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 Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:57 pm
Trotting with a steady, effortless gate, the gray and white cheetah was looking for something to take down. Eyes searching, he was occupied with the task of provided food for his family. Because he had something to do, he was calm and happy. When he first met Nadifa, he hadn't expected to have a family, but it was a great surprise. The constantly active male loved cubs, absolutely adored them, so to have five of his own was a truly great unexpected outcome from his being with Nadifa. Thats why he was out there hunting, not only for the activity but for feeding the beautiful cheetah lady who recently brought those cubs into the world.
Active mind whirling, his senses were going at just as fast. The ground was dry and hot, warm earthy scent rising below his paws. Now he just needed the prey, which was why he was heading towards the water. Although watering holes were only good for a drink for him, he knew other creatures liked to bathe in it and drink from it as well. The cheetah being the king of all cats, that fact he asserted to anyone, what was theirs was to be used by others and rent to be paid for it.
The horizon waved and images seemed to be there but the scents did not support them. Heat did it and it as a sure sign that he needed to hurry his tail up. Fortunately, there was a herd of Grant's Gazelle, bigger than the Thomson's Gazelle but they looked pretty much the same. Tasted very good and had a nice amount of meat on them. The yearlings were frolicking around and playing in the water while the smarter adults were looking around constantly searching for predators.
Ready, he lowered himself a little lower and moved forward, about in their range of vision, the male burst forward, taking full advantage of his blazing speed. The gazelle all bolted for it, a few younger ones making the mistake to go for the water. He didn't need to kill himself following the older, heavier ones that went away from the water. The young ones were slowly by running through the water and he only needed to stop and catch his breath. Tired from the swimming already, the creatures in the water struggled to keep their heads above the water and get out.
As they got closer to the other side, his muscles bunched in anticipation. Finally, he took off again, going around the corner as if he was born to fly and didn't notice it. As the Gazelle tried to get out for their nervously waiting herd, they were right where it was easy for him to get them. A few quick turns later, one tried to zigzag but went too close and a swipe of a paw brought him down.
Biting into the neck of the tripped beast, he didn't even wait for it to die, darting off back to where Nadifa was to present her with his fresh, kicking and dripping wet catch.
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Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 9:32 pm
In all honesty, Nadifa had never truly liked cubs. Oh, sure, she saw the vital importance that young cheetahs were born, grew up, and then went and had more cheetahs. The lithe cats could hardly leave the lands to any others, right? That would simply be irresponsible. It was simply that she had never seen the point of herself having cubs. She had certainly never forseen that one night of fun with Kolo would leave her pregnant! Even more, she hadn’t expected Kolo to help… but, now that she had the five cubs, she wouldn’t trade them for the world. Sheltered safely from the hot sun by a conveniently placed slab of rock, she smiled at the little writhing cubs and licked them tenderly. They were, without a doubt, hers, and depended on her utterly. Nothing had really depended on her before, except to make a mess of things. Alright, so she supposed they were Kolo’s too, but it was more difficult to think of it as that for some reason.
Five cubs. That was the part she had trouble believing. If the cubs weren’t sitting there, as real as the sun outside, she wouldn’t have believed it was possible for a cheetah to have five cubs. She herself came from a small litter with only three and out of the trio, Nadifa was the only survivor. Many creatures were willing to take a cheetah cub. Well, they wouldn’t get any of these little miracles. If they wanted any of them, they’d have to get through her first.
Despite these thoughts, her resolve wavered just a little when she heard something outside of the tiny slice of Paradise. Her ears pressed back against her head and her brown fur fluffed up, trying to make herself look bigger than she actually was. Alright, so she probably looked about as intimidating as your average dust bunny, but she was still willing to fight for the lives of her cubs. Or at least put up a spirited scuffle. Or whatever she could do. A chance gust of wind brought a reassuring scent to her nose, one that set her at ease immediately.
“K-kolo?” she asked with her typical stutter that punctuated most of her sentences. Peering out from under the shelter, she smiled at the grey and white male, honestly glad to see him and not just for the dripping wet gazelle clamped between his jaws. While she wasn’t sure if she loved him, she certainly liked his company and was grateful for all the help he was being. “I d-didn’t think you’d b-b-be back for a little while… did you have a n-nice sw-swim?” The last part was added jokingly, since both the male cheetah and his kill were dripping wet. Still, she shifted over to make room for him. “We’re going t-to have t-to name them…” that was clearly aimed at the cubs; so far, Nadifa had been calling them simply by color, but that could hardly work forever, especially since some of them had similar colors.
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Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 5:02 am
Set in his task, he hardly realized he was home, where Nadifa and the cubs were was home for him right now. Hearing the familiar stutter that had stood her out among the dozens of pretty cheetah's he knew, indigo eyes rose to see the brown cheetah. Stopping just short of the shaded resting place of the little family they created, he shook out his fur, flicking water to the sides, "I got lucky with the kill, not so with the water." Feeling good, he did give her a smile for the attempt at a joke, if he didn’t dislike the stuff so much, it probably would have been funnier. He must look comical, hair sticking up everywhere, damp from the water and disturbed from where it clung to his body by the shaking. Water really was awful stuff unless one needed to drink.
Going in where room was made, he asked her, "Nadifa , are you hungry? I’ll move the kill when its not needed." He didn't see why she wouldn't be, but he wasn't at ease with the kill so close to their cubs, it might be tempting for a lone lion to come and take the food, and a cub off. Though he'd fight it, nothing took anything of his without a fight, especially something he cared about.
His rough tongue cleaned his muzzle off before he leaned down to give each cub a nuzzle and a lick out of his love of them. Last, after all five cubs got a little bit of attention, he turned to Nadifa, likewise giving her neck a nuzzle. Even if he wasn't sure he loved her, he was still all about giving affection to those that deserved it and she did. After expelling pent up energy, he was fairly calm and relaxed.
Looking to the cubs when she suggested naming them, he tilted his head in thought then asked her, looking up to her, "We are, do you have any ideas?" One, two, three, four and five weren't exactly the best ideas for names, but he was fairly certain she had some ideas of her own. As their mother, she got to spend more time with them then he did as he had to hunt, so perhaps a name might fit what personality she saw in them. They were so remarkable, every time he looked at them, his respect for Nidfa grew.
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Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:14 pm
Nadifa returned the nuzzle a bit more hesitant than Kolo was when it came to physical gestures of affection. This was less of a reflection of her feelings for him and more of her personality; everything she did and said came in jerks, as if her hinges weren’t oiled quite right. Although, in all fairness, she wasn’t sure if she loved him. But she knew that she felt considerable affection for him; even before the cubs came along, they had been traveling together. “S-starving, actually…” she confessed with a slightly rueful grin. She glanced back at the sleeping cubs just once before emerging from the shelter completely, stretching elegantly once she was out. A quick shake dislodged any dirt, most of which quickly settled on Kolo. After all, dirt always had automatic wet-cheetah sensing capabilities and would always settle on one if given the chance. If there was a way to, perhaps, make a wet cheetah dry without actually being dry, there could be an endless source of energy.
But enough of that. Nadifa, although she had just gotten up a few moments ago, settled by the kill and started to rip a piece of flesh from it. Kolo had done a good job, hunting right into the water. Very smart, actually, when one considered how lousy these hoofed creatures were at swimming. Cheetahs weren’t meant for aquatic living either, but they were better than impala. “I h-haven’t thought much ab-about names y-y-yet,” she confessed after a good mouthful of meat. “Th-they spend a l-lot of time sle-sleeping. Hard to n-name them when th-they don’t show m-mu-much p-p-p-personality.” There was always naming them based on colors, but that struck Nadifa as being rather uninspired. Surely she and Kolo could do better.
Still eating, she settled her gaze on the cubs, thinking over names for the little bundles of joy. Thus far, their lives had been full of eating, sleeping, and all other sorts of cubbish activities. Why, they barely even had their eyes open. On the rare occasion that one was awake for more than a few moments, they normally just snuggled with the others.
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Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:40 pm
Just the return of the nuzzle was enough for him, he knew pretty much what to expect from her by now. Same with her, he wasn't sure he loved her. He liked her well enough, and that stuttering of hers was a source of amusement for the male. When board, but not bad enough to be destructive or irritable, he'd count the words she said without a stutter. When he first met her, he even wondered if constantly being around someone who didn't stutter might even help her speech. It was just something about her that added to how enjoyable and some time irritating her company was.
Ears rolling back to lie against his head, his canine teeth just barely peaked through as the snarl was pulled back into check. Shaking his head with irritation, he set about cleaning his fur off and making sure none of the dirt hit their cubs. With the activity, his nerves were soothed. His tail tip swayed. It wasn't irritation anymore, he was proud that he could provide a meal for her, and that she obviously wanted it. Looking at the cubs again, he did comment, "Very true, something like Ntowe wouldn't be fair to them." Ntowe meant one; being named one, two, three, four and five wasn't fair for the cubs.
Watching her eat, then going back to nose the cubs and groom them more before taking care of the rest of his damp now dirty pelt, "Why don't we just wait a little longer to name them, I don't think they will know the difference." When they are able to run around and show who they truly are, the naming would be so much easier, he was sure.
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Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:23 am
Thus far in their travels, Nadifa was actually stuttering slightly less, but it was hard to tell sometimes. If Kolo watched carefully---or, more specifically, listened carefully---he would probably notice that her stuttering became worse when she was stressed out about something. For the time being, she was mostly stressed about being a mother. It wasn’t an easy job, after all. “When I was y-younger,” she said after a moment of watching the little balls of fluff that were their children, “I th-thought the birthing would be the worst part. Looking at them all, I th-think merely keeping track of them will be even tougher.” Normally eager to correct any problem that she felt she caused, she didn’t even notice that she had plastered Kolo with dust. That was just another measure of her current anxiety.
It just didn’t seem possible to her. She and Kolo were only two cheetahs. How could two cheetahs look after five increasingly active cubs? One day, she knew, they would have to leave home. Until then, they were hers to protect and watch over. Cubs needed protection and food. At first, she had unrealistically assumed she and Kolo could take shifts at such things, but it was becoming clear that it wouldn’t work like that. Kolo couldn’t produce milk for the babies---indeed, if he could, then Nadifa would have had to radically change her thinking about such things----and so it was up to him to hunt. But five hungry mouths---six with Nadifa’s---that would wear someone down quickly.
“I think we’re going to n-need help raising them,” she said slowly, looking back at Kolo and finally seeing all the dust. Now where had that come from? “Oh… I’m s-sorry… here, I can help clean that off.”
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Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 10:40 am
He noticed, after all, it was his little hobby to count how many times she did it. It was an easy way to tell how she was feeling as well. He could hear the stress almost, and understood it well. How could they care for these little wonders? Lions and other jealous lower animals happily take the lives of precious little cheetah cubs to try and get the upper paws. They were barbaric, utterly and total. His ears swung back against his head just thinking about. As reassurance to himself, he nuzzled the little bundles again.
He had the energy for watching over the cubs, but even the super cheetah that he was would be hard pressed to deal with everything. Only Nadifa could feed the cubs, leaving her there to protect them and take care of them while he hunted. However, while he is looking for food, even the very capable brown cheetah would be hard pressed if a gang of beasts went for the cubs. It really did seem like a hard task, and he'd rather spare Nadifa from having to stress and the cubs from the danger.
The thinking gave him something to do, which kept him calm. Going over the stories he heard from the cheetah's he passed by on his journey, he remembered a female he came acrossed once, but didn't stay with, she had told a story. To calm her worries, and his own, he told her, "I have heard of a coalition of cheetahs forming. The talk I heard said it was south somewhere. We should try to find it." He had faith it was there, cheetahs don't lie to one another after all. It would be perfect, many cheetahs to keep an eye on the young and teach them to be the proud cats they were, rulers of all they see.
Resisting the urge to shake, the cat was proud of a smooth shiny coat he normally had; however, he didn't want to get the cubs dusty either. With the offer to help take care of the dust, the dirty cheetah got up and walked out of the den. To the side, he shook hard, enough to go slightly dizzy. Getting as much off as he could, he walked back over to Nadifa, taking the offer. Again, he did help out, working on cleaning off the mess form what he could reach.
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Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 9:51 pm
Oh, yes, Nadifa knew full and well how cruel the world could be towards cheetahs, especially those without a coalition. It used to be, she had heard, that only the males traveled in small groups. But, these days, the world seemed just that much more dangerous. Every lion, leopard, hyena, and Mkodi knew what else was simply waiting for a chance to pounce on a soft and innocent cheetah cub. It was barbaric. There was simply no other word for those who would dare destroy something so pure and helpless as a cheetah cub.
“A coalition?” she repeated, amazingly enough without stuttering for an entire sentence. Admittedly, the sentence was only two words long, but it was still a slight improvement. “That sounds p-perfect.”
Ah, well, so much for hoping to get two complete sentences out of her. Her eyes were bright with hope at the idea of being around other cheetahs. They could help… in these dangerous times, it was up to the greatest cats on the savannah to look after one another. If they didn’t help each other, no one would, that was for sure. Besides, it was to their benefit. Lions were larger, leopards could climb, and hyenas and wild dogs had pure numbers on their sides. The cheetahs had intelligence, but what could was that when there were enemies on every side, simply waiting for a moment to strike? And then there were cubs to consider… The numbers of pureblood cheetahs were dwindling every year as more and more female cheetahs fell prey to a male lion or leopard. Too many male cheetahs wasted their seed on a flirtatious and seductive feline, ignoring the cheetah mothers around him. They needed help. Joining a coalition would increase the chances of the five cubs finding good mates.
Finished with her meal for now, Nadifa settled next to Kolo, running her tongue over his silvery fur. “The c-cubs will be ready for t-travel in a few weeks. We can l-leave as soon as their eyes are open.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 8:10 pm
Kolo had lived in coalitions from time to time, but found male company too much competition when it came to females. As well, sharing of meals didn't work out for anyone but the head male who got what he wanted out of anything. With females, whom he traveled with normally for a night or few days, sharing worked better and it still had the benefit of companionship. Plus, there was no competition, he already had her. Nadifa was different in many ways; he had stayed with her much longer than normal before he even knew about the cubs. She was entertainment too, that stutter count gave him something to do and the little changes were fun to watch and kept him at least mildly occupied.
Thinking about all the dangers out there for his cubs had him looking up every moment for signs of any tiny movement that might spell sinister. The moment she said coalition without a stutter, he looked at her and smiled happy to hear it. She had two more words down before the stutter made itself known again. He was still pleased, glad now that she approved of the idea. Admitting it to himself, he loved the affect, her looking so hopeful. Chest filling with pride, he continued to watch her.
Getting slightly bored he rose his big paw and dropped it on the swaying grass blade, breaking and smothering the little green bit of uselessness. Laying still for her to help clean the mess on his fur that she created, he was soothed by the action and remained still for it. Not liking the thick smell of a fresh kill, his eyes went skyward, not fully able to relax anymore. Not with vulnerable cubs around. Speaking Nadifa, he told her, "We are going to have to move the den and soon, the barbaric scavengers will come for the scent of an easy meal, lazy things unable to catch their own." The last part was grumbled off, with their numbers, one would think the stupid things could catch their own food instead of going for what a cheetah rightly claimed for their own.
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Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:06 am
A coalition. That meant actually being around other cheetahs. Aside from her family---her birth-family and the one she had formed with Kolo---she hadn’t been around many other cheetahs. Actually, she wasn’t sure if her newly-formed family really counted, seeing as the majority of it was currently blind, deaf, and spent most of the day either drinking milk or pooping. Nadifa counted it anyway, just because they were other cheetahs and she did spend a lot of time around them. It was nice being around Kolo. It really was. They had good times (and not just counting the night that had ended up with her pregnant, mind you). There were laughs and… well… he was very understanding. He really was. It was just hard to tell if others would be as kind. Of course, she could hardly go her whole life avoiding other cheetahs.
That wouldn’t be any fun. She paused in her relentless cleaning of Kolo’s gray fur at the comment. It was true. While she was almost pathological about keeping things clean, it was impossible to keep all hints of habitation away. Especially with the slab of fresh meat lying around. She nodded in agreement. “Y-yes. Even…eventually, the b-b-…” she gave up on that word, deciding that ‘barbarian’ was probably too long for her. The idea of those savages finding her family really did distress her. “The s-sadists will fi-find us.” And they would no doubt enjoy torturing five little bundles of fluff, utterly defenseless against any harm inflicted against them. With an uncharacteristic flash of anger, Nadifa pawed at the ground, her claws scouring a line in the dirt.
“Have you s-seen an-any g-g-good dens?” Ok, so she was more emotional than she needed to be right now. And she knew it too. Pausing from her relentless grooming, she took a few deep breaths. “I c-can’t look right now. Not w-without leav-ing the cubs alone.” And there was no way she was going to do that. For one thing, they got hungry so often. For another… well, even if she couldn’t do much against an attacker, she could at least try to hold one off long enough for Kolo to get back. That was better than nothing.
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 9:40 pm
The social cat that he was, Kolo looked forward to the chance to hang around more cheetahs, the only beings worth his time and a good conversation. The flirty attitude he normally had with females would need to be tamed for his family. That would be difficult, so many gorgeous lean ladies in one area is hard for the hot-blooded stud to ignore. After seeing so many stocky lioness and fat-fluffed leopards, it would do his eyes some good for all that beauty. What would be the factor, he had a mate and responsibilities now and it was something he'd have to take to heart and stop acting akin to a disgusting rogue lion. Besides, he was content right now, and thought that would be more then enough.
When she paused her cleaning, he turned to look at her expecting she had something to say. Just listening to her try to talk told him she was just as distrusted. To comfort her as much as he knew how, he shared a light nuzzle and told her, "I'll find something suitable, after moving the kill to distract the filthy scavengers. Then, I'll come back and direct you to it so you can check it out." He would stay with the cubs and let her approve of or disapprove of the home. It shouldn't be too hard not to get too bored, after all, and she deserved time to move and stretch her fine legs as well. After all, she was a very fine mother and spent so much time and energy on the cubs that it seemed selfish to him to be going out all the time and enjoying a run. Looking for her approval to the idea, he asked, "What do you think?"
Even with his faith in Nadifa, he still didn’t like to leave her alone for too long. If it were just her, she could easily out run anything that dared try to harm her. The difference was now it wasn’t just her and it meant staying and fighting for the good of their cubs. The cowardly barbarians would clearly see a lone mother with helpless cubs as an easy target for their sadistic amusements and the pack style would leave any cheetah at a disadvantage.
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Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:07 pm
Despite her anxiety about seemingly everything under the sun (and some things that weren’t), the idea of Kolo flirting with another female hadn’t really crossed Nadifa’s mind. Oh, sure, he flirted with her, but that was different. Now that he had a family and agreed to stay with her, she sort of assumed that he wouldn’t flirt with other females. And a good thing the idea hadn’t crossed her mind. If it had crossed, it would have held up the traffic of her neurons, making her collapse into a sea of doubts, worry, and who knows what else. She would have been absolutely useless for anything else for at least a week.
The nuzzle was returned happily right after she finished cleaning Kolo’s back. Good. Nice and clean once more. His silver fur really was beautiful, especially when the light hit it just right. It gave him a sort of halo of light around him, like an aura or something. Nadifa paused to think over the offer carefully, examining it from all possible angles. While she trusted Kolo’s word on just about everything (he had never given her a reason to doubt him and he was a cheetah), she rather liked the idea of seeing the potential den for herself, even if it meant leaving him alone with the cubs. Well, he needed to do some fatherly bonding anyway.
“That’s a g-good idea,” she said, once she was finished poking and prodding the idea all over. Now that some of her anxiety was depleted, at least a little of her stutter had evaporated. “I c-could move it. You must be t-tired after the h-hunt.” Somehow, it didn’t seem fair to send Kolo off hunting for a den after moving a corpse around.
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Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:30 pm
Kolo shook his now clean fur out, giving a smile he looked aprecatingly over her work. He felt so much better now that his coat was completely clean, she really did do a stand-up job. She had a lot of practice though, keeping her dark coat so looking very nice as she seems to do. Light dust and red dirt would show up just as well on her coat as his.
He got a sense of pride when she agreed with him, he felt part of his job as a provider was to not only look after his family, but keep them happy and work together. Looking at the mostly eaten meal, he figured it was a lot lighter now then it had been when he caught it. The tip of his tail twitched as he looked up and around, searching for scavengers. "I'll take care of it, you did a wonderful job making it lighter for me." With another light nuzzle, he looked down to their beauitful cubs, looking forward to more time with them.
Walking with the casual grace all proper cheetah's naturally possed, he grabbed on to the the neck bones of the now old kill and picked it up, holding his head high and acting as if the kill weighed nothing. With a short nod of parting, he turned and walked off. He stayed to the dirt more then grass because it would be easier to cover up the scent of the kill when he came back.
It took him a good 20 minutes in all to walk completely out of the way to drop of the scraps of the dinner and took the chance to get a good long drink at the watering hole. From there, he went on the hunt for a good home.
Inqusitive and serious, he went poking into anything that was small enough entrance wise that it would disgurage most preditors but not too small inside, he hated to be cramped up and felt his family deserved better.
Poking through a terminte mound, he found out by a couple very painful bites that it was still active and full of savage bugs. Smarting from the bites, he was in a foul mood. What made him feel much better, he found a nice umbrella tree above a thorny area. It would be tricky to get in, but would also discurage lions and such. about thirty paces away, he saw a rock structure, it was nice and cool underneath and needed just a bit of digging to make it work, he thought. As well, there were also very tall grasses, good for hiding cubs, surrounding a fallen tree that they could work a little and get it working well.
Turning, thinking he had the choices for her, he started a run home, feeling better. The run didn't last long because he was thourough enough to cover up the scent of the kill as he walked back down the trail back home.
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 7:19 pm
Nadifa smiled as Kolo dragged the kill away, feeling the usual warm and maternal feelings that she always got when he was around. It wasn’t that he made her feel stronger or anything, nor did he make her feel weaker. He simply made her feel that she was perfectly fine the way she was. And that was a nice feeling, it really was. Everyone else told her that acting as she did---stuttering, obsessed with cleaning, and things of that nature—was wrong and that she should change it. And she tried. She really did. It simply didn’t help. Turning back to the current den, she nuzzled her cubs, making sure that they were nice and safe. Everything was fine in the world for now…
All that had changed in the matter of about twenty minutes. When Kolo returned, small tufts of black fur rolled in the wind, along with the stink of lion. The dirt was scuffed in some areas, hinting that some lion had gotten just a bit too close to the den. Glinting green eyes glared up from the gloom of the den and something growled. Well, tried to growl. Nadifa couldn’t properly growl most of the time, simply because her nature wouldn’t allow it. Also, she couldn’t growl because she just recognized the cheetah who was approaching. Exploding from the den, she ran to meet her mate.
“K-kolo! We have to m-m-move the cubs! Now!” she said or, more specifically, stuttered. “There w-was a lion and h-he tried to eat the cubs! A g-great big bl-bl-black lion tried to eat them!” Her over-active imagination had, no surprise, managed to change Thilivhali from the somewhat cowering creature to a demon-cat, who lived only to eat the sweet flesh of cheetah babies. That was what all lions were, after all. “I ch-chased him away…” she added softly, feeling that this rather ruined her image as the victim, which she clearly was. After all, she had never done anything to the lion! “B-but he’ll be back! Did you f-find a new den?”
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Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 8:09 pm
Walking high with the feeling of success, he had found a number of places for a de. Proud of himself, the great cheetah didn't step off his high perch until he got close enough to scent a lion around his den. Completely removed from his good mood, the almost gentle purplish eyes turned steely and sharp. Seeing the black fur rolling, he took a brief second to go through the colors of his cubs already ruling Nadifa out as the owner of the hair. As he thought of his cubs, none of them stood out to have black hair, just dark brown which was a tiny relief, but until he knew they were well and unharmed, nothing would be big enough.
The closer he got, the more aggressive he became, muscles tensed and long fangs clearly bared. Some filthy lion had dared come near his den, if even on hair on any of his family was so much as misplaced, there would be more then hell to pay. Speeding up, he goes to the point that through the darkness of his den, he could see a very angry set of eyes. Having never seen his gentle mate angry, the cheetah almost didn't recognize the eyes. The attempt at a growl really gave away the owner of the eyes as not a threat, but family.
The next moment, before he could get closer to the den to inspect the state of the cubs and Nadifa, she came out to him almost like someone lit a fire under her. Back stepping just a bit, he stopped snarling and listened to her. It took every bit of mental processing power the cheetah possessed to understand the frantic shuddering of a very upset mother. Through it all, he was calm only on the merit that to do otherwise might lessen is ability to understand Nadifa.
He didn't like what he was hearing, a scavenger of a lion came to his den to eat his cubs, the though color explained the hair floating around. When she said she chased him away, there was a flash of pride on Kolo's features, highly impressed his mate was able to fight off a lion with the intent to do harm to her and the cub. "You did a very good job, Nadifa." The compliment was meant, but he knew a lot more would be needed to calm her. She had every right to be upset, with a lion coming to harm their cubs; the danger was very, very real.
Thinking, always thinking, the very angry male came up with his plan. "We are going to move the cubs, I want you to go check out the dens as planned, return the moment one pleases you. I'll guard the cubs; turn an lion that comes close into vulture food. We'll have to double our efforts to get to the coalition; there no lion would ever be able to even lay eyes on our beautiful cubs much less come close enough to attempt a snack." His tone was still rough, running off of how he felt about the lion, but it was also very confident, in her, the coalition, and himself.
He would make a name for himself as a lion killer should one approach! Carefully, making sure to be very clear, he told his valiant mate the exact way and area to the dens he had picked out to help her find them so she could get there and back as quickly as possible. While he wasn't afraid to challenge god or lion, he also didn't want his cubs to be there when he did it.
As the wind picked up a little, bringing dirt and the scent of the lion, his tail tip thrashed, the scent was just making him more irritated and more ready to fight.
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