Kovu thought his eyes were deceiving him. There looked like a patch of grass moving through the grass towards him. But there it was, tall fronds of grass waving in the air as they approached...straight for him!
Desperately Kovu went for the loop around his foot again, but it was useless. His head banged against the ground again for his trouble...
And he found himself looking up into blue eyes that seemed as shocked to see him as he was them. Kovu thought that he was seeing some horrible fusion of animal and plant, but no, this was a lion and a female too by the smell of her. She was wearing a bizarre amalgamation of the native flora draped across her head and back. It was all weaved into some sort of cloak, it hung low over her blue eyes.
She blew up at the grass hanging over her face to clear her line of sight and then smirked down at the lion whose foot was caught high in the air. She clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, "Well, well, what have I caught today?"
"What? You?" blustered Kovu, this was all making very little sense and the blood was pounding in his ears. "Y-you made this thing?"
The lioness looked at her claws, turning her paw this way and that nonchalantly. Her fur was darkly colored even darker than his. "I did. And now I have to decide what to do with you, Outlander."
The word stung strangely despite the accuracy of the title. Kovu's mouth gaped, "What do you mean decide? Get me down!" His back flexed and the sapling lifted him a couple inches into the air, only to drop him back down onto the back of his neck.
"What, and have some rogue male lion running loose around here, marking every tree and bush in sight?" the lioness said, as if affronted by the notion. She lowered her paw and shifted her weight. It was then that kovu saw that this lioness was really BIG. With none of the usual odors associated with pregnancy, this female sported a round belly that hung even with her chest and was wider at the waist than Kovu was at his shoulders. She traded her weight side to side often, as if standing were slightly uncomfortable.
But Kovu did not linger on the lioness's unusual appearance. "What are you going to do then? Leave me here?"
"Don't test me." she growled, suddenly nose to nose with the snared lion. "That option is still on the table."
Kovu pulled with his foot, bending the sapling further and shaking a few leaves off its thin branches as a demonstration. "You can't. I'll break out of this thing by myself in time."
The lioness hissed in agitation, and perhaps more than a little fear. Despite her excess weight, Kovu could tell, even from this precarious position that he was bigger than her in stature and frame. Then she raised her claw, extending sharp claws above Kovu's neck. "You raise a good point, Outlander. I just might have to kill you myself."
Kovu winced, wondering what in Africa he had gotten himself into, but he saw that her paw was shaking, the look in her slit pupils uncertain. He took a deep breath and relaxed his body. "Look, this got off to a bad start. I'm not here to hurt you."
The lioness kept her paw raised but some tension relaxed from the wrinkles on her snout. "Why are you here, Outlander?"
"I just came in search of water and food. I've been traveling the desert for a week." said Kovu. "And would you stop calling me 'Outlander?' My name's Kovu." He reached out a paw towards hers, but she flinched, retracting it. He rested it back against his stomach, content just to not have claws hanging above his throat. "What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"
The chubby lioness shifted uncomfortably and blew again at the grass hanging over her eyes. "Mipa." she said.
The fear if immanent death poured out of Kovu's spine like a bad poison. "See? That wasn't so hard, Mipa." said Kovu, looking up at her from the ground. She looked down, but seemed uncomfortable with direct eye contact. Her ear twitched when he said her name. "Seriously, I'm not here to hurt you. In fact, I'll probably be on my way in a few days, I just need to get a few good meals in me before I go back out into the desert."
Mipa looked away, brown fur rippling over her thick neck. She drew a breath through clasped teeth, clearly uncertain.
Kovu didn't like the way she refused to look at him. He tried again. "Mipa." she looked down, "Please let me go? You don't even have to see me again, the oasis is a big place. It'll be like I'm not even here, then I'll be gone."
She grimaced in obvious distress, showing her gleaming white fangs. Her breath smelled of blood; she'd recently eaten. Kovu wondered if it was her kill he'd been scenting up this side of the mountain. "I-I can't do that. I'm sorry, but I have to go."
She turned and left, her cloak of grass rasping softly as she made her way through the long stalks.
"Mipa! Mipa wait! Come back!" Kovu shouted after her, but she was already gone. There was no sign of disturbance through the grass she'd disappeared into besides her lingering odor, mild for a lioness and yet strangely spiced in a way with which he was unfamiliar.
Kovu slumped with his neck against the ground. His hip socket was starting to hurt from supporting the majority of his body weight. He shook his head, sparing a moment to bask in the sheer wonder of encountering such an odd member of his own species. With a sigh, he then turned his efforts back to trying to break free of the snare, hopefully before whoever she went to talk to comes back.
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