I raise my head at the sound of voices coming near, the lion I’m lying against tensing in alarm. ‘Quick, hide!’ Eto whispers in my ear. I try to reassure the big cat, but it’s no use. And who can blame her? Poachers killed so many of her pride, but these look like park rangers. Eto tries to drag me away, but my hide shirt rips in her powerful jaws.
More shouting. Suddenly, Eto falls heavily beside me, shot by one of the men. Before I can tend to her they approach me, asking all sorts of questions, but I can’t make sense of it all. ‘What did you do?!’ I ask angrily. ‘Eto never hurt anyone.’ I keep asking but instead of answering, they look at me oddly.
Eto’s body is bundled unceremoniously into the back of the truck while I’m forced to sit in the smelly interior. This is the first time I’ve been alone on the savanna, and I’m more afraid of these men than I’ve ever been of Eto’s pride. We drive for some time before reaching a large, walled compound.
A whole host of animals is being kept in cages in the compound. A zoo, the monkeys told me. The rangers keep leading me to distressed animals, so I assume they’re keeping me here to talk to the animals and keep them calm. It’s heartbreaking to see such majestic creatures in cages, forced to perform for all the people coming to visit.
One day, as I passed the lions’ enclosure, a voice hailed me. ‘Eto!’ I cried joyfully, scampering over the barrier to throw myself at her. ‘I thought you were dead.’ She looked weary and underfed, as did the other lions, but she was alive. ‘You need to get us out of here,’ begged a male. ‘We don’t deserve this, not even the monkeys, intolerable as they are.’
With all the animals in on the plan, the day for revenge on their captors finally arrived. As the half-asleep rangers opened the gates, they were greeted by all manner of rotting fruit, pelted by monkeys cackling gleefully. Hawks, big cats, monkeys and gorillas were free of their cages and ready to exact revenge on their captors without mercy.
In the midst of the ensuing chaos I came upon the man who hurt Eto, brought to his knees by the very creatures he had enslaved. The man said something in his strange language, panicking as I raised a gun. Pleading to my humanity, no doubt. Too bad I was raised by lions.
Twisted Tales 