Damu had been in many, many situations before. She had climbed tall mountains, battled gators and met heroes all before devouring an elephant for dinner. The short stick of it all was Damu was a pretty accomplished leopardess, she had done and seen so many things, met so many people, even having had her own litter. Although granted, she had ran into a rock and forgotten about that particular adventure. Still! Despite all these grand exploits and expeditions she had ventured on Damu had yet to find herself in a particularly frightening situation. Particularly frightening being now. For the first time in what seemed like forever, a long time that could not be measured by time alone, Damu felt surprised and scared all rolled into one.
She had been trudging through a mountainous, foresty area when the ground beneath her suddenly caved. There was no scream, or time for such. There was no acknowledgement of the peril she was in, there was only one second of being above ground and the next finding herself huddled under it.
When she came to the leopardess coughed, and stood with a rattled brain at where she was. It was dark now, and she could not quite see, but when squinting she realized the sky was much, much higher than it should have been.
"Hello?" Her voice echoed across the four walls that held her.
Dust swirled up her nose and caused her to cough again. "Gack!... Uh... H-Hey! Is anybody up there?!"
To her surprise a head appeared at the corner of one of the walls. A silver head, with floppy pinkish ears perked up in semi-delight. A wild dog?
“Hey!” Damu called to him. “I uh, I’m stuck! I need help out!” The canine sniffed, seemingly upset, was everything alright? “H-hey…” Damu said softer. “Are you-“
“Trespasser!” The animal hissed, though the tone of his voice indicated he seemed either offended by this or was too upset to act as a proper angry guard would. “Why are you here? State your business!”
Damu was a little shocked, but nevertheless she replied. “I… I’m Damu Chui! I’m an adventuress, forgive me for forsaking your lands!”
The wild dog seemed surprised, and between his sniffles asked, “Wait. Really? And adventuress?”
“Yes, that is what I am.” Damu told him in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone.
At this point a cold night breeze swelled by and the wild dog seemed to shiver, making a particular big sniff as he attempted to not burst into tears. Damu could not help but pity him, whoever he was.
“Are you alright?” She asked, to which there was no reply. So, she changed her question. “What’s your name? I told you mine.”
A few seconds of silence passed before the wild dog spoke again, “Seolfor.”
Damu smiled faintly, there, was that really so hard? “Seolfor. I don’t know what’s going on here… But I can assure you I am no enemy.”
The wild dog took a few moments to process this, wiping away his upset from his eyes with one of his silvery paws. “I… I believe you.” He said to her while still sniffling. “But I can’t just let you go! I spent all day digging these ‘ere pitfall trap!” He told her with exclaimed pride. Damu nodded her head.
“I understand, you just want to feel proud that it worked right?” She hoped she was right, she wanted to leave.
“N-no, I’ve dug lots of pitfall traps, one of ‘em working isn’t no surprise.”
If that was the case then Damu should have been please she hadn’t fallen into one earlier. She now changed her tactics, if she wanted out then maybe she could sweet talk her way into having the wild dog let her leave. “Why are you upset?” She asked with a curious tilt of her head. Oh goodness, if only her face wasn’t under the impression it was made of stone. At least a smile would have been more charming then that.
“I…” The silver dog turned away. “That’s none of your business. Go find a lion to bother.”
Letting her leave was one thing, letting her leave so that she wouldn’t bother him was another. Damu crept out of the hole in the ground, digging her claws easily into the side and dragging herself up. She couldn’t imagine spending hours upon hours digging repeat pitfall traps only to let strangers deemed “non-threatening” go. And from the sounds of things he was the only one who did such in the area.
The leopardess couldn’t satisfy her curiosity, and with a turn she faced the wild dog with a pleading eye. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it? You seem incredibly upset.”
Seolfor’s face crumbled up like tissue paper, and a whine indicated his distress. “I… I won’t share details but I fell in love.”
Ah, Damu resisted her need to roll her eyes. Heartbreak.
“And she left you.” Damu stated. “Your love did?”
He nodded.
For whatever reason, pity or not Damu felt the need to comfort the stranger. “Hey, Seolfor… It’ll be okay, heartbreak happens? It’s life right?”
He nodded again, she tried a different method.
“Look, I don’t know you and you don’t know me. In fact about the only thing we know about each other is our names.”
The wild dog looked up at her, his bluish eyes meeting hers for the first time since they began speaking.
“It’ll be okay.”
And suddenly, for whatever reason or whatever word that had sparked it Seolfor began to bawl. He laid in the ground in defeat and sobbed for what seemed like an endless period of time to Damu. She felt that maybe she would come to regret her decision of comforting him, that she would later feel that listening to this stranger talk about some person she didn’t know and cry and rant and rave about his love that she would feel the need to leave him and not listen any longer. Yet, she didn’t.
So after that meeting Damu was proud to say one more thing about herself. She was not just an elephant hunter, a lion battler and a crocodile wrangler. She did not just meet heroes or just to give faulty advice on love.
Damu also had a heart. And a smile, and for the first time in a long time, a face that made more than just one expression.
1,072 words