So what was it that kept him from trying to change things, when he knew deep down that things really did need to change? Not necessarily for his own benefit, but maybe for Nala's sake – that poor girl was having a hard time of it, after all.

He had his size going for him, if nothing else... so why not at least try and throw his weight around, see if he could do some good?

Because that's not who I am, a voice whispered inside his head – his own voice, I don't want to tell others what to do, I don't want to boss anyone around – and I don't want to hurt anyone.

That wasn't the whole truth, though. Chumvi knew full well there was more to him than that – there was another lion inside of him. Not really; he didn't have a split or dual personality or anything like that. Rather, it was just an aspect of himself he hadn't realized was there for the longest time. Calling it another lion was just how he made sense of it.

He'd encountered him only once before, this other lion. Not coincidentally, it had been when he'd first met Zira, and she goaded him into fighting her. That's what made the other lion appear for the first time. And to be sure, Zira had seen the change come over him back then. She even whispered something to that effect, back then. "Killer" was the word Zira used.

That would of course be taking it a bit too far.


"Sheesh, finally, there you are!" Mheetu yawned as he got up, taking a few steps in the direction of Zira and Chumvi, "What took you guys so long?"

"They were gone an awfully long time... you think they're a couple?" Kali wondered.

"Ewww, Chumvi, gross! I didn't know you were into older lionesses..."

"Tssk!" It only took Zira a few quick strides to reach Mheetu, and she put a paw on him before he could slither away. "Mheetu, darling, you break my heart talking like that! You know I only have eyes for you!"

To illustrate her point, she gave the squirming young lion a sloppy wet kiss on the nose, to everyone else's disgust and delight. As soon as she let him go, he started frantically pawing at his face, as if that would undo what had just happened. Grinning widely, Zira left the cubs to their own devices and went to lay down next to Wana.

"You sure seem to be in a better mood than you were," the other lioness noted, "What were you doing with Chumvi anyway?"

"Told him he should stand up for himself more."

That was one way of looking at it.

"Good advice; my little brother is a bit of a chump." Chumvi seemed to have heard, because he shot a wounded look at the adult lionesses. "Well you are!"

Wana turned back to Zira, now taking care to talk more quietly: "Say, Zira, what made you take an interest in my little bro anyway? I can't recall you spending a lot of time with the cubs before... come to think of it, I can't recall you for much of anything."

"I mostly keep to myself," Zira admitted frankly. Why shouldn't she? It's not like you can hide something like that if everyone you ever meet are the same dozen lionesses of the pride.

"That's true, you do seem like a loner."

"Sure, go ahead, lay it on – I don't care."

"Sorry if I'm being a bit forward, I just can't help say whatever comes to mind."

"It's fine, I already told you I don't care," Zira grumbled. She really was fine with it. In fact, Zira would love it if all lionesses spoke their mind at all times: that would make it a lot easier to trust them. "As for watching the cubs, I did that only once before. I had a good time of it, so I figured I might as well volunteer to do it a second time..."

"Really?" Wana sounded incredulous. "That's weird; most lionesses think it's a hassle. It's a good thing the cubs are from six different mothers, or I doubt we'd find any volunteers on most days. I think you're just about the only cub-less lioness who bothers... Say, Zira, watching other lionesses' cubs, doesn't that make you want to have some kids of your own?"

"Not particularly."

"But you could, if you wanted too? I mean, it's not like you're barren or anything?"

Zira glared at the other lioness from the corners of her eyes. Honesty is fine, but that was just plain rude. "Not that I know of."

"Oh. So Mufasa never..."

"No."

"You know, I bet it's because you scared him. I don't know if you know this, but most of the other lionesses think you're scary."

"Thanks."

"That wasn't a compliment."


"So... what do you guys want to do now?"

"While we were waiting for you to come back, we were thinking of playing hide-and-seek."

"Hide-and-seek, huh? Fine with me."

"I wanted to do some playfighting in stead," Mheetu added, "But then I figured it'd be best if we avoided anything that would arouse your bloodlust."

"Yeah, yeah..." Chumvi frowned. Was this the kind of thing he should speak up against? No, this was just banter, no need to get worked up over that. Too bad he couldn't think of witty comebacks, though – things would be so much easier if he could out-talk Mheetu even just one time in ten.

Turning away from Mheetu, he discreetly glanced at Kali. She'd always been the prettiest of the cubs, owning mostly to her big, dark eyes, and she was well aware of that fact. Her fall hadn't done much to tarnish those looks: the ridge of her nose was swollen a bit, as was her upper lip, but she didn't look any worse for the wear otherwise.

When Kali saw Chumvi looking at her, she glared back angrily. Figuring it might be less awkward if he just up and asked how she was doing, he went and did just that.

"Kali, are you doing all right?"

She stuck out her tongue, then turned her back on him.

Could have gone worse.

Mheetu couldn't help but remark on it, of course: "Don't worry, Chumvi, you'll always have Zira! Anyways... Let's play some hide-and-seek! I say Chumvi gets to be "it" first, because he ruined pride versus rogues, and then kept us waiting while he was off doing whatever with Zira."

"Fair enough."

"Do we play it with or without tapping out?" Nala suddenly asked.

Since their previous game took a bloody turn, the youngest of the cubs had been pretty much ignored by the others, who focused all their attention on Kali after her nosedive. As this made for an improvement compared to the usual teasing, Nala didn't much mind. Now that she made a point relevant to the activity at hand, though, she expected to be heard. It was quite vexing when Mheetu just continued to ignore her and proposed Chumvi begin counting down immediately.

"All right, Chumvi, begin counting whenever..."

"Hey, hold it, Nala asked you something," Chumvi interrupted.

"Huh?"

"I said, Nala asked you something," the older cub snarled, taking a few paces towards Mheetu, "Why'd you have to talk over her?"

"Chumvi, don't worry about it, it's all right," Nala said silently, slightly embarrassed. But Chumvi wasn't about to back down now.

"No, you had a good point – inquiring minds want to know: are we gonna do this with or without tapping out?"

Mheetu would have remarked on how it was funny that in getting angry over Nala being ignored, he was ignoring her himself. But there there was something unnerving about the look in Chumvi's eyes, and the younger male decided to just stick to the topic at hand.

"Well, with tapping out, obviously."

"Why? Just because you say so? Who died and made you king?"

"Err... no one? But hide-and-seek and seek without tapping out is just totally boring, you know?"

Mheetu was right, of course; if you play hide-and-seek without tapping out, there is no element of tension to the game. Given enough time, whoever is it will manage to find all the others eventually no matter how well they hide. Not so If you play it with tapping out, because then it becomes a game with actual winners, losers, and strategies beyond just trying to hide yourself really well. Plus, it's a lot more exciting if everything can come down to a last-minute dash.

These are inarguable, objective facts.

The problem was that Chumvi had made a point of assailing Mheetu over his automatic preference for choosing to play with tapping out, so now he was stuck feeling like he had to defend an inferior game variant. Lucky for him, Nala made an effort to defuse the situation before he managed to make a fool of himself.

"Mheetu is right, playing with tapping out is obviously more fun. I just asked because I wanted to make sure before we started playing, 's all."

If not for the fact that everyone was watching him, Chumvi would have breathed a sigh of relief, grateful for Nala's intervention. Not so for Mheetu, though: he glared nastily at Nala, who was taken totally aback, but said nothing.

"All right, that's fine. I just wanted to make sure everyone was all right with it. Let's get this game going, then! You can tap out at this rock here, this'll be "home" – I'll draw a little circle around it, like this... Okay, all set? 10... 9..."

The other cubs quickly scrambled to get out of sight. The challenge was to find a spot where they could get the best possible view of home, while still staying somehow-what hidden. That way, they could see when Chumvi strayed too far, which was when the other cubs would have to try and make their move. Another variable was just how far away to hide; the surface area, and thus the number of available hiding-spots, expands exponentially the farther away you get from home – but the distance you'd have to cover to tap-out gets longer and longer, too.

Nala, for her part, hid behind a thick thorn-bush not too far away from home. It served about as well as any old obstacle for hiding behind, except for one special feature: near the ground, a small hole ran right through the thicket, giving her a more or less unobstructed view of where Chumvi was counting down. Nala figured that unless he got really close, he wouldn't be able to see her peeking at him. Perfect! After the last game's humiliation, she felt in the mood for actually wining for once.

Unbeknownst to Nala, however, someone had silently followed her to her hiding place.

Nala could see that when Chumvi was done counting, the first thing he did was to take a good look at his immediate environs from where he stood; it wouldn't be the first time someone opted for a totally crappy, but also very nearby hiding place, only to jump in and tap out as soon as Chumvi took two paces away from home.

When the older cub's gaze fixed itself on Nala's hiding-spot, she recoiled with a start, and quickly backed away from the peeping-hole, wondering if he'd seen her already. As she moved backward, she suddenly bumped into someone. Already on edge, she had to bite her own tongue to keep from screaming out.

Turned out it was just Mheetu.

"Mheetu, what on earth are you doing here?" she whispered, "Get your own hiding place!"

His only response was to squint his eyes, and give her a mean look. Nala suddenly felt a lot less relieved than she had. She took a step back, wordlessly signaling that she didn't understand what Mheetu was trying to tell her.

"I don't know what game it is you think you're playing..." Mheetu eventually grumbled.

Hide-and-seek?

"... but I don't like it. What do you think you're doing, getting between me and Chumvi, huh?"

Nala's mouth dropped open. What? she mouthed, without a sound.

More than anything else, the other cub's stance gave her pause: he had his paws spread wide, planted firmly on the ground, and now he lowered his head, too, as if he was preparing for a fight. Nala took another step back. Hide-and-seek was suddenly far removed from her mind.

"We normally get along just fine," Mheetu continued unperturbed, moving forward as Nala inched back,"But now he's suddenly beating up Kali because you tell him to, and giving me shit when I ignore your stupid, childish questions. So it's obviously got something to do with you... Well it ends now, you hear? Chumvi goes back to being my buddy, and you can keep on being the snotty little brat nobody likes!"

What the blazes is he going on about, Nala wondered. Mheetu was upset, that much she could tell, but very little of what he said made any sense. He had never been that close to Chumvi, for one; he was just another cub for Mheetu to push around whenever it struck his fancy, as their little spat over Kali's injury had shown. Speaking of which, Nala never asked Chumvi to "beat up" Kali, but only to get get back at her and Mheetu by winning the game of pride-and-rogues. Kali getting hurt was just an accident.

Someone shouted in the distance, about tapping out. The game was still going on, then – not that either Nala or Mheetu still cared.

Nala took another step back, and felt a thorn pricking at her backpaw. She was all the way up against the thornbush now, trying to get as far away from Mheetu as she could. But his reaction was to keep moving in closer.

"Mheetu, you're scaring me," Nala whimpered, no longer bothering to keep quiet. The other cub bared his fangs, his face contorted to a snarl.


Chumvi thought he saw something moving behind a thornbush in the distance. Was that just his imagination, or was there really someone there? From where he was sitting, it did not look like a very good hiding spot to Chumvi, making him think no-one would want to try to hide there in the first place. Then again, that didn't have to mean anything, and one of the cubs could have just made a wrong choice. It's not always easy to tell yourself if you're well hidden, after all; that's for the outside observer to decide.

As an outside observer, Chumvi just wasn't sure about this one, though. He could go check, but it was pretty far away. Others might take his absence from the home as an opportunity to tap out. On the other paw, it was enough for Chumvi to just find one of the others and get back to home before them. Then they would be it, and finding the others would just be a victory lap. And whoever it was that was hiding there, Chumvi felt confident he could outrun 'm, what with his longer legs and all.

He took a chance for it. Stalking carefully forward, he avoided making any sound, so as not to tip-off whoever it was that was hiding there – or whoever Chumvi hoped was hiding there. He hadn't taken even ten paces, though, when he suddenly heard a jubilant shout behind him.

"Ha! I win this one, you big meanie!"

He looked back, and there was Kali, sitting next to the home, eying him smugly. Chumvi hadn't the slightest clue as to where she could have been hiding. She stuck out her tongue at him again. He couldn't think of any better comeback than to just ape her, and do likewise. To Chumvi's surprise, that seemed to amuse Kali, somehow.

He turned his attention back to the thornbush.

There'd better be someone hiding there, he thought, because at this rate all the others will tap out before I even get there.

Then he heard Nala's voice coming from behind the thornbush. Because he hadn't expected to be hearing anything, he missed whatever it was she said, but it was unmistakably her voice. Chumvi felt a bit bad because now Nala would have to be it the next round, but only just a little; if she didn't want to be it, she shouldn't have talked out loud like that. That was only fair, and not like the last game, where she'd been betrayed.

Now no longer bothering to be stealthy, Chumvi hopped over to the hiding place in a few quick bounds and peeked his head around the edge.

His first though was of how fortunate he was to find two of the other cubs in one place, and not just Nala. Then he noticed how Nala was cowering against the thorns in the face of Mheetu's threatening stance and vicious looks.

And Chumvi became angry. From one moment to the next, all the times when the other cubs had picked on Nala played themselves out before his mind's eye. He remembered how he had sat and done nothing every time, and how powerless and pathetic that made him feel.

Not this time.

Chumvi let out an angry roar – such as it was, at his age – and rushed towards Mheetu. The other cub only had time to turn his head, a mix of surprise and spite writ on his face, and raise one of his paws before his assailant was on him. Chumvi pounced at Mheetu with all his might, biting down on his upraised paw. Mheetu gave way, dropped back, and the force of Chumvi's charge was such that they rolled over almost twice.

Now lying down in a tangled mess of clawing and biting, Chumvi kicked hard at the younger cub's rump with his backpaws, and all air went out of a gasping Mheetu. Before he could recover, Chumvi was already back up, grabbing the other cub by the scruff of the neck, and half dragging, half tossing him into the thornbush. Now Mheetu did find his breath, just enough to howl out in pain as the spines rent his skin.

It would have been plenty if Chumvi had let off Mheetu even before he started kicking him in the gut; throwing him to the thorns was already going too far. Yet he still wasn't done. When Mheetu had joked about his bloodlust, Chumvi had shrugged it of as baseless teasing. Now he tasted the great and terrible truth of it. By now the others had gathered around, and they shouted for him to stop. He couldn't hear – he couldn't even tell who they were, they were just faceless blurs now. He ignored them.

Mheetu crawled out of the brush with a mind only for getting away from those terrible spikes, and Chumvi pounced again. His paws beat down on the helpless cub's head, once, twice, a third time.

Then something grabbed Chumvi by the throat and pushed his body down into the grass, and it was over. His heavy breathing slowed back to normal. Where before he had heard nothing but the frantic pounding of his own heartbeat, the sound of horrified voices now resolved itself all around him. He could see Mheetu lying a bit away, wheezing, coughing, and bloodied all over, with Wana carefully tending to him. The others were standing around them – where had they come from all of a sudden, Chumvi wondered.

And as he looked up, he saw Zira standing above him. She was grinning widely, and her eyes shone with pride. The sight of her horrified Chumvi.


author's notes: hmm, so that's a 50/50 split on keeping Zira's back-story in... Since I've started by sprinkling it throughout the story, I'll keep that up at least until I reach the end; there's still one chapter's worth of stuff there. Not sure as to what I'll do if I ever get around to a final edit.

As always, big thanks to ograndebatata and Anon for putting up with my sporadic updates and snail-paced storytelling.