Sitiri had not mentioned her running into that large male lion, whose name she never got, to Oz. She did not want him to worry, for one, and felt strange talking about it. She would have to admit that he had scared her, and that was not something she wanted to do. It hurt her pride to admit she was scared of anything, and she wanted to be strong, brave, and independent. Of course, she wanted to do all these things and be seen doing them. It was not enough for it to be personal victory in each area. She needed reinforcement as well, from her peers. Or in this case, her peer.
“Your pelt is interesting.” A voice spoke from somewhere behind her, and Sitiri nearly leaped out of her fur. She looked around for the source of the random compliment, if interesting was a good thing anyway, and did not see anyone around her. Until she glanced up and saw a tail flicking back and forth from a tree branch above her. She blinked, following the tail to its body. A lithe, smaller feline with a beautiful orange and striped coat, mostly hidden by the leaves of the tree she was resting in. Her sharp eyes were focused on Sitiri, and seemed to glow in the darkness of the tree top.
“You like my coat?” Sitiri ventured to ask. The creature all but fell from the tree, gracefully dropping from the branch to the floor. She straightened and looked at the lion, and a slow, almost imperceptible smile and nod returned her answer. “What are you? I mean. Uhm. Who are you?”
“My name is Kita,” she said with a scoff, “and I am a leopard. I suppose you haven’t met one yet, hm? That’s alright, I don’t mingle with lions very much, either, so I suppose we are even.”
“My name is Sitiri. It’s nice to meet you,” she smiled, looking the leopard over. She had never seen a creature so lithe and beautiful before. Kita’s tail looked long and strong, much different to the spindly little thing Sitiri herself had. The stripes she bore looked like a tiger’s in color, not that that matter to Sitiri as she had never seen one of those, either. She was close to the size of the leopard, but she imagined that was only because she was not full grown. Kita was looking Sitiri over with a similar interest, marking her camouflage colored fur and her age. It was clean Sitiri was no threat to her, and she did not intend to offer a threat to the young lioness, either.
“I am looking for someone, but I suppose your reaction to me tells me more than not,” she sighed, flicking her thick tail. Sitiri looked a little upset, tilting her head in wonder at the leopard.
“Why do you say that? Maybe I can help you a little? Who are you looking for?”
Maybe she was looking for that large lion she had met before, the one with the bear on his side. But she doubted it, for some reason. Her tone and words made it seem like she was looking for another leopard, which was more likely than anything else. She still wanted to help though, so maybe she could at least look around the area for a little while for this lost companion, or whatever it was. Sitiri had a habit of letting her imagination run off with her, before getting all the facts, so she needed to calm down and actually figure out what was going on before she went off thinking she could definitely be useful here.
“Another leopard,” Kita confirmed, “a male. He is gray and spotted. But he is very dangerous, and I do not want you to meet him if you can avoid it. I’m trying to find him so I can defeat him, and take him back to my master for punishment. He has escaped and is angry. I fear he’s going to hurt a lot of innocent creatures…”
Sitiri stared. That was not what she had been expecting. And she was pretty sure she could not be helpful with this one.
“You are hunting him even though he’s really dangerous? Won’t that get you like… hurt or killed?”
Kita smiled and shook her head at the conern.
“I’m really dangerous, too.”
This was actually the friendliest Kita had been to anyone in a long time. Generally, she held herself quietly and respectfully, always focused on the task at hand. She was a very serious lioness, sometimes to the point of being severe. Aloof. She was strong and determined, rigidly trained and she would not stop until she completed her task for her master. It meant everything to her, to serve and serve well, and to live up to and fulfill the duties she was assigned.
And maybe it was a little more than that, but she did not put much thought into it.
Sitiri had never had that sense of duty. She was building trust, becoming dedicated to one lion, but it was certainly in a different light than what Kita felt for her master, whoever that was. As Kita explained how she lived and why she was hunting this other leopard, Sitiri felt distanced. Detached from the ideas Kita put forth. That was not how she lived, and she was having a difficult time thinking of it and understanding it, though she was trying. She did not want to hurt the others’ feelings, after all.
She frowned and shook her head slowly.
“So you’re saying I shouldn’t help, because he’s big and scary and he’ll probably hurt me?”
“Or worse,” Kita nodded, on a small breath of relief.
“Alright, okay. I don’t want to get hurt but I don’t want you to get hurt either. And there’s another lion around here, and he seems like the guy you describe, kind of. Maybe no outwardly violent or anything but he was… scary. I don’t know. It seems like this area is a magnet for creatures I don’t want to meet.” She paused for a moment as the two exchanged looks, then burst into laughter at her mistake.
“Except for you!!”
(Word Count: 1,039 in Word)
