Naiya had grown up in to a full grown leopardess and had long sense left her family. Well, not completely, the female was sure to stick by close to familiar territory. But all and all, Naiya had readily accepted her path to try things out on her own. She strived as a cub to stick out among her brothers but never did she completely shine. It was when she reached teen hood did the female realize she needed to be more independent. And thats what she did. However the leopardess was now on the lean side since she left the aid of her family. Food was just a lot harder to come by over all. Yeah she could fish and yeah she could hunt, but she was finding it hard to sustain her self all alone.
That was why she was not on the prowl, watching a lioness and a lion rip apart the limp body of a fallen zebra. Naiya watched from afar and let her nostrils soak in the heavy irony scent of fallen blood. The sounds of ripping of flesh only made her stay more cemented to the spot she was hiding in and just watch with hungry eyes. It took a while for the lions to finally be finished with their kill. After all it was a decent size. Eventually the two wandered off leaving an unguarded kill ripe to be scavenged. That was when the leopardess stalked in to make her move on the kill. Even the buzzards had yet to swoop in on it yet. And now they wouldn't with such a bigger predator right by it. She grabbed the zebra by one of is hooves and started to drag it across the rocky and grass tarrian. Only stopping once she got to a tree to re position the stolen kill so that she could drag it on up with her to the higher branches. However in the midst of doing this something hit her on her head.
"Owwwwwwww!" She growled and looked up to find a monkey, or rather monkeys, high up in the branches giving her the evil eye.
"Do not bring such death up to our branches. That does kill to eat is not fit for our holy tree," The monkey who spoke looked elderly and on the wise side of things. Naiya was left on the floor of the savanna to watch in momentary awe of this. She quickly snapped out of it when another monkey hit her on the head with another rock.
"Owww! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?" She showed her teeth to a little monkey who was now smiling and hiding something behind its back like it didn't do anything. "And holy tree? What do you mean by this?!" Her jaws snapped with every statement and question. It was hard to control when one was so annoyed by the recent developments.
"You are unfit to touch the reaches of our holy tree with blood dripping from your maw. Go now or we will remove you by force." The wise elder lifted his hand up to motion for one of his underlings to stop midmotion from throwing a rock at the leopardess. "You must excuse the young. They do not know that they are doing wrong. Only that they are to protect our tree the best they can." This was perplexing and yet mildly annoying to Naiya. She just wanted to eat her kill but instead she found some special tree that she was discriminated from eating her kill in.
"Alright, I'll go," The leopardess too a seat on her stolen kill, " But please. Enlighten me why this tree is so special," Her tail flicked from side to side.
"Ah, a simple request from a simple being~" One of the younger monkeys changed over and over again and even laughed until he was met with a fist from one of the the wiser followers, "Owww what was that for?" He was met by a glare from the oldest.
"I will enlighten you. Stalker of the night." The monkey shimmied down the tree to get a closer took at the leopardess. "But not tonight. Find me another time when you do not stink of death and blood and rot." He pointed to the zebra, "Go." The monkey made a shooing motion.
"You know I could kill you right now," Naiya lifted a brow, "But a brave one you are to come down from your branches to face me rather then to throw rocks. Very well. I will be back tomorrow night and I will not stink of blood."
"Kekekeke! Leopard not stink of blood? Leopard just stinks! " One of the younger monkies chanted and was hit over the head from another of the older monkeys. The oldest could only give a ghost of a smile to the leopardess.
"Please excuse the young. They do not know of what they speak. Go now. Come later." And with that the elder monkey was on his way, climbing the so called enchanted tree. Naiya watched with a bit of envy of the skillful branch grabbing the monkey was able to do. He even could swing him self up which Naiya had to admit was pretty cool. Her tail twitched a bit.
"I will be back tomorrow then," She got up and picked the zebra up by its leg. With out looking back the female dragged the half eaten thing to else where. There was a lot for her to think about like if she would go back to crunch a younger monkeys head between her jaws or if she would simply go back to learn. Revenge sounded good but the female kind of wanted to hear what the fuss of a tree was. She'd arrive tomorrow and either find out or get her revenge. It would just depend on the sort of mood she was in. For now there was a perfectly good carcass she was dragging and soon there would be plenty of scavengers on her tail to get at the carcass. She needed to find a high place as soon as she was able to so that she could eat in peace. You could never be sure what sort the night would bring out around the savanna. And Naiya just wanted a meal.
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