Ranyshia had been walking for days and his paws were starting to ache. He scowled in irritation as he padded along. He had yet to reach the ocean still, and he was starting to think that the psychotic male that he had gotten direction from was sending him into the desert instead! He wouldn’t put it past him. He grumbled as he walked. Rogues were rude and cruel, he thought bitterly. He was missing his home pride even more than when he had first left. The appeal of Rayn was starting to fade as his displeasure in the rogue lands grew and grew. 
Dysi was the exact opposite of Ranyshia, he was grinning as he walked, cheerful at his previous experience. He had found a beautiful lioness to keep company and was just heading back away from that pride. He knew he should be heading home to Maleficar, because she was likely getting annoyed at his absence. She was accepting though, and he smiled affectionately as he thought of his beautiful mate. He was really lucky to have found someone so accepting of his wanderings.
He hummed to himself as he walked, his tail swishing back and forth in pleasure as he walked.
Ranyshia spotted him first, and he froze, staring at the odd-looking creature for a moment before he realised that it was a leopard. It had been years since he had seen a leopard. He blinked, watching the feminine looking creature move and trying to figure out if it was a female, or a male. It didn’t’ really matter: the small size of it meant that Ranyshia wasn’t going to have any issues if it turned violent. He was pretty confident that he could just squish the smaller creature, should he get angry.
Still, he was not particularly interested in engaging the creature, and changed his path to try and avoid coming in contact with him - but he was not so lucky. The male spotted him, and shot him a bright smile, that made Ranyshia only scowl a little bit more.
“Hello stranger!” Dysi called out to Ranyshia cheerfully, taking notice of the male’s apparent disapproval at his approach but ignoring it. Dysi was friendly. Perhaps a little too friendly. He had been attacked before, multiple times, and usually by lions, but he had a feeling that this male was not aggressive; just grumpy.
“Go away,” Ranyshia responded, his tone rather blunt.
Dysi blinked, startled by the rude response. Usually peple he approached at least pretended to humour the idea of conversation but this male simply shut it down completely. He frowned, his good mood fading. “You could at least be polite,” Dysi responded firmly, a rare act of defiance to the usually calm and respectful male.
Ranyshia, who had begun to walk off, turned back and scowled at the leopard before him. “I should be polite? After this rogue lands has resulted in me running for my life on multiple occasions, having to deal with nosy strangers who think they can past judgement on me simply because they happened to walk past me? Well, I am sorry that I have some sense of pride and self and do NOT appreciate the attitude of the creatures I have thus discovered!” Ranyshia was panting heavily, his irritation obvious.
Dysi couldn’t help the small step he took backwards at the male’s obvious anger. He was significantly larger than Dysi was, not to mention Dysi has no muscles at all.
It was then that Ranyshia noticed the other male’s apparent cautiousness and for the first time in his life, he felt powerful, a rush of adrenaline shooting through his body as he, instead of turning to continue on his way, he stalked towards the leopard. His body, all lean muscles, stretched and he could feel himself using muscles he rarely used.
Dysi scuttled backwards, trying to keep some distance between himself and the brown striped male. He had seen the change in the male and felt his own heart race, knowing that he needed to leave this situation quickly or else it would end very badly for him.
“I am sorry for disturbing you!” Dysi said swiftly, continuing to back away, his tail flicking low in a submissive pose but he had a feeling that his submission would not matter to this male.
True to Dysi’s belief, Ranyshia kept stalking towards him, his face deepening into a heavy scowl. “Mind. Your. Own. Business.” Each word was said in a low, dangerous growl that shook Ranyshia’s chest and sent vibrations down Dysi’s back.
Realising he would not be able to talk his way out of this, Dysi turned tail quickly, using his smaller size to his advantage in that he could turn quickly and he set off into a sprint away from the stranger. He was not used to running – back in his youth he had loved to run the savannah but he was getting old now and he was not as fast as he used to be. He worried, for a moment, that if the male gave chase, he would not be able to escape the brutal claws that would surely follow. Thankfully, Ranyshia did not give chase.
The striped male stayed where he stood, his eyes narrowed and watching the pale leopard flee. A small smirk crossed his face and he scoffed. “Pathetic,” he muttered, ignoring the fact that he had done something very similar not days earlier when he had come across one of his first negative encounters in the rogue lands. He was stronger for it, though, he argued to himself, he was stronger and that male was weak. He needed to get stronger.
He scoffed, and cast one last glare towards the retreating stranger. He didn't see his actions as bullying, or cruel, but rather the survival of the fittest, and clearly he was stronger and that leopard was the weakest. He wondered to himself whether he would have actually done damage to the leopard, had he tried to fight, and he shrugged off that question. That was not important, not for now.
For now, all that was important was the quiet that surrounded him from a lack of nosy, busy-body rogues pestering him.