The law of the jungle, a blazing fire of hunger and desire, completely captured by the thrill of the hunt.
As if time slows, your heart thumps with each passing beat, the moment you've anticipated approaches. Narrow your sight. Focus. One deep breath and finally...

I pounced from behind the shrubbery I'd used to conceal myself, launching directly into the side of the deer caught oh so unaware. Latching my claws into its skin, I sunk my teeth into its neck and dragged my fine meal to the ground. In one swift movement I had conquered my prey!

Upon confirming to myself that the deer was in fact dead, I took a step back throwing my head up high in a proud manner. A familiar laughter broke out from behind me. Turning my head I saw a tall, fierce leopardkin, with shining autumn hair accompanied by a tinge of gingery light red that peaked around one of her ears. Her large rounded eyes gleamed with a beautifully light greyblue, like clouds. As the sunlight speared through the jungle leaves illuminating around us, a powerful grin settled between her rosy cheeks.

Almost as if the entire jungle was struck by a whirwind she launched herself forward, crushing me in what can only be described as an overbearing motherly hug...

"Ava~ I'm so proud of you! You're definitely going to outshine even me one day!" she exclaimed, tears dripping onto my fur at an alarming rate.

Deftly escaping her grasp, I shift my form from a catlike shape into one resembling the lady infront of me. Autumn hair with a slightly darker but nonetheless gingery red tinge, except for a thick snow white stripe down my fringe. The same soft round cloudy eyes settled on my face, offset by the pouty frown placed between my cheeks.

"Mom you don't have to crush me to show how much you love me!" I sighed, throwing my hands up in the air in defeat, knowing full well a second equally smothering embrace would follow. That embrace came exactly as predicted, except smothering wasn't the half of it! My 'overly' well endowed mother tried to assassinate me then and there! Only releasing me right before I'd all but lost consciousness.

Shes exactly one head height taller than me, which places my face directly in the danger zone at a time like this. Collecting myself from the absolute outrage and injustice that is my mothers not so secret weapons, I glanced over to see the feminine cat lady throwing the deer carcass over her shoulder like a ragdoll, swiftly reminding me of the fact that my mother is the strongest warrior anyone in the village has ever known.

Throwing a hand down to me, she softly spoke out "Come on! Lets go home and I'll get dinner started, mommys so proud of you she's going to cook up a storm!"

I sighed, taking her hand as we made our way through the jungle back to our village.

About an hours worth of overtly one sided mother daughter bonding time later and we finally arrived at our destination. In front of us was the village I grew up in, home to variety of jungle based beastkin! We've managed to keep ourselves well concealed from the outside world for a long time, only trading with a select few trusted merchants south of the boarder, courtesy of my father! The only being on earth that could 'tame' my mother as well as being our one and only astute negotiator, or at least thats what he says... Anyway, the houses are made to accompany the gigantic trees of our jungle. Everything is made from the jungle as we live off the land, proudly so. Wood and vines create our houses and furniture alongside the furs from our hunts, which are one of the few things we trade to outsiders.

What makes this village really special however? The spirits! Spheres of illustrious light glide around us bestowing aid, only those of us 'attuned' can actually communicate with them, one of which is my very own mother. The spirits protect us, confusing outsiders who try to enter the jungle by turning it into a twisting a maze, resulting in the would be trouble makers being thrown out on their butts.

However those lucky enough to be attuned can borrow their spiritual power to create mindblowing phenomenoms! Not that i've actually ever seen it- I've heard about it all from my mother though!

Stepping inside the village, all the familiar faces made greetings to my mother, some gently bowed their heads while others threw up their arms for what I can only call, crisp high fives accompanied by jovial laughter. Making our way through the village we arrived at the crossroads that leads to our house. Remembering the promise I made to meet up with some friends, I told my mother who simply reminded me to be home by dinner and thus we went our seperate ways.

I made my way down the trodden path and through some shrubbery until I revealed a gorgeous waterfall leading into a glistening lake, a breathtaking sight, complimented by the rays of the unobstructed beating sun. In the distance I could see two figures seated by the lake, legs dangling into the water without a care in the world.

As I approached, one of the figures called out to me.

"Ava! You're late dumbass!" The rude bearkin spat out. This stupid ball of fur was named Lucky, ironically because he might be one of the most unlucky people I've ever met, missing an ear after an incident with a slaver after he cluelessly played outside the safe zone as a kid. Unfortunately that didn't kick any sense into him as he's still a boisterous, loud mouthed, guzzling air breather! He's pretty strong though, and tall, as expected of a bearkin I guess.

"Lucky! Don't be mean to ava like that! We're all friends so be nice!" shouted out by a smaller, higher pitched wolfkin girl by the name of Koko. Koko was simply put, the single best person on the planet, kind, warmhearted, sweet and smart! Like her mother she was a beauty with sleak black hair, half a head shorter than me. She also knows her way around herbs and is even knowledgable in nature magic! Like real ass magic! She makes plants move and can heals our wounds! Unlike Lucky's pain in the ass-ness, she's the absolute goddess of our jungle.

"Yeah Lucky! You should be more like our sweet Koko and less of a trouble maker" I retort, quickly adding,

"Sorry I'm late Koko, lets start climbing before it gets too late aye?"

Lucky glares for a moment but eventually they both nod and we make our way up the cliff. Climbing to the top Lucky buffs his chest out and says "Ava! Todays the day I best you! We shall race!" Koko sighs as I break out in a grin.

"Looks like you really can't get enough of losing huh, Lucky?" I giggle out and proceed to the start line we use like always.

The race went ahead as you'd expect- with me destroying the clunky bundle of muscles by a landslide. Slide being the optimal word because he fell head first into the river and I had to save him, leading to both of us tumbling down the waterfall and swiftly being scolded by an extremely mad Koko for being reckless. Recieveing a scolding from Koko was a well known fate worse than death, I mean how could someone so sweet be so scary?! Afterwards we lounged around the lake making small talk until the sun started to set and we head home.

After my well earned dinner, the contents of course coming from my perfectly executed hunt, I decided to approached a familiar topic with my mother, "hey mom, don't you think I'm ready now? I can take care of myself you know, you even saw my skills today!"

To my surprise she simply sighed, "We'll talk about it when your father returns tomorrow, okay honey?" Deciding that would have to do, I gave up and went to bed. Snuggling under the covers in my oh so comfy bed after a long exhausting day, I drifted off before I had even known it.

...

badum~

...

badum~

...

A thumping like a drum in the rhythm of a heartbeat. A silohette of a powerful cat like beast eloquently, yet somehow ferociously charging through the jungle. Each step rumbling the earth, as if the trees themselves made way for its inevitable destructive path. As the mesmorising scene continued, a quaking roar broke out and everything went black.