Ch 16 Confessions

Mwezi and her mates went as a group to drop her off at the newly established Sabertooth kingdom. Tayir and Māui went ahead to make sure the path was clear considering the state of things. "It was about time." Lu'anna sighed as she gave Mwezi a side glance with a smirk. "Momma what did you do?" Mwezi giggled. "I did nothing but support my loving little girl." she retorted, feigning innocence. There was a squeal as 3 small children ran up to the entourage. "Auntie!" they screamed as the guards parted the way so the boys could run up to Mwezi.

They nearly knocked Mwezi over even though she crouched down to intercept them. Kai was half tempted to pull them off her by their scruff. "What did I tell you about jumping all over your Aunt like that! She has your cousins in her belly! Have you lost all sense!" Sabine snapped. The boys quickly scrambled off Mwezi and helped her upright. "Sorry auntie! Sorry mommy!" they replied quickly. "I pray you have girls." Sabine joked. The men all looked at each other knowing full well that that would be more dangerous than anything. "Perhaps not." Kaizo retorted with a chuckle and a wink.

Sabine pulled Mwezi along after she said her goodbyes to everyone. "My brother is in a mood, just warning you. He's never been in his human form this long and dealing with idiots and politics is quite vexing for him." Mwezi wanted to laugh but she saw the look on Sabine's face and she grew worried. They had stopped at a training area where a bunch of men were fighting Namur. He seemed to be working out his frustrations on them whether it was yelling or beating them near senseless. "Oy! Nam Nam!" Mwezi shouted.

On que Namurs head snapped to the side as his eyes locked with hers. He caught the fist headed for his face and tossed the guy aside before running over to Mwezi. "Alright boys go rest up." Sabine called out shooing them away. Namur hugged Mwezi tight as she wrapped her arms around his neck. He buried his face into the crook of her neck and inhaled deeply a few times as if trying to remind himself of her scent. "I missed you too." Mwezi said quietly as Namur began to purr. "I'm half tempted to go back into the wild and take you with me." he muttered into her neck.

She giggled, "and what about everyone else?" Mwezi asked. "Sabine was made for this. She leads, I fight. I wish she was the older sibling." he sighed before lifting his head and resting his forehead against hers. "Well about that…" Mwezi whispered and Namur pulled his face back. "What's wrong?" He asked. "Let's get everyone together so we can go over everything once." Mwezi retorted.

Namur led her to his home, Sabine had already arrived with everyone else including four men Mwezi had never met. They all stood around Lu'anna protectively and they all had between three to four marks from what she could tell in various spots on their body. Some of them were easy to tell who was what but some she had never seen before. She was not Steve Irwin, she worked with shiny rocks. "First let's get everyone acquainted and then we can discuss the problem at hand." Sabine offered. The Jaguar king had shown up with his queen and her mates. "Quite the party." Sabine joked as she nudged Mwezi's arm. Once Mwezi was introduced the men's faces lit up. "So this is our daughter you've been hiding from us!" One yelled. He was tall, sunkissed and bald. It was different to see but it worked for him. "Ale'te." he introduced himself with a smile. "Lion shifter and great warrior." he boasted.

Mewzi bit her lip to refrain from laughing. "It's good to meet you pops!" she replied with a smile and he pulled her in for a great hug. "And before you ask, yes I am close shaven. Unlike other shifters, our hair in this form only makes our mane much longer." Mwezi giggled which bubbled over into full laughter she had been suppressing. "Makes sense." she said, wiping a tear from her eye. "Lu'anna I want another daughter. They are too cute." he said, rubbing her face against Mwezi's. "Do you know the dangers the male populace would be if we had a daughter?" another one but in. He was lighter in color and had curly salt and pepper hair. "Me'Eteh, Orca Elde. Lu'anna's favorite. I'm glad we got to finally meet you." he introduced himself before kissing her forehead. "Likewise papa." she replied and jumped into his open arms squeezing him tight. He sighed, "Alright, maybe Ale'te is onto something. We could do one." he joked.

"Etum." the one with golden eyes introduced himself. "Feyeh." The other said. His deep voice started Mwezi. She wasn't expecting it but it was cool like a movie trailer narrator. "Etum is an Owl shifter and I am a Mammoth. Much like Namur, my people were struggling to survive. I took this initiative very personally as someone who was also on the brink of extermination. Thank you for what you have done here. I will do everything I can to help." He said, thanking Mwezi before turning to Namur with a nod.

"Now I'm sure the others and I are just as worried as to why we're here. You never call us off a mission." Etum said. "You guys are badass." Mwezi gleamed. Etum chuckled and patted the top of her head. "Put that on the list of things that will make my day. My daughter thinks im baddass." he replied. "Hey wait a damn minute she said you guys, as in all of us." Kaizo retorted. "Mhmm yeah yeah sure." Etum replied and gave Mwezi a wink. She giggled like a little girl. It reminded her of when her father cracked jokes with her and her mom at dinner time.

Māui sighed and waited for everyone to be seated. Nyoka coiled up and lifted Mwezi to sit on top. "Thank you baby." she whispered to him and he kissed the top of her head before wrapping his arms around her waist. "My brother has declared war, specifically he threatened Mwezi." he informed everyone. Namur shot off his seat with a roar. "You should have lead with that Lu'anna." Ale'te said as his face partially shifted. "Oh yeah and have the lot of you sneak in and murder the tiger royal court. No thank you. We take them down, we do this the right way." she retorted with a raised brow. Feyeh huffed and it sounded more like an elephant grunt.

"I'm okay Nam Nam, I don't want to get you involved. You just started your rebuild and you have more important things to focus on an-" Mwezi started but Namur cut her off. "What's more important than the woman I love?!" Namur asked. Lu'anna scoffed and tossed her hands in the air in defeat. "Why is it the life or death situations that make them confess?" she muttered. "I second that." Tayir said. "Nothing is more important to us than your safety right now." He added. Mwezi was looking around with her jaw hanging in confusion and flustered. Nyoka lifted her jaw, closing her mouth for her.

"Well isn't this lovely." Etum chuckled. "I don't remember being so dramatic in my youth," he joked. Ale'te laughed, "so we're going to skip over the nest situation." Etum pretended to put him in a choke hold. "That's enough of that." He scolded. "Mwezi wanted to come here to visit you all but to be in a safe space where she wouldn't have to worry about anything while we prepare and go over things. But she figured you'd want to know." Kaizo said. Sabine and Namur looked at one another and nodded. "We will help," She said. "Sis no really. Focus on your people and getting them sorted." Sabine sighed and shook her head. "You are our people Mwezi." She retorted. "Well now that that's settled let's get to work shall we? " Etum said enthusiastically.

The stone slab in the middle of the room was perfect for the map of the kingdoms rolled out. Mwezi got to see how large everything really was and all the different types of land and topography in the areas. "The rivers that run from the ocean on the edge of the Aviary kingdom run straight into their territory." Ale'te pointed out. "Feyeh do you think your people could dig a new path? Start from here and build up to redirect the water." Namur asked. "Except for the part where my father oversees their military and is the head advisory council. He would team with Tazeem out of spite for Mwezi alone." Tayir pointed out "What does Sumir have against my daughter?" Etum asked. "Our daughter!" Me'eteh said with an eye roll.

Tayir gave them the full backstory of what happened. Namur wanted to take out Samir as well and hoped that they sided with Tazeem. "I'll see what I can do and what strings I can pull. We just need a majority, not all." Etum offered. "I will go with you. Kai can watch the Kingdom and start the recall of current supply runs. No supplies, no water, no food. From us anyway." Kaizo added. "Any other possible enemies?" Lu'anna asked.

"Wolf kingdom had been asking for supplies to assist with feral attacks. While it may be a small issue, it is still one. Nyoka, any help or advice you can give us would be great." Kai said. Nyoka nodded. He was grateful for the opportunity Mwezi gave him in life but now he was able to pay it forward and do good for his people. "We find out why they're attacking and what they need that'll usually calm them down. But we need to be prepared if they...fit the stereotype. " Nyoka replied. Kai nodded and Mwezi rubbed Nyoka's arm around her waist in comfort.

"Do we have anything from the Tiger kingdom and where they stand? We can always redirect the water source from there or risk corssingthe borders into the wolf kingdom directly." Mewzi offered, looking over the map. She wasn't sure how physics worked here since rivers were flowing north and up mountains but she shrugged it off. "The Tiger queen may not want to get involved. They are getting their water supply from Eagle kingdom as well technically and if they side with us Eagle may cut them off." Kaizo replied. "And making them a fresh path from the water would take too much time." Feyeh added.

"Imagine their faces when we show up from the north." Sabine said with a laugh. "I will enjoy their shock as much as I will enjoy their blood shed." Namur replied. "Let's try to keep the damage to a minimum and only hit the soldiers who attack first. I'd like to have something left to offer. No offence but yall are ruthless." Māui joked. "None taken. Given my propensity to not like people, it's a fair request." Namur replied. "Aw big brother is growing up." Sabine joked as she patted him on the back with one hand and wiped away a fake tear with the other.

"I could try to take him out quickly." Tayir offered. "Fuck no. You are not going in alone. The king may be a bitch ass welp but the warriors are not." Māui replied. "Ohhhh idea. Back home we have a special place called a bunker where we take our world leader if something bad happens within our country and shit hits the fan or their life is in danger. Do you guys have a place like that?" Mwezi asked and Māui nodded. "If you know where it is or we can find out where, we could cause some chaos as a distraction." Mwezi suggested. Māui nodded for her to continue. "So Tayir and you with some friends can go find out where it is or scope out the area. I don't think anyone would suspect us hitting that place first but if there is a low enough body count we could take out whoever is currently guarding the spot and set up some traps or something. I don't know, I'm not really a tactician, sorry." She apologized.

Māui lifted MWezi onto her feet from Nyoka lap and kissed her gently. Both his hands cupped the side of her face as his lips met hers. It was so soft and warm it nearly brought her to tears. "Never apologize for being great. Full idea or not it's an amazing plan we can work it out." he said as he rested his forehead against hers. "Kay." was all she managed to reply without her voice cracking with emotion. She didn't realize how badly she had been waiting for that kiss. Māui Sat back down and pulled Mwezi onto his lap and held her close. Nyoka pouted but he understood.

"I have a general idea where it may be. This map doesn show it but there are fresh water hot springs in the mountains. The caves are connected by tunnels all along here." Māui says and he motions to the Northern part of the wolf kingdom. "It's cold, air is thin and its hard as fuck to climb if you're not used to the climate. Feyeh, Namur and I could handle it fine with some help but I think Tayir should be a look out at best. Air and climbing may not be an issue for him but it's cold as fuck without a proper coat." Māui suggested. "I don't mind looking out but I want to be able to do more." Tayir replied. "Oh I can get you some hot spice!" Lu'anna suggested. "That'll work." Tayir and Māui replied. Mwezi raised her hand. "Oh, it's a spice we can eat straight or cook with and it keeps our body temperature higher than normal. It's good for hunters going up into cold lands or if someone is trying to live outside of their normal habitat." Lu'anna informed her. Mwezi nodded, grateful. "Thank you."

"How easy will it be to set a trap then?" Paka asked as he entered the room with food and a drink for Mwezi. She squealed happily and bounced on Māui lap excitedly as she took the food. Māui growled in his chest and tightened his arm around her waist. "Please don't do that." he whispered to her with clenched teeth. "Sorry…" she whispered back, embarrassed. Tayir sat to Māui and Mewzis left and Namur sat to their right. They wanted to enjoy this closeness with her now that the cat, bird, dog was out of the bag. They realized they had been denying themselves for so long after meeting her and how stupid they had been. They would not make the same mistake going forward.