Hanif huffed along, following the scent of the wounded animal. He could tell it was on the move, and had seen the blood along the ground. He was hungry and his attention could not be swayed by anything else. The only thing that could stop him from chasing the animal would be for someone else to get it first. He might even fight with them for it, but at least then he could concentrate on finding some other food. But this? This was just too good of an opportunity for him to miss, to the point where he was practically ignoring everything else around him.

Rangi'nyeupe, or Rangi for short, had been napping in the top of a tree. It had been lonely for her lately. Ever since she was a juvenile she had been separated from her parents and sibilings and had been left alone to fend for herself. At this point, it was hard for here to even remember what they looked like anymore. And so here she was, in her tree, when she heard something. Looking up, she noticed an impala limping along, definitely having been hurt from attack. However, as she was not hungry and preferred to stay in her tree, she watched it limp and whimper away and was about to go back to sleep when in the corner of her eye, she saw a wild dog following the impala. Well, this might be interesting. She thought to herself as she watched the scene unfold.

Finally! He had now seen it, and it turned out to be one of his favorite meals too, impala! Unfortunately the poor thing was still suffering and it was definitely an injury it wouldn’t recover from. Hanif almost felt bad for ending it’s life. However, he was hungry, the impala wasn’t going to make it anyway and so it was decided. His next meal was going to be here and now. Going a bit faster, he finally caught up with it and going for it’s neck, ended it’s existence as fast as he could. It was a bit sad but, that was the circle of life. It’s not like he could survive on anything else anyway.

Rangi smiled lazily to herself as she watched the wild dog take down the impala and start to happily feast. Although she often fought with other leopards and other carnivorous animals for food, it didn’t mean she liked it. Sure, she had the advantage of being able to drag it up into a tree, but she really didn’t like fighting with others. She understood the need though. She had traveled through some places with limited food supplies and if one wanted to survive, they had to eat, and that meant competing with others who also wanted to live. However she wondered… could she perhaps talk to this wild dog? She had never been able to before. So she slowly climbed down the tree and walked a bit towards him, however keeping her distance and a relaxed stance to show she meant no harm. She sauntered up to him and said “hello!” in as nice a voice as she could muster.

Hanif was still happily munching on his meal, blissfully unaware of anyone else in the area. If this had been some other day and some other place, he really should have been paying attention just in case there was anyone who might want to come and kill him and then steal his meal. AND maybe eat him too! But, Hanif was too happy eating his meal to care, so when he noticed someone saying “hello” to him, he had been quite surprised and gave a loud yelp as he scrambled to stand up and see where the greeting had come from. Finally, he noticed a leopardess quite close to him and he growled. Sure, she was in a relaxed stance, but he had to at least show he was willing to defend his meal in case she was up to no good! “This is mine you know.” He said, just in case she didn’t already, which would have been silly, but he wasn’t a scavenger that’s for sure!

Rangi giggled a bit as she waved a paw lazily at him. “Oh I know. You can go ahead and enjoy your meal. It’s a bit too small for me and I’m not hungry anyway. I was just… well, you’re the first wild dog I’ve seen in a while, and the only one who hasn’t been trying to steal my food and so I was wondering if I could… talk to you a bit?” Hopefully the wild dog would be willing to speak to her, but she would back off of if he felt too threatened.

Hanif couldn’t hide the surprise in his face and he couldn’t help but blink a few times in wonderment. He had never heard of a leopardess wanting to talk, let alone not fight a wild dog for a meal! If anything, he was just as likely to become food to her! However… looking at her for a bit, he didn’t see anything to show that she was trying to trick him or was going to attack. So… why not talk to her then? “Well, all right. But I might be a bit slow in responding. Don’t want to eat my meal too quickly you know?” He would get a stomach ache if that happened and he never liked having to go through that pain.

She sighed and nodded her head happily at him. He had accepted! Great, now she just needed to think of what she wanted to say or ask him. She hadn’t really ever thought about it. “Good! Well uh… I guess my first question is, what are packs like? Leopards are more lonesome characters who usually don’t join together in groups, so I was wondering if a pack was anything like a pride? And do you usually eat the same type of food that I do? I mean I know some of the types since I’ve had a few run-ins with other wild dogs, but I mean…” And that’s how she and he continued their conversation for the day.