The brown lioness padded slowly over the savannah. Everything was new to her. Back home, sometimes she had felt no better than a thrall. If she wasn’t willing to prove herself in a raid, she wasn’t respected, and wasn’t allowed far from the stronghold. Pia had never roamed before. Hopefully she would find a home somewhere, and never roam again … but for now, she was enjoying the experience.
In the near distance, her eyes lit on the shape of a creature. It wasn’t one she recognized. Excited but cautious, she padded towards the grey form. Was it something to eat…? As she drew nearer, Pia realized that it definitely wasn’t something to eat. It was a hyena, a creature Pia had seen only rarely and never up close. How interesting! Pia had been taught all her life that non-lions were lesser creatures, but she had cast her old life aside and she was willing to cast aside her preconceptions as well. She was eager to meet this free hyena. “Hello!” Pia called, smiling at the creature as she ambled over.
It had been a while since Bahari had wandered herself. Even with the males and Manyara helping, the demands of a massive brood of pups usually kept her close to the den. The pups were growing bigger, though, and Bahari felt comfortable leaving them on their own for a while. Besides, they had to eat. Manyara had developed into an adequate hunter under Bahari’s supervision, but Bahari had left the lioness at home for now. She needed some time to herself.
The animal approaching now was no prey. Bahari squinted at it, uncertain. A lioness. A big one, but alone. What was a lioness doing here, with the hyena family so close? The grey hyena frowned. Lions trying to move in would be … unacceptable. Certainly with so many young, vulnerable hyenas. Tensing, Bahari began to stride towards the lioness. If she could scare this one off, hopefully it would warn the rest of them to stay away. There was no time to run home and get backup. She had to take care of this now. Although the idea of taking on a huge lioness by herself was daunting, Bahari was not about to allow some strange lioness to endanger the pups.
“Leave!” Bahari shouted, as loudly as she could. She snarled for emphasis, her mane bristling as she eyeballed the brown lioness.
Pia slowed her approach, blinking a bit at the sudden aggression from the strange beast. Had she offended the hyena somehow? Maybe the hyena thought she was a Stormborn, out raiding. That was probably it. Pia knew she herself wouldn’t like a raider coming upon her. She drew to a halt. Her smile had faltered when the hyena began shouting, but she forced herself to smile again, looking as friendly as possible.
“I’m just passing through. I don’t mean any harm,” Pia said, still smiling. She didn’t want to turn tail and run. That would just convince the hyena that she had wicked intentions! “My name is Pia.”
What on earth was this? Bahari felt nervy, keyed up, ready to slash out at the lioness and hopefully send her running. The females weren’t as aggressive as the males, and they liked to hunt in packs … surely a lone lioness could be frightened off with a sufficient show of rage. But the lioness wasn’t doing anything at all. She was just standing there, smiling at Bahari as blandly and stupidly as Manyara. Her speech sounded much more intelligent than Manyara’s, though … so why was she acting like such a fool?!
Bahari was normally a very calm hyena, but she didn’t like things she didn’t understand … most particularly when they were threats from some strange lioness. In her mind, the lioness must either be a scout for a pride, trying to weasel her way into Bahari’s territory, or a nomad looking to steal Bahari’s food. Neither one was particularly pleasing to the mother hyena. She took an aggressive step forward, baring her teeth at the intruder. “I said LEAVE, Pia,” she growled. “This is our territory! There are many more of us. We will tear you apart if you stay any longer! Leave and tell your pride to stay away!” She punctuated this with another snarl. If she could land a good bite on the lioness before the lioness struck, she might have a chance.
Pia was much larger than the hyena menacing her, but she was intimidated enough to take a step back. Outside of scuffles with her brother and other cubs back home, she had never seriously fought. She had certainly never sparred, finding the whole thing … distasteful. Pia looked down at the hyena in dismay. She hadn’t wanted to pick a fight! “I apologize for intruding,” Pia said humbly. “I really mean you no harm. You shouldn’t be afraid of me.” Why was the poor hyena so terrified of her? Maybe she was a mother with pups, worried that Pia had come to steal her babies away. Although the lioness thought herself open-minded, she was still unconsciously assigning the hyena a lower status in her mind, thinking of the creature as weak and meek.
This unconscious prejudice flew out of her head forever when the hyena, losing patience entirely, lunged and closed powerful jaws on Pia’s foreleg. The brown lioness had never been hurt so in her life. She let out a high, shocked scream. For such a small creature, the hyena’s bite was massively powerful. Jaws that could chomp through bone with ease were clenched on her leg with shattering force. If the hyena had time to reposition her jaws for a more optimum grip, Pia’s leg would surely have broken. Struggling to pull her foreleg out of the hyena’s terrible teeth, the lioness flailed out blindly with her other paw, trying to push the hyena away from her.
Bahari dodged the swipe nimbly, noting distantly that the stupid lioness wasn’t even striking at her with claws extended. She tightened her grip, getting another scream from the lioness, and then released, dancing out of reach of the lioness’s massive paws. One blow from those paws could stun her, and a bite in the wrong place could break her back. She didn’t want to die at the paws of an idiot lioness. Spitting Pia’s blood onto the ground, Bahari let out a triumphant whoop, snapping her teeth. “Go, lioness!” She shrieked. “RUN!” Bahari lunged again … a feint, although hopefully enough to scare the lioness into moving.
Pia did indeed get moving. She staggered in pain as she took the weight on her injured foreleg. She had never, ever been hurt so badly. It was difficult to believe that the leg wasn’t broken … although if it had been, she surely wouldn’t have been able to take weight on it at all. Tears of pain stinging her eyes, Pia broke into an awkward run, leaving the nasty hyena behind as quickly as she could.
(WC: 1,173)
