Shikoba looked down at the 'lion' with disgust. It had impersonated her sister. She growled softly. She started towards it, but Dan blocked her with his tail. She whipped her head around to look at him. He just shook his head lightly.
How DARE you?! She thought, staring at him incredulously. I'm allowed to be mad at this thing. Sparks flew from her paws. Dan just stepped away, his ears flattening against his head.
While this was happening, Kai was attempting to calm his sister. It wasn't really working, much to his dismay. Ice was starting to creep up Kosa's tail. If this kept up, soon she would be frozen. It could be undone, of course, but Kai really didn't want it to get that far. She had this sort of faraway look in her eyes.
Meanwhile, since Shikoba was in the middle of being angry, Kipepeo has taken over her role, and decided to bring Talako, Bahari and Nia to find Ren, and hopefully Sable if she was still alive.
Fluji, Amoka and Kallias were searching the library for anything that might be of help to anyone. But so far they weren't having a lot of luck.
Pilio, Helios and Shimo were crouched over the still sleeping doppelganger, inspecting it. It's head was now made of shadow, the edges unclear and seeming to twist in the light given off by Helios' mane. It had also shrunk down to what seemed to be its' normal size. But it still looked like Sable.
Ayo and Urania were helping out Fluji and Kallias, searching their garden for something that could be used to wake the impostor up. They found a few things that might work, but since this thing wasn't of this world, they decided it would be best to keep looking.
And Arctic, Asperitas and Sármo went out to hunt, taking some of the edge off and making them feel like they were doing something.
Eventually, the impostor stirred, blinking its' four, bright red eyes blearily. Shikoba had finally gotten out of her argument with Dan, and has since joined her father's side. The yellow markings on her shoulders were glowing, almost as bright as Helios' mane. Both of the Fire Mages' eyes were filled with rage.
It shrank away from their gazes, the shadowy spikes on the side of its' head folded out into large fans on its' neck.
"Pause," It said, its' eyes wide. The lions in front of it seemed to hesitate. It took this as an encouragement to continue, "Me Proteus. Here, Run Uuk'oks. Chase, Find?" It stuttered clumsily. Along with the pride's native language was an odd alien tongue. It's warped voice hit the lions' ears unpleasantly. "Vegnoiks, Jetjai. Find him, He is Hidden," He said, starting to use his paws to gesture. "Like me. Better game hider," He said, sounding slightly defeated. He stared at the ground, unnerved at his inability to communicate clearly, "Will take. Stop Uuk'oks," He said, nodding to himself, "You help?" He asked, tilting his head. The fans on his head contracted back to their original spiky form.
The lions looked between themselves, trying to figure out what he was saying.
"Small time?" Shimo finally said, gesturing with his tail. Proteus nodded, not really in a position to say no.
The lions left the cave. Shimo had Shikoba stand guard outside, in case he tried to make an escape.
Shimo called everyone into the meeting cave to discuss what just happened.
"So, what should we do?" Kallias asked Shimo had finished debriefing everyone.
"I'm not sure. It doesn't seem overly harmful," Pilio said, "It just asked for help. It wanted to find something. Or many things. It was a little hard to understand him."
"Him?" Kai asked.
"We think it's a he, it said it's name was Proteus," Shimo responded.
Helios stayed quiet as everyone else talked. He leaned into Kosa, who was still at risk of freezing herself. His mane pulsed with warmth that he hoped would transfer to her.
"I think we can trust it," Urania said. Ayo nodded hesitantly.
"Ayo? You seemed hesitant. Is there anything you want to add?" Shimo asked.
I'm just not sure. I want to trust it, but I don't really think we can at the moment, He signed, Who's to say it's not lying again to save it's hide?
Urania relayed everything that he signed to the rest of them.
"I say we put it to a vote," Dan said.
The rest of them, excluding Kosa, made sounds of approval.
"Okay, those who think we can trust it, raise your tails," Shimo said.
Urania, Pilio, Kallias, Dan and Amoka raised their tails.
"And those who think we can't, raise your tails," Shimo said after the first group lowered their tails.
Ayo, Kai, Helios, and Fluji raised their tails.
Shimo sighed as he tried to decide how to approach this, "Alright, since it's only a slight majority for trusting it, how about we combine both ideas. We'll listen to what it has to say, but we'll be extremely cautious about what it tells us."
Everyone seemed to like this compromise.
"So it's settled then."
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