Damu glared at the pond before her. Africa could be quite the danger zone sometimes, and Damu for one was thankful for it. She lived and breathed and thrived in danger and knowing of what one was not to expect next.But this... This was testing that reserved mindset just a bit.
A gator opened his exhausted mouth and slammed it shut in a huffed yawn. Damu had stumbled across something she had yet to experience in her life, and was still debating she liked the fact that it was unique or not.
"Surely you don't believe I'm a trespasser?" She asked the alligators swishing about. A hoard of the vile creatures all lurking in the sea of scales below her. "I assure you I am not."
One squinted and another hissed as he pounced upon a third gator. Damu seemed to care less; even as she was sitting in the presence of creatures who were capable of snatching her up. "Tress... Tresss.... passer?" The one she had looked at upon speaking to purred out in delight. "Nooo...." Another swam near it, mumbling something incoherent to Damu in the first gator's ear. They laughed revoltingly at whatever comment it had made. One growled softly- a warning almost. "Sssnnack for a sssnake perhaps?" It spoke brokenly. Brokenly and struggling to find the perfect words it wanted the red furred feline to know.
Hmm. Hostile they were then. Feisty creatures.
"Come, come; I simply wish to pass through." She assured them with a nodd "I wish you no trouble at all." She had no difficulties feigning confidence due to her broken emotional pallet. Damu's cursed serious face came in handy when situations like these came up. Ah, she actually found it beneficial for once...
"Heheheh..." One of the scaled reptiles chuckled darkly. "Wwhhy... Should we let you passss?" He asked and even approached Damu quite closely to make his point. She shivered as his rough scales brushed along the tips of her tail fur.
"You don't believe me? I'm being sincere."
"That iisss not what we asssked you." A scaly voice came from somewhere in the mix of hisses and snarls. The harshness of the gator who spoke it warned Damu to not take chances with this bunch.
The leopardess cleared her throat. Lying a bit wouldn't hurt her much, now would it? "I am a trader." She paused in case they didn't understand. She decided to put some truth into that factoid as well. "An explorer." Some gators turned to pay attention to her at hearing that statement; others faced the opposite direction. "Perhaps there is an item you would all like- but it only comes from a far off distant land." She paused again to let it sink in, the proposal she was making. "I could retrieve said item for you, in exchange for passing through unharmed."
It had been dually noted earlier that this was the only way up into the mountains she wanted to explore. Right through the path of an alligator infested swamp.
"Ssss'not what we wannnt." The first gator to speak with her cooed softly. "We be wanting... Sssomesing else." He had arrived at the shore now. Dangerously close, but Damu remained still. She did not flinch as he leered at her and moved so close that his alligator breathe stung at her very lips.
Move! Her body told her. Her legs did not obey.
"What we be wanting....." His yellow eyes found her own blood colored ones and Damu's fur stiffened.
"Is YOU!" He opened his gigantic jaws and moved in for the kill- but Damu! She thought quick! Leaping from the spot on the sand she had been on, her claws grasped and locked onto the firm texture of rock. Looking down behind her she gasped as the gators swarmed around her, clawing and jumping as a massive moving death trap. She forced her body weight up. Up! Up!
Upon rolling onto the stable part of the rock she spun as an eerie hissing sound closed in behind her. A gator had gotten up here. More closed in behind her, ripping and tearing at her skin as they climbed.
Was this- the end? No, couldn't be...
Damu thought hard.
Her eyes spun violently as she reeled in her body parts while curling into a circle. Her haunches were lowered, though she doubted not that the gators knew perfectly well of her intentions to spring away. More and more pile onto the beach, there was no escape for her now!
She didn't want to leave the earth like this. She didn't want to leave Alone, lost and not having lived a life as thrilling as she had been promised. She wasn't ready to come to terms with that, nor ready to pass on way before her time!
Turning to the first gator- the one who had cornered her the leopardess attempted a last minute fatal plea. "This is all just a misunderstanding you see!" Her explanations were quickly getting her nowhere, and at her heels she could almost feet the tongues of gators tickle her feet. "Really now? Not even going to listen?" She was by far, beyond getting into danger. Unless some hero flocked by Damu was as good as-
Wait a tick. Was that? Yes! Yes it was! A branch, her salvation that mother nature had done so well as to craft! It was terribly high up though...
"You know, this has been quite the experience for me." She continued to chat. Chatting was an effective method of distraction. Maybe it would delay her death?
"Ssiiilence." He hissed.
"But if you must know I really would rather not under any circumstances-"
"I said sssiiilence!" Hissed the gator, he bent down in preparation of a roar that Damu made certain would never sting the air. She ran- bolted fast and in a mad fury jumped upon the assailants back. As he lifted his huge green and scaly head, Damu extracted her claws and leapt, stretching out while gators snapped at her tail and pounced to counter her escape.
Then it all ended, with her landing safely on the branch above.
Turning back Damu huffed in exhaustion and stared down as the gators angrily growled at her. If looks could kill. "I thank you for the parting gift." She cupped a large tooth in her paw and showcased it for the gators to see. Bwahaha, the look on their smug little faces. She grinned widely, even for Damu. "I'm sure it'll make a fantastic necklace one day, tootles~" She then turned tail, kicking dust into the air pleasantly and marched off into the jungle. Grinning at her cunning nature and the trick she played well as the gators sounded off in the distance. One by one snarling more insults.
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