It had been several months since her last encounter with the white lion. She didn’t tell her parents anything of it- other then she had gotten lost and it took her sometime to find her way back to her home. Her mother had been slightly angry with her; but not so much as if she had told her she nearly died TWICE in one day. She wondered what had become of the lion and her nerves had almost regained themselves. But she still couldn’t find it in her to go very far out of the pride. She didn’t want other lions trying to kill her.
Raimi felt bad; he really had been quite horrible to the cheetah female when she had just been trying to help him. It boiled his brain and he looked to the blue pelt that he had intentionally not sold. Some part of him had grown attached to it. He then took it into his maw and decided to do something completely stupid. He’d find this pride full of cheetahs and give the girl the blue pelt which she had seamed to ‘mistakenly’ favor out of the entire bunch. It was the least he could do for scaring the crap out of her like that.
Zaira had found herself standing at the border her toes twitching on the ground nervously. She really wanted to go out and play in the wilderness but she was still terrified from before. “Damn lions…” She muffled out angrly from her maw. It was his fault for scaring her so; if he didn’t have so many pretty pelts she wouldn’t have tried to take one for herself. She still though couldn’t move herself off the boundaries.
The white lion tracked his steps back from the last time he had met the female. He knew a pride was about there but he didn’t exactly know ‘where’. He wasn’t one of the traders in the pride. They were usually the ones that delt without outside negotiations. But he seamed to be fairing well following his nose and ears. He could hear the feint gossip from other cats and knew he was going in the right direction. But was this a bright idea- entering a pride, a pride that probably knew he was dangerous from the cubs mouth- well she wasn’t a cub, but cheetah’s were small to him. So she’d always be a cub in his eyes grown or not.
He eventually found what he was looking for, and with luck the cheetah girl was standing right at the edge of her territory. “Hey! Hey you!” He called out trying to get her attention. He really hoped that she didn’t run further back into the pride. He wasn’t in the mood to play cat and mouse- especially over some ‘silly’ pelt.
Zaira could see something white moving in the distance towards the pride. She didn’t even have to squint her eyes to tell that it was the same white male from before. But why in creation was he coming to HER pride? Even if they were mostly cheetahs, leopards, and other such small cats- it was still suicide. ‘This guy must be out of his mind…’ She stood her ground. If he got into the pride her mother might find out about her twice near death experience outside the pride. At least she had a legitimate excuse if he attacked her here.
“Your brave…or stupid. I can’t tell which.” She cocked her brow at him ready to call the guards if needed.
The white cloud drew closer until he stood a few feet from Zaira. “I’m not STUPID.” He tried not to growl at her understanding her malcontent from being pinned earlier. “But I ya know…kinda feel bad about earlier.” He reached his head over his shoulder and pulled off a cleaned fluffy blue pelt. “I hope you don’t mind my gift.” He took his paw and nudged it in her direction not daring to move any closer to the border.
The blue cheetah looked at the pelt then the lion in front of her, she really did have half a mind to upturn her nose at the gift and walk off. A pelt really didn’t make up for scaring her half to death. But she wasn’t that kind of girl. She was nice, and forgiving- even to lions which she hated to the up most. And she did understand that pelts were how this male made a living. So it must have been pretty special to him to keep it all of this time. “I don’t forgive you for trying to kill me…you almost broke my tail! But-“
She took a long pause wrapping her tail closer to her front paw. “We can start on a good note today and forget everything that happened before. If that’s alright with you…” She couldn’t really understand why she was trying to make friends with the lion, but it seamed like the right thing to do; at least at the moment.
It went better then he had expected. At least she was TALKING to him. ‘Ugh…why did cheet- he meant women have to be so difficult?’ Maybe he had it all wrong about Cheetahs. Maybe they weren’t as bad as he thought they were. He hung his head down sad that he had killed several in the past. Would this female be able to look past that? That he was a monster to cats outside of his own species. He had to be clear to her what he was before he asked to go any further with her. It was bad enough he tried to kill her twice- and probably would have done so the first time had the pelts not been in the way.
“I’ve er killed cheetahs before.” He put it out as clear as he could.
Well that was certainly an interesting way to start a conversation if any. She couldn’t help but look at him flabbergasted trying to figure out where he was going with that. “Well uh…okie…” She cocked her head to one side. “Why would you tell me something like that…? I’m not afraid of you if that’s where you’re going.” She was half tempted to let out an alarm chirp but the look on the other’s face made her stop. He didn’t look very aggressive, more sad then anything.
“Well nobody is perfect- as long as you don’t do it anymore. I’m sure in time you’ll make friends with lots of cheetahs soon.”
“I think I might have just made one.” A small smile crossed over his maw as he looked to Zaira. “That is, if you want to be friends with a lion. Cheetahs don’t like lions very much.”
Zaira nodded. “Well we can change that today can’t we? I’d be honored to be your friend Mr. Lion. Though I can’t call you Mr. Lion can I? Name’s Zaira by the way; what’s yours?”
The white lion looked at her and nodded. “Name’s Raimi. Pleasure to formally meet you.”