Too Close

Another day lost, wasted by the sands of time and the natural requirement for rest and sustinance. Another day lost, another morning to come.

The sky woke with a brilliant display of blazing light spilling out from the horizon as the rising sun arose. Banishing the night's gentle and dangerous lullaby to cull while the insects began their dawn song. The aloof and energetic chirps of bird cries singing out before they fell to silence rather abruptly. Experience and thousand year survival instinct hushign them as far below the pale blue skies a lone figure prowled along the savannah.

The hazy mist and thick morning dew providing little shelter when from a bird eye's view. But the morning fog obscured the gray pelted predator enough on the ground as a low growl of anticipation swelled from the lionesses chest. She could smell it; taste it. The spill of salivation tickling her senses as the fresh tantalizing scent of a hoofed-creature reached her. Usiku's body grew ever still, rigid as a statue and molded like a stone. Save for the violet eyes that trailed her surroundings with patience.

Prey. Meat. Zebra. In the distance she spotted it, the end of her tail flicking back and forth as she stood crouched low to the ground among the long golden grasses. Her gaze glittering with a bitter amusement. Every muscle in her body quivered with the full attention of the huntress. The subtle graze of her claws unsheathing from their hidden bads to knead against the soil; it was a long creature. This striped animal, but not wholly alone. Thirty yards off the remainder of the herd grazed, likley even more once they finally noticed the bird song had ceased. Only a matter of seconds before the herd would take the silence as a warning and flee.

Not much time to make her move then, eh?

Focused now she started off slow, a stealth full lope through the underbrush. Drawing nearer with each moment, and the closer she got, the faster she went. Her blood thrummed, pulsating throughout every vein in her lively body. Ears slicked down, mitts curving as she managed a full bound fledge towards them, unseen until she was fifteen yards away.

Without hesitation the herd scattered, angling themselves in different directions at first until coming together again, sprinting away. But she wasn’t about to let them go, not without having her own form of satisfaction first. Muscles tightening, her strides began heavier and longer. Talons shredding up the dry blades beneath her feet, tail thrashing one way to the next in order to keep an according balance.

All thoughts were gone. Complete and utter instinct took hold as the fierce build of the lioness propelled foreword until she was near the flank of one of the zebras. Deadly powerful jowls snapping aggressively for the hind limb, her left arm swinging for the rear. Latching on the backside as it turned into a tumble.

The thrill of the hunt was almost as fulfilling to watch as it was to participate in. The white lion had found it harder to hunt, and had passed through the Shadowlands and into the Savannah to find his next meal. He had watched the silver lioness charge through and scatter the herd. His blue eyes continued to watch her as she latched on to the Zebra. The herd was too startled for him to chase, and so he would keep hunting. Sure, he could try to take this female's food, but he was not that sort of lion. His tail flicked as he decided to watch and see where this would go. It looked like she had the Zebra down, but he had been in situations, and seen them, where it looked like the prey was down, but they would go down fighting.