The Lion and The Lamb

When Leo woke a few hours later, he felt dizzy and confuse. He had been out cold for nearly the whole day and he did not know where he was at now. He stretched as he yawned, still in his four-legged form he wanted to see where he was first before he changed back. After a few minutes of composing himself, he stood and gazed around his surroundings. He was shocked at where he was and knew that he could not change here. He quickly looked to the left and then to the right to see if there was a way out, but there was not but he wanted to make sure and he ran around in circles like a dog chasing his tail about. Besides, from the back doors that lead into the exhibit, there was no other way out. He did not like being here, he did not WANT to be here but he was here-the City Zoo.

He spent hours pacing around the habitat in frustration as he thought, thinking of a way to try to escape from this hell hole that the mortals had put his people in to keep us tame. He thought of waiting by the back door and waited till an employee came to open it, but he remembered from his visit to the zoo that there was another door that he had to go though so that was out of the question. He then thought of changing back once the guest had gone for the night and tell the security guard that he fell into the exhibit, but then he thought that he might be arrested and they would question him about why he was naked and how he fell in without anyone seeing him fall. Third, he thought about taking a running start and leap across the railing that was separating him from the guests that were staring down at him and pointing. He was so mad that every now and then he would let out a loud hideous roar, getting the visitors to cheer and applaud for the “show” that he was putting on. Finally, thinking of nothing else that might work for an escape plan he flopped down under some small palm trees that where hidden by the eyes of the tourists and started to mope about, thinking that it was impossible to get out.

As he moped, he thought about Aaron and how he must be already awake by now and stuck in bed, wondering where he was and probably getting hungry too. He also thought of who could have done this, but there was no question of a doubt that it was Tiffany. He growled at the very thought of her and felt his veins run hot as he imagined himself pouncing on top of the bitch and tearing her head apart and then feasting on her body-starting at the stomach and ripping her organ’s out. He smiled at the thought and wished that it were reality rather then fiction. He was so caught up into his image of killing Tiffany that he forgot about who was also here. When it hit him, he pulled himself up and began walking around, trying to find his sister but was nowhere to be found. He got worried after his third time around and not seeing his older sister anywhere. He began calling out her name and trying to pick up her mind wave links, he sensed them but they were small and faint, as if she was at a distance.

‘Is this the right Zoo?’ he thought, planting his rear back down on the earth below him and rested his head down over his paw. He ha been searching for Sahara for a half an hour now, but he never found her in the habitat that he was put in.

When dusk fell and all the visitors had gone home for the day, a hole in the wall was revealed and Leo got curious about the hole. He saw that it was closed during the day so he thought that it had lead to cages in the back where the lions could sleep. He yawned and woke from his catnap he took and went into the cage, finding it rather cold inside the building but it had to do for now until he is able to escape from this Skinwalker prison. When Leo entered is smaller prison cell, he walked over to the left hand corner near the other side of the habitat and tried to get some sleep. He had just settled down when he sat back up again and turned to face the cage that was on the other side of him. He quickly stood up and was smiled.

“Sahara!” Leo shouted, seeing her older sister lying on the cold cement floor across from him. He smiled brightly to himself and felt like crying, but when he saw that she was not reacting to his calls. “Sahara?” he called again, wondering what was wrong with his big sister.

Sahara way lying on her side and breathing shortly, she turned her head towards the cage opposite of her and saw her brother in animal form but didn’t react to his appearance. Leo began to roar at her to see what the matter was but she never answered back and just lay in the middle of her cage. To the human eye, you would probably see Leon with a sad, mop face but inside he was crushed and crying, he never saw his sister act this way before and he was scared of what might had happen to her.

“Sad isn’t?” a female voice called from the shadows of the building.

Leon had layback down and rested his head on his paw when the voice was said. He quickly raised his head, turned towards the darkest corner of the room, and growled when he saw Tiffany step out of the darkness wearing her Death Dealer uniform on: a black denim duster jacket that only zipped up half way to expose her cleavage and black pants to go with it. Her hair was tied up out of her face into a messy bun and had on dark heavy make-up. She smiled down at him and tried to pet him softly, Leo roared at her as she moved down, taking a swipe at her as he did.

“What are you doing here, Theophania?” Leo roared as he lowered his head down to the ground and baring his fangs at her.

“My job.” she replied, walking over towards Sahara with a smile.

“Get away from her!”

“Not a chance, I have her on my list here and that means her time is up.” Tiffany then opened the door to Leo’s sister’s cage and walked over to her, squatting down and running a hand down her side.

“No, she can’t die!” Leon cried out, pouncing up onto the cage and roaring loud. “She just can’t!”

“Oh, but she must.” Tiffany smiled. “You see…it’s been years since Sahara here has been caught and brought to the zoo, Skinwalkers can’t stay in animal form forever. Apparently, they die after a period. Most Skinwalkers that live in their other forms live up to five to ten years depending on the creator. However, your sister here has surpassed that and lived almost for twenty years in her lion form a big mistake. Her foolishness caused her her life, making her what she is today, a vegetable.”

“No! Please Sahara, don’t let her take you.”

“I am afraid that she can’t here you. Her ability to use and understand telepathy are now gone, she is just a normal lion.”

Leon could not believe what he was hearing and began to cry, allowing Tiffany to see him do so. He hated Tiffany even more and he began to thrust about the cage, trying to escape so he could rip out her throat but failed and flopped down onto the floor.

“I am sorry Leo…but that’s life.” Tiffany spoke, coming back up and slowly slipping back into the shadows, leaving Leo alone to cry for his sister, Sahara.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Meanwhile Aaron’s day. We start thirty minutes after Leon woke up to go for his walk.)

Aaron rolled over onto his other said and moaned out, stretching his hand across the bed to touch his love but found only bed sheets. He groaned out as he roamed his hand around the spread, thinking that he miss calculated wrong, he opened an eye to see if he was even by his side but found that Leo was not in bed with him. Sitting up he gazed at the clock on the nightstand that stood next to Leo’s side of the bed: 8:45 AM, it read out. Aaron moaned and draped his head back onto the pillow, he did not want to wake up just yet, but they where kicking him again to wake up. After another thirty minutes of just lying in bed, Aaron sat up and tried to get out of bed but when the souls of his feet touched the cold hard, wood floor, he gasped out in pain and knew that he could not walk until the burns he received last night would heal. After his failed attempt to get something to eat, he sighed and tried to think what to do for breakfast. He smiled when h e remembered the nightstand on his side and pulled out the top drawer, revealing four boxes of snacks that he stuffed in there for his midnight cravings. He took out three of his breakfast bars and opened them, eating them slowly as possible.

He turned on the T.V. right after opening his first bar and started to channel surf to see what was on. After flipping though, the channels for the third time he stopped and decided to watch ER when it came on. He laid waited hours for Leon to get back, he knew and forgot that he went on morning walks to clear his mind for the day, but when it got to be noon, Aaron started to worry. He picked up the cordless phone and dialed Leo’s cell phone, but quickly hung it up once he heard it ring and found that it was lying on his side of the bed. Aaron let out a sigh of worry and started to dial his parent’s phone. He was surprise that his father picked it up but he asked for his mom, unfortunately she was not at home. He was all alone and had no one else to call he could not call Karlie, though it would be a while to she got here. He had received a postcard from his sister a month ago with a picture of Paris on it saying “We Wish you where here!” on the back, but he knew that they did not wish he was there on the account that they where on their own honeymoon. After that, he kept on receiving postcards from them all over Europe and he knew that they where having fun.

Noon came and went and Aaron soon discovered that it was one o’ clock, two o’ clock…three o’clock. With each passing hour, he began to get worried. Once that four o’ clock came around, he picked up the phone and dialed the police to report a missing person.

“I am sorry sir,” the officer told him on the other line. “But we can not file a missing person report until the person has been gone for twenty-four hours. I am sorry, sir.” and they both hung up the phone at the same time.

Aaron started to get scared at what might have happen to his love and began to let his mind wonder around, thinking of all kinds of things that might have gone wrong. While thinking he did not notice the door bell ringing at the time, but he woke from his awful daydreams when there was a loud knock at the door. Again, he tried to get up to answer the door, but the pain in his feet was too unbearable and he lay back down. The knocking soon stopped after a few minutes and Aaron was mad that he could not answer the door. He closed his eyes and felt tears start to stream down his face, he was so frustrated and worried the he did not know what to do.

“Why are you crying?” Karlie’s voice ran out in his head.

“Karlie, what are you doing here?” Aaron gasped out, looking over towards the open window and seeing his sister’s cat form. He had been having hot flashes during the night so he just kept one of the windows open so he could stay cool at night.

Karlie smiled at her younger brother before jumping off the window seal and running out of the open door. She came running back in again after a moment and ran into the bathroom, Daniel was right behind her. Aaron smiled to see his sister and brother-in-law and almost felt like crying.

“Why didn’t you answer the door?” Karlie said, stepping up bathroom wearing Leo’s bathrobe around her so she would not expose herself to her brother. “We where standing out there for fifteen minutes before I found your window was open.”

“Sorry,” Aaron told her, ruffling up his hair more then it was and smiled weakly at her. “I have been stuck in bed all day. Say- did you happen to see Leo out there while you’ve been waiting?”

“No, we didn’t” Daniel replied, sitting on the edge of the bed. “And why have you been confined to your bed? Doctor’s orders or something?”
“Not quit.” Aaron said and he pulled back the covers to reveal to the couple his bandage feet, making both of them gasp at the sight.

“What happen?” Karlie cried out, running over to her brother and pealed back the wraps, exposing the badly burnt souls to her. “How did you get burn?” she then started to re-dress his bandages and asked if he had eaten anything all day. Aaron told her that he had been eating his snacks he stored in his nightstand and began to unwrap his hand to show Karlie too. She sighed when see saw his hand, but was not surprise to see that was burn too and Daniel took a good long look at all three burn body parts.

“Where’s your kitty anyways?” he asked Aaron, helping his wife with the boy’s wounds.

“I don’t know, he’s not been home all day. He usually goes on his morning walk everyday-when it is not raining- and comes home right after that. I am worried about him.”

“You mean he hasn’t come back yet?” Karlie asked and Aaron shook his head.

“I am really worried about him.” tears began to stream slowly down Aaron’s face and he covered them so neither his sister or Daniel could see. Both of them stared down at Aaron who seemed to be sobbing uncontrollably do a mixture of hormones and sadness of missing his partner. Karlie sighed and sat next to her brother, taking him in her arms and Shhing him, telling him that we will find him and there was nothing to worry about.

Just then, Sheryl came into the room, walking over to the T.V. turning it on and changing the channel to the local news where it was just coming back from commercials. Aaron had stopped crying for the moment to watch the story that his mother turned on. His tears had stopped and his mouth dropped open-as did everyone’s-when they saw a news reporter at the City Zoo, behind him was the lion’s habitat where he began reporting the story of the lion that had escaped a few months ago had been found and placed back into the exhibit at the zoo. As he reported the story, the camera operator zoomed into the habitat and focused on the escaped lion that was now running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Aaron began to let his sobs be heard again as he saw Leon in the exhibit in his animal form.

“Leo!” Aaron gasped. “I need to save him!” he then threw back the covers, ignoring the pain from his feet and started to walk out of the house. He was determent to pull his love out of the hellhole he worked at for the passed summer.

“You are not going anywhere!” Sheryl yelled at her son, blocking the way and pulling him back to his bed. “Karlie and Daniel will handle the rescue, you are in no condition with those burns of yours to be walking around, so you just stay put.”

“Mom…I don’t want to stay here, I need to go help Leon!” Aaron yelled, “Please let me go, OW!”

“See, even the babies want you to stay put. Please Aaron, just stay in bed, Karlie will see to Leo. Won’t you?” she asked her doughter, Karlie nodded and headed out of the room, Daniel by her side as they made their way back towards their car. “Now then, let’s see those burns.” and she began to re-bandage his feet and hand.

“Poor, Aaron.” Karlie sighed, she and Daniel had just arrived at the Zoo, the sun had gone down and all the visitors had all gone home for the night. They had gone over the plan for the fifth time before they exited the car, changing into their other forms as they made their way over towards the entrance. Daniel jumped up and over the turnstile as Karlie just waltzed right under it, making their way though the Zoo. Karlie was safe from the guards, but Daniel had to be more careful, they had Dingo’s in one of their exhibits so if the guards had caught him then they would think that he might have escaped and placed him back into the exhibit.

They where half way to the lion’s habitat when Daniel caught a good whiff of something foul in the air. He took a few more whiffs and turned towards Karlie who had a worry look on her face. She too sniffed the air and found that it smelled of sulfur. She knew what has happening and she quickly picked up her pace, running at top speed as she made her way over towards the lion pit, Daniel running after her as fast as he could go.

“Damn Karlie, what’s with the rush?” Daniel breathed, they where back in their human forms and standing outside the employee’s door to the lion’s den where Leon was for the night. Karlie’s breath was steady and normal as Daniel’s was harsh and gasping for air. “Why were you running so fast?”

“A Death Dealer is here.” Karlie replied, picking the lock off the door but found no luck with it.

“What?!” Daniel exclaimed, “Move aside.” and he pushed his wife out of the way, kicking in the door and running into the building and hopefully don’t see a Death Dealer in his sights. Both he and Karlie where relived that they didn’t see one and they stepped farther into the building that was filled with caged lions. As they made their way over towards the middle of the building, they could hear sobbing coming from one of the cages.

Karlie quickly changed her eyesight and found that looking though the darkness of the room, Leon curled up with his knees to his chest, sobbing. “Leon!” Karlie gasped out and ran over towards the cage that Leo sat in. Daniel quickly pulled the lock off using his mighty strength and the two of them ran in, crouching down on either side of him and tried to pick him up. Leon threw his friends off him, he did not want to go, his heart was heavy with sorrow and range to kill but neither Karlie nor Daniel knew why he was crying like this. Again, they tried to pull him off the cold floor, but Leon growled at them, clawed at Karlie’s arm, and drew blood.

“Leon, what’s wrong?” Karlie asked, seeing the gash that Leo made in her arm.

“Leave me alone.” Leo replied, “I want to die!”

“What’s wrong?” Daniel asked this time, taking his friend’s head in his hands and staring at him straight in the eye.

“They came for her. They came for her and they took her away from me.”

“Who came? Who did they take?”

“The death Dealer’s came,” Leon, sobbed historically, “And they took Sahara.”

“No!” Karlie gasped out. “Was she here all these years?” Leo nodded and pointed towards the cage across from him where Karlie and Daniel saw a dead lioness in the middle of the cage. “God, no.” Karlie gasped out and she asked Daniel to go and pick Sahara’s body off the ground so that they could take him with them. “Come on now, you do not want to die now.” she told Leon, trying to get him to move.

“Why not?” he asked, seeing Daniel brake into Sahara’s cage and picked her up in her arms and carried her out of the room, leaving Karlie to Leon. “I am the last lion among us now.”

“Yes, that is true. Nevertheless, you won’t be for long. Have you forgotten about your partner, Aaron? He will be giving birth to your cubs in less then two months, and then your kind won’t be alone.”

“But they will be half breeds,” Leo’s sobs had now turned into sniffles, “They will never be pure Skinwalkers!”

“What are you saying?” Karlie shouted back at him. “Half breeds or not, they are your unborn child. Now I know you are going though a rough time right now, but please lets just push this aside for now and get out of here.” she then picked him up, ignoring the claws that Leo was digging into her arms. Half way towards the exit, she stopped dead in her tracks as a headlight was shining on her. Thinking quickly she ran, pulling Leon as she ran towards Daniel’s car. She pushed the stubborn lion into the back seat once she got to Daniel’s car and hurried around to the front passenger seat, once she was inside Daniel sped off back to Leo’s and Aaron’s house.

Leon stayed quite throughout the car ride home. He was grateful towards his friends for saving them, but his soul was filled with rage as he thought of Tiffany taking Sahara’s soul with her to the other side, a wicked smile on her face with her lips mouthing, “Aaron’s next.”

Next to Leon, Daniel laid Sahara’s lifeless body. Leo stared down at her and started to cry again, taking her head in her hands and cradling his sister’s head. He couldn’t believe that she was gone and for the first time in the many months that he has been with Aaron, he felt alone.

“Leon!” Aaron called as he saw Leo coming into their room. He threw open his arms for him, but Leo walked off to his closet where he put on some old jeans and walked back out of the room. Before he left, Leo gave Aaron a cold stare before exiting the house once more. “Leon?” Aaron asked, now worried what happen to his love.

“Forget it, Aaron.” Daniel said, stopping Aaron to ask Leo any more questions. “He needs some time to himself right now.”

Leon came out of the house and went to the beck where he built a shed for all his gardening tools, there he pulled out a shovel and walked back towards Daniel’s car to get his sister’s body. As he walked around the back of the house with his sister pulled over his shoulder, he made his way over to a small field on stared to dig a grave for his older sister. While digging, he felt hot tears stream down his face faster then ever, thinking about her and the old days when they where living together. Leon dug a good size, six feet deep; he slowly eased his sister into the hole and began pour dirt over her. Sobbing more then ever for his sister and for the fact the was truly the last of the Skinwalker lions.

“You shouldn’t be doing this.” Daniel said, coming up from behind Leo, “Let me finished this, Aaron has been asking for you. Why don’t you go to him and I’ll finished this.” He pulled the shovel out of Leo’s grasp as he said this and pushed him towards his home. Leon staggered back to the house like some drunken person, heading back into his room where Aaron was waiting for him.

Both boys did not speck a word to once Leon had sat on the edge the bed on Aaron’s side. Aaron sighed and got up on his knees, hugging Leo close to his heart and tried to comfort the distressed lion. Leon allowed the boy to hug him, he needed some comfort more then ever and he turned towards him, allow Aaron to see his tears and he broke out in sobs once again. Aaron saw how sad Leo was and he placed his head in his lap, letting Leo’s cries echo though the room for his sister. Aaron began to cry with his love, seeing the pain that he was in and also for his loss, Daniel had told him what happen and he felt bad for him. After hours of sobs and cries, around four in the morning, the two boys where finally asleep. Sleeping away their troubles and pain that they had gone though that day and allowing Leon to dream dreams of the past of him and Sahara.