Why was it that whenever it felt like Bevin was succeeding in something, he ended up failing and falling right on his face? Was it karma? Fate? Destiny? The gods? Was it himself?

Bevin glared at the ground, pawing lazily at the dirt. His best friend in the whole world had just had her first litter of cubs with some stupid lion. Wasn't she happy when it was just the two of them, wandering where they wanted to go and doing what they wished? Maybe she was getting bored of him...?

Bevin sighed and flopped onto his back, yellow-green eyes wandering across the savanna. His back itched from the bark of the tree he was lying against. Irritated, he sat up and moved, walking to the other side of the tree. When he got around to the other side, he stopped mid-step.

There was a wild dog sitting there.



It had been a hell of an adventure so far. It felt like he had only really been out on his own for a day and already he was running into all manner of strange and frightening creature! And he meant that individually. The strange was the little wild dog girl he had met by a small pond. She had been so careless and free- was it really safe to act in such a way? Especially when so small?

Then there was the frightening. The massive, mossy-colored lion he had met only just before stumbling upon the wild dog pup. Though he had acted sweet and kind enough, Ekevu knew from his mother that lions were not to be trusted. They were vicious and cruel and he should count his blessing that he was alive. Her fear of those beasts was the reason Ekevu had decided to keep the encounter on the down low for now.

Spare her the heart ache.

As he was musing over his recent encounters, he noticed there was something lying not too far ahead of him. The male had been sitting there for some time, completely cut off from the world around him. What was this, now? Another new creature? staring at it as it stared back at him, he felt the hairs on his neck start to climb.

"He-hello..." he offered awkwardly.



Bevin raised an eyebrow, face sinking into listlessness. Well, the wild dog certainly wasn't the fight he had secretly been seeking.

"Hey." he greeted back. He plopped down by the tree trunk again, looking as if he was taking no notice of the wild dog towering beside him.

There was one large, floating cloud in the sky and Bevin watched it with envy. He frowned. How many times had he seen Oboe watch the clouds? What did she see in them? That stupid, purple lion? Probably...

"Life sucks, doesn't it?" the serval asked after a moment.



He watched the small creature, surprised. This was no lion- no cub of one either. The voice that had come from it sounded... adult. So what the hell was he looking at? Boy, he needed to get out more. Apparently there were tons of animals out there that weren't wild dogs, or any kind of dog for that matter. Seeing it lie down made him relax, a silent sigh escaping him.

Good.

"Well... I'm not so sure I would say it sucks," he replied awkwardly, somehow in a conversation already, "but it's certainly complicated... why? Why do you say that it sucks?"



Bevin smirked.

"I guess you don't get out much, huh?" he asked darkly, thinking about what the wild dog's views on the world must've been. He seemed young. Well, Bevin was young himself, but coming from a family of 20+ members and briefly traveling with a troupe of dancing leopards, he was pretty sure he could brag about knowing the way things worked in life.

"Hmm...Why do I say it sucks?" Bevin repeated in question to himself, eyes half-lidded. "It just...Does, sometimes." he said quietly, as if he had said something extremely deep. He glanced at the wild dog. "What's your name, kid?"



"No.." promptly admitted the male, finding no shame in the idea that he had lead a nice, sheltered life with little threat and no hardships. What was wrong in that? He watched this creature, trying to figure out why the comment had come with such a bitter tone. Maybe this... thing felt that not getting out much was bad? Humph.

He didn't need to prove himself. Come to that, he would rather not have to regardless of need.

"I'm not a kid!" he protested, "and my name is Ekevu. What do they call you, little cat?" There was no anger in his tone, only a genuine curiosity.



"Little cat?" Bevin repeated, choking back a laugh. "I'm a serval. And the name's Bevin." The end of his freckled tail twitched as if nodding a greeting. "Don't take me too seriously, Ekevu. I call everyone 'kid'." But after those words, Bevin sunk back into his thoughts, mulling over all of the recent past events.

He had taken a walk, wandering quite a length away from Oboe's den, to think things over and feel better about it all. It wasn't working. He was just lying there, staring at the sky like a fool, thinking about how hard it was to swallow the image of Oboe nuzzled up to that stupid lion, cuddling with HIS cubs.

"You ever been in love, Ekevu?" Bevin asked stiffly.



"Serval?" He asked, tilting his head to one side. That was not a name he was familiar with, but he would keep it in his memory from now on. A serval. He had met his first serval. "I'm sorry, Bevin, I didn't know that. I've never met a serval before so... I called you what I did know about." He smiled lightly. So this thing wasn't that bad. Perhaps a little rude, but apparently his life sucked so maybe there was justification for it.

"I see... well, I suppose you can call me kid if you would like to, so long as you know it's not really what I am." Like he looked like a kid, anyway.

For a moment, it seemed like Bevin had wandered away from reality, Ekevu sitting awkwardly. The second time that's happened to him. Was he really so boring that they felt inclined to daydream? When the serval did return, he found he liked the silence better than the introduced question.

"No..." he replied, "not really. But I've seen others in love. Why? Are you in love?"



This guy didn't know what a serval was, he didn't think that the world sucked, and he had NEVER been in love?

What the HECK?

But Bevin smiled, hiding his true emotions. Well, innocence was a good thing, right? At least that's what he had heard...But was this wild dog innocent, or just...Naive?

Bevin sighed inwardly. It didn't really matter anyway.

"I guess I am." he answered slowly. "Or...Was." he added. But then he curled his lips, confusion etched on his face and he, for once, wasn't aware of the emotions he was displaying. "Well, am." he blurted. By this time, his head was spinning. Life really did suck sometimes.



Ekevu frowned. "So... you're in love with someone who doesn't love you in return?" he asked, not sure if he was taking the right path of reasoning or not. He just figured that you couldn't be confused about love when you knew the other person loved you in return. That was the whole point of being in love, wasn't it? That feeling of belonging and of contentment that ran through two hearts?

Maybe not, but he was sticking with it.

And for this serval to say he was in love after saying her wasn't seemed to suggest that he was in love with someone who either didn't show her feelings and left him confused, or didn't love him at all and left him hurt and probably more bewildered than with the first option. Maybe she had told him no but his feelings hadn't died?

"Do you want to talk about it?" he offered after a moment.



"I already have." he mumbled, pouting. He sighed heavily and rolled onto his back, glaring at that fat cloud that still floated lazily overhead. It was so stupid-looking and so free. It went wherever it wanted. Just like he and Oboe used to...Until that DANG lion came along and ruined everything. He wasn't even hot.

HE WASN'T. EVEN. HOT...

Bevin groaned and rubbed a paw over his muzzle, flexing his claws and staring at them as he did so. He pictured sliding those claws over the scarred face of that lion...But even though that image was supposed to make him feel better, he still pouted.

"I hate lions." he murmured darkly.



Poor thing, Ekevu felt bad that he couldn't relate to the guy. He had barely been away from the den a week. What could he possibly say on the matter of the heart? He was... inexperienced. In love and in the world in general. Anything he offered would be completely silly and from the mind of nothing but a dreamer.

Probably not the down-to-earth talk this serval was looking for.

"Lions?" he asked. Well, he couldn't relate to love, but he could relate to not liking those big beasts. "Me too! I mean, I don't hate them, but I dislike them! Just the other day I accidentally got in the way of a lion's hunt and I swear that big oaf wanted to rip me apart for it! It was a complete accident and he was treating me so strangely.. I think he wanted me to feel safe before attacking me."



Bevin raised an eyebrow at the story and rolled onto his stomach. Well, at least he shared something in common with the wild dog. And venting about lions was just what he needed...

"Is that so?" he asked, surprised. "Well just the other day," he began excitedly, like a child, "a lion slept with my best friend and she had cubs." After those happy-sounded words left his lips, Bevin's shoulders slumped and his brows furrowed. "Dumb, stupid, fruit lion...I didn't like him from the minute I saw him. But hey, I had been nice. I was NICE to him at first...Even though I lied...A little." he waved a paw nonchalantly. "But him going and...It doesn't justify...Dangit." he mumbled. Once you hated an individual of one species, it was easy to start disliking them all.

And Bevin was pretty sure he hated all lions by now.



Ekevu was stunned. Having a lion sleep with your best friend and have cubs? That was a little different than talking to one that had been too nice to be comforting. He could only assume that this friend was not another serval. No lion would be able to get his junk into... well... he really didn't need to be thinking about that sort of thing.

Where was his mind going?

"That sounds bad," he replied, "I guess I can see why you wouldn't like them! I wouldn't either if I were in your place. I mean, I'm not in your place and I still don't like them! Lions think they can do whatever they want, don't they? They don't care what others are feeling! Just as long as they get their way, who cares who they hurt?" He was channeling his mother a little bit, but oh well.



"YEAH," Bevin agreed uproariously, suddenly sitting up. "You're right!"

So maybe this wild dog did know a thing or too...Huh. Bevin had met several wild dogs in his lifetime and they had all been crazy, jumpy creatures. Either that or just...Vicious. Maybe rabid. Either or. But this guy didn't seem too bad. It wasn't often Bevin met someone who he truly didn't mind and could actually relate to in some way.

"And get this; this guy didn't even want me near the cubs at first. He shooed me out of the den. Like, SHOOED me out, death glares and everything." he rambled angrily, claws digging into the dirt.

So much for calming down...



Ekevu tense a little while the small guy sat up, never one to be without some hesitation resting in his chest. Finding no attack coming his way, he relaxed again, even goign so far as to smile. Yay for being right! It certainly felt a lot better than being wrong.

Weird how that worked.

"That's horrible!" he continued, "if you're her best friend than you should have been able to see the cubs once they were born! What reason did he have to kick you out like that? It hardly seems fair at all!" He growled a little, talk of lions working him up. Clearing his throat disbanded the rumbles, though, letting them fade in the air without a word on it.



"I dunno..." Bevin drawled uncaring, glancing at his surroundings. "He said somethin' about me scaring them." he said, shrugging. Then he smirked. "But I bet he was just scared that I was gonna tear his face off." Bevin flexed his claws and they glinted in the sunlight. He did a pretty good job of keeping his claws in shape. He prided himself in their cleanliness and sheen.

But now he was just losing his train of thought...

"It's been a while. Maybe I should just march back in there and look at the cubs all I want?" he asked more to himself than to Ekevu.



"I'm sure that's it," Ekevu lied with a sincere smile. That little guy wouldn't stand a chance against a lion and he knew any said lion wouldn't think otherwise. But it was nice to try and make someone feel better, right? So he wasn't doing a bad thing with his fib; he didn't think Bevin really believed what he was saying either.

Then again, he did have nice claws.

"Maybe! It wouldn't hurt to take a peek in, would it? I mean.. unless it's a really violent lion.. then you should be careful." He didn't seem to noticed that Bevin really hadn't been talking to him, taking the question into full consideration.



"HAH!" he laughed. "More like HE should be careful..." Bevin grumbled, dark images playing out in his mind. In truth, he was just trying to make himself feel better. He sure could do a nice bit of damage if he launched himself at Apollo's face...He could tear him up, for sure. Go for the eyes...

Man, he hated that guy...His "buddy"...But heck, whatever. Things were done. Oboe liked him best anyways. After all, best friends...were forever. Right?

Bevin frowned at his corny thoughts, feeling like a sissy.

"Yeah, I think I'll go do that." He turned to look at the wild dog. He paused, thinking. "And I hope you get revenge on the beast of a lion who tried to kill you." And with that, he stood, stretched his tired limbs, and began his walk back towards Oboe's den. If Apollo tried to keep him out, he'd give him a piece of his mind...

"Later, Ekevu!" he called as he went, flicking his tail once like a wave.



Ekevu watched the serval stand, getting to his feet not long after.

"Alright," he replied lightly, "I hope things go well for you! Don't let that lion have his way! Bye!" He called as Bevin got a little further away. He could only hope the best for the guy- he looked like the kind of poor fellow who could use a win right about now.

That being done, he turned, deciding to head back to his den for a nice long nap.