"I thought long about whether or not to take you out here. A part of me wished to be selfish and keep this all to myself and the other part decided it was time to share with someone," he told her looking out over the valley while he collected his thoughts. He wanted to speak eloquently and be certain he knew what he was going to say before he said it. "It is my pleasure to share it with you Ubele," he confided, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. "You and I have been through so much, it's hard to imagine that we are still so young," he chuckled shaking his head, lowering it to gaze at the ground.

"This is where it all started and while at times it reminds me of all of the bad that we had to endure, all of the grief we suffered," he paused turning to look at her, "It has shown me that out of all of the suffering something good will always rise." His words were thoughtful, concise. "I doubt that without the tragedy that had befallen our lands you and I would have become such close friends. I doubt I would have grown past the angry, misunderstood, loner child that I was."

He kept his gaze steady, watching to see how she would react to his words. He was likely to be bringing up painful memories but there was a point to his words. He was getting there, soon. "So I am thankful because it has made me into the lion I am today and it has brought two very important people into my life. One of which is you, without you I doubt I would have remained stable after everything."

sherlolly