Ryo & Dolia

Ryo

He spots his prey, sitting on a rock. She hasn't noticed him yet. Good. He thinks. He crouches low to the ground and uses the tall grass as camouflage. His ears flinch as he hears her yawn. He hesitates, but eventually pounces. 

"Ow! Hey! Ryo, you better stop jumping on me like that! Mom says, if you're not careful, you could hurt my sensitive back!" She whines. Ryo steps back and off her. 

"Oh yeah? Is that what she said? Well, she's not here right now, is she?" He retorted.

"No, but still." She sat up prissily. She began licking her paws gracefully. 

"Dolia, you're what? One year old? We're completely independent at two! We gotta' learn to pounce, (not jump,) eventually." He answered. "Mother won't always be there for either of us." He acknowledged. 

"I know, but we still have a year. Don't gotta' rush things." Dolia shook her head angrily. 

"Well, i'm practicing. Time flies you know." Ryo sighed.

"You two! Ish you know wash goo fo you, some help your mama." A tall leopard shouted at them. She was carrying a young boar within her jaws, talking with her mouth full.  Ryo and Dolia looked at each other and simultaneously shouted,

"Mama!" they ran at her and helped drag the ripe kill up their new home, an umbrella thorn acacia tree. Ryo took a leg up to his  favorite branch and ripped off a mouthful and gulped it down.

"You eat like a savage! It'll take mama hours to get that out of your fur!" Dolia said bossily.

"Shut up and eat your food." He ordered. She looked like she wanted to disagree, but instead she turned around and hopped to her branch obediently eating her food. I guess she looks up to me. He thought. 

"Dolia, sweetie." Mother leopard asked Dolia.

"Yeah mama?" She answered.

"How's your back lately?" Mother leopard asked affectionately. 

"I'm fine." She muttered, glaring at Ryo. He rolled his eyes and gnawed on a the leg bone. The two female felines chatted about some male leopard cubs down at the watering hole. "Future mates" mother leopard called them. Ryo shook his head. She shouldn't be thinking about that yet. He thought. Dolia noticed how much this irritated him and continued with giggles here and there. 

"I'm going to play with Leo." Ryo exclaimed.

"Where?" Mother leopard questioned. "Not anywhere near that lion pride, right?" She continued.

"No mother! Of course not. You know Leo's mom. The protective one who had cubs a little before you? Her name was, or is Sarah." Ryo defended.

"Sarah?... Oh, in that case, ...allow me to come along." She nodded in his direction. 

"Okay." Ryo agreed. They walked along side each other to the grassland near the hills.

"Lusa? Is that you dear?" Sarah approached. They went to her small hidden clearing in the tall grass surrounded by bushes. The overwhelming smell of birth hit their scent glands once they entered.

"Leo's playing over by the zebra herds." Sarah announced to Ryo. We probably shouldn't have left Dolia alone like that. Ryo thought. Ryo headed in the direction of the zebra herding grounds. As a young cub he  wasn't yet taught to hunt.

"But you can't get me, wimp!" A zebra yelled at a young  male leopard. The zebra appeared to be standing in a small stream of water. The leopard watched from a tree and scooted farther back in the tree.

"How dare you?! Do you know what's happened to this poor leopards father when he tangled with water?" A small young female leopard pounced at the zebra sloppily. Ryo recognized the small leopard as Dolia and the male leopard as Leo. The zebra giggled at the sloppiness of Dolias pounce and splashed her.