Word count: 1,093

]Renzi and luck were on neutral ground in the past. It didn't keep her company and it didn't sabotage her day-to-day for kicks. But that morning ushered in an epoch of goodwill between them. As a token of friendship, luck had guided her to a hoard of treasures the likes of which she had never seen. There were piles of bones to her left; scraps of cloth and trinkets she wouldn't know what to call to her right; furs of varying colors and conditions in the middle.

The trees around these parts were so congested one could barely move. A fitting environment for a such colossal inventory. Renzi had spent the past hour wending through the timber, and in comparison, pursuing the small path between the heaps of stuff seemed easy. She was on a mission: find the predator that had claimed this place. She preferred not to steal from him if she could help.

She would, but preferred not to, thank you very much.

The sonorous cavern at the end showed no signs of life. Plenty more stuff to be found, though, stacked against both walls and covering the floor toward the back. Ransacking the place would be easier...

"Hello?" One. Two. Three. "Hello?"

She waited three counts, three times, before she could rummage around without feeling like a criminal. For all she knew, the landowner was dead somewhere. A lot of his or her things were old and grimy. Not much looked cared for beyond the initial effort it took to add it to Stuff Mountain.

Renzi decided to start outside and work her way in. The pile closest to the forestry consisted of pelts too defiled by the elements to be of any use. After digging through the second, she walked away empty-handed. But as the story goes, the third pile was juuust right. What she planned to use the perfectly preserved, thoroughly skinned skull for she would have to decide later. Immediately, she knew she could find some use for it.

The fourth pile looked more promising.

"What are you doing?!"

Renzi turned, alarmed, toward the shouting. A leopard would have been her last guess for a Stuff Mountain superintendent. She had been told they primarily ate and slept in trees, and that they were frugal; that they kept only what could be carried into said trees with them. This one must be in the midst of an identity crisis. Perhaps a hybrid?

"Hello --"

"Don't you hello me!" the leopard spat. "Step away! Now!"

Renzi wasn't the type to counter with the cliche Or what? That kind of bullying was better suited to the Firekin or the -- now what were they called? Stormborn? Anyway, giving him an opportunity to hear her out was the couth thing to do.

"Listen, you dear, confused leopard --"

"Listen, you savage, thief of a lion," the leopard hissed. The longer Renzi looked at him, the more he blended in with the background. He was, in a word, filthy: mud caked onto his fur, the worst of it under his chin and behind his ears.

Best to just get down to business. "I only want to take a few things," said Renzi. "Can't you spare them?"

The leopard clambered on to the top of the fourth pile and glared daggers at the intruder. "No, they're mine. Now get out."

The fact of the matter was Renzi had always been smarter than everyone around her. With intelligence came reason. It didn't surprise her how unreasonable strangers could be. Talking them down wasn't her forte (only talking down to them), but she took a look at the skull and decided, yes, she must have this. Now that she knew what to use it for.

"Look at all this stuff," Renzi said. "You can't need all of it."

"What I don't need is you wasting my time," the leopard snapped. "Get. Out."

"What if I trade you something?" Renzi inquired. Bartering. That she could do. "You must need something... A mate? A cub?" The prospect of company wasn't enticing the leopard any. He stared at her, unimpressed. "A meal?" she offered instead. That one hit home.

"What kind of meal?" He squinted at her, exhaling slowly through his nostrils. "Anything I want?"

"Anything within reason," Renzi replied.

"I want rhino."

Renzi scoffed. "I said within reason."

"Rhino, or I'm not giving you anything. You don't know good food until you've tasted rhino. And that's a rhino skull. I'll need another one to replace it." The leopard gave no impression he was going to yield. The circumstances of the deal were take it or leave it. More than ever, Renzi was sorely tempted to just take, then leave.

"Where did you get a rhino skull?" she asked patiently. If she could get her paws on a different one...

The leopard snorted. "Found one dead. Never saw one before it, never saw one again. Figure the hyenas swarm them once they drop. Probably eat down to the bone and then the bones too." He scowled. "Scavengers."

"Can't say I'm a fan," Renzi put in, but she wasn't here to diss hyenas, no matter how stupid they were -- which was too bad. If they were the ones that found dead rhinos, she could use them to her advantage. "What if I can't get a rhino?"

"Then you're out of luck."

"What about an elephant --"

"An elephant?" The leopard shook his head. "Anyone can get an elephant. Cross the Prideland borders, go to their graveyard. In and out. They're not the aggressive sort... A rhino is rare. It's a rhino or nothing."

"And what if I just come back and steal it?" Renzi challenged.

"I'll stay here," the leopard sneered.

"You'll starve."

"No, I won't. There are birds."

Renzi switched tactics. "Why would I kill a rhino just to get the skull of a rhino?"

The leopard smirked. "This one is the finest skull in all the Savannah. Not a scratch on it. Skinned it myself. Your clumsy lion paws could never duplicate my work."

Oh for the love of -- "And how am I supposed to carry the corpse of a rhino here?" Never mind the weight. Something that big wouldn't fit through the trees even if she had ungodly strength.

"Bring it in pieces," the leopard suggested impatiently. "Or figure something out. That's your problem."

"Fine."

Renzi huffed out an aggravated sigh and made for the trees.

He had to be lying about never leaving. She'd come back and steal it later, morals be damned.