From the shadows, emerged a phantom. Jaws parted, a breathless wisp escaping. Fresh air sucked into lungs. A heart beating anew, thudding just a pace too quick. Amber eyes squinted open, senses coming alive. Bristling. Straining. The world to which The Leopardess awoke was all wrong. Not the one she knew. It looked so similar, yet so different. Innately, she knew that this was not home.

That didn't matter.

She was alive.

She would stamp her presence on this new realm. Adapt, thrive and kill. Just as she always had. It was what she did best. It was all she knew.

Shivani; Life and Death.

--------------

Water. Fresh water. She smelled it. Close by. Her mouth was parched, her stomach empty. The shadow borne tracked down the watering hole by scent. A ghost, rarely seen out in the open. A flash of golden, ebony dappled fur, settled at the waters edge. Quenching her desperate thirst, splayed whiskers dotted with droplets. Yet even now, those eyes remained upturned. Ever watchful for the slightest movement. Ears alert, receptive to any sound. Surely, she was not all alone in this big, bad new world.

---

the tiger feels as if he has been asleep for centuries. body tucked within a catacomb of dust and cobweb, locked away to rot and to face an eternity of death's sweet darkness. there is a limpness to him that is foreign.

above that, a sweltering upon his pelt invasive. heat pouring from a wrathful, scorning sun, and sifting through the thickness of his hide. shifting, he raises himself best he can; chuffing a grating, irritable sound from his throat and chest. mature muscle coiling, twitching feverishly beneath a slate pressed pelt.

pushing through the dry underbrush his slumber was tucked beneath. coming upon a watering hole not too long after, as if destiny meant for him to rise here. eyes of burning golden shifting, moving silently past the tall reed grass.

paying no mind to what wildlife lay around as he sinks immediately into the coolness of the water, body of compact power moving with natural glide. rumbling with satisfaction.

---

A breaking of the silence. A disturbance of the water by a powerful force. Feline. Muscled and chiseled; more so than her own.

Dark pupils dilated, taking in the new, yet universally familiar shape. A torrent set in. Curiosity. Tension. Distrust. All edging her already heightened sense of awareness.

Poised, the ghost hovered by the waters edge. Paws just out of reach of the cooling spa in which this other strange feline indulged. Sharp peripheral vision picked out the nearest tree...just in case. And then a call, meant for him. A low, soft rasping chuff. She would find out about this stranger.

A breaking of the silence. A disturbance of the water by a powerful force. Feline. Muscled and chiseled; more so than her own.

Dark pupils dilated, taking in the new, yet universally familiar shape. A torrent set in. Curiosity. Tension. Distrust. All edging her already heightened sense of awareness.

Poised, the ghost hovered by the waters edge. Paws just out of reach of the cooling spa in which this other strange feline indulged. Sharp peripheral vision picked out the nearest tree...just in case. And then a call, meant for him. A low, soft rasping chuff. She would find out about this stranger.