Chapter 26: Ultimatum

A few days passed. To Jayden, it felt like a lot went on, but somehow at the same time, nothing went on. Torrent had begun to toddle around on his unsteady paws. He could walk a few steps before falling down. Jayden loved to watch him walk, and she knew she could possibly be only half as proud as Tempest and Mani were.

The new cub didn't talk yet, but he would let out a few cute squeaks. He recognized his mother and father very well, and to Jayden's delight, he began to recognize her too. She tried to be around him as much as possible to reinforce this.

Jayden still joined the hunt everyday. It had helped her grow the confidence in hunting that she really needed. She did discover it was harder to hunt with some lionesses than others. Some had their own distinct style, or had their own ideas which orders to follow or not. Jayden just always listened to the lead huntress, which usually was Kiara, but sometimes Ciara. Vitani occasionally took the lead when the other two wanted a break. Those times, Jayden felt the most pressure to perform well. She hoped her mother would see how hard she was working. Sometimes after a kill, Jayden just wanted to shout, "See Mother, I am NOT lazy!"

Dark and Jayden still met at night. Sometimes Zula would tease her friend as she left for the night, now that she knew where she was going. However, most nights it was: "Dark's waiting for you, go on ahead." Jayden could even leave earlier than she used to because Zula would cover for her if anyone asked where she was.

Jayden and Dark didn't have any more incidences during night walks where they'd run into Koru and his supposed girlfriend, Jiyi. Though there was one morning when Jayden saw her brother coming home with his legs covered in mud. When asked, he said he was at the waterhole and got muddy. To Jayden, it didn't seem true, and wondered if his girlfriend lived in a marshy or muddy area. How far away could that be?

She thought about asking him, but she decided if Koru wanted to keep that part of his life private, that was okay. He was allowed to see whomever he wanted without question. It had always been that way with Koru ever since he became an adult.

Kudzu the hornbill had come back to meet Kiara and Kovu. They asked him to consider being their majordomo. Kudzu didn't seem particularly interested but he didn't say no. When the bird left that day, the king and queen were under the impression he'd think about it and come back if he accepted.

Dayya still seemed down about Dark over the days, but she talked about it less and less. Jayden hoped she'd just get over it, but it never made her feel less guilty about seeing Dark.

One afternoon, after everyone had eaten, Jayden and her friends had gathered around the sunning rocks. Kovu and Kiara came strolling over and announced Mebala and Taeliss would have their huntress tests in two days, and they were to go together at the same time. The girls were very excited to be able to go together, though the royals said they weren't allowed to help each other. They were to be given different parts of the Pridelands to hunt in. Before they left, Kiara and Kovu said they'd send Tali over to give them some last minute tips. Tali was a very good instructor and made everything sound easy. Jayden congratulated the young lionesses. It would be nice to have them on the hunting team with her. She wondered if they worked well together, or if they would distract one another. They tended to get goofy around one another.

Tikana and Tamani came to the rocks once they heard the news and talked to their daughters with excitement.

"Make sure to clean the dirt out of your fur before you go." Tikana warned Taeliss, "With everyone watching you, you don't want to look a mess."

Taeliss groaned, "Yes mom…" she rolled her eyes.

"Just do your very best, both of you." Tamani said, nuzzling each girl.

"Remember everything we taught you." Tikana added.

"We will." They said in unison.

"Can you believe they're grown up?" Tamani said to her friend, tearing up. Tikana bumped heads with her.

Soon, Tali came up to talk with Taeliss and Mebala. Everyone else around them seemed to be dozing off, including Zula who was beside Jayden. Dayya was snoring somewhere in the back of the rocks. She was considering taking a nap herself when Dark walked near by. He gave her a look that meant he wanted to talk to her.

Jayden rose her head with excitement. There weren't a lot of opportunities for them to meet during the day, but with Dayya and most of the young lions resting here on the rocks, there'd be no reason for anyone to miss her. She nudged Zula's shoulder, "Cover me." she whispered.

"You're covered." was the light gray lioness's reply, without opening her eyes.

Jayden trotted after Dark and tried to make it look like she was just walking with a friend.

"Oh, hey." he said nonchalantly.

"Hello."

"I'm thinking of running by the waterhole for a drink." he said.

"I need one too, I'll go with you."

The two headed out, not walking very close just incase anyone was watching. They passed a few lionesses but none paid attention to them. When they were far out into the grasslands, they moved closer together, and Jayden smiled.

"We never get to be out together in the day, this is great!"

"Yeah." he said, looking a little distracted.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just thirsty, you know." he tried to grin.

"Should we try to meet more during the day?" Jayden asked, "If we both just claim we're thirsty. We could come out here everyday."

"It's kinda hard not to get everyone to follow us. We could only get away today because half the pride was there sleeping on the rocks."

Jayden studied him. Something seemed wrong with him.

"Is everything okay?"

He stopped and sighed. "I don't think so."

Her expression dropped.

He turned to her. "I can't live without you. That's what I wanted to bring you out here to say. Please don't leave, please stay here with me, let's tell everyone about us."

She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off.

"Let me speak. I love you, I want everyone to know, I want to show you off, I want to show us off. Show them how happy we are. And seeing Tempest and Mani with Torrent so happy and perfect… I want that I want a cub with you."

Jayden's eyes widened. He went on.

"You can't leave me. Not again. We belong together, and I'm here begging you to stay with me."

"Dark…"

"We would have beautiful cubs. A little girl. Or a boy, I don't care, either would be perfect with you. They'd have your beautiful purple eyes. They'd be smart and strong. I want them so bad, Jayden, please."

Tears sprung to her eyes. She could see how badly he wanted that future with her. His eyes were so desperate that they were almost hard to look at. She wanted that future too, of course, but…

"We… I… can't…" she stammered, looking down. "I love you, Dark." she whimpered, "But I can't hurt my sister. I mean…maybe she'd be okay eventually but she'd hate me forever."

"No she wouldn't!"

"My mother would hate me for hurting her other favorite daughter." she said bitterly.

"That's not true, and you should stop thinking your mother likes you least."

"I just don't know if I can do that to Dayya…and then leaving my family? Leaving Tempest and Torrent? I want to be in his life, I want him to know me. He's so special and important to me."

"And me?" he said firmly.

She looked at him. "You know you're important to me. I love you-"

"I love you too, so we should stay together." he interrupted.

"I-"

"Stay." he urged.

"I…" tears freely fell from her cheeks. "I just-"

He licked her face and put his arms around her. "I know I'm asking a lot, and it's not fair to you because I can't imagine leaving my family either, but this makes sense, you love the Pridelands. And you have more friends here, like Zula. And me of course. Just think of our future."

"I don't know, I don't know." she cried.

He held her for a long time after that. She just cried. She wanted to stay with dark so much, but leaving her family was the worst part. And wondering what they would think of her mattered too. What if they all hated her when she revealed her secret, and when they went home, they'd talk about her behind her back. Call her names. They'd raise Torrent to hate her as the aunt who stole aunt Dayya's mate and didn't care about trashing her feelings. She knew these thoughts sounded paranoid and dramatic, but they swam through her head all the same.

After a while, Dark whispered, "Please just think about it. I can't lose you again. Ever."

She promised to think about it, and when Jayden's tears dried up, they went back home.

Jayden didn't meet with Dark that night. She just wanted to go to bed, the conversation with him exhausted her. She couldn't stop thinking about his request. She never thought he would ask that. Demand, more like. He knew how important her family was to her. But at the same time, a part of her was delighted. He really loved her that much. He wanted cubs with her. That thought made a rush of happiness warm her cheeks. She could never deny she wanted it too. Everything Dark said sounded like a fairy tale dream.

I could say yes… It might be hard at first, and awkward for a while but… then I could… No no no! It's not possible, I would cause way too much confrontation, I can't do that to Dayya, and Mother… How could I look them in the eye and tell them?

She wrestled with her thoughts for a while that night, then resigned to think about it, and just give Dark an answer when she could. Maybe she'd attempt to wrap her mind around the consequences if her answer was yes.

As she slept, a vivid dream played behind her eyes. In the dream, it seemed like a normal day was unfolding as she exited the den with the sun shining brightly on her fur. She yawned and headed down the stairs with a smile. She passed her mother on the way down who looked at her with a scowl.

"Your sister is looking for you." Dream Vitani said, then moved away.

For some reason, Jayden knew she meant Dayya and not Tempest. She began looking for her. She checked under Pride Rock, but only Tempest was there.

"Have you seen Dayya?" Jayden asked her.

Dream Tempest only looked away, and replied quietly, "Don't let her find out."

Jayden pulled back her head, confused, but she turned back to leave.

"She might already know." Dream Tempest said as she walked away. Then, "She knows."

Jayden's heart beat faster. She knows…

The words bounced around in her head, but they didn't process. She just needed to find Dayya. Hurry, find Dayya.

Finally, the light red lioness came into view. Without saying anything, the twins started walking toward each other. Dayya's head was lowered and shadows were cast over her eyes. Jayden opened her mouth to say her name, but it was as if her vocal cords had been removed. No sound came. Jayden watched as Dayya picked up her pace. Within seconds, she was running. Then her claws extended from her paws and every step toward Jayden was like she was grabbing for the ground in front of her. Jayden halted, watching with horror. Dayya's face came from the shadows, and instead of her yellow-green eyes, blood red ones glared at her and long yellow teeth flashed as her lips pulled up from her mouth.

Dayya was upon Jayden in seconds and Jayden finally found her voice, letting out a scream as the lioness's teeth found her neck.

Jayden work in the den with a gasp. She was sweating. She fought the urge to cry. The dream had been so real. She could almost feel the teeth on her neck. She touched the spot with her paw.

Upon looking around, she could see it was still night time, and everyone was still asleep. She put her head back down, knowing she wouldn't fall back asleep, but wanting to try anyway.

It's not like the dream could ever be real. Jayden reasoned. Dayya would never have a reaction like that. No one would. That was a tad dramatic…

But the dream shook her up all the same. The dream felt like a sign.

Later in the day, Jayden managed to pull Dark to the side. They were lucky to get another private moment during the day, so Jayden spoke fast. She told him about the dream, but when she was done, Dark let out a bark of laughter.

She was surprised. "Is something funny?" she asked flatly.

"Well obviously it was just a dream. It's not even realistic."

"I know, it just seemed real. It still scared me." she tried to explain.

"That doesn't mean it will happen."

"I know! I just think… maybe we should back off. Like it was a warning that Dayya's close to catching us."

"Back off? Like break up?" Dark said, searching her eyes.

"No! I just… maybe not see each other as much."

"Then what after that? You leaving or you staying?" Dark asked bluntly.

"I don't know." Jayden said with a frustrated sigh.. Her voice was tight. "I just think we should back off. I don't want Dayya-"

"Dayya?!" Dark's voice was tinted with anger. "Do you ever think of yourself? Or me? What about what you want? Do you want to be happy?"

"Yes, of-"

"I want to be happy with you," his voice rose, "But now a dumb dream is coming between us? It's not even the real Dayya but a dream version stopping us?"

"You're not being fair."

"You're not being fair. To yourself and me."

"You're not really listening to me, Dark," Jayden said, feeling annoyed. She wanted to stomp away.

"It's hard to listen to you when you make up reasons for us to not be together." His eyes narrowed.

She opened her mouth to shout something, but ended up closing it. He thinks I'm making this up?

"You don't get it." was all she could think to say, and then she walked away.

"I guess I don't." Was his reply. He didn't follow her.

Jayden never had a fight with Dark before. Their relationship was too new for that, but still, she wasn't expecting it. She avoided him for the rest of the day, and did her daily activities surprisingly well. She would back off from him even if he didn't want to. She would still think about what he asked of her, but he wasn't going to decide right away.

A welcome distraction came that evening. Jayden had been to the waterhole with Zula and had told her about the dream and fight with Dark. When the two got back to Pride Rock, a very excited Kivu ran up to them.

"You two haven't heard yet, have you?" He asked, eyes wide.

"No, heard what?"

"The white hornbill, Kudzu came back! I was beginning to lose hope, but he's back. He talked with my mom and dad and agreed to join us. Isn't that great?!"

"Yes!" Zula shouted.

"What a great day for the History of the Pridelands!" Jayden cheered.

Kivu chuckled. "You would say something like that Jayden.

Jayden laughed too, "I mean, yay!"

"When does he start?" Zula asked.

"As soon as possible. My parents are taking him on a tour of the lands now. Simba and Nala went with them to give him history lessons about the Pridelands. Kudzu is a little weird, sometimes I wonder if he really listens when we talk. He seems like he's in his own world."

"Well it's not like you have a lot of birds lined up for the job." Zula said

"Exactly, so we'll take what we can get and train him to the best of our ability. Kudzu will check in with me, Ciara or either of my parents everyday. Some days we may have an assignment for him and some days we won't. We will be so much more informed of the goings on in the Pride Lands than before! I feel like maybe if we had someone like Kudzu two years ago, maybe the war with the Black Pride wouldn't have started, or at least been stopped sooner…"

"And you wouldn't have had to get captured by the Black Pride just to get some info on their group." Jayden said with a teasing tone.

"Exactly! Could have just sent the bird in!"

"Well this sounds exciting!" Zula commented.

"What's exciting?" Mani's voice came from behind them. Jayden turned and standing next to him was Tempest with little Torrent at her feet. Jayden greeted them and gave the cub an especially warm smile.

Kivu started over with his story, just as excitedly as he told it to Jayden and Zula. While Tempest and Mani listened, Jayden played with Torrent.

The cub toddled over to her and looked up at her with big blue eyes.

"Hey, little man." she said and lowered her head to his level. He put one of his small paws on the bridge of her nose, smiled and let out a squeak. She grinned and blinked rapidly. He seemed to be amused by her eye lashes, and batted them. Every time his paws landed, Jayden made pretend pained remarks like "OH!" and "He got me!" Torrent was in a fit with giggles.

A couple minutes later, Clous trotted over with Afia at his heels.

"TORRENT!" The orange cub exclaimed and ran toward him.

"Easy there, Afia." Jayden said, and put out a paw to catch her before she crashed into the smaller cub. Jayden set her down gently. "Remember what Tempest told you? Play nice and easy with Torrent? He's just a ba-"

"A baby, I know." Afia said. "And it's not just Tempest who says that, EVERYONE does in the whole world!"

"Oh yes, in the whole world." Clous agreed, rolling his eyes.

Jayden laughed. "Stuck with baby sitting while your parents are out with the new bird?"

"Yes." the burnt orange lion said. "Kivu's talking about it already?" he craned his neck to see Kivu still talking excitedly with Tempest and Mani. Zula seemed to be interested in listening to the story again, or at least "fake-interested" while Clous was there. Jayden kind of wished her friend would turn their way and face her fear.

Jayden's attention would brought back forward when Torrent came to her paws. He hid behind them from Afia.

"What's the matter?" she asked the cub. He just looked at Afia with big eyes. Afia stood with four feet planted widely.

"He's scared of me! Why's he scared of me, I just wanna play."

"You're bigger than him." Clous answered. "He was just born a few days ago, give hima break."

"Cuz he's a baby, right?" she asked in a mocking voice. Clous only rolled his yees.

"Well I'll just wait right here." Afia decided, and plopped on the ground, legs splayed. She put her head on her paws and stared at Torrent. Torrent watched back, sometimes switching from one of Jayden's legs to the other.

Afia had been around Torrent before, but just like every lion in Afia's life, it took time to get used to the boisterous cub. Torrent would be no different, especially since he was so new. But Jayden was sure once Torrent warmed up, he and Afia would be good friends until it was time for them to leave.