This sucked.
Ari-bhiri heaved a sigh and carved idly at the dry savananah soil with her claws, creating nonsense, haphazard patterns while she sat in the meager shade of a rather pathetic tree, waiting for the sun to set. She preferred to be active at night, when the temperature was at least slightly more tolerable, but she'd been awakened early by a blundering honey badger and hadn't been able to get back to sleep after dealing the the cantankerous creature. Now she was left to stare out at the dull landscape and occupy herself with idle thought until dark arrived. As they often did, her thoughts turned to home...or rather, her lack of a home. With the landslide that had spelled the end for the Jini-misemi, Ari-bhiri was once again out of a home, and this time it looked to be a permanent situation. First, the swamp had burned, then they'd settled on the mountain. Then she'd gone on her pilgrimage, and once she'd come back and finally gotten used to their new home, that got taken away.
Being uprooted so often was frustrating, and incredibly inconvenient! She'd been comfortable, and now here she was out scrounging around in the unclaimed lands again. Bhi was far from upset or broken up about her circumstances, but she was incredibly irritated by the inconvenience and upheaval of it all. She certainly didn't blame the Queen - or former Queen, rather - for deciding to disband the pride after it was struck by a third natural disaster. Fate seemed to have it in for them, and Bhi was not one to argue with Fate, particularly where life-and-death matters were concerned. Better that they all get on with their lives elsewhere.
Getting on with her life, for Bhi, meant a lot of skulking and sneaking about. Her first foray into the rogue lands as an adolescent had led her to an association with a group some might find unsavory, but she was very comfortable with gray areas. She'd met and gotten on quite well with a lioness named Yehl, who'd taught her a few tricks not only for going about unnoticed, but relieving others of their food or sometimes possessions. She'd had a knack for it, as it turned out, and ever since had worn a black feather braided into her hair.
She did have to admit, the rogue lands were much better for thief work than living among the Spirit-talkers had been. She had the benefit of anonymity out here. On the other paw, thieving became more necessary, since meals were more difficult to come by when hunting on one's own. With the sun nearly set and her stomach beginning to rumble, the lioness set out in search of dinner...or rather, with the intention of making someone else's dinner her own.
By the time she found a likely target, darkness had truly settled over the landscape, but sharp eyes and sharper nose located a promising target, a lone lioness crunching away on the carcass of something. It was impossible to tell what, but Bhi was hardly in a mood to be picky: food was food, and the easier it was to get the better it tasted. She didn't even need the whole thing, just a piece! There wasn't really much finesse or skill involved in kill-stealing, it was mostly a grab and run sort of affair, so there was no real preparation involved either, especially when there was only a solitary creature at the kill.
Bhi simply composed herself, took a deep breath, and crept as close as she could without drawing attention to herself. Another deep breath and she sprang forward into a dead run, grabbing at any part of the carcass she could get her teeth into, and hauling a** before her startled victim could get themselves together and chase after her. That was the plan, and it actually...sort of worked, except rather than ripping and tearing when she grabbed ahold of the dead antelope's leg, it stayed attached for several moments longer than she expected to, and it slowed her down considerably and almost tripped her up. But finally, stringy flesh ripped and gave way, and she was off!
"Wait!"
Don't stop, don't stop, just keep going-
"Hey, wait! Come back!"
Something about the tone gave her pause - no distress, no anger, nothing that she usually heard when high-tailing it away with a chunk of someone's dinner in her jaws. If anything, the lioness sounded...worried? Against her better judgement, Ari-bhiri slowed to a stop and turned, silently berating herself the entire time over how stupid she was being, but instead of turning to find a furious huntress about to descend on her, she was greeted by bright eyes set in a smiling face.
"Oh, good! You stopped! I was worried you weren't going to," the stranger said with a breathless giggle. "You must be awfully hungry, huh?"
Taken aback, Ari-bhiri could do little more than stare for several long moments, but finally she carefully set down the piece of antelope she'd stolen from this surprisingly friendly lioness. "I...well, yes, I am hungry."
Obviously, she added dryly to herself.
"If you're that hungry, you'll need more than just a leg. It looks like you've got mostly bone there, besides. I was just about finished eating, and it's too far to bother dragging it back home, so I was going to leave it anyway, for whoever." Another flash of a smile, another little giggle. "I think you qualify as 'whoever.' Would you like to join me?"
Bhi considered the offer warily. The lioness did seem genuinely friendly, but the gesture was so unexpected that she couldn't help but be suspicious. But she was right, there wasn't much but hoof and bone on what Bhi had stolen. "I...sure. If you don't mind me asking, where's home?"
Made only more cheerful by Bhi's acceptance of her offer, the stranger led the way back to the kill with a happy lightness in her step. "Oh, the Pridelands! It's about, hmm..." she paused and looked about, then pointed vaguely north, "Half a day that way."
"I've heard of it." Her question answered, Bhi felt a little bit better about the stranger and her offer. Pridelanders were well-known for being happy, peaceful types, and there'd been some crossovers between them and the Jini-misemi. "What are you doing out here, then?"
"I just like to explore a little, meet new people and find a little peace and quiet. It gets a little crowded sometimes. Where's home for you?"
"Nowhere, really," Bhi answered after a slight hesitation, then attempted to change the subject. "Oh, I...don't think I got your name?"
"Ataullah!" the Pridelander offered readily. "Yours?"
"Ari-bhiri. It's...nice to meet you, Ataullah. I'm, uh, sorry for trying to steal your dinner." Awkward.
"Apology accepted."
