For once, it seemed to Pan, it might turn out to be a pleasant day. The dreary weather that had ruled the skies for the part of the month had begun to clear; the sun peered out from behind the thinning layer of clouds, and feeble was the light was, it made the maned wolf glad. He had had enough of overcast skies. It had stopped being a novelty long ago, and it had driven the thirst for travel from him.
He was looking for something, had been for a while, although what it was, he wasn’t entirely sure. He just wanted something out of life, something that would prove to him once and for all that the world wasn’t as cheerless a place as he had always been convinced it was. And yet…
The white wolf ducked into a stretch, feeling lazy in the weak glow of the morning. He had but a vague idea of where he was, but at that moment, it didn’t seem to matter. Danger seemed to be worlds away, and he in one in which threats had no place.
His ears twitched at every sound, and his eyes scanned the surrounding tree line carefully. He wasn’t anxious, per se, merely watchful .He was all too aware of the dangers that could surround a creature like him in a world as vast and unknowable as the one they all lived in.
Satisfied with his findings, he turned and broke into a trot. It was a new day, and there was the whole world left for him to discover. It was time to get started.
---
Oh, no. Raziela Liron blinked the sleep from her jade green eyes, peering around her as she lifted her head from her paws. She had fallen asleep.
In the early hours of the morning, the juvenile lioness had woken up, drawn by the notion of a clear morning, to watch the sun rise. Just once, she had thought, she would be up early enough to watch it begin its slow ascent into the sky. But of course, she had fallen asleep almost the minute she had settled into her spot, nestled between the trunks of two young trees growing beside each other.
She didn’t blame herself for it—she couldn’t, to be honest, because that had simply been nature’s plan for her, the long-ago written word of the powers that be, and what right had she to try to change it? What good would it do, in any case? It was difficult to fight that which was set in stone.
Still, the young lioness sighed. She had hoped that perhaps she would have a story to tell upon returning to the den. How unfortunate. Sleep was beginning to steal over her again, and in the chill morning, the young lioness ventured a yawn. A nice, happy, loud one just for yawning’s sake, because nobody was around.
---
Huh?
Pan froze mid-step, pulling himself to a halt. He could have sworn he had heard something. His ears swiveled, his eyes flitted- there it was again! It was a semi-high, yowling kind of sound, kind of like-oh s**t.
He had gone and done it again. Realization hit him, and all of a sudden, all of the signs fell into place and he knew he had wandered into lion territory. Man, this was not his day. And he had been so hopeful to begin with.
Already, his mind was beginning to scramble with panic, trying to detail an escape route. He had to get out, he had to get the hell out of there… His understanding of lions was limited at best, but he knew enough to know that they were dangerous. Unpredictable. Bloodthirsty…
He crept forward. Maybe if he kept himself very, very quiet…
---
CRACK.
Ela’s eyes snapped open as the crackle of a snapping branch reached her. Her ears pitched forward in surprise. “Who’s there?” She called out, rising hesitantly from her perch. It seemed a little early for anyone to be out, but she certainly hoped it wasn’t an adult. Getting into trouble had not been her intention at all!
There was no reply, but whoever had made the noise had evidently stopped moving. Ela pressed forward curiously, scenting the air, but the other must have been upwind, because nothing telling reached her sensitive nose. She took another step. “Hello?”
Still no answer. She padded forward again, and pushed her head past a bush. And there, standing behind the bush, was a white and gray maned wolf, standing frozen where he was.
---
For a fleeting moment, he thought he might have made it. And then, almost without warning, a head broke free from the tangle of bushes to his left, and he found himself staring straight at a lion.
DAMN IT! DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!
He knew it was a bad plan, freezing. He knew it. Maybe he should have played dead instead. And maybe then, he wouldn’t be standing here with so frightful a creature, feeling his imminent doom approaching him with the ominous regularity of a marching army. He could almost hear the drumbeats in his head… but maybe that was just his heart pounding in his chest. He couldn’t quite tell anymore; all his facilities had blurred into one, and maybe not even one. His world had shattered and become a blur of semi-consciousness.
Damn it, already.
---
“Oh.” The little word slipped unbidden from her muzzle. And here, she had been expecting to find an adult and end up in a world of trouble. She couldn’t begin to express her relief that instead of a fully grown lion, she had found a maned wolf. That he was a stranger and larger than her and a potential threat didn’t register at the moment—and anyway, it didn’t matter. If he had wanted to hunt her down and eat her, no amount of running would have taken her to safety. He had much longer, nimbler legs than she, and Ela was still trapped in the awkward phase of childhood when cub-like bounding had evolved into something slightly more sophisticated—but not quite, yet.
“Hello, who are you?” She asked brightly, still reeling from the shock and relief of finding him. She might as well be friendly to the one who had saved her from a lecture.
---
OHh, it was coming. He knew it was coming. He could just hear her razor sharp claws singing through the air, en route to striking him dead where he stood. Then the teeth would follow, and more claws, until all that was left of him was a sad, abused corpse. He felt as though he was experiencing this moment as a third party, far away and yet privy to the death and destruction that were sure to follow.
And then… Hello? The maned wolf blinked, an owlish blink, thoroughly confused. What? He frowned, and ventured a quick glance at the lioness.
“You’re not going to kill me…?” He asked, feeling skeptical. Somehow, he couldn’t help but feel as though she was simply lengthening the process of killing him, so that she could get some more joy out of this perverse kind of entertainment. It felt rather like a cruel and elaborate trick. Oh, gods.
---
The little lioness blinked back, equally confused it seemed. “Kill you?” She echoed. Her gaze dropped unconsciously down to her paws, and she let her claws slide from their sheaths for a moment, gripping the ground lightly. Her, kill him? With those tiny, ineffectual claws of hers? He must be joking, or something. “How…?”
---
It hadn’t occurred to him before that she was but a child. In the heat of the moment, he hadn’t quite noticed her small size, or her childish voice, or… well, anything. “Oh…” He relaxed somewhat. “In that case. I’m Pan.”
He glanced around him. So he wasn’t going to die at this moment. That was good, but he still hadn’t solved the question of how he was going to get himself out of lion territory and back into no man’s land. He had a sinking feeling that perhaps it would be easier said than done; it always was, and his luck was sufficiently bad that everything bad and worse happened to him. He should have been named Murphy.
---
”Hi, Pan,” Ela chirped. Oh, good, he was friendly! It had suddenly occurred to her that if he had been inclined to kill her, it wouldn’t have taken an altogether huge effort on his part, and it was certainly a relief that he had proved to be a good citizen.
“I’m Raziela Liron, but nice lions call me Ela.” Nice being, less formal lions. Sometimes, the young lioness chafed under the long, overly formal affair that was her name, and it was always a welcome surprise when she encountered a creature that was not too caught up in politics and propriety to address her as she liked to be addressed.
---
“Well, I’m not a lion,” Pan said wryly. “But I’ll call you Ela.” He certainly hoped he was a nice fellow. His pessimism had nothing to do with it—when he wanted to be friendly, why, damn it, he was friendly. And here was one such instance. He had to show a little gratitude to the little lioness. She had spared his life, after all, and that was something no money could buy.
---
”It’s certainly nice to make your acquaintance, Pan,” Ela grinned. “Except, I don’t think you’re supposed to be here…” She pursed her lips, thinking. What was she supposed to do in a situation like this? “If you’d follow me, I’d like to take you to see my parents. They should know what to do.”
---
Inwardly, the maned wolf sighed. Crap. He certainly didn’t want to follow her, but… He shrugged, resigned. She had spared his life. And he might as well do as she asked. Who knew where it might lead. Maybe this was what he had been looking for. Maybe.
