“Eat it.”
“No.”
“Stop acting like a child. Eat. The stupid. Gazelle.”
“I said no!”
The leopard sighed, tapping the dead antelope at his paws impatiently. “Alright. Why did you say no?” Usiku huffed, ears laid back. Stupid ungrateful cheetah. He didn’t know why he bothered. He was half convinced that, with a couple more days of this, he would regret saving her just as much as she did.
“Because I don’t want to eat it.” The cheetah stated, and Usiku was half tempted to slap her. But no matter how irritated he was at her, just a look at Zyanya was enough to still his paw. She had already been thin when he had seen her hunting, the injury made her even more delicate. It seemed like if he touched her she would just break.
Okay. So, he remembered hearing once that you get more bees with honey. “You may not want to, but you need to.” He attempted to reason, though he figured he knew where this was going.
“No, I don’t.”
He raised a paw to scratch at his head, trying to come up with the best possible path of action to get her to do what he needed her to do. Like it or not, Usiku had invested himself in this cheetahs recovery. After what felt like an eternity of pure routine, a change in routine was.... well, nice. Even if she was a ingrate. “If you don’t, you will die.”
“I’m already dead.”
“You are not dead!” He was surprised by the force in his voice. Usiku could tell she was, too. The cheetah’s eyes were wide, ears back. For a moment, he wondered if he had actually scared her. But then her brows furrowed, and she seemed to just gain a new spark.
“I’m as good as! How can you possibly expect me to live on with this?” She attempted to raise her injured paw to emphasize, but the best emphasis was probably her pained yelp. “Do you have any idea what this means?”
He stood up and paced back and forth, ears flat against his skull. “No, you’re not. Do you know who’s dead? This gazelle.” Growled Usiku, irritated. “It is dead so you can eat it. So eat it.” He realized that there wasn’t much argument in there, but, nonetheless, he shoved the dead gazelle even closer to the cheetah. The buzzards were already gathering around, even though they were quite secluded among the rocks.
He was genuinely surprised when the cheetah reached for the gazelle with her good paw to pull herself a bit closer. Usiku sat back and sighed. “Thank you.” Even if she was just nibbling at it with about as much gusto as a cub going to bed.
In the end, she didn’t eat as much as he hoped she would have eaten, but he supposed it was enough for now. He grabbed what was left of the gazelle and dragged it away, so that the buzzards would gather somewhere else. Once far enough, he nibbled at it a bit himself before turning back to re-join Zyanya.
“Why do you care some much?” Her frustrated voice greeted him upon his return, and he laid down beside her, as he had the night before.
He shrugged, taking his time to answer. “Don’t know.” It was a very good question. Maybe he should think about it himself. “The way I see it, you need help. And I figured I’d do that.” The cheetah beside him snorted. He flicked his tail and raised his brows. “Do you disagree with me?”
Zyanya seemed to think for a bit. That was a new one. She usually just talked, never seemed to consider things. “I’m quite sure I’m beyond help.”
“I disagree with you.” Said Usiku calmly, turning his head to look her in the eyes. Green on green. Huh. He offered her a little smile,and in return, he got a scowl. This female had definitely just never grown up.
She turned her face away from him, laying her head on the floor. “What’s your story, anyways?” Asked Zyanya. “Don’t you have a family or anything you should belooking after, instead of me?”
Usiku hated talking about his past. “No, I don’t.” So far so good. Yes, he didn’t have a family to look after. “Nothing eventful in my past. Grow up, get by on your own.” Now that was just a load of elephant dung. But she didn’t need to know his life story just yet.
“That seems unlikely.” She was right, but the leopard was still surprised at that. How had she come to such a conclusion? “If you were telling the truth, you probably would have said more.” Okay, that had some logic to it. But he couldn’t just agree with her!
“Or maybe it really was that uneventful.” He sure wished it had been so uneventful. He still felt a dull pain whenever thinking about his parents, especially his mother. “Your turn.”
She didn’t seem to mind letting the subject of his past drop, at least for now, so he was grateful. “Well. Mine really was uneventful. My mom had me and three siblings, but she and my father weren’t a mated pair. No biggie. I met him once or twice, seemed like a nice guy.” Okay, maybe she had a point. He’d keep in mind to add a few little details when talking about his ‘uneventful’ past. “I grew up, went off on my own. It’s never been a problem.” She suddenly seemed very sad, and he caught her looking down at her leg. “Not until yesterday, anyways.”
Usiku felt very sad then. He wondered now what would happen to this cheetah. Was her leg really broken? If it was, could there be any hope of it healing well enough for her to run again? He had seen her hunting, she had been so fast, would she ever reach that speed again? He allowed a silence to fall upon them, settling his face down onto his paws.
“Usiku, right?”
“Yes, Zyanya?”
She was looking at the ground. “Can you leave me alone?” For a moment, he wondered if she was trying to get rid of him again. “I mean… I know I won’t get you to actually leave. But…
So she needed space. “Very well. I’ll be back by nightfall.” Said Usiku, standing up and moving away. His back to her, he could her Zyanya shifting (with a whimper) to turn away from the world and face the little rock den he’d found. He was tempted to linger, but decided this was far too private a moment.
He’d be back by nightfall.
