It had been a rough few weeks, mostly just because he wasn’t used to having to deal with another creature so much. Nonetheless, Usiku was feeling very energetic today, if only because of his excitement. Last night, they had decided Zyanya would go for her first walk since hurting her leg three weeks ago. It wasn’t her first time back on her feet, but before she was only able to hobble a small distance away to do the sort of thing best done where you don’t sleep. Even then, he’d had to drag her once or twice.
But today she was going to walk for real. Actually put some pressure on that paw and see how it was. Find out if she really was dead. “Zyanya. Zyanya, wake up.” He spoke to her in the early morning sun. As a leopard, he spent most of the night awake and most of the day asleep, but he’d been sure to time his sleeping to spend more time in the day awake since rescuing Zyanya.
“Huh?” The leopard snorted as the cheetah raised her head, eyes half closed. How could she not be so excited? As if she read his mind, the cheetah’s green eyes widened. “Oh! Oh! Today’s the day!” Usiku smiled, tail flicking.
Without a warning, he simply grabbed her by the scruff and proceeded to drag her out of the little rocky den, the same one he had dragged her into those weeks ago. The cheetah flailed her paws lamely. “Usiku! What are you doing?!” She demanded, but the dark leopard just ignored her until he had her out of the rocks and out in the grass.
“This is best done in the open.” He stated simply, unceremoniously releasing the female onto the floor. Zyanya ‘hmph’d in response and shook her head, making a face at him before seeming to become too distracted by all the openness around her. He’d never thought about what it might do to the cheetah, being stuck under a rock for so long. She probably had missed wide open ground, or, in the very least, being able to see so much of the world.
There was a long silence as she seemed to just admire the world around her, and though he was impatient, Usiku let her have this moment. Finally, her ears twitched and she remembered she should be doing something. “Okay… lets… do this.” As before, she was shaky getting on her feet. He wanted to help, but imagined that, for now, she didn’t want him to.
Zyanya scowled at her own paws when she stood, flexing her toes first, leaning more on her left paw (the uninjured one) before finally allowing some weight onto her right. It was very sore, and it felt like if she tried to rely on it to stand she would just topple over. “This isn’t going to work.”
“Yes, it will.”
She almost snorted. Leave it to Usiku to be all optimistic. Usually, the optimistic cheerful one would be her. But Zyanya had no family, or close friends to care about. Her life had been herself, and her ability to run. The prospect of losing that was enough to change her attitude. She glanced at him, and met only those green eyes staring at her. He could look almost scary sometimes, if she thought about it. Dark, mysterious, and intense. Not to mention, he was a leopard. They were stronger than cheetah, and he wasn’t a small one, which could make him even more intimidating. But now wasn’t a time to muse about the leopard. She looked back down to her paws, and attempted to take a step.
She stumbled forwards pathetically, and flopped onto the floor.
Damnit. “It’s no good.” She didn’t grunt or yelp or whine. She just stated. She looked at her leg. It was no longer swollen, and maybe she had been lucky and hadn’t fractured it. Or maybe she had only… maybe just sort of broken it. It’s not like she could really know for sure. But her first attempt at walking hadn’t indicated much.
Now she did yelp, feeling jaws close on her neck for the second time that morning, only this time Usiku pulled straight up and hauled her to her feet. “All better. Try again.”
She hissed at him in irritation, but, nonetheless, looked back down at her paws and attempted to take another step. This time, she staggered, but didn’t fall, managing to regain her footage, although on shaky feet. She looked at him uncertainly. “It’s just like learning to walk again.”
Zyanya didn’t remember learning to walk. It was the sort of thing that happened when you were so young it was soon forgotten. Yet, the words still reassured her. Cubs could learn how to walk, maybe she could, as well. She nodded, and took another step. The cheetah seemed to b getting more used to her condition, better at predicting when in the step her leg would begin to hurt, and being able to counter it.
She managed to take a few more full strides, each better than the other, then she stopped. “Well? How is it?”
She thought a bit her, wiggling her toes, scratching at the earth with dull cheetah claws. “It feels weak.” she said, thoughtfully. “If I put much more weight on it, it hurts. And feels like it’s just… give way.” She sighed, and sat down, so she could rest her leg a bit more.
“I can walk, but… I don’t think it’s good enough for running.”
Usiku couldn’t help it then. She didn’t look as weak and pathetic as she had when he’d found her, but somehow it just seemed like she needed it more now. He stepped closer and at beside the cheetah, his side touching her own. “You don’t know that.” He attempted lamely. Neither did her. “It’s only been a few weeks. You just need more time to heal, that’s all.” Said Usiku, but Zyanya remained silent. He nudged her shoulder with his nose in an attempt to get a reaction. It seemed to work, as the cheetah sighed.
“I guess I can keep trying.”
He might have been more convinced if she hadn’t said that with a shrug of her shoulders. But at least she wasn’t saying she was dead anymore. “That’s enough for now, I guess.” He said quietly, mostly to himself. One step at a time.
“Come on, walk with me. Now that you can. We should find a new place for you." Their little rocky den had too much of a scent of cheetah and leopard, he was surprised only a couple hyenas had been sniffing around. They were fortunate the two hadn't seemed interested in dealing with an apparently just grumpy leopard.
Zyanya nodded, and let Usiku lead her away.
