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Duhushi cringed when Amleth began cleaning his wounds. Her tonuge felt good and soothed his aching face. He knew that he was angry and try his best not to whince. Being close enough to her to know she was alright was amazing. "I'm not sure. I think I will be..." He gently nipped her ear in comfort when she stopped. "Didn't I tell you to leave Amleth?" He tried to looked at her but all he could see was her outline surrounded by a faint red. He shook his head and heard roplets of blood hit the bones around him. He didn't know why but he was beginning to become less afraid of Tanaka even at the threat of death.

"Well then kill me and let her go..." His voice wasn't quite commanding but with Toshiro around he felt a bit more authority.

When Amleth was swept away from beside him Duhushi growled. "Let her go!" It wasn't a questrion. It was demand. It was the first in his life though not his last. "The Maziko pride, the black prince nor I will tolerate lions like you here...or whatever you may be." Toshiro's pressence was working wonders on him. He would have never stood up to Tanaka with Amleth in his clutches if the other hadn't been around.

"Now let Amleth go!" A snarl curled his torn muzzle as he spoke.

Amleth yelped abruptly as she was lifted off the ground. She stared down at her dangling paws and looked back up at Tanaka, frowning angrily. She squirmed uselessly for a moment, then growled. "You're just mean!" she spat frustratedly, tears of anger welling up in her eyes. She was defenseless against the bigger lions, and tough as Duhushi might act, he was too. She glanced over at Toshi.. so he was another of the graveyard pride. What was he doing sitting there? Couldn't he go get help? Perhaps help wouldn't get back in time...

Amleth squirmed again. "Put me DOWN!" she cried, claws extending uselessly out of her velvety paws as she wriggled in Tanaka's grip. Focusing her now-irritated gaze on Kiuma, she let out an impatient snort. "There is too a pride here, Duhushi told me so." she said in the confidant manner of a cub. And then, after a short pause, "So you better let us go, or they'll come after you!"

((Lemme get an image of him for you 3nodding ))



Didn't believe him, did they? "I can name every member of my pride off the top of my head. Can YOU make such a claim? We may be small in number, but we're a tough lot. Now let Duhushi's friend go!" He had an advantage that he knew Duhushi and Amleth likely had, as well. Unlike Tanaka and Kiuma, he knew how to navigate the piles of bones, the ridges, the very rock faces, and not slip. Other than Nkechi, all of his sibblings could, as well. Ears pinned back, he glared at the two lions.

Kiuma laughed cruely, her tail flicking. "I can, actually. You're not the only member of 'royalty' here. Though my claim is real, where yours isn't. I too, can name every member of my pride, and I know every nook and cranny of our lands." She knew she was boasting, letting the younger lion draw her into a childish response. Pushing down the urge to call more insults at him, she chose a different track instead.

"You have no way to make us let them go, fluffball. Unless you think you can fight us? You're welcome to try, since I've been looking for a good fight..." She growled as she stalked closer, placing her paws at the base of the heap of bones, her posture all threat. "We were just passing through, but I can never say no to some entertainment."

For the moment, Tanaka ignored the adolescent, though his smirk did fade somewhat to an angry snarl as he focused on the purple cub.

"You think so do you? You'd be surprised at what I can do, runt."

Tanaka lowered his head, his massive maw hovering directly before the cub's eyes, a threat and a reminder that he had fangs and could still take off one cub's head without releasing the other.

The demonic smirk returned as he felt the brown cub surrender in his grasp. Oh how delicious it was to break another's spirit, to watch the painful surrender, to see the hopelessness and terror break through the facade of courage. The purple cub was faltering, breaking, pleading, writhing in mental anguish, how delightful.

However the dark adolscent was an unwelcome intrusion, an annoyance that only served to darken the demon's mood. The mortal was foolish, his demands only sparking more cruelty in the white lion. Were he to push much further he'd find his words would only inspire the deaths of those he was trying to protect.

Tanaka's gaze turned to the adolescent, this time with a much more menacing glare, his eye burning with the fires of hell. The air surrounding them grew darker, colder, an aura of pure evil eminating from the white demon. It spread out from him in every direction filling the air with the distinct smell of blood and death. It was horrifying, like something rising from the depths of the lowest plane, like the darkest nitemare that would send even the bravest warrior fleeing in terror, a terror so great that it felt as if one's heart would implode from the demon's mere presence. It rolled through the graveyard like a sea of pure darkness, surrounding and filling all those present.

The glare that had settled on the adolescent was nothing less than demonic, the look of one who not hesitate to rend the creature to shreds, drink his blood, and revele in the agonized scream as his victim was torn limb from limb. And the demon might have done so, but he was not yet ready to release his toy, the cubs were far to interesting to simply let them run off. No, he had uses for them. Instead the demon attacked mentally, a simple thought brought to the front of the adolescent's mind.

Worthless, do everyone a favor and kill yourself.

(( note: Tanaka is using his god powers ))

((*gets dragged in by Andrani*))

"Masika do this... Masika do that..." the lioness grumbled as she padded the grounds, looking for her brother, "Why must I be the one to drag his sorry rump back to the pride?" With a girlish flick of her tail, Masika finally looked up and saw Toshio from behind.

"Hey, Toshio, you annoying brat!" Fluffing up angrily, she padded down to him and gulped.

"Um..." she started, her ears flicking back a little bit, "These aren't friends of yours, are they?"

"Idiot!" Masika snarled at Toshiro, "Our territory is on the outskirts, we have no claim to the innards... that's the hyena's realm. Maybe if you acted civilly instead of like barbarians then you wouldn't get yourself and your friends into trouble! Your arrogance reminds me of Pridelanders!" She spat the last word out like it was dirt.

She turned to the other lions and cleared her throat. She'd have to tread carefully, or else her own neck could be pinned underneath that giant paw.

"Forgive me... my brother doesn't know what he's doing. His arrogance exceeds his... small form," she shook her head.

Despite her apparant disinterest, though, she finally looked at the two endangered lions.

"What have these two done to pique your anger?" she inquired of the fallen god and his mate.

Amleth was now completely relaxed in Tanaka' grip, her fear and anger having given way to a strange sort of detachment as her crimson eyes surveyed the scene before her. Her eyes softened as she watched Duhushi bleed. He looked so helpless and angry... but there really was nothing any of them could do. Amleth would wait patiently until the two large lions decided to do something. Kill her, let her go, something other than just holding her there to watch them argue with the other Graveyard lions. Oddly, she didn't really feel any hope at the arrival of Masika. She and Toshiro obviously couldn't take on Tanaka and Kiuma by themselves, and so far it only seemed that they were annoying the already antagonistic lions further. With the soft sigh of a cub waiting for her turn to drink at the waterhole, Amleth closed her eyes. She didn't particularly wish to see any more of this.