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Hunting was about stealth, it was about speed. Her blue pelt made the former harder, but she relished the challenge. She’d just lie that much lower to the ground, stay that much further downwind. Be that much faster when she got close enough, when the gazelle started to run and she had to chase them down.

Bluu smiled to herself as she crept closer, step by step. Pause. Another step. The gazelle spotted her, but too late! She burst out of the grass and ran full speed, the gazelle zigging and zagging ahead of her and she felt a wild euphoria building in her, threatening to bubble out. This what she lived for: the wind tugging at her coat, the rasp of her breath in her throat, the smack smack smack of her feet hitting the ground and the world blurring by. This speed, this hunt, this skill! And the gazelle, so desperate, but all it took to bring it down was a swipe of her paw, a lunge, her teeth sinking into the flesh of its neck. Her kill, all hers! And nobody would take it from her.

Bluu turned at the sound of another's approach, the gazelle's throat still clutched in her bloody jaws. She let a low growl, possessive of her new kill, but with a mental kick reminded herself that it wouldn't do to scare off another cheetah. Not when there were bargains to be struck.

Not that she was going to give up her kill. Keeping her eyes on the male, she dropped the gazelle and placed a paw on the neck. "My thanks, kind stranger," she purred. She smiled at him in what she assumed was an appropriately admiring and love-struck fashion. Might be best to sweeten him up a bit while she determined what she could get from him. Information was always best; it had many uses and weighed less than a feather.

What. What was this. Outwardly Bluu cooed at the compliment, but inwardly she was caught between anger and laughter. This was... this was brilliant is what it was. If only it wasn't her kill that was at stake. Not that she had any intention of giving it up; she certainly wasn't going to let some featherbrained male take it from her!

"It has been an awfully long time since I last saw another cheetah," she breathed, dragging the gazelle a touch closer to herself. "Nothing but lions and hyenas, it's been horrid. But I don't suppose... there aren't any of those nasty things around here, are there?" She gazed at him wide eyed. She was mildly familiar with the area, but extra information wouldn't hurt.

Kept lions and hyenas at bay indeed! Obviously the male was much more interested in impressing her than providing any useful information. Perhaps she’d been going about this wrong; information was useful, but so were favors owed. Assuming the male would repay her once she came calling… she had low expectations on that front, but everyone repaid her in the end, willingly or not.

She rewarded him with a genuine smile at the mention of speed; it was true that cheetahs were much faster and much better than any other animal. “It would be a most terrible shame to let a lion or hyena steal such a fine kill,” she breathed, “but since there aren’t any around…”

Her smile shifted to an impish grin. “Still I suppose it wouldn’t be so terrible to share my kill… not when such a handsome male would be sure to return the favor some day.” She lifted her paw off of the neck of the gazelle and waited for him to take the bait.

Bluu smirked at the male, truly enjoying herself. Who was this male who so willingly sold his brother? She was tempted to take him up on the offer, but her somewhat warped moral code limited what she could ask for. If the brother offered himself willingly or had some kind of debt to the gray male before her, that was one thing, but she rather doubted that was the case. Of course there were other things she could ask for – information, the male’s first born child. The possibilities were nearly endless.

“And what hold do you have over your brother?” she asked sweetly. “Were I to mention your name and the bargain struck, would he pay?

“Perhaps it’s your service I would prefer,” she continued. “No more than a few days of your time.” Her mind raced, thinking of all the things she could get him to do in those few days. Hunt gazelle, for starters.

Just as she suspected, the brother was useless. But if the gray male was willing to offer his own service...

Her mind raced, trying to think of what she'd ask of the male. The fool had to ask! It would have been much better if he'd agreed and she'd told him after the fact. If he was so intent on talking her out of her kill, he'd probably balk at hunting...

But what of conning other cheetahs? Could she ask him to talk other cheetahs into giving him their kill, then pass the meat on to her? She smiled.

"Tell me," she said. "How often do you encounter, ah, hapless females ready to share their kill? Would they share the kill with a third, were that third to prove no rival for your delicate attention?"

Bluu smiled, thoroughly enjoying the back-and-forth with the male. "I'll trade you half my kill now for a third of the next two kills you con. 'A bird in a hand is worth two in the bush,' after all."

"My name is Bluu," she added as an afterthought.

"It's a deal Maraka," Bluu said as she stepped back from her kill. It wasn't the best bargain she had ever struck, but it would certainly do. As a bonus she could follow the male around and discover which cheetahs were so gullible that they'd fall for his charm.