Chapter Text
She had lived in the jungle all her life. She knew it well, knew every path, every plant, every creature. And she knew she doesn't know the one sitting across from her. It's small, much smaller than her loyal butter tiger companion. And the coloration is like nothing she's ever seen, the blueish-white looking incredibly out of place among the vibrant greens of her home. The thing just sits there staring up at her, with its big, bright red eyes.
She’d practically fallen onto it, her tiger having stopped dead in its tracks whilst they’d been running. She’d crashed into the beast, sending them both flying forward and when she looked up, there it was.
Now they were in a sort of staring contest, both seeing who would move first. She doesn't know how much of a threat it posed, if any. It’s small stature gives the impression of it being harmless but it might be hiding sharp claws, or a powerful bite, or venomous teeth. She narrows her eyes and broadens her stance and is about to snarl when the creature suddenly darts past her. It pauses for a moment, turns to look at her, and then runs into the undergrowth. She lets out a grunt of surprise and then gave chase after it, her companion on her heels. She has to at least get a better idea of what it is before she lets it get away!
When she charged into the next clearing it's sitting there licking its paw. It looks up, sees her, and then turns tail and runs. She once again follows after, more than happy to run it down. This continues for a while; her catching up to it, it running, her following in hot pursuit. Soon it begins to mix it up, darting through her legs and back the way they came, or running in circles around her.
After a while she realizes something. She was… enjoying herself? It's fun to chase the strange creature around the jungle and to try to predict its next move. And it looked to be having fun too, if she was reading its body language right. It’s not bounding away in a way that suggest fear for it's life but in a way that suggest joy and excitement.
Eventually the chase leads them to the river where it dives right in. She pauses and it turns towards her and flicks water at her with its poofy tail. She growls in response and jumps in after it, slinging water with her arms. Her butter tiger jumps in too, its much larger body sending huge waves. The other creature lets out a surprised yelp as it’s over taken by a wave and she lets out a little giggle.
The three of them play like that for a while and by the time they drag themselves out of the river and on to the bank they’re all thoroughly soaked and exhausted. She slumps against her tiger and watches the unknown creature. It shakes itself dry and trots up to her before sitting down a few feet away. Now that she can see it better she realizes how skinny it is. She considers trying to find some food for it at some point but she isn’t sure how long it’ll stick around.
It relaxes into a lying position, staring at her the whole time. She too relaxes sure that it won’t try to attack. She’s very tired after all that running and swimming and she feels her eyes close and her mind drift off to sleep.
When she wakes up it’s dark out and the strange creature is gone. She stands up, stretching her limbs and walking around the clearing. There isn’t a single trace of it and she can’t help but feel a pang of disappointment. She rouses her tiger and heads back to her cave. On the walk back she thinks about the odd little thing and how out of place it seemed. She had seen nothing else like it in all of the vast jungle. She supposed she felt a sort of kinship with that, after all she had never seen anything else like her either.