Gonen was on the prowl for someone who needed saving. It had been awhile since he had actually protected anyone or helped anyone. He supposed you could call the young lioness that he had guarded overnight someone he had helped, but well that hadn’t gone as well as he had thought it should have, he honestly was a little of ashamed of himself.

So now the grey lion was prowling a forested area to see if he could find anyone who needed help, or specifically the type of help he could offer.


Cefni was limping her paw hurt and it was putting her in a bad mood. It was uncommon for the pale leopardess to be grouchy; she was normally the friendliest creature walking the earth.

She sighed take a seat under a tree and tried to take a look at her paw, the fact of the matter was though it was awfully difficult to take a look at one’s rear paw. She was squirming back and forth trying to find a position in which she could see the pads on her back right foot.


Gonen was plodding along singing to himself. He was hoping that he would be able to find someone in distress. Though he didn’t want someone to be in too much distress, he would never will ill of anyone. But if he was going to rescue someone he needed someone to needed to at least need him a little bit.

His eyes were scanning the forest ahead of him. It was quite strange that he hadn’t seen anyone in the area for quite some time. He thought for sure that the forest would be somewhat inhabited, perhaps he had chosen the wrong place for a rescue mission.


Cefni could hear the approaching creature before she could see them. She held her breath for a moment a little upset that she wasn’t in her usual spot up in a tree. She had never had to pick a fight and found that most others she had crossed were in fact friendly but now would be a really bad time to find that first unfriendly soul.

She held her breath waiting to see what was about to come through the trees at her. She tried to come up with an escape route but she knew the harsh truth, she wasn’t going to be getting anywhere very fast if there other creature meant her harm she wasn’t going to be able to get away.


Gonen spotted a little bit of movement and froze. He tried to survive the situation ahead of him. He moved slightly so that he could see through the bushes at what was ahead of him. He could see a pale colored leopardess sitting beneath a tree not too far away.

She seemed distraught over something. Perfect he thought someone in distress that I can save. He moved ahead with a skip in his step. He was going to do this right. He was going to save her or help her or do whatever it was that she needed. Though he hoped that it wasn’t advice he was a good listener but he didn’t tend to be very good with advice. He supposed that he hadn’t had enough life experience to offer very sound life advice.


Cefni saw the grey lion break through the trees ahead of her and if she wasn’t mistaken he was skipping? It was a very strange sight indeed. “Hello” she said with a hint of fear in her voice. She was trying very hard to keep it out of her voice but there was only so much fear that she could keep under wraps and right now with an unknown large lion approaching her and an injured paw Cefni was over her limit.

She tried to rise to her feet and stumbled a little, whatever was hurting her paw was keeping her from even standing on it. She sighed and took a seat again. “Something is wrong with my paw.” She said point blank. She wasn’t in the mood to beat around the bush and if he was going to give her a problem he might as well know there wasn’t going to be any fight from her.


Gonen moved forward more slowly as he made it to the leopardess. He could see that she was frightened and he didn’t want to make matters worse. “My name is Gonen.” He told her in a gentle voice. He noticed when she tried to stand that something was wrong with her back paw, his suspission was confirmed when she announced rather abruptly that her paw was injured.

“Well if you like I could take a look for you.” He said as he gingerly moved forward, he didn’t want to spook her or make her feel like she had to run away. He had a feeling that her running would not end well for her. He bent a little as he got closer to her so that he was closer to her feet. “Lift it up let me take a look” he said gently.


Cefni sighed, she wasn’t sure if it was a sigh of relief or despair. When Gonen offered to take a look at her foot she attempted a small smile. She was grateful for his help but she still wasn’t sure that she could trust him. She gingerly lifted her foot to show him the bottom of it. It hadn’t hurt the day before so it was something she had done this morning, she must have stepped on something.

“My name is Cefni.” She told the grey lion. She held her breath as he took a look. She hoped that it was something that was going to be easily fixed. “Do you see anything there?” she asked in a near whisper.


Gonen took a close look. He could see what appeared to be a rather large splinter in the middle pad of her foot. He let out a sigh, it wasn’t going to be easy to remove, and he was probably going to be a touch painful for the leopardess. “Okay I think I see what the problem is.” He said in a quiet voice.

He made the decision to not tell her or give her warning he was just going to take care of the problem and show her after the fact. “I’m going to take care of it.” He said as he leaned in and gently used his teeth to snag the piece of splinter that was still outside. He managed to get the splinter in between his teeth and giving it a good tug and with that the splinter came out. It had to be 2 inches long. He knew know that the leopardess must have been in a good deal of pain. He took a look at her foot to make sure it wasn’t bleeding and that he got all of the splinter out.


Cefni let out a little yelp when the male leaned in and bit something in her foot. She then let out a great sigh when he pulled away. She looked down and saw the splinter between his teeth. She was so relieved and when she put her foot back down she was even happier to feel that although her foot was a touch tender it didn’t hurt anymore.

“Gonen I can thank you enough.” she said her voice very sincere. Her real personality was coming out, the friendly bubbly leopardess instead of the grouch she had been earlier.


“All in a day’s work.” Gonen said offering her a small bow. “Now I must be off to find more souls to rescue.” He told her in his most gallant of voices. With that he swept away and headed deeper into the forest to see if he could find anyone else to offer a helping hand to or rescue.


Cefni giggled a little when the male bowed. She was pleased that he had been able to help her. She couldn’t imagine how long she would have been stuck with that splinter in her foot if it hadn’t been for him. Now she was off to find a great tree to sleep in she needed a nap after such a trying ordeal.