Chapter 10

 

One morning, Asha was stalking a beetle in the bush. She stood frozen, her belly low to the ground, eyeing it with a focused determination.

‘I’ll miss our walk this afternoon,’ Zach said while I watched her. ‘I’m going over to Mumbi Game Reserve to see Kira and I won’t be back until late.’

I looked up sharply.

Kira. I bet she was the girl from the party. The thought of him with her made me feel sick and I didn’t know why. It wasn’t as if we were anything other than friends, and it wasn’t like you could expect someone as gorgeous as him not to have a girlfriend.

Asha pounced on the beetle with her front paws and it disappeared into her mouth. She rolled it around for a while before deciding it didn’t taste very nice and spat it out with a disgusted look.

‘She’s—’ Zach started, but I cut him off.

‘Well, have a good time,’ I said, my voice coming out harsher than I intended. I didn’t want to hear about how fantastic Kira was.

He raised confused eyebrows at my tone of voice and said, ‘Don’t go off into the bush on your own.’ He gave me a warning look. ‘OK?’

‘Yes, Dad.’ I gave him a salute.

He grinned as we arrived back at Asha’s enclosure, and I stood there staring at his retreating back until he disappeared, seeing the picture of him and Kira looking so cosy together at the party in my head.

By the time Asha’s afternoon walk was due, she was restless and full of energy, so I tried to distract her by getting her food ready. She was only on two meals of milk a day now, and I’d introduced her to solid meat. I fed her in the enclosure so she’d get used to it and it wouldn’t be so hard for her when the time came to leave her in there overnight on her own. Zach had told me that leopards had a very varied diet: antelope, gazelle, warthogs, impala, zebra, rodents, and even fish, birds, lizards, hares, and other small prey. Today she was having hare. Yum. She still had her milk teeth, so she wasn’t able to rip open the animal herself, which meant Zach had to cut it open for her.

I hadn’t managed to get over my squeamishness about handling the carcasses. It was one of the worst jobs of being a leopard mum. I pulled on some rubber gloves and turned my head away as I picked it up by a leg and set it down on the ground in her enclosure.

Licking her lips in anticipation, she bounded over to it, tugging at the flesh and spitting out the fur with a frown. I sat next to her on the ground, staring off into the distance. Why should Asha miss out on her walk just because Zach was off seeing his girlfriend? The lions here were pretty used to seeing people out and about on safari, and most of the time they’d ignore you. If they did approach too close, I’d seen Zach frighten them off by shouting and waving his arms, and I was perfectly capable of doing the same. What was the worst that could happen?

After Asha finished licking the bones clean, I stood up and called to her. She followed eagerly as we walked off into the bush but kept stopping and looking around for Zach.

‘He’s not coming,’ I said. ‘He’s got better things to do than hang around with us.’ And that’s when the realisation struck me.

I missed him.

A loud grumble emanating from deep within Asha’s throat interrupted my thoughts. She stood stock still, one paw still raised in mid-walk. I looked down sharply at her strange behaviour and saw she was staring at a group of about six lionesses crouched behind some bushes a short distance away and well-hidden. If it hadn’t been for Asha, I wouldn’t even have noticed them. They were carefully watching a herd of wildebeest, sizing them up as a potential meal.

I grabbed tightly on Asha’s lead, winding it around my hand until it dug in, and watched two of the lionesses move silently to the side of the unsuspecting herd. Two others flanked the opposite side. Another lioness brought up the rear. When one of the wildebeest looked up, the lions remained like statues, their golden coats blending into the dry grasses. I could feel an electric tension in the air as the lionesses silently communicated their teamwork to each other.

In a burst of speed, the lionesses bolted towards the herd. In their rush to get away, the wildebeest honked and kicked up the dusty ground, but in the panic, one of the adolescents ran straight for one of the lionesses. In seconds it was on the ground, with one lioness strangling it in a choke hold, and the others already biting into its rump.

I turned my face away, not wanting to see the carnage, and then I felt Asha tugging on the lead. I looked down at her as she struggled to get away from me. Then I saw two of the lionesses running towards us, their muzzles bright red with blood.

There was no time to think, I just ran, dragging Asha behind me. There was a nearby tree. If we could make it up there, we’d be safe.

I reached the tree and started climbing, my skills instantly kicking in.

‘Come on, Asha.’ I pulled the lead, the urgency in my voice and her natural instincts spurring her to jump expertly onto the trunk behind me. All the climbing lessons I’d given her had paid off, and she moved upward through the branches with a natural ease.

We reached a fork in the trunk about four metres up, and I looked down at two of the lionesses pacing round the bottom of the tree, their eyes fixed on us with unflinching coldness. They roared a sickening death rumble, the black tips of their tails lashing around with fury.

Still we climbed higher, the blood pounding in my ears and my breath coming in panicked pants. Asha misjudged one of the branches and her back legs slipped.

I gasped and grabbed her collar.

She clung onto the branch and quickly found her balance again, her back paws seeking out a new section of branch.

The lions jumped up the trunk. The bigger one fell back down, but the other one kept coming, climbing up the big lower branches with ease until it reached the fork. I didn’t have a clue lions could climb, and I just hoped that we could do it better.

The lioness in the tree tentatively tested the upper branches with a paw before climbing higher, while the lioness on the ground paced around, looking up at us, eyes flashing in the dusk. I could hear the rest of the pride snarling and snapping at each other as they devoured the wildebeest.

I held my breath and crept higher, making sure Asha was close behind. She was panting, her eyes wide and her pupils huge. There was no way we could go any further. The branches at the top were too thin and wouldn’t be able to hold our weight. I sat with my legs either side of a branch, my thighs squeezed together, firmly fixing me in place as I held onto Asha’s collar tightly. She lay next to me, balanced on a branch, her tail flicking nervously in the air as she stared down at the lionesses.

I watched the lioness in the tree stop on one of the branches, looking up at us. She bared her teeth and roared at us, trying to work out how to go higher.

The lioness on the ground jumped onto the trunk and began to climb, too.

I swallowed hard.

The lioness up the tree climbed awkwardly onto another branch and it snapped under her weight, sending her crashing to the ground. The other lioness jumped down and landed next to her, nudging at her face.

By the wildebeest carcass, I heard the roar of a male lion and the two lionesses’ ears flicked back. They gave us one last look up in the tree before rushing off back to their kill.

I exhaled a breath and realised I was shaking. Asha silently watched them retreat with an intense stare, and I buried my face in her fur.

As the dark night surrounded us, I could hear them feasting and knew it wouldn’t be safe to get down until they’d gone. We’d just have to wait it out.

I stroked Asha as my heartbeat slowed down and my breathing returned to normal. After what felt like at least an hour had passed, I had pins and needles in my legs and my head was aching with a post-adrenaline rush. I didn’t particularly relish the idea of spending the night out here. There could be hyenas attracted by the lion’s kill, or even other leopards roaming around. And they could definitely climb trees like a pro.

When the lionesses and the large male had gorged themselves, they lay on the ground, their bellies swollen, lying like sentries to guard what was left of the bone and flesh. Under the glint of the full moon rising I saw a hyena scout looking on before rushing off to fetch the scavenger party.

Asha had grown bored of watching the scene below and settled her head on her front paws, snoozing. I wished I had the same ability to switch off. It looked pretty likely that we might have to spend the night here.

More throaty roaring got my attention again as a group of hyenas circled the lions, snapping at them. The male lion lazily turned around and bared his teeth in a snarl at them but refused to move. A couple of the lionesses chased the hyenas away, but as soon as their backs were turned to walk off and rejoin the pride, the hyenas came back. After about three quarters of an hour of this, the lions seemed to get irritated with them, and with a throaty rasping cry, they slunk off into the night, deciding the carcass wasn’t worth the hassle and leaving the hyenas cackling away, crunching on the last of the bones.

I rubbed at my neck, which was aching with stiffness, and heard the distant sound of a Land Rover. It was probably Dad sending out a hunting party for me.

I saw the spotlights bouncing over the ground in the distance and shouted, ‘Over here!’ But I didn’t know if they’d be able to hear me.

The lights must’ve caught the hyenas feeding and settled on them as it came closer.

‘Over here!’ I cried repeatedly, not wanting to try and stand up to wave in case I fell out.

As the Land Rover reached the hyenas, they scattered, and I heard Zach’s voice yell, ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

The Land Rover stopped beneath the tree and I scrambled down with Asha close behind and we sprinted towards the vehicle. I opened the door and picked Asha up, pushing her inside and jumping in, nearly sitting on top of her in the process.

He glared at me through hooded eyes. ‘What on earth were you thinking?’ he yelled.

It was the first time I’d ever seen him lose his temper, and it caught me off guard.

My mouth dropped open in shock and refused to work.

‘You could’ve been killed!’ he shouted, eyes bright with anger. He thrust the gear stick into first with enough force to pull it off and drove forward. ‘Don’t ever do that to me again,’ he barked.