Book 1: Chapter 13

"Psst. Hey! Kid, wake up!"

The whisper-yelling soon woke up the sleeping lioness who jolted up from sleep like she had been electrocuted.

"Huh?" Dalia slurred as she blinked open bleary eyes. Her vision cleared, and she eventually saw Janja looking down at her, his paw shaking her shoulder. Looking past him, she saw the moon still high in the dark, starry sky. "Janja? What's wrong?"

He shuffled from paw to paw and looked uncomfortable, almost as if he slept in a bed of ticks. "I, uh, needa talk to you."

Dalia nodded and sat up, her eyes straining to focus in the darkness. "'Kay. I'm all ears."

"Why?" he blurted, "Why'd you do it?"

Both of the lioness' brows raised. "What are you talking about, Janja? If this is supposed to be some sort of weird trick—"

"No; I just wanna know why you saved me from that geyser a few days back."

Dalia paused and stared at Janja for a moment. His brows were knitted together anxiously and sweat was glistening over his forehead. He looked almost scared, and Dalia couldn't figure out why. "Why wouldn't I?" she asked slowly. "We're both on the same team, aren't we?"

Janja looked almost frustrated with her answer. "Well, Reirei and Kiburi both saw me going into that pit and they ran off. Why would you stay behind and get me outta there, even though I hated you?"

"I don't know, Janja," she finally said, her shoulders sagging in defeat. "I don't know why I helped you. I know you probably wouldn't do the same for me, but I couldn't just let you die. Okay?" Noticing the way his face practically oozed with disappointment at her answer, she cocked a brow. "Why do you look so upset? Would you rather me have left you there?"

"It's just..." Janja said, trailing off. "Jasiri helped you save me back there, and she really had no reason to. And when I asked her about it, her answer was the same as yours. I'm just wondering if I'm missing something about this whole war that Scar has planned."

To this, her eyebrows raised once more. "Missing something?"

"Yeah." His face contorted with conflict, and Dalia could tell that he was debating telling her something. Eventually, he apparently decided against it. He turned tail, his shoulders sagging. Almost lamely, he said a small "goodnight" over his shoulder, leaving a very confused Dalia in his wake.

The day after the incident in which Janja woke her up in the middle of the night, he avoided Dalia like the plague.

She guessed that he was embarrassed by his moment of weakness (and that's why he was avoiding her), but she wished that he'd be less obvious about it all. For crying out loud, Dalia didn't think that he could be any less obvious about him avoiding her. Whenever he happened to accidentally brush past her, he'd stutter like a fool and scamper off. He had actively avoided eating next to her at breakfast, and straight-out ran from her when she had tried to him to stop being so weird.

Reirei had been the first to put it together — Dalia knew that from the way the jackal matriarch's dark eyes followed Janja and Dalia around camp.

Then Mzingo was the next, and he made a small comment to Janja. "You don't look so well, Janja. Are you feeling quite alright, my good lad?" he had asked.

Janja hadn't answered.

Finally, Imba picked up on it. Shortly after noon, the eagle sat Dalia down with a fierce look in her eyes. "Okay, what's going on between you and Moody?"

"Moody?" Dalia repeated though she had gotten a pretty good idea of who Imba was talking about. To answer her question, Imba jerked a wing in Janja's direction. "Oh, you mean Janja." The lioness' gaze landed on the hyena. "I haven't the slightest clue. He woke me up last night to ask me why I saved him from that hotspot, I told him I didn't know, and now he's acting like I'm infected with fleas or something."

Imba snorted.

Dalia's voice lowered, "You know, I really think that he's rethinking all this stuff about Scar. That day when Jasiri saved him, I think it got his gears turning."

Imba looked pleased. "I hope so. We need all the help we can get."

Dalia was about to say something else, but the words dried in her mouth when she spotted Reirei from the other side of the camp.

Reirei was currently pacing around camp, her eyes darting around as if she were trying to spot someone. Her brows were knitted together, but only slightly, and she kept wiping the frown off her face when another member of Scar's Army accidentally made eye contact with her. Dalia knew that she was hiding something, but she needed to figure out what. If she were to guess, Dalia would say that she's planning something behind Scar's back. Either way, Dalia wanted to find out what the jackal's hiding.

"Hold on, Imba," she said before standing up. "I'm going to talk with Reirei."

Imba stood and stretched out her wings. "Me too. She's been like this since yesterday. I'm betting that she and that lazy husband of hers are planning something behind Scar's back. Something that'll boost their status among the rest of us."

The lioness nodded, and together, the duo approached Reirei who suddenly stopped her pacing at the sight of them.

The deep-set frown slipped off her face and the jackal did her best to replace it with a smile, but it came across as a grimace. "Newbie," Reirei said with a small laugh. "What can I do you for?"

"Is something bothering you, Reirei?" Dalia asked. She didn't fail to notice the way the jackal's jaw clenched.

"No!" she snapped quickly, then backpedaled. "Nothing is wrong, Dalia." Her tone was forcedly polite, and the strain in her voice was apparent.

Dalia nodded. "Hm, ok. I just wanted to check up on you. You've been pacing back and forth for the entire morning."

Reirei grimaced.

"Also, I don't think I've seen Goigoi today," Imba added. And it was true, now that Dalia thought about it; Goigoi had been gone all day.

Reirei's eye twitched and her jaw locked in place. "I said nothing is wrong," she gritted out.

Dalia could see her beginning to lose composure, and she decided to push just a little more. "We can help you, you know." The jackal's eye twitched. "Just talk to us." Sweat glistened. "What're you hiding?"

That does it. Reirei snapped. "Okay, fine! You think you're really slick, don't you? I know you're just taunting me about Kijana being missing, and you're going to use this against me later. I know I'm not the nicest jackal in the pack, but I already feel guilty enough about losing my daughter — you don't need to rub it in!"

With that, Reirei stomped away, leaving behind a confused Dalia and Imba. The nomad had known that Reirei was hiding something, but she hadn't expected it to be this. She thought it was maybe a new plan of Scar's or something along those lines. She couldn't help but feel a little guilty too. Though she hadn't been meaning to, it obviously came across as if she was taunting a panicked mother.

After a moment of stunned silence, Dalia turned to the eagle. "Her kid's lost?"

Imba nodded slowly. "I guess so. That's probably why Goigoi's been missing today; he's looking for Kijana." She quirked a brow. "But what I don't get is why Reirei would keep it a secret from the rest of us. We could have helped her look for the kid."

"Well, it's been said before that Reirei isn't equipped to be the leader of the Army because as it is, she's struggling to keep up with her children," Dalia pointed out. "I'm guessing she didn't want anyone to find out about this so that her leadership chances wouldn't be lost."

Imba nodded once more and then began taking flight. "I'm gonna see if I can spot Kijana from the sky," Imba said, "I may not like Reirei, but Kijana's just a little pup."

"Yeah, you do that," said Dalia, nodding her agreement. "I'm going to go find Reirei."

...

Within a few minutes, Dalia found Reirei pacing anxiously once again in another part of Kilio Valley. The jackal stiffened at the sight of her.

"I thought I had made it very clear to you, leave me alone," she snarled, glaring daggers at Dalia.

For her part, Dalia took a step back. "I wanted to say sorry?" said Dalia, though it sounded more like a question. At this, Reirei looked at her in disbelief and Dalia sighed. "I'm not that great with apologies, but I didn't mean to offend you back there."

Reirei snorted. "Then what were you trying to do?"

"In all honesty, I didn't know about Kijana being gone. When I saw you pacing about like that and Goigoi missing, I put two and two together and figured that you were going behind Scar's back or something."

The lioness grinned when she saw Reirei's eyes softening. Yes, Dalia did come over here because she did feel somewhat bad about the situation and wanted to apologize. But she also wanted to gain Reirei's trust. She already had a conflicted Janja, now she needed to get through (very subtly, mind you) to Reirei. At the very least, earning the jackal matriarch's trust would be beneficial in her plan to take over Scar's Army from the inside.

"I guess that makes sense..." Reirei muttered, and Dalia wondered whether or not she was saying it to herself. She sighed shakily before looking back up. "You know, I would never normally ask for help. Especially from you—"

"Ditto."

"—but my kid's missing and I don't really have anyone else to turn to," Reirei finished.

Dalia understood the real message behind Reirei's words. I can't let anyone else find out, that is what she really meant. If she had wanted to, she would've ordered the Outlanders to search for her kid. But Dalia was willing to bet that the jackal matriarch felt like her family's only shot at thriving was with Scar's Army. And she couldn't risk losing the little authority she had.

Earn her trust, Dalia. Gaining Reirei's trust was just one step closer to the goal.

"I'll help you, Reirei," Dalia said after a moment. "Help you find Kijana, I mean."

Reirei eyed her suspiciously. "What's in it for you?"

"I don't know why everyone around here seems to think otherwise, but at the end of the day, we're on the same team," said the lioness.

"That's the cheesiest thing I've ever heard," Reirei scoffed. "Why are you really offering to help me?"

Dalia sucked in a breath, realizing that Reirei was by far the cleverest out of the lot. That'd make it more difficult for her to convince the jackal to switch sides in the end. From her experience, the smartest tended to be the most thick-headed.

"Well," Dalia said, drawling as she tried to figure out a good reason. "Losing a kid, I imagine, will only weaken you. And, honestly, I can't lose the second-best fighter in this army if I still want my revenge."

"Second-best?" Reirei repeated, but the suspicious look had already slipped from her face. "I'm assuming you mean you're the first?"

"Naturally."

A dry, short laugh escaped Reirei's lips, but the mirth in her eyes was quickly replaced with worry. "My daughter has been missing since yesterday afternoon," said Reirei. Evidently, her worry for her child outweighed her apprehension of Dalia. "I searched for her last night, and Goigoi's been out looking for her this morning but I'm not sure how well Goigoi's staying on top of things."

"Do you have any clue of where she could be?" Dalia asked.

"No," Reirei snapped, her voice breaking, "I have no idea! She was being quippy the other day, and we've been kind of butting heads. We got into an argument the day she went missing, and now she's gone!" Her voice went shrill at the ends, and her eyes began watering. "I joined this army so that my kids could live like Kings and Queens! I can't have done all this for my babies, only to lose one."

Dalia was suddenly so strongly reminded of her own mother. Her mother was about to dive into the floodwaters to save her ungrateful daughter. Her mother had sacrificed her home and her comfortable life as a former Queen to protect her unborn child. Yes, Reirei and Nyla were different in nearly every way. But at the end of the day, the strong maternal instinct was shared amongst both females.

"I'll help you find her," insisted Dalia, "I already sent out Imba to search for her from the skies. I figured that it'd be easier to look for a little pup from the sky than from the ground."

Reirei tipped her head into a nod, but her eyes were wary. "Don't you dare breathe a word about this to anyone else," she growled.

"Sure thing."

Before either of them could start the search for the lost jackal pup, Imba swooped in from the sky. Her eyes were wide with fright, and her breath coming to her in ragged breaths.

"What's the matter with you?" Reirei demanded, quickly realizing that whatever got Imba frightened was somehow related to her daughter. "What happened?"

Imba gasped for air. "I flew over here as fast as I could," she panted, "It's Kijana. Me and Goigoi found her." She grimaced. "And... well, you need need to see this for yourself."

oOoOo

"O,h my goodness. This... this is..." Dalia's voice trails off, trying to find words to describe the situation at hand.

"A mess," Imba finishes flatly. "A big, fat mess."

Kijana has been found. Apparently, the jackal pup had stormed into the Outlands after an explosive argument with her mother. Unbeknownst unto her, she had been stomping over a vast collection of underground aardvark tunnels, thinly covered by earth.

Now, this is where it gets complicated. Very complicated.

As she was walking across this very vulnerable area, a passerby croc from Kiburi's float noticed her and tried warning her. In the process, the already unstable ground could not support the combined weight of the crocodile and Kijana, and the ground gave way underneath them. The ground giving way underneath them sent the two spiraling into the connection of underground tunnels built by aardvarks. And they've been trapped in the tunnels for several hours now.

In fact, it was a pure stroke of luck that Imba even found them in the first place. She had been flying over the area when she heard a muffled cry for help. And when Imba went in for a closer look, she realized that they were stuck under the ground. Technically, there was one tunnel that led back to ground level, but it was too steep for them to climb. Imba tried diving into the tunnel herself to help them, but ended up overestimating the stability of the ground and, essentially, she caused a small cave-in.

The cave-in did no real damage to Kijana or the crocodile she was trapped with, but the rocks that had fallen in the cave-in did block their only way out.

After making sure they were okay, Imba decided not to attempt any more rescue missions and instead came to find Dalia and Reirei. The former is currently staring wide-eyed at the situation before her, and the latter is slowly going insane knowing that her daughter is in danger but out of reach.

"Momma's here, baby. I'm gonna get you out, I promise. I just needa..." Reirei trailed off as she began frantically digging at the border of the rumble that separated her from her daughter. As she dug, the ground started trembling. Dalia was not sure of it at first, and she needed to press her ear flat against the ground to make sure that she was not imagining it.

"Oh no," Dalia whispered.

Imba had apparently come to the same realization, and her eyes suddenly went all wide. "She's going to cause another cave-in," hissed the eagle.

And as Dalia was jumping out to shove Reirei away before she could do more harm, the ground beneath them began shaking mightly. Reirei seemed startled and jerked out of the way, and Dalia suddenly heard the two trapped underground screaming their lungs out. Reirei began sobbing at the sound and digging even more frantically, and Dalia had to physically restrain her so she wouldn't make the matter worse.

"Stop it," hissed the lioness before shoving the jackal out of the way. "You're killing them!"

Reirei seemed shocked into stillness, her mouth is frozen agape as she looked on helplessly at the tunnels collapsing. After a few moments, the screaming subsided into silence and the tunnels stopped their never-ending collapse.

Dalia inches closer to the sinkhole. "Kijana, can you hear my voice?"

A muffled cough sounded from under the earth. "Y-yeah. Just can't see you," replied the trapped pup.

"Obviously. We are trapped underground, after all," snapped another muffled voice from underground. The voice belonged to Tamka, the crocodile who had tried to warn her about the sinkhole and was subsequently trapped alongside Kijana.

"Are you hurt?" Reirei asked, knitting her brows together as she got as close as she could to the sinkhole.

"No. We got hit by some falling debris, but we're fine. But another tunnel just collapsed."

Dalia felt her brows knitting together as she looked up at Imba. "Go scout around and find another entrance. We can't afford to have another tunnel collapse." The eagle nods a confirmation before taking flight. Once she's out of sight, she spins around to give a sharp look at the jackal behind her. "And you," she said, her tone harsh, "You need to calm down, Reirei. We'll figure out a way to get Kijana out, but you freaking out isn't going to help anyone."

"I get your point," Reirei said sharply, averting her dark eyes to the ground. Looking back on it, Dalia was sure that Reirei didn't mean for her reply to sound apathetic — but at that current time, it certainly sounded that way.

And the jackal's almost indifferent and nonchalant answer somehow fueled more fire under Dalia's belly. "No, I don't think you do," she snapped, "Tamka and Kijana could've gotten seriously hurt, you know that? You're just lucky that all your frantic digging didn't cause a fatal cave-in! Maybe you should sit this one out, and let me and Imba take care of it."

She instantly knew that the words that had slipped past her mouth were wrong and insensitive, but her realization came too late. Apologies were already forming in her mouth when she heard Reirei snarl at her. Dalia looked up to see the jackal's face contorted with agitation and anger.

Reirei's eyes were sharp with vexation. "When you lose a kid, then you can come and lecture me about not freaking out."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like—"

"You know, Janja was right," Reirei interjected bitterly.

"What're you talking about?"

"The day you joined this Army, Janja pulled me aside and told me that no good ever comes out of something when there's a lion involved. I didn't know what he meant at the time, but now I've got a pretty good idea."

Dalia's eyes narrowed to the point where they were nothing more than green-gray slits, "And what's that supposed to mean?"

The jackal huffed. "You guys think you're inherently better, wiser than any of the rest of us. I would've figured that at least you would be different, but no!" she snapped, drawing out the 'o.' "You-you're just like the rest of them! So oblivious to everything and you act like you know everything." She took a step closer, her eyes gleaming with an almost frightening amount of malice. "Listen up, Newbie, because I'm only gonna say this once.

"My kids are the most important things to me, so don't you dare tell me to sit this one out if the well-being of my daughter's on the line!" Reirei continued, "My kids are the whole reason I joined Scar's Army — the whole reason my family and I turned to thievery — in the first place. I was sick and tired of waiting around for the Great King of the Pridelands to provide us assistance in the territory dispute among the clans."

The lioness knitted her brows together, "What 'territory dispute'?"

"You really are oblivious," Reirei muttered before sighing, "Let me break this down for 'ya. There's limited space in the Outlands, and because our kind hasn't been allowed in the Pridelands ever since King Ahadi closed the borders, there have been territorial disputes between the different jackal clans for as long as I can remember. We tried so many times to get Mufasa, and even the king before Mufasa, to redact the rule and open back up the borders, but both of them refused.

"We jackals were refused help, and life became increasingly difficult for jackals like me," Reirei proceeded, "There's a reason me and my family turned to thievery — there wasn't another option! There's only one creature around who's capable of taking care of me and my children, and that creature's me." She narrows her eyes fiercely. "And I don't give two mouse-tails if I hafta step on someone else's toes to provide the best life for my kids. I never want them to have to go through what I went through as a pup. I never want them to go to sleep hungry or go days without water. And I refuse to let that be my children's story as well. I refuse to be weak."

"So why do you still do it?"

The jackal glared daggers at her. "Excuse me?"

"I mean, why do you continue to live like thugs? Even here, in Scar's Army," Dalia said, meeting the jackal's fierce gaze, "Don't think I haven't noticed your pups stealing more than their share of food. Or how your husband takes pleasure in regularly annoying and disgruntling Mzingo. You don't have to steal and step on anyone else's toes to get by anymore, yet you still do. Why?"

Reirei stared at her long and hard for a good moment before sighing a shaky exhale. "It's the only thing I know will get us by. It's hard to change when it's the only thing you know."

The jackal's eyes traveled sadly to the cave-in sight. They were a good distance away, so Dalia doubted that Kijana and Tamka could've heard the heated conversation, but the lioness felt uncomfortable nevertheless. With another very shaky sigh, Reirei turned sharply on her heel and began walking away.

"Where are you going?"

"I just need a minute," she replied tiredly.

And Dalia, herself being tired, did nothing but watch the jackal walk away, tail between her legs and her head facing the ground.