Lilah was puzzled by her latest vision. It had been … well, not romantic precisely, but certainly more intimate than the visions she usually had. And it concerned herself, which was also odd. She wondered when the vision would take place, and where. It must be somewhere near, but it was a place she had never been. So desolate. So sad. Lilah felt badly for whoever lived there. All of those bones. She shook her head. Well, wherever it was, she supposed she would find it someday. For now, she would just travel on, putting one foot after the other.
Kepo was not keen on traveling at night, but at least he wasn’t quite so visible. One of the hyenas he had met had told him about a bunch of nasty lions hanging around nearby. He hated lions. They were big and nasty and stunk. Kepo found them entirely disagreeable. He wasn’t afraid of them – of course he wasn’t – but he didn’t want to waste time beating them up. They would ruffle his fur, and probably get their foul cat-pee stank on him. So Kepo was sidling past their lands at night, confident that he would be able to outrun and outsmart any lion he came across. He would just run a few steps and disappear into the night. Ha! He was so pleased with his plan that he didn’t even see the dark hyena until he bumped into her. Kepo let out a very unmanly squeak and jumped back.
Unlike the young brown male, Lilah had been aware of her surroundings. She was accustomed to the night. Her eyes were well-suited for seeing in low light, and she picked out the shape of the other hyena easily. He was walking directly towards her. It would have been alarming if he was looking at her, but he didn’t seem to see her at all. Lilah stood still, allowing him to approach her. She stifled a laugh when he bumped into her and squawked. It wasn’t like her to laugh, but he just sounded so foolish. “I’m sorry,” Lilah said, smiling.
What? Who was that? Kepo stared at her, his eyes wide. It wasn’t a lion, but this rude person standing in his way still wasn’t a welcome sight. A hyena dark enough to blend in with the night. A female hyena. Well, now that impressing her was probably out of the question, Kepo felt free to shout at her. “You snuck up on me!” He yelped accusingly. “You can’t just stand around and sneak up on people!”
It was tempting to point out that you couldn’t stand around and sneak up on someone all at once, but Lilah didn’t want to hurt the poor fellow’s feelings. Maybe he wasn’t so good with words. Lilah could sympathize with that. She was often at a loss for words. She bit back a laugh, not wanting to offend the strange hyena. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I won’t do that again.”
Kepo was only slightly mollified by her apology. It was nice to get some respect, but he didn’t much care for her tone. She sounded wimpy. He didn’t like wimpy females. A strong female would have just sassed him back, instead of apologizing. “See that you don’t,” Kepo said, scowling. He squinted at her, trying to get a good look at her. Lots of black on her, and maybe some other colors. Black was a good color, but it was too damn dark to tell for sure if she was hot or not. Hmph. If he wanted to find out whether she was easy on the eyes, he would have to hang out with her until dawn … Kepo didn’t want to hang out with a wimpy female for that long. The last time he hung out with a wimpy female, terrible things had happened.
Lilah wasn’t really sure what to say next. She had met kind people, and she had met not-so-kind people, but she had never met someone as sassy as this strange male. Thank goodness he wasn’t the one in her vision. Shrugging, Lilah stepped around the brown male. He was funny, but she couldn’t imagine having a conversation with him. It was definitely time to be moving on.
The dark female might be used to coming and going mysteriously. Kepo didn’t know about that, but he did know a female that was trying to sneak away from him. He shot out a paw instantly, clapping her on the shoulder. “Hey. Where are you going?” Okay, so Kepo himself wasn’t sure if he wanted anything to do with this female or not, but he wasn’t about to let her just sidle away. He had to put some kind of moves on her. To let her go would be … would be … unKepoish. “My name’s Kepo, what’s yours?”
Lilah was well and truly startled when he grabbed her shoulder. She knew that the brown male could hardly see her. How had he grabbed her? He must have some heightened sense other than sight. Lilah was a wee bit impressed. “I’m Lilah,” she said simply. What would this odd male do next?
“It’s nice to meet you, Lilah,” Kepo said, his voice dripping with sincerity. His outrage and embarrassment was forgotten. Kepo had found that the best way to get along with females was to forge mercilessly ahead. If you dwelled over mistakes, they would trip you up with their tricksy ways. “So, are you from around here, Lilah?” He didn’t really know or care, but she might be hot. She might be smokin’.
Lilah shook her head slowly. “I am not from here.” This Kepo fellow must be a stranger around here too. Just another traveler, although she thought he should probably be a bit more cautious. If she had been a hungry lion, she could have eaten him right up.
Cool. So she was just a rogue, eh? Maybe Kepo could bring her back home. She wasn’t very brash or bold, but at least she was a female. “Do you want to see where I’m from? Huh baby?” The female was sidling away from him again. Kepo pounced at her, but this time she managed to evade him. Frustrated, Kepo squinted into the dark. “Baby!” He hollered, irritated that she had managed to get away. There was no reply.
