Chapter 14

"I don't understand it. You were fine yesterday." Sundar said, looking at the various bruises and small cuts that covered Danyal's form. It was a good thing Makini wasn't there. It would be terrible to have to bare their joint disapproval at this point. He simply pulled away.

"I have must have done it since then." He said, shrugged his shoulder. "Really I feel fine." He said.

"Hmm." Sundar wasn't sure she agreed but she didn't press him. Lukaan simply nodded.

"Well, if you are feeling better, I thought now might be a good time to ask you. Are you feeling up for joining the hunt this evening?" Lukaan asked. "I know you Pridelanders have… a thing… about lions and lionesses hunting together. That's not going to be an issue, is it?" He asked him.

"Always seemed like a silly hangup to me." Danyal said, truthfully, and Lukaan nodded. Truth be told, Danyal quite liked the idea of going hunting with Sundar. She and Helio had hunted together not long ago, and she had returned excited and full of energy. He welcomed the chance to join her.

"Good. Don't be too worried if you can't or if you don't catch anything." Lukaan said. "But Makini said you were probably able to hunt now without hurting yourself, and I think it's a good idea to get you moving again." Lukaan said. Danyal nodded excitedly.

"Thank you, sir!" He said. Lukaan nodded in relief. He had had his reservations, but Danyal's reaction was a positive sign.

"Helio!" He called out. "Harten said you were planned to go hunting today at eve. Any reason you wouldn't be able to take Danyal with you?" He asked him. Helio paused, obviously taken aback at the request.

"Uhh." He said. "I usually hunt by myself." He said. Lukaan frowned.
"Didn't you go hunting with Sundar a few days back?" He said. Helio nodded hesitantly.

"It is settled then." Lukaan said. He brooked no argument. Helio glanced at Sundar who smiled encouragingly.

It didn't take long. Helio and Danyal departed in silence. They made their way back into the fringes of the jungle without a word, each keeping their own counsel. In fact, they were approaching the edge of the barrier ridge that ringed the Night Pride before they finally spoke to each other. When they were long since out of earshot, he turned to Helio.

"Ok. What are we going after? Antelope? You in the mood for antelope?" He asked. Helio only shrugged.

"I don't care." He said, brushing past him. Danyal sighed and followed, but winced as a lance of pain shot through his left size, where Sekhmet had stabbed him all those months ago. It was the only serious injury left, aside from the scarring of his arm that left his right forearm covered in thin white lines, like stripes or designs. And the similar cluster around his neck and beneath his right eye. In both places and on his side the flesh was twisted, pink and raw made him walk with a heavy limp. It was a sharp spike of pain. Like molten hot rock through water and he almost cried out aloud. Such attacks were becoming less frequent now, especially with both Makini and Sundar working on his recovery. They only really happened when he exerted himself. Helio looked up at the sound of his sharp intake of breath, then his eyes narrowed at the sight of his injuries.

"You sure you aren't going to slow us down? You can hang back if you want." He asked, matter-of-factly. Danyal scowled.

"I'll be fine. I thought I showed you that the other night." He said. In nights since as well, since they had been continuing their violent little training sessions. Helio gave a sarcastic smile and rolled his eyes.

"I'm not belittling your courage, Danyal, but you are deluded if you think you'll ever be as quick as you were, or as strong as you were. You need to stop kidding yourself, get over it and focus. We have bigger problems." Helio said. It was a fair point, and might even have been true, but it was still a biting comment. Danyal only grunted in response.

"I don't have to be as fast or as strong as I was to keep up with you." He said. It was juvenile but he couldn't resist.

"Oh, very well – look, there!" He said, distracted. Ahead of them, a gazelle which had been eating grass nearby had stopped eating and frozen at their sight, trying to decide whether to run, or remain motionless. As soon as it locked eyes with Helio, it bolted.

The two lions tore through the undergrowth easily, branches spinning and slapping them as they carved through nature's garden after their meal. Danyal pulled ahead and jumped from where he ran up onto a parallel outcrop of rocks. He launched himself from boulder to boulder without missing a beat, then he jumped into the air, gripping with his claws, and biting at the antelope with his powerful, crushing jaws.

The prey animal reared and kicked, and struck out at Danyal as his neared. The young lion dodged easily and tried to fix his grip. His claws sank into its hide and slid down with a simplicity and grace but he succeeded only is drawing blood and is tore away from him, slipping from his claws. But Helio was there and he leapt upwards from the opposite angle and clawed at the antelope's neck. It screamed in terror as he bit down hard and writhed and kicked but Helio couldn't keep his purchase and fell to the ground with a grunt. He grinned though. His blow had scraped its leg and it was limping. It stumbled and slowed as Danyal neared to make the killing blow.

The antelope reared and struck at Danyal again, one last time and his hoof smacked straight into Danyal's side, where freshly cracked ribs and broken flesh howled blazed suddenly into fresh agony. Danyal shouted as new spasms of pain crashed through him and his foreleg, scarred and mutilated gave way and he crashed to the ground face first in the mud and dust.

The antelope scampered away, free for another day whilst Danyal spluttered and moaned on the ground and crawled to his feet. He looked despairingly at the retreating antelope. There was no way to catch it now. He cursed. Nobody succeeded on a hunt all the time, but was still infuriating.

"What the blazes was that?" Helio snapped and he ran up beside him.

"Huh?" Danyal asked.

Helio groaned. "I took a mouthful of dirt to wound that creature and left you with the perfect opening!" He said. "You couldn't bring down an antelope? You promised your injuries wouldn't slow us down!" He shouted, at him, seeming more upset then irritated.

"That had nothing to do with that! You'd have stumbled too if you'd just taken a kick to the chest!" Danyal said, scowling now. Helio's entire attitude was beginning to annoy him.

"What if that had happened during a fight? When one of our pridesisters was depending on you? Or one of the cubs? Or Lukaan or Sundar? If you can't be relied on…"

"Hey!" Danyal snapped. "I am sorry we missed out on lunch, okay? But if you think I can't –!" He said. Helio growled.

"I know you can't. I learnt that the other night." He said. "You said it yourself. You're a cripple for crying out loud!" He vented his frustration. "Listen, I feel bad for you, I really do, but if Lukaan keeps this up he is going to get us all killed! He's letting his pity for you cloud his judgment! Don't you see that?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Danyal snapped, his temper flaring.

"Everyone is so blown away by the things you've done, but they don't see that as you are now, you are a liability. The Prince is letting his guilt and pity about what happened to you, twist his actions. If it comes to a chase or a fight, you are a prime target and he's too blind to see that! She's too blind to see it! She's always been blind to whatever is right there staring her in the face – how can I be the only one who sees it?" Helio raged.

"Shut up! You don't know what you are talking about!" Danyal roared at him. Helio snapped and growled.

"Everyone thinks the Sun shines out of your ear, Danyal! Lukaan is convinced you're a brave and noble warrior, Harten believes you represent everything we fight to protect, and Sundar, Sundar, spends her every waking minute, using magic she doesn't understand and can't possibly control, trying to help you! But if you weren't here, if you weren't holding us back, we would be taking the fight to the Shai'tan right now!"

"I know that!" Danyal growled. "Why do you think I'm doing everything I can to –"

"What you can do? Isn't enough! My home is gone! I am stuck half way around the world where even the stars are wrong! And what do we have to show for it? A broken, weak wreck of a lion who won by a trick, and managed to lose everything doing so! But no one else but me can see that! You got lucky! We cannot restore the Imperium with luck! Instead, we are sitting here, rotting whilst you rest!" He roared. "You are not a Warrior. Not a Slayer. Not the Pride's salvation. You are just a broken, normal, mortal, young lion, the same as me and the same as anyone I know!" He shouted in frustration and anger. Danyal growled at the barb.

"Shut up!"

"Why? Because I'm telling the truth?"

"Because if you don't, I'm going to claw you so hard you won't be able to stop smirking!"

"Try it. Just try it. You couldn't beat me on your best day and in the state you're in your best days were when you were a cub!" That was it for Danyal. He roared and leapt up at Helio, who was taken by surprise by the ferocity as Danyal rushed him and clawed at his face. Helio screamed and then returned the gesture, slashing at Danyal.

The next thing the two were rolling in the dirt together. This wasn't the same as when they were training together, wrestling and twisting. They were snarling and biting and clawing at one another. Helio was a thin, lanky and it had to be said slightly malnourished ever since he had fled the Imperium. His dirty yellow pelt was a pale imitation of lustrous gold of the Pridelands nobility. He was no king and he didn't fight like one. He slunk under Danyal's slashes and slammed his shoulder between Danyal's legs, before biting at his throat. He fought dirty.

Danyal fought back with uncharacteristic savagery and fury usually reserved for wilddogs and jackals of the Imperium. He struck down again and gasped for breath as Helio slammed a claw into his weakened side. His foe spun around again and reared up, striking with both paws. Danyal grunted at the force of the blow. Helio pivoted, for a moment he was balancing finely on his hind legs and slashing down with his entire weight.

"Gah!" He roared. Danyal stumbled back, shaking but Helio was keeping to Danyal's side, using his injuries to his advantages. It was hardly fair.

Danyal pulled back, extracting himself and studying Helio but keeping his distance. Helio growled, slinking low to the ground. Neither of them were cowards but Helio was a survivor and he was using every trick he knew in the fight. A fight, Danyal was swiftly beginning to realize, would very short unless he did the same. Danyal charged keeping his head low and slammed head first into Helio using his skull as a ram. Helio gasped his nose crunched beneath the blow. Broken? No. He would have heard at least a grunt from Helio if it had. But there was blood flowing from his face now nevertheless. Helio stumbled back, and Danyal lunged forward. Then, instead of biting at Helio as he was surely expected to do, he spat straight into Helio's eye. Spit and blood mingled with his own and Helio recoiled instinctively even as Danyal clawed and bit. He roared. Helio clawed back again, slamming his paw into Danyal's side again, causing Danyal to bite back a shout of agony. He rolled away and the two pulled back glaring at one another. Danyal seethed. Helio waited for him to charge him again. Neither made the next move.

His entire body ached again. They continued to glare at each other. Helio swallowed, twisting a paw to one of the shallow cuts he now bore. Helio and Danyal continued to glare at each other. Then Helio turned away and walked passed him.

"Spirits burn it." He cursed. "And burn you."

"You just going to leave it like that?" Danyal called after him. Helio didn't answer him.

The two of them were stricken in blood, mud, and dust. Helio spat out another glop of blood and Danyal leaned on his good foreleg, panting. He briefly considered returning to the hunt, alone, and trying to get something. Tracking down the injured antelope would be ideal. Wipe the smirk off of Helio's face. He shook his head. He was hurt. He had exerted himself. He needed to return to the Night Pride.

"Hi Danyal, how'd the hunt go - sweet peaches!" Makini gasped when she saw him.

"I'm fine, Makini. It got away." He said shortly. Makini gaped at him, and nodded slowly.

"Where is Helio?"

"I couldn't care less." He said.

"Right. I'll get Rafiki." She said, and left him before he could object. It didn't take long for Sundar to find him sitting alone by the edges of Kion's old lair, looking up at the pictures Rafiki had drawn of the Night Pride and the Lion Guard. The elder mandril didn't offer much in the way of medicine or shamanism, and for now simply inspected him and his injuries.

"Did Makini tell on me?" He asked her.

"Rafiki's former apprentice was… concerned. And so were we when we heard." Rafiki answered for her.

"What happened, Danyal?" Sundar asked him.

"I got unlucky. An antelope kicked me in the chest. It's never fun." He said. It was technically the truth.

"Did the antelope claw you face too?" She asked him, seriously. Danyal sighed, and told her everything. Their fight, and the words leading up to it. He didn't leave anything out, and didn't play down the injuries that had been added, though she was relieved that there was nothing serious to it. The worst was a bruise to his eye and the cracked rib from the antelope that couldn't have been avoided. That was something at least. Even so she was disappointed in him.

"That was cruel of him, to say those things. He always had a cynical and jaded streak and he always had a sharp tongue when he wanted to, even before our home was invaded. The world has been no kinder to him than it has to you or any of us. But that was cruel." She said.

"So, he's always been an aggressive, sarcastic, arrogant piece of dung?" Danyal guessed. Sundar sighed.

"No Danyal. Helio is…" She trailed off, trying to find the words. "Tired. Tired and angry. Angry at the world and jealous of you." She said. Danyal raised an eyebrow.

"Please tell me you are joking. Jealous. Of me." He raised a claw to his face and his side where the multitude scars still covered his body even where they healed, and elsewhere where the deep mutilations still bleed softly, reopened from the day's activity. Makini would want to put something on it later, if Rafiki didn't, he was sure. "Who in their right mind, would be jealous of this?" He said. "He's a bigger idiot then I thought."

"I don't know. Maybe he knows that you should not be fighting in your condition – and that he wouldn't be capable of doing so if your places were switched." She suggested. Danyal went quiet.

"Why would that make him jealous? You'd have thought he be pleased. I mean, we're on the same side! We both want nothing other than to kill Shai'tan all day." He said.

"Is that all you have that he lacks?" Rafiki asked him, carefully. Both lions looked up the mandril finally spoke.

"Like what? I don't know if you've noticed Rafiki but neither of us has much left of what we used to have since the Shai'tan entered our lives. Why, do you know something?" Danyal suggested. Rafiki looked uncomfortable.

"Aye. Rafiki can guess. In fact, Rafiki has a very good guess. But it may not be Rafiki's place to say…" He said, uncertainly. Sundar looked up.

"What? My father knows as well? Rafiki, you have to tell us… It could be important!" She said. Rafiki sighed.

"Very well… You are correct in your surmise, young lioness. It is envy that eats away Helio, day by day. I have seen what envy does to even the greatest of lions, and Rafiki can recognise it when he sees it. But he is not jealous of something Danyal possesses, or of a quality that is not his own. In fact, as near as Rafiki can tell, there is only one thing in the entire universe Helio wants, and that is the respect of your Father, the Exiled Prince Lukaan. It seems clear to Rafiki that Helio, whether he wants to admit it or not fears that Danyal's many accomplishments overshadow and diminish his own."

"Helio isn't like that!"

"Indeed. It is a low thought. Unbecoming of a decent lion, and that is perhaps why even Helio doesn't recognise it for what it is in himself." Rafiki explained. "Do not mistake his jealousy for malice. But it is hard for Helio to like Danyal, when merely by being there he hurts everything he does, even as he himself is impressed by them. That is why he latches on to any teeny tiny flaw he finds in Danyal." Rafiki said.

"What?" Sundar asked. "That's absurd! My father thinks the world of Helio! He practically thinks of him as a son!" Sundar said. Danyal privately agreed. Lukaan always listened when Helio spoke up. The two were close friends despite their difference in age, temperament, and position in the hierarchy of the Pride. Rafiki smiled sadly.

"True. But not in the way that Helio wishes. Not in the way he has wished for years." He said. Without additional comment, Rafiki left the two of them together. Sundar was left dumbstruck.

"Helio!?" She asked, in confusion.

Danyal put his head in his paws. Killing Shai'tan was simpler than this. "Rafiki wait, you can't just – " But the Mandril was gone. He turned to Sundar. "Is he trying to say that Helio has a…" He trailed off. "A thing for you?" He settled on. Sundar went quiet.

"But… But… Oh… Oh dear." She said. "But he can't have! Not all this time!"

"I mean, if he never said anything?" Danyal asked. Sundar became silent. Thinking quietly, her face turning red.

"Well…"

Danyal's smirk vanished, into an expression of shock and horror. He didn't like the sound of that.

"What? You mean he did say something! And you what, turned him? Said yes? Don't tell me you've been ignoring him the whole time! That's cold!"

"No, it's not like that at all!" Sundar protested.

"Then how is it? I don't understand." Danyal asked, now very concerned and confused. Sundar sighed, chewing her lip.

"I told you that we were cubs together!" She said, looking worried. "There were not that many cubs around my age so it was only natural that we played together. He was my best friend! Still is! We would go through hell and back for each other, he's always been there for me! When we were young, very young, one of the older lionesses said that we would make a cute couple and be cute mates when we were older, and well… as I said we were only young so we didn't know what he meant by that so naturally we asked my father… and a few things were… explained." She said, growing red again. Danyal nodded.

"I get the picture." He said, sparing her further embarrassment. "And you thought the idea was icky?" He said.

"Not at all! Like I said, we were friends it didn't seem like the worst thing in the world. But we were kids, Danyal. Just playing. But then a few days later, plucked up the courage to ask my uncle, and he said that he would leave that up to me when we were older."

"You Uncle. King Malaki. Lukaan's older brother."

"Yeah." She said fondly. "Try to picture my father with my coat, and a really dark brown mane. He was ever so kind. But he never had any cubs of his own. Not for want of potential queens mind you, he was an incredibly handsome lion. You could almost call him beautiful. But he… ah… Didn't prefer the company of lionesses." She said delicately. "I think even before it was announced everyone knew that I was going to be his heir. Or would have been if things had been different." She said. Sometimes she missed her uncle. Malaki had been ever so kind to her, growing up. Especially when her mother had died and her father had been despondent.

"And he never said anything else as you got older?" He asked her.

"Well, we stayed friends. I never stopped loving him like a sibling. But it wasn't as simple as that. I was the King's heir. If we'd stayed in asiatica, I would have been expected to mate with some scion of another Pride. In our Prides, when a pair of lions mate their entire families join in the new Pride. It pulls in new bloodlines, new families. Stops us becoming stagnant. I still don't understand why your people are so hostile to them." She said, shaking her head. "It never occurred to me that Helio might have kept those old feelings… I hope he doesn't feel as though I've deceived him somehow…" She said. Danyal shook his head.

"He's not that big of an idiot. Even if he's been in love all this time, he's not stupid enough to feel you led him on, he must have known it was impossible. Malaki told him himself." He said. He paused. "Wait. You said, if you have stayed in asiatica." He said. Sundar's eyes widened.

"He must have realized it was pointless back home. But when my uncle died and we fled here…"

"That stopped being an issue. He must have felt you were closer than ever. Even without the whole 'running for your lives from certain death' thing." He said, flippantly. "Does Helio think my being here ruined his one big chance? Impress Lukaan?" Danyal guessed.

Sundar shrugged.

"How should I know? He's my friend for heaven's sake! I never knew… I mean I never dreamed… What should I do?" She asked. Danyal backed away.

"Hey! Do I look like I have any experience with lionesses?" He asked. Yes. She wanted to say yes.

"No… I guess not." She said. "I mean I'll have to talk to him. I know that. That's obvious. But what on earth should I say!?" She asked. Danyal didn't have an answer. He simply sighed.

"I guess I understand Helio better now. Even if I think he's an ass. He is a complete fool for thinking I am a liability." He said. Though privately, he thought back to his fight. "Isn't he?" He asked, quietly. Sundar shook her head.

"No. Whatever else he says, he is wrong about that. And my father doesn't pity you. He respects and admires you, we all do."

"You think so?"

"It is nothing less than what you deserve." She said with a smile. Danyal sighed. He hoped it was true. He glanced up at stars again. It was a habit of his, Sundar noticed. When he was nervous or anxious or doubtful. It was probably a Pridelander thing, based on the stories he had told her. She wished they had spent longer in the company of Vitani and the other Pridelanders to tell. He never slept without staring up at those ancient, silent stars. Stars that had been there for so many years.

"Danyal." A voice called out to them. They both jumped. Lukaan was standing there. Behind him, Helio was standing there. His nose was still bloody, and with a dark look on his face. He wasn't looking at Danyal or at Lukaan, and in fact didn't look as though he wanted to be there at all.

"Father –" Sundar began, but Lukaan interrupted her with a look.

"I think, we need to discuss something." He said.