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Feisty! Sakelo shut up, but he didn't mind being snapped at. It was cute being snapped at by the younger hyena. She sure was touchy, wasn't she?

She definitely needed to do something about that screeching, though. That wasn't very sexy. It hurt his ears a bit. Trying not to wince, he looked over in the direction she was screaming at. There was another hyena there, a big buff female that looked quite a lot like Zalika. Only not nearly as dainty and cute. Zalika really was the spitting image of her mom, but with the addition of adorable white booties and a sexy fluffy white mane and tail.

He straightened up a bit, trying to look presentable to Zalika's mom, and smiled politely at her. "How do you do," Sakelo said. The perfect picture of a well-mannered male hyena was a bit spoiled by the screeching female next to him, but oh well.

Bahari had been enjoying the peace and quiet. For once everyone seemed to be off doing their own thing. She hadn't heard the explosion of screams that was her son Kepo encountering her nephew Kele, Kero's neverending prattle, Manyara's blisteringly stupid observations on life in general, or Bekeli's ... Bekeli-ness. It was nice. There had been some yelling earlier, but it had quieted down. She assumed Dikeledi had told whoever it was to shut up.

But then there came the screaming, and directed at her this time. She sighed, disappointed but none too surprised. Turning to see her daughter, Bahari smiled. Zalika could be a bit prissy, but there was nothing outright irritating about her. Besides, she was the chosen heir. "Zalika," Bahari called cheerfully, oblivious to Zalika's obvious foul mood. "I see you've found a friend." She nodded regally to the male trailing along in Zalika's wake. She had never seen him around before, but if he was patiently trotting along with her daughter then there didn't seem to be anything threatening about him. He looked fairly clean and spiffy.

Sakelo did wince this time at the siren-like shriek. They were right in front of her mother now, there was no reason for her to keep carrying on! This girl sure had a voice on her. If she wasn't careful she was going to make herself hoarse with all the yelling.

"Hey," he protested, taking a step away from her to protect his ears a bit. "I'm a perfectly nice male." It was satisfying to know that he had made a good impression on her despite all of her screaming and fury, but she was being kind of a drama queen about the whole situation in his opinion. He didn't want to tell her that in front of her mother, though.

Bahari was impassive in the face of Zalika's wrath, but she was wincing inside. She didn't know why all the pups were so loud and screamy. She didn't remember being so loud. Hopefully her next batch would have the volume turned down a bit. Considering Zalika's dreadful tale, she eyed the strange male. He didn't look much like a ruffian.

"He seems fine," she said, trying to calm Zalika down a bit. "Bekeli probably knew how much you wanted a boyfriend and was trying to help." She was usually a fairly insightful hyena, but following ancient momming instincts, Bahari was utterly heedless of the total embarrassment she might bring to her daughter with this statement. She frowned. "I'll have to talk to him, though. He could have put you in danger."

And, speak of the devil, there was a somewhat whiffy scent approaching them. Bahari turned, staring at the scruffy male trotting towards the little group. She didn't know what to do with him.

Sakelo hadn't lived with group of hyenas since leaving home himself, but he hadn't lost his instincts for trouble. Something was about to go down. He was tempted to sidle back out of the way, but he figured he should remain at Zalika's side. Despite how crazy this was getting, he still thought she was pretty sexy. And her mom seemed to like him, which was a positive.

He stood quietly, not wanting to open his mouth and get in trouble with either of the cranky females. Sakelo couldn't help smiling, though, amused at Bahari embarrassing Zalika. He had pretended not to hear, to be polite, but it had been hard to miss.

Bahari was torn. Bekeli's intentions had been good. It was good to see Zalika with a boyfriend. She hadn't really wanted to see Zalika traipsing around the rogue lands trying to find a boyfriend on her own.

But inviting a strange hyena into the dens without the permission of the queens? Bekeli wasn't known for having fabulous judgment. He had happened across a decent-seeming male, but Sakelo could very well have been some kind of lunatic. She fixed Bekeli with a frown as he approached. "Bekeli," she said. "Zalika says you dragged this male back to her den while she was sleeping."

Sakelo was starting to rethink standing next to Zalika. She looked like she might explode at any second. She might like him (he was pretty sure she did, in fact) but if he was caught in the crossfire between her and her father he didn't think she'd hesitate to bite him in the face. The brown hyena began slowly edging to one side. He still didn't speak. He would wait until the females truly focused their wrath on Bekeli before opening his mouth.

Bekeli was obviously aware that he had done something wrong. Bahari continued staring at him, subtly blocking Zalika's way. She didn't want Zalika to outright murder the poor scraggly dope. "You once tried to give me a crown made of dung," Bahari said irritably. "What if you brought home a bad hyena? What if he tried to hurt Zalika in her sleep?!"

Despite the worry of the females turning on him, Sakelo was kind of enjoying this little confrontation. He hadn't taken a liking to Bekeli. For a tense few minutes, he had been pretty sure Bekeli was going to feed him to some kind of underground monster. Or possibly rape him. Sakelo didn't want to see the poor guy get beaten up, but he had to admit he liked seeing Bekeli in trouble.

He definitely didn't like Bekeli talking about him like he was some object, though. It was one thing to get bullied by Zalika. At least she was cute. "Hey," Sakelo said, speaking up for the first time. "I don't want to be given to anyone! I'm a free hyena! I just came over to meet Zalika to be nice! From the way Bekeli was talking about her, I thought she was some poor ugly toothless girl that was just desperate for a boyfriend."

Bahari shot Sakelo a glare meant to silence him, but she felt a terrible urge to laugh welling up inside. Only the knowledge that Zalika would surely lose her mind if Bahari laughed kept her quiet. "Bekeli!" she snapped, glaring at the luckless male. "You could have put Zalika in terrible danger. You should be exiled!" She didn't actually intend to exile him, but putting some fear in him wouldn't hurt.

Sakelo dove out of the way. Okay, so he had kind of expected an angry reaction from Zalika, but he hadn't actually expected her to go insane. Should he get in the middle of it? Did he want to lose an eye, and destroy his chances to bang Zalika?!

The answer to both questions was no. Sakelo backed away, staring as Zalika tried to attack Bekeli and Bekeli tried to hide behind Bahari.

Bahari suddenly found herself stuck between two screaming, flailing hyenas. For just a second, a split second, she remembered how life had been before she and Dikeledi had decided to form a clan. It had been lonely and often hungry, but it had been so quiet.

Then she came back to earth. "Stop it!" Bahari yelled, shouting to make herself heard over the chaos as she maneuvered to keep herself between the two hyenas. "Zalika! Stop trying to kill your father! Bekeli! Shut up!" She didn't want to reprimand Zalika in front of two males, but this was getting out of hand. "This is making a very bad impression on your consort!"

Sakelo wasn't terribly afraid of the dainty (and enraged) princess, but he took an inadvertent step back when she turned on him. Jeez. He had marched in here as a free hyena, and now he had this whole crazy family ordering him around like he was some kind of ... possession. He wasn't taking it seriously yet, but it was a little weird.

It was good though, right? It was good that Zalika felt possessive over him. She wasn't going to be the easy lay that he had expected from Bekeli's prattling, but she sure would be worth it when he finally managed to get into her fur. "I won't look at Kibibi," Sakelo agreed, careful staying out of bite-range. Of course, he had no idea who Kibibi was, but experience had taught him that irate females didn't take well to anything other than complete agreement.

And now ... now he was alone with the still pissed-off queen, and the stupid male that had started this mess. "If you'll excuse me," Sakelo said, backing away. "I have to go hunt something, or ... something. Excuse me." With that vague excuse, the male turned and trotted briskly away. Let them sort out their mess on their own. If Zalika wasn't there to impress, he wasn't going to get in their way.

Bahari waved a paw impatiently at the new male, shooing him away. She would find him later and interview him, make sure that his intentions were honorable, but he seemed like an agreeable hyena. If he hadn't taken advantage of a sleeping Zalika in her den, he didn't seem like much of a threat.

"You should have brought him to Dikeledi or I," she said sternly. "If I'm going to have more pups, I don't want to think that strange males might be let in to wander as they will!" That seemed like a good way to threaten Bekeli ... by threatening to take away his chance to make more pups with her.