A loud wail of pain suddenly interrupted this jungle night. Voices in the distance slowly faded away, blessedly leaving the jungle in almost total silence once again. The nature was about to sleep for the night, all due to the sound of sudden cries, the howls and moans of the wild birds, and the powerful anger of the huge group of wild animals. But, just like any other night, today a family of three wild animals passed by.
The black panther, with its tail raised high, was close to giving up, while the other two jungle cats who had been born under the same spot, were still as shocked as if they had seen a ghost. This strange creature had been running alongside with them, in their very own jungle. They were all rather angry, but dangerous night predators.
The black panther sighed in disappointment and flopped onto the grasses of the jungle. It had had its fair share of running today, but tonight it wanted to play with its mate, as it always did at night. The small black cat pawed on the ground with its paws in a very broad gesture of annoyance.
“Now, you would be running all the way back to our place today, to give me the whole ‘and you were never here’ thing. What a waste of a perfectly good evening.” It looked at the crafty leopard, who silently turned its head away. “Not talking to me anymore?”
The second cat, the tall, slim black leopard, just stared at it, as it smiled maliciously. It knew it would be punished and it loved every moment of it. The huge black panther was gazing after it, wondering how to punish it. The small black cat was watching the leopard and looked at it, angrily.
“Would you prefer to come with me to that tree,” it said, standing up and heading towards a large tree. The leopard stood still, looking after it, not knowing what to do. “Come here and take your punishment.” It was about a hundred meters away from the tree, and expecting the leopard to come toward her.
The huge panther was very aware of the difficulties that the leopard would face, but she wanted to play with it. It was much fun. The leopard continued to look at it, while the small black cat glared at the leopard, prepared to grab it and make it pay for its wrong doings.
“Oi, hurry up,” it said and pawed the ground with its foot, angrily. The leopard seemed to be weighing up the conflict of whether to come closer or not, and then moved its tongue from one side to another, as it thought about the various ways in which she would punish it. It knew she would punish it for leaving for almost a whole day, and for not bringing food for her and the tiny cub, and for making fun of her kindness.
Was it safe to come closer or not? The black panther fluttered her ears and scratched on the ground angrily.
“I’ll make it worth your while, and you better come,” she said and licked her lips in an expectant manner, as if she was tempted to eat it. The black panther moved forward and stopped, looking up at it and waited for the leopard to climb the tree with it. The leopard hung its head and looked at the security of the familiar tree. As it looked at the tree, it saw the black panther leap in the air, towards it. It also saw the flash of lightning in the green eyes of their mother, who was standing under the tree and it had been staring at it since.
The little leopard had tried to bite and claw, but the black panther had clamped her jaws and dragged the leopard next to it.