She saw him through the leaves of the tree just like her mother taught her. She waited for him to move and duck down. Luckily after a moment he did, having reached out to pick up some berries that hung low from a tree across from her.

In that moment she jumped down, quietly, though it seemed the animal sensed her presence because his head was back up again. She dare not move.

Her eyes searched his as he glanced around his surroundings, as weary as an antelope. After another pain staking minute, he turned to pick at the berries once more, soft sounds leaving his lips.

She stalked forward, paw after slow paw, ready to stay still if her prey decided to glance up again. Ten more feet and she would be on the mark to pounce.

Now! And with that thought and the final place of her paw she pounced at her prey, her mouth open to clench around his throat and give it the final sting before his death.

But she had missed. Or rather he hit her out of the way.

Infuriated, her prey pounded hard against his chest, roaring fiercely.

She hissed and spit at him, getting back up from being knocked over by the nearest tree.

"You are mine!" She lunged at him again after circling ever so slowly around him like she had seen her mother do, to give her prey a false sense of security.

Again the boy hit her away shouting, "Jaguars aren't welcome!"

"What are you going to do about it?" She bit at his knuckles and the ape cub gave a startled cry, he huffed, making noises like "hoo" and "oo" as he retreated to a tree.

She chased him up the tree, watching as he slowly stepped to the edge of the branch. The branch dipped in response to his weight.

Just as she was about to pounce at him again, he grabbed onto one of the vines and she fell to the forest floor, hard on her back. She stayed there, clutching at her rapidly beating heart, she couldn't breathe.

The ape cub spit down at her and lept from vine to vine, farther and farther into the forest.

She really hated monkeys.

XXX

She was back at the spot again the next day and so was the ape cub, apparently feeling confident that she wouldn't try to hunt him again.

He was wrong. She was determined to win whatever this was. She was by a bush, from across from him. His back was facing her, her eyes were fixed upon the steady rise and fall of it.

She stood still for a moment longer, waiting, and just like the day before slowly moved forward one paw after the other. She didn't have sharp claws like her mother, so there wasn't a worry about keep them unsheathed.

She lunged at him her whole body becoming visible now that she left the safety of the bush. Her lungs was cut short however as a full grown gorilla came running out from behind the trees where the ape cub was at.

The mother ape stood protectively in front of her cub, she roared in her face, the mouth as easily as big as the jaguar cub's head. As the ape got slowly closer and closer, she got farther away, just as the mother began to pick up speed to throttle the jaguar cub to death, there was a deafening cry from one of the trees.

A black jaguar leap down, landing right in front of her. It was her mother.

"Keep your cub away from mine." Her mother growled.

"You have crossed the boarder. Our leader will want his pound of flesh." The ape mother spoke. Though they all sound different, animals have a universal language.

"As a mother to a mother, I hope you're not suggesting I kill my cub? She made a simple mistake." The jaguar mother's claws unsheathed at this, ready to fight if need be.

"If It were any of the others, they would. But I see your child is like mine. Different." The ape mother looked at her between the gap in her mother's legs.

"That is none of your concern. I saved her." Her mother retorted.

"As did I. Just make sure she is on that side of the boarder." The ape mother nodded.

"Come Paka," her mother spoke turning around and leaning down so she could climb on her mother's back. She did as she was told.

Her mother began to walk off and as she did so Paka turned to face the ape's.

"Tarzan, what have I told you about the boarder?" The ape mother asked, picking up her cub and easily placing him on her back.

"To not go over here. But the best berries are over here." The son argued.

"You can't come over here. No matter how delicious the berries are."

The boy sighed and Paka lost them in the trees.

A: This is the first time I've ever done a Tarzan fic. I hope you're enjoying it and if you are please leave reviews.

-Maddie