Hadiya was a bit surprised when Jaha bumped into her, knocking her a bit. "It's okay Jaha. We are almost there anyway." She replied. Just up this hill and... there they were. She held Jaha back a bit, just in case he was so distracted that he would walk right into them. "Jaha you need to get on the ground like I am." She said, hiding down, trying to stay out of the gazelles' site. "You also have to be very quiet." She whispered. Her tail started to twitch a bit. She was nervous, not that catching prey wasn't nervous enough, but this would be Jaha's first time.
Jaha examined Hadiya's stance closely, trying desperately to imitate it. He had gotten it right except for his snowy white bum was sticking up in the air. Jaha was so anxious to get them, that he was just barely holding on. He hoped that Hadiya wouldn't have him wait long, because he wasn't sure that he could. He could feel the desperation to succeed fill him. But he had no idea what to do. All he knew was something along the lines of run at them, and claw them and bite them.
Now he was a little uncertain. They were tasty little meat-creatures, but they also had a brightness in their eyes, and just seemed... more living than fish. He began to shake slightly. Just run, claw and bite. Run, claw... and bite.
Hadiya looked at Jaha, who was shaking a bit and had his backside in the air. She quietly stuck out her paw, pushing down at the back of his back, hoping he would do what she was trying to hint at. Looking over at the gazelles again, she spotted one that was a little off from the others and would probably be the easiest to get. "Jaha, you see that one that is by itself? That's the one we are aiming for. Now what you do when you catch prey is you usually want to go straight for the neck and try to stay out of the way of it's feet." She hoped that at least the key words had gotten to him: go for neck, away from feet. "And we want to get this down fast, the less suffering for it the better. So when I say "go" after this, I want you to run as fast as you can to it and try to aim for it's back to tackle it. I will go after it's throat."
Looking down the hill, Jaha spotted the herd, and the target. The sweet. Adorable. Target. His legs were almost knocking together now. How could he possibly hurt such an ickle cutesy-wootsy swoopy poo? Just as he was beginning to lose focus, he felt Hadiya's paw on his back, and he stopped vibrating like a fuzzy maraca. His rump followed her guide down to the ground.
Neck good, feet bad. That's all. He didn't even have to kill it. He wasn't going to hurt it. It could be... like a game of tag. All he had to do is give the gazelle a BIG hug. No claws. Just a hug. He felt better finding out he wouldn't have to kill it, but he wasn't sure he would be able to look in those star-filled eyes afterwards.
Hadiya looked at Jaha. It looked like he was hesitating. "Jaha, if you don't want to do this we can back out, but it would be a good idea to at least teach you how to do it. We are going to have to teach our cubs this one day too." She whispered. Jaha was just way too innocent for his own good. she was glad that she was here now, who knows what would have happened to him otherwise. "But if you are ready, I will say the word."
His eyes were narrowed as he stared at his target. Jaha was good at games. He loved games. And this... was just a game of tag. A tackle hug to a stranger. Rough snuggling. He was fine, just so long as it wasn't the H or K words.
"You can do this, Jaha. You have to learn how to hu-"
"Shut up! We're going to play a little game."
"Oooh! I love games!"
"Yeah, I know. We're just going to go up to that gazelle and give it the biggest hug we've ever given an animal, okay?"
His eyes darted about as he tried to reassure himself. His eyes snapped to his mate, and he said in a hushed tone, "It's alright, I'm just giving it a hug."
Hadiya wanted to laugh but opted for a smile instead. She went back to focusing on their target. She was as still as she could possibly be. Finally, the gazelle turned around. "Okay... Go!" She whispered as she darted up. Of course now the gazelle were startled so they were on the move. However their prey was just behind the rest of them. As Hadiya ran toward it with all of her power, she hoped that Jaha was close, if not following behind her.
As he heard the magic word, he was off like a rocket. Nothing could stop him now. He kept his eyes on his bark-colored friend, refusing to let it out of his sight. He felt his muscles pumping, his pads pushing against the ground. He could see his mate out of the corner of his eye, but glued his vision to his new little buddy. Passing Hadiya, he was just close enough. And... NOW! Leaping into the air, Jaha landed on the poor dear with all of his weight, impacting with a great thud. He began to tumble with the gazelle, which was fighting with all of his might to get out of his grip. Jaha hit the ground, skidding and kicking up a massive cloud of dirt, but he refused to let go.
"Why, hello there!", he said to it, as they were both flat on the ground, and appeared as if he were spooning the sad little thing. It turned it's head in shock, looking him in the eyes. All he could see was sheer terror. Jaha's ears flattened to his head in shame when he saw the fear he had instilled into that innocent animal.
Hadiya was suprised when she saw Jaha leap ahead of her, but it was no time to be impressed right now. As soon as it was on the ground, and Jaha seemed to be done talking to it, she finally caught up, put her body in front of Jaha and bit the gazelles neck. It struggled a bit more, but with the amount of blood going into Hadiya's mouth, it would be gone in seconds. Finally it stopped moving.
She wanted to wait a bit before they moved the body, but she knew that with those bird flying overhead, someone was bound to know something was dead. "Look Jaha, you may feel sorry for the poor thing, but we need to get back, I would say to that tree we were just at, before someone comes. So either you could carry it back, or watch out for others while I carry it back." But she didn't give him a choice, quickly taking the gazelle into her mouth and carrying/dragging it as fast as she could to the tree.
As Hadiya approached, the gazelle gave one more futile attempt to struggle free, but to no avail. As she bit down, it gave a high-pitched shriek, and Jaha felt the fight die as it did. He watched the the stars, the life leave its eyes. He felt a knot begin to rise in his throat. Eating fish was one thing. They had dull, fixated eyes and seemed more like a plaything than a living, breathing animal. But he was not so far from the gazelle. It had fur, it showed fear, emotion and life! And why were they going eating it? Because he was feeling a little peckish. He couldn't bear the sight of it any longer. It probably, no, definately had a family, since it lived in a herd.
Jaha rose up, staring off into space once more, rebuking himself for his cruelty. But he was snapped out of his self-diciplinary meeting by Hadiya's voice, and he followed behind her glumly. His eyes scanned from side to side, searching for anything that might steal away his new skeleton in the closet.
Hadiya managed to make it back to the tree without any trouble. However Jaha was still trailing a bit behind her. This time she really did sigh. He looked so dejected! She turned around to their catch and ripped off a piece of it. She was still hungry, even if Jaha wasn't. When she finally heard him behind her, she turned back around, (after chewing and swallowing of course!) and sat down. She would have to talk to him, though it would have to be fast. She didn't want their catch to go bad so quickly. She looked at Jaha, waiting for him to talk, though twitching her tail, hoping it would be soon.
Jaha's feet were simply carrying him in the direction of his mate, with no concious effort of his own, his head was hung low, shoulders slumped and tail dragging in the sand. When he reached the shade of the tree, he laid himself down with a plop, sticking his nose between his paws. As much as his mate hoped that he would break the silence, he could find no words to penetrate it. He was wracked with guilt. So much so that he began realizing how little he deserved. He didn't deserve his wonderful love, the shade of the tree, or even paws to carry him. He looked down at his paws with an eerily sabotaging look.
One thing that he had always held to is that he was not one to cause pain. He may have been an immense irritation, but never one who hurt others. His mind was racing about the things that he had and shouldn't. He shouldn't even have fish! He was a perfectly happy, healthy lion, yet he was the cause of an ended life.
Hadiya sighed again, ripping off another part of the catch and eating it. Jaha was WAY too nice sometimes. But she couldn't be angry at him for that. "Jaha" she started, trying to word it nicely. "You know that plants aren't that good for us. We have to eat other animals. Whether it be fish or this antelope. You can't be wracked with guilt every time you kill an animal. This has happened many times before with the gazelle and it will continue to happen. We aren't the only things out here that eat other animals." She said to him. She walked over to him and started to rub his head. "I know you feel badly but that herd of gazelle will move on. They will have 10 other members before you know it. They know and I know that other animals aren't just going to stop eating them." She was trying to explain it to him, but she was wondering if she was doing anything to him. If he continued to feel guilty like this he would probably starve to death, and she really didn't want that. "We have to eat sometime. And if you don't, you'll leave and then I'll be very sad. Yes, I too wish there was another way but there just isn't. Unless of course you want to go and start eating other lions"
As Jaha heard Hadiya begin to speak, he wasn't able to look her in the eyes. The shame of what he had done, and the strength-sapping feeling of guilt wouldn't let him lift his head from his crimson paws. All he was able to do was p***k his ears towards her voice so she knew that he was listening. Jaha let out a hefty sigh when he heard all her comforting words. He didn't deserve to be comforted.
Jaha, still weak from his sin, rested his chin on his paws and began to speak in a word cracking with sorrow. "But you don't understand. You didn't see its eyes. I've seen them before, and they are always shining with happiness, but as I too-- took it down, All I could see was its fear and desperation!" As he heard his mate mention cannibalism, his head bolted upright, his grogginess vanished. "That would be even worse!", he wailed, letting his head flop back down into his legs, his fur muffling his last word. His mouth still in his snowy fluff, he said, "Maybe I should just go back to fish..."
"Jaha, I've seen that same look before too, and well, you have to get over it unfortunately." She replied pawing at him a bit. She wasn't too sure what to do. She wanted to comfort Jaha but the fresh meat was so good... She went over and took another bite. "It's fine if you want to go back to fish Jaha. But you still needed to learn this, either sooner or later." She managed to say in-between bites. She licked her lips. She hadn't had non-fish meat in a while. "Come on, we can do something fun once I'm done to cheer you up okay?"
Hearing that they would do something fun, Jaha couldn't help but perk his ears. He almost wanted his ears to droop back down because he wasn't sure if he wanted to feel better. Guilt was his karma for doing bad. Or in this case, 'bad'. But he couldn't help it, he always knew that when Hadiya was planning something fun, it was going to be a blast, whether he liked it or not. His eyes widened and shone when he considered the possibilities, and he turned his gaze up to the sky. The blue was dotted with wispy puffs of white. A beautiful day. What was he upset about? He couldn't remember, and he knew if he was that depressed, it was probably best not to try too hard to remember. Jaha really was just a big cub at the end of the day.
Sitting up and shaking himself off, Jaha padded towards his sweetheart and gave her a little lick on the cheek.
Hadiya giggled a bit when Jaha licked her. She was glad that he was feeling better again. She didn't like to see Jaha down. She was going to have to clean herself up a bit before they got going. Getting covered in sticky blood was never that fun. She swished her tail back and forth a bit, continuing with her meal. She was planning to find some waterhole that was big enough to swim in for Jaha. She knew that he always was excited about swimming.
((SSBrosM is the person RPing Hadiya in grey and I am the one RPing Jaha in red))
