Kiuma's ears fell back against her head, and her eyes swept away to stare at a small rock buried in the grass nearby. She couldn't look at him right now, couldn't think beyond the sudden pain that squeezed her heart. Once again, she felt him tugging at her, trying to get her to go where he wished with subtle persuasion. She suddenly and fiercely hated the way he danced around in the shadows, never showing more than the tip of his tail, a flick of an ear or the glint of an eye. No, he had never lied to her, that she knew. But there was a lot he hadn't told her, for sure.

Enough. She need to get away, to be on her own and think through all these thoughts that buzzed and muddled through the fog of her mind. Rising to her creamy tipped paws, the sleek red adolescent turned her back to the one creature in her life that had ment more to her than any other.

"I need to think. I'll let you know when I've decided." With those short, ubrupt words, she turned and fled, loping towards the boarders of the Kusini'Mwezi lands.