She was feeling sluggish again- it was becoming a daily event where the leopardess simply had no energy. What was wrong with her? She was overly emotional and stubborn, agresssive as well as moody; certainly this wasn't the same Jae that Sellion and Athi knew best! At last the afternoon heat had tapered off and the air lightened with a cooler breeze leaving the leopardess at ease and somewhat rested but still she was uncomfortable. The pink and black hued cheetah had brought her food yet it was not what she asked for. Quivering her lip, the leopardess wept.
"HUNGRYYYYYYYY!" She cried. "SUGAR CANE.... ANTELOPE... POR QUEEEE?"
It would appear that the demon-master had done well in the many strange, if not requested assortments but Jae was still unhappy. Fruit. Where was the fruit? Two out of three was not good enough for a leopardess whose belly was becoming a bit larger and still remained ravenous.
"FRUUUUUUUIT. FRUUUUUUUIT. Sugarsurgarsugarsugar," she whined. "Sellie didn't ask Jahk-Jahk?" A frown and grievous expression broadened across her maw. Jahk-Jahk was interpreted as, Jahka, the very strange and unusual cheetah who was a Shaman as well as a Seer. Often he carried the things Jae craved and, as of lately, it took a lot of bartering and trading to get all of the things that the leopardess seemed to desire. Wrinkling her muzzle as tears trailed from her blackened orbs, Jae curled up slightly and pushed the food away- hunkering herself in a mess of fur and limbs.
A small, prolonged moan escaped from her chest.
"mmmmmmmmmmmmmm...."
The incessant moaning and groaning and whining and ordering and commanding and snapping and crying and wheezing of Jae was getting to be more than Sellion could bear.
He was sprawled out on a rock, legs contorted in odd shapes and mouth hanging open as he slept--well, tried to sleep. It was hard to snooze when you had a fat, whining leopardess nearby.
Face twitching into a sneer with his eyes closed, Sellion rolled over, snuggling against the hard rock and curling his legs together in an attempt to get more comfortable, and therefore sleep easier. But he had no luck. There would be no nap for the cheetah that evening. Instead, he would just get an earful of Jae.
He'd given her everything she asked--he always did. Everything. Strange, crazy things...Things he thought he had never heard of, yet knew what they were.
Groaning as the irritation got to be too much to take, the cheetah rolled off the rock and face-planted in the dirt. Then he stood, shook his coat, and walked over to Jae, slender legs moving easily through the grass.
"Fruit?" he echoed irritably. "THERE IS NO FRUIT HERE." he screeched. "We aren't in the jungle anymore!" Why did she insist on asking for fruit when she knew very well they were far, far, FAR away from fruit? However much the cheetah wished to please his demonic female friend, he couldn't. Maybe she'd eat a rock and think it was fruit...? Hmmm...
Ears suddenly sunk against her skull as she stared up at the slender cheetah. His screeching only caused her bottom lip to quiver while the rest of her body seemed to bring about the cue for an emotional mess. Noises that were once unnoticed nor paid attention to were loud, obnoxious and hurt her ears- Jae tried to focus but felt her head spinning, the world around her whirling by as her head seemed to feel as if it was spinning around and around. The leopardess knitted her brows, and un-curled herself slightly from the mess of fur and limbs that curled together and tried to slink away into the tall grass, taking the strange sugar cane and few birds in her maw, cheeks bloated out, as she tried to hide away.
"Por quuuuuuuuuue," she silently whined, dragging herself into the tall grass and attempting to hide away as best she could except for the fact that her tail remained in plain sight, thumping restlessly.
Sellion was nice- she knew that. She obeyed him, followed him even though sometimes it seemed she was doing the opposite of what he ordered her to do. The leopardess trusted the cheetah with full devotion in happiness but now it seemed that she was more than confused. She was scared, to say the least.
She didn't feel normal.
Sniffling, the leopardess tried to silently slink away but her clumsy steps and meandering through the dried reeds and grasses were a complete trail as to what direction she was heading. Those several steps felt like miles! And tiredly Jae plopped down dropped the birds and sugarcane to the ground before flopping beside them- restless, tired and still oblivious. In her mind she believed she had traveled far enough to be out of earshot or range of the pink and black cheetah and, thus, Jae began to senselessly gnaw upon the sweet, succulent sugar cane.
"Jaedun'meantobehuffyanmeantosSellie."
As Jae slunk off by herself and attempted to hide among the tall grasses, Sellion frowned, irritation lessening. The leopardess lived in a strange, special place within the cheetah's insane heart. He had spent years and years by himself, after his family burned up, and his sister died not long after, so he had always been alone. It was the first time anyone of demonic decent ever stayed with him without really being asked. It put Jae in a strange rank, all on her own. She was sort of like a pet to him, and a friend at the same time. It was difficult to see whether that was good or bad.
Whatever the case, the cheetah narrowed his eyes, frowning, and stepped over to the leopardess, paws hitting the grass almost silently. He neared her and tilted his head, staring down at her hidden form. The smell of sugar-cane was sickeningly sweet, and Sellion didn't know how Jae could hold it all in her mouth like that. Truly, she was a demon...And the reiteration of that fact only urged Sellion into action more.
"You are not mean to me..." the cheetah said, voice stretching among different words. "And if you were, I would take it. Demons are mean. Demons are cruel and vicious." he hissed giddily, for a moment forgetting the present situation. But then he remembered and glanced away, face serious and eyes examining the sparse trees. Jae wanted fruit, but there was none. What was he do to? It was a lose-lose scenario, and it made him feel unpleasantly powerless.
"I'll look again for fruit, Jae, but there is none. Why do you need fruit?" he asked, eyes narrowing as he tried to understand her strange mood swings. She wasn't herself lately...
It was strange. Jae had always been independent since she had been separated from her brother, Jero, and had rationalized that the best way to survive, to make sense of the world, was to blend it together with the magical, special place embedded within her head. But it seemed that once she had come to these new lands the first one she had met had been, of course, Sellion. There was something about the rather peculiar, odd, and slightly unsanitary cheetah yet, again, she felt he was something different. Yes, the Cheetah was her leader and a friend, along with Athi, yet it felt as if it was something more than what she had between she and Athi. Whether it was good or bad she wasnt' quite certain yet it was special- she recognized it but as to how to proceed or act around it was out of Jae's 'norm'. She was, still, a skewed and scatter-brained leopardess whose insight of reality and fantasy were blended.
But that didn't mean that the leopardess was obsolete to feelings and rationality.
As the sickening, sweet taste saturated her mouth, Jae felt calm. Sugar often, in high doses, did well to contain her spazzy side and certainly such high levels would cause any sane individual to become high strung but such a thing was quite an opposite for the leopardess. Sniffling as she chomped down on the other end of the sugar cane, Jae's ears perked upward as a familiar voice seemed to break through the silence. Her brows knitted slightly while her maw gaped open for a moment before she crunched down on the cane and pursed her lips rather thoughtfully while the sugar cane protruded from out of her mouth.
"Jae-Jae doesn't want to be mean to someone she likes... someone she reallyreallyreallythinksshelikes." The last part was soft, a slight mumbling whisper as if still uncertain that it was correct. Some of the feelings that she had felt were still strange- they didn’t make sense! There were urges and ideas but, as of lately, they were just as puzzling as the next. Was it right to say that she liked him? They were friends after all but- well, what if it was more than just a like-like?
With little grace, the leopard rose to her paws wearily and looked around for the cheetah. "I.... I wiiiiiiiill come too," she announced. "I need a walk. Jae-Jae needs to lose weight...."
As pertaining to the fruit, the leopardess still continued to blindly rummage about looking in all direction for the black and pink cheetah demon.
"Sweet and sour, tangy and bitter- I like fruit because... I like it?" She gave a lopsided grin for emphasis. Surly that was enough of an explanation, right?
Sellion stood tall in his confusion and surprise, head tilting slightly and ears flopping. He gazed down at the leopardess, mulling over her words as his not-all-there brain tried to decipher their meanings. It was with great difficulty that he deduced what she was talking about, and what her words meant.
Did this mean...That Jae...Truly...SHE TRULY--
Ooohhh, a shiny golden beetle!
Sellion tore his gaze away from Jae and watched the beetle buzz around his head and disappear into the trees. He gave a cub-like grin and then looked back at Jae, perhaps checking to see if she, too, had been watching the beetle. But he saw she hadn't, and so tried to put himself back into the current situation. What was it, again...?
...
Oh, fruit. And Jae. And fruit. Mmm, fruit...Sellion wanted some, too...But the accursed jungle was far away, and he hated it. Hated its furling vines and branches and big trees and skinny trees, and shadows and ghosts, and evil insects and snakes, and mud that sucked you into its mouth to eat you alive...
Sellion was born on the savanna, and knew that fruit was a rare occurrence. Still, he would look for it. After all, when two demons got together, anything was possible...
Smirking down at his leopardess companion, the cheetah stood beside her and began to walk through the grass. Jae's fat belly stuck out like a bushel of roses in a tar pit, and Sellion couldn't tear his eyes away from it. It was so rounnnnd and faaaat and--OH SWEET GODS, IT MOVED.
Sellion let out a startled cry and looked away, willing himself to forget what he had seen. And he did. And then he was fine. And so he continued walking, smirking demonically and eying his surroundings for any sign of fruit. But what sort of fruit was he looking for...? A sweet and sour, tangy and bitter kind...But...
"What fruit do you desire, Jae?" he asked.
In the wake of her thoughts and oblivious composure, Jae hadn't even noticed the golden beetle. But even so she watched Sellion, ears flickering as she tilted her head slightly and blinked, flicking her tail behind her as the cheetah came into view. For a moment the leopardess grinned just a bit before becoming confused, waiting for her leader to decide what was to happen next. Somehow she wanted to see the jungle again as there was something about its cooling temperature and shadows that was relaxing- something that seemed to help put the leopardess at ease. But, then again, she knew that Sellion strayed far, far away from the jungle for his own scary reasons- reasons which Jae understood completely. But when it came to fruit, Jae seemed to find more reasons of why it was important to venture off and find it.
It was a complicated split decision; fruit or make sure Sellie didn't somehow get consumed by snakes, ghosts or the mud.
As Sellion came closer and suddenly shrieked, Jae shrieked as well and folded her ears against her head- yelping and turning away just as the cheetah did. She felt strange, as if she was scaring him or causing him to have panic attacks but she questioned what exactly she was doing to make such a thing happen. Her brows knitted slightly as her enlarged form wobbled forward hesitantly at first before the cheetah came back around and seemed a bit more docile.
"kumquats," she chirped. "I liiiiiiike kumquats."
Who wouldn't like the small citrus fruit which could be eaten with the peel? It was like mana from heaven!
Wrinkling her muzzle, Jae shuffled herself a bit closer toward Sellion and looked around before she stared upward towards the sky and its puffy, cumulus and cirrus-scaped clouds. She stood there for a moment, maw gaping as she simply continued to stare.
"oooooh..."
Sellion's mind worked slowly, wheels turning and eyes flitting around the area. He was thinking, contemplating, remembering...He remembered something from his past...Something he used to do with his beloved sister, Chana. There was a tree on the savanna...A plentiful tree that was often bare from its inhabitants which feasted upon it.
It was a foggy vision...Like he was looking at the huge tree itself, only there was a sheet of cloud covering most of it. What was this tree...Why was he remembering it? Sellion sneered at the grass, irritated with his memory. But perhaps it wasn't a memory? Perhaps...
Perhaps the GHOSTS HAD FOLLOWED HIM FROM THE JUNGLE AND WERE IMPLANTING HIS MIND WITH VISIONS?!
Tripping over his feet as he walked, paranoia surfaced within the male and he snapped his head left and right, no longer looking for fruit, but for ghosts.
After a few once-overs and not seeing any ghosts, Sellion calmed down slightly, heaving and twitching his tail. "Kumquats?" he echoed Jae in question, the word rolling of his tongue with unfamiliarity. "What is a kumquat?" he whispered in a hiss, eyes darting around, as if becoming even more paranoid by the sound of this word.
...Wait...
A JACKALBERRY TREE.
Gasping and reeling around, Sellion faced Jae as if he had just discovered the cure for the plague. His eyes were wild and nearly facing in opposite directions as he slammed his forehead against Jae's in urgency, staring close at her face. "A JACKALBERRY TREE." he screeched, voice high-pitched with excitement. That kind of tree bore fruit; sweet and sour, bitterish fruit. Lemony-sweet and small and tender. They grew on the savanna, those trees. And Sellion was sure they would find one after very, very, very little searching. The trees were huge and easy to identify, and if you didn't see one first, you'd certainly smell it.
Sellion spun around and began racing away with only half his cheetah speed, for he didn't want to outrun the poor, fat Jae.
With black orbs a-fixed to the skies above, the leopardess grinned and chirped. "Kuuuumquats. Its a small little fruit that's reallytangyandsweet that you can eat whole. They're my favorite," the leopardess beamed, glancing back toward the black and pink cheetah beside her. Jae blinked slowly, several times, before it seemed the reeling cheetah suddenly slammed and pressed his forehead against hers as he become wild and rather giddy.
A Jackalberry tree?
The leopardess perked her ears upward, maw hanging wide and ajar before he seemed to be spinning around her although at half the speed so her lumbering form could keep up. Jae had never heard of a jacakberry tree but there was always a chance to try new things!
Anxious and rather excited, Jae staggered up to all fours as she began to tumble forward- swaggering slightly as she moved forward.
Unlike her typical self, Jae found it still hard to move or rather hard to walk long distances. She was a demon in training, yes- but it was rather difficult to catch her breath. Her oblivious nature only convinced her that she was eating too much or that Sellion was intentionally trying to fatten her up as part as some demon-pleasing process. But why would he want her fat? Every now and then she could have sworn something was wriggling inside of her but the leopardess had come to realize that it was, in fact, just her stomach rumbling or jumping around when she was nervous.
But did that mean she was nervous all of the time? Jae didn't feel nervous all the time so perhaps it was something else. Indigestion maybe? Well, she was eating alot so that must be it!
Trailing behind Sellion, the leopardess breathed heavily as she focused her black orbs upon the males slender form. "Sellie ..."
There was so much Sellion wanted to do, and so little time. The sun was setting quickly, and by the time night arrive, all the fruit from the Jackalberry tree would be picked off by its inhabitants. If Jae wanted the fruit, they had to HAUL IT. Unfortunately, Sellion was a cheetah, and Jae was a fat, fat leopard.
The male went unaware that his demonic female companion was beginning to lag behind for just a few moments. But once the sound of heavy breathing he was used to began to fade into the background, Sellion's ears swiveled back and he blinked, slowly his pace to an even greater degree than before. He slowed until he stopped, and then turned around. Shockingly, Jae was wayyyyy behind him. He heard a mutter of his name, and it sounded quite weak and pathetic.
HOW DID JAE GET SO FAT AND SLOW?
Bearing his teeth, the cheetah stomped over to her, each step hard and building with frustration. He stomped until he was in front of her, then bent his head down to be at her eye level. "Maybe you shouldn't eat any berries..." he jeered quietly, eyes narrowing. He pouted out his lower lip as he looked at her, an odd, almost scolding expression on his face. But the expression began to fade, because something wasn't right. Jae's breathing was heavier than normal, and her body sagged strangely. She looked like she was so tired, she could've passed out on the spot? But how could that be? She was perfectly healthy, albeit a little fat lately...Hmm...
Sellion sat next to her, long legs folding underneath him. His tail curled around his body and he tilted his head, moving his face as close as possible to stare deeep into one of her black eyes, like a doctor examining his patient. But the cheetah wasn't any sort of doctor, and saw nothing he would call unusual in the leopardess's black orbs.
Sighing in annoyance, Sellion curled his lips slightly, not understanding anything that was happening anymore. Did Jae want the fruit, or didn't she? Maybe she had changed her mind? Foolish, fat leopardess, always messing with his head. CURSES.
"Lie down." Sellion commanded harshly, slapping a paw on her back and forcing her to the ground. It didn't take much effort, however, for it looked as if the leopardess was about to collapse on her own. "Stay there and sleep. We will get tasty Jackaltree berries tomorrow." he growled quietly, fed up with the whole thing.
The sun was gone.
Something was wrong, something was very wrong! The leopardess was begining to think that this was something more than just gorging herself on delectable fruits. It felt as if she gained twenty pounds easy- was this, was this magic? Was this a curse? Maybe it was just water weight since, as of lately, she was drinking quite heavily. Jae's determination to taste of this elusive, unknown jackalberry fruit drove her onward with determination but it would seem that her feet were not on the same page; they were tired, weak and hurt. That short distance already created the feeling and fatigue as if she had walked several miles! How was she to continue to this unknown destination when she was already panting like a pathetic weakling.
She was a fat, fat, fat leopard and not a demon.
Walking step by step, Jae was starting to sense that Sellion was just a bit upset. Tiredly watching as the cheetah stomped back toward her, the leopardess flattened her ears against her skull while blackened orbs stared at the ground unwilling to look up toward the cheetah. Pursing her lips, Jae wasn't sure what to say but, for the moment, she nodded her head before she whimpered. "No more berries, no more berries for Jae-Jae," she quietly agreed, weeping slightly as the emotions inside of her churned with unrest. Inhaling deeply, the leopardess then exhaled and glanced toward the cheetah aside her.
Likewise, Jae somehow found enough courage to look upward and tilted her head, staring back at Sellion. "I... don't think this is caused by berries," she commented, softly as she knitted her brows. "It feels... different. Really, really, really, really different."
While the cogs of her mind twisted and turned, the leopardess listened to Sellion without comment and slinked down onto her stomach while a forceful paw pushed her down. There was no need to fight or rebel, that would be silly! Obedient and trusting, the leopardess did as she was told and nodded while she scooted closer toward the cheetah and curled beside him.
Although he was upset, Jae pawed at his tail and slowly drifted asleep. "Jackalberry treeeeeee," she chirped, wearily as her eyes closed slowly. "Jackal treeeee..."
As the sun retreated, the leopardess fell into slumber as her form seemed to curl around that of the cheetah.
Tomorrow would be a good day, she could feel it.
