He shouldn't have tried to tell Dulani what to do.

Don't walk through his land?

He regretted it after she stepped closer, though. Once he saw her at full height, in full view, muscles bulking with each step closer, towering over him, he regretted it. She saw it in his eyes, those weak pathetic eyes that wavered up at her as he whimpered apologies.

But now he was dead.

Paws rolling with ease through the waters of the male's river, the sunset-colored lioness rinsed her paws of fools' blood. Was it worth the tedious task of cleansing one's weapons? Perhaps not. But the deed was done.

Gold eyes placid in her musings, the large female finished her rinse and stepped back from the water. She took no notice of her reflection, nor did she take any notice of the fear-contorted face of the bleeding corpse behind her. She just walked away, leaving a small, meaningless snippet of a memory behind her.

It was a hot day.

But it suited Dulani. She had seem the sun as something like kin ever since her youth, and it had certainly played a part in her clan's culture. Well...her past clan's culture. They were gone now, all gone...she had tried to regroup the survivors, but to no avail. Whatever few remaining lions she had fell away relatively quickly, crumbling the already weakened pillars supporting her entire group of warriors--her clan--her pride.

Now she was alone.

It didn't matter, no...not at all. She had always been alone, after all. It was through no one's help but her own that she had gotten to be as powerful as she was, strong as she was, skilled as she was in the art of battle and tact. She made herself into a leader. No one else had helped. No one. She had done it herself. Because no one had control over her. She was her own master, her own keeper. No one owned her. No one.

Black fur and a pink-eyed smile flashed through Dulani's subconscious in that moment, a flicker of a memory that briefly stopped her in her tracks. But she recovered immediately, moving on once again through the thicket, though with a quicker pace now.

That tiny, grubbing, freakish, claw-p***k of a male lion, Tariq'ra'd...her slave-turned-captor. He had had the privilege of being the bane of her existence for a very short while. What an honor, indeed...quite an honor...but she had fled all of that long ago. Fled? No. She hadn't fled. It hadn't been so long ago, had it? How much time had passed? Well, what was the use thinking about it...? Not much, she supposed. None of it mattered. It never did. Yet she wondered...

Why she didn't kill him back then....

He had destroyed everything she knew, turned her comrades on each other, and on her in turn...of course Tariq had set it up, she realized that. He had plotted everything from the start. All because of her...for 'love' of her.

It made her SICK to her STOMACH, the little, scrawny, weak, putrid, pathetic little b***h boy. He had gotten the best of her. He had bested her, but not fairly. No, she would NEVER say it had been fair.

It was only through the weaving of lies and spinning of words and tales and tricks. And even accidents. She had been captured by him by accident. Getting knocked unconscious by falling back into a tree doesn't prove one has gotten the best of another in a battle. That wasn't fair.

Yet she didn't kill him....

After she had recovered from her wounds, what did she do? She waited patiently for the right time, but only for the shortest while. Tariq had gotten comfortable. And when he had gotten comfortable, Dulani left. More images flashed through her mind as the memories came to her in those few seconds--all of her thoughts occurring in just a few seconds--she had stood over him...in the night, in that den. She had freed herself and stood over him, claws extended right...above...his neck....

She could've slit his throat in an instant and taken her revenge.

But it wouldn't have been revenge...

That would've been like something he would've done...and Dulani was no where near like that one...no...it wouldn't have been a fair fight. That wasn't besting someone, that was cheating. It was not a fight. It was cowardice. And Dulani wasn't a coward. She was many things, but never a coward.

A glint of a spark lit Dulani's golden eyes as she pulled herself up over a ledge and out of the thicket. She was constantly moving, but constantly thinking. She was directionless, literally and metaphorically. She knew what she wanted, but not what she wanted. She knew what she needed, but not what she needed. She had everything before, but now it was gone. So what now? To build from the ground up was difficult. To start again...it was daunting. No, frustrating. Infuriating. Why should she have to?! It shouldn't have been like that. She shouldn't have had to restart. She shouldn't have lost what she had. Yet she hadn't been able to prevent it...still, she knew enough of what she wanted to know where to go, what to do...just not how. But she wanted it. She wanted that status once more, she wanted war.

Lately, she had gotten a taste for The Fight again. Sometimes she would go a full day without sleep for thinking so longingly of being ruler of a great group of warriors again. She was restless. She felt pent-up inside--trapped, ripping and grappling within herself to break out of herself. But she couldn't. She was stuck. There was no group of lions to lead--that was all gone, and she had accepted it.

But it was frustrating.

She was pent-up, pent-up...she wanted to get out. So she lashed out. And she hurt others and killed if they wronged her in small ways. It wasn't like her, she thought...but it was. Yes, it was like her...she made herself into what she wanted to be. Who could say what she was like and what she wasn't? No one but her. And anyone who tried to change her would be dealt with. Anyone who tried to control her would be killed. Anyone.

So as she made her way through the last of the thicket and stepped out into open sun-touched savanna, late-summer winds swaying the grasses and her own hair, Dulani decided.


She would find Tariq.


And she would kill him.




That poor fool back there really shouldn't have tried to tell her what to do.