Fast Food

Normally, Sinta wouldn't dream of trying to take a hard-earned meal from another predator. Usually, the cheetah kept a respectable distance from the heavier beasts roaming the grasslands in general.

But she was starving, and her cubs were hungry; all 7 of them. As a solitary hunter, she simply couldn't bring down enough prey to feed the family as each cub required more food as they grew. The smallest cub might not have survived this most recent outing, it had grown so weak...

So when she stumbled upon the scene of a young lion harassing the local old leopard for an impala he had killed, the temptation had been too great.

The lion was from a large pride. He was so far down the hierarchy, by the time he got his turn at kills, there was little left. The leopard, old Snag, was old enough that his teeth were practically worn to nubs. Inexperience contested with a fading grip, and while the two male felines chuffed and postured, Sinta crept over to the impala carcass.

She waited patiently. When it happened, it happened quick; in the second both males turned away, she snatched the carcass and ran away with it.