The vision had taken place during the daytime. That was good. If her visions were set at night, sometimes it was hard to tell if they were visions at all … they could be dreams, or things glimpsed in reality. Happily, this vision had been unmistakable. Lilah sat and pondered it for a while, wondering why the stars had chosen to show her the strange female hyena. She was pretty, brown with yellow stripes, and she had a sweet look to her. She had met another hyena, and walked away. There, Lilah’s vision had ended. It seemed meaningless, but her visions usually had some kind of significance. It was all very mysterious.
Dikeledi did not usually have to patrol at night, but she liked to wander about from time to time. She had to keep the others on their toes. She wasn’t the kind of queen that lolled about being pampered all day. She hadn’t fought many battles lately, but she considered herself a warrior, and she wasn’t going to sit idle. Why, their borders might be overrun at any moment. Dikeledi bristled slightly at the thought. Being on the lookout for lions and other roaming menaces, Dikeledi didn’t notice that the other hyena was foreign at first. “What are you doing, sleeping?” Dikeledi demanded, marching towards the shadowed lump in the grass. “There could be lions out there!”
Startled, Lilah rose to her feet. She knew she was near a pack’s territory, but she had been concentrating on the meaning of her vision and hadn’t heard the other’s approach. Why was the other hyena shouting at her? She felt a bit disoriented. “I’m sorry,” she said carefully, hoping to defuse the strange female’s anger. Maybe she should just run.
Now that the female was standing up, Dikeledi was positive that it was no one she knew. She recoiled, astonished and instantly furious. How dare this intruder lurk around on their borders? Other hyenas were welcome to join the clan, but some straggly stranger just lurking, not even introducing herself … the wrath washed through her. Dikeledi growled. It took every ounce of her self control to keep from lashing out at the dark female. “Who are you?” Dikeledi snarled. “What are you doing here? This is clan territory! Explain yourself!”
Lilah cowered back from the other hyena’s anger. Now she definitely wanted to run, but she held her ground. The violent pink-maned female wanted her to speak. If she explained that she was only a simple traveler, hopefully this misunderstanding would be cleared up and Lilah would go her way without looking over her shoulder for a pack of bloodthirsty clan hyenas. “I’m Lilah,” she said. She looked at the aggressive female fearfully. Actually, aside from the coloring, she looked quite similar to the hyena in Lilah’s vision. The pattern of stripes and swirls on her was almost exactly the same. Maybe they were relatives, although the yellow-striped hyena had looked very kind. “I’m just a wanderer. I didn’t know this was your land.”
Dikeledi huffed. “Everyone knows this is our land! We are a fierce clan! We have many hyenas!” She favored Lilah with a look of utter scorn. “Even some raggedy … person like you must know that.” Dikeledi let out another huff, supremely irritated with the black hyena’s stupidity and painfully timid manner. “What are you, some kind of scout? Some kind of sneak?” She had to admit, while that dark pelt might be useless in the daytime, at night it made excellent camouflage. If this Lilah joined, she would make a good pair of eyes. Something would have to be done about her shyness, but that should be easy enough…
The pink-maned hyena didn’t seem quite so violent now, but she was still alarming. Lilah moved back from her slightly, trying to edge out of range of a bite without being obvious about it. A scout? This hyena must think she was part of another pack. Lilah shook her head. “No, I’m not a scout. I don’t have a pack.” She paused, trying to find the words to explain herself to this ferocious pink beast. “I’m only a wanderer. I See things.”
Not being able to hear the capital S, Dikeledi snorted. “Of course you see things. You speak like an idiot.” Dikeledi sneered at the black hyena. She was almost as stupid as that awful grey lioness-slave, and that was really saying something. “Speak sense.” Maybe the dark hyena wouldn’t make a good patrol after all. She seemed too dumb to be useful.
Lilah shuffled her paws anxiously. Now the pink hyena was angry again. Lilah was unsure of how to appease her. “I have visions,” she said awkwardly. “I had a vision of a hyena like you. But yellow.” Maybe that would please the pink hyena … or exhaust her patience utterly and cause her to go on a rampage.
Dikeledi knew of visions. Her own daughter, Chipuko, had visions. As far as she knew, Chipuko was the only seer in the clan … and the only seer the clan needed, thankyouverymuch. She frowned at the black hyena. There was a very good chance this hyena was lying, in any case. After all, how could she prove her visions? ‘Yellow’ sounded like Tizi, but if this hyena was lurking around the borders she could have been spying on them for a while. “We have a seer,” Dikeledi said, her voice cold. “We don’t need the visions of outsiders.”
Lilah hadn’t actually been offering her services, but she felt a bit rejected all the same. “The hyena with the yellow mane met with a male, and they walked away together.” Visions were meant to be shared, and if this strange hyena knew the one in her vision, Lilah wanted to tell her about it … whether it made her angry or not. Lilah took another step back, getting ready to run if necessary.
Tizi sauntering about with some male? Dikeledi’s lip curled. Meaningless. As far as she knew, Tizi had no consort, but she had every right to take one if she wanted to. She growled, lunging at the stranger. “You have no business spying on my daughter!” She snapped at the black hyena, trying to bite, but her jaws clicked together on air. Frustrated, Dikeledi whipped her head around, trying to locate the dark hyena, but she had gone.
