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"Right, life and death, and monsters, but sometimes you've just got to stop and sniff the gazanias, you know?" He joked. He couldn't help himself. He'd be making quips and eyeing ladycats straight to his grave; it was far better than acknowledging exactly how much he was putting his hide on the line.

Hel gave the hyena a toothy grin before turning to watch the leopards as they seemed to almost magically appear throughout the trees. If it weren't for the threats, he'd almost be impressed. Instead, he was a little concerned, until...

"It's nice to know my efforts are appreciated," he purred smugly.

Otherwise, he continued to rest on his laurels, extending one claw and idly drawing in the dirt. He didn't really have any say in the group; more of a nosy onlooker who'd decided to let the bones fall where they may. As such, he didn't bother voicing his opinion in their negotiations. It seemed the more level headed of the group were winning out thus far, and that was just fine by him.

Amali was nervous when a fair number of leopards appeared all at once, though he was momentarily distracted by the monkey's apparent attachment to the blue leopard that had demanded his release. He was happy with his decision seeing that, and when Krin offered her name and an opportunity to make their case, he even dared to smile at her. There was mostly silence around him now that he was addressed but a few offered their own explanations and questions- and he was pretty sure he heard another angry threat shouted at him.

"Amali," he said, deciding to start with his own introduction though it was a bit too delayed to be terribly obvious, "I'm sorry about your friend, I didn't mean to harm him. You must understand why we're a little jumpy at such a strange ambush, knowing how much death has been around here lately."

It seemed a better choice to apologize than to state again they were searching for the monster. He didn't have anything else to say about the monster, he said pretty much everything he knew about it. A pointless repetition couldn't possibly be helpful.

He? Margulis leaned in close, her eyes focusing on the little monkey hidden beside the leopard now. "You saw it didn't you Ngedere, you saw it doing something awful?" she asked softly, her voice betraying an almost maternal concern. She held no grudges against any species, and if this little monkey had seen something traumatizing there was no sense in holding his misguided actions against him.

"We want to make him calm Ngedere," she added, "We want to erase the anger so that he can't do anything bad anymore. Can you tell us what you saw? Please?" Her voice was tight, they needed this information if they were going to have any chance of finding this creature and getting out of the woods safely. She knew the leopards had no desire to be their allies in their endeavors and that was alright, they had their own ways.

Margulis turned to look at Sandor curiously, though she held her tongue at his remarks. Fair enough she was stretching the truth, but she still hoped there would be some way to resolve this issue without resorting to such crude methods as beheading. And in the state the little monkey was in she didn't think it helped much for him to be envisioning such things.

His grin almost made her laugh, the scarred marks on his face blending into a distorted image in her flawed vision. She didn't like him, at least she felt no particular affinity toward him, but she could respect where he was coming from on the issue.

"Yes," she added, "We will kill him if it comes to that but you'll be safe Ngedere, just tell us what you saw." Even if he didn't remember the details any sort of vague description was far more useful than the big pile of nothing they had at the moment. He might remember if it walked on four legs or otherwise, how big it was, anything. But even if he remembered there was no guarantee he'd be willing to tell them while he was this terrified.

Out of ideas she turned to the rest of the group, her expression inquisitive. An had been on the same track, with the warnings, maybe the others had drawn similar conclusions. There had seemed to be many sensible voices among them, and many minds could surely coax something out of this one fragile creature.

So the monkey had seen their wayward murderer. Or he said he did, anyway. Tahir did not put much trust in the befuddled primate’s recollections. But he was clearly under the impression that this… thing was an individual. A ‘he’, which meant it was not as troupe of baboons as Tahir had hoped. Even a madman could get numbers right, couldn’t they?

“What one being could be so large and powerful as to annihilate so many lions? At once.” Nothing that could walk in the jungle should be that strong. Tahir frowned, brow furrowed. “Is the monkey positive it was only one creature? Could the murderer not have allies it doesn’t know about?”

Clearly, Tahir did not have much respect for primates. It indeed.

Ngedere offered some insight and suddenly everybody had questions.. all way better questions than Amali could come up with now. He was thinking about how this monster didn't harm things in the trees. Could it not get into the trees at all or was it simply too inconvenient? A hippo would be stuck on the ground, a lion inconvenienced by the trees.. but it was somehow more unnerving to imagine this monster as a real creature, even if something imaginary would be harder to deal with.

Amali had nothing to contribute so he pondered the red substance, glancing around to the few faces with red handprints on them.. and his own legs and chest, which had picked some up from pinning the monkey.

He looked around and stepped back to be nearer Endesha again.

"What do you think?"

"No way in hell I could tree climb."

The hyena gave an exasperated sigh. She felt bad for the monkey and she worried. Ngedere was obviously frightened by the creature and it made Mapenzi uncomfortable. She had an all around bad feeling about the way things would go and inched nearer to the group. Though she distrusted them, there was safety in numbers and she may have to rely on them in the future, especially if fighting became involved. Lions were larger in body and strength, that was no secret. She could sure do damage to one with her jaws, which were like steel traps, but she could be out muscled. She needed them for their strength.

"But there are many of us and only one monster that we know of. We could take it out in a group. Together, we are strong," She tried to sound optimistic.

The arrival of a couple of leopards made Ruyken pause in his stalking of the unfortunate monkey, amber eyes narrowing as he studied the pair. The blue male he wrote of instantly, but the silver female made his fur prickle along his neck, tail stiffening. Realising the monkey had been released the red leopard growled irritably, furious that his target had gotten away. Bearing his fangs at the lion responsible he pushed bast the milling rogues and jumped up into a low hanging branch, already at the end of his very short fuse with the whole affair. Why the hell Sandor wanted to stay was beyond him and now he himself had gotten mixed up in this circus act.. it was enough to make even a sane leopard loose his mind, and no one had ever accused Ruyken of being sane.



Souzan stayed close to the other firekin, as the monkey was interrogated and several of the rogues started making threats. He kept his gaze on the red leopard though, sensing the male could very well be trouble. He certainly looked angry enough. When the red leopard stopped his advance Souzan felt relief sweep through him. He hadn't really wanted to start a fight in the middle of the gathering while in the forest home of a potential monster. Turning his attention to the leopards he was surprised when the monkey ran straight to them, but couldn't help the faint chuckle that escaped. Their tormenter looked so tiny and vulnerable wrapped around the blue male. Souzan found he couldn't really hold a grudge against the little trickster when he looked like that.

"Just hope Im not that crazy when I get old." he mumbled to himself, shaking his head. Suddenly the conversation turned back to the topic of their monster and Souzan quieted again, listening intently. "Does the monkey know where the monster is, or what it is?" He asked, raising his voice a little to be heard over the rest of them.