Letting her claws dig into the soft earth beneath her, the leopardess Pik decided today was a good day to go and hunt down her next meal. Well, she really just wanted to scout and see where the closest herd was. She had some zebra left after her last scavenging trip.

So, the brown and teal female set out when the sun was barely peeking into the sky. The kiss between sun and sky cast beautiful oranges, pinks, and purples that reflected off the dew on the grasses she moved through, making a smile tug at her lips. The area she picked to call home was perfect. It was a tree filled area with lots of grasses and bushes that attracted all sorts of animals. Not too far ahead, maybe two hours, was a field of nothing but grass and flowers.

That’s where she was hoping to see some sign of life.


Mikhail hadn’t slept. He was up all night because some local monkeys decided their job was to torment the poor, flame maned male. He was exhausted beyond belief, irritable, and everything seemed to be going completely wrong for him.

Green eyes glared upwards at the trees as he passed by the last of them before stepping into the damp grasses. He didn’t care about the pretty colors in the sky. All he wanted to do was find a good spot to curl up and actually, finally just pass out and let sleep do the magic it does.

He scanned the area and found, off on one side, was a large stone that was at an angle, but looked like it’d do perfectly for what he had in mind.

So, the large male hopped on and situated himself. It wasn’t quite big enough. His back legs dangled off, and his tail was in the grass, but honestly? He didn’t care. Mikhail was asleep in a matter of moments.


A bit after two hours and Pik was at her destination. The field was empty this morning, which made her frown, but she shrugged. Something would surely show up here later. Moving to the East, she went back into the wooded area before finding the spring and took her drink from it. It was nice and cold, quenching the thirst and soothing the raw feeling in her throat.

“Now we just wait,” the leopardess said, huffing loudly.

Somehow she hadn’t spotted the male lion on the rock yet. Not even as her paws took her into the clearing.

What did happen, was she flopped over onto her side and started rolling around in this one patch of grass that smelled so good. She rubbed her sides and back all over this grass while laughter echoed around the area.


“Keep it DOWN!” Mikhail let out in his booming, growling voice. Were those monkeys following him still? Did they really risk it all and come out into a clearing where they had no cover.


His head snapped up and he scanned the area before he noticed the grasses wiggling and swaying like something was playing in them.

With every intention to kill, he slipped off the rock and slowly made his way to where the laughter and the grasses rustled. Every fiber of Mikhail’s being was telling him he was too tired for this - it was going to end badly. Yet here he was, being stubborn. When he thought he was close enough, and the wiggling grasses didn’t stop wiggling, Mikhail pounced.


She had heard the voice screaming at someone to keep it down. Pik didn’t think it was directed at her, due to the fact she was alone as far as she knew. So she’d ignored it. It sounded like some father who needed sleep desperately and was being denied anyway.

So the leopardess continued to scratch that itch with the grass and couldn’t stop the groaning and giggling that came with it. Sometimes the grass tickled! She couldn’t help it. Call her a victim of nature.

However, her good time was quickly soured when she was suddenly jumped and pinned by something much larger than her.

The air was knocked from her lungs, a wheeze leaving her as something had collided with her ribs, barreling her over. That’s when she knew she was in trouble. She kicked out with her back legs, trying to get whoever, whatever it was on her on off.

“Let me go!”


When he pounced and pinned what he had thought was the monkey, Mikhail’s eyes opened and he was extremely surprised to see a leopardess under him instead.

In any other circumstance, he wouldn’t mind a leopardess under him, but he quickly scrambled when she shouted to get off of her and backed up. That’s not how he thought this would go. His green eyes were wide as sauces as he lowered his head, his ears back and tail completely down and still behind him.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I thought you were one of the monkeys who have been harassing me all night.”

He looked her over without stepping closer, swallowing thickly. How could he have messed up that badly?


When the weight was off of her and the breath returned, Pik coughed hard a few times and then got to a proper laying down position where she continued to just focus on on breathing. The leopardess glared hard at the lion that had offended her.

“A MONKEY?” She rasped, fur prickling and standing on edge. “Do I LOOK like a monkey to you?” She was not enjoying that at all. “Maybe if you would actually look before your pea-brain pounced you would have seen it was me and not a stupid monkey!”

Pik got to her paws and put herself right in front of the lion, puffing out like appearing bigger would do anything.


”I said I was sorry!”

Mikhail was cowering back. He knew what it was like when females got in a rage. At least female lions, how different could leopards be? He swallowed and just ducked his head more. When the leopardess stepped forward, Mikhail stepped back, trying to not get within striking range.

“It’s the truth! I was setting up for the night under a tree, when this troupe of monkeys come and splatter me with fruits and nuts. Then they started throwing rocks! I came here to try to escape them and just sleep.”

He was very, very close to sounding like he was whining.


“Well look before you take action next time! You could have killed me!”

With that said, Pik put one paw on the lion’s chest and gave him a hard shove. With that done, the leopardess was going to head back. There was no sense in being here if a lion was. They were going to scare away all the prey animals and make her job a lot harder.

So, before the lion could really respond or do much else, the leopardess was already heading back to the trees. Before disappearing, however, she stopped and gave Mikhail one last scathing look before going behind a large bush and out of sight.

“Monkeys. A likely story,” she muttered to herself. It was going to be along, long day.


Mikhail had ended up stumbling back and tripping on himself when Pik shoved him. He found himself on his back, staring up at the sky and just wondering to the gods what he had done to deserve this. This wasn’t fair.

With his anxiety starting to claw at him, Mikhail got back to his paws, watched Pik glare at him and disappear, before he finally headed back over to the rock.

With a huff and a sigh, the lion got situated again before closing his eyes.

There was no sense in not sleeping. He seriously needed it before he actually got himself killed.