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More than a little nervous, Matumaini reported to meet with the lion who would be leading the next morning's hunt. It would be Matu's first hunt. Well, his first hunt that wasn't led by a family member. He'd been hunting with his relatives before, his mum and his sibs and all, but it wasn't the same. This time he was a member of a real hunting party that was hunting for the pride, not just for his family.

Nevertheless, Matu was confident in his hunting abilities and he refused to be intimidated. At least he refused to appear intimidated, and so he took a few extra moments before reporting to the den of the hunt leader to collect himself. Kiek was the lion's name. He was not a lion Matu had heard of or interacted with before. He didn't know how he had ended up in his hunting party.

From a short distance away Kiek watched the white and red adolescent pause to pump himself up. He remembered that feeling, only in his case it had probably been even worse than what Matumaini was experiencing. From what Kiek understood, Matumaini was a basically self-confident young lion who was not inexperienced or untalented. Kiek had been neither of those things, but he had forced himself to become both. He had to. Gliri needed him.

Thinking about Gliri made Kiek smile as he stalked silently toward Matumaini. She was older than he was by more than she liked to admit, but he was absolutely unbothered by the difference in their ages. He thought she was beautiful, and although she called herself a coward, he knew she was one of the bravest lionesses he would ever meet. He adored her, and he had appointed himself her protector. Becoming a hunt leader was a part of that. He wanted her place in the pride to be secure, no matter what.

Kiek may have been stalking, but Matu was tense and aware enough that he was not taken by surprise. He caught a hint of movement from the corner of his eye and realized that his time was up. Ready or not, it was time to meet his hunt leader. Perhaps he could even learn why he had been selected to take part in tomorrow's hunt.

"Kiek?" he asked, proud of himself for sounding self-assured. Sure, it was a question, but it didn't make him sound uncertain, just like he was being polite and making sure that he was addressing the lion he expected to be addressing. So far so good.

He was increasingly confident as he went on to introduce himself: "I'm Matumaini. I'm told you wanted me to report to you today to discuss tomorrow's hunt, so here I am."

Spotted, Kiek saw no further point in stealth. He stood up straight and walked the rest of the distance upright. "Matumaini, thank you for coming. You were correctly informed."

Kiek hated how formal and stiff he sounded, but it was not easy for him to talk to strangers, even personable ones like young Matumaini, and so he tended to fall back on stiffness and formality in situations like these. He was good at what he did, and so while the hunters he took hunting did not love him, they at least respected him. It would do for now, but he knew in the future he would have to make friends.

"I know you have experience hunting with your family, but this will be a little different. The most difficult adjustment you will have to make will be to do your part and only your part, no matter what is going on around you. You can't deviate from the plan because you think someone needs assistance Do you understand?"

Matu frowned. He understood what Kiek was saying to him and he was a little bit insulted by the implications. Basically, the older lion was saying that he expected Matu to be undisciplined and to disobey orders because he was too soft-hearted to let someone else be hurt. It didn't occur to him that this might have been the greatest challenge Kiek had faced when he was first learning to hunt with people outside his family, and that the hunt leader truly was trying to be helpful. The pale adolescent just wasn't that empathetic.

"That won't be a problem, Kiek," he said firmly. "I don't know these lions, but they're older than I am, and I expect they'll be more experienced. If they can't hold their own, that's their problem. Does that mean that there is no flexibility or room for improvisation in our hunting plan tomorrow? The best-laid plans can easily go awry, after all."

It was daring of him to imply that Kiek's plans might be infallible, but Matu's pride was hurt and he wanted to get a little of his own back.

Kiek was not a naturally confrontational lion, and yet he was aware that he would have to make clear to Matumaini that backtalk would not be tolerated. He was the lion in charge of the hunt, and all of the hunters he led would have to do as he said without question or hesitation, including this young lion.

"I expect you to exercise sound judgment on the hunt. I do not like to work with glory-seekers or heroes. Hunting fulfills a necessary and useful purpose for the pride, and there is no need to take risks in doing it." He hoped that he sounded formal and censorious enough to put paid to Matumaini's display of arrogance. He was young, it was excusable. Kiek wasn't all that old himself, after all. He just bore more responsibility than most lions his age.

"I am confident that you can do these things. I would not have elected to bring you on this hunt if that wasn't the case."

Matu tried to keep from frowning again because he knew it would be rude and it wouldn't help his cause, but he hated the feeling of being lectured. He hadn't been lectured in ages and ages, it seemed, and he really, really resented it coming from a lion who barely knew him. He wished he could demand to know where Kiek was getting all his information, but he wasn't quite that bold.

"I can be every bit as responsible as you would wish me to be," Matu told Kiek. "But I plan to enjoy my hunt. I hope you enjoy it, too."

He looked at Kiek challengingly, daring him to say something about the assertion that hunting ought to be fun. Of course it was a necessary action to keep the pride fed, but that didn't mean it couldn't be fun, and an opportunity to do a little bit of showing off. Matu couldn't believe that there were lions who wanted to work with Kiek over and over if this was what he was always like. But maybe there weren't. Maybe that's why Kiek had fresh, inexperienced hunters like Matu in his party.

Kiek met the younger lion's challenging stare with one of his own. "I don't expect that we will have any problems then, Matumaini. And I hope you're correct about living up to my expectations. But even if you turn out not to, the hunters who will be with us tomorrow are, as you surmised, experienced enough to make up for any mistakes you might make. Just don't get yourself killed, please. I don't enjoy telling mothers that their sons died because they were morons."

It was the longest speech Kiek had made to Matumaini so far and it certainly did not sound particularly friendly, but Kiek's manner was not entirely that of a challening, domineering hunt leader. A perceptive lion would realize that he was actually injecting a small amount of humor into his statement about how he hated to tell mothers about their stupid sons' deaths.

"Get a good night's sleep tonight. I expect to see you tomorrow morning at dawn. If you're not there, we leave without you."

Somehow Matu realized through the thick haze of wounded adolescent pride that Kiek was not actually as big a jerk as Matu was imagining him to be, and that he was actually joking in some of what he said. It wasn't something he was certain about though, and so his answering smile was belated and hesitant.

"Yessir," he said. "A full night's sleep and ready to go at dawn so that my mother won't have to learn that I'm a moron."

He worried that his tone sounded too surly still. He didn't want Kiek to dislike him. He didn't know how he had managed to screw up this meeting so badly, and now that he had been dismissed he was doing his best to salvage it. He hoped desperately that it wasn't too little, too late.

Earnestly he added, "I won't disappoint you."

"Of course you won't," Kiek reassured him. "Thank you for meeting with me."

He, too, felt an urge to try to salvage the meeting, but he knew that saying more would not do that at this point. It would be best to let Matumaini go and hope that the youth got over his pique. There had been a hint of humor in Matumaini toward the end, and that gave Kiek a glimmer of hope for the adolescent. Probably they would not work together more than this once, but Kiek wanted to be on good terms with as many people as possible. For Gliri's sake.

He nodded farewell to Matumaini and then walked the rest of the way back to the den he shared with Gliri. The painfully shy lioness probably wouldn't be there. She had probably been nearby, watching the whole exchange, but he still expected to see her in the den. She could move so very quickly and quietly when she chose to.

He looked forward to seeing her.