Avya was still in a bad mood following her run in with the lioness who had ‘owned’ that useless spit of trees and water. She had attacked out of no where, for no reason, and that was infuriating. Yes, they had ‘talked’ and she had walked away marginally unharmed, bur her shoulder was still stinging and she couldn’t clean it very easily. She needed to find some water, and maybe some helpful herbs to clean it, and help it to heal. If it left a scar she was going to be so furious, she might even have to come back here and settle the score properly. The nerve of some lions, honestly. She could not believe that whole thing had happened.
Sharing a similar vein of thought, Hitilafu could not believe someone had fought with Kil. The green lioness hadn’t shared any details, but Hit knew that it had to be because of someone trespassing. Kil hated trespassers, and there had been so many recently… but now she had been injured, her front paw sporting a bite wound, and she was particularly grumpy about that. No matter how much Hitilafu asked, Kil would not tell her what had sparked the fight or who it had been with, or even who had won. Maybe Hit didn’t really want to know: she wasn’t much for fighting or anger, in general. She lived her life sweetly.
The camo-haired lioness was sitting under a fairly bare tree, where the grass had turned yellow and there was no real area to seek shelter from the sun. She could just see the tips of the tree she had been chased away from in the distance, and was spending her time resting glaring at that spot like she hoped her eyes would make the whole place catch fire. She had been staring for some time now, however, and it had not yet gone ablaze. Either diligence was not going to pay off, or she was really close. She just kept staring, until her eyes were drawn to a spot moving toward her.
For a moment she grew tense, watching the speck as it drew closer. If that was that damned lioness coming out here for round two, for some other ridiculous reason that only made sense in her own mind, Avya was going to lose it. She was generally a mellow girl, and didn’t go out of her way for fights. It was simply easier to blend in: and that was what she did more often than not. Chill out, wait for trouble to pass, no ruining her night or day for trouble that would, inevitably, not be worth it in the end. But this lion? Kilgharrah? She was really starting to push Avya’s buttons, and had done that from the first moment they met.
Luckily, it was not Kilgharrah. It was a much smaller lioness, with a brown, splotched coat. A pretty little thing, if not a bit thin, and she walked like she was constantly worried and looking around like she thought something was going to jump on her. Hit was not the most confident of young lionesses, though with her new guardian she was learning more about herself, and keeping her spirits up. She was out from the green lands to find some rare flowers and herbs that might help soothe Kil’s throbbing, slightly swollen leg. She hadn’t been expecting to run into the source of the injury, who she recognized by the wound on her shoulder. Hit froze in place, watching Avya now that she had seen her.
It hadn’t been easy: even against the brownish grass, the lioness seemed to blend. Or maybe Hit had just not been paying enough attention, and the shadow of the tree had allowed Avya to mask herself from sight. Either way, Hit had spotted her now, and bristled, though she crouched in a fairly submissive way, her ears back but not flat against her head. She was nervous, but placating: she didn’t want a fight. She just wanted to find the herbs, and spotted them nearby in a bush. Since the lioness hadn’t used them, it seemed she didn’t know about them. Eyes glued to Avya, Hit walked slowly around her, picking some of the flowers with her teeth.
Avya watched her keenly, curiously even. She seemed harmless enough, and since she was chewing on flowers, and looking so thin, Avya simply assumed she was… weird. What, was she pretending she was a zebra? Only eating plants? If she was, she couldn’t have been doing it very long. She would be dead at a fast rate if she did something stupid like that. Pondering things, she watched as Hit tugged the flowers free and then moved over to Avya herself, splitting the bunch she had pulled and chewing up the flowers. She inched closer, looking at Avya curiously, not saying anything.
It was unnerving.
“What do you want?”
Hit couldn’t talk, her mouth full of fairly gross tasting flower and herbs. Hit moved over to her and pushed the chewed flowers forward in her mouth, running her tongue over the injury on Avya’s shoulder and leaving the flowers she had prepared over it. She moved back and smiled.
“You were hurt. But that should help a little. I think.”
“Oh… well. Thank you.”
Avya was very surprised, not expecting to find someone that was honestly nice. The lioness smiled and padded off, leaving Avya sitting under her tree, her shoulder now humming pleasantly, growing numb. She was stunned. Absolutely stunned.
It seemed the young lioness had just come here for those herbs, and since she took half of the lot back with her, toward the trees, Avya could only assume they were for Kil. Which meant this little lioness must have heard the story of the fight, and had come out on the sole purpose of helping her friend. So why, then, would she pause to help the creature responsible for hurting Kil? The little lioness had looked thin, but not stupid. There had been some kind of recognition on her face. No, Avya was certain the brown lioness knew what she was doing, and who she was doing it for. She had simply been nice. That was refreshing.
Hit, for what it was worth, didn’t think there was anything bad with helping someone. She was getting to know Kil, and could imagine the fight hadn’t exactly been well prompted. So why not show some decency and offer the lioness, who was leaving anyway, a bit of kindness? It might come back and hurt her, should the lioness come back and try to fight Kil again, but she had to hope in the goodness of the world, and believed that one good turned would deserve another. Kindness was the answer, not fighting and making people angry for no reason.
She went back home, ready to help Kil now, and feeling very good about herself.
(Word Count: 1158 in Word)
