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 Posted: Sat May 08, 2010 6:21 pm
 It was a good day, relatively speaking. The pain in his paw was down to a dull ache, probably because he'd taken time the night before to clean it thoroughly in the stream he'd slept beside. Without dirt and grit and sweat, the wound looked much better he thought critically. He'd spent a lot of time over the last week and a half examining his wounded forepaw, as much as he could spare, in fact, watching for signs of infection or critical deterioration. He knew running on the injury was bad for it, but he had to keep running.
He had been walking for most of the day, rather than running. That was probably part of why his paw felt so good, comparatively. After crossing that stream the day before he'd felt confident that he might dare to slow his pace, having perhaps delayed his pursuers by his crossing. The notion that he might not be pursued was ridiculous to him, for he knew that he had committed crimes which would warrant mutilation or death among his people. Who were no longer his people, he reminded himself.
It was while he was walking, taking great care to leave no tracks in his progress, Mana noticed a female cheetah. She was lovely and the former Mizimu runner found that he wanted her. He put the thought from his mind. An injured male would not be able to mate easily, and he shouldn't even be thinking of it. He had an enemy to flee, and no time for romantic entanglements.
It was a bit of a mystery to him, therefore, when he approached her with a friendly, "Good morning."
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Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 3:35 am
 Another night had gone by, the resting body of a female cheetah vaguely indicating that the previous day had indeed been long - in her particular case, it had been a day filled with much running, which was her usual routine - but more so than usual. Sprinting at different parts of the day was very much enjoyable, and it wouldn't be far from the truth to say that this female cheetah was the type to get up early in the morning for a quick chase.
But her sprawl on the ground was quite pronounced; it seemed as if she accidentally fell asleep where she had lain, incidentally, for if something dangerous had trampled through, well... she would surely not have heard the sound of someone's kind voice break her slumber. Ears twitched, then perked upwards at the greeting. Just the other day she had hoped to meet someone new very early in the day to spend the rest of it with, but that had just been a rare possibility. She couldn't have been so lucky so fast, could she?
Scrambling to get up and shake her glossy fur from the night of being pressed against the ground and dirt, the cheetah instantly adopted a chipper attitude, head rapidly turning to see the source of the voice.
And it came from none other than a male counterpart of her species - she found her constant coincidental bumps into male cheetahs quite astounding, but also very pleasant to say the least. And, despite the fact that she just woke up, must have looked atrocious in all her bed-furred glory and dazed face, she was automatically filled with energy - it was a part of her character, after all! In addition to her disregard of how proper and decent she may have looked, the female was one to not take caution to strangers, unless... they seemed shifty or had wounds originating from not quite a hunting accident.
"Huhh," she voiced to herself, golden eyes taking in the sight of the rather handsome (but quite plainly wounded) male, "You're... hurt?"
It was a different greeting on her part, but this stranger who seemed to fit her criteria for possible dangers wasn't a potential threat she would ignore. His approach seemed friendly enough, but still... But then again, who was she to judge?
A yawn came without warning, and she shook it away as she stepped lightly near the other, still amazed by both her granted wish and the peculiarity the stranger came with. She then looked down at his paws, after admiring the red glow that marked his front body, and hummed thoughtfully. The morning wasn't a barrier to slow thinking for this cheetah - she had always been able to think quickly on her paws.
"So maybe I should ask you later, but are you really having a good morning right now? Should I be worried?"
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Posted: Sun May 09, 2010 7:18 am
Mana supposed he ought to have expected that greeting. After all, she hadn't seemed particularly awake when he saw her, and it had been foolish of him to assume that everyone kept the same hours he did, since not everyone was fleeing Mizimu hunters. However, he had not expected that greeting, for whatever reason, and so he was a little taken aback.
"I am. My own fault, I'm afraid," he explained. That much was true, if vague. He had not quite gotten to be much good at lying outright and manufacturing fallacious tales, but he was getting better at lying by omission. Besides, he knew that if he went around describing how he'd gotten injured it would make him that much more recognizable when his pursuers came through.
He glanced down at his paws, as though making sure he was seeing the same thing she was and came to the conclusion that they were both looking at the same injured paw, but she lacked the context to realize that this was a comparatively good morning for him. It amused him that she seemed to think there was a reason for her to be worried. She was the one whose body was in good working order, and he was the one for whom it was excruciating to run. If either of them should be worried, it ought to be him, Mana reasoned.
"Really, it's nothing," he assured her. Also, he was far too proud to admit to anything else. "There's nothing for you to concern yourself over."
He shifted his weight a little self-consciously to relieve some of the pressure on that particular forepaw. He didn't like to be caught at it, but it helped if he didn't put too much weight on it as he stood. It couldn't be helped when he moved at a faster pace, but standing or walking he could be careful and avoid exacerbating the thing.
"As for whether the morning's good...I think it is. Or at least has the potential to be. After all, I woke up in a good place and I met you all in the span of an hour. Those seem like good heralds." He winced as he realized how awful that sounded. "Sorry. My mouth and my brain don't seem properly connected at the moment. I'm Mana."
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