Perseus was returning with an antelope across her back just as another female, a lioness was heading out. She knew the lioness in question because the lioness was one of Perseus’ mate’s siblings. He had so many siblings. Most of them half siblings like Perseus’ own family, but again like Perseus’ own family, they called each other siblings. The lioness leaving was a bit notable, since the lioness was a bard, not a scout, and traveled outside the pride with her father from time to time. It was most certainly not common to travel outside, though it was more common in Mez’ family. Apparently a good few of them were immune to the plague because their father was immune. There were a lot of scouts in their family because of the immunity they carried. They might not be blessed by the goddess, but they certainly could go out and recruit or have litters to bolster the pride’s population. Every member had to do what they could after all!
Lumiere-Noire needed to hurry to catch up with her father, or so she told herself. Really her father would wait for her even if it might annoy him to do so. He was a very considerate and loving male after all. Sure he was huge and slightly intimidating, but that was not how his children saw him most of the time. Lumiere had given up her mother and siblings to return to the pride with her father and every so often to gather more stories. She enjoyed her time outside the pride almost as much as she enjoyed her time inside the pride. Thus why she was in a hurry to catch up to her father, and yet on her way she almost ran over a leopon that looked very weighed down. How she had managed to miss the leopon was not hard to figure out, since the other creature was almost entirely hidden by the antelope on it’s back. The question remained, though, how did she not see the antelope?
Perseus tried to side step when she realized that the lioness had not noticed the leopon, and that the lioness was coming right to the leopon. Perseus could not quite get out of the way, but thankfully the lioness stopped short of running her over. The female leopon could not have been happier with this turn of events because really the antelope was quite heavy, and she did not want to have to pick it back up off the ground or get trapped under it. Somehow, Perseus did not think her mate wanted to hear that she perished being squished by an antelope that she really should not have hunted in the first place, since she was a guard not a hunter. Of course, she was going to have to tell him all about this whole endeavor when he got home because it was a rather amusing situation. She just had to survive carrying the antelope first.
“I am so sorry. I should be watching where I am going instead of rushing around. Let me get out of you way!” Lumiere stepped to the side to let the leopon pass. She took a moment to think of it, but it occured to he that this leopon was rather small to be carrying the antelope it was carrying. She hoped her father would understand being late because she was not about to let this poor female collapse from trying to take the thing by herself! It was insanity to let her go in the current state of affairs. She might have to ask late why the other female even tried such a thing in the first place. “Let me help you with that. You might hurt yourself with so much weight.” She did not wait for the other female to respond to her before closing the distance between them and shouldering part of the beast herself. She could not let the poor female to do this without help and would not take no for an answer. It did not seem right to let the other protest in this situation.
“No no, there is no need to apologize. I should have called out but did not do so, which means part of the fault is mine.” Perseus smiled at the lioness and stepped past her. She was no more than a few steps before she suddenly felt the antelope being lifted partially off her back and blinked at the other female. Her words made sense, certainly, but Perseus had not asked for the help because the other seemed to have somewhere she needed to be. Had she come across another guard, she would have asked for assistance immediately because of the weight, but it seemed odd to bother someone that was trying to hurry along their way. It was very nice to have the weight eased, though, so she was not going to claim to be ungrateful for the assistance by any means! “I am sure you have other things to do besides help me, but I do thank you. It is quite heavy.”
“I noticed! This is very heavy. What I was going to do can wait for now. This needs to be gotten back to the pride without killing you in the process.” Lumiere made sure most of the weight shifted to herself as they continued back toward where the hunters gathered with their kills. She was bigger than the leopon AND better rested from just getting into the task. She wondered a bit at why the leopon alone had this thing, but then she was not sure she should ask such a question of the female. This close up, she got a better look at the other, though and she smiled at knowing who the female was. This was Mez’ mate, Perseus! Knowing that she would have felt even more guilty if she had not helped with this great beast. Her brother Mez was such a sweetheart, and he adored his mate. Lumiere certainly would not have wanted to be involved with any harm coming to the female that made her brother so happy.