In Need of a ||HERO||

[Bhu]

Yogita and Benigo

Silence. Must keep silent. Twilight tail flicked ever so lightly, black tip ears swiveling in each direction. Eyes, the color of the ocean blue with tawny specks of land, danced amoung the terrain. The cat was hunting, and it seemed it be a success.
"Ben? Benny!?" his name was called from only a few feet away, tone shrill and terrified. It took all the males will-power not to shriek in laughter. That would destroy the hunt.

One step more...Alas! The small figure gave a war cry before flying through the air. He landed roughly onto the massive females back, making her cry out in terror. The terror soon died and the Ocelot cub was shaken off, bracing himself for the fury.

"Benigo! What did I tell you about jumping from trees? What did I tell you about scaring my pelt off? You know I have a frail heart!" he mouthed the scolding as she spoke, knowing each word by heart.

"I'm going to hurt myself and don't do it." he answered in an annoyed tone. He smile then returned. "But I gotcha good, didn't I, mum?" he teased the tigress. His own spotted pelt lay quite differently then hers, a site that should have told him their difference in species. But one so young does not notice such things.

The furied glare died and was replaced by a calm smile. "What in the world am I go to do with you, Benny Boy? No way will survive if you keep scaring me like that." she flicked him lovingly with her tail tip before continuing in the direction she had originally been doing, cub on her heals.

Welcome to the life of Yogita; a 9 month old tigress with an ocelot who thinks her his muim.

[02moonpelt02]

Ahadi & Eraku
Mother and Son

'Run! Run as fast as you can, she's gonna kill you!' These were the thoughts that ran through the smiling cheetah cub's head as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, which was faster than most animals, even for a cub. But, alas, the adult cheetah, no matter how young she be, was much faster than her son and easily overtok him. She placed her paw in front of the cub, a fearful and angry expression twisted on her pretty face.

"Eraku! Why did you put that crowfood in the den? It could have had maggots in it!" Her voice was quiet but shrill, seeing as they were in territory unknown to the young mother. Eraku just smiled at his mother and rolled his eyes. "Aw, mom, you're no fun today! I was tired of staying in teh den and the only way you would leave was to put crowfood in it!" he explained proudly, remembering how he had cleverly, or at least in his mind, taken the long dead bird and put it right next o his sleeping mother's nose that morning. She had been furious though and had chased him until the sun had risen fully.

But he knew how to soften her anger, and Ahadi knew it would be coming. "I needed to stretch my legs, mama. I wanted to see the sunrise and smell the breeze. Mama, why do you not like to leave the den?" His use of her nickname, mama, made her heart melt like honey on a hot day but his question shocked her. He had never asked it before. She sighed. "Because I'm a grumpy old goose," she teased and ruffled the longer fur on his head that was sticking up. He laughed and raced off again, having gotten back his breath from the long run at half speed. She followed more slowly, glancing around with flattened ears. It would be just their luck to run into a predator, and then Eraku would know she had been keeping secrets from him, whether thy both lived or not if the danger attacked.

"Hey, mom, there are other cats here! But they don't look like us..." Eraku's voice broke through Ahadis mental babble. Her heart skipped a beat, stuttered, and restarted twice as fast as she raced over to her son. There was a tigress and an ocelot cub, barely six months at the look of him. 'Odd, but nonetheless danerous,' Ahadi thought. But Eraku had yelled the proclamation to her, and the tigress and ocelot cub were bound to have heard. 'Oh grea Dio, help us through...'

[Bhu]

OOC//: Moon, we need you to post in Hunting for Meaning =)


Yogita froze solid, fear gripping her heart. Her brain longed to run, not to face the danger that had spoken so loudly, but her heart said a simple no. Benigo was not her blood, but he was now her responsiblity. Besides, she loved him and would forever drowned in her misery if he fell victum to another because she was a coward.

Need to be big. I'm a tiger, for Dio's sake! She spun, eyes ablaze. Not caring if she bruised Benigo, she whacked him between her legs. He gave a cheap of a rubuttal, but then he too fell silent. This was not the time to argue with Yogita, and he knew it.

Her snarl that had formed was cut ubruptly as her orbs lay on a frail cub, much larger then Benigo. She went through a list of species in her brain and landed on cheetah. This was a cheetah cub, and in good shape. Her orbs danced around wearily, knowing a cub in such shape had to still have a mother.

Alas, there she is. Her orbs narrowed once more and she hissed threateningly towards the adult. Yogita was only 9 months, but her bulky stature, due to her species, would aid incredably in a fight against the slim cheetah. A cheetah would rather flee then fight...usually. She reasurred, her body remaining ready to battle.

"Don't come a step closer or you'll force me to take an action I would wish to avoid." she warned in a low tone, forpaws still defensive in front of the tiny cub. She dared a glance down and saw Benigo peaking through the slit between her two legs, curiousity thick in his gaze. Oh please, Benigo, have some self control! Her pleads seem to reach Benigo, but with the oppisite desire.

Benigo rushed around her front paws towards the fellow cub. "Oh my gosh, what kind of cat are you? You're huge, but I can tell you're still young. I'm Benigo, by the way. I'm a tiger!" he looked from the cheetah cub to the mother. "I'll be bigger then you when I grow up!" he flicked his tail towards Yogita. "That's my mum; she isn't fully grown yet. She was sorta young when she had me." his voice was a rush of air that quickly died after that last statement. He had seen Yogita eyes; filled with the hottest fury he'd ever seen her have.

[02moonpelt02]

Crouched down, her ears flat against her small head, Ahadi stared wide-eyed at the tigress. Fear spiked her heart with such an intensity that her breath came out in shallow litle gasps. This tiger, no matter how young, would kill to protect the ocelot cub. "Eraku, get over here. Now." Ahadi's whispered plea didn't seem to register with her child, though, and her cub just rushed forward to greet the other cub just as he ran to him as well. "Eraku! Get away from him! We have to go home, please!" she hissed at him, making sure she stayed where she was, crouched down several feet away from the tiger and at least three strides from the cubs.

Eraku completely ignored his mother though, and he looked curiously at the small, spotted cub. "You don't look like one! Ooo, are you some kind of uber rare species of tiger?" his voice was entirely too curious about the other spotted cat who thought he was striped. Looking back at his mother, he smiled at her and waved his tail, meanwhile Ahadi was struggling not to just scoop up her son then and there before running away as fast as she could. She was positive she would win in that race, even with the extra load of her cub.

[Bhu]

Yogita tensed as the other cub approached young Benigo. He made no move that could be seen as threatening, and neither did the mother. In fact, the mother was having the reaction that Yogita would normally have. Her claws slithered back into their pouches and her snarl dissipitated. "Yes, Benigo's father was a strange creature, but still an Tiger." she lied, glad the cub seemed to be unaware what a Ocelot cub looked like. Her orbs then danced over to the mother nervously. "I am sorry if I seemed a threat to you or your cub." she dipped her head regretfully. "I act out of fear for Benigo, knowing he's an easy target for even the tiniest of predator." she hoped the adult female didn't have much knowledge of Tigers or Ocelots, fore it was obvious Benigo was Ocelot and not some rare Tiger.

[02moonpelt02]

Now it was Ahadi's turn to be threatening. She would not allow the tiger's behavior to be seen by her cub. He was too innocent and clueless for that, a perfect soul untainted by even the less darker of thoughts. She walked out of her crouch and over to the tigress, still keeping her distance but making sure the two cubs were out of earshot. "You lie. Your so called son is an ocelot, but I will not tell him or Eraku of that. Eraku doesn't deserve to know about lying or fear, and I suspect you think the same of Benigo. But I swear it by Dio, if you make one wrong move towards my cub, even the tiniest mistake of showing him what the world outside our den is like, I will tell Benigo of the secret you keep from him and run away with my cub before you can blink." Her voice was calm, as was her face, but her eyes blazed with determination to keep her cub safe and she was sure the younger tiger knew her threat would be carried out by the female cheetah. After that said though, she blinkedat the tiger gratefully and sighed in relief. "And thank you. I have not gone this far from my den since Eraku was born and he has never known of other felines, especially not the danger they might hold. And no, he does not know of the Murder Apes, and I hope dearly he never will." Pausing, she looked at the two cubs, Eraku now bouncing around the ocelot cub with the speed he had been born with. "I am sorry that I must threaten you, but I cannot let Eraku know the feelings I have felt in my life after the Murder Apes found me," she whispered and sat down a few strides away from the tigress. Eraku was now sitting in front of the ocelot with curoius eyes but an impatient flicking tail. He had never learned how to wait, months of running as the fastest feline did that to him, and he looked ready to bombarde Benigo with quesetions that would be flung out too fast for the ocelot cub to answer.

[Bhu]

The tigress looked sheepishly to her paws, fearing how Benigo would react if the secret was found. Her voice leaked past her lips so low, it may have even been hard for the female cheetah to hear, even with her so close. "I just don't want him to feel my pain. Being stolen from my family was the harshest thing that one could have done. I don't want Benigo to know how cold the real world is, as you obviously wish for your son." her eyes then turned to meet the females. "One day I'll be forced to tell him, when he ages enough to realize how young I really am. We are a mere 3 months of age apart. But now is too soon. I'll tell him, but please don't make the truth be heard soon." her sorrowful gaze then gentled.

"I would never dream of harming your precious son, for more then one reason. I even feel regret in hunting the young deer needed to keep Benigo and myself alive; I could never harm a feline in which I can understand their sorrowful pleas." she paused, sending a loving look at Benigo and what seemed to be a new friend. "Besides, I have never seen Benigo so happy, not even when he successfully scares my pelt off." she smiled, thinking back to the mornings events. "We share no blood but I do love him like he was my own. I could never do something that would tear his heart in two."


Benigo heard his mother explain his strange looks, smiling proudly. "I am a strange little creature, my mum says." He was unaware that those words were for his actions, not his supposed breed. He then bounced in excitement, energy flowing through his limbs. He gave a sideways glance towards Yogita, releaved to see no more traces of anger in her orbs, but instead a gentle fondness as she spoke calmly, and almost silently, to the cheetahs mother. "So, what's your name? What are you? You look like...." he frozed and his face scrunched up in deep thought. The silent only lasted a moment, however, before his smile returned and his bouncing came back to life. "Okay, I have no clue. Tell me! You are the first non-tiger my mum allowed me near!"

[02moonpelt02]

A sigh of relief escaped the female's maw upon hearing the tigress would cooperate with her request. "We have more in common than I thought, young tigress," she murmmered, still smiling fondly at her cub but always ready to flee if it deemed necessary. She was still unhappy that her cub had finally found other creatures outside their usual prey they met during hunting. "I understand perfectly what you mean when you say you have never seen your cub so happy. Eraku nearly made every hair on me run away in terror once, he even put crowfood right by my nose to drive me out of the den this morning, but I do adore him," she smiled in content at the closeness that had already developed between the two mothers and their cubs. It had been many a moon since she had shared her trust with anyone, and that had ended in disaster because of it. But knowing that this fellow female and mother went through an ordeal with the Murder Apes and also trying to keep it all from her cub, it gave her a sense that this relationship might not be so bad once she thought about it.

A fake gasp of horror escaped Eraku as he heard that Benigo didn't know what species he was. "I'm a cheetah! Part king cheetah on my dad's side, my mom says!" he said proudly, raising his head a little higher. "Eraku! That's my name!" he said, finally satisfied. Finally not being able to contain his energy, Eraku danced around the supposed tiger cub, using his natural speed to tire himself as he launched questions at the cub. "So hwo old are you? Where do you come from? How did you get here? Where's your dad? My mom says mine died proudly to save her from a lion! She says I inherited his bravery!" he said, finally stopping long enough to nod at the cub and puff out his chest fur importantly. He could almost hear his moher saying, 'You're such a bragger, I might just have to take that foolish bravery right out of you!' and continued his graceful run that loked like a dance around the 'tiger' cub.[/color]

[Bhu]

"Boys can be so annoying, let humoring, at times. They don't mature much as they grow either, usually." she chuckled as the cheetah told the story of her son and the crowfood. "Benigo's big thing is climbing trees and leaping on me as I pad on by searching for him. As sad as it is on my part, it never fails to scare me to death." she admited a bit sheepishly. "Can't live with them, can't live without them." she finally cooed, sending an adoring look towards her young Ocelot. Some day I'll have to tell him. That will be the day he runs from my life, never to return....

Benigo himself stopped bouncing to be able to keep his orbs caught up with the cheetah cub. His ears remained focused, swiveling to follow the males every move so as not to miss a word. "My daddy died before I was born, mum says. She said he was hunting a fawn when a buck gored him. She also says his final words were him explaining for her not to avenge his death by slaughtering the father deer, since he would have done the same if it were a creature hunting his own loved ones. My mum says that I inherit his energy and compassion." he explained, choosing to answer that question before the others. "I am 6 months old, I come from this here forest and I got here from my mums tummy. What about you?" he giggled with each answer.

[Miki]

"I bet you didn't go down that path 'cause you're scared." Chaz teased, still trying to figure out why Erik refused to go the way she wanted. She was still figuring out the way the tiger's mind worked, fore she had only been traveling with him for about a month. In her mind he was like an older brother, and he was always complaining about how annoying she was.

"Come on, I wasn't scared. I can jump through a hoop of fire and not be scared. I thought I smelled lion's downwind. I wasn't about to go walk into a pride and get eaten." Erik replied, a layer of annoyance in his voice. It was true, he didn't feel like dealing with lions today. Not now, not ever. Why did Chaz have to keep bugging him about it?

"Oh, right. Cause the circus cat is afraid of lions." Chaz grinned. Erik was always boastful about what he could do, coming from the life of a circus. She had heard everything he could do - from sitting pretty to jumping through a ring of fire. "Didn't you know any lions from the circus?" She asked, now curious, and not arguing playfully.

"A few. And I know how they can be. You, on the other paw, don't." Erik answered. He stopped, and let out a huff as Chaz rammed into him from behind. "Watch where you're going!" He snapped.

"Sorry, but it's hard to follow someone who stops randomly!" Chaz spat, though not totally angry, she was in fact, a little amused. "What'd ya stop for anyways?"

"I thought I heard something. Wait - I do." Erik leaned forward, straining his ears to pick up the sound again. Voices. Childish voices. More cubs. Great... "I hear it too!"[/i] Erik turned to hush her, but she rushed past, making a beeline for the source of talking. Before he knew it, the cheetah cub had disappeared through a clump of bracken. He heard her greet the others with a loud 'Wow!' The tiger rolled his eyes and padded after her. He realized why she was surprised. The tiger was expecting a family of one species of cat, but instead he saw two cheetahs, a tiger, and - what was that other small cat?[/size]

[Bhu]

Yogita had become so calm that it was easy to see her body fully tense as a cheetah came into view, and then a full grown tiger. Without a second thought --knowing she may dash away if she did think-- she dived between the two familiar cubs and the new cheetah and tiger. A threatening roar escaped her lips and her eyes narrowed. "Get away from us!" she warned, now just as defensive for young Eraku as she was Benigo. Her aggressive nature slowly melted though as she realized how easily the adult male tiger could kill her. "We don't want any trouble." her voice got much softer --terrified, not submissive-- now.

Benigo was a little shocked as new cheetah cub came bounding over. That shock died away and was replaced by even a little fear as a full grown tiger came into view. He had been aware his mother had a chance to defeat the two cheetahs if they had been a threat earlier, but if this large male attacked, they would all be slaughtered. He slithered to stand right behind his mothers paws, laying flat on his stomach beneath as her stomach came slightly downward, seemingly shrinking under the new tigers gaze.

[Miki]

Chaz staggered backwards at the tiger cub's sudden defensive front. She immediately opened her jaws to respond, but loudmouth Erik beat her to it.

"Trouble? Like you could hurt me!" Erik laughed, he was only teasing, but his humor could be hard for others to comprehend. Chaz giggled next to him, finding his comment funny. She was just beginning to adapt to him. Erik's laugh stopped suddenly, and his face was serious. A special talent of his, though it tended to freak most out. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Where Chaz goes, I follow."

Chaz was watching the other cubs, an excited and playful on her face, but at Erik's last comment, she looked up at him in surprise. "Really? So if I had just -" She stopped, realizing her tangent. She looked back at the defensive tiger, an amused expression crossed her face. "Sorry about him. He's an airhead. I just heard cub voices and I wanted to come play. Erik here doesn't like fun."

[02moonpelt02]

When the awkward moment and the danger, though unknown to Eraku, the cheetah cub covered the distance between himself and the one called Chaz in a few quick moments before launching himself at her and pinning her like a piece of prey. "Hi! I'm Eraku, what's your name?" he said quickly, his golden brown eyes sparkling as he looked at the female cheetah cub. An audibly loud hiss came from his mother from close by the tigress, but he ignored it and forced himself not to look at Ahadi's most likely angry face. He hated it when she looked at him that way. It was such a put down and put a 'rain on his parade' which made the whole day less fun. He impatiently waited for the cub beneath him to answer as he thought this and waited to launch more questions at her.

Fear and terror made every hair on Ahadi's pelt stand on end as the male tiger and his cheetah cub companion came into view. She immediately ran towards the cubs, but the tigress's roar stopped her before she could get much farther than a few strides. Listening to the seuence of events, she kept her stnace ready to move until the danger passed and the awkward moment was put to rest by the female cheetah cub named Chaz making fun of the one called Erik. As soon as she said that and the atmosphere relaxed, a blur of golden brown and black spotted fur flashed across the land and rammed into Chaz. A hiss escaped her lips when he spoke to her, but he refused to look at her as she stared at him furiously. Her heart couldn't take much more of this torture.

[Bhu]

As if it were Benigo who had sped past her and tackled the cub down, Yogita stood erect once more and pounced towards the two cheetahs. She grabbed Eraku's scruff and gently knocked him towards his mother. Her eyes were like fire as she stared at Benigo's friend. "Show some respect for your mother. It's obvious she wishes you to remain at distance, so I suggest you do so." it didn't occur to her that this cub she so freely 'threatened' was not much younger then herself.

Her orbs then glanced once to Benigo, who now squirmed towards Ahadi for protection. Yogita wondered for a moment why he didn't take a place beneath her again, but then realized the very reason. She was so close to the male tiger she could hear his breaths. Her blood ran cold. Even as both cub and adult seemed pleasant and joking, she couldn't help but be terrified. One small swipe of the tigers paw could kill any one of them. Her orbs danced between Chaz and Erik, anxiety filling her gaze.

However, as the apology he had set forth melted into her skull, her risen hackles dropped slightly. She was still ready to herd Benigo away if need be, but she wouldn't run if they didn't need to. "I apologize if I seem very, uh, defensive, but it's just so hard to know who's good and who's bad in the modern world." she thought carefully before saying those words. She was not saying she trusted them in any sence, just explaining why she was not be entirly friendly.

[Miki]

Chaz was watching the young tigress, when out of nowhere something slammed into her, bowling her to the ground. She squirmed, then realizing she had been pinned by the other cheetah cub, she stopped moving. She smiled to learn that Eraku had just tackled her to learn her name. But before she could answer there was a scolding and the cheetah cub was pulled off of Chaz. She looked at the tigress, who scolded Eraku. "I'm no threat, he's bigger than me!" She didn't even consider that Yogita was probably thinking more of Erik. Then the cub turned to the other cheetah. "I'm Chaz."

Erik watched in amusement as the other cheetah cub tackled Chaz. His manner was playful, so the tiger felt no need to protect his younger companion. When the tigress got defensive again, Erik was put on edge, then relaxed when he figured out she was yelling at Eraku. Erik was watching them interact when the tigress turned back to him and explained why she was so tense. Erik's smile faded, realizing he and Chaz had probably come on too strong towards the she-cats and the cubs. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be threatening. I wouldn't harm anyone." He hoped his apology sounded honest, because it really was.