Cothoza listened quietly as the night began to stir around him. The moon had crept it's way high into the sky as he moved almost silently through the tall grasses surrounding his home. Clouds of darkness and impending rain touched the stars as they waded over the sky. Sometimes they would clear just enough for him to peer out into the darkness and see the moon in a favourable yellow. Sometimes the thicket of tough shrubbery prevented him from seeing anything.

Tonight was one of the nights he could see. And tonight was one of the nights he gazed out at the landscape in comfort.

The quiet movement of something caused him to turn a bright yellow gaze over to his far left. In the distance, he saw something that resembled a mass of green hair inching it's way forward.

A growl emanated from his mouth, a dissatisfied low rumbled of which the approaching person would have to respond.

"Take it easy" The intruder on his serenity, a hyena, calmly huffed out. She carried a zebra leg in her mouth, her version of a success story.

A snort was all she received. A snort and head turn of disgust at the piece of meat she had collected and dropped down promptly in front of Cothoza. As the hyena raised an eyebrow the black lion rolled his eyes, bent down and took a bite- more like a nibble into the food.

The hyena was impressed, her ears perked up over her hefty mass of hair and head fur to symbolize it. She then turned around, exposed her back to Cothoza and sat to keep a lookout.

Psh. As if anyone would attack his cave.

"I can't keep doing this for you, y'know?" Vellamo did not turn back to face him, merely spoke from where she was and allowed her larger companion to bite off more and more of the meat. "I got a job to do and a place to be. I ain't going to be around 'ere much longer y'know? Y'all got ta start a learning how to hunt for yourself soon."

He flicked an ear in response but was too busy eating the juicy red meat to pay attention. The hyena was stupid. She wasn't allowed to leave she was his servant.

"and if ya' think of coming after me when I'm gone then ya' best don't bother." His gaze lifted to stare at Vellamo's purple back at this comment. "Ta monsters will eat you." Cothoza rolled his eyes. There we go again, all her talk about monsters. Monsters this, monsters that. All a bunch of baloney about some pride she claimed to belong too. Cothoza was 70% sure it didn't exist and the only reason he was 30% sure it did was because she had a few other hyenas always tailing her.

They stayed in the shadows. Never did they ever reveal themselves in broad daylight, and at night they remained such a far distance away that Cothoza couldn't see them even when he squinted.

"... don't take me lightly now, 'cause they will break your back. Just consider this fair warning if ta consider something stupid."

Him? She was the stupid one. Licking his chaps Cothoza pawed at the remaining carcass and batted it next to Vellamo, who looked disgusted at how he had failed to eat every last scrap. "Messy eater." She huffed out before turning to leave. Cothoza grunted in response.

She would be going to fetch him more food. Food he hadn't deemed disgusting or unsatisfactory for his tastes. He might have been a picky eater but it was his pickiness that had gotten him this far. His idiot brother had once gotten himself poisoned by plowing head first into a meal. The other male had backed away from the zebra meat. He hated the taste of it, even when he was instinctually drawn to hunt zebra. He much preferred the taste of antelope or wildebeest to that of zebra. The fact that he refused to hunt such a creature for himself sometimes made Cothoza slightly leaner. He was on the weak side right now but soon he'd train Vellamo to bring him fat juicy new types of meat so he wouldn't have to force himself to survive off of zebra legs. Of course, that would mean he'd have to accompany her on her hunts. She was quite the hot-headed hyena and she wasn't going to do him the favor of serving up meat at any given hour like she was currently.

It hadn't occurred to him that she was buttering him up. Vellamo felt guilty for having to abandon the black lion in a few days; and was trying to cater to him now so he would perhaps think nicely of her when she left. It wouldn't do very good to have him tail her and her family back to Hanma's Volcano. The other monsters would attack the poor fool, that she had happened upon while doing a scouting trip of the area once. He had been on his last limb, yet refused to speak or say anything to her. Since her family was camping in the area until Nuru had made up his mind about whether to follow them or not Vel had come up with a plan of wooing this lion to be on their side. Of course He was oblivious to the whole plan and not a word was said to him about it. As far as he was concerned Vellamo would continue serving him and then follow him wherever he went.

So, she told him the truth. She was leaving. Now. Tomorrow. Soon, when it was either confirmed or denied that her mother was pregnant. He didn't believe her then, or even the next few days after she had left and not returned, but Vellamo wasn't a liar. And she definitely wasn't lying about that pride of hers either. For the monsters, they were real. And they were coming.

1000 words