xoxo TO MY BELOVED ;;

[Cookie -n- Cream]

A blank, almost white, sun had shone non-stop for several days now; rays scratching at every inch of soil, land, and prosperous growth. It baked the earth to a fine crisp, enough that any claws were torn before they could sink into the stuffy coolness of the dirt. Its sweltering heat was deadly to many animals that were not used to desert conditions, and their blistering bodies left mulches of smelling compost. A simple smell in the dry season grew to an extremely fierce blast of stink, able to roll any lion’s eyes out of their head and their muzzle to death.

Benevolence found a strange sense of comfort in this new area, besides the obvious shade from the sun and humid, cooling breezes that left drops of liquid on her fur. When she was little, her mother Kisha was always busy... she never came away from the main pride lands, Kisha and Benevolence’s father were always too busy with things to go explore, always to busy to leave the valley of Kings. Honestly, it was a glorious place, that valley it was, it had multitudes of nice things that she’d grown up in. She’d lived with her family there and warm caring lions and lionesses, she’d even been able to frolic in flowers and tall grasses. She remembered her innocent childhood as if it were so long ago, but remembered her rebellious side like it was simply just a day ago. She remembered her mother always said “stay in the valley!” and she’d always reply “okay mummy,” there was never another reply uttered from her mouth- all the little lion cubs, especially the heirs were supposed to stay in the valley… even the king and queen never left. Pride lions only left because they had other groups- if they were in another group- and they had prey to catch… but those were the only reasons.

“ Mumzy always told me to stay in the valley, but did I listen? ” She let out a soft chuckle. Of Course she never listened to her dear mother, and her mother knew about it too. Mother Kisha always said “When you’re Queen you’ll have to live up to your expectations you know, don’t be like your grandmother,” she’d bark… and the most innocent of replies would come from little Beve’s mouth “but mumma, you’ll be the Queen!” Benevolence was fine with being the little heir; she never wanted anything more than to be a cub forever. But like before, she was still a little devil child… her mother would say stay and she would always leave to go exploring. On these little adventures, the jungle had always been a favorite place of hers.

She ginned as she looked up to see creatures swinging from branch to branch, completely unaware of her appearance. “ Watch it little critters, Beve the IV will get you! ” she whispered rather drolly with out any enthusiasm. She was hungry, and when she wanted to eat- there was no waiting for another lioness to catch her food for her. Beve liked to catch her own prey anyway. “If a King and a Queen are so great, why would they need others to do things for them? They’re certainly not inept,” she’d say. She grinned reading for the challenge of catching an orangutan or maybe a chimpanzee. She knew her luck had run thin when it came to the gorillas, however. They were just to big of prey for one lioness to take down by herself. She licked her lips, what if, she thought, what if she could find an Okapi- that would prove to be an easy meal! She knew they were rare, however, and only tried pressing her luck for a while before giving up.

Her pelt gave her perfect camouflage in the jungle, its wide array of colors just as spectacular as the floor itself. As she crept forward, the sun bounced off her pelt, shining so brightly that she was about invisible in her movements. She was just a bare spot of green on the jungle floor, with a red spot in front and a red spot in the middle- they were just bright flowers, sure… not to mention- her striping broke up the grass line- broke up her figure, what lion would go into the jungle and look like a flower? Benevolence. Her case, however, was rare- the stalkers of the animal kingdom had become the power predators as they usually had no more camouflage… honestly, in the middle of a desert, do you think you’d spot a rainbow?

Her face was blank and unwavering… some torment was running through her eyes as she followed a chimpanzee, it was the smaller of the two and if she didn’t get pelted by rocks before they saw her- she might end up living. “ I, ” she whispered, “ am the king of the jungle in a goddess form. ” A grin swept over her face as she waited patiently for the smallest chimpanzee in the group to descend. It was mating season, this Beve knew and that meant they were making nests for their mates by now… the chimp would have to come down and grab the tall grass for his tree home- the grass was irresistible! Unfortunately, the intuitive little chimp decided to go for the branches and twigs, a younger, bigger chimpanzee however, decided that the grass and tall foliage was perfect.

He descended quickly, one arm over the other in an orderly fashion. Beve moved just as quickly, covering the ground with her lethal paws. He reached down barely enough to grab the tallest plant there was and she leapt into the air with a gratifying lunge. Grabbing him by the arm- he screamed a horrifying wail and the others scattered to behind their trees. With a powerful tug of her head she thrashed him, ripping his other hand from the tree and sending him crashing into another- dead. The others began throwing their rocks and sticks, and whatever else they could find at her, trying to scare her off apparently, but it hardly fazed her for the moments she was stuck under fire.

She lifted the creature up and dragged it by its shoulder to a foreign tree where she sat it down and looked for a nice place to eat. Beve wondered if she should, or if she even could share the prey… it was only large enough for one lion, but wouldn’t be horribly skim for two. She let out a low rumbling growl to her beloved and waited impatiently for a few moments before she rested and began to gnaw on the creature.

[g r a y ;]

K I R A

The soft pitter patter of rain fell to the saturated spongy earth, creating a squish when paws pressed on. Birds chirped cheerfully, rays of sunlight falling onto golden beaks. Ivy façade branches of mangroves, tall jungle-like trees, and even some pineapple leaves. Silver raindrops lined the stalks, ivy leaves facing the sunlight, absorbing as much luminosity as possible. All seemed still but the yawn of monkeys in the distance, or the calm hoot of a day owl somewhere far away.

An angry growl broke the silence. Birds’ wings flapped, cries of danger bounced from tree to tree, creating a loud, ringing echo. But as soon as it had come it was gone, and the forest returned to its original status. The culprit hissed, spitting at a broken log. The silver saliva dribbled down the bark, landing in a calming puddle underneath the rotting trunk. Black claws unsheathed, the beast scratched at the fallen tree, anger visible in his dark, red eyes. Hunting seemed no good anymore.

Kira snorted, sitting; his tail swishing angrily from site to side, and a vein seemed visible above his right eyes. His nose twitched, but signaled nothing but a held-back uproar. In fact, he shouldn’t even be the one hunting. Didn’t he have lionesses to do that? The Pride of Good Faith were the ones in charge of hunting food, not him. Ah, a king killing dinner. Now, that was funny.

For now, Kira gave up his hunt for food, planning on heading back to The Valley of the Kings. It wasn’t very far, and Kira would do it, however… The giant Lion just sat there lazily, flicking a fly out of his face. Ugh. Walking? You mean actually working? That was old school stuff, and Kira wanted no part. But how else was he supposed to get out of here? Growling grumpily, the big cat got up and started towards the exit of the jungle.

Oh, but look who was here with him? Kira’s eyes narrowed, his shoulders hunched over in a hunting crouch. Benevolence could be seen through the ferns, dragging a chimpanzee behind her. Blood trailed with them, and Kira’s eyes grew hot with passion. She had always been his little bitch, and what else would a determined, obedient whore do than catch her master’s favorite dinner? Kiba licked his lips, letting out a soft purr, the echo bouncing along the tree trunks just like before.

ooc: i'm ashamed to say this is shorter than yours...

[Cookie -n- Cream]

[no worries, mine are getting smaller and smaller Dx]

Benevolence’s face twitched and churned into an awkward scowl as she picked up the familiar scent. His sent was that of death, one of cruelty. She quickly breathed it out and did her best to let it not seep back into the depths of her nares. To catch his scent was not exactly what she had wanted, sure she contemplated sharing with him, but only after she had eaten her full. Sure, she was his queen, but she wanted him to die from Maleficus’ virus before she had any heirs. She wanted heirs desperately though, but not from him. Kira was back.

She snorted to play off the fact that she had picked up his scent and melted ravenously into her prey. She slammed her head in as fast as she could, ripping off pieces of flesh and meat faster than most animals could even see or comprehend that she was eating it. She forced them to the back of her throat until her mouth was full and took one big swallow after another. Her vicious hunger was increasing and she did not want to share with her hubby. ‘Tch,’ she spat in her mind. ‘If he dares fight me for my food I’ll kill him before he gets the blood on his filthy paws.’

She was quickly full, leaving the front, less meaty end of the flesh for Kira. “Oh hello darling,” she said as she stood up and turned around. She licked the blood from her scarlet face and blinked with her bi-colored eyes. They both knew that they had never loved each other. Benevolence was in love with doing what her mother thought best- and Kira was in love with the power that came with being king. It was against their tradition to ‘divorce’ and Kira knew that, if he thought for a minute his power was at stake, he’d probably become the most lovable lion in the pride.

Though, that probably wasn’t true.

Beve never really knew anything about him to start off. She loved to be a flirt sometimes, and she was terrible when she was around competing females, but she never honestly loved anyone. She didn’t know much about what was actually going on inside her king’s fair head, other than the distinct look of murder, and a very popular look of hunger. Besides, she didn’t want to know what was going on in his head! She could’ve cared less. She put on a plastered smile they both knew was fake. She- at least- had the decency.

“I didn’t see you there,” she lied. But the female had turned her body so that he could not see what she was doing when she ate so voraciously. “Oh, I bet it was the chimp that caught your attention, no worries, when I smelled you, I saved some.” It was obvious that she had picked off the areas with the highest fat density and she had picked them almost clean. There were plenty of areas on the carcass that hadn’t been touched however, and would make a decent meal for the smaller king. She grabbed the creature by one of its feet and slowly dragged it over to him before dropping it on the ground and spitting on it. “Aww, look at me, being a good little queeny and giving my big strong king a meal to lie down on when he obviously is to clumsy to feed himself!” She growled.

As quickly as she’d gotten in her face she’d wheeled around and trotted off a few yards, back to where she was eating before. She flopped into a cool pile of the shade and began cleaning her paws of their crimson desires. The taste of the blood was enough to top off the meal she’d just had. She leaned back, pressing her back against the cool earth and looked at him with her face pinned toward his eyes. “Aren’t you going to eat?”