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[JAYBIRD ~]

Welcome to the jungle young ones. Come and learn. Suck in the sights, the smells, the tastes. Feed on fresh kills and sip from fresh streams. Bathe yourself in the sweat of a hunt. Nurture your young with the songs of victory. Embrace the way of the jungle and it will be your friend.

Those felines raised within the jungle all shared a certain spark, a certain hunger inside their hearts. The majority of these jungle-dwellers are leopards; the shadowy, silent night-stalkers that haunt every lion's dreams... Or so some of them would like to think, Jaybird in particular. Jaybird was an extraordinarily large black leopardess with an extreme distaste for the lion prides. They scoffed at her kind, when in reality a full-grown leopard could challenge any adult lion and have a very close matched battle.

Jay had inhabited this part of the jungle for about a year, since the time of her parents's death. She had had a few challengers, and defeated them all easily. Now her claim was as clearly staked in as any lion pride's claim and she wasn't afraid to fight with fang and claw.

It happened to be a very humid, hot day out, and Jaybird slunk down from her perch in a tree to lazily bathe herself in the cool water of the watering hole. The day was quiet and peaceful, and Jay hardly expected anything exciting to happen.

[Draco]

Draco was making his way through the center on the continent. He generally didn't like doing this for several reasons. One of those reasons was that there were usually plenty of leopards lurking around here since the center was the only place where lions hadn't claimed land. They of course could dwell in the lion pride lands and most of them wouldn't be bothered. The boarders are really for other lions but, for some reason, most of them stayed here anyway. It was beautiful in it's own way here. Another reason why he didn't like it was that it left both of his lands, unprotected. He was traveling to the South, to do more boarder patrol. He needed to re-establish his scent there. He didn't want strays walking in there and trying to make it there own or hunting off of his land without paying a penalty. It was Draco's soul purpose in life was to protect his land and the members of his pride. He took his job very seriously and even though, outsiders saw him as not being able to handle his pride and allowed the members to run wild. This of course was somewhat true. The lions his pride generally attracted here crazy and, most of them had run off if not all of them. The thought of it made Draco clench his teeth. How could they abandon him after all he had done for them, after all his father had done for them.

The land around here showed little to no scaring of the burned land that had happened many many years even before his father's time. The fire probably did as much good as it did harm. It had given the big cats here the gods, it had renewed the land, and gave everyone a second chance. Though, he didn't know how badly the animals around here wanted a second chance. He certainly was struggling with the question. His life wouldn't have been affected much either way by the fire but, he thought about the lions before him and he wondered if something like it could ever happen to the land again.

The assortment of smells around him was dense. There were certainly leopards around here but, he didn't expect any of them to approach him. He was the king after all. Though, he did see one black leopard, lazily resting in a tree. Draco was going to ignore her as long as she didn't bother him. He had no problem with other big cats, he really didn't. As long as they respected his distance like he respected theirs.

It was very hot out and he didn't like to travel during the day but, he needed to get to the South before dark so he could mark his territory better. Even this land was sprayed with the claims of a leopard. He was sure the smell belonged to the female laying in the tree. He obviously paid no attention to it because he had crossed the boarder and was walking through the middle of it. Usually the three species disrespected each other's boarders. They were usually for others of the same species. He wasn't really interested in claiming this land though, it would make it easier to travel to the south from the north. But, it would never happen. The Donec's would have no way to reach the other piece of their land and would surely start a war over it. He knew the Donecs to be quite peaceful and "intelligent" so, when they started a war, it was over something important.