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

Chapter 4

The first thing that probably caught the leopard attention as he followed the two young humans were the strange antics that they acted out. It was a granted that he didn't, couldn't possibly know what they were for or why the humans were doing it because he'd only been close to a human once, but no matter how he much he didn't know the black leopard couldn't scratch the itch of amusement and curiousity he'd get whenever they did anytthing strange. Despite the earlier occurances, the young leopard became increasingly fascinated by them. Interacting with them was something he was aching to do. He just wanted to get to know them more, but for now he knew he couldn't do that. The idea that they could and would kill him wasn't something that sat well with him. He could see now why the rule existed with animals, humans clearly weren't the type to take lightly. They could kill him just as well as he could kill them.

A long couple of metres away from him one of the three boys laughed loudly, catching the leopard's attention. "We're definetely getting a feast today. It's a big haul tonight. If we're lucky Elder might just give us another prize for catching this for the village."

The smallest of them grinned and began to skip in his steps as he whirled around to face the others. "The other villages are going to shake in their houses, that small boys like us could do such an amazing thing as this."

"You're right," the middle one chortled out, "Even we haven't got a large one like this since Elder Tak became a grandpa. He used to be the most talented out of all the gatherers."

"Well that was until he retired." The smallest rolled his eyes, then bent to come closer as he stared at the bundle of blood-covered rabbits. 

The leopard's eyes drew away from the sight of the small things, his head not able to process why the humans would do such as to try and kill so many animals at once. If they needed food, why not just take enough - he understood that there was going to alot of humans, but surely even that amount was pushing it too far - he'd always learnt to take only what he needed, apparently this didn't apply to humans. This made his stomach drop, more than anything he found that sickening. 

"So what?" The tallest reached down, swatting the smallest boy on the shoulder, "we're the best gatherers now. Isn't that obvious?"

Ears flicking ever so slightly, the leopard's head tilted to one side as they chattered on like a herd of excited bees, buzzing aggresively whenever they guarded their nest of honey. It was almost comical the way they interacted, comical in a dark way. 

The midnight cool air, tickled the leopard's dark fur as it blew against him. Bright eyes open wide, they glanced up at the sky before his eyes grinned appreciatively at Mother Nature's winds. At times like this, those things calmed him down considerably and seemed to sweep any tension out of his body. Night time is and will always be the leopard's favourite time of day, because that was where he belonged, mending into the coverage of the blackness. With one quick movement his head snapped back down in front of him, his eyesight despite the distance picked up every little movement that went about in his vision and ears able to pick up most sounds that appeared. When suddenly, he stopped. 

The leopard tensed up instantly before his talons were out fully, his nose twitched at the scent of an unfamiliar smell of another animal. Slinking back a couple of steps, he retreated as much as he could into the cover of a few bushes as every bone in his body moved into motion. 

It wasn't something he'd ever smelt before, not from any animal he'd ever come across. 

His shoulders dropped as well as his hind legs as he withdrew down lower to the ground beneath his feet, before the ears on top  flattened against his head and tail dropped down. He was stupid. The humans had walked straight into the territory of an animal, and he had followed them right into it.