Lowering his head he winced as the pain in his shoulder throbbed sharply as the temperature dropped. Nights out in the desert were harsh, far colder than anything he had ever experienced in his old home, a home that was no longer his. The wound deep in the fur of his thick mane hurt intensely as the cold drew in, forcing him to shift his usually long swinging stride to a shorter pace, his movements stiff and jerky from his wounds.
It had been only three days since he had fought free of the pride he had once called home, driven out by the Usurper and his lackeys after the pride's King had been poisoned. Akhenaton was fairly certain the Usurper had paid for the stranger to come and kill the old king, for the attack had been a complete surprise and the stranger had never been seen nor heard, only the scent of the rogue male had been left behind to bear witness to the crime committed against the pride.
Shaking his mane in anger, Akhenaton sighed, strong shoulders sagging under the weight of his grief for his murdered friend. There was nothing left for him back there, his friends all murdered or scattered, and the rest...? They cared not one whit about the pride’s roots or traditions or rules... they had, in one day, turned it from an old, noble pride into nothing more than a band of thieves and killers. Setting paw to sand once again he continued on his way, wandering aimlessly, lost and without a home to go back to.
Shivering, tail tucked low between her legs, the young hyena hopped up over a rock, down, crossed a dip in the land that would eventually be a runoff path once the rains came again in six months time, and then jumped up onto an old, weathered ant hill to gaze around as the darkness slowly creep up from the ground to coat everything in shadows.
She loved the night-time just as much as she loved the daylight. The animals that emerged after the sun sank below the horizon were fantastic and weirdly wonderful. Offering endless amounts of amusement for a young female travailing on her own.
Ikenna had always been on her own since she had been old enough to leave her mother's side. Her mom had not been the maternal type and Ikenna had simply wandered off one day and never saw her mother again. Not that she minded, her mother had been a cold parent at best, fully expecting her offspring to provide for themselves as soon as possible and would often leave them alone for days at a time, only returning when she happened to remember she was supposed to be a mother.
Grinning to herself as she watched a very strange little hairless rat emerge from the dark earth, Ikenna tilted her head, sniffing at the creature as it flinched away. But it smelt of sand and mud and the faint musty scent of other furless bodies, not something that would be good to eat... So she spent some time watching it but then left it to go about its night time tasks.
Turning her nose upwind she set off, trotting along as the shadows lengthened. Suddenly she scented something far stronger, the deep, rich musk of a male lion, a big one at that too, if she were any judge. Freezing on the spot, one front leg raised like a pointer dog, the young female sniffed carefully.
Blood? So, he was hurt then... though it was only faint and certainly not a fresh wound, she would bet her tail that he had been injured within the past few days. Curiosity won over caution and she turned towards where his scent was coming from and set off at an easy trot.
She eventually came across the male at a dried up watering hole. His sandy coat looked to have more sand in it than the ground on which h stood, and the dried streaks of blood were painfully obvious against his pale fur. As was the many wounds that littered his powerful body. Yet he was far from prey despite the injuries, a big, powerfully mature male rather than some upstart youngster first testing his claws. She wondered what had happened to him, what had driven him from his pride, for he surely had to have been the top dog, err.. cat, in some pride or other. Ears twitching, she settled down to following him.
The night passed uneventfully, aside from the feeling that he was being watched constantly. Yet whoever it was did not get close enough for him to see or scent them, and since he could tell it was a hyena if only from the very few clues he did scent, he wasn’t overly concerned. One lone hyena was no threat to a full grown male. It was when they gathered in large, unruly packs. But this one was alone and he hadn’t seen any signs of others in this area. As dawn broke he finally caught a glimpse of her, for she was certainly female.. her coat a dark russet red and umber brown striking against the pale golden sands. All day he wandered slowly westward, away from his old prideland, and all day she tailed him, following a long way off so that he would loose sight of her for ours at a time, but always she would eventually reappear, almost as if she was simply walking the same way as him, yet he knew she was deliberately following, for there was no path under his paws and no signs that much of anything lived out here.
Finally growing annoyed he turned and tried to catch her following him, but she saw him and vanished again. Yet the prickly feeling in his fur finally went away and, satisfied that he had gotten rid of his stalker, he resumed his unhurried walk, unsure where he was going or what lay before him, but knowing that he could not stay here, could not risk running into his old pride or even wanting to, for the memories that had been so warm only brought pain now when they came to him. Best to leave it all behind, the good, and the bad, and try to start afresh some place new.
word count = 1,061
