Saudi had been happily prancing along, if you could call what a hyena did prancing, a grassy part of the rogue lands, enjoying the sun. Sure, she was lonely, she hadn’t met anyone for quite a while and while she was having okay luck with finding food, she still was… bored. Happy but bored. She couldn’t help but wonder if she would find someone else out there today to relieve some of it.

Aldo was happily dragging his kill towards the tree he was currently residing in. It had been a pretty easy kill, the poor thing had wondered off all by itself and unfortunately Aldo was a predator and it was the prey… He didn’t let it suffer though. He hadn’t eaten in days though and it was starting to wear on him a bit. If he could just get it up into his tree then he could keep it up there for a while, eating when he was truly hungry. He had to quicken his pace though as he didn’t want any other predator to come along and try to steal it away from him. Sure, he hadn’t worked very hard for it, but satisfying his hunger was much more important than trying to fight right now.

That was when Saudi smelled it. A fresh kill. It made her mouth water as she though about it. Though if it was a fresh kill, that most likely meant that someone else had gotten there first and by the time she got there, there would be nothing left. Maybe she could convince whoever was at it to give her some? Or maybe try to steal a bit if it was a group of predators. With that she broke out into a run in the direction that the scent was coming from.

Aldo had finally made it to his tree and was taking this time to rest. He was confident that no one would try to steal it now. He could just drag it into his tree, but he wanted to be ready for it first. Just because leopards were good at climbing trees with a carcass in their mouths didn’t mean that it was easy. Suddenly he heard something. It sounded like running, but not like a gazelle running. What was it… it definitely had paws. He had never heard a sound like this before. That was when he saw in the distance a dark shape. He couldn’t quite make it out at this distance, but it was coming closer, and at quite the steady pace too. He got up and readied himself. He was going to guard this kill.

Saudi had finally made it close enough to tell that the scent was close to a tree now, though it was all over the place, probably from where it had been dragged, to where it now resided, so it was messing up her senses a bit. However she figured that since she didn’t see a body and so she figured it was probably in the shade of the tree. She couldn’t quite tell from here, but she though she saw it underneath there and… something or someone else? That’s when she heard it, the low growl of the leopard that was coming her way. She slowed quite a bit, walking now instead of running. She probably wouldn’t win in a fight against a leopard, so hopefully it wouldn’t be attacking her.

Aldo saw the figure come closer and… well he wasn’t sure what to think. He had never seen a creature like this before. It didn’t look like a cat, but it did walk on all four paws and looked to be quite a bit smaller than him. And by itself. He could probably take it, he had gone up against things bigger than him and won, though he hadn’t wanted to start those fights.

Saudi got closer and noticed that the leopard was looking at her with a strange mix of anger and curiosity on his face. She giggled silently to herself. What, had he never seen a hyena before? Well that was silly! She should really introduce herself now! She started prancing over to him and finally got close enough, but not too close, that she thought she would be okay in trying to start a conversation with him. “Hey there!” She sounded happy, probably because she thought his reaction to her was funny. “It’s a great day today! But man is it hot! But you know, I’m sure you’re fine under all this tree shade!” She said, giggling a bit. She didn’t tell a joke, but she found leopards fascinating, from what she had seen at least. She had never managed to talk to one before though.

Aldo’s face immediately formed into a frown as he heard her laughing. He had heard stories of that laugh. She was a hyena. He hadn’t ever seen one, but had heard that they had quite the high pitched squeal that the hyenas tended to use as laughter. It grated on his ears to hear and he was quite tired of it already. “Yeah. Whatever.” He wasn’t in the mood. “What do you want?” He knew they were scavengers, and she probably wanted some of his meal. She would have to do quite the bit of convincing to be able to get him to part with his kill.

She smiled at him, even though he looked angry again now. And sounded angry too from his question. She didn’t mind though. She had annoyed others before and was used to it. “Well, I just happened to smell that delicious kill of yours and I couldn’t help but wander over and wonder if you would be willing to share some of it? I’m really hungry right now and even just a leg or something would be great. We eat most of our food you know, skin, muscle, you get the idea.” She kept looking at the kill the entire time as she was asking this, though not moving any closer to it.

Aldo grumbled. He just wanted to get up into his tree and be ignored by everyone for a while. He grunted, grabbed the carcass and made his way up until he got to the spot where he could put it down and start eating it. The hyena was just annoying.

Saudi had seen the leopard drag the kill up the tree and was quite sad. He hadn’t even answered her question! A ‘no’ would have sufficed! She turned away sadly, hoping she could find something to eat. But just then she heard a thump sound and saw one of the gazelle legs on the ground. She let out a happy bark, grabbing the leg and running off with it in her mouth, looking for a safe spot to eat it.

Aldo just looked at the hyena running off. He hadn’t actually meant to give her that leg. Unfortunately that was where it was tearing off the most and he just hadn’t gotten to it in time before it fell off. Oh well, whatever. As long as that hyena didn’t come back anytime soon.