Ben Zi was used to being alone. It felt like she had always been alone, really. She was not sure she could remember a time when she was with her family any more, though she had wanted to hold on to those moments. Time just got by her, and things changed.
Here she was, then, walking through the rogue lands on her own.
Her white fur stuck out a bit against the yellow grass, but it was not the worst thing out there. She had seen lions with much stranger and more obvious pelts than hers, and she took a little comfort in that. Not that she felt she was at the bottom of the food chain. She was just a pacifist, and would not lift a paw to hurt another unless for food. And she only hunted what she could eat and not waste.
She actually liked it when hyenas or other scavengers took the carcasses she was done with. Not so much when she was not done with them, but that was fine too. She just had to catch smaller animals to fill what the rest of the food she lost to the poachers would have filled.
She was a very amiable and giving sort, though she was quiet and shy.
When the greenish blue lioness leaped onto her small antelope, then, she bounced backwards and away, shrinking down as she heard the other growling. Fushigibana watched the stranger keenly, noting immediately that she was not going to fight back. In fact, the other lioness looked like she was just going to roll over. Ben Zi was considering it, as a show of submission.
Fushigibana felt guilt stinging at her immediately.
"You're not going to try and get your food back?"
Fushigibana, by blessing of her genes, was lazy. She did not like to hunt if she did not have to. All her life she had been trained to be a fighter, like her father, and while she had never taken to the life style she found the training did come in handy when she was feeling particularly lazy and saw someone with a kill nearby.
Of course, her efforts usually failed, and she would just have to go hunt anyway. So really, she was not making her life any easier by trying to steal from others since they tended to want to fight back. She had never been in a situation where they did not and it left her looking and feeling absolutely baffled.
She wondered if this was some sort of trap.
"You're not going to jump on me when I start to eat, right? Attack me when my guard is down? Because you should know right now that my guard is never down. my father taught me how to battle and I will so win if you want to fight! Do you want to fight? Let's go!"
Working herself into a frenzy, the younger lioness growling and padded toward the quickly retreating tiger striped female. Ben Zi shook her head a few too many times, far too quickly, making herself dizzy. She felt like her eyes were boggling as she tried to get a good look at Fushigibana.
"I do not wish to fight, please no!"
Ben Zi laid down flat on the floor, paws hidden under her, ears back and her tail looking like a dead snake behind her. She shook her head slowly, though she kept it low to the ground as well. "I do not wish to fight, at all. I am sorry if I upset you! Please, take the food. I promise it is still very fresh."
She whimpered a bit and Fushigibana grunted her displeasure.
"I can't just take it from you if you're going to be like that," she said stiffly, "You're just wimping out on me! You could at least stick up for yourself. Aren't you hungry? I bet you are, if you're out here hunting in this heat. So why are you being such a wuss about it?"
"Do you... want to fight me?"
"No! I don't care about fighting. I'd rather not if I could avoid it but-"
"But you can avoid it. I do not want to fight, and if you do not either then we can simple move on. I really do not mind sharing, though I am hungry. I try not to hunt unless I need to." Ben Zi smiled faintly, her eyes, which were pretty and bright, lingering on her new companion. It was her nature to try and treat everyone like a friend, and avoid getting her head ripped off. That would just make her sad.
And she tended to mope around when she was sad.
Fushigibana heaved a profound sigh, her rib cage expanding and then crushing back onto itself so hard she thought her bones might shatter. But it turned out it was built for such things, and her exasperation did not kill her. Not today, at least.
"I guess. Whatever, I don't even want it anyway. You eat it. Antelope are too bony and stringy for me."
"Then why did you..."
"What, you want me to take it from you, and you go hungry? Because I will." This female seemed to be questioning all of Fushigibana's motivations, which got her on the defensive. She snarled a bit, but her mood was not as bad as she was pretending it to be. Actually, she liked this white, tiger striped girl just a little bit.
But only a little bit.
"I'm going to go. My name's Fushigibana, by the way. Not that we'll see each other again." She had a God to follow, after all, and she couldn't distract herself from that task too much. Though, she always managed to find him again, no matter what else she was doing, and she wondered if he was leading her around on purpose.
No, he did not know she was following him.
Ben Zi smiled and padded a bit closer, scooting along the floor because she didn't raise herself too much.
"Thank you very much. My name is Ben Zi. It was very nice meeting you, Fushigibana."
(Word Count: 1,025 in Word)
