Vellamo had to admit, she was impressed. The cliff was as big as the leopard claimed and there was no way she could imagine that Cothoza would work up the courage to scale it.

"How 'igh does ta cliff go?" She asked, promising the leopard a feather she had found if he agreed to escort her to the Ishara village. It wasn't home, but from there the trek was easy, a straight path to the beaches over the span of a couple days. Her family no doubt was already on their way there. She could no longer smell them within the distance.

"As high as the Kukoa waterfall." Romano replied, he kept a wary eye lurking on Cothoza as Vellamo and he marched on ahead to speak in private. "Mind I ask why your letting him come with us?"

"Mind ta ask why you're being so nice?" Vellamo snapped back. She couldn't help herself the leopard was making it too easy.

"Your .... An oracle." He put simply. There was more too it then that but was it really necessary to say more? Romano certainly thought not.

"And? What of it?" Vel asked him in response. She was prepared with a grin for the oncoming joke. A joke might I add that only monsters would understand.

"I wouldn't want to bend the fates out of my favor by leaving you behind." Vellamo laughed and Romano smirked briefly before Cothoza came marching up to separate the two. He also kept a trained eye on Romano, wary of the fact that all he did was speak in an odd language.

He had been friendly after the attack. Well, not so much friendly as it was an agreement to not kill Cothoza on sight. Then Vellamo and him chatted up a storm in some weird language he didn't even knew she spoke. Cothoza would like to consider himself knowledgeable of his servant, but it was starting to seem like he knew less and less about her. Were they even allies as he had thought? To solve the problem he used himself as a barrier between the leopard he didn't particularly trust and the hyena he was convinced was his slave.

He seemed to not understand that they were both plotting against him. (To run away from him was more like it. They had no ill intentions towards the lion.) And that within a matter of a few short hours Cothoza would have been fooled by two creatures who seemed like enemies rather than allies.

But it would soon become apparent that Vellamo was no slave. And certainly not towards him. The wall they had come across was large, tall and utterly impossible for Cothoza to place his feet in. He was a lion, not a leopard like Romano. He was built for strength, not swiftness like Vellamo. So when the duo began climbing the ridge Cothoza was left to stand at the bottom staring up at them in his silence. 'Come back!' He wished he could say. But one of the few problems of being a mute had come to haunt him. He roared up to Vellamo who paid no mind to his existence. It was as if he wasn't even there. As if he was nothing but a ghost. Or worse, nothing but a shadow.

Vellamo felt bad leaving Cothoza behind with no final words or goodbyes. She had acknowledged him as monster material and knew that his surprise strength in the woods meant he would make an ideal Ghadhabu like Kevah... But, he didn't seem like someone who would follow the rules set before him by a hyena. Or a leopard. Or anything that wasn't a lion like him.

So she climbed. To her freedom from her week trip of being forced to sit in his company. She climbed, to forget the fact that her guide Romano had attacked them. But most of all she climbed to forget someone she had thought about lately. Nuru. Nuru Moyo, the man who f***** his mother.

She growled, low and hoarse with flattened ears and a sliver of hatred on her face. That stupid hyena should have just come with them! Her mother wasn't pregnant but he still should have come and spent his entire life as a Kaless trying to make up for what he did to Euanthe! But Vellamo deep down knew she was being selfish. They loved each other and she was just being the brat who didn't approve.

She prayed her mother wasn't pregnant. She prayed that the lion below her gave up and went on his way. But most of all she prayed, that she wouldn't fall of the stupid cliff!

---

Upon reaching the top Romano had dug his claws into the fresh dirt that just a few steps away from the stones. The structure was a natural made arch that moved over the river and now that he was away from it the leopard had time to watch as creatures below stirred in the stream.

Vellamo soon came crawling over, flopping down with an exhausted sigh and empty comments. "Oh man... That was hard."

"Y-yes...." Romano agreed reluctantly. He didn't exactly find that trek difficult, but of course the oracle was shaped differently than he, she probably had more trouble then he thought climbing up the mountainous rocks. Besides, she was a Kukoa. Built for lakes, not for cliffs. "I shall escort you to the Ishara complex now." He said, but turned to stop as she panted for air. He was getting a mortal object out of this deal he was going to be nice.

"Unless you want to rest?"

"Na, I'm good." Vella breathe out heavily. "Just need a second of rest... Yeah... Breathing time."

Romano plopped his butt down and waited. He could still hear that lion trying to claw his way -unsuccessfully- up the rocks. This earned him a chuckle and Vellamo, catching on, grinned. "Ya know, he ain't that bad."

"Oh really?"

"Ya... Ya just gotta get ov'er his big fat head first!"