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Gahiji trotted quite contentedly through the tall grass. This had been a good night for hunting, and he had been completely alone with his catch - no pesky hyenas or annoying lions had shown up to reap the benefits of his hard work - so he had eaten well.

He hadn't gorged himself, though. For three very excellent reasons he made a point to never gorge himself, no matter how tempting it may seem: First of all, he obviously had to uphold his handsomely lean and wiry physique. Secondly, only an idiot would eat so much that they wouldn't be able to run at top speed in case something or other decided that they wanted to eat you. Thirdly, well, he was probably the best hunter in this or any region, ever, and as such he knew that he would always be able to feed himself. He had never had any reason to doubt his own hunting skills, at least.

But man, life sure felt a lot better when you could deal with it on a full stomach. Jii hummed an off-key little tune to himself as he leisurely sought a nice place to lounge for a while and groom himself - maybe even get a quick nap, even though the sun was only just starting to rise.

Through the tall grass, Gahiji glimpsed a scrawny little tree up ahead, and something that seemed to be a rather large rock underneath it. Jii cheerfully decided that that would do just fine for a resting spot, and picked up his pace a little.

As he neared the place, however, he realised that the rock wasn't a rock at all: It was a huge, dark lion, lying almost perfectly still in the meagre shade from the thin branches. He immediately ducked down, holding his breath as he listened for any signs of trouble. When none came, he slowly, carefully crept forward, until he could get a good look at the guy through the swaying reeds.

Gahiji swore under his breath. Well, this was just great, wasn't it? The one place that he had wanted, a bigger, badder cat had already claimed. He narrowed his red eyes. The lion looked tired, but still vigilant, and there was something about him... With an angry snort, Jii rose up to his full height. There was a sadness about this guy, an air of suffering and loneliness that just pissed the black cheetah right off. Something that big and strong had no right to feel angsty and abandoned!

He trotted up to the big, dark shape, not even bothering to hide, and stopped just far enough from those giant claws to be able to turn and run at the very first sign of trouble.

"Hey, fluff face," he growled, his heart pounding as if he was already running at top speed - but he just couldn't not try to mess around a bit with this depressive emo-boy lion. "That's my spot you're sitting in!"

Gahiji really hadn't had a clear plan when he decided on this confrontation, and the closeness of this lion, as well as the clearly un-amused look in the dark creature's eyes was already starting to make him uncomfortable. To hide these feelings, he began to slowly circle the lion - at a safe distance, of course.

"Yeah," he replied to the other's low growl, scowling right back at him with a confident attitude that he really couldn't back up in any way - which he knew, of course, but you couldn't get under anyone's skin while cowering in fear. He carried on, lying through his teeth: "I had picked it out earlier, was going to have my rest here, but I guess that's out of the question now."

With an angry snort and a small toss of his head, Jii lowered his voice to a contemptuous grumble. "Just like your kind. Always stepping in and taking what you want without even thinking twice." So the big, scary lion thought he had problems? Well, maybe he needed a reality check, then. "The cheetah stalks the food, the cheetah hunts the food, the cheetah kills the food - and then the lion steps in and EATS the food."

The black cheetah stopped, having almost completed his circle around the lion, and gave the big creature a long, disdainful glare.

"And here you sit, looking like you're the unluckiest creature in all of creation. What the hell is wrong with you?"

((Thank you! It's fun playing a jerk, sometimes. xd Djakovo is such a cool dude, btw.))

Gahiji's frown deepened in frustration. The lion wasn't affected in the slightest by his words, and the cheetah realised that his bluff was being called - in the most infuriatingly cool and calm way possible. He flicked his ears in annoyance. Now he was starting to feel stupid, and he hated that. Maybe it was time to re-evaluate his course of action and cool down a bit before he really made an a** out of himself. Maybe.

"Yeah," he growled, in a slightly more subdued manner, watching the lion more keenly this time to try to get a clue as to how to best tackle him - verbally, of course - and decided to stop just trying to annoy the other, getting right to the point instead. "And I also asked you a question, muscle-man. What the hell are you moping about, huh? That pathetic look on your face is pissing me off."

Gahiji's frown changed into one of confusion.

"What are you talking about? Of course it is. That's all it is, if you think about it." He gave a slight shrug. "The one who gets to eat gets to live. It's as simple as that."

But now he was interested. Despite his earlier behaviour - or maybe because of it - the dark lion seemed willing to talk. Jii had gone a long time since he had last had an actual talk with another creature, and maybe he was a bit starved for conversation. It could also be the uncertain way in which the lion had spoken, that left his statement very open, that had managed to catch the black cheetah's curiousity.

"Isn't it?" he added, with a glance at the big cat's amber eyes. He had been of half a mind to actually sit down, but the pensive intensity with which the dark lion suddenly studied him made him think twice about that. That look could mean anything from 'Gee, I wish I had awesome spots like that,' to 'I wonder how many times I'd have to chew that bony body before I could swallow it.'

He resisted an impulse to take a couple of steps back, but remained on his paws, for now. He knew how fast a powerful lion like that could go from leisurely lounging to lethal assault, and he wasn't about to take any chances.

"Yo," he said, nervously. "What?"

Gahiji huffed indignantly at the other's unresponsiveness. Deciding to forget the lion's inspection of him for now (he could always run in case the lion actually tried anything), he took a few steps further into the path of the big cat's sight and lowered his head until his red eyes were on an exact level with the lion's.

"Dude, what do you mean 'no'? You can't just start something up, and then leave it hanging the instant someone tries to contradict you! Explain yourself now! Why is it more complicated than who eats the food?" He broke eye contact for a moment, searching himself for a more defined question. "What about your life is so horrible that it's worse than not being able to feed yourself?"

He straightened up, quite proud of himself for having been able to sum up his thoughts into one neat sentence, like that. Sure, it would probably seem shallow, but as far as Jii was concerned, eat or be eaten was where it was at. He had been used, bullied and decieved because of his ability to hunt well, but that only served to prove his point, didn't it? All that anyone could want in life was a full belly. The one who had it was a winner, the one who didn't... well... wasn't. Once or twice in his life he might have believed that there could be other things, other important values - but they had all fallen apart under closer scrutiny. They were illusions, and anyone who still believed in them had to be an even bigger loser.

If this guy really didn't have any problems feeding himself, like he had hinted at, then whatever it was that had carved those lines of unhappiness on his features had to be related to those 'other values' - and if it was, then Jii somehow felt justified for having acted like such a pest towards the big cat.

The black cheetah furrowed his brow. Not that the dark lion was really making him feel bad about himself, with that cool and unaffected attitude of his. If anything, it pushed Jii to try harder, somehow. Like it was a challenge or something.

As an afterthought, he pointedly added: "You basically admitted that you were moping, you know, so it's no use trying to say that you're not, now."

Gahiji raised one eyebrow at the dark lion. "Death? Well, I assume that you don't mean prey death, then. 'Cause I see a LOT of that, seeing as how I'm a totally awesome hunter and all... But Death death, huh?" This time, the black cheetah actually sat down on his haunches, as if to give the question some good, hard thinking. Not that he let his attention shift away from the powerful cat in the shade for so much as a second, of course.

"Death... Humm... Well, I guess there was dad." He said it in an almost flippant manner and underscored it with a shrug. Jii's red eyes wandered a bit, out across the savannah, while a slightly forced nonchalance entered his voice and features. "We thought he had been trying to defend a kill... got ripped to shreds by a hyena. Not that there was a lot left to look at by the time we found him. I don't know if it counts, though: I was barely weaned at that time. Can hardly even remember what he looked like." A blatant lie. Jii knew perfectly well that he was the spitting image of his father. Well, except for his red eyes, he got those from mom. Father's had been of a soft, sort of twilight-like...

Jii abruptly brought a hind paw up and scratched himself furiously, forcing the unpleasant train of thought out of his mind. But it was too late. He had intended to mock the lion, letting him know that he was not the only creature in the world who had had to suffer - and that some others handled the loss a lot better. Now, though, a tiny seed of empathy had found its way into his mind, and he couldn't quite go through with his plan. At least not yet.

With a voice that was slightly quieter and less confrontational than before, he spoke to the lion again:

"Why? Someone died on you?"

As soon as he heard and realised the change in his own voice, Jii shifted uncomfortably, suddenly feeling vulnerable. Oh man. What was he doing? This was going nowhere fast. He should have just left the big cat alone to his stupid moping in the first place. In fact, it would probably be smart to just walk away now, the sooner the better.