A Place Lost in Time

Chapter 1- Ecological Roles

Across the veldt, a young impala took an unsteady step. “Weakening,” he noted sourly, as he watched the young creature struggle to lift another hoof. It wobbled for a moment, threatening to finally collapse. “The creature has not eaten in two days, since the death of its mother,” he continued clinically charting in his notes, despite the abject depression of the scene unfolding before him.

Behind the pitiful, bleating creature, another rose out of the long swaying grasses with a languid and unhurried gait. A coat of spots, and a long, twitching striped tail...

~

“Alright, kid. Go over it again. Make sure you have everything you need before you set off on your insane mission that will almost certainly end with you being eaten by... well, God knows what, actually?”

“Teddy, you really don't trust me, after all these years?”

“Kid, I don't trust you to not get yourself killed precisely because I've known you all these years. We're not in Zambia and I'm not pulling you out of some hippo-infested swamp. This is-”

“I know, Teddy. I'm sorry you've decided now to get all soft and sentimental...”

“Jay, I will shoot you myself if you ever call me soft again.”

He looked at the severe older man, who glared back at him through his dark shades. The years had made the old man's skin leathery and pocked, stretched across well-muscled arms and a broad chest. He had a short-cropped, military style hair cut and a thin, closely shaved beard. If not for the gaudy, brightly colored Hawaiian shirt and ridiculous gold chain, he would look like the Terminator. Instead, he looked like a sleazy Hollywood porn director on vacation.

A porn director that served in the French foreign legion, Jay reminded himself.

He stared down the man, meeting his steely gaze with one that he hoped at least looked like it was trying to match the older man's intensity. Jameson Halloran was not exactly a slouch when it came to looking tough. He was a short man, just under 5'9”, but kept himself in top shape as best he could. It helped that his job kept him trekking through wildernesses across the world, climbing mountains, diving into reefs, and trekking through hot savannas. He crossed his arms, put on his most serious face and...

They both devolved into a chuckling fit. Jay wasn't quite sure who cracked first, but Teddy slugged him in the arm after a few minutes.

“Seriously,” Teddy said, “go over everything. Ghillie?”
“Here,” Jay replied, bending over to check the contents of his pack for the third time in the last two hours.

“Those nasty protein bars?”

“Check, and they aren't nasty. They're really quite nice out in the field.”

“You've never had to share a tent in subzero weather with yourself after you've eaten thirteen of those fuckers. I contemplated walking into the snow, Dyatlov Pass style,” Teddy shot back, displeasure plain on his face. “What about the scent neutralizer?”

“Ummm.... Aha! Here it is.” Jay pulled a small spray canister out of a side pocket on his pack.

“Emergency radio, tuned to frequency 121?” Teddy asked.

Jay set the neutralizer down on the plastic folding table they'd set out the rest of the radio equipment on. He fished in the other side pocket, pulling out the radio. “Check and check. And you're certain that we haven't been able to pick up a single radio signal since we crossed through the other side of the cave?”

“Yeah, not going to lie, that doesn't help my anxiety. At. All. Jay, if you get hurt down there, my old fucking ass is going to have carry you. On my back. Through a couple miles of a very confusing cave system.” Through all of the old man's attempts to appear like a Nietzschean ubermensch super-soldier, there was plain worry on his weathered face. To Jay, it was touching, but also a bit alarming. They'd faced down charging elephants and Teddy hadn't so much as flinched. To see bald concern on his face was disconcerting.

They both knew why they were here though. This was the find of the century. For a biologist like Jay, this was the chance to study an ecosystem untouched by man since the dawn of time. A scientific impossibility. Hell, he wasn't even sure how there was light down here.

A literal Lost World, like something out of a Doyle novel. He looked out over the expanse of the jungle below him. Little flitting shapes flew out over the trees in a murmuration, soaring and wheeling before diving back below the canopy. Birds? He wondered to himself. Bats, more likely. Or giant insects, perhaps? He heard the sound of a distant roar of some beast, and tried to imagine what it could be. Maybe it was dangerous. Maybe this would finally be the frontier that claimed him.

He didn't care. He had long since stopped worrying about his own fate. He couldn't wait.

“I see that look in your eye, you psycho fucker,” Teddy's interjection broke through Jay's revery. “Camera?”

“Check-”

“WITH the flash turned off?” Teddy cut him off.

“Yea- uh... check!” Jay smiled reassuringly, but Teddy just glared back at him.

“You fucking idiot. Do you remember the fucking tiger in Kamchatka? Do you need me to show you the scar?” Teddy's nervous energy erupted in a brief moment of anger, but he quickly brought himself back under control. “...okay, I've set up what climbing gear I could, but given that you won't wait another day-”

“We only packed so many rations, Teddy. Unless you want to try eating the local, unknown, and potentially very poisonous flora?”

“Whatever. You will need to free climb the last bit. I know you don't want me coming with you but...”

“Teddy, I'm a radio away. You're fast and agile, but you've never been particularly good at subtle. It's just a quick scouting expedition today, to see what the landscape is like and see what sort of creatures live here. Plus you reek of Lucky Strokes, and no amount of scent neutralizer is going to cover THAT up. I'm just going to sit in my ghillie in a tree and take some pictures. You really should quit, by the way.”

“Fuck you.”

“Okay, Teddy, fuck you too. I'll be back before sunfall.”

With that, he began the descent down the cliff face to his own little lost world.

On the table, the can of scent neutralizer sat unreturned to Jay's pack.

~

The leopard approached the impala calf with no sense of menace. In fact, since it had killed and eaten the poor thing's mother, it almost seemed like the leopard was... “Protecting the thing? Caring for it?” He wrote the questions down in the journal, but in his head he knew it was unlikely. More like a squirrel stashing away nuts for a future feast, the leopard had likely keyed in on an easy meal that would only require it to wait out the impala calf's unfortunate fate.

The leopard though, raised it's paw and brought it down on the impala's back.

“She's going in for the kill? Likely to stash the corpse in a tree for later.” he noted.

But then, the leopard did something he did not expect. She began to lick the impala. Almost as if... “Communal grooming? How bizarre.” Well, this took an unexpected turn.

~

Shit, I'm sweaty as hell and left the damn can back at base, Jay inwardly cursed at himself. Well, I can't exactly go back and get it. I'll lose half the day. He resolved to stop and wash himself in a river before finding a suitable location over a watering hole. What's the worst thing that could be out here anyway? We're underneath Vietnam, I doubt there's a species of giant subterranean leopard or huge snake or...

Alright, giant reptile is somewhat more likely, but I'll just be careful. He steeled his resolve and marched toward the river he had spotted from above.

~

Smell. Wake up. Prey nearby.

She yawned, her large maw popping first on the left side, then migrating to her left. Her fangs glinted in the sunlight, a long string of drool stretched from her top lip to her bottom lip. Damn, whatever smelled so good had her saliva glands in overproduction. She languidly stretched her long, black-scaled arms over her head. She flexed her taloned hands. One had fallen asleep as she laid her head atop it. She felt rejuvenated from her nap on the thick branch, but it took more than a few minutes to fully clear her sleepiness from her sun-warmed head.

New smell. Tasty smell. Nearby.

Her tongue lashed out, scenting the air. She caught it, the thick musky smell of sweat. But... she wasn't able to fully place the source. That's exciting. Something new to taste? Her body reacted with instict, uncurling her long black tail from the branch. She moved to the end of the branch to see if she could spot...

There he was, not more than 50 yards in front of her. Standing in the river, completely nude, was... something. He was... very small, but well built. A small patch of brownish-red hair covered his upper chest, and her eyes wandered down the area below his waist, but not before lingering on his chiseled abs. Briefly, she felt her face flush and her stomach flutter. But that flutter was quickly replaced by a growl.

“A tiny... Giant One? A mutant?” She mused aloud. “I've never been able to taste a Giant One. I wonder if he tastes like...” Her mind wandered, and a bit of drool dripped from her lips. Her long, dexterous tongue snaked out and licked it back in and she sucked briefly on her tongue hungrily.

She looked back at the tiny thing emerging from the river. A mop of reddish-brown hair framed his face, with just a bit of scruff lining his thick jawline. She noted that a similarly colored tuft of hair laid just above his...

“Wow, definitely a Giant One,” she giggled as she said. Noting the noise, however, he looked up towards her position. Without thinking, she quickly camouflaged herself.

~

“Hmmm... I swear I heard something...” Jay mused out loud. He peered up towards the tree line where he was sure he heard a voice.

It was almost like something was there but he couldn't quite make his eyes focus on it. He quickly placed his clothes back on, but couldn't shake the idea that something was watching him. Thinking quickly, he pulled out his camera and snapped a couple quick shots of the area around the tree canopy he was sure he had heard something from. But upon reviewing the pictures, there was no hidden creature peering down at him.

“Whatever. Let's just get this done.” Moving swiftly, he slung his pack over his arm and began making his way away from the area. It was difficult to gauge time here without the presence of a sun overhead, but he checked his watch and noted that he had been marching for two hours, and likely only had three hours or so before he would have to start the march back. Shaking his head to try and relieve himself of the silly notion that something was following him, he began his trek towards the large set of trees overlooking a decent sized lake that he had made note of earlier.

Despite the silly notion, something did follow him, however.

~

After another half hour, he had located a tree with thick enough branches that he would be sit comfortably, with his legs stretched out in front of him and his back to the trunk. Hefting his ghillie out of the rucksack, he threw it over himself and secured a pair of climbing spurs to his boots. After a little effort, he was comfortably on the branch. He threw a buckle around the bottom of the branch and swung it over, locking himself in place. Double checking the settings on his camera for optimal lighting and ensuring that no flashes were going to give away his position, he settled in.

For hours, he waited, not seeing much of anything. Several ripples broke the surface of the water in the lake he was observing, and he noted with interest that whatever was causing it must have been quite large. Despite all the activity below the water, nothing ever broke the surface, to his great displeasure. He was beginning to give up hope that something, anything would show up and had resigned himself to begin packing up.

That's when he saw it. A huge pair of wings flew over his position, darkening the sky momentarily. His breath caught. It must have a wingspan over 15 feet, maybe even twenty. Nothing in the natural world is big. How? He slowly raised his camera as the large creature alighted with surprising grace, settling with its back to him. Come on, turn around and let me get a good look at you. Quickly, he snapped some pictures of the back of the creature. Large blue wings, feathered, but ending strangely in little handlike talons. Hoatzin have something similar when they're young, for... climbing trees. Jay suddenly didn't relish the idea of a massive bird climbing up here and trying to decide if he was edible. The thing raised its head and-

Is that... a human head? What in the fu-

Jay did not have time to finish that train of thought. While he was distracted, a long black-scaled coil of flesh had snaked its way along the branch. He noticed it for only a second when, suddenly and with unimaginable speed, he found his upper body bound tightly in a surprisingly warm embrace. It's not a snake, or at least not a cold-blooded one. Damn it all, I can't reach my knife.

Jameson Halloran didn't hate guns. He was quite adept with them, in fact. Having a best friend and close work colleague who was ex-special forces meant that a lot of the activities they did together usually involved whiskey, women or guns. Well, let's be honest, it almost always involved a combination of the three. Even when he was...

He shook his head. His mind was wandering. Damn, I wish I had any kind of gun at this point. Even that shitty little .22 caliber would probably cause a big enough bang to scare this thing off. But nooooo, “I didn't come to an entirely new, untouched ecosystem just to start killing it.” Pride. Goddamn pride on my part.

If he made it back to base, Teddy would never let him forget it. And he would absolutely, without any doubt, deserve the dressing down his friend would give him. I hope I get to hear that old bastard yelling at me.

Not being able to do much but kick, he turned his head to the left and the right, scanning for the inevitable scaled maw that would arrive. Constrictor, unlikely to be poisonous. He had to control his breathing, and not just to prevent panicking. If this was a constrictor, it would constrict tighter with every deep, panicked breath. Unable to locate the rest of the creature, he looked up. Hoping to see.. well, anything that would this situation clearer.

His breath caught, unintentionally, and the coil tightened. He winced, but he could not turn his face away from the sight. The most beautiful face he'd ever seen hung upside down staring directly at him. Short, bobbed black hair splayed out around an thin, pale, oval face. An aquiline nose framed the center of her face, running down a pair of thin pink lips. But most striking, her eyes were bright silver with flecks of dark black. Without the scales running up her arms from her hands to elbow, and the slight scaling on her neck and cheeks, she could have been a runway model or movie star.

Her? It's... a woman?

“Your eyes... remind me of the moon on a cold night...” Jameson Halloran was about to be crushed to death by a giant snake lady and his first instinct was to compliment her looks. Jesus Christ, I am a moron. She probably doesn't speak at all, much less speak English.

The serpentess stopped advancing slowly towards Jay, and he noted curiously that her face seemed to... was that a look of embarassment? Confusion, maybe? Fuck it, he could work with this.

“My name is... Jay... Do you have... a name?... A moniker, perhaps?” he wheezed out between ever-tightening sensations from the coils surrounding his upper body.

The massive snake-woman hybrid retreated temporarily back into the branches above Jay. Any temporary relief that Jay felt that maybe the snake goddess was going to retreat and leave him in peace was crushed when he realized that she was actually lowering the rest of her body on to the branch they were now occupying together.

It was then that Jay truly understood how large she really was. Her upper torso, the mostly-but-not-quite human bits, must have been nearly seven foot long from top of head to... Oh. Jay glanced down to notice that, nestled right above where the most-but-not-quite snake bits started, there was a perfect little pink human pussy.

His eyes snapped away and back to the looming face in front of him. What am I doing? Protecting this... creature's innocence? His eyes wandered to a pair of small-but-perky human breasts. This time, he let his gaze linger for a while.

“Do you like them?” she said, slightly accented and seemingly a little offended at being ignored.

What?

The?

Fuck?

“You... you speak?” This was too much. This was a fever dream. He was most certainly not wrapped up in a snake lady's coils. He had wandered into a side street somewhere in Hanoi, purchased some bad weed, and this was all a bad dream. Yup.

Unfortunately for Jay, this particular dream was starting to hurt... a lot.

“Of course I do,” came the reply from the hallucinated snake-woman. “Did you expect me to communicate in grunts and whistles? We no longer need this, by the way.” She tore away the ghillie suit, then proceeded to swiftly tighten her grip around him once more.

“Why are you... French?” This was the best question his oxygen-starved brain could come up with.

She cocked an eyebrow, and quirked the side of her mouth in a wry smile. This made Jay's heart flutter slightly, until he saw the fangs reveal themselves as her mouth opened ever so slightly. This did not inspire fluttering. This inspired a very primal fear.

“You are about to be eaten whole, and the number one question you have for me is why I am... Freench? I hate to disappoint, but I am not familiar with what a Freench is.”

“That's.. alright... It's not importa-” Jay started, before his brain fully registered what she had said. Jay blinked, hazily. Once. Twice.

“EATEN?!” he shouted it at the top of his lungs, without really meaning to. The coils tightened severely, and Jay felt more than heard the pop of one of his ribs breaking. Searing pain shot through his body, but he was already fading to the lack of oxygen flowing through his body.

“Shhhhhh,” the large woman cooed. “I would rather keep this... intimate. We don't need anyone joining us”

She moved her face next to his ear. “Don't worry, gorgeous. I'll try and make it... well, as pleasurable as possible,” she whispered, sending a shiver down his spine despite (or perhaps because of) the absolute mental overload his brain was under.

“I watched you bathe in the river. It's a shame I've never tasted someone like you. If you weren't making me-” she sucked in, returning the drool that had started leaking from the side of her mouth to her tongue, making her next words come out wet. “-so damn hungry we could have maybe had some fun first.”

Please god, Jay thought, don't let this awaken-

Welp.

Fuck.

She snaked her forked tongue out, soaked in the aforementioned drool, and ran it from the base of Jay's neck to just below his ear, leaving a long line of sticky saliva. When she reached the sensitive lobe, she nibbled a little. It was pain. It was pleasure. Jay could no longer hold himself back. His cock screaming for release, he moaned.

“Good little snack, moan for me,” she said, but she was no longer looking at his face. Her attention was caught at his poorly concealed boner. With a deft strength that Jay had not expected, she tore a hold in both his pants and underwear. Jay the Lesser, blinded to the pain searing through Jay the Greater's sternum, sprung into action.

“I did say I would try to make it... pleasurable. I hope your last thoughts are of this pleasure I grant you, and not of the pain you are experiencing.” She slid one large hand down over his cock, and with a gentleness he had not expected after seeing her tear through his pants like tissue. He already could not breath, but as she began to work faster and with more precision, his short breaths soon became quick panting ones.

He closed his eyes, and felt the strangest sensation. His face was wet. Why was his face wet? She was showering him with kisses. What the fuck? He thought, for about the hundredth time in this short period. His eyes fluttered open, just in time to see her maw advancing towards him.

He wanted to scream, but between the coils, his broken rib, and the fact that he was being deftly jerked off by a huge woman... thing... he could do nothing but watch as the mouth closed around his face. He watched, grimly fascinated, as the back of her throat opened wider and wider. She would have no issue swallowing him whole, he realized. His entire head was already in her mouth. He could feel her hot breath with every exhale. Her tongue rolled under his chin, gently but firmly pulling him in further. For a second, it shot into his mouth, and wrestled with his own.

Weirdest French kiss. Ever.

He felt a tightening across his body. His breath caught, his cheeks flushed. He was cumming, but any attempt to moan was silenced by the large tongue in his mouth. He heard a rumbling from deep in the snake goddess' throat. “'ood 'oy,” she said. Don't talk with your mouth full, he thought sardonically. But he dimly realized something else as well. For some reason, he had stopped advancing.

Outside, the snake-woman had run into a problem. Her snack seemed... stuck to the tree? What was happening. She removed her now cum-covered hand from his member, and grabbed both of his shoulders. Pulling up, she tried to remove him from whatever restraint was holding him from his fate deep within her.

Oh my god, the straps! She hasn't realized I'm strapped to the branch. If I can just figure out something quickly, I can-

She reached down with one talon, snapping the buckle attached to his waist and finally freeing him to her deeper embrace.

Welp.

Fuck.

She released the grip of her coils on his upper body, and grabbed his waist from both sides, lifting him so that he was upside down. Greedily, she began moving him deeper, pushing her lips past his shoulders now. She could feel his head bulging from the inside of her throat. Playfully, she released the hold on one side and put her hand against the outline of his face against her throat. Gods, he tasted good.

She began to move her hand down to her flower, while simultaneously moving the grip of her other hand to his crotch. Maybe there's still a little time for some final fun...she thought to herself.

SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

~

The warm, wet embrace of the giant beauty's throat felt strangely nice. Intimate, even. Or maybe I've just moved through all the stages and I'm just at acceptance now. He felt a hand press into his face, from the outside. I guess, if I am going to go, this isn't the absolute worst. He was aware that, outside, her hand had moved to his cock again. In for a penny, I guess.

Just as Jay started to get excited again, his comfortable wet death exploded with light and sound, and then just as suddenly, blackness.

~

Was death supposed to be this... loud? I thought death was supposed to be the long sleep. How the hell am I supposed to sleep with all this...

“Screaming...” he groaned out loud, coughing heavily as his lungs breathed fresh oxygen. “Fuck, death is neither painless nor peaceful. If I see Pastor Jim here, I'm going to kick his-”

Jay stopped when he realized that he still felt an immense amount of pain. Pain was good. Probably. If he was dead, he probably wouldn't feel pain, right? Then what was-

Oh.

He saw a sight that shook him from his sarcastic reverie. They were on the ground again. Ground is good. Ground means running. But as he looked up, he saw that the large bird-creature had pinned the large snake-woman in a pair of long bird legs ending in nasty looking talons. The snake-woman's long tail thrashed, but her torso and head were pinned.

She looked terrified.

She just tried to eat you whole, idiot. Run the fuck away, get back to base. He heard Teddy's voice shouting at him in his memory.

But she looks so... scared. His own thoughts couldn't stop that terrible feeling, even though she had indeed just tried to eat him, as ImagiTeddy had pointed out.

And what a great handjob, chimed in Jay the Lesser.

Not helping.

Just go, kid. Nature is taking its course. You wouldn't stop a lion from killing a wildebeest. You should just leave while you can.

Jay knew that the Teddy voice was correct. He needed to leave. He stood up, gasping as the pain from his broken rib returned. Gripping his side, he began to limp away.

Don't turn around. Don't turn around. Don't turn-

Jay turned around, despite knowing he shouldn't. Despite every survival instinct in his body telling him to flee. He saw her eyes, filling with tears as she tried to fight back against the creature that was clearly just toying with her at this point, waiting for the precise moment it could deliver the killing blow. He touched the spot on his shirt where, under the fabric, his amulet lay.

Don't charge the giant bird.

He began sprinting directly at the bird creature. He had no plan. He usually didn't, to be fair, but this felt exceptionally stupid.

Don't try and tackle it, you dummy, it's four times your size.

He lowered himself. His mother had insisted he play rugby as an extracurricular in high school. He tried to remember the form. He slammed into the bird leg, trying to tilt it off the screaming form of the snake-woman. It didn't even register that he made contact. In fact, it completely ignored him wrapped around its leg.

Idiot.

Yup.

Well, whatever you do, don't do something stupid like bite-

He bit down, hard, on the large creature's leg. There was a sharp, bright screech of pain as the leg reflexively released the snake-woman to kick him off. He went sailing through the air, thrown like a rag-doll back towards the tree they had all just fallen from.

With a crash, his side collided with the solid form of the tree. His arm flared in pain, but only momentarily, as it was shortly joined by the side of his solidly cracking into the trunk. He couldn't see anything but stars for a moment. Take stock, said ImagiTeddy. What's the damage?Broken arm, check. Concussion. Almost certainly. Rib still broken. Anything deadly? Nothing immediate.

Blinking rapidly, he looked up to see the bird-creature advancing menacingly towards him. He noticed that the creature, as he had noted earlier, had a human like face. The blue feathers framing her head made her almost look like an unruly teenage skate punk. He tried to laugh at the thought, but could only manage a wracked sputter. How did biology even work in this place? Why was everything so weirdly fucking human? I wonder if the giant bird-punk will also try and eat me, or will it just stomp me to death. Hope it's quick, either way. Starting to get really tired of all the pain.

He started to close his eyes, readying himself to accept his death for the second time today. Just as he started to close them, however, he saw a rapid dark shape move behind the bird-punk. There was a sudden, violent scuffle and he watched the bird-punk collapse face-first. He watched as the snake-woman removed her fangs from the back of the bird-punk's neck. He watched, curiously, as she started slithering towards him. As she advanced, his head contained only one thought, perverse as it was: Well, at least she gets to eat me now. She's prettier than the weird bird lady. With that final, stupid thought, he lost the fight to keep his eyes open.

~

She slithered over the unconscious body of the avian. She knew she had only a few minutes before her anesthetic venom began to wear off, and she needed to be out of here and underground before the big feathery bitch was back with more of them. It was just then that she noticed him laying prostrate against the tree. She tried to catch his eye, to gauge his reaction, but the little guy passed out. So there he lay, passed out, bruised, dick hanging out of the hole in his pants for the world to see. Honestly, it was quite a pitiful sight. Well, the last part was partially her fault. Okay, most of it was my fault.

Why did you... save me? I had just tried to eat you. She frowned inwardly. What did it matter if some little mutant Giant One had a spasm of bravery. She needed to get out of here.

I could still eat him quickly, I suppose. But she... couldn't. Why couldn't she? He couldn't stop her. It would be over quickly. He probably wouldn't even notice before he suffocated inside her.

Bah, just leave him. So that's what she would do. If she wasn't going to eat him, she might as well leave him be. Let the avians have him. She turned to leave, and began to slither away.

Don't turn around. Don't turn around. Don't turn-

She began to slither back towards him.

Well, don't pick him up. Just leave him be.

She gently picked up him up. Cradling him in one arm, she began again to slither away to one of her hideouts.

Don't check if he's alright. Maybe he'll just stay passed out, and you can leave him somewhere safer.

She felt the side of his neck. His pulse was there, but weak and unsteady. She pushed the hair away from his face. He stirred. She paused, staring at him. Her breath caught... for some reason.

“Twin moons. This place is really beautiful at night.” It was still day, and he was clearly delirious.

“Shhhhh, we need to be quiet.”

“You know, the Greeks worshipped a moon goddess named Selene.”

She placed a finger over his mouth. “You need to stop talking. Our feathery friend will be waking up soon, and neither of us can deal with that right now.”

“I bet she was beautiful...” he muttered, but he was losing strength again. “Like you are..” he trailed off.

Sentimental idiot.

Yes, he seems to be.

I meant you.

Fuck.

~

The impala calf lay on its side. It took weak, shallow breaths. The leopard stared down, trying to nudge some life into it, trying to will it to stand.

“It clung to life as long as it could, but it's surrogate leopard mother could not provide it with any nutrition. I'm surprised the leopard isn't simply killing it and consuming it though.”

The breaths stopped. The leopard did not approach. Rather it raised its head and let out a keening roar.

“Fuck, maybe the thing's broken. Like, in the head. You know, nature trying to correct by making this broken creature waste resources on something it can't do so they both die in the end. Darwinian shit, or whatever.”

Looking past Teddy in the passenger seat of the jeep, he watched the leopard, howling into the night. Behind him in the backseat, the woman reached over and put her hand on his chest.

“I don't know, Teddy. Maybe it just means that sometimes love is all that we can give. It may not last forever, but for that moment, it means the whole world.”

Teddy looked over at the embracing couple with a skeptical eye. “Bullshit, she ate the mom,” he grunted. The jeep started and rumbled over the veldt, quiet except the sounds of tires and mourning mothers.

~

“Goddamn it, kid. Where are you?” Teddy paced back and forth. “That's it. Come on, Valerie. We're going.”

He grabbed the large elephant rifle from where it lay on the table. He grabbed his own rucksack, a sidearm, extra ammo for both weapons, and quickly scratched out a note.

If you somehow followed us here, the stupid kid got himself caught up in something. I think. Anyway, use the GPS trackers on our sacks. The laptop is unlocked, app is already loaded.