Kita’s words were still ringing in her ears. Be careful of who she talked to: if she saw any other leopards she was to avoid them and come find Kita if she could. It was dangerous out, and she was making her way back to where she had left her traveling companion, not wanting to be away from him any more. She felt safe in his company, in more ways than one, and decided she had met far too many others for her liking in such a small amount of time. While Kita was beautiful and very nice, she had no intention of running into this Tailung character, and she did not want to meet that large lion again. She had never gotten his name, but it was fine by her. If she could pretend their meeting had not happened, she would be fine.
It was strange to consider that nothing had even happened when they met up. He had been nice enough to her, if not condescending in some small way. Even if he had not meant it. He had a power in him that had made her legs feel like jelly, and her body want to stick close to the ground as if gravity had suddenly doubled. She could not meet his eyes. Even the way he had just vanished made her wonder and worry, and she hoped he was not as good at finding someone as he was at abandoning them, or she would never stop thinking he was just behind her. It took her some will, in that moment as the thought crossed her mind, not to look over her shoulder just in case.
A quick glance showed her the lion was not behind her. But, to her horror and shock, a leopard was.
It hurried up when it saw she had spotted it. It was larger than Kita, and fit the description of the leopard she was not supposed to go anywhere near. And it was running toward her. That took a moment to register, but when it did it was accompanied with panic and terror. She yelped and turned, her paws hitting the ground at full pelt. She took off across the grass and her speed aided her. She was at least a fast lioness, her small size allowing her to be. Her pursuer was surprised by this burst of speed, but it only put the fire under his paws and he charged after her.
It was going to be a fun hunt.
Tailung had no intention of eating a bony little lion girl, but he did want to hurt her. He was not one of those ‘waste not’ types. He had no moral compass to guide him. His decisions were based entirely in anger and bloodthirst. He wanted to spill blood, for all he had suffered in his life, and he would do so. Starting with this lioness. Well, starting today with this lioness, at least. Yesterday had its own start, and his endeavor a long while before that. He had hurt and killed many in his path so far, and he had nothing to make him even consider stopping yet. He was aware that Kita was following him, but he liked that idea. She was the one thing from his past that he could still bear to see, without flying into a blind, red rage. Which was ironic, of course, as she was hell bent on stopping his fun.
He looked forward to the day she caught him, and they would fight. But he would no simply give himself over to her. No, he would make it difficult.
This lioness he was chasing smelled of her, at a distance, and he wondered if they had been in company. If they were friends. That would make this particular kill so much more important and meaningful, where all the others were simply because he felt like it. It had not been the reason he started to chase the speed demon child, but it was certainly a compelling reason to keep up in his chase.
“You will not out run me, little one!” he bellowed for good measure, his voice catching the air strong enough that it was not washed away in the wind whipping over them. Sitiri heard the words and shuddered, stumbling, and very nearly falling over. She could not keep up this pace forever: she was already exhausting herself and it seemed like the leopard, if he was able to taunt and yell, was not even winded yet. She knew Kita said he trained himself into a fighting machine over his life, but she had no idea just what kind of a difference that would make between them.
Until now, of course.
She leaped over a felled tree and landed behind it. It was large enough that if she crouched down she was momentarily out of sight. She took the chance and skidded to an abrupt start, then turned on her paws, almost twisting her ankles, and yanking herself off to the side. The sudden direction change left her head spinning but she ran into a patch of underbrush. It made her progress slower but she hoped it would be somewhere the leopard could not follow.
For a very short moment, she was right. Then he caught her scent on a traitorous wind. He turned his head after he leaped over the tree and came to a stop, not seeing her path before him and being unable to tell where she passed in the thick underbrush. He scanned the area and saw a glimpse of her fur, too green to blend in the way she would have liked to considering it was camouflage patterned, and grinned.
She was his.
Yelping and crying for help, knowing she was caught, Sitiri felt fear almost overwhelm her. She scrabbled through the bushes, twigs and brambles pulling her fur, cutting her skin. She wailed in misery as Tailung began to pick his way toward her, reaching his long and powerful paw out to catch her. She felt his claws touch her ankle and she screamed for Oz, but there was no doubt in her mind that he was too far away to hear her. A second swipe from him bit into her flesh but she kicked so widely he had to let go and try again.
The third attempt never came. There was rustling, then silence. Sitiri, panicked, dug her way out of the bushes on the other side and ran.
(Word Count: 1,085 in Word)
