Karu-sil moved through the rocky terrain carefully, making her way slowly along the cliffside. She was walking along the edge of one side of a deep crevice, and she wasn’t that interested in falling below. She had to make sure she didn’t end up getting herself squished against the rocks below- it was a very long way down to the bottom. Thankfully, she had been doing an alright job of that. At least until she spotted another hyena not too far ahead of her. A tree had fallen from one side of the gorge to the other, creating a makeshift bridge across the gap. Standing on this flimsy, dangerous-looking piece of old tree was a blue and yellow hyena, her eyes crossed in a rather unsettling way.
It didn’t look like she was right in the head, which meant she probably didn’t need to be standing on the bridge to begin with. And not just standing, as it turned out. As Karu approached, she saw the figure was actually jumping up and down on it like it was some kind of toy.
“Get off of there!” she called, rushing to one side of the tree, placing her paws on the bark to try and steady it. The way it cracked with every jump the other made only proved she was right to be worried- it would cave at any moment.
“Hello!” the other called back cheerfully, “want to play with me?”
“Sure, but not there! You need to get down before you hurt yourself!” She yelped. Too little, too late- the bridge suddenly snapped, the wood giving out from under the derpy hyena. She fell, as did the tree. Thrown off balance, Karu toppled down as well, the whole lot falling into the darkness of the crevice. Luckily, however, they managed to land in a deep underground lake, keeping them from splattering against the ground. Instead, they bellyflopped from far too high, which hurt about as much as one would expect. Better than being dead? Maybe.
Karu pulled herself out of the water, groaning as she went, only to be met by the strange hyena on the bank. “Are you okay?” asked the weird little creature, smiling like a dope and watching, or supposedly watching, Karu. The white hyena frowned, tilting her head to one side as she sat down.
“Are you insane? What do you mean am I okay? I told you not to play on that piece of wood! Now we’ve both got to climb our way back out of here! What do you have to say for yourself!?”
“I just don’t know what went wrong,” chimed the clearly younger hyena with a snort of a giggle. Sighing, Karu-sil told herself not to smack the idiot, looking up to try and figure out a way for them to escape instead. Focus that energy- don’t waste it on violence.
Yet.
“Fine. You’re obviously stupid, so I won’t push the matter. My name is Karu-sil. Do you know your name, young hyena?” She was being rude, she knew it, but the other didn’t seem to notice. She simply smiled a silly smile and nodded her head.
“Of course I know my name,” she laughed, as though the other had said a joke that wasn’t meant to be an insult to her, “it’s Hini! Hini hini.” She smiled and bobbed her head, confirming her name several times. Karu-sil nodded as well, if only because she felt not doing so would make the other continue saying her name until they both expired.
“Alright, Hini. Let’s see if there’s a path up, okay? We should be able to climb up these rocks without too much trouble… if you think you can manage it.”
“I can! I can!” Hini cheered, “I’m really good at rock climbing!”
She sprang to the rocks, awkwardly scrambling her way up them. Though she had no grace or sense of direction, she was making decent progress up the surface, which had Karu a bit shocked. Still, no taking a good thing for granted, the lady soon following after Hini to get up to the surface as well. It seemed there had been a recent cave-in along one side of the crevice, which granted them a fairly good, if not a bit unstable path up to the top. As long as they weren’t stuck in the darkness, she would be happy.
Even if it meant spending some time with this nutty thing.
“Why were you jumping on that wood, anyway? Didn’t you know it was dangerous?” She demanded, expecting little in terms of a coherent answer in return. Good thing she hadn’t been expecting too much- she didn’t get it.
“I wanted to jump,” said Hini with certainty, “it was a fun place to jump!”
Karu-sil was not impressed- this hyena would get herself killed! “How long have you been on your own, Hini?” She asked. Perhaps she was just experienced in her own way of living. She knew she was crazy, but she also knew how to work it. Weirder things had happened, right? Frowning, Karu waited, the reply taking a lot longer than she would have thought. Had Hini slowed?
“My mommy stopped moving,” she said after a moment, her voice almost sad, “not long ago… someone told me it was because she left. Her spirit left…. Forever. So now I’m on my own! I have to take care of myself now!”
“I’m… I’m sorry,” Karu replied, stunned, “I didn’t know…” She watched as Hini pulled herself to the surface, feeling a little sad for the creature. So she was on her own for the first time? That meant she would likely get herself killed doing silly things like that! Karu couldn’t have her running about on her own, just to die by falling into some pit or something. Sure, she didn’t know the young girl, or really like her, but she wasn’t a monster. She couldn’t let someone suffer if there was something she could do about it. When she got to the surface, she smiled.
“Hini, what if you were to come-“ she stopped, scanning the area. Much to her surprise, the hyena had gone, already run off onto her next adventure. And all on her own, too. Karu frowned. Hopefully, the poor thing hadn’t run off because she had upset her making her think of her mother. Great.
Now she had guilt.
