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Lilac Gale Fluff
d5d724
>Good goddess, why they have to be a spotted one? You can't outrun them, so just maintain visual contact, try to gain some distance and be prepared to leave the rabbit corpse behind. Or you can just try talking with them, who knows? Any history about spotted hyenas and the like? Anyway, it's a miracle that you are still alive. Really.
Katja is lucky to be alive, in fact, part of her thinks this is all a strange dream. She is not going to attempt to outrun the hyena, not when it knows of the existence of the rabbit in her bag, plus, that sound… She doesn't want to have that happen again.
No one really worships or likes hyenas, they compete for food and shelter, and frequently steal hard earned kills. Katja remembers that her old clan leader used to call people who were lazy or untrustworthy "hyenas in human skin". There isn't very good eating on a hyena, the meat tastes off and can make people sick. Their pelt is also ugly, and coarse, and not good for wearing, and because they travel in huge packs, it's too much trouble to attempt to bring one down for almost nothing in return.
Katja vaguely remembers how her mother told her that when they travelled, they never went east because there were so many hyenas. "The east," she used to say, "Is where all the hyenas are born," and that they travelled west to make their own clans, and hunt.
>Did you just run into a Hyena god or something?
Maybe, but Katja doesn't know of any hyena gods, or even hyena spirits. People don’t worship them and there is no point to hunting them, and thus no need for a protective spirit. There, is nothing about the hyena that people would want to emulate, at least, not to Katja's knowledge. That sound though, that was some kind of magic, some kind of wild magic that even the Shamans don't have access to--It is certainly no ordinary creature.
>This Hyena is likely a an Apex Matriarch, though she may have somehow lost her clan. If she intends to be friendly to Katja, then it likely means she considers Katja to be a member of her "new" clan
Katja thinks this idea through. She knows that hyena females are the leaders, and do "pick" new members for clans, but this hyena is awfully quiet. A female leader greeting a lone, non-clan member hyena would be aggressive and assertive, with tail in the air and mane raised, to assert her dominance, but this one, while not being submissive, just seems neutral, and quiet. It is not making the grunts, whines an calls that Katja is used to hearing when hyenas get together.
>give it the rabbit as a measure of thanks
Katja resolves to give the hyena what it wanted in the first place. She's upset and disappointed about losing her kill, but at the same time, the memory of what the hyena did to the bear is still fresh in her mind. She calls it close with low, soft sounds; the soft grunting "ooo" sounds that hyenas make when they're greeting one another. She keeps her body low to the ground, and offers the rabbit.
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