Pounced On

Minori is the first to wake. Still laying in Haru’s lap, she rolls her head over to see him still passed out leaning against the cliff face. She cracks a small smile before slowly sitting up and attempting to wake him.

“Rise and shine Haru. Don’t we have somewhere special we need to be today?”

He cracks one eye open as he begins to stretch from side to side causing the tent to start swaying.

“Don’t move so much! We’re still in this death trap of a tent, you big dummy.”

“Oh that's right, we should probably get out of this.”

They climb back up the ledge of the cliff. And enjoy a final glance of the picturesque scene below.

“Well let’s get going.”

Haru sends them off in a cloud of dark smoke. They now stood in a sultry grass plain with the rays of the sun beaming down at them.

“Ok this seems like a good start. I don’t see anything for us to climb and we certainly won’t be coming across any sharks here.”

Haru chuckled.

“Yeah there’s definitely no sharks out here.”

He conjures a 4x4 open sided safari vehicle and gets in the driver’s seat.

“Well what are you waiting for Minori? Hop in!”

“I won’t have to be on my feet today either? You’re really delivering on the calm day you promised me.”

Driving down the dirt road of the African savanna was miraculous. Land as far as the eyes could see. It was unlike any of the other of the places they had already visited. Haru slowed down the truck and pointed towards some large brush.

“Look over there Minori.”

A massive black rhino bull weighing well over a ton stood off in the distance. Despite its size, it was delicately biting off branches from the surrounding plant life as if it was methodically pruning the area.

“Can we get any closer to it?”

“I wish we could but the males are pretty territorial so why don’t you use one of the pairs of binoculars I put in the back seat.”

“That makes sense. The binoculars are plenty good enough. Thanks.”

“No problem.”

They continued their drive to seek out more wildlife. Next they witness a water buffalo scratching an itch behind its horns using a broken branch of the tree beside it.

“Hey Minori, which of the big five game animals do you think is the most dangerous to humans?”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know what the big five game animals are.”

“Oh I'm sorry I should’ve started with that. The big five consist of the lion, leopard, black rhino, African elephant and the cape buffalo.”

“It has got to be lions right?”

“Nope, it's the cape buffalo like the one by that tree. They're even nicknamed black death because once they decide to be on the offensive they will attack you relentlessly.”

“All of a sudden I have the urge to move from this area. Hit the gas Haru.”

He laughed as they drove off toward the nearby lake. A herd of giraffes gathered to get a drink. The largest of them walk over to the water before doing a little hop with their front legs and entering a partial split in order to reach over for a drink.

“Haha. They drink so oddly.”

“They only do that because of the structure of their neck.”

“You really seem to know a lot about the animals here. Did you bring me just so you could try to show off?”

Haru shrugged his shoulders a bit and made a pinching gesture.

“Maybe just a little bit.”

She let out a cute little laugh.

“Well, is there any other animal you plan on showing me out here?”

“Yeah hopefully we will come across one soon if we—”

A huge African elephant rushed out from the trees and tall brush straight toward their vehicle with its ears flared out as far as they could. He immediately slowed the car down to a halt.

“Ahhhh!”

Haru shouted as he slammed his hand against the outside of the car door. The elephant stopped in its tracks and casually walked off like nothing happened. Minori, still in shock from how quickly that happened, looked over at Haru as he started to drive again once it was out of sight.

“How did you do that?”

“That was nothing, it was just bluffing. It wasn’t really going to hit us. That was just a defensive action to warn us not to get any closer.”

“And how could you tell that in an instant from seeing it?”

“When they aren’t going to commit to the charge their ears are normally flared out to look bigger and they let their trunks hang as opposed to putting their ears back or flapping them while curling up their trunk.”

“Show off.”

“Well would you look at that, we’re already here.”

They drive up to the gate of a small facility belonging to the nature reserve they were currently in. A young man of similar age to Haru walks over to their vehicle.

“So you really made it.”

“Yup, It's nice to see you after all this time. Minori, this is Marcel, an old friend of mine.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too”

They get out of the vehicle and follow him along the inside of the gate.

“So are you sure this is where you wanted me to set it up for you?”

They stop at a large chabudai table just past some tall brush. On it was a variety of pastries and a black tea for each of them.

“Well they should be over any minute now so be sure to enjoy yourself.”

Marcel waves as he disappears in the tall grass.

“Haru, who did he mean when he said that?”

“No need to worry, you’ll see soon enough.”

“Another elephant isn't going to come charging at us right?”

“That’s not exactly what I planned for.”

Minori suddenly heard a rustling sound from behind her as she ate one of the pastries. Out leaped, several lion cubs tumbling through the brush as they play fought with each other. They finally notice Minori and Haru and jump onto their laps to start playing around. She lets out a small shriek.

“Oh my goodness! They are so adorable.”

Minori’s face lit up with joy as she watched them wrestle with each other on her lap. Haru gazed over, smiling at her reaction.

“I had a feeling you would love this.”

“I certainly approve. Especially since none of them are big enough to eat me.”

She starts grabbing at their little paws and teasing them with pieces of grass for them to chase and pounce at. Her face suddenly freezes as she sees glare of a giant pair of eyes coming from behind Haru.

“Haru… I think there's something big in the grass behind you.”

“Finally! It's about time.”

He turns around and braces for impact as a full size lioness pounces on top of him. Just before she was about to let out a scream she noticed the huge smile across Haru’s face. The lion began rubbing her head against him as he voraciously petted her.

“Let me introduce you to Nala. I came here on a conservation trip a few years ago. She was found after a run in with a poacher and I helped feed her and tend to her injuries during my stay here. You could say we grew pretty close after those few months together.”

“Really funny Haru. I guess my heart attack was part of your plan?”

“Oh I love how well you’ve grown to know me.”

“So what if she came from another direction?”

“I knew that wouldn’t happen. She always seizes the opportunity to try and catch me by surprise. Hey, where did that cub drag those bones over from?”

“What bones?”

She looked down to see that her hand was bare bones. She let out a small shriek while shaking her hand in the air. There was a small puff of smoke as her hand went right back to normal.

“That's never happened before but at least it's back to normal again.”

Haru seemed to be shaken up a bit by the sight of that, but quickly shook it off to not bring down the mood.

“Well I’m just glad I got to see you enjoy yourself so much today. Why don’t we try going somewhere a bit cooler tomorrow?”

“That works for me but I don’t think anything is going to come close to being with these adorable cubs.”

“Haha I probably should’ve saved this one for a bit later down the road then.”

“It's ok I'm sure you'll still come up with something we can both enjoy.”

“She smiled over at him as she continued playing with the cub on her lap.”