Spotted! There was absolutely no doubt about it. If Elcid could have wished herself into vanishing, she would have in that very second. Instead, all she could bother to do was stay tucked into the grasses as low as she could. Her ears folded backwards, both in fear and strategy. Her head ducked lower to sink down level with her shoulders. Crunch, crunch the other's paw steps made as it came closer. Elcid closed her eyes, hoping it would walk past her and follow the creature that had squealed and carved the path through the grasses. Crunch crunch, crunch crunch. They suddenly stopped. Elcid's heart beat fast.
"Hi!" Her eyes snapped open and her gaze shifted to look at the leopard who stood a distance from her. Elcid's head slowly rose upwards. Maybe they weren't going to eat her after all. She was asked a question, and it was only now that Elcid realized that the other was a fair bit younger than she had originally thought. Slowly, she rose from her crouch, though her tail remained tucked. "Uh, sure?" she replied uncertainly. This was such an awkward encounter, and she wasn't sure how to handle it. She didn't even know she could talk to leopards, let alone one ask her to hunt with it. How did leopards even hunt? How did she even know it was a leopard?
As she stood from her crouch, she felt the fear slowly leaving her. Her instincts still alerted her, caution! caution! and she listened to them obediently. She wouldn't dare show her backside to this predator. "Were you hunting that thing that just ran by?" She continued to talk, trying to work past her vast misunderstanding of the stranger's original intentions, "I thought it was going to run me over."