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Efreet was like a glowing fire in the dark eastern forest. His orange fur and brilliant stripes glimmered in the shade. He misliked the feel of this place...it was too quiet and smelt of rot. He had treaked through the leaky ponds and mucky puddles, biting a leech off his paw pad every now and then.

He put his nose to the ground and began to sniff. He hungered and had grown bored of deer and rabbits. He wanted to try something new...and he was no longer welcome in the North. He snorted as the oddest smell came to him. It was....a prickled scent, like pine needles long fallen. He followed the thick smell, melted into the air like custard. He followed it, stepping over creaking logs.

As he followed the smell, he came to a bramble of trees that stood tall and green. They were bamboo shoots, though he'd never seen one. He snifffed. These were what he had smelt. Frustrated, he rammed one over, snapping it agressivly.

He lifted his head as a voracious laughter lit above his head. A gaggle of furry humans with long tails laughed down at him. Oh..he hated the humans and their ways. He barked up at them viciously and they just howled harder, throwing down old fruit and nuts among other things...

He had a low tolerance and broke another bamboo shaft. It fell on its side and propped on a low nook of the tree. He shoved another down, making a ramp. The monkies were laughing at his anger too much to notice. When he clambered up the ramp and crouched low to the branch, slinking near, they began to panic. Many leapt from the tree, but he swatted one out of the air. It fell and, with a garbled scream, had its neck broken. Efreet did not even bless its soul as he ripped its innards out. "Take that, human." he thought bitterly.

Efreet had been tearing the intestines out, ripping the stomach free, at that moment. He snarled and wheeled around, fur bristled when he heard the runt's voice.

He had the face of a lunatic! His eyes blazed, his lips were high and creasing his maw, long fangs glistened on his bloody gums. His stripes seemed to scream themselves and he swiped at the pup without thinking.

He paused and relaxed when he saw how small and innocent the pup was. He stopped snarling, but did sit between the pup and his kill. 'Greedy little mongrel...trying to get a n** of my human.' He thought.

"I should be asking you, whelp. Its dangerous in the swamps...you should run on home." he said, dismissivly. He left it at that...or so he thought...and picked up his kill, stepping over the pup.

Efreet was...a bit confused. Usually pups ran from him and their parents had to step in and tag team to chase hima way. This pup had just kept giving him that big, silly grin. He was either brave or stupid. Efreet decided he was stupid.

"No-where is safe." he mumbled behind his food as he stopped in the shade of some bamboo shoots to eat his kill. He ripped off huge chunks and crunched the bones and all. This...pup looked like he still needed his mother's teat to survive. "You will never be anything but a whelp, runt." he bantered cooly, eyeing the youth with a look that said 'now go away.'

"You're too small to amount to ever being a warrior." he did not answer about his name.

Realizing that this little Helix was not going to leave him alone willingly, Efreet narrowed his eyes and flattened his ears. He was going to scrap the little runt...but he paused. He liked the taste of monkey and didn't want another whole pack coming after him like what happened in the north.

He thought of another way to deal with this. "Alright then. Catch me something. Find any game animal and catch it for me. Then you'll be given the true title of a warrior." he said, flicking his tail.

"Yes...yes...take all the time you need. Catch something and bring it here when you have." he said, a cool smile playing his maw. "Anything...it could be a field mouse, a furry tree human...anything at all. I'll wait right here." His promises could fool any child.

Efreet had remained relaxed until the little cub was out of sight through the thicket.

Then, he had lifted, turned tail, and run. He left the monkey carcass behind and headed for the hills. The hunt would buy him enough time to distance himself from the annoying cub. He had always hated children. He had learned to never attack a cub though. He panted after about a mile of running and stooped to groom himself. Even if the pup wanted to follow, he probably wouldn't be allowed to. He streched once more. Back to solitary life for him, it seemed. ....Good.

Efreet yawned as the moon slowly began to peer from its mantle in the sky, the sun slipping away. He found a soft bed of lichens under a great, pink tree and flopped down, closing his eyes. This was a nice place to rest, he decided. He yawned once more, wondering if that little scamp was still running around like an idiot, trying to catch a fly. He smirked at the thought, then shivered as the first drop of rain slammed into the earth nearby.