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 Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 4:49 pm
 A pair of off-white paws padded softly onto the thicker blades of grass that grew near the jungle. Beneath the stubborn layer of savanna dust and grime, the paws were a bold white. That is, when they were clean. Which seemed to be hardly ever now. A slightly whiter muzzle settled atop the dirt-covered paws. A sigh escaped with much difficulty between tightly drawn lips.
Maybe I'll just rest here for a moment... the lone leopard mused, as she made a half-hearted attempt to adjust her body closer to the ground and thus slightly less detectable. It was a vain effort though: white leopards didn't blend in anywhere, especially not jungles; it was a fact of life. At least, not anywhere I've ever heard of...
You can't sleep! came a voice loud and strong enough to break through the sleep that had begun to settle over her mind. She growled low in her throat, almost inaudible against the ever-present buzz of the jungle.
She knew that she couldn't sleep. It was too dangerous. But she'd been not sleeping for longer than she could remember now. Her stomach protested being ignored and every inch of her body ached from endless travel. Her pale grey eyes scanned the edge of the jungle that was just feet beyond where she'd crouched, only partially hidden by a decaying log.
I'm not sleeping... just resting... for a bit... honestly...
The black spots across the leopard's white back almost seemed to dance as her chest heaved the long, shallow breaths of sleep.
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Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 7:15 pm
 Eureka! Freedom!
Sitirika breathed a sigh of relief as he finally managed to reach the edge of this blasted jungle. He hated, hated, hated it in there. It was horribly oppressive and... lonely. So terribly lonely. Enclosed in all that claustrophobic space, the noise of life all around, he felt so alone. He'd rather be out on the plains where he might glance around and not see another creature for miles in any direction, and he would feel less lonely there. Bad memories clung to the leaves in this place, and he wanted to be as far from here as possible.
His tail swaying behind him, he took a deep breath of the clean air, tasting the unique scent open air had, for the first time in what felt like forever having the full warmth of the sun beat against his dark pelt. He scratched his claws into the ground, to further the pleasing feel of more grit than grass beneath his paws. Ah, yes, he was truly out of the woods now, so to speak.
He was feeling so good about this that he got a sudden spurt of cub-like energy. This gave him quite a spring in his step as he headed out further into the blessed openness, and when he spied a rotten log, he had a sudden impulse to hop over it. It wasn't until he had done this, however, that he noticed the white and black leopardess crouched the other side of it. And he was going to land right on top of her unless he did something drastic. Just peachy.
Something drastic he did manage, however: a little bit of flailing and stretching of his muscles brought him clear of her body, though one of his hind paws lightly clipped her back and his tail dragged across her as he came in to land. It hadn't been a big jump he made, otherwise he would have been able to clear her easily. And although he was seriously wishing he had done just that, the fact remained that he hadn't, hence the ungraceful landing. He came down to the ground awkwardly, falling, truthfully, on his face right after touchdown and continuing to roll until he was on his rump in the dirt. And as though he expected a huge crowd to suddenly jump out and start laughing at him, he immediately leapt to his feet again and shook himself vigorously to rid his dark fur of the paler dust that clung to him, obscuring him for a moment in his own personal dust cloud.
Note to self, Sitirika: look before you leap.
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Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 7:34 pm
Lost in dreams of secret admirers, the leopardess continued to enjoy her sleep, oblivious to the creature flying over her nearly motionless body until his hind paw's sensation against her flank startled her into awareness. Before the other leopard had finished flailing to a stop, she was up, scrambling less than gracefully back over the log. Her eyes were wild and shocked as she hid herself again partially behind it. She took a moment to appreciate the fact that he seemed too distracted (and his vision too distorted by dust) to notice her graceless retreat to the far side of the log before she cursed herself silently for falling asleep.
She decided, in her arrogance, that the other leopard was no threat; she smelled only the jungle and general... maleness on him. She composed herself, readjusting so that she stood at her full height. "For heaven's sake, would you watch where you're going?" she growled, far too annoyed to be bothered with actual aggression. Her long white tail twitched her displeasure as she gave the male a once over. She'd never seen a leopard his color. Which wasn't saying much, as she was only familiar with leopards in her family, and they were all various shades of white and beige. It had never occurred to her that leopards were any other color. Then again, she supposed not everyone could be as fine-looking as her.
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Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 11:53 am
Her voice penetrated his mind as he continued to shake himself free of the dust, but for the moment he ignored her. Getting this damned dust from his fur was much more important to him than some indignant female. It was the one thing he hated about travelling on the plains in the open. He seemed to get dirtier, and constantly had to stop to clean himself. Even if said dirt was camouflaged against his dark fur, he still knew it was there, and he had to get rid of it.
Once he was satisfied, however, he turned to look at Makuu, able to pull up without effort his shield of casual arrogance, despite the embarrassing fall he'd just taken, no thanks to her. His dark golden eyes swept the length of her that he could see, and finding nothing that stood out enough to interest him, he let his gaze come back up to meet hers. "It was more your fault than mine," he retorted. "Who sleeps on the ground when there are trees mere paces away?"
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