((Eventually Raimi is bringing Zaira to the pride. But as of now it's just eaiser to store his love life here.))
He had left Suka’Fumo pridelands for a few weeks- not to join a pride or anything. But the fact was he was a costumer; and HE needed new materials. So it was a pilgrimage of his that he was taking. He was going to kill the most unusual creatures and then bring the pelts back for sale. For the moment though he was only seeing boring blacks and browns. He knew the royalty was far more attracted to purple then any of those drab colors. And if he wanted to keep his job he had to appeal to royalty.
Zaira had left her own pridelands for an adventure now that she had become and adolescent. She was stable on her own four paws and though she deeply loved her family she just wanted to go out and have and adventure. Though it probably wasn’t wise to leave the safety of her pride. After all lions were about in these parts, and they were known to be aggressive to Cheetahs. She turned back to look at her pridelands. If she needed a place to run back to at least she had one. Plus she didn’t have plans on meeting any lions anyway. She was just going to explore and then come back home.
Raimi had just finished hauling down a purple wildebeest. He looked at it and skilled in his job he just skinned the creature and slung it’s pelt over his back with the rest of the skin. He really didn’t have an intent on eating it. So he just turned tail and began walking off to find another pleasing purple pelt.
The blue cheetah kept walking. She was getting further and further from her home when the smell of a dead animal wafted threw her nostrils. ‘Mmm. That smells wonderful.’ She wanted to race over and eat it so bad. But her mom and dad had taught her right. She was supposed to AVOID somebody else’s kill. She was a cheetah and cheetah’s were small. But the cub in her just pushed her parents thoughts to the side and she moved forward towards the kill as slowly as she could. With her ears perked up on high alert she couldn’t sense any animals. So she pushed herself forwards once again slowly, slowly, slowly. And when she was merely a foot away from it she sprang onto it taking advantage to eat what was left. She didn’t even notice that the only thing missing had been the pelt and not a single bit of meat had been tarnished.
Again Raimi had stalked up and killed another prey animal. Again he skinned it- this one was red; though it wasn’t royal it had such an interesting glow to it. He knew it would be a favorite for his most loyal subjects. And again he had left the carcass completely untouched. It was a good thing he was strong. Or it would have made his work twice as hard. If he couldn’t kill his prey he wouldn’t get such pretty pelts. He took them off and laid them out in front of him. ‘Hmmm should probably wash off the blood and dirt in a river…’ He noted to himself needing a nap after killing all those animals today.
“I’ll take care of these tomorrow.” He gave a yawn and placed the pelts offside of him.
Zaira couldn’t believe her luck. Nobody had come to claim the kill- well accept maybe a few birds. But for the first time she felt fat able to gorge herself on more then what the other cheetah’s were able to bring in- which was maybe a Thompson’s gazelle and those were tiny. She sat down and looked at her bloated belly. “Oh yea this was the life.” She mused to herself. But then it dawned on her that she hadn’t been the one to make the kill; somebody else had. Somebody very strong. She lowered her nose down to the ground to get any clues- a LION. That would explain the large kill- but why would he just leave the kill like that without eating. She got nervous, Maybe he was one of those crazy lions that just liked killing for the fun of it? He mother would probably kill her if she knew the plans that were going threw Zaira’s head. Why not follow him and keep fat forever?! You’re a Cheetah Zaira- you can outrun any stupid old lion.
And she strode forth with her nose down to the ground like a hound dog.
Raimi didn’t know what was coming after him- or that she had such an unusually pretty pelt. Being a cheetah hadn’t stopped him from killing their kind. He just hadn’t mentioned to whomever was buying WHAT species it had come from. Only that it was rare and had properties that nobody else would be able to find- and that was true. Killing other felines were exactly an accepted process. And though he never attacked lions; if an unfortunate pretty pelted kitty walked by him- they were done for. But today he was in a rather good mood. His eyes looked at his haul; yes he had almost reached his quota. Then they shut and he curled up with another yawn and fell asleep.
Zaira was nearing the beast. She could hear it’s beating heart and it’s breath, then her paw tripped into another dead animal. It too had been skinned like the last- and now this time she noticed. “This lion must be a mad man.” She had to know more! She stepped over the carcass planning on eating it later if the other creature didn’t. She lumbered forward before stopping dead in her tracks. It was a sleeping white lion. She blinked a few times to make sure her eyes weren’t lying. Oh he was handsome! Her eyes then slipped to the pile of mostly purple pelts. That would explain all the carcasses. Her eyes then went back towards the sleeping lion and once more towards the pelts. He wouldn’t miss one…would he? And she’d be gone even before he awoke. So as quietly as she could she went next to Raimi and began throwing pelts over her back. Well maybe she would take more then one. Momma would love a new pelt for the den.
Raimi was in mid-dream, something about the pretty advisors that surrounded the king. Oh how he would have loved a night with Zumi or any of the other ladies of the court. He was about to ‘get some’ by a group of interested beauties when he began to hear a commotions outside of his dreams. First his ears perked up. Then his eyes cracked open to see his pelts moving in a pile away from where he was. He was up in a flash and found himself on top of the pile. “Be lucky thief I can’t claw you or bite you threw my pelts. I need these to be whole for my pride!”
Her eyes flashed with panic as the lions weight was completely on top of her. It was the worst kind of pressure that she ever felt. That and she was scared out of her mind that he was going to eat her. So she just laid there not attempting to free herself if the pelts were the only thing keeping her safe. “I-I-I’m sorry. They were just so pretty. My family has got nothing like this back at our pride…I only wanted to give them as gifts.” She shut her eyes and tightly as she could and feared for the worst. “I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t know you had so many!”