The prince began to nod off with his body, growing heavy. He shook his head in an attempt to wake up. His eyelids heavy only managed to open halfway. “Busara’s flute. What is she doing?”

Dayo put one hand on the ground to try to push his body up. Too fall under the musical enchantment the young prince’s mind went hazy. He collapsed to the ground unconscious.

The residents throughout the estate heard Busara’s soothing song. Each of them collapsed where they were completely unaware of what had happen.

*

Busara finished her song out on the veranda of the courtyard. She lowered her flute from her mouth. She looked back inside. “Everyone should be asleep now.”

Kovu let go of his ears. He walked outside. “Please retrieve my brother. I will meet up with you at the gates.”

“Yes.”

Kovu jumped off the veranda and headed to the most northern corner of the estate. Once there he spotted a guard fast asleep in front of a door. The man’s body acted as a blockade between the prince and the door.

The prince moved the guard aside only to see a lock on the door. He whipped out his axes and slashed off the handle. He kicked the door open determine to not let anything else stand in his way.

The door led to a flight of steps which went underground. There was no light source to speak of which lead everything into darkness. Prince Kovu put his axes away.

He retraced his steps to get a torch light and quickly made his way back. He descended down the steps with the torch in hand. The prince had never been so far underground. When he finally made it down the steps there was only one thing before him. A cell.

The sound of rustling chains came from the darkness. The prince stepped forward, bringing the fire closer to the cell. When he gazed at what was behind the bars he saw him, the last of Bakari’s brothers.

The boy’s fire orange eyes gazed up at Kovu as if utterly lost. He sat against the back wall he had been chained against. Dirty white rags barely clung to his body. He looked like he had not eaten in months. His hair a dirty red that fell lower than a woman’s.

Kovu wrapped his hand around one of the bars. He clenched his teeth as his body shook at the sight. Such treatment of one’s own family was unforgivable. The prince pulled open the door not able to take it anymore. He stabbed the torch into the dirt floor

He stepped into the cage, walking up to the boy. “You are coming with me.” He placed his hand on the bony boy’s shoulder. The boy gazed up at the prince with no emotion what so ever.

The prince gazed up at the chains that bond the teenage boy. He pulled his sword from his sheath and cut each of them from the wall to free the boy. The boy looked through the open cell door.

“You need to get up and-” The prince looked back to the boy to see that he had not moved at all. He kneeled down in front of the youth. He placed his fingers on the side of the boy’s throat to check for a pulse.

As soon as the prince had done so the boy became strutted, trembling on his side. Kovu held his hands over the boy. “It is all right. I am not going to hurt you. I come to rescue you.”

Despite the prince’s reassurance the boy did not change his position. Kovu took a few steps back so that his own body was not over the ragged boy. He soon came to the realization that the boy was not use to being touched or seeing another person which meant he had no understanding of language either.

This would be harder than he first expected. He sat down on his rear as he stared at the frighten boy who would normally be considered a man at his age. Bakari had spoken truth when he said there were worst thing than being poor.

Kovu narrowed his tan eyes as he thought about what he should do. He needed the boy to trust him so he would not coward from him. If the boy continued to be scared than it would make it hard to travel. As he thought of solutions to this problem he noticed that the boy had been staring at him.

In that moment, the boy reminded him of his own brother. Whenever he managed to beat his brother at something he always watched him as if to see what he did wrong back when they were still children. Maybe if he could not commutate with the boy through words there was another way to get through to him.

The prince decided to take the risk of mimicking the boy so they stared directly into each other’s eyes. Once he believed the two had connected, Kovu sat back up. The boy on the other hand only moved his eyes to follow the prince.

Kovu tried once more, starting in the lying position again. The second time, the boy still had moved nothing but his eyes. Kovu continued his pattern over and over again by first establishing eye contact. It seemed to go on for hours with each attempt a complete fail.

With a sighed, the prince tried to think of some other way to get through to the boy. He heard chains rattle and flapping sounds that arouse his attention. The young redhead had been attempting to copy him.

Kovu’s eyes opened wide at the sight. The boy’s limbs shook and trembled as they tied to perform the same action Kovu had done. His body however continued to fall over on every attempt.

Kovu slowly moved in closer to the boy. Carefully as if he were a life size doll he helped the boy back up against the wall. It had taken awhile but it seemed as if he had started to get through to the boy. He just had to keep working. He just hoped Busara could wait a little longer.

*

Meanwhile Busara had finished packing up the horses and took them from the stables. She had then went to retrieve Prince Dayo’s unconscious body. She had draped his arm over her shoulder and gotten him onto his feet. She slowly guided him outside toward the horses.

It had been a long struggle as the male weighted more than herself. She was almost to the horses as she dragged the body. “You certainly do weight more than you look.”

“I knew you were up to something, wench.”

Busara looked back to the main hall of the estate. One of the front doors had been slid open. Leaning against it was Neema holding his spear for support. He grimaced as if he were in pain. “How did you escape my song?” Busara questioned.

Neema grabbed the side of his head as he steadied himself. “I knew something was wrong when I heard a flute playing suddenly. I almost did get caught up in it. What do you think you are doing with the prince?” He walked down the steps.

He stopped and faced her across the clearing. “Well whatever it is, I won’t allow you to get away with it.” The young noble readied his spear. “Prepare to die, you witch. I will not allow you to use your magic to manipulate the princes any further.”

Busara glared at him. “I am no witch.”

“Ha, you expect me to believe a commoner like you has a grace.” Neema spread his feet and bent his knees so that he could charge forward, a smirk on his lips. “Only the grand nobles have the great favor of the angels.”

Busara grabbed a hold of her flute. “This is a relic of the angels.”

“If that is true then it is my duty to take it away from a woman such as you.” Neema’s eyes blazed up in fire. “After all the angel relics also belong to the nobles not to dishonest commoners.” He charged forward like a raging bird.

Busara put down the prince and quickly brought the flute to her mouth. “As if you nobles can be consider honorable.” The young woman blew as hard as she could. A rush of wind blew from the other end that pushed Neema back.

Neema did not let that stop him. His blade caught fire which he stabbed into the wind. The flames spread across the stream, racing back at Busara.

Busara ended the blast so the fire could not connect back to her. She lowered her flute down in frustration. Sweat poured down from every area of her body. Her eyes trembled with her rage.

Neema landed, sliding backwards. “Have any other tricks you want to try.” A cocky toothy grin spread across the noble’s face.

Busara’s entire body tensed up. Her song had failed to put the noble to sleep and he had already figured out how to stop her winds. Her only choice now would be her high pitch sound attack, but that might wake everyone from their slumber. If the rest of the phoenixes woke up there would be no chance at all.

“Exactly, what I thought.” Neema swung his blade down beside him. “You actually thought you stood a chance against a man what a joke.”

Busara glared at him. Her gender had nothing to do with this. He was a trained fighter with at least two graces, very few could stand up to that. Busara looked to the horses behind her. She pulled one of Prince Dayo’s swords from its sheath and held it in front of her.

“Like you know how to use it. Give up now and I will make it painless.” The young noble’s eyes were intense, his face excited with the lust of victory. He hunched his shoulders and readied his weapon. He was ready to go in for the killing blow.

“If you even touch a hair on her head I will kill you.” A voice boomed from beside them.

Both looked toward it to see Prince Kovu standing before them with the boy leaning against him for support. The prince glared at Neema.

“Your highness,” Neema said.

“Prince Kovu,” Busara replied.

Neema stared wide eye at the royal. “Prince Kovu, you are awake, but I thought. Wait who is that with you?”

Kovu shifted his eyes over to the boy he had been supporting. “This is your brother, Neema. I am taking him with me.”

Neema took a step back, nearly falling over from the shock. “What are you talking about? I only have two brothers. This is…”

“Look at him,” Kovu demanded. “He has your family’s eyes, your hair. Who else could he be but a member of your clan? Besides I am sure you heard what the oracle once told your father. That he would have seven children. Where do you think the last one was this whole time?”

Neema shuddered. “No, that one died in childbirth. My mother told me so herself. If he is one of us where has he been this whole time and why does he look like that?” He swung his arm to the side in his anger.

“Your father thought of him as a bad omen so he imprisoned him,” Busara spoke. “Your father seems to have a habit of locking up whatever he finds distasteful.”

“What would you know, witch?”

“I am no witch!”

“Enough!” The prince once again brought their attention back to him. “What Busara said about him is true which is why I had her help me. I will get this boy out of here and give him a new life just as Bakari has asked me.”

“Big brother Bakari asked you to? Hold on.” Neema shook his head to try to clear his thoughts. “If my father thought this boy a danger there is no way my big brother would disobey him. It would be the same as asking for his own death.”

Neema lowered his head. The shadows of the night covered the expression on his face as he fell silent. The handle of his spear fell from his hand. He slipped his finger through the crimson ring on the bottom of it. Its sharp point hovered just above the dusty ground.

The phoenix spear slowly swung back and forth. Neema’s whole body tensed up as he thought about everything the prince and witch had said to him. “So what you are saying is that this boy has been a source of contention between my big brother and father.”

Neema stuck out his hand as far away from his body as he could. He spun the spear on his finger as the weapon became completely consumed in fire. A flame wheel spun next to his arm, lighting up his face in a violent light. He lifted his head with the dead seriousness of an assassin. “In other words I must kill him.”

Kovu put down the boy who fell onto his side from lack of strength. The prince ripped out his axes. “I will not allow it!”

“You do not have any authority right now, Prince Kovu! This is a family matter.” Neema’s eyes burned even brighter.

“Then stop acting like a brat for once!” Kovu shouted with full conviction in his anger. His eyes were sharper than a lion’s. His body ready to leap and take down his fellow noble.

“Me, a brat. What would you know?”

“I know you never acted like an older brother once in your life.”

“I never asked to be one!”

“It does not matter if you asked for it.” Kovu bit down on his teeth so hard he risked cracking them. “No one asked to be anything when they were born. Neither noble nor commander choose what they were it was their fate in life. That does not give you the excuse of ignoring your responsibility.”

Kovu lowered his weapons. “You are an older brother just as Bakari is. It is time you grow-up and accepted that responsibility. Your younger siblings have to rely on you just as you relied on Bakari and Fujo. If you have complaints against your siblings it is because you have not done your part in their upbringing.”