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In a clearing left by the death and toppling of one of the forest giants was a pool of water. The other trees had been trained against interfering with their brother's sunlight, but some of their branches were now embracing the clear air and bright sun. One one of those, overlooking the pool, lay a languid leopard. His form was a darker shadow lumped upon the branch, only distinguishable by his lazily listing tail and coloration - so long as he wasn't positioned directly between a viewer and the intense sunlight.

From a distance, he appeared to be napping. Indeed, a stranger would have to get fairly close to him on the branch to tell otherwise.

From Ostium's point of view, he might as well take a nap. It wasn't as if there was anything interesting going on.

The dark leopard's ears twitched slightly at the rustling that meant he had an uninvited guest. Not that anyone could really claim any place like this for their own, but he was here often and long enough to feel somewhat proprietary about it.

His eyes opened slightly, the red irises visible through mere slits, as he looked around. The leopard's gaze fell on...another leopard. A leopardess, to be specific. And one whose white pelt did nothing to conceal her in this place of greenery.

That was part of why he'd chosen his perch - they grey and black of his coat was not at all the same color as the branch's bark or the moss upon it, but they were both dark and anyone giving the area a quick glance was likely to miss his presence entirely.

He decided to keep fairly still, pulling his tail up where it wouldn't dangle. Let her be the one to make the first move. If she even saw him up above.

His upper lip curled in amused disdain as he watched the leopardess jump back from her intended drink. Given their relative positions, he had to presume she'd seen him in the still waters. So be it. The dark leopard relaxed his tail, allowing it to dangle below the branch one more as he straightened from his flopped position.

He also opened his eyes wider, to get a better look at the stranger female. But there was no reason to actually try to communicate with her. He'd found that staying silent tended to get interlopers to leave all the sooner. That, and some seemed to find his red eyes disturbing.

That was fine with Ostium. He didn't mind what they thought of him.

Ostium grimaced mentally. Of course she'd want to talk to him. Apparently that was what most creatures felt obligated to do whenever they came across a stranger. Hmph.

With a quietly gusty sigh, the dark leopard levered himself to his feet and padded deliberately towards the trunk of the massive tree that had grown his preferred perch. With the ease of long practice, he climbed down headfirst, to the point where any distant bird would have seen him as a shadow flowing down the side of the tree.

Once all four paws were planted firmly in the mixture of plants, grasses and dirt that constituted the ground, he gave the leopardess a sardonic glance and inclined his head towards her.

That was about proper, by his standards, given the general lack of words she'd thrown in his direction.

So, she was one of those who, when met with outright silence and minimal attention, would continue talking, eh? That meant, in his experience, that she was probably nervous and simply speaking aloud to comfort herself into knowing that she was not alone. Or that she was gearing herself up to take some sort of action. Still, she was apparently chatty, this Jayani.

He supposed she was being polite, by her standards, introducing herself and giving him plenty of opportunities to start talking.

This would be more relevant if Ostium actually could talk.

He'd never been able to manage more than odd and ugly hoarse sounds, and so declined to make any noise at all as a result.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the easiest thing to explain to complete and total strangers, and the dark leopard had long ago stopped trying. Instead, he gave the white leopardess a look that said "are you really going to do this to me?" while considering if it was in his best interest to simply up and leave. Given how much noise the female had made in her approach, he was reasonably confident of his ability to elude her until he lost her completely.

Well. This was going nowhere fast. And the white leopardess wasn't showing any signs of a reasonable level of intelligence. At this rate, he could probably sit here a moon and she'd never figure it out.

The dark leopard gave an aduible snort before turning and heading deeper into the jungle. Let Jayani follow if she must, he fully intended to take to the trees after he'd passed a few, and then leap from branch to branch until he returned to his hidden lair.

She didn't seem like the type who'd be able to follow him. Sadly, given her performance already today, it seemed fairly likely that she'd try. At least initially.