Perseus was standing guard out away from the main pride, but finding herself very distracted. Part of her job was to keep an eye and ear out for trouble and she kept hearing something that she could not quite place. The leopon was trying to find signs of that something she could hear nearby, but she was not willing to get close to it just yet. She wanted to know what she was going up against before she decided if she needed backup to deal with it.

Perseus put her nose to work sniffing around to find any sign of something bigger than the hares around. All she smelled right now were smaller creatures and it was a bit disappointing Those sounds HAD to be from something bigger. But the question was, what? The fact that she was not finding no signs of anything bigger bothered her. Either she was losing her sense of smell, or whatever it was had not passed this way and was down wind of her. She was going to have to find it so she knew if it posed a danger to the pride.

Perseus was just about to give up on finding it and go for backup when the scent caught her nose. There had been an antelope through this area recently. The scent was not very strong so it was only one. Antelope were big enough to make all that noise so that might be what she was looking for. She was going to have to follow the trail and find out. Only one could perhaps be a sick one, or perhaps one that was making its way back to the herd, but she needed to track it down and find out what was going on.

The fluffy leopon was hopeful that she would see nothing really out of place, just an antelope being silly and then she could go back to her border patrol without an issue. She just did not want to deal with any that turned to fight or be dangerous to have around the pride. A big herd too close could pose a risk and would have to be reported, an antelope that was crazed, was another risk and again would have to be reported. The leopon followed the trail with hope and worry both warring for dominance in her mind.

Perseus was following the scent of the antelope and watching for other signs of its presence. She found nothing to indicate others around, and as the scent got stronger, she started to see tracks and other things that indicated the creature had a oddly cocked leg. Perhaps it had been in a fight and lost very badly, but no matter how it was injured, the leopon would have to be careful. She probably should report back and get back up… and yet she kept going forward.

If it was badly injured, Perseus could handle it herself right? And she would be doing it a favor by ending its pain. She kept tracking, creeping along as silently as a ghost after her prey. She still was close to the pride, so if she did have to kill it, she could drag it back easily. The big fluffball of a leopon did not seem so fluffy at times like these when she was tracking something with the intent to eliminate a threat to her pride, but she still did not do any harm to anything when she did not need to do it.

Perseus was one of those that only got violent when she needed to do so, not just because she could do it. She also would try to inflict as little pain as possible if a fight to drive something off came to be and in a case of an injured animal to make the creature's death as quick and painless as possible if it came to that. She hated to make anything suffer. She just was a nice leopon for the most part.

The scent was strong enough now that Perseus was sure the creature had to be around here somewhere. She also smelled no sign of death, though there was a scent of blood on the air. She might not be the only predator around here with that blood smell in the air, but the leopon was determined to find and deal with the thing and drive off any dangerous predators it attracted. She spotted the antelope not far, laying down and looking very worn. Its leg was broken from the looks of it and it appeared to have several slashes across its shoulder, claw marks. Someone had tried and failed to take this thing down before. That was not good.

Perseus crouched in the grass where the injured antelope could not see her. The situation for it did not look good at all from what Perseus could see, but there was still some things to be considered before deciding to kill and take the thing back to the pride. Just because it was already dying did not necessarily make it good prey for one to feed to the pride, so the leopon crept as close as she could to examine the thing before making a choice on her action. She also took a moment to look around for any sign of other predators, which she did not see any.

Perseus had to make sure that it was not actually sick or infected. The leopon did not want to take something back that might make the pride sick especially when they already had the plague. A bad infection on their food would make them ill just as much as they could catch a disease from what they ate if it had it. She had no desire to be the cause of making the others or herself sick because she hunted bad prey. The fluffy leopon loved her pride and did not want to cause suffering.

The wounds looked fresh from what Perseus could see. There was no sign of infection, no sign of the flies having gotten the better of the creature yet, so that was a good indicator that nothing was wrong with the wounds themselves. The antelope kept looking around, and it seemed very alert, so the leopon was pretty sure it was not sick, either. The judgement made, the leopon moved just a little closer and into position to spring. She had an antelope to kill.

Perseus was silent as a shadow, waiting for the antelope to look in the opposite direction before springing forward and pouncing it. She hit the side hard, knocking into it and latching on before it could get its head around to use its horns on her. Those things hurt when they were turned on you, and Perseus knew that from some past experiences that she did not want to repeat anytime soon. She had been lucky back then that she did not get killed. The leopon did not like the idea of taking too much risk and ending up dead because she had not gone back for help.

The antelope did not give much of a struggle, so Perseus’ job was quite simple. She killed the creature swiftly, trying to cause it as little pain as possible and took a moment to admire her own handiwork. She had done rather well on this kill, if she did say so herself, and by the smell of it, she had been quite right about the creature not having infection or being sick. There was no smell of sickness or rot on it to give it away. The leopon had done a good job with this hunt even if she was not supposed to be hunting this day.

Perseus got the kill partway over her back and let what she could not get up on her back drag on the ground. She half carried and half dragged the corpse back toward the others on patrol. She knew they would be happy to see this and it would be quite the story to tell. The leopon made her way along under the weight of the dead antelope, but did not mind the hard trekking too much. She knew she did not have far to go with it and that her pride mates would help carry it back once she got it to them.