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Being on her own didn't really suit Mustela. She could hunt and fend for herself reasonably well, although it wasn't exactly easy on her own. Still, that wasn't the problem. It wasn't really loneliness that was the problem either, because she had been separated from her family at a young age and had stopped missing them and looking for them fairly shortly, being at first too absorbed in the struggle to survive and then uninterested. The problem was that she was bored.

Undeniably there was some thrill when she went hunting because of the danger of violence and the danger of starving if her hunt was unsuccessful, but even that was fairly routine. What Ela really craved was adventure, and somehow wandering the wilds of Africa on her own just wasn't doing it for her. She wasn't really sure how that worked, but seemingly that was the way of things.

Fastklump was the product of a frustrating childhood. His father had left following Captain Ruzanski on what Fast was now certain had been a doomed mission just prior to the breytast vindar where Aesir lost his position. In his father's absence Fast had gone to live with his father's cousin Atheris and his family, where he was easily the smallest and stupidest of the lot and although his cousins were kind about it, he knew they thought so, too.

The only source of pride in his life had come from his first viking, which had been taken with Captain Erling and on which they brought back some thralls for the pride, even though stupid Sehvi had tried to spoil that for him by tagging along where she wasn't wanted. Now he was determined to prove that he could capture thralls all by himself, without any assistance, and after three days out he had finally spotted a likely candidate in a beautiful pale lioness who looked so soft and delicate Fast knew he had to have her for himself.

Khozar had been surprised when he left the desert by how cold and wet it tended to be elsewhere. He had forgotten all about weather patterns while living among the desert thieves since their weather tended to be either dry and overcast or dry and sunny, and either type of cloud cover could come with wind. Still, he had grown used to it by this point in his travels and had even learned to appreciate it once more. The lands he now walked were cold most of the time though, or at least briskly chilly, and that was a little strange.

He spent a good portion of his time missing his little sister Isa when he wasn't doing his best to survive on his own. Not that she was really his sister, apparently. She was more like his cousin, he supposed. His father had told him that he was a b*****d, the son of his father's brother and his father's beybanu. It had explained so much of his childhood that he believed it unquestioningly and felt no real need to verify the story by returning to his father's old pride and questioning his mother or the lion who was really his father.

Instead he had been wandering toward the coast and then he would travel up it. He wasn't close enough to see, hear, or smell the water, but others he had encountered had told him it was there and he intended to see it. He wondered if it would be like the rolling sand dunes he had grown up among, or otherwise. First, though, he had to reach the coast though.

Ela frowned at the lion who had suddenly emerged from the tall grasses. That was no way to greet a person. Particularly somebody you don't even know. She quickly concluded that she was dealing with a complete idiot, but that conclusion didn't make her relax any. Complete idiots could be even more dangerous than intelligent folks, she had learned. Intelligent people worried about consequences. Idiots didn't.

"Thank you," she said in her most closed-off tone. "I'm also busy, so if you don't mind I'll be moving on."

She knew she was being rude, but the fact was she felt uncomfortable in this situation and was certain that if she remained it would be a very, very bad idea. She wasn't any sort of prescient, but she could certainly form educated guesses. Her guess was that the spotted lion was not wholly rational.

"Don't go!" Fast exclaimed, bounding forward to stop her from leaving. He had made a mistake in the way he approached her, obviously, but he was certain that he could remedy it if she would just give him a chance.

"I didn't mean to offend you. I thought girls like to hear that they're beautiful. That's why I said that. Well, I mean you're actually really beautiful, too. I wouldn't have said so otherwise, but-" She was still walking away. In fact, she was walking away more quickly. This was a disaster.

The young reaver panicked and began to give chase, leaping finally to land on top of her and bring her to the ground. It wasn't how he had wanted things to go, but he was fairly certain he could still make apologies and everything would be okay if she would just hold still and listen to him.

"Hold still," he pleaded as he pinned her. She didn't. Instead she squirmed and struggled beneath him in a way that made him even more aroused than he had been before. He moaned softly.

When the sound of voices changed to the sounds of a lioness in distress and a lion who sounded frustrated, Kho picked up his pace. He arrived on the scene to see a black, blue, and white lion pinning a struggling lioness to the ground. He was not ignorant of how sexual relations worked between lions, but this did not look like the mating process Kho was familiar with. This looked even less consensual than usual. His upbringing had made such a thing abhorrent to him.

"Get away from her," he snarled, using the other lion's distraction to his advantage and sinking his claws deeply into him to drag him off of the lioness. It wasn't exactly easy, given his lean build, but fortunately the lion he was hauling wasn't all that large either. Despite this, he managed to throw the lion a few feet away, giving the trapped lioness the opportunity to scramble away.

Truth be told, Ela was regretting staying as long as she had. The violence and ferocity of the fight had been unexpectedly thrilling to her. She had thought it would repulse and terrify her, but more than anything she found herself aroused. In light of how close she had just come to being raped, this was not exactly a comfortable thing for her, mentally speaking.

"I believe you're correct," she answered him, irritated at how breathy she sounded. Then she turned and departed without another word, or a look at the dark lion who lay limp and bleeding on the ground. She was reasonably certain that he was going to die, either slowly and in much pain, or quickly when the striped lion decided to end it. She was torn between hoping it was painful and hoping it was quick, though she supposed there was no reason why it couldn't be both.

Fast knew he was going to die. He had no doubt of it. Despite this horrible certainty, he found that he was no longer afraid. He had been bested in battle, and now he would die. This was the way a Stormborn ought to meet his end. Although it was really disappointing that he was going to die without ever having sex. At least he wouldn't have to live with his disappointment for too long.

He regarded the lion who would kill him with a calm that he had not expected to feel in this circumstance and then, speaking through the pain burning where his abdomen had been ripped and his insides torn, he made a final request: "Tell my pride how I died."

It had been foolish of him to go off on his own, and if no one told his pride what had happened, it might be thought that he was abandoning the pride. He could not stand to be remembered like that.

Kho looked down at the pathetic figure of a lion bleeding on the ground before him. He really had intended to kill him, and it would probably be kinder of him to do so. Those wounds were likely to fester and even if they didn't, Kho could see that he had done some serious damage. It would be a miracle if the blue-eyed lion lived.

"Tell them yourself. I'm not going to let you off that easily," Kho said, making up his mind in an instant. "Besides, I have no idea where your pride is. You'll have to live long enough to guide me, since I have no memory for long sets of directions."

He had absolutely no idea why he was doing this. None whatsoever. Curiosity, perhaps. Or boredom. Or maybe there was more of his uncle in him than he'd thought and he was just indulging an irresistible streak of cruelty. Either way, he was going to do what he could to keep this lion alive until they reached his pride.