Grass. There was a lot of it. Trees too, it seemed. And hills, far off. He'd never been there, but he'd always been curious. The hills were something different from all the grass and trees and same old same old, and Mahewa had long wanted to go and see what was to be seen on them. The distance was no matter, he was a born wanderer. So far he'd come into and out of the home lands of several prides in his journey towards those mountains, but it had been a fair few days since he'd last lain eyes on another lion, or anything for that matter.
He'd taken up humming a little tune to himself as he went, which unfortunately made finding prey a bit harder (hares and the like tended to flee when they heard you coming from a mile away). Still he wasn't entirely skin and bones, and his youthful energy more than made up for any lack of other nourishment. For now at least. As it was his stomach had taken up a formal complaint with the rest of him, and he found himself moving along rather slowly for the cramps in his gut.
"Fine fine!" He gave in, sitting and peering down at his burbling belly. "Be that way then!" He swatted the offending bodily-region with a paw before shifting from travel mode to a more stealthy hunting one. Now...he just had to hope there was something left worth eating that he'd not already warned off.
Ouch.
Ow, ow, owwwwww. Ciel gritted his teeth, and carefully peered over his shoulder to look at his back leg.
"Damn..." He whistles, shaking his head. It was bad. A long, deep gash wound is way down his leg. His skin was shredded, drops of blood running down the open cut. It was much worse then he thought. MUCH worse.
"Damn!" He repeated, bearing a full set of teeth. "I should have ripped out his throat when I haad-...the chance!" He growled, gasping as he tried to take a timid step forward. It was deep, and with every movement he could feel the gash burning with resistance.
It had been a rouge. Maybe it was just Ciel's nature, but there was no way he could have escaped without a fight. However, he underestimated the male. His small size made him look like an easy target. It also made him faster then the bulky male leopard. Glaring at the injury, he reached over to lick at is carefully. A sharp pain ran up his leg with every lick, but it was better then the wound getting infected.
He knew how bad that could be.
Mmm...well Hewa was in luck it seemed! He'd scented something tasty smelling not far off, and had made his way in that direction. Maybe a wounded antelope? He was far too small and young to deal with one alone, but if it was hurt badly enough...
The smell of blood was thicker now, and to his dismay, there was another disticntly feline stink about too. Well. Maybe he wasn't the only one out stalking. That could mean trouble. If it was a full pride there was a chance he might be invited to eat (though more likely he'd be chased off), and if it was an older rogue he'd little chance unless he helped bring the beast down...Well if he moved first he might make the claim, he supposed, unless it was the other cat that'd wounded the food in the first place.
He hunkered down, stalking forward. It was harder to see, but his nose held true. And...the other feline was getting closer too! He had to move fast! A rustling sound alerted him that whatever this thing was was right through the next screen of grass. He bunched himself, gave a wiggle and leapt--!
"Oof!" He crashed square into the leopard's side. "Ah.." he shook himself back to his senses, blinking at the strange yellow and pink thing. "You're certainly not an antelope..."
"Uaaaggg!!!" Ciel nearly screamed. Half from the fact he was suprised by the appearance of a cub that came flying out of no where, but also because he had barreling into his injured leg.
Stumbling backward, Ciel let out a string of low curses, too quiet for anyone to make out clearly. His claws dug into the ground and he turned to lick at the gash. Another stifled cry sounded from him, his shoulders tensing.
"DAMMIT! You just had to knock into THAT leg! Do I really deserve that?!" He growled, pushing the words through his clenched teeth. He wasn't really talking to the cub, maybe just any gods or goddesses up there laughing at him. The fact was, Ciel had wretched luck. He always seemed to have the worst thing happen to him.
After a moment of silence, he turned to look over the cub and chuckled.
"Ya got a good pounce, kid. Any other day, however, when I wasn't injured I might have turned around and clawed you to pieces." He said with a crooked smile. "I don't like surprises."
Hewa winced, hearing the leopard crying out that way. He couldn't have pounced him that hard now, could he? And then he saw the blood...so THAT had been the smell! He hadn't done it, he was sure, but still, seeing the fellow so pained distressed him enough that he looked down at his paws. No. They were clean. Alright then.
"Sorry about that. Wasn't looking over the grass. I thought you were an injured antelope...well more like you were another person stalking an injured antelope, and I wanted to get it first. But I guess you're just you, huh?" He circled around the older male, curious, not threatening, and he sniffed gingerly at the open gash. "That looks bad. How'd you get it."
He blinked, then chuckled at the leopard's half-warning. "Ahh, right, right. Well any other day you wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be here and thus I'd have no way to pounce you, so you really wouldn't have clawed me, huh?" He flopped to sitting, tail swishing about happily. The fellow didn't seem too bad, for all his grouchy attitude.
Ciel frowned at the cubs circling, feeling oddly self conscious. Circling in general was not something Ciel liked. He felt trapped, even by a small cub like this. He huffed, and looked towards the gash.
"Hardly, someone yer' size can't do somethin' like that." He rolled his eyes, and tentatively sat down with the injured leg propped up.
"Naw, I got that fighten. Ran into a lion. He was small, but man was he fast. Didn't think he could do that sort of damage." Ciel shook his head, upset he had been so easily fooled by his appearance.
"Of course, he might have gotten a hit. But I wouldn't be talking to you right now if I hadn't won the battle." A toothy green crossed his muzzle. Some might look down upon the bright leopards ways. But fighting was fighting, and he happened to enjoy it. It wasn't only for fun through, defense was part of it too. When you travel alone, you are a prime target.
"True, I spose'. But still, if ANY cub had done that to me, I have no garentee they would still be breathing." He smirked, and leaned down to lick at the cut.
Hewa had to grin. For some reason the brash, slightly crass leopard rubbed him the right way. Maybe it was how he was cheerfully playing along, or that he simply had such a blatant personality. Either way, the lion liked him. "True, true. But then, you said the one that got you was small too. You never know, I've met some tough cubs around!" He laughed, being completely un-serious.
"Well anyway, I'm Mahewa. Or Hewa. Or hey you. What's your name, Scrappy?" He'd already nicknamed the leopard, and picked something suitable to its battling ways. His tail swished side to side happily. This was why he traveled after all. Meeting new people was his reason for living. Well, people and music. Music was more important, but people were a close second. And musical people were even better! But this wasn't the time to think about that. Sometimes meeting folks was dangerous, and though the leopard's threats seemed joking for now, one never knew.
Ciel let out a good natured laugh. His sides shook as he laughed, making the injury sting. He squirmed in pain, his shoulders tensing up.
"Tough cubs...well I've yet to meet any but- but you never know. You ever get..into fights?" He managed to choke, feeling the burning grow with each move he made. Even laughing send a stabbing pain up his leg.
"Sorry...I ain't usually this soft. But I...wonder why this one's so bad." He explained with a frown, looking at his limp leg. It was deep, very deep. But all the leopard could do was silently scream inside his head. He wasn't about to act so weak in front of a cub no less.
Recovering slightly from his moment of pain, he smiled. "Well Hewa, I'm Le'ciel. It's a fancy name for a fancy guy." He said with a hearty laugh, trying to conceal the pain he felt running up his leg.
Hewa flinched, seeing the pain in the leopard. It looked like a normal cut, but you never knew..."Was there any chance the lion that got you had blood or dirt in its claws? I know my dad said sometimes that can get in cuts and make it sting more." He wiggled closer on his butt, eyeing the wound. "It looks irritated, yeah...ned help cleaning it?" It was an odd offer, but hey. In times of need and what not.
"Le'ciel...never heard a name like it, so it must be fancy alright." He gave in and hummed a few notes. "Your name is very musical. Do you like music? I heard somewhere there's a pride that is all about music...I haven't found them yet though. That's why I'm wandering. I've met lots of fun folks, but none of the music-like-ing kind." It was a real shame, but even just thinking about one day finding a home like that made his toes tap and his head bob to the beat of some inner rhythm.
Ciel frowned, his face scrunching up. The rouge did look rather dirty, but he didn't get a very good look. It all started so fast, and when it was over he didn't even bother looking at the body.
"I suppose that could be it. Buncha dust got kicked up durin' the fight. Ya never know." He shrugged. "I guess, but I'm not moving until it's clean. It stings when I move." He explained, wincing as he shifted his weight.
"Musical?" He questioned, narrowing his eyes. That cheetah, that pink cheetah he had ran into a few days ago! She was a singer, that rude cheetah. What was her name? Jo? He didn't really care. She wasn't important, but somehow he felt obligated to tell Hewa about her.
"I'm no singer, but...I ran into a girl a few days ago. Snarky, rude, bitter thing. Called my fur ugly." He lingered on the last sentence, his tone resentful. "But she could sing. Really good. Don't know what her problem was. Though, I wouldn't recommend you meet her alone. She seemed like she might attack me, who knows what she would do to a cub." He said, shaking his head.
"Think her name was...Jo. But a musical pride sounds interesting." He smiled, switching subjects.
Hewa was happy to comply, and he perked one ear to listen as he moved closer to help clean the wound. It had to be easier this way for Ciel, seeing as he could just hold still. "I can imagine. Walking has to be, forgive me but, a pain in the rear?"
Huh. So there were other musical rogues? That was interesting. Most of his family didn't sing, or not like he did. He sang all the time, beat his tail on rocks to drum, clawed a tree to make a tune. They might hum or whistle absently, but they weren't musicians. His smile went sour though as Ciel went on. Aww. Sounded like the 'starving artist' type to him. "Your fur is rather fine, I think. The yellow is very sleek." It was too. No one in his family was near as colorful.
"Well I suppose getting attacked is a risk you run, wandering alone. It's not that odd. It's a shame she wasn't nice though. Jo...Well I'll keep an eye out. Oh I know right? Everyone singing and dancing! It'd be great fun!"
Gritting his teeth together, he tried to stay as still as possible. Maybe it was a good thing he had run into Hewa.
No wait...the cub had run into him. Literally.
This would be very difficult to do if he had been trying to clean it himself. "Thanks." He murmured under his breath.
"Yeah...so do I. But apparently, she doesn't. Maybe she was just jealous." He chuckled, turning to look over his coat. Impeccable, as always.
"If you are into music, I suppose it does. I like it, don't get me wrong, but I'm not very good at it. For one of the first few times in his life, Ciel liked a cub. Hewa seemed very mature for his age, very wise to life's experiences. He seemed like Ciel when he was a cub. He grinned at him.
"Now that my cut is clean...didn't you say something about how you were hungry?" He smiled a toothy grin. The least he could do was get this cub some food. Or, pardon him, get Hewa some food. He was no cub.
