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Everything was going according to plan.

Well, okay, not everything was going according to plan, but at least the important, essential things were. Granted, he hadn't really planned on getting attached to Tukutu, and he surely hadn't planned on playing surrogate father to a litter of mortal cubs, but such was life. Everything was slowly falling into it's place, and if the readings he'd been hearing from the Heart were true, then it meant there was very little time left now.

Which meant he had to go find Muhali and talk to her. The notion made the god cringe within, for after all, the mere notion of snatching Insanity and hoping to catch her attention for longer than three minutes was already making him feel horribly weary. Alas, he was at least going to try. He would have felt horrible if he left without telling her about it first. It was something he had to do, no matter how hard it was going to be.

Something told him she was still within the pride (if the insane events that were taking place were not hint enough, then the fact he still felt her presence tug at him, sure was). His eyes scanned the pride till they fell on Muhali's small, blue form in the near distance; she was playing with some cubs, and Uka could not help but smile as he approached them, "Muhali," he murmured as he towered over the petite goddess.

Muhali had not really bothered to adopt a disguise; within this pride, it was hardly necessary, and she was forgetful of doing so in other place anyhow at the best of times. Her head tilted up when a shadow was cast upon her, large ice hued eyes blinking up at the large god that blocked the sun, "Hello!" she chirped happily, though there was no actual recognition within her voice.

It had been days since Uka had last seen her, and her memory was probing it was fleeting at best, for she was greeting him like she would have any other.

Not that Uka minded; he was used to it after all, "Muhali, we need to talk," his eyes slid towards the cubs she'd been playing with before he leaned down to grab the small goddess by the scruff of her neck, "Alone," he finished his sentence through a mouthful of hair and skin, then turned around and easily began to pad away from the gawking children.

"Awwwwww but I was having fun!"

"You can have fun later, Muhali. We need to talk."

Something about the tone of voice of the large male cause the goddess to blink lucidly for a moment before she stretched out a paw, waving her goodbye to the cubs behind, "BYEEEE! I'll be back later! I still think that two lefts DO make a right! I'll prove it too!"

A mild snort escaped through his nose at her words, but otherwise, he didn't really comment, nor did he slow down his pace till they reached a secluded portion of Savannah. Finally letting go of the small goddess, he placed her softly on the ground, then slowly lowered himself to a laying position, "I need to go," with Muhali it was best to be horribly blunt.

"Go?" came the question as the goddess raised her head to look up at him, "Where you going, Uka?" apparently, in the time it'd taken him to carry her over to the shade of the tree they were currently under, the petite goddess had remembered him.

"Nowhere," he told her, "Not really. But... I will no longer be around despite that."

A pause followed his words as Muhali frowned, looking mildly confused. The expression looked odd upon her features, almost as if she were not particularly used to frowning OR being confused, for that matter, "Can I come?" she asked, and Uka's heart broke in two, because she sounded hesitant, as if not entirely sure of herself, "I'll be good," she added as an afterthought, her eyes wide, hope shinning within them.

While it was true his words calmed her a notch, the small goddess didn't really look all that convinced, "How does that work anyhow," she murmured, a bitter edge to her words, the insanity that usually clouded her gaze slowly vanishing till it was obvious Uka was now talking to an entirely different lioness, "You saved me," she said in a whisper, "You saved me, Uka. Long ago, it was you. What will I do if you leave?" she no longer sounded like a child and seemed to understand without him telling her that he had chosen to 'die'. After all, where else would he go that she couldn't follow? "When I was all alone and sad and scared... when I had no one and no where to turn to, you showed up and you taught me how to deal with my domain. What will I do without you?"

"Live?" he answered her question with another question, another small smile tugging at his maw. He lifted a paw up to stroke her head; he actually still remembered the day she spoke of. It'd been a long time since she'd seen 'this' Muhali, "So you're still there then, underneath it all, aren't you? I knew you were."

She shoot him a glare, though it lacked actual heat and promptly dissolved away, "You told me that it wasn't my fault, Uka. You taught me that I can't control my domain... and that what they... they do is not my fault. That it can go both ways - it can be darkness and it can be light. You taught me that they had a choice. That Insanity wasn't 'evil'. No one else believed that, Uka."

He nodded, still stroking her hair with his paw, "I still believe that. And you're living proof of that, aren't you? You've been living quite happily for such a very long time now. That more than proved my point. It shows that Insanity isn't all about the murder and the blood and the darkness and evil that you told me about that night, isn't it? It's also about the bliss and the happiness and the ability to ignore the darkness of the world," he moved them, separating her form from his so that he could lower his head to hers, their foreheads pressed together, "And I think you do a perfectly good job at just that. It's because you do such a good job at it that you can't come. You'll be fine. You don't need me here when you have the knowledge that my feelings won't change. Will yours?"

The small goddess shook her head wildly from side to side even as she closed her eyes. Oh, she was sure she'd forget this, for that was the nature of her domain and the choice she had made so long ago - she had allowed her domain to consume her, but unfortunately, living in bliss had it's... inconveniences, "It won't change," she told him in a whisper, "Even if I can't remember, it won't change," because feelings couldn't be erased by a simple memory, could they?

"Good," he told her, then slowly lowered himself to the ground and into a laying position, "Good," grabbing her form, he lay her in his arms and settled his head protectively over her, "Now I want you to sleep, Muhali. I want you to rest."

"You won't leave while I sleep?" she sounded vaguely distressed by the idea.

"No, not yet. It's not time."

With a sigh of what appeared to be relief, the goddess closed her eyes and settled herself comfortably into the space his arms created, her breathing evening out after a long while. Her distressed expression melted back into one of pure bliss once more and Uka nodded his head approvingly.

"That's the way it should be."