The Leopard's Love: Blood-arc Series, #5 - (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 3

Bit by bit, with every step, the young leopard started to increase his speed. His legs dug into the ground and drove him forward with strained force. It was still dark right now, but the black leopard knew that he would soon need to find some sort of concealing place as a shelter when the sun rises up and repaints the midnight colours of the dark skies into a bright canvas of the morning golds. He knew, without a doubt that his black coat would attract unwanted attention from friends and foes, and right now he just wanted nothing more than for his journey to be quick and simple. That meant that nights were the only time he'd be able to travel and move around in, day times were for rest and hiding from sight.

This time as the leopard's feet pounded on the floor beneath him as they sprang into motion, he didn't feel as exhausted as before. Having that two hour nap was what he needed desperately - his own head felt like it had split in bits and smashed by a hammer - as he hadn't gotten any proper sleep since he'd started moving, and that was days ago. 

With eyes more attentive and fierce, the light coloured orbs stayed on the path ahead while his legs and nimble, graceful body leapt around the dense tangles of things that blocked his way. Ears flattened on his head as his tail swung wildly behind him. The sky wasn't pitch dark, more like a milder black that still let the light from the moon still shine through, and although the leopard coul see, the speed at which he was going made the scenery blur evem more as they past him. Invading his vision, a tree appeared out of nowhere out in a distance to his right. Underneath him, his legs continued to run in a straight line just beside the tree but just as he neared it his nose twitched at the smell of other animals. Then, his eyes were caught by something hanging down the canopies. With a shocked yelp his front legs tightened and he skidded to a halt just before he reached it. A bit shaken up, the black leopard forced his head up to the sight of the small panicked rabbits stuck in some kind of container, and felt his stomach drop at the sight of it.

Some of them wriggled and whined, struggling to their fullest of strength but no matter what they did ,nothing helped them get out of it. One of the rabbits were chewing on the strings so vigorously that it's own teeth were now covered with fresh blood. His eyes bore into it and cocked slightly to the side in confususion when he looked at he pouch that held these animals - it was the first time he'd seen anything like it - and he froze.

Then, bang. The sharp sound erupts from somewhere close by shaking the silence of the night. The leopard immediately moved into action, tensing himself up before whirling around and retreating back the way he went. As his nose picked up other strange and foul smells, and his ears rang with alert at the clip clop of closing footsteps, the black leopard pushed himself back behind some bushes and let the dark shadow him just as they came into sight.

There stood three young boys, all in tattered but identical pieces of clothes as they neared the tree. He'd only ever seen a human once, but he knew enough from other animals that they were probably from nearby villages that lay across the far distance. He had heard that they weren't a threat as they almost never make it this far into the untouched region of the wilderness, but then that made him question what and why these humans were here?

"We've got so many!" the tallest of the three blew out a loud laugh and began grinning too much, "who said that we can't get this many? And if we paired it with the others that we just shot, then we'd probably have a whole lot now."

The delight and excitement in these boys were clear on their faces. As they turned to take another greedy glance at the group of rabbits, their faces morphed into the faces of proud lions - teeth on full display and eyes intense.

The smallest boy threw his arms in the air as started to dance around in circles. His hands and legs performed something that looked a ceremonial dance. 

"Elder Tak is going to be praising us tomorrow, we'll be able to go out and be the ones protecting all the girls and children. We'll finally be respected like we deserve to be." He announced as he spoke with total certainty.

The boy in the middle only glanced down at him and sighed before giving a slight shrug. "...We can't be sure about that. It might not happen, you know how he is! He's as stubborn as a mule. He won't even listen to our reasons before he sends us away."

Behind the bushes the black leopard's eyes moved with every movement and thing that they did, interest and curiousity bubbles out of him as he observed the strange gestures and way that they acted. Seeing actual people this close to him, frightened him but at the same time it made feel intrigued. The rule to never mix with humans was very clear and absolute with every animal, but he couldn't help but want to find out more about them. His head shook and tail flicked in annoyance at his own child-like curiosity, that shouldn't be how he's supposed to feel but he could do nothing to sooth the impatience to need to know more about humans and the unknown places beyond.

When strangled cries floated through the air to his ears, he snapped out of his thoughts and his eyes flew back to the three human boys but imediately regretted doing so. In each of their hands, were a bundle of now injured rabbits. Most had their legs or arms bent and broken, as the boys continued collecting them before shoving them into sacks. The leopard went stiff at the sight as doubts started flying through his head. 

At first the thought that ran through his head was that the other animals were right. Mixing with humans really was something that should never happen. If the leopard had shown itself to the humans or they'd caught sight of him, then he was sure that he'd end up treated like how the rabbits were being treated. They'd try and kill him. 

Turning away from them, he pushed the still remaining large curiosity that still sat in the back of his heart and clenched back the urge to follow them as their footsteps started disappearing. As much as his own instincts clawed at him to head back, ignore the humans and continue to focus on travelling. But the black leopard's legs moved automatically, as they pulled him off the ground and onto his feet again. With one step, his legs moved and his shoulders bent down as he lowered himself to the floor. His tongue gave one lick to his front paws to clean them before he stalked and started following the humans' scent. With his eyes wide open, they took in everything from his surroundings and trailed after them. He let the darkness cover him as his body moved underneath and behind things so that it could shadow him. If it was dangerous, if they were going to kill the leopard if he's ever spotted, then he would be fine as long as he wasn't noticed by them. So if he didn't directly interact with them, it would be fine.