Uziwa’umande, grew restless as she waited for the rains to pass, huddled underneath a thicket, shivering and mostly wet. The ground beneath her was now mud and she knew she could not possibly hunt, or even bully away someone else’s kill, in these conditions. Things were so much harder now than they had ever been. She missed what was once her cushy life, being fed the scraps of kills by the strange two legged beasts who she had come to feel was her family.
Now, Uziwa was on her own, having been driven out of the little village she was raised in several weeks before. She tried many times within the first few days of being out casted to re-enter the village, her home. Her attempts were in vain, as she was chased out or had something thrown at her each time she re-entered. It confused her so much and she was still in pain over the ordeal. She loved that place and its strange two legged beasts, and now they didn’t want her any longer.
Shaking to keep warm, Uziwa lowered her head and gave off a call, panicked and wanting everyone, anyone, to come to her. She wasn’t even sure if her calls would be heard by anything in the general area, but at this point she didn’t care. She just wanted someone there with her, even if it wasn’t her two legged beast friends.
As the rain let up, so did Uziwa. She was still not satisfied with the fact she was alone, but her attempts at attracting attention to her while it rained were in vain. Crawling out from underneath the thicket she took cover in, the adolescent hyena peeked around at the damn surroundings, her stomach grumbling slightly. She was growing so desperately hungry, but still hadn’t picked up on hunting yet.
With never having to kill her own meal, she had been living so far on scraps she had found, leaving her hungry most of the time, and beginning to thin in places. She needed to find food soon, or get lucky in her hunting if she wanted to survive here in her strange new world. She only hoped that luck would be on her side.
Her paws hit the damp, sludgy earth as she walked away from the thicket, a grimace pouring over her face at the feel of the mud quickly seeped between her pads and toes. It was absolutely disgusting to her. Yes, her old home got rain as well, but there was patches, dry patches, in which she’d be let out into to lay if she wished, or do her business in. Here everything was wet, slimy, gag inducing.
Trying her best not to think about the mud beneath her toes, Uziwa’umande made her way across the landscape, looking for food and a better sense of shelter. The clouds were still high in the sky, and it could begin pour at any moment; the last thing she wanted was to be caught in it once again. She could have probably stayed at the thicket, but than she would have covered no ground, which means she would not have been scouring for a meal. That was simply not an option.
Before she knew it, Uziwa had walked quite a distance from where the thicket shelter had once been. The sky was still being cooperative and had not drained its swelled contents for quite some time. She knew this would end soon, but was unsure as to when. Peering around the land, she noticed a form off in the horizon by a large tree. It was a cheetah, one as young as she, with what had to be a kill. She quietly approached the cheetah, confirming her suspicions; it had a kill, a young Thomson’s gazelle, and it had only started to feed. Perfect.
Uziwa puffed up her chest the best she could, wanting to make herself as threatening as possible to this cheetah. She made her way towards it, picking up speed and letting out the tell tale calls that coined her species as the ‘laughing hyena’. It quickly startled the cheetah, which looked around panicked before spotting her and attempting to hold its ground.
It seemed as if Uziwa’s bluff would not fly, forcing her to actually engage the cheetah. She gave off a threatening call and went for the cheetah’s leg, snapping at it. Seeing that the adolescent hyena intended to make good on her bluff, the cheetah swiped a paw at her as a warning before taking off, hoping that Uziwa would not follow.
She was overwhelmed with excitement at the thought that she would be eating well today and tore into the gazelle underneath the tree. Just as she began eating the rain had decided to fall once more, a heavy downpour that made a steady thump upon the tree’s canopy. Uziwa’umande was warm, dry and feeding well. It was all she could have hoped for and more; however, even with her fortune of good food and warm shelter, she still couldn’t get the thought of her former family out of her head.
She was haunted by it, really. The constant wonder of why they had just abandoned her one day to fend for herself. Why they didn’t want her to come back to them. Had she done something wrong? Was she a bad hyena? A bad family member? Perhaps they just didn’t want her anymore, but she didn’t like the sound of that. There had to have been a reason behind it. Something that drove them to drive her away. They didn’t drive any of the other family members away.
She sighed heavily as her belly began to distend from the sheer amount of food she had partaken in. She would guard her kill jealously for now, incase she felt like eating more later on. When she was good and ready to give it to the scavengers or the vultures she would. After all, this may be the only good meal she got for awhile. Her fortunes had smiled upon her, but it didn’t mean they’d always will.
Despite her worries and woes, today didn’t suck so bad after all.
Word Count: 1034
