She never did go back to that tree where the monkeys dwelled. The leopardess had eaten the stolen kill and had slept in another tree. Naiya had decided if she was to go back to that tree she was going to end up killing a monkey if they threw a stone at her again. There was no way she wanted to defile a place holy to their people with one of their own. Maybe she had disappointed the elder but it was not any of her business now was it. She'd return maybe one day but not today.
Today she was tired. Today was a day of rest. The hot African sun hung over head and baked her back as she laid there and soaked in all the rays. Her whole body ached for some reason. No she hadn't hurt her self but now she was fully grown and not as nimble as she once was. It was possible dragging the carcass up the tree had pulled something in her back out of place. Now the leopardess was left to bake in the sun and try to heal best she could. Not a terrible fate, no, but not the most ideal one either.
Her tail gently twitched lazily from side to side every once in a while as the numbing hum from the savanna took its role as white noise. Bugs buzzed to and fro and winds whistled their way through every now and then. There wasn't enough wind to qualify as a proper breeze but any wind was welcomed on such a hot day. Naiya watched as a grass hopper just happened to hop on by right in front of her muzzle. The female resisted the urge to swat it with her paw and instead just gazed at it. She couldn't wonder if maybe it had some place to be or a family near by. Did grasshoppers have families and if they did how did such a family of hoppers function? All of these questions noisily buzzed through her mind making it even harder to close her eyes despite the fact she wanted nothing more in the world.
Inhale and exhale, this is what the leopardess attempted to focus on best she could. Her breathing. But admittedly it wasn't exactly the most easy to concentrate on. So many happenings all around the area she laid but here she was just standing still like the rocks beneath her. Time passing by, clouds flying fast over head, and here she was not moving an inch. What sort of proper life form was she? That let her legs limply hang from a branch and let her tail dangle from such a height. Inhale and exhale.
Then over head she could hear the bickering caws of some birds out and about for a fly. They soared overhead and happily chattered their beaks off. Naiya laid and managed to not even lift her head to greet the noisy little things. Instead she stayed put just as a rock might have. She was a rock in this tree. No, she was an extension of this branch. Her and this branch never moving until a force would move them from their post. More caws over head only got so much as a small ear twitch along with a lazily sway of the tail. The cawing of the unannounced birds soon became more distant and more far away. Every second, they disappeared to else where and possibly no where all at once. They had not left this world, but they were not here.
Inhale and exhale.
The savanna was once again quiet with the birds flown else where. Every once in a while a whisper of wind would whistle on past but that was all. Naiya closed her eyes and concentrated on the complicated life that must have happened years ago with this tree. What amount of time it must have taken for these branches to grow in to the tangled mess they were today. What complicated ways of sprouting and what thought this tree must have had to make it so today. It was alive and there were things alive with in its body.
Naiya popped her eyes open once again and watched as on another branch ants marched on by carrying their bits of leaf. All of them seemed to have some sort of purpose some sort of role. All of them were organized and all of them moved in one. Did they have thoughts of their own? Did they ever resent having to follow a unit and move as one or were they all just thinking the same things. It really was incredible to watch as their little legs lifted and landed only to have the other pair repeat. Naiya could hear marching sounds with every step with in her head. Maybe they were just little soldiers that were just that good. The marching in her head just got louder and louder. Naiya closed her eyes once more and a calm of whistling wind gently licked her face. The sound of marching ants stopped right then and there and the leopardess was left to her thoughts again.
But this time her eyes were harder to open. They fluttered just a slight bit before closing again. A great bellow of a yawn rose from her chest as did a stretch as she worked her body in to the complicated twist of the branch. Gradually her lazy sway of her tail got less and less. Her inhaling and exhaling become more and more calm. The warmth of the baking sun became more and more comfortable and slowly the leopardess could feel a calm. A door to slumber had been opened and she was slipping more and more down its rabbit hole. Sounds of the wind and even a return of the cawing birds became muffled and distant. Sleep had finally come and wrapped Naiya in its open arms to take her to else where. Like earlier, she was flying. Weightless. Naiya had drifted to the land of sleep only to return when permitted by sleep her dear friend.
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