Though Ulozi liked watching other creatures, learning about them and testing them in her own, mostly mocking, ways, she was not exactly a fully welcoming and open minded lioness. She did not like most other species, for example, though she attributed this to mostly hanging around lions through her life with her parents and now most of her wanderings in the rogue lands. She did not have much experience with anything else, and though she was trying to be as patient with them as she was her own kind she could not help but have a twinge of annoyance in the back of her mind when ever she ran into something that was not a lion.
Especially if they were not even cats.
Which, of course, Dugika wasn’t.
They hyena was running around the rogue lands, chasing her tail for the most part. She was a very upbeat young lady, falling in love with everyone she saw and wanting to be friends with them all at the same time. She did not require them to love her back, either: she had more than enough energy to spare in that regard. In many ways, she was simply a dog born wild, domesticated without ever encountering the hand of a human. She liked doting on others, helping them, dedicating her time and patience and attention to anyone who might need it. Or who looked like they needed a friend for a little while.
The black lioness with the fanged skull on her butt looked like she needed a buddy.
Ulozi would not agree, and as Dugika walked over she growled fiercely.
“What do you want, hyena? I’ve got no food for you to scavenge. So why don’t you go away and leave me alone?”
Dugika’s ears fell back a bit, but she offered Ulozi a hopeful expression. Clearly, the hyena just had the wrong impression. She thought the hyena was here for food, but that was not the case so clearly they could easily be friends once she just explained that she was here to say hi. She smiled broadly, tongue lulling out the side of her mouth as she shook her head. He dad might be a chronic liar, but she certainly was not.
“No, no! My name is Dugika! I just thought you looked like you could use a friend and I wanted to be your friend! Do you think we could be? I think we would be good friends! I am very nice, I promise, I am! I don’t want your food, I can catch some myself, do you want to see?”
Ulozi stared at the hyena for a very long moment, trying to figure out what she was saying. All the words just tumbled out of her mouth all at once, and it was hard to figure out where one sentence ended and the others began. But she managed to piece it together. And was no more certain about things after. She tilted her head in surprise.
“You…”
She shook her head. Since when were hyena out looking for friends? This creature before her was either incredibly smart, and planning a wicked trick on her, or she was the dumbest dog in the savannah. Watching her, noting the way the hyena had her head lulled to one side and was smiling at her with the most stupid of expressions on her face. Clearly, it had to be the latter. No one could act that well, not even Ulozi’s family, who were known for being devious, dangerous, and skilled in deception. She watched the hyena with an angry, strange passiveness. Only she could be passive while angry, it seemed.
“Yes? Friends?”
“So you’re telling me you run up to random lions and whatever else who look a little angry and you think that’s a good idea? Like you can just bubble your way into good graces and make strangers happy enough to just want to be your friend as soon as they see you? That seems like a very strange and dangerous strategy to me. Have you ever been attacked?”
Dugika looked a little upset for a moment, nodding her head slowly. But she brightened almost immediately.
“I have, but they were my mistakes. I make others angry some time, and that is not good. It’s not what I want to be doing, I just want to make sure no one is upset… and that is the opposite. I just want to be friends! If you do not want to I can leave and that is okay with me, too. You do not have to attack me, I do not really want you to, either.”
Ulozi watched the hyena, shaking her head in wonder.
“I don’t want any friends. It’s a hassle, and anyway, I’m going to be leaving this area soon so what’s the point of making a friend you only keep for a day? I think it’s a waste of time.”
“Friends are forever, even if you do not see them. I will remember you!”
Dugika wagged her tail, looking as bright and undeterred as ever. The black lioness just stared at her, stunned dumb. She could not believe someone could be so aggressively unaggressive. So passionately happy and eagerly determined to make a friend. She heard about hyenas and how they were relentless while hunting their food but this? This was a bit much, even for their reputation as blundering, thick headed, blindly determined poachers. Or maybe she was just being hard on them.
Or not. She didn’t care.
“Well, I don’t want to be your friend, even for a little while, okay? So just leave me alone.”
Dugika looked a little sad, but nodded. If that was what the lioness wanted, she couldn’t press the matter further. She flicked her tail and nodded her head again, a few more times than necessary before moving to bounce off.
“I hope you do find a friend you want to keep! It would make you not so sad. Maybe that marking on your leg would smile too! Goodbye, lioness!”
She had not even asked for Ulozi’s name, not that she wanted to give it to her. See how eager she was, giving a name might seal her fate as being this hyena’s play partner, or something. If she just stayed quiet and let her go away, maybe Ulozi would get out of things unfriended. Dugika did not seem the kind to force anything, though, wagging her tail and trotting off without another word. Maybe she would find someone else who wanted to be made happy somewhere else!
Ulozi sighed in relief, though she had to wonder about that encounter. It kept her awake, and she did not know what that meant.
(Word Count in Word: 1,123)
