The King Of Cats

-The King of Cats-
By: Lance Petersen & Spence Moore
September 10th, 2007

Prologue
The hot afternoon sun beat down on the grassy Southern plains. Almost everything was still, besides 10 small gazelles that grazed on the scarce green grass that grew near a watering hole. Their attention was on eating and drinking at the watering hole, not on the young male cheetah that watched them from the tall sun scorched grass that stood behind them. He purred softly with the excitement of the hunt. he waited till a soft warm breeze picked up that swayed the grass, then he stalked forward so that the wind masked the sound of his approach. He could hardly contain himself he was so excited.

He came to the edge of the grass and stopped, he could see the gazelles were becoming uneasy. They kept peeking up from the watering hole and from eating the grass. They pricked their ears in all directions, listening for any unusual sound. The cheetah watched the one closest to him, as it uneasily searched the long grass.

He stood completely still and layed low, just watching. The gazelle finally decided to put it's head back down to graze, and the cheetah saw his chance. He croutched even lower the grass, readying his agilelegs and then burst out of the grass at blinding speed. The gazelle saw him coming from the grass about 20 yards away and yelped in fright, taking off with a leap into the air. The chase was on The other gazelles scattered yelping frantically, leaving the cheetah and the other gazelle in life and death race.

The gazelle ran in a zig-zag pattern and took big leaps, trying to lose the cheetah who bared down ono it at speeds topping 60 miles per hour. It cleared a large tree trunk leaping high and then made a sharp turn to the right, hoping to shake the predator. The cheetah jumped easily over the fallen tree and followed the gazelle. Hadrian the cheetah quickly made up for lost time until he was right behind the frightened animal. he then pulled out his long hunting knife and lept into the air, before the cat landed on top of the gazelle, he plunged the hunting knife into its back. The gazelle and Hadrian tumbled akwardly over each other for about fifteen feet, but when they finally skidded to a halt, Hadrian arouse and then hoisted the one hundred and seventy pound gazelle bodilly over his head.
Hadrian's hunting party then sprung out from their hiding places, both whooping and applauding at their friends kill. Hadrian took a short bow, "It was nothing." Hadrian said with a smirk. He then slung the gazellle carcass over his shoulder. "We did good today." He said triumphantly,"When the village sees these three kills they'll throw us a parade." Hadrian then glanced down at his companions kills. "Well they'll at least throw a parade for mine!" Said Hadrian boastfully. Hadrian's friend Bern stopped in his tracks as they walked towards their village.

"You just got lucky, I can make better kills in my sleep Hadrian!"