Why do these things keep happening to her? Did the gods just hate her?!
Xing was in a predicament. It had started out as a normal day, clear skies and birds chirping in the background, and she'd gone for a morning hunt. Luckily for her, she found a dead warthog looking to be freshly killed and yet with no other hunter in sight. Figuring that it was a free meal, she had happily gorged herself. Everything was fine! But then her stomach had started cramping up before she'd even made it halfway through it.
Looking back on it, she realized that eating something that others had left was perhaps not the best course of action. Was she about to die? She's heard of diseases left on carrion kills that could fell even the healthiest of lions. Honestly, how could she have been so careless!
The reddish leopardess was tired and grumpy. She'd been traveling for a while, no food or water for miles, and she was ready for something to eat. Too bad there was nothing! Anywhere!! Snarling under her breath, she flicked her tail to budge up the small sack of goodies she had between her shoulder blades - she should probably find a better way of holding it - and skulked across the savannah.
The moaning is what first caught her attention. An ear perked up at the sound, and she paused mid-pawstep to look around. Finally, she caught sight of something bright yellow - god, what a blinding fur color, she'd hate to be that person - huddled beside what looked like a kill.
Her first thought was of elation. Food! Maybe she could take a few bites.
Her second thought doused the first though. Why was this lioness looking like she was going to be sick? It looked like she'd been eating her kill when....
It was probably bad. Pikku sighed and rolled her eyes. Stupid lioness must have eaten something that was already sick. Her lip curled up at the thought, and she seriously considered leaving then. Whatever this lioness had caught, she certainly didn't want it, but on the off chance whatever was ailing her WASN'T the kill.... Well, a downed lioness was in no shape to protect said kill.
Xing had just about resigned herself to her fate at this point. It was no use fighting it anymore. She just wanted to curl up, go to sleep, and hopefully it wouldn't kill her before she woke up. She was in the midst of doing just that, already curling up on her side, when she suddenly realized that there was someone next to her.
Jolting, she snapped dulled yellow eyes over to the female leopard standing next to her. Where did she come from?! It's like she'd appeared out of nowhere! Wait... this didn't happen to be the owner of this kill, did it?! Oh, she'd made a bigger mistake than she thought!
Before she could really stop to think about how unlikely it was that this kill belonged to the other, she was already wailing out loudly, half in pain and half in panic. "Oh god, is this yours?! I'm sorry! But I wouldn't eat it, if I were you..." She cringed and flopped back down to the ground, "I don't think it's good...."
Pikku's eyebrows raised, a little surprised by the outburst. Well, that answered that question about the food. She fumed a little on the inside. So much for an easy meal.
Scoffing, the leopard sneered at the food before glancing back at the lioness. "No, it's not mine." She lifted a paw and studied a claw, "Do you need help?" Truthfully, she really didn't care enough to help her, but she thought she'd ask. Plus, it's better to make friends with someone who might otherwise attack you later. That way, they may change their mind.
The yellow lioness whined from her spot, "... yes." She wasn't sure what the leopard could do though. Maybe she'd just make her death swift instead of prolonged. THAT thought made her whine even more pathetically though. She didn't want to die, period!
Ears flat against her head, Xing looked back frantically, cringing as her stomach gave an uncomfortable twinge when she did so. "But, but I don't want to die! I just wanted to eat...."
Pikku snorted, "You're not going to die." Well, she supposed that she might with a turned stomach, but let's see.... What do people normally do when someone ate something they shouldn't? Don't they normally throw up? Ugh, that sounded disgusting. Maybe she should just leave the girl by herself. What did she care if she perished?
No, make nice, Pikku. Keep your potential enemies close, after all.
With a sigh, she muttered a "stay here" to the lioness and then started padding away. She needed something to induce throwing up, and there was NO WAY she was sticking her paw in a lion's mouth. What could she put that would make any woman hurl?
Xing was left to her own devices in the meantime. She worriedly tapped a claw against her stomach, unsure what the leopard was doing. Was she abandoning her in her time of need? Was that a thing leopards did? She admittedly didn't know. She hasn't been around enough leopards to find out, but she didn't think so. It might just be something THIS leopard did.
Her stomach lurched again, and she closed her eyes in pain. What she wouldn't give to restart the day. If only she could go back and tell her past self not to eat something suspicious like that. Then none of this would have happened!
By the time Pikku was making her way back, she had a wicked grin on her face. If she was going to have to watch someone throw up, then at least she'd make it funny. Careful to keep her find safely in her paw, she half limped in front of the lioness. The object in her paw moved around, making her shiver at the sliminess and wriggling. She remembered being a cub, and being told not to ingest this thing. Not only was it disgusting - honestly, who would TRY?! - but one of its defense mechanisms included... forcing someone to hurl it back up.
Which was perfect, in her eyes.
So, stretching a paw out, she nudged at the lioness' mouth, "Open wide. This'll help." Maybe it was mean of her, but she wanted to see the other's reaction.
So focused on her inner thoughts, she didn't notice the leopard coming back. She jumped when she heard her mutter something, but didn't open her eyes to clarify what she wanted her to do. She did, however, feel the paw poking at her. What, did she want her to eat something? That's what got her in this mess in the first place! But what did she have to lose? She was pretty sure she was already dying anyway.
The leopard didn't really give her much choice. When Xing failed to respond, she had apparently decided to just lift open her mouth and shove something in. There was a pause where nothing happened.
And then Xing's eyes shot open in panic. It was wiggling! And slimy! Oh mother, help her, and it tasted disgusting. She'd never tasted anything like it before! She convulsed as she tried to spit it out, but whatever it was, it had wrapped around her tongue.
That was the final straw. Pure revulsion flooded through her, and she felt everything she'd eaten that day come flying back out her mouth. She had enough time to scramble up onto her front paws before she was throwing up onto the ground beneath her.
Meanwhile, Pikku was watching from a safe distance away. After shoving the insect down her throat, she'd known better than to stay near her when it happened, and now here she sat, staring in fascination and disgust as the lioness threw up. It continued for a while, and for a moment, she wondered if she went too far. Was this species of bug poisonous? She was pretty sure it wasn't, but she actually wasn't sure.
Well, she'd find out now.
Finally, after she had coughed and sputtered for a moment, the lioness just stood there gasping for air. "Well, did it work? You got the food out of your system."
"D-did it what?!" Xing stared incredulously back at her, "W-why would y-you d-do that?! And w-what-" She stopped abruptly to swallow thickly. Thankful that at least whatever-it-was was out of her mouth, but she refused to look at the wriggling thing at her feet. "W-what WAS that!?" She stumbled backwards a few steps, and then collapsed when she realized how tired she felt.
Absently, she noted that her stomach... wasn't cramping the way it had been. Though it was sore now from throwing up. Ugh, there was no winning.
Yes, maybe she had gone too far. Pikku stiffened when the lioness stumbled about, wary of her attacking, but instead she flopped to the ground. There was no way she'd be chasing her right now. So the leopardess would live another day... but it was probably best not to wait for her to recover.
"Oh, just a bug." She hopped to her paws, "And with that, I'll be taking my leave. You should be fine now that the bad food is gone." Twirling around and with a contemptuous flick of her tail, she walked off. This had certainly been an interesting day! She no longer felt as grumpy as she had been. Now if only she could find some (good) food.
And just like that, the leopard was gone. She blew in, made Xing's day arguably worse, and then left. Xing spat onto the ground, and then slowly pushed up onto wobbly paws and tottered away from the scene of the crime. She was ready to sleep for the rest of the day. She was no longer hungry, and probably wouldn't be for a while.
