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Two days had been more than enough time for Jeraha to make some more enemies. This time it had been a lioness who had, unfortunately for her, been hunting in the wrong area. But in Jeraha’s defense, she had been in his territory without permission and he had been bored. It was happenstance that he had managed to stumble upon her right when she was in the middle of hunting. She had been low in the grass, the dry blades perfectly concealing her almost golden-brown fur. The gazelles had not noticed her, grazing peacefully. Life, for them, had not been threatened. It was at the crucial point where positioning became just right and everything was set that Jeraha had decided to make his move. In a show of pure jerk-ism, he slammed his thick paw against a rock, sending it flying through the grass and right into the butt of one of the gazelle.

This had been all that was needed to alert them all to a threat and send them all stampeding.

While Jeraha laughed, the female got angry. Before he realized he needed to be paying attention, she was on top of him, trying to rip out his throat for ruining her kill. He chalked it up to her either being very hungry, or a total whore. Whatever the case, she had tried to kill him. Hadn’t been successful, but sure had tried. What she had managed to do was give him yet more wounds on his back. Long scratches over his shoulders as she tried to dig though his mane to his neck.

Luckily, he wasn’t a bad fighter, and had easily managed to knock her off. A few growls and she had backed down, giving Jeraha time to head off. He had a lady waiting for him, after all. Well, she would be fighting for him by the time he got there.

Once back in the increasingly familiar territory, it hadn’t taken the large gray male very long to track down Chikala. He came up behind her, watching for a moment as she let her paw sit in the water.

“Having fun there?” he asked.

“Fight is such a strong word,” Jeraha replied casually, shrugging his shoulders as best a lion could while he looked her over. He took note of her paw, glad to see no more swelling to be noted. It was good to see that she wasn’t in pain, and having her comment to back up the thought was a great relief to him. He then looked back to her face, staring at her one eye as a coy grin spread over his features.

“It was more of a… misunderstanding. This female came into my territory and was hunting my food. I didn’t know she was there and accidentally scared the herd off,” he lied, though it was fairly obvious that he wasn’t telling the truth. He didn’t seem at all interested in trying to really lie to her, “she got a little... upset about it. But it’s nothing to worry about. Small scratches, nothing more. You’re not going to get on my case, are you? Because I’ll leave,” he grunted with no real intention of going anywhere.

He was happy to see her. It was strange how relaxed he had become in her presence. Almost like another lion. And, shockingly enough, it was a lion he actually liked being. Not that he would ever admit it out loud. “Shall we get going? I don’t really have anywhere in mind… but exploring is supposed to be better in pairs anyway.”

“I did,” Jeraha replied, “these scratches will heal in no time. And, besides, it was damn funny. You should have seen the look on her face when the gazelle ran off before she could catch one of them. I mean… even though it –had- been an accident, it had been funny to see…” he coughed, clearing his throat with a smile as he jumped off the subject. Yes, he knew she didn’t find truth in his words, but he didn’t mind. She wasn’t getting upset with him and that was the important thing. Unlike the lioness he had met in his territory, he didn’t want her mad at him.

Which was still really weird to him, but something he was quickly discovering couldn’t be changed no matter what he tried to think about her.

“Sure,” he replied, “I can lead. I’m the one who offered to take you away from here, anyway. I know where there’s a pretty nice waterfall. Have you seen it? It’s not more than a couple hours from here.” He looked in the direction he knew the impressive land feature stood tall, wondering if it was something she would enjoy seeing. “We can head there to start. Is there anything you want to see? Maybe I can find it for you. I’ve been wandering these lands for a while.”

“Well, then today’s your lucky day,” he responded, “though don’t expect me to give you any kind of information about it. I don’t know a damn thing about waterfalls other than where to find one.” Leading now, he kept his pace slow, not wanting to look too eager to lead her around. Admittedly, it was pretty entertaining. Normally the only one he had to explore with was his shadow. This was better.

“Follow then! Our feet will do the guiding and we’ll see what we can find together. I know there’s a very fine mountain range near here. Not too large, but its still got a few nice caves we can explore. Unless you’re afraid of the dark.” He peered back at her, grinning.

Whenever someone tried to look cool, as Jeraha was taking the lead and showing her around, things never stayed good for very long. It was like some pre-determined curse that hit anyone trying to show off. Fate, it seemed, was unkind to those with an ego-complex. As he looked back at her, teasing smile plastered over his dark face, he failed to keep in mind that he was indeed progressing forward. That meant he probably needed to tune his mind into what his feet were doing and keep his eyes ahead of him. But Chikala was too tempting a target. The sight of her distracted him just long enough. When he finally decided to look back to the path, it was far too late. The tree he had unintentionally veered towards while walking was inches from his nose.

By the time he saw it, he was already running into it.

“Oof!” grunted the large animal, nose smashing against the bark for a moment before he knocked himself off balance and toppled over to the side. Hitting the floor, he raised his head, shaking it thoroughly before once again looking at Chikala.

“There’s a… tree there…” he muttered.

Embarrassed to put it mildly, the withdrawn gray and black male let his ears flatten against his head as he slowly got himself back to his feet. She didn’t need to laugh; the look on her face made it as obvious as day that she was dying to. The look betrayed her silence, and made him feel all the more humiliated.

He had to admit, though, that she had more tact than him. If their places had been swapped, he would have been laughing for a good two minutes now at her expense with no signs of stopping. He was impressed to see her hold it in so long.

Impressed, but not amused.

Looking away from her so she couldn’t see what he was doing, he scrunched his nose, crossing his eyes briefly in the hopes of being able to check for any damage. The pain was only mild, and he doubted he had even managed to scratch it in that kind of a collision. Sadly, he could see nothing. Sighing softly in his defeat, he looked back at the female, this time keeping still to make certain no more accidents befell what he felt to be an already ugly face.

“You can laugh,” he grunted, “it was… funny… I guess. I would have laughed at you.” He shook his head, growling at the tree, “damn thing jumped out of no where, I tell you. Is this forest haunted?” He was being a little silly, sure, but the best way to hide humiliation was with comedy.

If you can’t laugh at yourself and all that crap.

Moving forward once she was done looking at his nose, Jeraha made his bump against hers gently for a moment, the larger animal gazing into her eyes from the lengths of their muzzles. He smiled and pulled away, getting to his feet and turning back the way he had been heading prior to the crash. At least one of them was nice enough not to laugh in the face of the other.

And it wasn’t him.

“That must be it,” he hummed about the trees, “they’re mad I get all your attention. Why wouldn’t they be? Alright, now that that’s settled, we should continue on. At this rate it’ll be nightfall before we manage to get anywhere.” He started walking again, keeping his pace slow in case she wanted to catch up to him. No point in rushing away now that the humiliation was starting to die. He could still feel his ears burning, but there was nothing he could do to change it.

The male was embarrassed by his actions. He would have to do something pretty cool to make up for looking like such a goon.

He could tell that she was blushing, but he said nothing of it. She was trying her best to hide it, it seemed, and he was getting a bit red himself. What had possessed him to do something like that anyway?

“It’s a dust magnet, basically,” Jeraha replied, “there’s really not much to say about it. Long span of almost dead land, with a few spots of grass for herds to graze on every now and again. I’m thinking about re-locating,” he said impassively, gazing at the other for a moment. Only a few seconds, then his eyes were right ahead of him again. The male had learned his lesson.

No more staring at her pretty face and running into trees.

Strolling over the lands, he spoke to her more than he thought he would. More than he thought he –could- talk to another. It wasn’t like they had been talking the entire time, neither immune to the odd awkward pause, but it had still been a lot of chatter in his mind. Never in his life had he actually stayed around someone for more than a few hours, much less engage in pleasant, dare he think it, fun conversation with them. This whole experience with Chikala was just one new moment after another. He smiled faintly as they neared the waterfall, the sun setting with a warm red glow just ahead of them. The roar of the water was the clearest indication that they were getting close.

“Shouldn’t be long now,” he told her faintly, his voice much softer now than he recalled it being when they had started. Maybe all the talking had worn his throat out, “just beyond these bushes.”