๐ I say lots of heck words and post questionable smut. Stick around if that's your thing, but if you're below legal age to view such things in your jurisdiction, kindly go someplace else.
๐ Bob Semple was right.
"You're not lion, for you're a lioness; important distinction. Diversionary tactics, feints, cleverness. You're more unpredictable than I could ever be, hope to imagine. You're unexpected, a surprise of claws and teeth and muscle that can't be bargained with or distracted from her goal." The man smiled at the beast, one last rictus-challenge to meet hers, before he gave up the ghost he already was. "It was not to end any other way. This is how it should be, must be. The hunt is yours, as it could never be otherwise."
"But don't forget," maintaining his smile, and their matched gaze, "I still beat you here, to this place, Huntress. I got here first, and I was ready, even if my end was herein proscribed. If you bear any memory of me after tonight, keep this with you: when your time comes, make sure your affairs are in order, as mine were. Don't fear it, not that I would expect you to fear anything. Take it as a final lesson taught, not an adversary to fight. Death is no more than transition, a passing through, not a vanishing."
He handed her the sidearm he bore to the bare, unremarkable room they both stood in, tiny in her hand compared to his, saying nothing else, nor did she to him. He had never once pointed it at her during their long, twilight struggle, nor did the man by her way tonight, because he did not fear the lioness, he respected her. The difference bore thunder, as it must.
-2Paw.