The day was hot and humid and grey, with rain threatening and teasing, but not actually falling from the sky as yet. Most creatures who had the bad luck or poor judgment to be out in this weather were not likely to be particularly thrilled about it. There had been rains recently in the area, enough to make the river run fast and high and to leave the soil damp from its most recent fall, and so no more rain was necessary at the moment. On the other hand, rain would probably have been only a little bit less uncomfortable that the humid heat that made the air hang heavy and created the sensation that one was trying to breathe water.
Under a tree located far too far away from her pride for any kind of comfort was a lioness with a murky greenish brown coat and startling violet eyes. Her discomfort stemmed only in a very small part from the weather, which had gotten steadily more and more grey as she walked farther and farther from her pride on a solitary hunt for game to bring back. In fact, Beru had not been aware of the weather changing overhead because she had been completely wrapped up in her own thoughts of the recent changes her pride had undergone. It was unlikely that she would have noticed any game she might have come across, either, considering how engrossed she had been in her reflections.
Even now the lioness was only vaguely aware of the weather, for a change had come while she was walking and caught her completely unaware. A sensation of need and a burning desire that she could not reason away had come over her, plunging her into the borderline madness and delirium that was heat. Beru was a relatively young lioness who had only gone into heat once before and when she realized what was going on this time, alone and without any sort of guidance, she could only think to hide and hope she did nothing to disgrace herself while in this altered state, like go hunt down the rogue males that had been spotted on the borders of her pride and offer herself to them for everyone's mutual enjoyment.
Not too far away from where Beru was curled up beneath a tree a young lion by the name of Fon Youn was making his way through the grass. He was not bothered by the oppressive weather except to note that it might rain. Because of that possibility, Fon Youn hoped that he would soon hear the call from another of his pride's gatherers telling him that they had brought down some prey and so everyone could return home, preferably arriving before the rain began. However, even if it did not turn out that way the poupe with yellow eyes was not bothered. He could enjoy himself just as well in the rain as otherwise. He could enjoy himself anywhere.
It was that very ability which had gotten him assigned to this group of gatherers for the day. Fon Youn had been caught celebrating his adulthood with medicines and mixtures which were supposed to be used in calling the loa and this was his punishment. Actually, this was his punishment for failing to show up the last two times he was assigned to go out with the gatherers as punishment, the first of which had been his punishment for using the sacred drugs irresponsibly and the second of which had been his compounded punishment for the drugs and missing the first one.
It had not seemed like a good idea to compound his punishment further by missing again, even though this hunting trip was to take place over the course of several days and take Fon Youn and the gatherers far from their home. They were looking not only for edible prey, but also for special plants and stones and various other artefacts which the fey and bokors and caplatas of the pride found useful in their work. So far Fon Youn had been enjoying himself immensely, and he thought the gatherers enjoyed having him around, too, even though they were reluctant to admit it because he was not supposed to be enjoying himself and they were not supposed to be enjoying his company.
Beru and Fon Youn became aware of each other at more or less exactly the same moment. Fon Youn recognized the scent of a lioness in heat, but unsurprisingly he was not able to recognize the personal scent of this exact lioness. Beru actually saw Fon Youn from her hiding place and wondered with horror how he had managed to get so close to her without her knowledge. It was the breeze, of course, blowing in a direction which would carry her scent to him, but not the reverse, but he was still within her range of vision and now that she had seen him she could not make herself look away. He was young and handsome and moved with a jaunty walk that could not have been the least effective for hunting, but still seemed very sexy to Beru in her present state.
And Fon Youn was young and handsome, and he was also an irrepressible flirt. He always had been, and yet his success with the ladies of his pride was always limited by their generally serious nature. Those who were not so serious that his attempts at flirtation met with instant disapproval and flat rejections were usually a little bit too awed by his status as a poupe - and a successful poupe at that - to actually respond to his overtures. It got tiresome to have all the lionesses he pursued in the course of his Great Game turn shy and giggly and then suddenly very prim and proper if he ever went beyond flirting.
It was not because he was a bad lion, hoping to take advantage of someone, but just because he was a virile young male who could not make himself resist the temptation of a female who was unlikely to turn him down, that Fon Youn set off in Beru's direction. Until he did that, Beru had almost been able to make herself hold still and keep quiet, pretending that he had not noticed her, but once he began to move toward her she knew that charade would not hold water, for she was drawn to him like a magnet to steel.
"And what might your name be, miss?" Fon Youn asked in his characteristic drawl.
"That's not really important, is it?" Beru replied shortly, though it had taken her several seconds to work out what the young man had said. He spoke with a very strange, thick accent.
He could tell from her brusque response that she would probably not be very interested in exchanging pleasantries, but it went against the grain for him to presume a lioness would welcome him simply taking her. In fact, he had never been with a lioness before - though he had also never been with another lion, than you very much. He was a little unsure if there was a protocol to go along with this.
"I don't suppose it is, miss."
