Second thoughts often came a second too late, and hindsight was supposed to be twenty by twenty. But knowing these things didn’t for one second make Kir’ella feel any better. The skies were still gray lit with the faint light of promised dawn while the night still held reign when she woke with that strange feeling that something was wrong. Abruptly she realized that the warmth at her side, where Shin had lain curled beside her, was missing. Startled, the young leopardess looked around, then started to rise. He couldn’t just be gone, not after last night!
“Shin?” she called, her golden eyes finally catching a flicker of movement. If it weren’t for the last touches of moonlight on the cheetah’s pale mane, why, she doubted she’d have seen him at all! For a long moment it seemed like he was going to ignore her, and her heart thudded painfully, so painfully, in her chest. But then he turned, that same smile flitting across his features.
“Well well, you’re an early riser,” the young cheetah commented, turning and taking a few steps back towards the leopardess. Caught already was he? Well, caught leaving in any case, but caught was caught and that would have to be that. Sure he could spin a tale at the drop of a paw by now, but why bother? He’d already won the game he’d been playing, and he had an arranged marriage to catch up to now. “I was just on my way, didn’t want to wake you.” Better to be gone like he’d never appeared really, but he’d been seen now and wasn’t about to back down.
“Didn’t want to wake me?” the leopardess frowned, it sounded innocent enough but that feeling that something wasn’t right remained. She’d felt it last night too, but it had been easier to ignore then. Shin was so sweet and so well-meaning, and he did remind her so of her friends… He looked a bit like Zeki but acted a bit like Kavan had before… well. Like he had ‘before’. There was so much about him that had been likeable, that had been loveable that she’d found herself falling for him awfully fast. Maybe the loneliness had been at least partially to blame, ever since she’d found herself on her own thoughts of what her friends might be doing had lingered in her mind almost constantly. “But why not?” Maybe he had been coming right back. Maybe he was just going to get a drink from the river… which might have been more convincing even just to her self if the river hadn’t been in the opposite direction to where he had apparently been headed.
Shin, for his part, just shrugged. “I thought it’d be simpler really, goodbyes can be all awkward and such, you know…” the dark cheetah sighed, waving a dismissive paw. Kir’ella watched the brightness of the light on his white toe and said nothing. She could think of nothing to say, not a thought would stay long enough…
“…good… good bye?” she repeated at last, stunned and hurt by the simple statement. No no no nonono that couldn’t be right, could not be right! He didn’t mean it, right? He didn’t mean it, did he? Not… not like… like that… did he? No, no he didn’t! She was just… she was just… just misunderstanding. Yeah. Yeah she was misunderstanding, that was all…
The cheetah sighed and shook his head, arching an eyebrow at the leopardess he’d spent the past few evenings with. “Yes. Good bye. As in, I go my way, you go yours, bygones are bygones, and everything is all good and fine. Good bye. Get it?” Oh she was so slow wasn’t she? She didn’t figure it out, probably wouldn’t if he failed to actually spell it out for her. Or would she? He could dangle a few hints and clues and see how long it took her to figure it out. What would her pretty features look like when realization dawned on her, he wondered. Shocked? Angry? Disbelieving?
“I… I don’t… don’t understand…” Kir’ella whispered, but something in her understood. Something understood, and had known all along. Kavan had a darkness inside him, she’d learned that for sure, and just because this one was a cheetah like poor sweet Zekile didn’t mean that he was like Kavan’s friendly little golden-furred companion. She’d even compared him more to Kavan, Kavan whose darkness was at least a small part of why she still wondered about her friends rather than actually checking on them.
“Really, you leopards are slow aren’t you?” Shinobu sighed, shaking his head again. “No wonder you need us to look after you.” Oh she looked puzzled at that, well, maybe not everyone was as specieist as his pride was. Lions were no good, leopards made good pets, and cheetahs were the top of the top, the best of the best, the purest of the pure. As for hybrids… well… he’d never quite gotten that look in Kanie’s light purple eyes out of his mind. Hybrids, little mixed blood mutts, should know their place. But she… she hadn’t. And she’d looked ready to place her paw somewhere painful, claws and all. But then again, she’d left. She and her timid pale brother and her other siblings whom Shinobu had managed not to quite meet.
Ah well. Kir’ella would learn sooner or later, at least this was coming from him and not a lion. “Pet, you’re just a sweet little game to play, you do know that right?” Shinobu stretched, then shook his fur out, idly giving it a lick or two to lie flat before returning his gaze to her. “Rules are there for a reason, and while some of them are a bit restricting, well, some of them are facts that can’t be changed.” Was there any question as to this cub having had his mindset twisted by his mother when he was young enough to be properly impressionable? “So it was fun, but I’ve other places to be… and a fiancé to meet too,” he added, scratching briefly behind an ear before shifting fluidly to his feet. “Don’t want to be late after all, she’s supposed to be a proper pureblood, not a little pet.”
Kir’ella could only stare at him in stunned disbelief as he winked, then turned and began to walk away. Pet? Rules? Fiancé? Game? “…how could you..?” she whispered, her eyes dazed as she watched the spot where his dark form blurred from her vision. “How could anyone? I’m not a pet… my life isn’t a game… I just… I don’t… don’t understand…”
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