It looked kind of like a leopard was trying to kill a cheetah. Which would be, of course, rather silly, since the cheetah was much faster. Which is why playing a game made much more sense, especially when the leopard caught up and promptly pounced on the cheetah. “Stop fussing!” Usiku said between laughs as Zyanya squirmed beneath him. Despite doing his best to restrain her, the leopard was also being gentle, to avoid injuring his captive. “You can’t win! I’m much stronger than you!”
The cheetah huffed and kicked out at him, but settled down and made her best haughty face. “More like fatter.”
Maybe he should be offended, or at least pretend to be, but Usiku laughed. “You’re calling me fat? Wow, that’s low.” He rolled his eyes, using a paw to gently bop her nose. “I think I’m going to cry all night now.”
Beneath him, Zyanya sighed. “Fat and a crybaby. Boy, you’re a catch.”
Hmph, a catch. Usiku waved a paw dismissively. “I know, I know. You’re flattering me.” From beneath he felt a shove, and figured he’d best let Zyanya go. Usiku stood up, but gave her a soft kick with one of his hind paws before stepping away. “Woops.” He said, but it was insincere.
“Geez, Usiku. What kind of mother raised you? Kicking a cripple.”
The frown died on his face, but Zyanya couldn’t quite see that because he was facing away from her. “A very good one.” Either the cheetah caught his tone of voice, or she remembered something he had said before, because she fell silent. He sighed, and went to sit beneath a tree, since it was morning and soon he’d be settling in to sleep for the day. Soon enough, Zyanya came and sat by him.
“You never did tell me about your past. Not honestly, anyways.”
“No, I didn’t.” He agreed, moodily. Zyanya felt silent, and Usiku felt guilty. He sighed, but didn’t apologize. “I was born in the jungle.” Might as well tell her. He took a glance at the cheetah beside him, and found her looking right at him with those very green eyes, ears perked. He had her attention now.
“It was great, but I was kind of a brat.” He shrugged. “Didn’t know what I had.” So he supposed he kind of already spoiled it, and he almost left it at that. Usiku really didn’t like talking about this.
“Anyways, my mother wasn’t born in the jungle herself, I think. My dad was, he was afraid to leave. But my mother wanted me to know what the outside world was like, so when I was a bit older she took me out to see the world.” He remembered thinking it would be so awesome. “We were out in some… grassy place, I think. Tall grass. She told me to be careful, I thought she was just overprotective, so I snuck away.”
Now things would start getting harder, so he took a short pause. Usiku found he was alright with telling Zyanya about his past. “I ran into a lioness and she tried to kill me.” He heard a small gasp from the cheetah beside him, but apparently she quickly shushed herself because there were no other sounds. “So my mother showed up out of nowhere and saved me. Told me to run.” He closed his eyes.
“And that was the last time I saw her.”
There was a silence before Zyanya spoke up. “Usiku, I’m so…”
He laughed then. Not a real laugh, but a kind of ‘hah’. “Not done yet.” Zyanya furrowed her brows. Yeh, right? As if things couldn’t get worse! “While I was, you know, understandably upset and mourning the loss of my mother, I was found by another lioness. And she made me her slave.”
By now, Zyanya’s face was quite strange. There was a mix of sadness, pity and disbelief. He hardly believed it himself! “Anyways, I met a leopardess and we ran away together.”
“What happened to her?”
Usiku shrugged. “Don’t know. But that was a few years ago. Been on my own since then. Until I saved you, that is.” He spared her a small smile then. It had been at least a few years o his own, and he was quite happy for the change.
“Wow…” Zyanya sat back against the tree. “Usiku, I’m so sorry.” He turned his head to look at her.
“It’s alright. It was a while ago.” It hurt less and less as time went by, mostly, shame was left. He should have just listened to his mother back then, and maybe he would still be living in the jungle, such a safe place. And he had never gone back to find out what had happened to his father.
“What was your mother’s name?”
Usiku hadn’t quite expected the question, but answered nonetheless. “Karama.” Seemed weird to him, really. She had always just been ‘mom’ or ‘mother’.
Zyanya nodded slightly to that and curled her tail around her paws. “That’s a nice name. How about your father?” He briefly wondered why she wanted to know.
“Keone.” He always remembered his mother, because she had been a very brave leopardess. But Usiku suddenly felt like he hadn’t appreciated his father. Keone had been a good leopard, had done his best despite his fears. “Now it’s your turn.”
Zyanya smiled sheepishly. “I told you the truth before. Nothing eventful.” He nodded. “But my mother’s name was Tatia, and my father’s name is Makani.”
He perked his ears. She used ‘was’ for her mother and ‘is’ for her father. “Is you mother dead?” A bit of a direct question, but he had just told her how he was kind of responsible for his own mother’s death. He supposed she shouldn’t think it was a big deal.
“Yeah. She was already kind of old when I came around, but lived long enough to see me grown. One day I came to visit and ran into an old friend of hers, told me she had passed away.” She sighed. “I was sad, but… I suppose it was a good way to go. He said she just went asleep on her favorite rock and didn’t wake up.”
Usiku nodded to that, “It’s a good death.” He sighed and let silence fall as the sun began to creep higher in the sky. “Have you had enough of history for now, Zyanya?” He asked with a lighter tone, perhaps because he had just gotten some stuff off his chest, or because he was happy the conversation was over.
“Mmmm… Yeah, I think so.” The cheetah nodded, then followed up with a yawn. “I guess I’m getting used to your schedule, I’m beat.” Usiku chuckled at that, as he turned to the tree behind him and began to climb up for a spot to spend the day sleeping.
“Good day to you, Zyanya.” He said as he settled his head down on his paws, ready for a nice long day of sleeping.
