Hunted (Private)

[Ruby_Fehu]

"All the time." Lailah replied, rolling her eyes. "Normally he does have a good reason though."


Ezekiel padded away from the village, he'd just seen what he thought was a hyena eyeing up a human cub that was playing. THe child Ezekiel approached was no older than five and sure enough she was eye to eye with a particularly hungry looking hyena. Without a second thought Ezekiel started snarling loudly.

[Deleted]

With Zeke out of sight, Wasana kept eating until all the food was gone. It was way too much, as usual, but at least now she had Lail to help her (although she suspected they were bringing her more now that Lail and Zeke were back). Afterwards the humans carried her back inside on her litter, and she began preparing the medicine from the herbs and roots and mushrooms Zeke had returned with. "Pass me the yellow root?" she said to Lail

[Ruby_Fehu]

Lailah nudged the herb forward and settled on her haunches to help.


The hyena yelped loudly and dived at Ezekiel who began roaring and snarling as he fought with it whilst the kid ran back to the village shouting in fear.

[Deleted]

Wasana picked up the mortar and pestle and started grinding, when she heard the humans shouting. "What's going on out there?"

Humans soon came to the boy and Zeke's aid, their spears lowered at the hyena.

[Ruby_Fehu]

Ezekiel who was obviously still weakened from the journey lunged at the hyena but it dodged and dived on him sinking its teeth into Ezekiel who roared loudly.


Lailah raised her head and padded out of the cave to see what was going on and her eyes widened, "It's a hyena, it's fighting with Zeke."

[Deleted]

Wasana raised her head. "Is he alright?"

The humans soon surrounded the fighting pair, drawing the baby away. At opportune times they jabbed the hyena with their spears, but spared Ezekiel.

[Ruby_Fehu]

The hyena ran away yelping, cuts on its side leaving Ezekiel to limp back to the crowd of humans, he huffed a little hoping it sounded appreciative.


"Yes, he's safe." Lailah said with a sigh of relief.

[Deleted]

Wasana sighed. "Good. I wish he would have taken you with him," she said. "I would love to have helped him but.., I'm useless in such situations." She hang her head a little bit, then gritted her teeth and kept grinding roots.

[Ruby_Fehu]

"No your not." Lailah said softly, "Besides he would go mad if you were in a fight, he wants to keep you safe."


Ezekiel padded back to his sister and mate and smiled softly at them both.

[Deleted]

Wasana put the grinding stone down and looked at her mate sternly. "Where have you been?"

[Ruby_Fehu]

"A hyena was about to attack a man cub." He replied, cowering a little at her rage.

[Deleted]

"So tell me. Or tell your sister so she can help," she said, picking up the stone and grinding angrily. "Every time you run away like that, it hurts me here." She pointed to her chest. "It's like you don't trust me enough to tell me anything. Please, please, just let me know what you're doing so I know whether I should do anything. Don't you trust me?"

[Ruby_Fehu]

"If I didn't go when I did, that human cub would be dead. I didn't have time to tell you." He snapped, "It's not that I don't trust you I just want to keep you safe." He continued.


Lailah bit her lip as the couple started arguing before slinking out of the cave to leave them alone.

[Deleted]

"How does you keeping me in the dark keep me safe?" Wasana asked. Tears were coming to her eyes. "I don't want you to go into great detail," she sniffed. "Just something like, 'hyena!' would do. How would that endanger me? That way, when you in off and it's nothing you can tell me, and I'll know to relax. I don't want to be frightened every time you take off."

[Ruby_Fehu]

"If I said hyena or was a few seconds later that kid would be dead." Ezekiel snarled, "He's still a child, he can't defend himself. He's also your human pets brother." He snapped, getting annoyed now.

[Deleted]

Wasana put the stone down and turned her face away to cry. She'd been trying to hold it back, but couldn't now. She cried as silently as she could into her paw.

[Ruby_Fehu]

Ezekiel, stormed out of the cave with annoyance just as Lailah returned, "What happened? Are you okay?" She asked softly, going over to her friend and nuzzling her.

[Deleted]

Wasana heard him go, and realised he did it again. Left without a word. Lail soon came in and comforted her. Through her tears Wasana said, "It's just a disagreement, is all." She sniffed, wiping away the tears. "I'm just tired of worrying about him. He's been gone for so long. He's just got back and he's already fighting with hyenas. I just want him to be safe. If anything happened to him..."

[Ruby_Fehu]

"He's strong, nothing will happen to him. You shouldn't take it personally though if he keeps running off without you. He just wants to keep you safe; he is completely besotted with you and would move heaven and earth for you." Lailah smiled reassuringly.

[Deleted]

Wasana wiped at her tears, but then put in a brave face when the humans walked in. "Ah, it's time for me to begin healing people," she said, and sniffed. "I need to finish this potion, then treat everyone who's waiting. There's a lot these days. I'll probably be busy until sundown." She looked Lail in the eye. Would you mind helping me? I asked Zeke to find some mushrooms that grow on dead bodies. Would you mind getting some food and putting it at the back of the cave, where it's dark, then finding the left over mushrooms and burying them under the soil, just under the food? If we can grow our own, it might save Zeke another three-month trip."

[Ruby_Fehu]

Lailah nodded and padded off to grab some meat. It took about half an hour for her to move and bury stuff before she soon returned to Wasana. Ezekiel was nowhere to be found.

[Deleted]

Wasana was busy past sundown treating and curing humans, well into the night. She worked by the light of the bonfire, which the humans kept feeding as they kept feeding Wasana. Lail was not immune either: it was hard for the humans to take no for an answer when it came to food.
Only once the hour was late did the humans allow the fire to die down to embers. Wasana was returned to the cave lying on her side. Her huge stomach took up most of the litter, drowning her chubby legs in its folds and creases. She was asleep by the time they set her down, ears, whiskers and toes twitching in the midst of her dreams. But as soon as the humans left she awoke suddenly, breathing heavily. "Zeke...?" She looked about the cave's dark shadows, then sighed, and lowered her head.

[Ruby_Fehu]

It was late into the night when Ezekiel returned. He was still annoyed but he had missed Wasana so he padded up to her and lay, curled around her; his head resting on her back.


Lailah slunk to the outskirts of the village where she met with a large dark male and three small cubs, she smiled and nuzzled them each in turn before retreating a small distance away to a smaller cave and settling down with her small family.

[Deleted]

Wasana woke in the wee hours of the morning, breathing a deep sigh of relief as she felt Zeke against her. She raised a paw to touch his mane, but he was too far away over the vast expanse of her stomach for her to reach him. So she simply rested her head, thinking miserably on the goings on of last night.

[Ruby_Fehu]

Ezekiel stirred a little when he felt Wasana moving and opened his eyes, blinking sleepily.

[Deleted]

"Good morning," Wasana said, smiling gently. "How did you sleep?"

[Ruby_Fehu]

"Alright, eventually. What about you? And where is Lail?" He asked curiously.

[Deleted]

"I had some bad dreams, but ok otherwise," she said. Now that he was awake, she made the effort of rolling her huge body over so she could reach out to him, and touched him on the cheek. "I missed you," she whispered.

[Ruby_Fehu]

"I missed you too." He murmured nuzzling her affectionately.

[Deleted]

Wasana enjoyed that, closing her eyes, enjoying her mate's attention. She allowed it for a few minutes, but the discomfort inside her from last night grew inside her chest like heartache. So after a while, she said gently, "I want to talk about some things... things that are important, but I don't know how to talk about it without upsetting you."