[Private with Amy]

[Carl]

A heavily muscled leonine form stalked through the high luscious grasses of the savanna, it's mane being tugged softly by the rolling winds which swept across the plains lackadaisically in the early afternoon heat. Behind the lion, a hyena crouched stealthily, his visual orbs focused on the beast lurking just a few feet ahead of this unlikely duo, a lonesome antelope, presumably sick or wounded, that would soon become their hapless victim and meal. The hyena couldn't help drooling a little as he waited for the signal for the hunt to begin. Leonine paws crushed short blades of grass and small twigs as his leader took a few silent steps forward. The brown hyena trailed after the golden-bronze form as quietly as possible.

"The fields are too open on the right, so you go that way and block its path. I'll charge at it head on," the maned creature ordered. The hyena nodded.

"Yes, Nadira."

He slunk away to flank the creature, reflecting on this bizarre hunt. It wasn't the first hunt the duo had been on together, far from it. Nadira was a powerful lioness, outcast by her kind for being to masculine in appearance, what with her mane and rippling muscles. Despite appearing male, she was certainly not, and perhaps it was simply in his hyena nature that he was subservient to females, or perhaps it was something about her personality that made him follow her. He'd been without a pack, and she without a pride, at any rate, and they'd come together, uniting out of a similar need for assistance in hunting and in companionship, and ever since things had been going splendidly.

Although, sometimes it was difficult for the duo to get by. This moment looked like it would be the same, the hyena noted as he assumed his position to the right of the unsuspecting antelope. To his right, there was only a few feet of open space before the first trees of a jungle began to sprout up, and on the other side of the antelope from his position the field opened up for a ways before stopping at the face of a cliff, at the foot of which the mouth of a cave gaped open ominously. He knew Nadira meant to drive the beast towards the rock wall, but he feared something would go awry, and hoped that the creature wouldn't make it into the cave or the jungle.

He didn't have long to worry, however, as a moment later, the lioness half of the duo was charging full speed at the antelope. In a panic, it swiveled around on its hooves and broke for the jungle immediately. Cursing in his mind, the hyena leapt into action, rushing in a diagonal towards the jungle in a desperate attempt to cut the creature off before it could reach. Screaming in fear, the antelope turned again as it noticed him, bolting, as planned, towards the cliff face. Only, it didn't run in a straight line; instead the creature began to zig and zag back and forth with a certain frantic urgency only known to those on the verge of death. The hunters were gaining on it, despite how close it remained to the jungle and how it raced headlong towards the cave (did it see that as the escape it could be?), until Nadira's paw caught on a root.

"Amir!" she bellowed.

The hyena glanced back at her, trying to decide whether or not to help her immediately and risk losing the kill. In a split second, he decided that on his own he probably couldn't bring the beast down and hurried back to help her dig free, "Bad time for this, ma'am, it's gonna get away."

"No it won't, just get my paw out, quick, it's losing us, it could jump into the trees at any moment!" she cried.

"I can only go so fast," Amir growled, giving up on digging the root out and instead snapping at it with his jaws, freeing the lioness from the snare in a moment. The two turned back to look at the antelope, still sprinting for its life, now significantly ahead of them. The pangs of hunger spurring them into action, they began to chase after it again frantically, despite knowing that they had almost no chance of catching up to it at this point.