Book 1: Chapter 16

"One reason," Janja growled, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you right here, right now."

Dalia stared up at him with wide eyes. "Janja," she said, wincing as she felt his claws beginning to actually prick into her flesh. "Let me go, and I'll explain everything. I swear."

Dalia knew, that if it came down to it, she would be capable of fighting Janja off. She had fought tougher opponents than Janja and came out victorious, so she doubted that this was something she couldn't do. However, she didn't want it to come down to that. She felt like she had finally begun getting through to Janja, and she didn't want all her hard work to go to waste.

Besides, she had grown to think of Janja as a friend.

Janja dug his claws deeper, more threateningly, into her flesh. "I was just beginning to trust you," Janja said, scoffing. "I'm such an idiot. I shoulda known that you were a spy — that you were up to nothing good. I shoulda just trusted my gut about you lions," he spat, his voice dripping with disgust, "You're all the same, aren't you?"

"Janja, listen to me," Dalia croaked, "You may think that Scar's helping you, but in the long run, he'll only bring you to your destruction. I can promise you that from experience. Come back with me, to the Pridelands. Kion will find a place for you. We can finally put an end to the Prideland-Outland dispute. Just think about it — a world of peace for you and your clan. Doesn't that sound nice?"

Janja's eyes bore conflict, and Dalia knew he was at the tipping point. She just needed to push a little harder...

But before she could say anything more, Janja was suddenly growling. He was digging his claws deeper, and Dalia realized that if she wanted to escape with her head still attached to her shoulders, she needed to act quickly. In one not-so-fluid motion, her hindlegs worked to buck him off of her. In hindsight, this was not the best plan, but at the moment, it was the only option that came to mind.

She finally gave a mighty push of her hind legs upwards, her sharp claws slashing the backs of his legs.

And when she looked, Dalia realized that she did succeed in bucking him off of her (and he landed a few feet away awkwardly). But his claws had further caught onto her flesh during the struggle — deepening her wound. Dalia gasped as she regained her breath. To her dismay, she realized his claws did some damage because there was a warm dampness matting her fur and running down her throat.

She immediately flipped over so that she was standing on four limbs again, and she stared at Janja warily through the corner of her eye. She was pleased to see that he was also bleeding from this encounter, though the location of his injury wasn't nearly as alarming as the location of hers.

"Janja," she tried again, and she was horrified by how raspy her voice sounded, "I'm sorry for deceiving you and tricking you, but you can turn your life around now. It's not too late—"

"Just... stop," Janja gritted out. When he turned his face up to stare at her, the conflict in his eyes was gone. Instead replaced with resolution. "I've made up my mind." Hope soared through the lioness' veins, only to crash when Janja continued, "You, along with Jasiri, saved my me back at the hot spot. I'm repaying the favor now. I'll even go wake up Imba so she can get away before any of the others realize that she's a spy too."

"But after this," he continued, his eyes sharpening, "me and you are even. My debt will be repeated. If I ever catch you again lurking around here, I won't hesitate."

He didn't have to explicitly say it. She knew that next time, he'd kill her.

Dalia furrowed her brow. "But... don't you want peace? Just come with me, and you can have the life you've always wanted."

Janja growled. "Just get out of here before I change my mind. Am I clear?"

Dawn was steadily rising in the distance, setting a slight orange-red hue to the sky.

Her throat tightened, and the place where he cut her neck suddenly ached. The trickle of blood oozing from her neck was now a steady stream. "Crystal," she grunted, her voice sounding slightly garbled.

...

Dalia was forcing herself forward, every step clouding her already foggy mind even further. After another dizzying step, she looked down at her two front paws and saw six rather than two. Sighing, she tilted her head forward and squinted against the morning sun. Priderock was now visible, though barely.

Dalia tried to swallow the saliva gathering in her open mouth, but all she tasted was the sharp tang of copper. She knew that the wound Janja gave her wasn't enough to do any serious damage, but she also knew that she was losing an alarming amount of blood. She internally wondered if Janja unknowingly opened a vein or artery, because she'd never actually seen this much blood coming from an injury of hers in her life.

It was quite disturbing, honestly. Not to mention embarrassing. She was embarrassed that she allowed Janja to hurt her like this. To wound her in such a manner. Anyone who would happen to take a glance at her at this moment would think that she lost a fight, and she partially did in a way. And Dalia never lost. Especially not to creatures like Janja. But, to his credit, she was surprised when he let her go.

After Janja let her go, Dalia had been forcing herself to walk to Priderock. There, that strange 'Mjuzi' and his apprentice could heal her.

But with each step, it felt like she was both hot and cold at the same time. Sweating and shivering. Her mind was in a constant spin, her thoughts were sluggish and slow, and her limbs felt like they were a thousand pounds weighing them down. About halfway through her journey to Priderock, her eyelids started feeling awfully heavy. She stopped walking, sitting down to regain clarity. Her vision was blackening at the ends, and her breath coming in shallowly.

The last thing she remembered before blacking out was hearing an awfully familiar eagle's screech from overhead.

Kion was biting back a yawn as he waited for the rest of his Guard to show up for dawn patrol.

The rest of the members were probably in the Lion Guard's Lair (which also served as Rafiki's new Training Area for Makini), preparing for the day. There was a time when Kion would join them in the Lair, and they'd hang out before beginning their dawn patrol.

But they recently amped up security measures in light of recent attacks, and it seemed as if Kion's life was slowly becoming one full of war. He was exhausted. Beyond exhausted, really, fighting a battle that seems to have no end. He couldn't sleep last night, bouts of paranoia and hopelessness striking him throughout the late hours of the evening and early hours of the morning.

The pressure of protecting everyone from, while at the same time keeping everyone oblivious about, Scar's return sometimes feels like a herculean task. His young shoulders sagged with undue age, and the dark eye-bags underneath his eyes were forming darker by the day.

"What's taking them so long?" Kion wondered aloud, almost grumpily.

In recent days, Kion had been feeling a sort of resentment towards his Guard. He knew he was not upset with the members of the Lion Guard, but rather the responsibilities that come with being their leader. He was only a cub when he was given this burden, and now he was not sure how happy he was doing it. He loved helping other Pridelanders, of course. But he didn't love the other aspects of his job.

He was about to start fetching his Guard when suddenly a shrill eagle screech sounded from overhead.

A few seconds later, a familiar blue-feathered eagle dove down to perch eye-level with Kion. Imba's eyes were watery with worry, and her breath came in shaky.

"You need to help her," Imba said quickly. "Dalia, I mean."

Kion stared at her stunned for a moment. "Why, what's going on?" he questioned after a few seconds, "What happened?"

"She's hurt," Imba said, "Hurt really, really, bad. Bleeding... and oh my—" she paused as she collected her breath — "I just found her, and she's passed out but still alive."

Kion felt tension return to his face, deep lines forming between his brows. His face went pale at the thought of Dalia injured like that.

The young prince thought back to his rather hostile conversation with Tombie, Dalia's friend. The red-furred hyena had been downright furious with Kion for allowing Dalia to spy for the Lion Guard. Kion didn't know what to say at that moment, and he definitely wouldn't know what to tell Tombie if he found out that his best friend was apparently very badly injured.

"Let me go get Beshte," Kion said, turning so that he could go fetch the hippo from the Lair, "He'll carry her to Rafiki, and I know Rafiki will take good care of her."

Imba eyed him warily. "I hope you're right."

oOoOo

Muffled voices flitted through Dalia's aching head.

"I think she's waking up... Lemme just..."

"Bunga, stop poking her nose!"

"Makini, how's that any different from what you're doing? You're the one jabbing her neck with... grass? What... what're you doing anyway?"

"First of all, it's moss. Second of all, I'm stopping the bleeding until Rafiki arrives, you silly honey-badger. And didn't I say to stop poking her?"

Dalia's eyes peeled open to someone gently dabbing her neck what felt like... damp moss? And then another someone was poking her nose rather irritatingly.

Immediately her eyes snapped open fully and almost wildly. She saw the very alarmed faces of various creatures, all of whose faces were slightly blurring together as blood rushed to her head. She pushed aside the hand that was dabbing her neck with the moss and looked around. It looks like she was in a very fuzzy, blurry cave? There were a bunch of multi-colored blobs standing beside her.

"See," said a blurry-looking, blue blob, "Poking her did work."

A yellow blob next to him sighed sharply. "Just... sit down, Bunga," the yellow blob said, her voice distinctly female.

"I'm just glad she's okay," stated very matter-of-factly a small, gray figure with wings.

"Yeah," said a large purple-ish mass with a kind-sounding voice, "That was scary. I'm just glad I was able to carry her back in time."

Dalia's head hurt as she strained her eyes to make out what was going on. "Wha..." Dalia garbled, "Where..?"

As her vision began to clear, a female, young female mandrill with blurred features moved the moss in her hand closer to her. "Hey, you're alright now," she says soothingly,

The voice sounded very familiar.

"Makini?" Dalia said stupidly, once her vision cleared fully. Her head was still ringing, but it was tolerable.

Looking around, she realized that wasn't just Makini in front of her. Spread out in front of her stood the members of the Lion Guard (minus Kion), Makini, and Imba perched nearby. They all shared looks of worry and alarm, though Bunga showed the least of it among them.

Imba rushed forward, her blue eyes watery. "You-you're so insufferable," she babbled almost incoherently, "Do you know how scared I was? Finding you like that?"

Dalia attempted to apologize, but now that the initial grogginess was gone, the pain was back in full force and her throat was far too raw to manage words.

Makini shot her a sharp glance. "No talking," she chided Dalia. "At least, not until Rafiki gets here."

As if on cue, the vines that guard the entrance of the cave began rustling, and Dalia turned her head (only for Makini to rebuke her) to see Rafiki briskly walking in. He was quickly followed by Kion, whose face shone with worry.

Rafiki brushed past the rest of the creatures in the cave, and without speaking, he tilted her chin up to inspect the wound. His withered fingers felt soothing against her very sore neck. He tilted her chin to the left, then to the right. Then back to the left.

"Hmm..." he murmured under his breath. "I see..." He tilted her chin upright once more. "Yes, yes..."

"So?" came Kion's nervous voice. "Will she be okay?"

Rafiki didn't answer him right away. Instead, he removes his hands from her gently and rocks back the balls of his feet. "She is a very lucky lioness," he finally said, brushing his hands off against his chest. "Very, very lucky, indeed." He reached for his pakora, which was being previously held by Makini. "Whoever did this to Dalia did not manage to cut her deep enough to damage anything vital. While the location is certainly alarming, I suspect the wound shall be scabbing over by tonight."

His words bearing good news seemed to shock everyone. Particularly Imba.

"Then why was there so much blood?" she demanded, her voice still fearful.

"That is where this she gets particularly lucky," Rafiki continued, his eyes twinkling, "It seems as if a minor vein close to the surface of her skin has been punctured. So, naturally, there was a lot of blood, which combined with her exhaustion was why she was light-headed — but the wound itself was rather shallow. And luckily, my very competent apprentice —" he gestures towards Makini "— has managed to stop the bleeding."

Makini was practically blushing at the praise. "I have a good teacher," she said shyly.

"However, I want to monitor her and make sure she doesn't reopen her wound once it scabs over," Rafiki stated, threading his fingers through his wispy, white beard. "Neck and throat injuries are always fickle. So, she must stay here for a few nights."

Dalia was certain that if she could talk without feeling like she just swallowed a cactus, she'd be protesting. She didn't like the thought of being injured, but she hated the idea of being confined in one place even more.

Makini, who must've caught Dalia's deflated expression, reached a hand over to pat her comfortingly. "Don't worry, Dalia," she said, "I'll stay here with you. It'll be kinda like a sleepover!"

Kion, who was keeping his distance and allowed Rafiki to inspect her wound, took a few steps forward. He weaved through the small crowd, his honey-brown eyes fixed on the lioness currently resting. Dalia could see past the worry shining in the amber depths of his eyes, and she could see pure, unadulterated anger. She could only imagine that the 'leader-of-the-Lion-Guard' and 'defender-of-all' part of him was demanding retribution, angry that someone who was working to help him got hurt on his watch.

"Dalia," he said gently, approaching her. "I need you to tell me who did this to you."

The lioness thought back to Janja. The way he was wavery, and just on the precipe of turning side. The way he was so close to turning his life around, and fell just a little short. He just needed a little more pushing, and she hoped that this would be a turning point for him. And if Kion went and attacked Scar's Army in retribution for Janja hurting her, all the progress Janja had made in regard to his moral standing would have been for nothing.

And, besides, she reminded herself. Janja was... well, her friend.

"Tell me who did this to you," he repeated, a little more sternly this time. "I'll set things right."

Dalia, suddenly very thankful for her raw throat, just shook her head before laying it back down.

Imba looked affronted. She must've had a good idea who Dalia's attacker was, as Janja had later woken her up. But she looked like she couldn't comprehend why Dalia wouldn't tell Kion.

"Tell him!" she urged. Dalia again, shook her hair. "Well, if you don't, I will."

The lioness started, shooting her friend a stern look. "No."

Imba disagreed but respected her friend's wishes. She closed her beak and held her tongue, choosing to nod instead. "Very well."

Kion, meanwhile, looked utterly bewildered.

She could only hope he could understand what her lack of response was saying:

Leave it alone. Let me handle this. This is a fickle matter.

But taking one look at his face — the bewilderment and confusion that was practically written all over his expression — she could tell that he didn't.