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The meal he had made of the zebra had made him lazy. The chase had been long, and it had been a bit daunting. But once his claws sank into the flank of the young thing, it had been pulled to the earth. Baby zebras were vulnerable, albeit hard to get to with their parents about. He had merely been lucky, though it had been a lot patience. Stalk long enough, the parents eventually left them.

He wanted nothing more than to sleep, but he had things to do. Mainly spreading his genes, and making more of him. Crue would be proud for that. Though he lacked a lot of loyalty, he still followed Crue's command. Maybe because even though he was a huge leopard, Crue was still larger. He knew better than to scuffle with the once-demon.

Honey, as he was called by most of the Maestros, was out hunting. It was his job and he was reasonably good at it, although the jungle regions surrounding the pride presented a challenge for a cat of his build. Typically he preferred to hunt in the open lands that lay in the other direction, bringing home meals like zebra and gazelle when he had help and duiker if not.

Honey's stomach growled as he thought about a nice meal of duiker, even though he was not in any way underfed. He rolled his eyes at his talkative stomach. His first kill would go to assuage his stomach's chattiness. After that he'd hunt for the pride.

He licked his lips, getting the bits of blood that had clung to his chin and maw. He was so content, that the normally chaotic male was actually purring. Nothing was better than a full belly, and the torture that had come to the zebra had satiated his urge to hurt. It would be back, of course, and he would welcome it with open paws. But until then, he was going to be content.

Though that content feeling almost fleeted away when he caught the scent. It smelled of ocean, oh how he loathed the ocean. But it was attached to what smelled like another feline. He hoped it was a female, for he had ideas on his mind. Though if it wasn't, maybe he would just incite his desire to hurt a little early this time. It was always the perfect time for a little bit of torturing.

The wind was blowing against him, which was to say that Honey was standing upwind of the area he wanted to hunt. That wasn't ideal. Preybeasts tended to notice things like the scent of a predator blowing toward them, and then they scattered or did other inconvenient things that made life difficult for a cheetah hunting alone.

Fortunately Honey could move very quickly at need, and he used that ability to maneuver himself so that he wasn't quite so upwind as he had been. He hoped he'd moved quickly enough that all the prey hadn't been spooked. He had no idea that there was more to worry about than startled herds.

He caught sight of the cheetah, before the cheetah had spotted him. He was surprised that he wasn't on edge. He had always thought cheetahs were so thin, that he could snap them in half. He kind of wanted to see if that was true. Which was probably what motivated him step out to speak to the male.

"You are out rather late, aren't you?" He asked, stepping closer and without hesititation. Oh yes. This might have been really fun. He just hoped it went as far as he wanted it to, with the cheetah's neck firmly between his jaws.

"Not really," Honey replied. "Time to catch prey is before it's too dark to see where you're dragging the body."

He was an easy-going cat and the fact that he'd been approached by a leopard he'd neither seen nor smelled moments ago did not much upset him. Now that he was aware of the leopard, of course, he also noticed that he smelled of blood and the hunt. He decided this was a sign that it would be okay to hunt this land, since the leopard wouldn't be doing so again right away and there was obviously food to be found.

"Good hunting?" he asked.

"Mmm." He replied to the cheetah's question. He stepped closer, keeping his eyes down until he got close enough. He then lifted his head, smiling, a dark smile that showed his fangs.

"It could have been better." He said, chuckling as he sat, curling his tail around his legs. He stared at the cheetah with a knowing grin. He was trying to contain himself long enough to cause fear. Once he had caused that, he could attack.

Honey was not intimidated by the leopard's proximity or his teeth. He came from a pride of pirates. They could be rough and unpleasant, particularly toward cheetahs who got along a little too well with the corsairs. Honey was used to people trying to intimidate him. Not that he enjoyed it, mind, but he knew how to stand his ground until an intimidation attempt became an actual threat, at which point he rarely chose to fight. Most other cats outweighed him and were better-suited to combat.

"That's usually the way of it," he went on casually. "But good enough usually is good enough, no?"

Outside of the pride he didn't tend to speak like the rest of the pirates. It made him more difficult to understand to the rogues he encountered, though sometimes he slipped up. He'd not been raised in the pride, so it didn't take as much effort not do to that as it did for some he knew, like Yellowbelly.

The smell of ocean clung to this male like a thick perfume. It made Levyathan want to gag. He hated the ocean, and it's smell was just as bad. He wished that he could have tried this on a cleaner cheetah, but beggars couldn't be choosers. It's not like he had another cheetah at his disposal, this very minute.

Though the male was either entirely oblivious, or he was brave. Because he hadn't even flinched, or shown that he was uncomfortable in the male's presence. Either one, it irritated him. He soothed the bristling fur on his haunches, and chuckled again.

"You see. It was missing just this one thing. Would you like to try guessing as to what that one this is, maybe?" He asked.

Honey thought about that for maybe half a second before deciding that this was not an encounter he ought to prolong if he had any care for his health. It was obvious, very obvious that the leopard was looking for an excuse to commit some violent act against Honey, and the cheetah was determined not to give him that opportunity. If worse came to worse, he knew he could outrun him, but it was better not to start by running, and so he stuck to talking a little bit longer.

"Fermented fruit," he suggested. "It makes pretty much everything better. Have you ever tried it?"

The male stood, advancing closer, menacingly. He was wasting time, and he wanted to snap the cheetah's neck. He felt it like a burning desire deep in his belly. It was almost like hunger, but he liked this feeling more.

"Mmm. Nope. Sorry, that is incorrect." He smiled again, his eyes dark. He was going to enjoy hurting this male. Enjoy it so mcuh. It was his fermented fruit, in a way."It does involve intoxication though. So you aren't too off."

"Oh, well. I've heard some people swear by that mint the Stormborn use, but I've never tried it myself," Honey went on. Talking was not seeming like a very good idea at this point, but he had a really unfortunate habit of talking when he ought to be running. His honeyed tongue really didn't work all that well on males, and he had never quite gotten his brain around that fact.

"Anyway, I still have hunting to do. Pride full of lazy lions to feed and all that," he said, standing his ground despite the warnings his senses were giving him that he really ought to be fleeing at this point, before he got himself hurt. "It was nice meeting you."

He had no idea what he was talking about, as he had never met anything called a Stormborn. Nor did he know what mint was. He didn't truly care though. He did care that the cheetah was beginning to leave. He frowned, and knew there was no way he could catch him in a race. He had hoped the cheetah would just be ignorant, but it seemed hew as smarter than Lev had originally thought.

"Leaving so soon?" He asked, his voice holding mock sorrow. "Come now, don't you want to chat.. just awhile longer?"

"Yeah, like I said. I'm hunting for a pride, so there are quotas to meet. And you wouldn't believe how grumpy lions can get when they're not fed promptly," Honey replied as he began to saunter past the leopard. He didn't like doing that at all, but turning tail would have been a worse idea, he was certain.

"I'll remember where I met you, though, and maybe we'll meet up some other time when I'm in less of a rush." Yeah, right.