(no subject)
I awake to the sensation of sweat at the nape of my neck and cooling at the dip of my back. My warm, sateen pyjamas, however undone they had been the night before, have turned back into my thin cotton tank top and cotton bikini briefs. It's somewhat surprising, enough to wake me, at least. I can feel James at my back, chest moving evenly with sleep. There is the creaking of branches in a tropical breeze and a soft gust of salt-scented wind from the ocean, and I slide to the edge of the bed and up, stretching, padding down the level to where the trap door, low table, and water jug all are. I don't bother freshening up, merely step into my boots- unchanged by the weather both ways- and then turn up the trap door and kneel.
I pause, sensing a creak in one of the support branches, but nothing comes of it. I drop through the trap door, catching its edge, then drop down again to catch a branch, swing away from it to land on another and so on, folding myself down the branches swiftly until I drop lightly into a crouch onto the sandy dirty below.
And find myself eye to eye with a jaguar that has just done the same.
He's as still as I am, and our gazes are met without actually meeting, that I can recall. I stay, knees par with my shoulders, bent sharply, one hand down, fingertips steadying my balance against the dirt, other hand out and still, to one side. The jaguar is crouched, muscles poised and fur shining, raw silk dappled with newly-tropical sun filtering down through the canopy, and it's...
It's like looking into a mirror. Something shifts; my expression, perhaps. I set down so I'm kneeling with my feet tucked under my sit bones as the jaguar takes one languid, long-reaching step forward and butts the broad, flat expanse of its forehead against my brow ridge.
"How forward," I murmur, looking vaguely surprised, but not wary. I cannot ever remember feeling so readily connected with anyone, let alone an animal. Most of my run-ins with large cats from the wild have ended with unfortunate gunshots or running away very quickly so as to avoid such an action. This is a feeling of... instant companionship, I dare say. I never kept pets, but I don't think this is what that relationship feels like either. It's like meeting an equal, for whom I harbor some surprising affection. From the big cat's shrewd expression, I'd say it may be having similar thoughts.
Ulixes sits on his haunches and watches me, tail flicking twice, languidly, and I smile.
I pause, sensing a creak in one of the support branches, but nothing comes of it. I drop through the trap door, catching its edge, then drop down again to catch a branch, swing away from it to land on another and so on, folding myself down the branches swiftly until I drop lightly into a crouch onto the sandy dirty below.
And find myself eye to eye with a jaguar that has just done the same.
He's as still as I am, and our gazes are met without actually meeting, that I can recall. I stay, knees par with my shoulders, bent sharply, one hand down, fingertips steadying my balance against the dirt, other hand out and still, to one side. The jaguar is crouched, muscles poised and fur shining, raw silk dappled with newly-tropical sun filtering down through the canopy, and it's...
It's like looking into a mirror. Something shifts; my expression, perhaps. I set down so I'm kneeling with my feet tucked under my sit bones as the jaguar takes one languid, long-reaching step forward and butts the broad, flat expanse of its forehead against my brow ridge.
"How forward," I murmur, looking vaguely surprised, but not wary. I cannot ever remember feeling so readily connected with anyone, let alone an animal. Most of my run-ins with large cats from the wild have ended with unfortunate gunshots or running away very quickly so as to avoid such an action. This is a feeling of... instant companionship, I dare say. I never kept pets, but I don't think this is what that relationship feels like either. It's like meeting an equal, for whom I harbor some surprising affection. From the big cat's shrewd expression, I'd say it may be having similar thoughts.
Ulixes sits on his haunches and watches me, tail flicking twice, languidly, and I smile.