Completed!
Words = 1007
Words = 1007
Blue tipped paws slipped silently across the ground, as the sleek-furred lioness padded quietly through the darkness of the night. From time to time, she would freeze and bright green eyes would flick in the direction of a noise she heard. Then, shaking her head, she would continue moving through the brush around her.
Aislin was particularly jumpy today, ever since she was warded off of another kill she had made. She even gained a few wounds that she could still feel smarting against her skin. In her head, she counted down the number of injuries. '.. Ear, three... back leg, four... shoulder, five....' She grunted in annoyance at the thought of it, aggravated that she was forced to leave due to the number of lions in the group. 'If I had my own cavalry to hunt with, I would-'
She frowned, realizing that she did not have any sort of "cavalry". It was one of the problems of being a lone rogue. There was no one to fight beside her; no one to reassure her that she fought as best as she could; no one to talk with when she was lonely; no one to-
She vigorously shook her head clear.
What was she thinking? She had been alone all her life (save, perhaps, when she was a cub, but that was so long ago, she hardly even remembered her old family anymore) and she certainly could do without the company of others for the rest of it.
Besides, other people would simply get on her nerves. They would whine and gripe and groan about their problems, and she would never hear the end of it. They would eat all the food, and possibly even smell. (Inwardly, she was disgruntled to realize that she was grasping at straws with that last one.) They would hog up all sleeping space, and probably want to cuddle, god forbid. They would want reassurances that they'll live to the next day; they will want to talk until their throats die out; they will want to play around, doing nothing but enjoying the mid-day sun; enjoy the long walks; enjoy the company....
Aislin snarled under her breathe. How did her thoughts manage to get away from the goal at hand? It just did not seem possible for her to want others to be around.
Suddenly, her ears popped up in attention at the sound of pattering paws against the ground. A split second of standing there, and then she quickly dove for cover beneath a tall cluster of grass. They would probably catch her scent, but hopefully they would assume that she had simply passed through.
Silently, she watched as a bundle of cubs came tumbling into view. They were pouncing, playing and giggling with each other, totally oblivious to the stranger hiding nearby. However, before they could get too far, a muffled voice - or, well, muffled to Aislin anyway - called them back, and together, a lion and his mate walked into view. One by one, the children scrambled over the their mother and father's side, chirping happily to them.
The mother leaned forward to say something to them, but, to Aislin's growing unease, the father was sniffing the air and eying the area she was in. She stood as still as she could, purposefully standing on her tail to keep it from making any unwanted movements, and then breathed a soft sigh of relief as she saw him turn back to his family.
Blinking, she observed as the parents rounded their children up and herded them away, and did not move until she could no longer see or hear them.
Relieved that she hadn't been noticed, she slowly lifted herself out from under the grass, and returned to her walking.
However, she found that she could not concentrate on it as well as before. Seeing the gaggle of kids running around like that had, to her slight confusion, caused a yearning in her that she had not felt in quite a long time. She huffed, realizing that it was probably those damned "motherly" instincts that most women had, and closed her eyes stubbornly. She did not need others to be happy, especially a bunch of rowdy, annoying, little brats.
But she could not deny that the more the thought about, the more she started to considered the benefits of it. 'No need to hunt by myself anymore. No need to keep dodging large groups of lions. No need to basically talk to myself if I wanted a conversation. No need to pretend I'm interested in what someone is saying when I don't know anything about them.'
Aislin's black ears flattened against her head in contemplation, as her thoughts drifted back to the family she had just seen. She rather doubted that she would find a mate that did not tick her off from the get-go, at least not anytime soon, but the idea of little, furry and, she admitted, easily manipulated lion cubs was a rather endearing thought. Little fuzzy bodies that curled up to get warm next to her, bright eyes that watched and listened to everything she said, the idea of not being quite so alone anymore.... It was an incredibly endearing thought.
Granted, there were a few problems that arose. For one thing, she has little to no experience in dealing with cubs, but, she reasoned with herself, most new mothers did not have said experience, and yet they managed. So why could not she? The other main problem was the question of a donor - and she had no questions over whether it would be a brief "fling" or a life mate, for the reason she stated before. Maybe she could crack a deal with a male? How did one even go about doing something like that...?
'Hmmm....' She would sleep on it, and perhaps, if the idea still would not leave, she would consider the possibility.
That thought in mind, she shook her head and padded off through the night.
