Leaf fancies herself the queen of the lake. Upon her first visit, she interpreted the duck's quacking as applause. She is returning to her kingdom, this time for a hunt.
Duck Lake's queen had returned but for another purpose altogether. Nodding as her citizens once more applauded her royal entrance, she quietly approached the waters. The little red wolf was a terrible hunter, and it would take all her wit to make up for what she lacked in skill and heart. Even now, baby ducklings splashed among the gentle waves, sputtering as they attempted to hunt with tiny bobbing heads. They were what some would call precious, and she felt her heart ache.
Having become installed on the throne for less than a week, the little red wolf had never expected her rule to come to this. It was one thing to have a kingdom of ducks under your reign, but another thing to be plucking through that same kingdom for the choicest meats. Maybe she could hunt the weak and sickly. That would be fair. But having been weak and sickly before, she knew that it was anything but fair.
Crushed by the weight of her moral dilemma, the queen began to sink to the ground until she was floored. Because she was on the shore, she easily dunked her head into the waters and began to gurgle. Maybe she could just drown. |
Laksha was looking for another meal. This time she could hear the quacking of many little water birds. "Preyyy....." she purred, trotting towards the sound. Ducks swam happily in the lake, without a care in the world. The ducklings looked especially appetizing to the mad panther. She enjoyed hunting the little ones the most.
But, there was something else on the shores of the lake. A bigger, juicier prey animal. A wolf. The puma swiped her tongue across her muzzle. Her stomach gurgled in anticipation: food. Lowering into a crouch, she snuck her way closer to the wolf. On inspection however, the wolf's head was submerged underneath water. Was it dead? Laksha touched the wolf's red fur lightly with her paw. "Wolfff....?"
-waves- Why hello again, Miss Alisha!
Yet another situation that Leaf is entirely unqualified for ehe
Leaf blinked and saw the fishes swim past her without hurry or care. It was as if they sensed that the wolf was a poor hunter. Hissing at them, she watched as they hissed back--only to watch them disperse as a shadow was cast upon their patch of water. Blinking again, the little red wolf felt something nudge her.
She jerked her head out of the water.
"I'm busy!" she said before choking on her breath. Tiny water droplets flew through the air, and if the panther did not move, would land coldly onto her nose. "Why, hello there...!" she said in an octave higher than her usual voice. "Fancy meeting you here. You're a nice kitty, aren't you? Your fur looks so soft, and your teeth--" Already backpedaling a few steps, the little red wolf repositioned her feet for flight. Already she was lifting off the ground. Already she was fleeing with an uninhibited scream.
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Hello~
The red wolf, who looked a lot like the foxes she hunted a while back, turned yelled at her before realizing who and what she was. When she spun around, water from the lake splashed onto her muzzle. The white panther shook her head, glaring at the red wolf coldly.
The little wolf began speaking at a high octave then, looking very nervous and then running. Glad to start a chase, she ran after the little fox-wolf.
When it came to running away or relinquishing responsibility, Leaf was as confident as they came. It was all she had done in her life so far, and so it was understandable she had mastered it. Still, she was feeling a little bolder today, and so she decided that maybe negotiations were in order.
Drawing the predatory cat towards the aspen trees, she sprinted ahead. Figuring she had enough of a head-start, she paused to turn around and talk some sense to her hunter. (However, if the lead was not too great, she would merely call out to the cat instead). "You know what would be interesting? If I chased you. The cat is always chasing the fox or the wolf or the hapless mouse. It can be fun being chased!" Lies, but she did not think of them as lies, so surely they were anything but that!
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Little creatures were always faster than bigger ones, such were the laws of physics and mass and science. She did not really intend to kill the fox-wolf, and if she ever caught the thing she would only batter it alittle and let it go. But as she was chasing it, it was calling back to her. Some nonsense about the fox-wolf chasing her instead. The scenario made Laksha chuckle darkly. "Iff it iss fun to be chassed.....are you not having fun, little fox-wolff...?"
Yes. If she followed her own logic, then what the big, bad cat said would make perfect sense. The problem was it was not the conclusion that she desired. "Too much fun," she said as she glanced once more at the cougar. This cougar was unusually frightening in appearance. It must have been the leprous fur. Or maybe the eyes that were blood red--and which certainly must have turned redder and bloodier with each kill!
Spinning around, she barked at the cougar. It was a pathetic attempt to have her stop. "Please! Just look at me. I'm smaller than a mouse. There will be nothing on me to bite or to chew. You'd be much more satisfied sinking your teeth into bigger game--even bigger wolves!" Maybe she was trying to be winsome. Maybe she was trying to have fun. Really, she should have simply used her to speed to escape, but foolishly she stayed.
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The fox-wolf glanced back at her as they ran. The red wolf agreed with her, but she said it quite nervously. She was not having fun, but Laksha wasn't intending for her to have a fun time. Suddenly, the fox-wolf spun around and confronted her face-to-face. She pleaded that she was tough, gamy, small.
Laksha smiled maliciously. "I do not need to eat yoouuu.....I can alwayss playyy with yooouuu...."
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The little red wolf could feel her heart gasp and die as the cougar smiled with unbridled malice. In all honesty, it was a fitting look for the wild cat, but as far as she was concerned, it was look she never wanted to see ever again. Perhaps it was out of this desperation that she latched onto the cougar's words about "play." Certainly, they meant the same thing! "Play?" she croaked. "Oh! Yes. You may play with me. What game do you want to play? How about a game of Sardines?" Really, it made little sense to play a game that required more than two players, but she figured the big cat would not know about such things. Anyways, cats liked fish. Yes, they liked fish much better than wolves. More fatty acids and Omega-3 vitamins for the organs. |
The white furred puma padded forward, purring softly in glee. She loved when a few tried to bargain for their lives. But they rarely offered her anything that she would accept. What would they have that she needed? But then she paused when the fox-wolf named a game. "Sardinesss?" She'd never heard of the game.
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Her negotiation skills were amusing, at best. "Oh yes! You know, it's a game named after the little fish you find in the metal tin boxes," she said, her voice hurried and breathless. "I will go try to find my metaphorical tin box," she said, and if it were possible, she would have raised her paws in order to make quotation marks in the air, but let us pretend for a moment that this writer actually respects the realism of wolves. "Then you will try to find me. If you have other wolf-friends, they can hide with me, and you win when you find all us. Rewarded with a tin box of wolves," she rambled on, though the last bit sent a small shudder through her body. It was one thing to think of the cougar feasting on her body, but another thought altogether to think of several, vacuum-sealed wolves neatly arranged for the cougar's dining pleasure. |
Laksha's maddened brain couldn't really comprehend what the fox-wolf was getting at. Tin box? What was tin? Metaphorical? What? She shook her head and growled. "I don't underrsstaandd...." she whined with confusion. The voices in her head still urged her to attack, but there was a buzzing in there too. The white cougar growled and shook her head again, harder.
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The little red wolf was confusing her. Perhaps she could use this to her advantage. With a haughty laugh, she brought up her paw to her face. "Oh, I'm terrible at explaining games," she said. "Basically, you stay here," she continued taking a few steps back from the cougar. Gingerly and with measured pace. "And I will go hide." More steps. "Don't move until you can't see or smell me anymore!" With her back-shuffling, the little red wolf was soon some distance away and without further ceremony turned to flee from the cougar as fast as she could. She was done playing--or rather, having her life played with. It was time to scram! "Say Sardines when you find me!" |
When the fox-wolf explained it more simply for her, Laksha almost growled in anger after putting two and two together. So she was trying to trick her by running? How stupid did she think she was? Quite a lot, actually, but that was besides the point. She would play this game of "Sardines", but she would play by her rules. Let her run, she would follow.
The fox-wolf ran, going as fast as she could. The white cougar waited a moment, then yowled, chasing after the red canine.
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Leave it to a cougar to be cheating at a kid's game! Not bothering to turn back this time, Leaf continued to plunge through the trees and slowly made her way back to her pack home. Hopefully there, her predator would be deterred enough to realize that they would never quite finish their silly game of Sardines. It was a shame really for the game could be entertaining with the right amount and kind of wolves. Maybe next time, she would amass an entire army of wolves on her side. That would make it fair. |