As dawn broke, it seemed another night had passed and a new day began.

Needle-sharp claws teased from the leopard's toes as she fanned them out in a stretch. Little Miss wasn't going to be able to curl up in the safety of her basket much longer. Weeks had passed, and it seemed with each day she was growing larger, and quite frankly, she was beginning to feel quite claustrophobic.

Every day the cub had woken up with the desire to go explore, but that desire would be snuffed out by the fear that her mother would not be able to find her if she wandered too far. It was an ongoing thing, though week after week it quickly became a worry of the past. Little Miss had come to terms that maybe something was wrong, and her mother was not going to return for her... maybe she couldn't. Regardless, the little leopard decided today was the day that she was going to venture further.

She was tired of waiting.

Her body felt cramped and jumbled, while simultaneously disconnected from herself. After taking a moment to blink away her tiredness, the cub finally flopped out of her basket, rose to her feet, leaned her weight on her hind legs, and reached out her front in a deep stretch. Her jaws parted and ears pinned back amid her stretch, her third of a tail curling up over itself towards her spine. Maybe she would finally go to the black sand beach and try her luck at catching some crabs.

**

It didn't take her long to reach her destination, and the cub began to chuff in delight at the sight of a few bodies basking in the morning sun. Little Miss debated ditching the idea of catching food altogether for a few moments before she was reminded by a growl in her gut that she still needed to eat.

Now, she just needed to find a spot where the odd aquatic spider creatures were hanging about since the jaguar cub still hadn't learned how to swim.

After scanning her surroundings, she came up null-- maybe it was too early for them to be up on the shore? The cub slowly made her way closer to the water that lapped the sand, her dark eyes scanning the waves as she slowly inched closer. As another wave came in she jumped backwards, retreating from the fluid, her hind legs shaking ever so slightly in fear.

A deep sigh erupted from her thin lips after she sucked in a deep breath, her mind flooding with thoughts. Little Miss needed to get over her fear of the water if this was going to be her new home, so she took a step closer, and the cold water simply greeted her by kissing her ankles. The cub did her best to fight the urge to scramble to higher ground, and instead, she closed her eyes and simply enjoyed this accomplishment.

The only thing that would make this moment better would be some food in her belly.

[Word count = 509]

METEOR

Meteor, as it happened, was one of those lazy nappers on the beach. While Little Miss walked by, her pawsteps and the chattering of parrots pulled him out of his catnap. Now that he wasn’t napping, the sunlight on his fur was too warm, and his mane was overheating.

Eh, might as well wake up, hm?

The pharaoh rolled to his paws, stretched out his front legs and yawned. Four large canine teeth flashed as his tail lashed. Then he stood up straight, rolled his head to pop his neck, and then spotted the leopard cub wading into the water.

Huh. Yeah, she was the anxious mess with a not-name. Weird, but literally everyone on his island was weird, and Meteor thought that was fucking fantastic. If he wanted a boring fucking life leading boring fucking retards, he’d have moved onto the mainland and opened up a goddamn coffee shop or some shit. Nope, if his goal is collecting weirdos, it’s much better to run a cannibalism cult.

“The ocean’s relaxing, isn’t it? This is definitely one of my favorite spots for a date.” He nodded to Little Miss, acting completely oblivious to her fear signals. Let her build some confidence and be treated like a person, maybe then she’d realize all this shit wasn’t really that scary.

Meteor yawned and tapped a paw on the surface of the water. Then flopped on the water’s shallows, allowing the waves to crash over his spine while his legs were half submerged. “The closest reef is about five to ten meters out, straight ahead.” Meteor glanced at her, then shrugged. “And, y’know, catching a fish is pretty tough. If you’re nervous, build up practice diving and holding your breath by cleaning out plastic caught on the reef. For now, being too cautious is okay, because you don’t know shit about breath control. So, really, just have fun and return with some weird human shit.”

[323 words]