Kepo was bigger, stronger, and BETTER than he had been as a wee baby pup.
This was important, because Kepo's horrid little cousin Kele was smaller than him. Kepo had an idea, vague in his mind but still horrible, that some day he and Kele would both be adults and thus the same size. The little brown hyena couldn't consciously acknowledge sucha a terrible thought, but he was taking advantage of his current size. Until they were grown, he would always be bigger than nasty, scummy, stupid little Kele, and would try to squash his cousin at every possible opportunity.
His most recent opportunity had gotten him temporarily banished. The fact that Kele too had been banished from Dikeledi's sight was a balm to Kepo's wounded ego. Instead of skulking around the dens like his slimy cousin was no doubt doing, Kepo had decided to go out and find an adventure.
Not very far out, mind you. Kepo prowled the edges of the hyenas' territory, looking for something interesting to bring back ... or someone small and defenseless to beat up.
Like the little hyena, the fox-pelted lioness was looking for entertainment. In her case, that would preferably come from an imposing lion. There didn’t seem to be any suitable lions around, though. Räven had caught the scent of a couple of lions earlier, but they were female. Not exactly to her taste. She would entertain herself with them if she had to, but she wouldn’t go to all the bother of tracking them down.
Fortunately, tracking a creature down wouldn’t be necessary. One had just stumbled across her path. She eyed the little hyena appraisingly. Not exactly a cub, but far from grown. It was fun to tempt cubs away from their homes, but usually far too easy. This little beast was old enough to have developed a personality by now. Toying with him would be much more interesting. Almost a challenge.
“Hello, little one,” the lioness purred, her bright, greedy eyes assessing the hyena.
Keeping his nose to the ground, Kepo had almost walked right into the lioness. He jerked his head up, staring at her. He had never seen a lioness like this one. The only lioness he had ever seen was that stupid Manyara. Compared to this lioness, Manyara was runty and her ugly cubs even more so.
Still, this thing was just a lioness. How much of a threat could she be? Kepo’s survival instinct was gonging like a bell, telling him to get away from the much larger predator, but his innate sense of superiority overrode it. He wrinkled his nose, scowling up at the lioness. “What do you want?” He snapped. “You better get away from our home or my mom n auntie’ll eat you.”
Räven hadn’t expected this surly aggression from the little hyena. Fear, maybe. Stupid babyish enthusiasm, perhaps. Almost anything but rudeness. She raised her eyebrows, surprised and a bit intrigued. “You’re still a pup, little one. Aren’t you afraid?” She flexed her paws, digging sharp white claws into the earth. Räven wasn’t here to threaten a silly little pup, but she was honestly curious as to the creature’s answer.
Kepo’s scowl deepened when the lioness didn’t immediately run away. He considered fleeing back to his mother to get the adult hyenas to take care of this threat, but he decided it would be more impressive if he handled it on his own. The flexing claws did perturb him somewhat, but he wasn’t about to tell that to some no-account ragbag lioness. He didn’t answer her immediately, looking her over with a critical frown. He grudgingly supposed that orangey-red was preferable to some of the irritating colors he had seen on foreigners, but she was still ugly. A vain little thing, Kepo always assessed the strangers he met for their beauty.
“I’m not afraid of no lioness,” Kepo said darkly. “You’re ugly and you smell funny.” He glared up at her. “I guess I can let you be my slave if you want, stupid lioness.” This was a very gracious offer, really. So far no one had taken Kepo up on it, but it was just because they were too stupid. Kepo didn’t have a use for stupid slaves anyways.
Räven boggled at the little hyena, looking comically surprised. It wasn’t often that she was surprised, and by such a ridiculous source. She was cool, wild, fierce ... but not now. Now she was laughing, utterly bemused by the absurdity of the hyena. “Me? Be your slave? You have some growing to do, little boy ...” Her eyes flashed, her teeth glittered briefly in a wink of white. Her tone was menacing even through her hilarity. Räven did not assign any importance to the way the little hyena’s scowl grew as she laughed, and was startled when he lunged for her, snapping at her forelegs. She raised one paw and slapped him casually aside. Räven was not a large lioness, but compared to this pipsqueak she was massively strong.
If there was one thing Kepo couldn’t bear, it was laughter. Laughter! It enraged him, maddened him. Recently he had been learning to reign his temper in, keep his cool even when idiots were mocking him, but it was the one thing guaranteed to get some kind of rise out of him.
Kepo couldn’t stand to be laughed at by some ugly, fleabitten lioness. He simply could not stand it.
Without warning, he dove for her, trying to sink his sharp little teeth into her legs. Before he could get a good grip on her, the lioness’s paw had sent him tumbling away. Kepo’s indignant yelp turned into a squeal of pain and rage as he landed square on his tail. “My TAIL! You hurt my tail! I’m gonna KILL YOU!” Kepo wailed. If the sheer force of his rage had been able to tear the lioness apart, she would be nothing but a cloud of red mist. Unfortunately that was not the case. The little hyena whirled abruptly and charged back towards home as fast as he could go. His mom and auntie would kill this awful lioness for him.
Räven’s perplexed laughter started up again as the hyena fled from her. Well, that meeting hadn’t gone exactly as she desired. She should have tempted the little idiot away from his safe home, shown him the wilds, left his family heartbroken and wondering ... turned him into a creature as savage and strange as she was.
It hadn’t turned out that way, but at least she had gotten a laugh. Shrugging to herself, the lioness turned away from the direction the hyena had gone and resumed her travels.