As she slinked her way through the tall, concealing grass, her watchful eyes focus on her prey. The pair of amber observers were hinted with the slightest white, the overhead sun reflecting off of them in an elegant glint. She crouched lower as she slide steathily forwards. The beating of the consistent river before her was a regular echoing in her ears.
Her movements were easy and practised, and as she reached the edge of the flowing blue, she coiled to spring. Not only would one punce pelt her across the soothing river, it would place her upon her prey with a few heartbeats. Her body was tensed, but she froze momentarily as the soft snap of a dry twig emited from her right. Her eyes slid in teh according direction, and she leant still lower as she listened, all of her senses now concentrating on the supposedly empty jungle around her.
She heard nothing else; saw nothing else. There were no shudders of the ground below her to inform her of another's presence; and there was no taste in the air to suggest something was wrong. Any suspicious scents around her were clouded by that of her oblivious prey, to which she returned her worthy attention.
Nothing moved, her eyes only saw the twitching animal in front of her. Her muscles prepared, her heart beat, her eyes lit, and her teeth bared. Her natural instincts took over her reactions as she leapt into the still air, aimed precisely at her next meal. Only as the shot of a poised gun thrummed through the air did she realise what was about to happen. Her strong snarl was choked off by the invasion of human nature into her life.
The cold metal bullet reached her, and she plummeted into the gushing water beneath her. Soon, the perfect aqua was stained red, and carried the guilt or death though the mourning jungle. The light in her shining eyes was gone, the tension in her pounce lost, the mind behind her senses extingished; but the motivation for her hunt lived on.
Three miles away, awakening in a deep, hidden shade and protected by the countless trees that towered above them, three young tiger cubs heard their mother's final roar.
