The evening was falling and Mavi was wandering at the very edge of the prides borders just enjoying some time to herself and checking out the border which she didn’t do very often. She was usually too busy to go to the border so when she did get a chance to come out she really enjoyed seeing what had changed since her last visit. There wasn’t much that had changed this time around but she was hoping to possibly run onto a rogue or any one while out here. She’d be happy if she ran onto prey.
Mavi was going to get her wish this evening. Making his way towards the prides borders unknowingly was Buluu the cheetah. He was always wandering some direction. He rarely cared which direction that was too. This evening he was coming close to Makano’s pride borders and the location where Mavi was at. Her dark fur made her difficult for Buluu to see so he had no idea she was in the grasses ahead of him until he was almost face and face with her. The first thing Buluu even noticed of her was her red eyes glowing in the slowly diminishing light. It caused him to freeze just completely unsure what to do.
Mavi had spotted him coming closer long before he had actually seen her and when he finally did see her she couldn’t help laugh at his fearful frozen position. She was around cheetah’s all the time but she had never seen one freeze in fear at her appearance. It was really amusing to her and she just couldn’t help herself when she seen him do it but after a moment she stopped as she realized he was truly scared of her. Her ears fell back against her head then and she just gazed at him in concern. “Are you ok?” She asked.
Buluu gulped as the lioness laughed at him the moment he stopped in front of her. He watched her closely and seen every emotion that crossed her face. She went from amused to surprised to concerned so quickly that he couldn’t believe it. He had to think about her question before he answered it. Had she really asked if he was ok? He wasn’t really used to kind lions but he seemed to keep running into bad and good ones too so he was always nervous at first until the lion showed him what exactly his/her agenda was going to be with him. He could tell this lioness was possibly going to be one of the good ones so he decided to answer her with as calm a voice as he could muster. “Um.. well you scared me. I didn’t even see you at first. I think I may have just walked right into you if I hadn’t seen your eyes in the gloom.”
Mavi perked her ears as she listened to his explanation and then smiled as she nodded. “Oh yeah. I guess the dark fur on my front legs and face would make me hard to see from the front.” She said with a chuckle. “I probably would have been easier to spot from behind.” She told him with a little laugh as she turned sideways and showed him her back side which had a lot more white than her front did. “I’m guessing you’re a rogue huh? I haven’t seen you around the pride and I know just about all the cheetah’s of the pride.”
Buluu smiled as the lioness showed him her butt which had plenty of white on it to help her stand out in the darkness. “You should try to shift some of that white to the front.” He said playfully and then he perked his ears at her question of him being a rogue. “Yes I am. Have I come across a pride? It’s been a while since I came to the borders of a pride.” He told her and he sniffed the air a bit. He could smell a lot of different smells but they all seemed to have something in common he could tell. “You say there are cheetahs in your pride?”
Mavi smiled at the cheetah and nodded. “Yeah. We have a lot of cheetahs in the pride actually. They are prized in the pride because we are a racing pride. The whole pride is real into racing cheetahs and the cheetahs are all very proud of what they do. It’s a pretty fun pride to live in.” She explained to him. She had always loved her pride ever since she had come to be a part of it as a juvenile.
Buluu was surprised by what the lioness said. A pride based completely around racing his kind?! That whole idea sounded down right crazy to him. “Cheetahs really let themselves be used that way?” He asked her still just in shock and trying to wrap his head around it.
Mavi blinked at the cheetah. She’d run onto cheetahs before that were rogues. Some had liked the pride and others had kept on going in whatever direction they’d been going and not looked back but she had never been asked such a question before. “Well they’re not really getting used. The cheetahs all race voluntarily. Nothing is forced on them in fact a lot of times they have to be forced to stop to keep them from hurting themselves. I’m a healer and I check all the cheetahs before races and there has been many times when I’ve had to called on other lions to escort a cheetah home so they would not hurt themselves trying to race and win.” She explained to him in a very passionate way. She loved what she did and what the pride did and saw nothing at all wrong with it.
Buluu just shook his head in complete disbelief. “That’s crazy. I never thought I’d ever hear of such an operation. I would never let myself be used like that.” He told her. “Wow…” He glanced over his shoulder and then back at the lioness. He was ready to get out of there now. “I think I’ve had enough to do with this area. Was a pleasure talking to you, good luck with your pride and the whole racing thing.” He said and then he turned around and just left. He was trying to keep his temper down at the thought of his fellow cheetahs being used in such a way. He knew one thing. He would never be used that way.
Mavi watched as the cheetah left trying to wrap her mind around why the cheetah thought what the pride was doing was wrong. The cheetahs of the pride were taken better care of than any other breed in the pride. There wasn’t anything she could do to change his mind so she tried her best to let it be and just go on about her walk and enjoy what time she had left before she needed to head back towards the center of the pride to head for bed.
FIN
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