Uziwa = Steel Blue
The young hyena strolled along, frowning murderously. Of all the idiots in the world, his stupid brother Kero had managed to snag a girlfriend. Kero! Pah! Kepo kicked at the ground as he walked. The stupid female must be brain-damaged. For one thing, Kero was barely tolerable to the eyes. More importantly, he was completely intolerable to the ears. Kero! Kepo didn't want the dumb, ugly female for himself, but he was outraged that his brother had managed to snag her before Kepo had.
Kepo would show him. He would find a female and take her home. A much better female, a strong and bossy female that his aunt would love. Picking up his pace a little, Kepo raised his head and scanned the horizon. There had to be a suitable hyena out there somewhere! Even if she wasn't strong and bossy, Kepo would take anyone at this point. He couldn't let Kero beat him, damn it!
Uziwa'umande was simply strolling along when she ran into him. Another hyena like herself, though this one was different than her. You see, Uziwa had never met a male hyena. She had met male birds and lions, even some wild dogs but not once had she met a male of her own kind, so when she finally managed to process that the male in front of her was a hyena, he first inclination was that he was really a she...
"Hello!" Uziwa yipped, shrinking herself down to appear smaller to the other hyena before her. She wasn't sure how this one would respond to her, and when she was only attempting to be friendly she didn't want them to mistake her enthusiasm as potential aggression.
Kepo's first thought on spotting the female hyena was that she was ugly. She was an unfortunate shade of blue, a color that Kepo associated with ... ugh ... his father. Yikes. Still, he wasn't about to be choosy. Not that Kepo wasn't good enough to be choosy, but time was of the essence here! If she was strong and fierce enough, surely his aunt and mom would love her.
She didn't look particularly fierce though. In fact, she didn't look at all intimidating. Kepo wanted to frown in disappointment, but he didn't want to scare this wimpy female away. Even though she seemed wimpy, at least she was a female. Maybe he could work with her. "Hello," Kepo said, trying to sound friendly. "I'm Kepo. My mom 'n' aunt are queens." He sounded a bit smug as he said this. It was a strange introduction, maybe, but he wanted this female to know right away that he was a notable hyena.
"... What's a queen?" Uziwa said, having disregarded everything but that part. She had never heard of such a thing before. A 'queen'. Was it a fruit? Were his Aunts fruits? This hyena was so weird! She was pretty though, such a pretty female, "Are your Aunts as pretty as you? I've never seen a female with your markings before."
Uziwa quirked her head to the side, deciding that the fact she had yet to be attack was an indicator she was in good company. She stood up fully, her blue striped body obviously much larger and more muscular than Kepo's happened to be. She was no adolescent like he was, but an adult, not that Uziwa was aware. Since she left her two-legged family she didn't know how to tell how old she was. Her time was mostly left alone, and with no two-leggers to stand beside, she wasn't sure how much she had to grow until she was their size.
Oh, goodness. This female really was dopey. Kepo would have been offended that she didn't immediately fawn over his supposed status, but she was obviously dumb. Dumb, dumb dumb. Just his luck to find such a female. But he wasn't about to give up and storm off.
Besides, she was flattering him, which eased his temper somewhat.
"Queens are the boss. My auntie is a very pretty queen," Kepo said, lifting his head a little higher. "She looks like me. My mom is pretty too." This last was mostly an afterthought. His mom wasn't nearly as pretty, or as purely awesome, as his auntie. "I'm not a girl, but I'm almost a girl because I'm so smart and pretty." His ego was inflating almost visibly, like a hot air balloon getting ready to take off. Kepo smirked. "You have very nice stripes." Kepo approved of stripes. They were very auntie-ish, although this strange hyena's color was pretty awful. He wouldn't say that though, no matter how dopey this female was. He had enough common sense not to be outright mean to a female, at least not one he was attempting to flirt with.
"...How are you a girl but not a girl?" Uziwa asked, completely ignoring his claims of what queens were. Uziwa had no concept of what a queen or boss was, so to her he was spewing nothing but nonsense and nonsense did not help her in the end. Especially when it came to making friends.
"Were your Auntie and Mom raised by the two-leggers too?" Uziwa asked, hoping that possibly she had found someone who can relate to how she had grown up. Even if it was through an awkward introduction process with their daughter.
Uziwa was starting to feel uneasy about things once again and began her process of looking small once more. She wasn't feeling comfortable and with the amount of... whatever it was he was exuding towards her, all she felt was intimidated. Intimidated by the way he spoke, the way he carried himself, and how he complimented her, like as if it were half-hearted or something.
This female was so unbelievably dopey. She was almost as dumb as Kepo's brothers. It was frustrating that he hadn't managed to find a smart, strong, nasty female to impress his auntie, but he would have to be satisfied with the fact that he'd found a female at all. He would have to be patient with her. She was getting all wimpy and nervous-looking again, and that just wouldn't do at all. Kepo really didn't know how to deal with a nervous female, having never before encountered one, but he would make an effort to be polite and patient.
"I'm a boy," Kepo said, hiding his impatience with her dumb questions. At least she wasn't as aggravating as Kero. "But I'm almost as good as a girl. Girls are better than boys, but I'm better than other boys too because they're stupid and ugly and I'm not." He raised his head again, his voice growing more cheerful as he felt a flash of pride.
"My auntie and mom weren't raised by nobody, cause lions ate up their whole clan." His tone became grave for a moment. "So we have a stupid lion of our own now. She does what we say, even what boys say." Thinking of the pathetic lioness made Kepo feel a bit sorry for Uziwa. It didn't seem right that a female hyena should be cringing. "You should straighten up a bit," Kepo said kindly. "You're a girl, so you're supposed to be bossy. I like to be bossy too, so I can give you a few tips."
" ... I've never heard that before," Uziwa said, giving him a suspicious and perplexed look. "Everywhere I go, males say they're better than females. Lions, wild dogs, leopards and hyenas alike."
Uziwa found it sad that his mother and aunt's clan were killed by lions and they ended up on their own. She knew not all lion were like that though, but even if she said so she had a feeling the male before her wouldn't believe it. A lion and his annoying bird companion helped teach her about herd migration, and how staying in one place for a long period of time would be bad for her overall.
"I don't like being bossy," Uziwa said quietly. She didn't understand why he wanted to be a girl so much, or bossy like the girls he knew. Wouldn't he just want to be himself? Uziwa liked being herself. She sniffed for a moment, feeling uncomfortable, "I was raised by the two-legged beasts. They didn't like when I was yappy. When I was quiet they gave me treats and things."
Males better than females? This was clearly idiocy, so Kepo dismissed it for the moment. He had grown up with his idiot brother Kero, so he had long experience in ignoring stupidity. He studied this strange female hyena as she spoke, trying to figure her out. Maybe she was defective from all that blue on her. Maybe she was a girl who thought she was a boy, or something. It all was very icky to Kepo, and he felt a flash of genuine sympathy for her.
It must have been terrible to be raised by some weird alien animals that turned you into something you weren't. Terrible!
"All girls are bossy," Kepo said firmly. He scowled, not at Uziwa but at the thought of two-legged things trying to raise a female hyena ... even a blue one. "You are supposed to be yappy. Quiet people don't get treats. The bossiest, noisiest ones get the best food!" This was all very obvious to Kepo, and the idea of a world in which it was turned around was ... well ... awful! A world in which the weakling, last to the kill and last to speak up, was rewarded? What kind of world was that?! "You aren't going to get any treats by being quiet out here," Kepo said. "No one will leave you anything but old bones."
"No one leaves me much of anything anyway," Uziwa said, a sad small smile flickering across her face. "I live alone, so I do my own hunting, not that I'm very good. My two-legged family never taught me to hunt, they just brought me back food. And than one day... they chased me away."
Uziwa didn't think that explaining her situation would help much with changing the other hyena's mind about her, but she at the least tried. Maybe he'd understand that she was nervous because she was abandoned? It was all she could hope for, because she wasn't stupid, she just wasn't taught, like he obviously was. If what he said was true than she was brought up not only not knowing how to fend for herself, but not even knowing how to be a proper hyena. Not that she thought his explanations and examples may help much. She was naturally sweet and pleasant.
This female was such a sad sack! Every time he tried to get her to buck up, she just got gloomier and gloomier. Kepo was tempted to smack her and yell at her to snap out of it, but of course he would never raise a paw to a female. Even if it might do her good. An angry female would be infinitely better than a miserable droopy one.
Banishing such inappropriate thoughts from his head, Kepo struggled to think of something to say to her. Something that wouldn't lead to more gloominess, or to her simply running away. It just didn't seem RIGHT to be talking to such a droopy, foolish, wimpy female. It wasn't right at all that such a female should exist! The sheer wrongness of the whole situation was grating on his nerves.
"You shouldn't be alone," Kepo said. "Hyenas should have other hyenas around. It's easier to hunt with other hyenas." He eyed her shrewdly. "I'm alone right now 'cause I'm looking for a lady, but I live with my mom and aunt and dad and uncle and brothers and sisters and all." He shook his head. "At least you need to find a boy hyena to help you out and stuff." He wasn't offering himself, but trying to be helpful. His usual brash and bossy tone was gone. He really did want to help this poor lost hyena!
"Can you help me?" Uziwa asked, her pretty eyes starring at him pleadingly. Her tail wagged a little at the thought of someone helping her. She never received help from anyone previous to this, aside from the lion and even than that was more information than help.
"I promise I won't be a burden! I'll even share the food with you I caught earlier, though it's a baby so there isn't much of it," Uziwa explained, her tail wagging side to side pleasantly at the thought of getting help by someone who so obviously knew how to live on the outside, unlike herself.
Kepo hadn't expected this. He was a little ... alarmed. A female had never begged Kepo for anything in his life, and he didn't know what to make of it. On the one hand, it was extremely flattering and gratifying to have someone desire his help, but on the other ... it made him want to squirm a little bit.
The first thing he would have to do would be teach this female some self respect. The thought of anyone from his family seeing some female bowing and scraping to him made him cringe inwardly. They would think he had found an imbecile, or worse ... that he was being disrepectful. He cleared his throat. "Hm. Well. Okay, I'll try to help you," Kepo said, a bit grudgingly. "First things first. You're not supposed to ask for what you want, 'specially from a male. You're supposed to tell me. So you say, 'Kepo, I need help hunting,' and I'm s'posed to help you. Got it?"
"Uhm... O-ok." Uziwa said, trying to make herself seem more pushy, when really it was simply pathetic. She wasn't sure she had a pushy bone in her body, and the thought of her being mean to someone purposefully made her a little uncomfortable, but this was how she was supposed to be. Right? "K-kepo! I need help hunting!"
She looked at him with the best serious face she could muster, though with her high pitched voice it only served to make the situation hilarious from an outside perspective. His Mother and Aunt would either look on to her disgusted, or laugh at her pathetic attempts to be like them. At least she was trying...
Even though he should have known better, Kepo had hoped that the blue female would immediately start acting right. He was disappointed. Uziwa's attempts to be bossy were ... sad. He felt BAD for the female. He, Kepo, who had never pitied anyone or anything in his life. It was a strange, uncomfortable new emotion.
"Okay, that's better," Kepo said. Yelling at her about how her 'attitude' was pathetic would definitely do more harm than good. "Now I say, 'Yes Miss Uziwa!' And I help you." Kepo shifted from paw to paw, restlessly. He wasn't sure if Uziwa actually did need help, or if she had just been parroting his example. "So. Are we hunting, or do you want more lessons?"
"... It wasn't good was it?" Uziwa said, shifting uncomfortably. She could tell that it wasn't any good when she tried it and knew he thought it was no good either. She grunted unhappily and a silly little frustrated face cropped up as she stamped her feet, "I'm not good at anything! I can't hunt! I didn't know that the food migrated and my old family doesn't love me anymore!"
She flumped onto the floor with a small sourpuss frown on her face. It was tiny, but it was there. Her frustrations had been building up for some time now and the fact that she couldn't even properly do what Kepo expected out of her was just adding onto it. All she wanted to do was go home. All she wanted was to turn back the clock to where her family was feeding her and petting her and making her feel like they loved her.
Kepo hadn't wanted the female to have a temper tantrum, but he was pleased by it. He watched as she shouted and tossed herself down on the ground. The frown pleased him too. This was more like a female should behave. It was a relief to know that Uziwa wasn't entirely hopeless.
"It wasn't that good, but it was a start!" he said encouragingly. He paced around her, eyeing her thoughtfully. The almost-nonexistent frown was lovely, lovely on her face. "So what if your old family doesn't love you? Hyenas are s'posed to have hyena families, not some weird ... other creatures." He sniffed, a bit disgusted by the thought. It must have been like being raised by Manyara the lioness ... like his stupid brother Igola. Yech. "Hyenas are the best animals," Kepo said proudly.
"I don't want to do this anymore," Uziwa said, he frown growing deeper and a heafty sigh escaping her lips, "It makes me.... I don't know. It makes me something and I don't like this feeling!"
Uziwa sunk lower into the ground, almost as if she was attempting to make herself one with it. She didn't want to do any of this anymore. It was frustrating, she felt bad about it and every time Kepo said something about her other family she just... she just wanted to... she wanted to bite him! She growled, the first growl that escaped her lips that wasn't used to intimidate prey.
Yes, yes! Kepo fidgeted as he watched the blue female. She looked ... angry! The brown and black hyena was suddenly much more interested in her than he had been. She didn't look nearly as dopey as she had, and even her unfortunate coloring wasn't that ugly.
Kepo couldn't help grinning as the female growled at him. He didn't want to be bitten, but the mopey blue female now looked positively ... sexy.
"Whatever you want to do, miss Uziwa!" He said happily, bowing his head and backing away slightly, out of range of those teeth. "Or whatever you don't want to do. You're the boss." He positively beamed, delighted at this transformation in the formerly meek female.
You're the boss. How irritating for her to hear. She didn't want to be a boss! She wanted to be at home. She wanted to be warm and well fed and safe. She hated this living on her own stuff. She hated not having her family bringing her food and giving her unconditional love. It left her feeling empty, lifeless, confused. How could living as a normal hyena b good for her? Why would they wish this on her? She must have done something they dislike...
She growled heavily at Kepo's attitude towards her and her whole situation. Being mean to her and now not being mean to her. He was confusing too! Being out here was confusing! She rubbed the bottom of her chin into the dirt to make an itch go away and sighed annoyedly and barked, "I don't like being here. I miss home. I just want someone to love me."
Word Count: 3292