The Jaguar’s Territory

The Jaguar's Territory

The jaguar peered through the bushes at her prey, a sick gazelle. She wondered if the animal was contagious, but she also knew she was hungry.

The past few months had been stressful, feeding her three cubs. Sometimes she had to go without eating, to make sure her small family was provided for.

"It won't be long before they're on their own," she thought in her beautiful, wild head. Her moment to attack was approaching, the other gazelle moving on ahead, leaving the sick gazelle behind.

This was her chance, but then she realized something. There wasn't just the one gazelle. There were two! The mother jaguar was grateful to have a second option

This other gazelle didn't look sick at all, plus it was bigger. That meant more food for her family. Bigger could sometimes mean harder to take down, but she was willing to risk it to avoid possibly coming down with whatever sickness was afflicted the smaller gazelle.

Out of the corner of her eye . . . she couldn't believe it . . . she saw her mate. It looked like he'd been eyeing the bigger gazelle, too. It wasn't like they had any sort of deep connection, so she pushed aside whatever relationship they'd had in the past, and decided to look at him for what he was -a competitor.

The female jaguar saw an opportunity to attack the gazelle once it wondered within a certain distance. Her attack was very deadly and precise. Locking her jaw on the neck of the gazelle, she made her prey lose its footing, giving her the chance to dash off with the precious food.

She didn't look back. She didn't have to, because she knew her mate. He would follow her for a little bit, then would probably give up. Apparently she didn't know her mate as well as she thought she did, because if there was one thing he wasn't, it would be a quitter.

Not really expecting her mate to follow in tow, the female jaguar jaunted at her own pace back to her den and her three hungry cubs. About halfway to her home, her mate made his way in front of her, blocking her pathway.

Now that she could get a good look at him, she could see he wasn't doing too well. He stank, for one, and he was very skinny, for another. Still, there were feelings of resentment towards the male jaguar leaving her and her cubs to fend for themselves -not that she needed the help, because she really was an excellent hunter.

"Please, I'm hungry," he growled, but not he was threatening her. "I haven't had any water in three days."

The female jaguar wasn't convinced.

"I wouldn't have mated with you if you were a bad hunter."

"I know that. I lost a major battle for territory. I'm not even supposed to be here."

"Hold up right there." The other jaguar got a nasty look on her speckled face. "This isn't your territory anymore? Where is your territory now?"

"I don't have any," he admitted. Hanging his head. "I'll probably die soon because of my condition, after I lost."

Not a moment was wasted when the mom took her kill and hurried off to her den at an intense trot. Her ex-mate was following her, but she didn't realize it, and honestly, she didn't care.

Thankfully all three of her cubs were still in their cave. In the past, her most adventurous cub had wondered out, and was almost lost for good. What had given her the cub's location was the sound of a large bird squawking not too far away.

The young cub had attempted to attack a bird twice his size, and had startled the fully-mature fowl. The bird could've killed the cub with a few well-aimed shots at the little jaguar with its beak, but it wasn't interested in a fight.

Momma came in, picked up her cub then returned home.

"Good, maybe he's learned his lesson," said the momma in her mind. Laying the kill on the floor of the cave, the mom nuzzled her babies before they started digging in to their feast.

For whatever reason, the mother jaguar looked outside of her cave, probably checking for enemies, but instead she saw her ex-mate. What could he not understand about his actions? It was clear jaguar law, that all jaguars acknowledged, that if you lost your territory, you lost all the mates in their territory as well.

The thought had been on her mind to visit the new leader of the territory she wanted to stay in. She looked out at the shamed ex-mate of hers. About to growl and roar at him to go away, the sad male jaguar dropped his head low and turned away.

"Served him right!" Momma thought. She knew how good of a fighter her ex-mate was, so she figured he must've done something really stupid to lose such an important battle.

All three happy little jaguars ate their fill, and so did their ravenously hungry momma, too. By the time she'd sated her appetite, the cubs were getting sleeping from all the good food. There was none left.

"Ok kids," she whispered. "You need to still stay inside while mommy pays a visit to another jaguar in the area."

The young jaguarlets mewed and growled in response, still shaky with forming certain words and sentences. She figured that was as best a response as she was going to get, so she ventured back into the wild to see if she could find her new mate, or whatever the heck he wanted to call himself. She sniffed the air.

"Ah yes, that's new," she thought to herself about the smell. Her ex was trailing behind her, but was growing more distant from her the closer she got to her destination. She didn't think the ex-leader of this decent-sized chunk of territory would ever hurt her cubs. She silently whispered to herself that she would hunt down and kill that male jaguar if he so much as even touched her cubs.

It didn't matter if he was the dad. This was a matter of a jaguar's pride. You pay your respects to the jaguar in charge, and maybe if he liked you enough, he'd bring over a kill every once and a while.

Her ex had never brought over any food, and she didn't expect him to. She always found him to be kind of rude, but she'd had to put up with him because he was in charge.

With the speed of a cheetah, a new male jaguar sped past the female, attacking some animal in the background. She looked and saw her ex, way off in the distance, and in his mouth was the most adventuresome cub. She wanted to dash off and save her cub, but this was a fight between male jaguars, and she knew not to interfere because they often got extremely nasty with each other while fighting.

The fight was relatively short, the new leader winning, carrying the cub up to the momma. She licked her foolish cub, but she loved him and had to forgive him because he hadn't known any better.

The new leader was apparently very capable. He looked at her will his gold eyes, and saw how bright and sharp they were. He was a killer, but he had a heart, too.

The story had its end.

"And that was how I met my dad," said the adventuresome cub, all grown up. "I have learned so much from him. If my mom had fed my real dad, he could've had the strength to carry all of us off and probably eat us."

"The new leader did help to provide, and now his territory's going to become mine."

"And you deserve it," spoke a soft, but older voice.

"Thank you mother for giving me strength."

"It's what mothers do," she said as if it was all just common sense