Gogv'equani Ansoomse, much-beloved if somewhat misunderstood daughter of Azrael and Rashida, was flummoxed and as was her usual habit when confronted with a confounding situation, her mood turned mean. Living alone meant that she had no easy targets for spend her wrath on verbally, so the young huntress decided to do the next best thing and take a solo hunting trip. The process of finding, stalking, and killing something was almost as good as ruining somebody's day when it came to lightening her mood. Neither one would actually fix the problem at hand, of course, but it would allow her to clear her mind, and maybe during the process something would occur to her that would help her to resolve her situation.
Someday, and probably soon, she would be taken to task for all the times she left the protection of Sky Clan to go hunting on her own. It was dangerous and discouraged because of it, but Gogv barely registered the potential danger hunting without companions represented to a lioness. She tended to think of herself as basically invincible and untouchable, and so thoughts of danger and risk and responsibility did not often occur to her. Even if they had concerned her, she would have much preferred to do things in her usual solitary manner, particularly when dealing with issues such as the one she was presently confronted with.
She prowled away from the living area of the clan, hunkering down just in case anyone was likely to intercept her and waylay her and generally prevent her from doing what she wanted to do. It was not a very likely thing, really, since Gogv was not an approachable lioness at the best of times and there weren't too many people who would want to approach her at those times. When she was wearing the forbidding "keep far, far away from me" face that she currently wore, the only way someone would come up to her would be if their life depended on it.
The last time she had done this, she recalled, she had ended up encountering the lion who was presently giving her poorly developed emotions so much trouble. He had managed to hurt his paw falling off a ledge or something equally silly. She simply did not understand how she could be the least bit conflicted about such a good-natured lion with a tendency toward being bumbling. Bumbling! It was inconceivable that she should find such a lion charming and endearing. She shouldn't even be capable of being charmed. The whole thing was very frustrating.
As she drew nearer the spot where she had last last encountered Vtla, smelling blood and then learning it was his, Gogv stopped herself and bared her teeth slightly. Was she really walking here in some sort of sad, unconscious hope that she would meet him again? Oh, no. That was definitely not what was going on, and even if it was, it wasn't anymore. Gogv wasn't having any of that silliness. She was not a foolish lioness.
"Definitely not," she told herself firmly as she quite deliberately changed the direction her feet were taking her. "There is no good hunting here, and no reason for me to be here at all."
Her lip curled with derision as she set off in a completely different direction to find something to kill. Violently. Not that there were many other ways for a lioness to kill something, but in Gogv's case it was likely that there would be an excess of violence as the young lioness planned to use the act to convince herself that she lacked any sort of softness or emotional weakness. And attraction was a weakness of the emotion. It made a person re-think their priorities and forget what was truly important in their life.
At last she came to a portion of the mountain where she might hunt down some goats to slaughter. Probably she wouldn't have to kill more than one goat to sate her ire. There was spoor for her to follow, and follow it she did, keeping to the shadows and doing her best to track her quarry without giving away her own presence. It wasn't quite her strong suit, but she made an effort and usually her attempts were more than equal to the goats' attempts to spot predators. It helped, of course, that the goats were unaware that they were being trailed until it was too late.
After several hours of tracking the hopping creatures Gogv found the split prints of sharp ovine hooves marking the dirt. That meant she was very close, and she was glad. The time on her own had only provided her with too many opportunities to think about Vtla and what she was trying to run away from there. The tradition in the pride was to be mated to one lion for life, but surely there could be exceptions made. As she drew near enough to hear bleating her mind began to wander once more, distracting her from an opportunity to make a kill.
She and Vtla were from separate clans, for one thing, and that would complicate things. It would make more sense for her to just get this whole thing out of her system somehow. She wondered if the cub minder would be willing to join with her just once, so that she could cure herself of her ridiculous infatuation with love. Not that she in any way thought she might be in love with Vtla, but there were feelings there and she didn't like that. It would be more comfortable for her if her feelings were just lust rather than something more emotional, and a physical joining with Vtla might prove it to be only that.
Her teeth showed as she smiled at the thought. At the same time she lunged from her hiding place, hooking her sharp claws into the side of a shaggy-coated goat which screamed and bleated in terror and pain. She paid its distress no mind and began to tear into its still-struggling carcass with teeth and claws while its herdmates scattered. It did not take long for her prey to go still as its blood flowed and its insides relocated to its outsides. She was fine with that. Her needs had been met and she thought she had a solution to her problem with Vtla. One more hunt and she might even have the right words to approach him with.
Word Count: 1,078
