Ripoti was not built for cold, and she was not sure how she had ended up so far away from her usual, warm stomping grounds. This place was a nightmare! It was freezing and the white stuff on the ground was impossible to hide in for long because it seeped into her fur and made her feel even worse! She felt like her bones had frozen over, and her blood was flowing slower because of this weird atmosphere. It did not help that she had ended up climbing up a tall mountain, and was now too high for her to really breathe that well. She felt completely beaten down just by the air, or lack of air, out here. This was the worst place on the planet, she was sure of it, and she hated that she had managed to find this place. Even if it had been mostly an accident… and she should have turned around and gone back down the mountain when she felt the weather shifting… but still.
It sucked.
Masalan was a little more used to the snow, but even she found the thickness of it on the floor in these high peaks a little beyond her usual comfort levels. She had come from a line of leopards with pretty thick fur coats, though she had never met any of her family. She supposed they might have come from some place snowy, as she was more at home in cooler weather than she was in the plains and savannah. She did not feel like she was going to pass out, as she had heard some other creatures complain about in her travels, when she asked them about the higher and colder regions. This was her first time visiting such a snowy place, though, and she was entranced by the beauty of it. Even the shivers that snuck through her fur made her smile in wonder. This place was beautiful, and she was glad she had made the journey up the mountain valleys to come to it. She saw a peak not too far away, and aimed to cross over it, but saw another figure appear at the top of the ridge.
It was almost too easy to miss the lioness that appeared, as she was blue and white, just like the ice and the frozen sky above. She seemed to blend in, as if she was made from the snow itself. It was beautiful for Masalan to behold, and rather terrifying for Ripoti, some feet away, trying to hide behind a rock that was covered in snow. She crouched down and only managed to bury half her body in the fluffy white. She did not think she was well hidden, but maybe the lioness would not see her. She did not even see the leopard not too far away, just beyond the other side of the hill’s crest.
Elsa spotted both strangers almost immediately, one and then, with a turn of the head, the other. The leopard was standing up and nodded at her as soon as she spotted the eye contact, offering a warm and friendly smile that Elsa was all too happy to see. The purple coat was unfamiliar to her, but no one was unwelcomed in her lands, and the sight of someone willing to be friendly right off the bat was always good. The other, a very small cheetah, seemed to be trying to hide, but not doing it very well. The rock she had chosen to hide behind was much too small for her, even if she was a tiny cheetah, and though she had hunkered down in the snow she was only half buried. She had a purple coat as well, with little yellow accents, but the easiest thing to see was her large yellow eyes staring up at the Queen. They were as wide as they could possibly get.
“Hello!” Masalan called, padding toward the blue lioness, and not yet spotting the little cheetah that was staring at them so intently. The arrival of the leopardess seemed to make the cheetah coil up even tighter. The poor little thing was clearly very shy, and Elsa decided she would take her time in greeting her, just to avoid any unnecessary trauma. The poor little thing! Living that stressed all the time had to do some bad things to a creatures body and mind, right? Elsa just wanted to offer her a little reassurance and calm, but for the moment was not sure how to do that. She regarded the leopardess instead, smiling regally and nodding her head in a very poised gesture of greeting. Masalan caught it, and noted immediately that she was likely in the company of someone very important. Or at least someone who considered themselves important. Either way, Masalan had no cause to be rude.
“My name is Masalan, and I’m not from around here. You look right at home here, though, so I wonder if you might know a bit more about this place? Oh… what’s that over there? That little purple thing?”
“My name is Elsa, and I am Queen of these lands. They call us the Frozen Isles, and I can show you to our homeland if you’d like but uh… I’m not sure who that is over there. She’s trying to hide from us, and has been since I got here. But I don’t think she’s very comfortable. She’s shaking and I’m sure that’s from cold as much as it is fear…” Elsa looked over at the Cheetah, who did not take her eyes off of them. Ripoti was definitely not happy to have two larger hunters looking at her now, and she was almost certain they could see her from the way they had turned in her direction. Maybe if she stayed completely still they would lose interest in her and wander away… she could only hope that would be the case, anyway.
She was sorely disappointed.
Masalan took a more forward approach than Elsa. She moved toward the cheetah, who did not move at all. She just stared, ears flat against her head. Masalan stopped a couple feet from her and crouched down, tilting her head to the side and smiling gently. Elsa padded up with her, doing the same as she sat down with her. They both tried to look as non-threatening as possible. Ripoti stared at them for a long moment, but did not move any part of her body even slightly besides her eyes. They sat there in silence for a long time until Ripoti finally sat up a bit more.
“Hi…”
“Hello,” Elsa said with a smile, and a heavy sigh. She was surprised to finally be speaking to the poor little thing, and hoped that meant she was not going to be as scared any more. Maybe she finally realized that if she was going to be in danger it probably would have already happened by now. Neither the leopard nor the lion had any intention of causing her harm. Quite the opposite, in fact. They were both rather concerned for her health at this point.
“Hi there. My name is Masalan, and this is Queen Elsa. We just met, but she offered to show me her pride. Would you like to go there with us?”
“I… will it be warm…?”
“Very warm,” Elsa said, “we live in ice and snow, but we’ve learned to make our homes very warm and comfortable. I’ll take you to a den that you can rest in, with pelts and furs to keep you warm. How long have you been out here? Someone as small as you… do you need help getting up?”
“No…” Ripoti moved to stand, wobbling a bit from the effort but managing it well enough. Masalan walked closer to her just in case, noting how long her limbs were for being so small. She was a cheetah, most definitely, and she looked like she was an adult, just a small one. Elsa took the lead and guided the other two strangers toward the crest of the hill that sloped down into the valley where the frozen lake and their island home resided. It was a stunning sight and Masalan paused a moment to take it all in before she continued to follow after the Queen and Ripoti, keeping in step with the cheetah, who was clearly tired and slowed from how cold she was.
“What is your name?” Elsa asked, from ahead of them, looking back over her shoulder at the cheetah.
“I am Ripoti,” she said after a long pause, nodding in shy greeting. She did manage a small smile, though her head was angled downward so they would all be hard pressed to see it. She was glad to have met some friendly faces, especially in this miserably cold place, because they were going to help her be warm again. Really, that was all she wanted, and with the sun hiding behind clouds, she had very few options for it out here.
Word Count: 1,508 in Google Docs
