So. Hunting. Very important job that. Yeah. Hunting....by the great circle Uchao was not good at that. He was titled as a hunter of the pride given that was one of the generic ranks in the Pridelands, something he could just hopefully swan into with little to no reprecussions and easily learn. As it turned out, no, it wasn't easy to learn and even harder to do when you grew a mane in - so he'd all but given up ANY hope of possibly becoming a hunter and mostly let more experienced lions do that.
So any confidence he'd had going into the idea of impressing Kiwara with a hunt was very quickly and very effectively flattened by the hard and firm paw of reality reminding him; 'Hey, dummy, you can't exactly hunt rememeber?' which was not a great thing for what little ego the giant golden fluffball had to begin with. But maybe, just maybe luck would be on his side today and he'd manage to impress the cream colored female that he saw waiting for him on the edge of the grasslands.
Just the sight of her alone made all his worries practically melt the tight knots of worry out of his muscles and brain and set all his thoughts aflutter like the butterflies in his stomach as he padded his way over to where she sat and watched him. When he was close enough she pushed herself to her full height off the ground and barely noticed the wistful stare he had whilst looking at her.
"Alright," She started. "There's a herd of zebra out past the waterhole that have a few well aged mares - one of them has a limp and probably won't be getting better - that'll be our target today." Her words were methodical and clearcut, a lioness of experience with hunting whilst also keeping to the values of the circle of life, keep the healthy ones alive to prosper and aid those near the end in finishing their journey. It made Uchao's heart beat like an empassioned drum as he watched her.
"You got all that?"
...What? He blinked rather owlishly in her direction as he stood there, ears flattened to his skull as he tried to recall what exactly she'd actually said...it...certainly sounded important but he'd just kind of been bewitched by her take charge attitude.
"Uhhhh-"
"Great, let's go, stay low and downwind." And off she went, head held low and prowling through the grass as he stood there with utter beffudlement written over his features till he decided to actually listen and followed her, trying to mimic her movements to the letter as the anxiety of his lack of experience suddenly peaked yet again. Oh no this was going to go poorly...then again Kiwara was here so...maybe it'd be okay? She was a great huntress! Nothing would go wrong with her...him on the other hand he wasn't that sure of.
It wasn't long till the herd was found, a grazing tide of white with black stripes (or maybe black with white stripes?) just stood before them with the odd whooping whinny here and there and the errant tail swat of a fly there. And in the grass, both golden bodies lay, tight as springs and ready to pounch.
Uchao was just waiting, watching Kiwara since she was the one with the better experience here and watched as her eyes just zoned in on one particular zebra that kept weight off its back leg, that must be the one.
With a flick of her head she gestured them both closer to the herd, their bodies gliding through the grass silently as she ushered him further to the side to hopefully pincer in the weak one. And then the silence as he waited...waited with his thoughts, mostly on waht to ask her, how to tell her how he felt. How to apologize for his messy attempt of impressing her earlier-
Suddenly all thoughts were pushed aside as the herd was suddenly spooked, he watched as Kiwara bolted out and he had unfortunately missed his cue, but that didn't stop him pouncing out from the grass and spooking more of the poor striped beasts as a small if chaotic stampede was started. The lioness was quick to slide up beside him as they ran after their prey.
"What happened??? Why did you hesitate?" There was a stern tone to her voice as she side eye'd him whilst trying to focus on their quarry that was only barely outrunning him and he felt the shame sliver down his back like a chill.
"I-I'm sorry I was just lost in my own thoughts-"
"During a hunt?"
"I know but- I- I was wondering if-"
"Conserve your air, we're trying to chase down a zebra!"
"Yeah I know but I- I was just wondering-"
"What is it????"
"KIWARA WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO ON A WALK WITH ME LATER????"
Well the zebra got downed, but only because he'd tumbled into it and thankfully broke its neck cleanly with how much of his weight rolled into it, so atleast it didn't die in pain. But now he kinda wished he was dead as he was once more, on the ground, feeling the lioness of his dreams set her eyes on him before approaching him and grabbing part of the zebra to pull. Before she did however she gave him a partly cautionary stare before her eyes thoughtfully scanned the ground in total silence.
"Sunset." She stated simply.
He blinked in further confusion. "W-What?"
"Well you said you wanted to go for a walk...how about at sunset?"
Stunned and gobsmacked the lion watched as she stared at him for a few seconds before grabbing the zebra's leg and starting to drag it maybe a few good feet before Uchao was thrown out of his stunned silence and actually began to help her drag the felled prey back home. It'd worked, he can't believe it'd actually worked, he was going on a walk with this beautiful lioness and maybe he could possibly tell her how he felt...maybe she'd reciprocate too. Not that he wanted to get ahead of himself, but it was too hard to not feel the tiniest bit giddy as they both walked side by side dragging their kill back to priderock and in his head he was quietly fantasizing of the evening to come.
And the glorious sunset.
(( Final Word count: 1,070 ))