KHAAAN!

Er, KAAAVU!

Stupid lion had lost her baboon and then just taken off! Renzi was the last person on the list of everything living, now and ever, to hold a grudge. (In her opinion, which was right, so it counted.) That just proved what an unforgivable crime had been Kavu was at fault for. Did he have any idea how much she'd slaved away to catch that horrid creature? He was going to knock down the moon! It would have been the greatest of greatness!

Renzi leered at the baboon wagging his hind end at her from the tree. Renzi promised herself to learn one new thing every day. Today she had learned she could barely run longer than something dead and almost as slow, too. "Oh... you'll pay..." she panted, collapsing under the tree and giving him THE EYE. "You will pay dearly."

Nabihi didn't run like something dead. She ran like something scared. She always had, see, to her running had twofold uses, one was to kill things, the other was to not get killed herself, and if her running ever failed her in any way it would end up with her dead. So far she'd succeeded pretty well at both, knock on wood, and hoped for continued success in years to come.

Today, however, she was not running at all. It was wasteful, nothing was fleeing and nothing chasing so she's just exhasted her two reasons and was left with a sort of slow meandering walk that said it all. Mostly that she had nowhere better to be an nothing better too do. And since she had nothing better to do the best thing she could think of was to find somewhere to sleep until running became nessesary again.

She thought she spotted the optimal spot too, a tree in the distance had caught her eye and so her meander served it's purpose in bringing her closer to her destination. However, as she neared it she realized it may not have been that perfect. A lion was resting against the bottom, looking up, and while it seemed like it wasn't about to kill her you never did know with lions.

Plenty of people knew with lions. It was Renzi they should be unsure about. Only the insane were confident in the insane. And even the insane weren't always so fond of the loud. She was both.

"HEY!" Poor cheetah. Should have run when she had the chance. Renzi had actually been looking about for potential pieces of scenery that could help her capture her life long enemy for the final time. Curse that Kavu! She'd found the perfect resource! "Hey you, cheetah! You! Come over here! I have something important to talk to you about! Hurry now! It's an issue of greatness!"

Nabihi froze.

Okay that was unexpected. Usualy when you met someone they didn't just start yelling at you. Espeicaly when you hadn't actually met them. She had a very bad feeling about this lion, but...

But while she could outrun a lion over a short distance lions could run for longer, and she didn't particularly want to piss one off enough to have it hunt her down in her bed. So, figuring it was the lesser of two evils she approached slowly and cautiously, ears back uncertaily.

"Uhm, hello, do you need something?"

"Yes. Yes, I do."

Renzi couldn't run longer. Quite the contrary. She'd heard tale it was the cheetah who could and did sprint great distances. She'd heard once they could outrun lightning. Whatever that meant. She had yet to get to lightning in her epic quest for complete understanding and domination of all things epic.

"I need you to catch that." That, as she indicated with a sluggish motion upward, was the baboon still hoping about the branch in mockery of his wary competitor. "In exchange, I will give you the moon." After all, she didn't really need to keep it after she finally knocked it down with this cursed beast that plagued her. She only needed to be the one to do it.

She looked up. She blinked. She looked down. She blinked again. Finaly she said, "What?"

She wanted her to catch a baboon? What for? Baboons weren't particularly delicious, and, in Nabihi's expirience catching one was much more effort than it was worth. Besides, it was up a tree, what was she supposed to do about that? And why would she want to catch anything for this crazy lion anyway?

Oh, right, crazy lion. Crazy possibly unstable and dangerous lion.

"Ah, well uhm, I can try? But you'd be better off finding a leopard, I mean," she looked back up again, "Since they don't fall..."

Baboons were mean too. This would not end well.

Renzi was back on her feet and overly passionate as ever. She turned her head upwards and called to the heavens, "This is my MORTAL ENEMY!" Any birds in the area fled in fear. Good thing Renzi never wanted a bird. Winged creatures never stayed around too long with her there. "There's no time for a leopard! Don't you see?!"

Didn't she see?!

"We have to get him now, for greatness! This beast--this horrid beast among beasts--is destined to knock down the moon!" Her eyes snapped back to the cheetah like a scene out of some dramatic, cheesy movie. "This is a day for greatness, my friend. This opponent I have had my whole life, and I know him well. He'll flee from this tree soon and move to the ground to taunt me. I need you to capture him then, with your speed that RIVALS THE GODS!"

Nabihi flinched as the lion yelled, wishing at that moment she had wings as well. She'd honestly never heard anyone that loud before.

"I-I-uhm, what?"

Okay yeah, she honestly had no clue what was going on. What was she going to do with the moon? What in the gods names did a baboon have to do with that anyway? Nabihi took a half step back as the lion continued with her amazingly neurotic speech. This was weird. Way too weird, but, in the end she didn't know what else to do.

"If I catch the baboon, will you leave me alone?"

It seemed to be the best thing she could think to say. She wanted as far away from this lunatic as she could.

Renzi's goal in life was not the approval of others. Never did it cross her mind that someone could not like her, because there was no explanation for that. She was her. Come on. They could be jealous of her. This cheetah wasn't. Otherwise she wouldn't have helped her, right? Right.

Okay then.

"Yes."

A lioness of her word, Renzi. She had thought everyone was until Kavu's betrayal. How could he do that to her?! She'd never forgive him! Or stop thinking about it. Stupid purple little--What?

Oh, right.

"Yes," she repeated. "Yes, I will. I just need you to capture him. Are you ready? You'll only have one chance."

"Oh, good."

Having the strange stripey spotty weird weird lioness harping on her about this baboon had to have been the strangest thing to happen to her... ever. Really, she'd once nearly been eaten by a lizzard and this was still at least ten times weirder. But on the plus side this crazy lioness didn't seem violent (yet), and she seemed pretty single minded so hopefully after she caught the baboon she could be on her way and will have learned a lesson. About what she wasn't sure, but there had to be a lesson in all this.

"Alright, you just want me to kill the baboon right? I can do that," she didn't voice the second part, which was 'hopefully'.

Renzi looked utterly shocked she would dare to even think such a thing! Kill her baboon?! What madness was this?! "Of course not!" she wailed in horror. "I only need him given to me. Alive! You can bash his head into the ground to knock him unconscious, of course, but he has to be alive." What ever would she do if her victory was over something dead? Her entire life would have pointless! Not to mention she needed it still breathing to prove to Kavu he'd been wrong in his show of mercy that had lost her the baboon to begin with. "Just catch him, bash his head and drag him back."

The lioness span around and with no other warning kicked the tree. Not with the force a hoofed animal could have but in much the same way to less effectiveness. Renzi had been right in her prediction. It was enough that the baboon either fell or willingly toppled from the tree, landed on the ground and made a move to the next one.

Nabihi wanted to scream. She'd never wanted to scream before, screaming didn't accomplish anything but there was this pressure in her chest that just needed to come out somewhere. This was too much, she wanted her to capture the baboon ALIVE? How could she even do that, it's not like it'd just helpfully stop moving once she pounced on it. She was going to get gored by a baboon, she knew it!

Before she had the chance to fully consider her predicament though, the lioness hit the tree, and with instinct acting agaisnt her Nabihi acted the only way she knew how, she RAN.

The baboon had a head start, but it her speed came from launching, she could go from zero to really quite fast in practically no time at all, and she did, however...

However when she landed on the baboon it rolled forword, sending her sommersaulting over it and onto her back, it was all she could do not to snap her own damn neck in the process.

"Ngh." she said.

Renzi could have cried if she ever stopped to think enough to get upset in that way. She felt only joy, anger, greatness, tired and more greatness. Now? Anger. Not at the failure of a cheetah but the baboon who then scampered out of her reach and vanished into the trees. So. Lions weren't dependable and cheetah weren't either. Perhaps a leopard was the best option for next time. Next time, also the last time. "I'll get you!" she screeched after him. She didn't know but she was also rude, and in an act that was probably the rudest thing she'd ever done, she left the poor thing there and fled the scene. Next time, baboon!