Romano flinched with pain as it coursed along the upper portion of his body. A nasty wound was formulating on his shoulder thanks to a certain angry and hysterical hyena mother hell bent on causing his life chaos. "You've really outdone yourself this time Vel." He spoke to the air, himself, and some small part of him hoped she had envisioned him saying that to her even when they were seemingly world apart.
In front of him a pack of savage, wild animals preyed on his flesh and coat. So he had a sparkling pelt. So what? Usually he received way-ward compliments for it. Few were the times when someone actually tried to kill him over it.
Since Romano had so pleasantly declined to volunteer kidnapping cubs from a family, Vellamo had told his fellow Tafauti members of how he had turned coat. Though he had to hand it to her, that psychopath had a way with words. Instead of simply telling the truth, that he had left and decided on his own way the pride ideals were wrong; she had said that mortals had captured him. That they had brainwashed him. That kaless were to blame for his newly adopted behavior.
"Traitor!" "Find the traitor!" The voices were soft and few.
In a panic Romano shifted uneasily along the jungle clearing. His eyes settled on rock that he hoped would serve as a decent hiding place, and in deciding it would suffice for that purpose he rushed to hide behind it.
Thankfully, it happened to be a cave of sorts, a small shelter where he prayed to what real gods of the Savannah he knew of that he would be saved.
"Find Romano. Bring him to us." "Bring the turn-coat, change his mind back!"
He shivered at the thought of the memory elixirs the Ishara had made. It was for this purpose alone, to "turn back time to the past". In short it was to erase memories. Bottled amnesia.
He sighed, as quietly as one could manage and sprawled out to relax and keep cover all at the same time. His tail padded against the ground and his thoughts began to consider this all just an elaborate scheme of hide-and-go-seek. It certainly felt like that at least.
He looked up and eyed the trees for a moment. Then the idea was dismissed altogether. Even if he was to climb to the top the likelihood of him being able to escape without fellow leopards hunting him down narrowed with each passing moment. Every whisper foretold of how he was trapped and reminded him of the urgency of his situation.
A twig warned him of someone behind him, and the leopard spun with a growl, his fangs barred to sink into whoever dared to threaten him. To his surprise however, he found that the stranger was quick and removed themselves from his eye range instantly! Dang! He knew the Tafauti were fast, but not that fast!
In seconds he felt a pressure emerge on his shoulder, in the spot where he had been nommed on earlier by another Tafauti warrior trying to bring him down. "Garraa!" He half cried half roared as the fiery pain within his shoulder was rekindled.
Romano dropped to the floor, part in due to the pain and part due to his plan of rolling of and exposing his claws in preparation for the oncoming assault. The flurry of white fur however remained above in the tree branch were they were stationed. It was then he managed to see his attacker was a leopard, like himself.
When seconds past without the other moving, Romano uneasily flipped back over to protect his soft underbelly. The scent this other contained was unlike the typical Tafauti stench. He did not reek of bones and blood, of medicines gone wrong and herbs dug from the forest floor. That had to mean he was an outsider. An outsider the Tafauti recruited? Pah, that seemed unlikely.
"Who are you?" He demanded. The outsider twitched, almost surprised in a way that Romano could speak. The purple coated of the two was impatient. "Answer me!"
The strangers voice was low, deep but soft. "A friend." He merely replied.
"Friends don't attack one another." Romano told him, and no longer seeing this leopard as a threat turned to listen to the whispers of mutts hunting him down. Thankfully, they didn't seem to have heard their little skirmish as he sensed no one nearby.
The unidentified male crawled down from his perch and in a still low and quiet voice muttered to Romano, "and ally then." He watched as Romano grunted and then continued to speak. "They're after me too, me and my... Friend. Companion." He seemed slightly unsure of what to refer to this "other" as. Romano turned his head to stare at the stranger, and see the truth in his peach colored eyes. He did not appear to be lying.
"Anyways, I don't know why they're chasing you, but if you value living I suggest you follow me. There is... A safe place. A spot those folks haven't been able to find me. I can take you there if you want."
At this Romano flattened his ears slightly. What good did this stranger have in helping him? He could think of none. Maybe he was a cleverly disguised Tafauti, mimicking a Kaless, beckoning to drag him into a trap. His worst fear was the loss of memory and if his suspicions turned out to be true, then that fate would overcome him. He failed to trust the kindly stranger, whose fur was white and voice was soft. He couldn't believe he was non-Tafuati, for any Kaless was destined a life of misery in their territory. Yet when the sounds of growls and snorts reached his ears, he could only think of one thing. Escape.
Desperately he turned back to the stranger, a look of horror stretched across his features. He had made his choice. Die now or die later, following the odd leopard secured a chance at freedom. Romano nodded to the treeline. "Lead the way."
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((Note to self: The stranger is Sundai.))