|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 2:51 pm
At the moment, the cheetah was lying on her back, trying to count the leaves on the tree in order to distract her from the utter truth that she was completely famished. She hadn't eaten yet today, as she was too young to be a very good hunter, and most of her potential meals were avoiding the heat. The young female hoped that she would be able to get a snack later in the day, but for now was quite preoccupied with trying to remember what number she had reached. "Let's see; three, four, nine... What comes next? Oh yeah! Eleventeen! After that, um, um, tenteen? No, that's before eleventeen. Oh! Twoteen! That's it," she murmured to herself as she counted. Nyofu was enjoying herself with this seemingly pointless task; or at least she was telling herself that this was so; there wasn't much call to run around and play when it was so hot out, and she couldn't get Mama to play with her any more... Because Mama was gone, and mama was never going to play with her again.
This thought brought tears to the small cub's eyes and she rolled back over onto her belly, splaying all four paws out and crying piteously. Why had Mama had to die? Why did that lion kill her? What if another lion came, and it wanted to eat her, Nyofu? If Mama couldn't fight off a lion, the tiny female stood no chance! And there were so many lions in the world. Thoroughly upset now, the cheetah forgot all about her counting and just cried, as she had done many times now, mourning for her Mama and what she would never get back.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 11:11 pm
 Ampalaya was moving, much to her chagrin. It was too dang hot to be out in the sun. The only reason she had moved from the dead tree she had settled down and napped in when the sun came up was because the twittering birds, too far up for her to reach, weren't interested in listening her demands to SHUT UP.
Smarmy devils knew she couldn't get at them.
Not too far away there was a Baobab tree that should provide plenty of shade to get out of the sun for the rest of the day. If she was incredibly lucky, there wouldn't be any birds around that insisted on singing at all hours.
As Ampalaya neared the tree, she heard a sort of sniffling wail. It took her a minute to place the sound; it had to be a small cub crying.
She got a bit closer, and saw the cheetah. She settled down just inside the shade as the cub kept weeping. The poor thing was all alone.
"Hey there, little one. What's wrong? What are you doing out here all by yourself?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 11:00 am
]Startled out of her crying by the kind and gentle voice, Nyofu looked around to try and spot who had spoken to her, and upon seeing that her companion was a lioness, she jumped to her feet and ran around behind the tree, trembling. "L-LION!" she yelped, crouching close to the ground and covering her eyes with her front paws. "D-don't kill me! I didn't know this was your tree! I'm sorry, please, please don't kill me! I dun' wanna join Mama yet!" The small cheetah trembled and shook like a leaf in a strong wind, doing her best to make herself as small and (hopefully) unappetizing as possible.
"I'll leave, I will, just please don't kill me!" As much as she protested, Nyofu was absolutely convinced that it would do her no good, and that she was mere moments away from being lunch to the green lioness. Lions were mean, and scary, and they all wanted to eat her! So why should she expect this one to be any different?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 2:58 pm
Ampalaya was puzzled. She had certainly never eaten a cheetah, and had never known a lion who tried. And even if you were hungry enough to eat a cheetah, who would want to go the bother of chasing it down?
"Calm down, little one," Ampalaya started moving around the side of the tree, slowly, staying just inside the stage. "I'm not going to eat you and this isn't my tree. I just wanted to rest in the shade. Shhh, calm down. I heard you crying, I'm not going to hurt you and I don't want to eat you. I promise."
Ampalaya could tell the little cheetah was very jumpy, so she sat as far away as she could without going back into the sun and raised her voice a bit so the little one could hear her.
"Shh, look, I'm over here, ok? I can't hurt you even if I was interested in trying, and I'm not. Now where's your mother? Did you get lost?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 4:00 pm
Nyofu whimpered again, and lifted a paw ever-so-slowly from her eyes. "You - you won't?" she asked timidly, peering at the lioness warily. "You really won't? Do you - do you promise??" she added, wanting to be certain the stranger meant it. She was still a cub, and still just naive enough to believe that a promise made was always a promise kept. Slowly, the cub relaxed from her crouched position, moving up to a sitting position, where she turned frightened gold eyes up at her visitor. At the mention of her Mama, though, her ears drooped and her tail lay limp along the ground.
"Mama's dead," she said simply. "A mean lion killed her. I'm all alone now."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 9:44 pm
"I promise I won't hurt you. I'll stay over here, even. I don't want to scare you. I don't know why a lion killed your mama but I'm not going to hurt you."
Now that the little cheetah was calmed down, Ampalaya figured it would be ok to sit back up again. Still, she had no idea what to do with the little thing. It was probably hungry, so once the day cooled down she could try and feed it, but that didn't solve the problem of a cub on her own.
She had never raised a cub and in all honesty wasn't sure how one went about it. Besides, it would surely be happier with a cheetah, right?
She couldn't keep calling it "it" either.
"What's your name, little one? I'm Ampalaya. My mom's dead, too."
Ampalaya's first order of business had been to find a pride of her own. . . but she wasn't going to leave a little cub to fend for herself. Even if she didn't kow how to mother it.
"Do you know if you have a dad or anyone that can take care of you? Somewhere you'll be safe? I don't know many cheetahs so I don't know where I could take you."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 10:31 pm
]The tiny cheetah tilted her head for a moment, and watched the big lion thoughtfully. Thought turned cartwheels in her mind as she tried to distinguish this being-nice lioness from the scary lion that had killed her Mama. One thing that the older female had said stood out above all of the others,and it was this that Nyofu chose to respond to first.
"Your Mama died too?" The cub asked, edging a bit closer to the bigger feline. "I'm sorry! Being without a Mama's a bad thing, very Bad!" Wrinkling her nose up a bit, she blinked and shook her head. "What's a Dad? Mama said somethin' about me having a Dad once, but I'm sure I'd know if I ever had one, and I never did. Is it somethin' to eat?"
In Nyofu's young mind, the world had consisted of her Mama and her, and whatever was for dinner that night, until the lion came. She'd never known anyone but Mama, and they were always on the move, so there bad been no other cubs to play with. Her Mama had been there, and that was enough. Now that Mama was gone, however, she was painfully aware that there was absolutely no-one left in the world who would miss her if she got eaten.
She wanted to change that, but just didn't know how.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2010 10:50 am
Ampalya thought for a moment about how to explain the concept of father to a tiny cub. Her own mother had told her her dad didn't stick around after she was born because he wasn't interested in cubs, but she had learned about fathers at least.
"Well, everyone has a dad, but not everyone has a dad that they know or that stays with their mama. See, it takes two lions- er, cheetahs- to make cubs. The mama's a female cheetah, and the dad's a male cheetah. But sometimes the dad isn't very good with cubs, so he leaves all the cubs with the mama. Or sometimes the mama isn't good with cubs so the dad raises them." Ampalaya sincerely hoped she wouldn't have to explain the process in any more detail then that.
She did her best to sound reassuring. "It's ok not to know your dad, I never met my dad either. But I had my mama for a long long time, because I was already grown up before she died. So I'm ok to be without a mama. But you're little and you need a mama. Or a dad."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2010 2:13 pm
Nyofu tilted her head, creeping ever to closer to the lioness, trying to conquer her fear with each step."Still, losing a Mama's not good," she said, creeping almost halfway to Ampalya before the cheetah realized what she was doing and ran back behind the tree, shaking all over again.
"I'm big! I don't need a Mama; don't want one other than my Mama and she never got back up." Nyofu was stubbornly defiant in her tone, despite the fact that it trembled with every word she spoke. "An' - an' I can't hunt and stuff too! Really!" she declared, though truthfully she wasn't very good at it; the last time she'd hunted before Mama had been killed had been a lamed old gazelle.
"I don't need anyone; I'm a big Cheetah now!" Big cheetahs didn't need Mamas, they hunted and were just fine all on their own! So she was a big cheetah 'cause she didn't have a Mama anymore to run to.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2010 5:25 pm
"Ok, you don't need a mama. I know you don't want to have another mama, because another mama wouldn't be the same. Can you tell me your name, at least? Then I can talk to you like a real grown up cheetah and not call you little one."
Ampalaya had never been around cubs- she was the only surviving member of her mother's last litter, but she remembered the stories her mother used to tell her. This little cheetah might be fast already, but there was no way she could bring down enough meat to keep herself fed, unless she ran into the stupidest, clumsiest, and most densely populated herd of preybeasts in the world. Feeding yourself came with time, practice, and coordination.
She had seen cheetahs hunt. They were fast, yes, but not as powerful as a lion. She couldn't teach this one to hunt like lion. She needed to know how to hunt like a cheetah.
A cheetah would have to be the one to show her how to use her speed and to be accurate. Some cheetah would take the cub in, she was sure.
If she really had to she could stick around with the cub until they met up with an older cheetah.
"Once it cools down I'm going to go out hunting, ok?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 2:03 pm
Nyofo stared around the tree at Ampalaya, her ears laid back and her tail drooping due to her fear. "You're not gonna hunt me, right?" she asked, voice shaking. "And - and um... my name's Nyofu. I had a - um, small and furry thing this morning," she added, failing to mention that it had been a gift from a strange little Serval that had been following her off and on lately.
"So you don't have to think about me or anything, you can just go on when it cools down and forget all about me!" The cheetah cub declared, hoping that the lion would stop staring at her with those unnervingly compassionate eyes - she didn't need compassion from a scary lioness! Lionesses wouldn't be nice to her, right? Not without some reason behind it - a reason like... like... wanting to eat her secretly!
"Oh, please, please don't eat me! I'll do anything you want me to, but please; I know you want to! You want to eat me, just like the scary lion did! Just like the scary lion that killed Mama! It wanted to eat me, and so do you! Stop trying to trick me!" She wailed, hiding behind the tree simply because it was just too hot to run away. Wanting to eat her was the only reason she could think of for why this lioness was so set on talking with her. Right? That had to be it!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 9:14 pm
Ampalaya sighed.
"Didn't I promise that I wasn't going to hurt you? I think hunting you and eating you would count as hurting you. I promise, I have absolutely no interest in hurting you OR eating you. Or any other cheetah for that matter. Promise."
Ampalaya tried to think of a new way she could try to calm Nyofu down. She wasn't good with cubs. She sprawled out and looked across the grass. The sun would start setting soon, and she wanted to at least feed Nyofu before she left; preferably she'd get the cub to stay with her until they found a friendly cheetah. Or a group of cheetahs.
"How about this, when it cools down, I'll play a game with you. First one to catch dinner and bring it back to the tree wins. If I win, you have to promise to believe I'm not going to try and eat you. If you win, I have to give you whatever I catch. How about that?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 1:23 pm
Nyofu squeaked. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, please don't be mad!" she yelped, crouching low to the ground and throwing her paws up over her eyes. A moment later and she was peeking back over her paws again, staring at the bigger feline with wide golden eyes. "A game? Yay! Mama and I played games alla time... but... I haven't played in a while," the small cheetah said, ears and tail drooping forlornly again. "Do you ever miss your Mama, miss lioness? I always miss mine." Tilting her head a bit, she added, "Are you good at hunting? Mama caught me an - um - an-te-lope once, it was yummy. I tried to catch one but I'm not good enough. An - and there's been this little not-cheetah not-lion that's been following me around. He's all purple and white and red and he brought me breakfast yesterday!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2010 9:25 pm
Ampalaya stretched. "It's easier not to miss your mommy all the time when you get older. I'm pretty good at hunting. I bet you that I'll win." She started trotting off from the tree. "And it doesn't count if the not-lion, not-cheetah brings you food. Whatever that thing is. I'll see you back here soon."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 10:13 pm
"Really?" Nyofu asked - she couldn't think how it would ever, ever grow any easier to miss her Mama. Her pretty Mama, her safe Mama, her Mama who made everything better and who kept her from being hungry. The cheetah cub started to cry again just from thinking of her, but she managed a nod as the lioness started to leave. She wasn't sure if miss lioness would really come back, or if she would bring food even if she did, but she hoped so - if just because of how nice it was to have someone to talk to, even if they were a big scary lion. "Good-bye," she called, then tried to lie still and wait.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
