Ben Zi was feeling better. It had been a few days since her tumble down the rocks, and she had spent her time in the cave. Avya came back to check on her the day before, and gave her some food, then explained she would be moving on from the area in the coming days. But promised it would not be before Ben Zi was up and about.
She was feeling stronger each day, and her body had been lucky in its injuries. Her body was bruised under her fur, but she had not broken anything and there were no open wounds to keep her down too long. She yawned and stretched, carefully, swishing her tail behind him before she stood and smiled.
The lion had not come after her, and she had been alone and quiet. She really liked this place, and wondered about staying there. That was, at least, until the Wild Dog showed up.
She appeared in the entry of the cave, a shadow cast in front of her from the sun bleach rocks of the ravine behind her. She watched the lioness for a moment, who was still waking up. Pinga, the Wild Dog, frowned seriously at her.
"What are you doing in my den?"
The voice scared Ben Zi out of her wits. She leaped and skittered backwards, until she hit the back of the cave. It was very shallow, so she did not have much space to flee in. But she had proven to herself that she could move pretty well now. It was not the time for thoughts like that, though. If the dog did not eat her, or attack her, or something, then she would be happy for her recovery.
But at the moment she was too worried that the stranger would give her new injuries to deal with.
"I... I have been here for a few days... I did not know anyone lived here or I never would've stayed here! I don't want to take your home... I was just... I was hurt... I'm sorry."
Pinga sighed and shook her head. She had bright green fur and long ears on the top of her head. She was tall and had small limbs, ending in tiny paws. Her tail was big and puffy, though, and that was not something Ben Zi had seen very often. She smiled, relaxing a bit and sitting down. She took a slow breath.
She really needed to relax. This constant tension was going to do her in far faster than lions chasing her off cliffs or anything of the sort.
"You were hurt? Well... I guess that's alright. You do look a little scruffy. Are you alright now?"
"I think I'm healing. I mean, that was the first test I've had so... thank you for that," Ben Zi laughed timidly and Pinga smiled, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. Lions were weird, she decided. But this one was kind, and her eyes were soft. She seemed like a fluffy push over, which was fine by the wild dog, who was tough but not fool hardy. She would fight for her home, and do a damn good job of it, but she figured she did not have to. Anyway, she kind of had two homes. One in the valley at the end of the ravine, where the large slope came out into the savanna. And this one. She had been spending a lot of time in the other one, and really only came back to this one just for this reason.
To make sure no one was living there.
"That's good to hear. Uh. What happened?"
"Something... I mean, a large lion... chased me off a cliff and I fell down here. Another lioness found me, but she was passing through. She'll be leaving soon."
Pinga nodded, thinking she knew the lioness the other was talking about, though she did not know the large lion that had scared the lioness so badly that she ran blindly off a cliff. That could not be good, if he was living so close to her territories. Or was she in his territory and he just had not seen her yet? Pinga had lived there for a while, but lions had a habit of just moving in where ever they could fit their big butts.
She was not a fan of losing her home to lions. And it had happened before, thus her protective nature of this small, but comfortable, hole in the wall.
"Well, you can stay here if you are going to leave eventually. I mean, this is still my home, but you can stay as long as you need to be one your feet and all. I don't really want you to go out there at a disadvantage if you have some giant lion hunting you down."
Ben Zi stared at Pinga for a long moment. It was a very gesture, allowing her to stay in the den while she recovered, but was it necessary to phrase that last part like that? Was the lion actually going to hunt her if she left the ravine? That did not seem like something she even wanted to test. She did not want to leave now, but she nodded her head as she agreed to the terms. She could stay until she healed.
And then, presumably, go out and get eaten by a giant lion.
Pinga sighed and turned to leave, not introducing herself. She was not interested in being friends with someone who was just going to leave, but she had done better at the whole conversation thing this time. She said some stuff, the other replied back, they had a bit of a back and forth even. A conversation, definitely.
It made her wag her tail as she padded away from her den, back towards the end of the ravine and her much larger, more comfortable, and sun soaked den in the yellowing grass at ground level.
It was a very good day, in the end. She was going to get slowly better at this, and work her way up to actually making friends. She was in no hurry, really, and was very proud of her progress so far.
(Word Count: 1,040 in Word)
