Chapter 6 Of Lions and Hyenas

    Aurelia laughed at the way people hurriedly ate in the presence of Zinjo. Everyone left and Zinjo, The Queen, and Aurelia remained. The werelion was dangerously close to stealing her heart. Since they’d met, Zinjo had done nothing but lift her and made her feel like a person again. It bothered her that people hoped to see her miserable. It bothered her that everyone waited to laugh at her next mistake. The queen kept watching her with a strange look on her face.

  “Something wrong mother?” Aurelia asked. 

Zinjo sniffed the air and kept the raptor yellow eyes on the wall, “Hmmm.” his ears twitched.

“No,” she put her hands down and folded her hands on the table. “Tonight was not what I expected...is he okay?” Sophie pointed to Zinjo who now walked along the wall, his nose in the air. His eyes narrowed and he stood in front of the roaring blaze, arms crossed.

   “I don’t know him that well, but I want to know everything about him, good and bad,” Aurelia’s face wore a goofy grin and her eyes rested on Zinjo with affection. “He’s been so kind and supportive.”

   Sophie nodded and took a sip of wine, “I noticed. I thought he would be a savage thing. As it turns out he’s more civilized than half the nobles. He certainly is pleasant to look at…”

    The werelion centered himself and raised his fists, “They come,” Zinjo said. His hand gripped a curious necklace for a moment. The sound of stone grinding on stone caused him to growl and snarl. 

    “Zinjo what's going on?” Aurelia said in a worried tone.

   “The prey tries to become the hunter,” He said as he shifted to his massive feline form.

    Sophie rose from her chair, “Come, Aurelia, it’s not safe here.”

   Too little too late the fireplace twirled open and three men with lethal smirks on their faces entered. “I told you this job would be easy. We get in, kill the queen and...oh, no”

   A paw gripped the nearest would-be assassin and threw him into a wall. In a flash of gold fur, his fist slammed into the face of another. Zinjo growled at the third, “Surrender and face justice.”

   A bizarre laugh came from the third and his clothes ripped and fell off his body. The laughter rattled the brain, and sent chills down aurelias spine, the face twisted in a deadly smile of fangs and while smaller than Zinjo, Aurelia sensed the newcomer was far from defenseless. The spotted coat shook with mirth. “You are far from home, lion. We ended the conflict between our peoples long ago, do not throw it away for an old woman.” he tried to slide by Zinjo who caught him by the back leg and threw him back to his original position.

   “I cannot let that happen,” Zinjo said. He held his ground and stood tall. His tail twitched back and forth. “We both know which species is stronger,” A low growl escaped from his face.

    The queen stared at Aurelia, “I was horrible to him, why is he putting himself at risk?” She quickly crawled towards the door, as did Aurelia. If the people could see their leaders now, crawling on their hands and knees to escape their assailants.

    The reasons did not matter to Aurelia, each time her hand pressed against the cold stone, she found admiration and pride in her future husband, “I suspect it’s because you are my mother. He was next in line to be chief you know.” Aurelia said. 

    The hyena man charged Zinjo and knocked him down, “The prey is mine,” sinister laughter caused panic in the queen and Aurelia who found their feet and streaked toward the door. In a flash of spotted fur the Hyena man blocked the door, “Now, be good prey and die.” The bestial man raised his fist with a dagger made of glassy obsidian.

  Sophie closed her eyes tight and refused to give the assassin the satisfaction of her screaming. She expected pain and not a powerful golden paw, that gripped the hyena by the wrist and halted the dagger's progress, “Run,” Zinjo said in a fierce growl. 

  A pale young hand gripped the older wrinkled one, “This way mother,” Aurelia yanked her in the direction of the servant's door. She watched Zinjo locked in combat with his enemy. The obsidian dagger clattered against the stone. Zinjo slammed the hyena against the wall, and his balled fist followed. Something snapped and crimson liquid poured from the nose.

  The hyena countered with a vicious kick to the gut and knocked the larger zinjo back and then pounced. The pair tumbled to the floor. Aurelia clutched her mother tight as the hyena rained blows on Zinjos face. “We have to get him help,” She cried. 

    There wasn’t time because the onyx dagger gleamed in the pale light of the room, and descended toward Zinjos heart. Aurelia cried into her mother's shoulder and closed her eyes to spare herself the pain of death.

    “Not today, wretched hyena,” Zinjo growled in determination. He ripped the dagger from the hyena’s hand and drove it into the beast's throat. A rain of crimson dowsed Zinjo as he drove it deeper and deeper into the offending party’s throat. The body slumped over and a naked man replaced the twisted form that was. 

   The body hit the ground with a thwap, and Zinjo placed a foot on the fallen foe and roared in victory. Then he did something strange. He knelt next to the body and closed the empty eyes, “You died well and fought with courage and conviction. May you find mercy with the creators, for crimes against others.”

   He turned and faced Aurelia and Sophie, his mane soaked in the blood of his enemies. Aurelia pushed her mother away and tried to put her arms around him. He shook his head, “I am unclean from violence, let me wash up first.”

    Sophie pulled the velvet rope to summon a servant, “I’ll prepare a bath.”