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Patience was never one of Petra's virtues.

For her sister though, and only her, she waited. She waited- perhaps naively, in total belief that truth would prevail, and Una would see the lies of the Mizimu as bright as the innocent blood they spilled. She'd come rushing up to her- [Petra had imagined this out by now, as she wanted to know the right words to say!], and she would apologize. She would say, "Petra! You were right to run, they are all mad."

And then they'd leave. She'd be in with the Dhati, and with her, they'd take the fledgling pride to victory. Things would be right. She would be a good sister this time. She wouldn't be a bully. She wouldn't be so reckless.

But it was funny how fast hope melted when the scent of blood entered into Petra's nose. All at once her heart grew cold and her fur stood on end. An enemy combatant! Oh! If only! But she knew well enough the scent of her own sister, mixed in with the foul stench of sweat and blood. "Una!" She half shouted, her voice cracking. It might have been an ambush, but better judgment fled from her mind. She burst from her hiding place and ran towards her sister, taking a quick assessment of the injuries.

And then. The fire was back.

"Who did this?" She bristled. And even as she said it, a fleeting paranoia fluttered in her chest. They did this because of me! Those Mizimu bastards! Why didn't Una come? Why didn't she come when she had told her to?! She should have dragged her! She should have- "They aren't still following you, are they? Quickly, quickly. Over here. Lean on me!"

Her head practically snapped as she jerked it around, looking back towards the shadows where Una had come from. "Una! Oh-! I'll kill them all! I really will!"

Una's words sounded like a foreign language to Petra. She took a step back, her bright and seemingly innocent eyes flashing with a kind of strange perplexity. "What... what are you talking about?" Had she heard her right? Petra's ears flattened against her head, as though her lack of understanding was some cruel joke.

She... she hadn't just said spirits did this to her? Had she?

And she was flooded all at once. Questions, accusations. For a moment, she shuddered. Old ways died hard. She might have not believed in the spirits anymore, but years of doctrine were not so easily forgotten. Not so easily forgotten as Petra would have liked. They were... nonsense! Petra shook her head, and cooled the flutter of anger. How could Una think this way?

"Oh, Una. What have they done to you? They made you think that, didn't they? They hit you so hard you're all messed up!" She put one of her paws on her sister's shoulder, trying to find some sense in her eyes. "Those- oh! this is terrible. But, I'm sure it'll go away. It will, you know how many times I've hit myself on my head and..."

Petra's voice trailed off as the serious expression on Una's face didn't fade. She didn't...she didn't really believe it, did she? "Una...you know that can't happen...don't you? I don't understand what you're talking about. Spirits don't attack..."

Petra stood there, shocked. She hadn't been accusing Una of lying. At least, she hadn't meant to. And she wanted to take it back. She desperately wanted to take it back. But she couldn't absorb what Una was saying. And she kept talking- and she kept speaking of spirits and their lives and...

She had always had a young face. She might have fostered up the facade of a warrior. She might have happily taken part in war, to have become a beautiful burning nightmare on the battlefield. But she was naive. At heart, she was innocent. She was an idealist. She saw the path, and thought everything would follow it because it was right and true. She was a child.

Petra's face fell, and she took a step back. Her heart hurt before her mind could even comprehend the situation.

And Petra grew up.

"...So, this is what it is?" She half whispered. Even Una thought she was just a fool. Just a child. Just a sacrifice. Her one, only, purpose. "How....how could you think I would believe that? Una, if the spirits were mad, why wouldn't they attack me? If they were really so wise, they would know that attacking my sister would only embitter me to them forever! That I'd rather never have existed at all then even be a glimmer past their eyes! Damn my soul!"

Her hackles rose, and she took another step back. "I am not a child, Una! If you thought I was a fool- why, why did you lie to me? I'm not wrong, Una. I told you before. Do you think I'm playing some game? That this is some sort of fancy in my head? That I'm such a child I don't know what I'm doing? That you have to lie to me to get me to go follow back in line with some...!"

She shook her head and spat. "Una! Why? I understand why the Mizimu thinks so little of me. I get it. They don't know any better- and I'll prove it to them. But you do! Why do you think this is all I'm worth? Why would you worship spirits who work through fear and... lies!"

She swallowed. She wasn't caring about being quiet. "Who did this to you? Who did this to you so I can know and repay them!"

"Then they chose wrong." Petra said bitterly, turning her head. The blood was roaring in her ears, and she felt ill. What was this? She didn't even know how to handle this! Her sister...! Her sister was always the right one. Always responsible. How could she believe this? How could she set her up like this?

And for a moment, Petra wanted to run. She'd run before, hadn't she? She'd left Una in the Mizimu and ran to the Dhati without so much as a head turn. She could do it again. She could be a warrior, and to hell with the spirits and to hell with Una. It would be easy. But it also would be childish.

Petra sucked in a slow breath and turned around, looking at her sister. She really believed it. Did she believe it so much she was believing her own lie now? Regardless, hearing the passion in Una's voice broke her heart. A part of her didn't understand how Una could still cling to this. "Una, the spirits could never reach me, not even if they killed you or killed me or killed however many damn things they want. I'm never going back. And the real spirits would know that. Let them take what they will of me if they're real, when the time comes." She smiled, somewhat crazily. "What will they say to me? That I didn't live out the life they had intended? I will say to them: I lived my life! Not the spirits!"

But Una wasn't wrong about everything.

Petra frowned, and sighed slowly. She was angry, nervous, and just a bit confused. But she understood Una on one part. Even if Una wasn't directly saying it at all. "...I'm sorry, Una. You're right, it is my fault. I left you. The spirits had nothing to do with this. It was only me."

"I said before I was sorry. I ran, and I didn't say a word. I thought I was being a warrior. I thought you would agree...or, no. That's a lie. I didn't think about you at all Una. I left you without even a thought. But I'm here now. And I'm not leaving without you this time." She took a few steps forward. "Una, god- look at what they've turned you in to! How could the spirits want that? How could they?"

Petra balked. Is that was Una thought? How... why couldn't she see? "Fooled myself? I'm not afraid of death Una. If I was afraid of death, I would have ran, and I never would have stopped. I am a warrior, Una. I won't let them tell me differently. I will die. Maybe soon! Maybe not. But, I will die on my terms. I will die in battle. I will not take anything less. I cannot. My soul won't allow it."

She growled. Not at Una. Half in frustration, and perhaps half in anger towards the spirits themselves. "I don't need the spirits to know my life is significant. Its significant to me. Its significant to my friends. I thought it was significant to you."

She scowled. "Our family has paid our blood debt. Our mother, our grandparents, our great grandparents have paid their dues to the Mizimu. You...oh... and you will too, won't you?" She shook her head, ignoring the stinging. "What has it done for us? This circle? Not one of us has apparently appeased the spirits. Because the spirits don't need to be appeased through blood. If there are spirits then...then, we shame them! We shame them by being cowards! By just letting us be slaughtered because someone told us it was right! By blindly agreeing to something! Its no wonder we're here!"

Petra noticed the blood slowly dripping down Una's side. "Una, the spirits didn't put those wounds on you! They don't care about my soul, and they don't care about yours! We're dying for nothing. And I will not allow it. I WILL die for something. I won't be ashamed of that. You can't change my mind. I am a warrior, and I always have been. And the spirits would know that, if they care to look."

She stood her ground, and flattened her ear. "Do you really think the world is so small? That, out of all the world, the Mizimu is right, and the rest of the world is wrong? Una- in the Dhati, there are lions who aren't Mizimu. They've seen the whole world! Places that haven't heard of spirits, haven't heard of sacrifices. Places where our family came from. Our family! Do you really think we come from such foolish heathens?"

"Come back with me, Una. I have lived as a Mizimu, but you've never been free. How can you know what its like? Look what you've done to yourself! Over my life? You want me to die so truly you would do this? You say my soul is at risk, but I feel it fine. Its right here, Una. I never felt it until I ran. I think you're the one in danger!"

Their worlds were slowly being torn apart. Una could feel it. She knew now that Petra could not be reached- she would lose her sister to the Dhati, to the rebels, and, somehow, that reality hurt more than any of the injuries she'd suffered at Shinda's hands. With time, those wounds would heal. There might be a couple of scars, but Una was not concerned. They would be a testament to the effort she had put into saving her sister; shadows of her love for the other lionesses.

"I do not need to meet strangers to know that that our ways are not the ways of others, Petra," Una hissed back, but there was a pleading edge to the indignant snarl that curled her lips. She was desperate for Petra to stay with her. "Grandfather told me, not you, about his old pride- but that does not make it ours. We were born into the Mizimu'Tungika. Our father was one of them, and our mother must have been in spirit, as well. I have accepted my destiny. You insist that the spirits are not real and that our ways are wrong, but why? What proof do you have this? I have always known that other prides exist, but their opposing realities do not make ours any less feasible! It is fickle to be so changeable, and a mark of your recklessness. If you can not believe in anything but the right to be free, what meaning is there left to find?"

Her throat was thick with her passionate declarations. Una thought that she might cry, and she fought away the tears that threatened to pour down her furry cheeks. Nothing was going the way it was supposed to!

"I do not want you to die," she choked, "I am trying to save you-

When Shinda interrupted them Una's blood ran cold. So, the Warrior had followed her, after all! She was not frightened for herself, but the Warrior's presence there did not mean good things for Petra. The Sacrifice bit her lip and her ears folded backwards as Shinda spoke. The things she said were true, and Una felt them deeply. She did think that Petra was a coward.

As litter-mates, she and her sister had been marked as Sacrifices at the same time, and they had spent their whole lives preparing for the inevitable realization of their destiny. They had always been very different, but their shared fates had bound them together in ways that only sisters can be. Of the two of them, Una had always been the more willing, but she'd never imagined that Petra would abandon her. She hadn't expected to have to face the end on her own.

"You're the one who professed that you were a Warrior." Shinda said calmly. "I was merely pointing out the logical fallacies in your argument. You do not embody the spirit of a Warrior." The lioness laughed softly, but her laugh was dry and cynical. "I say you're a coward because you ran away, fled with your tail in between your legs. Because you were scared of death. How can a Warrior be scared of death, when they could meet with it on the battlefield?" She turned to look at Petra, her gaze scathing. Such an insolent, immature little Sacrifice.

The fight was about to come. Shinda had smelt it, and expected it to come. With just one roar, she could have alerted other Warriors, to come and help her apprehend the brat. But she did not. This was her fight.

She had only gave her attacker a sinister smile as she bounded towards her, unblinking as at the very last moment, she leaped aside. "So that's how the Dhati have been training their so called Warriors." How pathetic.

"Have you ever thought about it?" She asked Petra, circling the other, eyes trained on only the bright yellow lioness. "If you wanted to be a Warrior, or you had to do was to be patient. You knew about the Dhati. You knew a war was coming. If you were clever enough, you would approach a Veteran, my father even, and ask them to train you. So that you could help to fight, help to defend your pride against the intruders, instead of watching helplessly from the sidelines. They might have even been impressed, if you put in enough effort. Who knows? After the war, Sakata may have asked the spirits to spare one so brave and selfless, and let her serve the pride as a true Warrior." She paused, then arched an eyebrow at the smaller lioness. "But you didn't." With this revelation, she pounced, aiming to use her sheer weight to knock the other to the ground.