I stared out into the African Grassland, taking in the beautiful sight. Endless trees were scattered out, surrounded by tall, lush grass. A small group of antelope were bounding nearby. Birds were perched on the trees, making tons of commotion. All in the midst of a breathtaking sunset, red and purple collided to create an array of colors that most people could only dream of seeing.
"Enjoying the view, Lee?"
My father, Adam, stood behind me, arms crossed over his muscled chest. His brown hair identical to mine was wet and slightly messy from today's work. A five a clock shadow forming on his face, several grey whiskers mixed in with mostly brown facial hair. You would never guess he was pushing forty five considering the great shape he was in. Back in the states, we would both take daily trips to the gym. People often told us we could pass as brothers other then father and son. The only differences in us was my hair went far passed my shoulders and had waves. And my superior height, I was 6'3; my father was 5'10 at most.
I smiled at him, "yeah, I really envy these villagers. Even with the earthquake they went through; they still have a sight like this to wake up to every morning."
He nodded, "And we are here to help rebuild what they lost, which is what you need to be helping us with."
Raising his eyebrows with the last sentence, he jerked his head in direction of the construction site. I chuckled at I followed him, making sure to tie my hair back to avoid it getting in my eyes. We made our way to the house we were rebuilding, passing a group of kids playing soccer along the way. Several other men were trying to raise the last wall of the building. My father grabbed one rope and threw me the other.
"Come on Lee, it's about time all that lifting in the gym paid off, don't you think?" he said with a smirk.
I nodded as I braced myself to pull with everything I had. But with my father and four other men helping, it barely took anything to lift it. Once the last wall was put in place, we hammered the boards to block the inside from the elements. It took all evening, but it was all worth it to help the less fortunate. Besides, I always loved outdoor work, anything that got my heart pumping and gave me a good workout. While admiring the work we put into building the houses over the last few weeks, a ball rolled in my direction.
" Big bro, pass it here." called an all too familiar young voice.
Jenny, my ten year old little sister, came sprinting in my direction. Her sunflower yellow hair was tied back like mine. The sun had turned her face so tan it almost looked sunburned. Freckles were spread on her face.
"Here" I said tossing her the ball.
"Where's mom?" she asked
I pointed to the direction of a large tent that was placed in the center of the village. Several people with minor and major injuries were lined up outside the entrance. Mom was one of the few doctors they had here, and probably one of the hardest working. She emerged seconds later, her long, black hair tied back like Jenny. She looked just as tired as dad and I, sweat was dripping down her forehead, cycles of bags under her ocean blue eyes.
Mom looked in our direction, giving us a pearly white smile. We both waved at her, smiling back. Jenny ran back to join the other kids at play. She kicked the ball to another girl her age, and then they took off until they were out of site. It wasn't until I stopped working did I finally realized how thirsty I was. I was just about to go get a cup of water when my mom came holding one, a warm smile stretched across her face. Even with the tired look on her face, she still looked like an angel that fell from heaven. Jet black hair that was smooth as silk, draped over her right shoulder. Skin that was, like all of ours, almost sunburned it was so tan.
"You've been working so hard, I thought you could use a cold drink."
"Thanks mom" I replied. I took the drink and guzzled it greedily. I stopped a little before half way and handed it back to her.
"Give it to the old man; he needs it more than me." I said with a wink. Mom and I both new it drove my dad crazy when I called him old. She giggled happily before kissing me and walking in my dad's direction. Before she got to him, a blood curdling shriek ripped through the air, followed by a thunder like roar. The blood drained from my face as I sprinted in the direction of the cry. Jenny came running with tears in her eyes. I scooped her up and held her close to my chest. She held onto me like a life preserver, blubbering about how they're going to kill it.
I set her down and made her look at me. "Go back to mom and dad, don't fallow me."
She grabbed my hand before I could leave. "Wh- what are you going to do?"
"probably something really stupid." I planted a kiss on her forehead as I ran to where a group of workers were crowded together under a large tree. They were yelling some in English others in some other language, Swahili maybe. Pushing my way to the center, I saw a full grown lioness with her legs and mouth tied. She thrashed wildly, but she couldn't move as good due to her swollen underbelly. Two men held her down while a third kicked her in the stomach. My face got hot as my blood started to boil. Marching forward, I seized the one worker by the collar and kicked his feet out from under him, and stomped hard on his stomach.
"How do you like it?" I snarled through gritted teeth.
Another one of the three jumped on my back; he tried to wrap his arms around my neck. However, I took one arm and easily flipped him over to join his buddy in the dirt. A cry rang out as I turned around, just in time to see a hatchet swinging towards me. Dodging it, I recovered and got into a fighting stance. The third man clutched the weapon firmly and rose in above his head, ready to strike.
I raised my eyebrows in warning, "are you sure about that?" He responded with another yell as he tried to strike again. Big mistake, I grabbed his arm with my left hand and threw a solid uppercut with my right. He grunted in pain, but decided to try swing with his other hand. After stopping that hand as well, and having no other options, I head butted him. Falling to the ground with a thud, he clutched his now blood gushing nose.
The two men I took down a second ago were back on their feet, staring daggers at me. They both rushed me, trying to grab both my arms. I managed to shove one backward, but the other managed to latch onto me. A solid punch connected with my face, but I recovered quickly and gave one solid punch to the stomach. He backed off a few feet, enough for me to get in a three punch combo. I finished the job by giving him a kick that sent him flying.
A loud crack echoed through the air that made everyone stand still. My dad stood before use clutching his Colt Python; one of his favorite firearms. He had a dangerous look in his eye, one that I had come to both fear and respect at the same time. Whenever I got in trouble as a kid, he would always wear that same look right before he let me have it. He also had that look whenever he was about to kick some bodies ass. Given the current situation, I was hoping for the ladder.
"Alright, that's enough."
Mom and Jenny stood behind him, holding onto each other. Jenny was still crying softly, mom stroked her hair to try and calm her down. Dad walked over to me and placed a firm hand on my shoulder, and tried to lead me away. I almost obeyed, but another painful cry from the poor pregnant creature on the ground stopped me in my tracks. She was still thrashing wildly, but with a more frieghtened, hopeless look in her eye. As if she had half accepted her fate, and half still wanted to live.
I turned to my father, "I'm not letting them kill her."
"Son, it's an animal."
"She is pregnant. Even if she wasn't, I still wouldn't let them do it."
The worker with the busted nose came up to me. His black eyes almost look like they were about to shoot beams at me. Looking back at the lioness, he spat at the ground in discuss. I had the strongest urge to throttle him. Most people look at these creatures and saw only a murderous carnivore with a lust for blood. People don't realize that lions are the only big cats that live in family groups. The instinct to be with family is very apparent to them. They had to have a deep love for one another to want to be around each other all the time.
Freeing myself from my dad's grip, I slowly started to approach the creature. She looked about the average size for a pregnant lioness. She had a light tan fur coat, and a cream colored underbelly. The most beautiful feature she had was her light blue eyes, almost identical to my mom's, to mine. Lowering myself to look her in the eye, then lifting my head to get a good angle for what I was about to do. Calmly, I started nuzzling her forehead with the top and back of my own head. I read somewhere that this is a way lions show affection to one another. And with the head of hair that I had, she probably couldn't tell the different between me and a regular lion. Just to be sure, I started to purr and did my best to make it sound like a lion.
To my amazement, she purred along with me, and nuzzled me right back. We continued that for I don't know how long before I broke the embrace. Looking into her eyes again, I planted a kiss on her muzzle and leaned into her ear.
"Good girl."
Her ear twitch in response and nuzzled me again. Slowly, I reached back and retrieved my Buck knife. Clutching the light brown handle firmly, I brought the 7 inch blade lightly up to the ropes that held her mouth shut. She noticed this strange object coming towards her and started to thrash slightly. Putting my free arm around her and whispering calm words into her ear. While I had her distracted, I swiftly cut the rope. She remained perfectly still, even while I cut her feet loose.
Right when I cut the last ropes, a strong hand grabbed my collar and yanked me backwards. Dirt rose around me as my back collided with the ground. My father's face was filled with a mixture of anger and concern. Before I could even get back on my feet, my vision was blocked by the lionesses cream fur. She hovered above me, her fur only inches from my face. A menacing growl escaped her mouth, at first I thought it was directed towards me. Her eyes were fixed on my father, like she wanted to rip him to shreds. Without thinking, I kicked her in the back of the leg hard enough to get her attention. Then using all the force I had, I lifted her off me and kicked dirt at her.
"Go, get out of here!"
She bolted in the opposite direction of everyone. Even in her condition, she was able to run at an incredible pace. My happiness was short lived when I saw my father raise his Python and pull the hammer back. Acting on pure adrenalin, I grabbed his arm just as it went off and wrapped mine around his. Twisting it backward with great force, he let out a small yell before releasing his weapon. Looking back at were the lioness was running, I breathed a sigh of relief to find out she was still moving, but at a relatively slower pace.
I turned to my father with an angered expression. Why would he shoot when she was obviously just trying to get away? Did he even see she was pregnant, or care? My pulse rocketed, heat shot through my body. Before I even knew what was happening, my rock solid fist connected with his jaw and sent him flying to the ground. If it were any lesser man he would be out cold, but he just shook his head and stared up at me. I grabbed him by his shirt and yanked his face closer to mine.
"What was that?!" I demanded
He spat blood into the dirt before answering. "We can't risk her coming back here and killing any of the little livestock they have left, or, God forbid, hurting one of the kids!"
"You don't know she would have done that."
"Oh, you know she wouldn't? Honestly Lee, sometimes I worry about you."
I raised my fist again.
"Lee!" my mom shrieked.
She and Jenny almost knocked me over when hugged me. Mom kissed my face over and over again, murmuring something about being her 'Baby boy' I rolled my eyes. Jenny dug her face in my white t-shirt and wrapped her arms around my waist in a python like embrace. Dad gave the idea that it would be a good idea for us to head home. I could barely get mom off me so we could get in the car. Jenny staid glued to me the entire ride back to the hotel we were at. Half way there she had calmed down enough and started running her fingers through my 'Mane' as she liked to call it.
"I'm really going to miss this Lee."
"What, my hair?"
"Yeah, you know when you go into the Marines there going to make you get a haircut."
"As if"
"No, seriously, it's the first thing you do when you start basic training, daddy said so."
I smiled, "Well, if that's the only sacrifice I need to make in order to serve our country, and more importantly, protect our family, then break out the clippers."
Her jaw fell open, "Seriously, you haven't gotten a haircut since the eighth grade! Why would you throw away something so beautiful?"
"Sometimes you have to give things up before you move forward. If I have to give up my hair in order to do something great like protect America, I'd gladly do it as many times as I had to."
Mom turned to us with a concerned look in her eye. She let her opinion of me going to fight over seas loud and clear when I first brought it up. It's all I talked about since I turned 15. When my father came back from Dessert Storm, it took everything my mom had to bring him back His body may have returned, but his mind was still there. The friends he had lost, the close calls he had barely come back from, it can do things to you. Having her "Baby boy" going over there and risking the same thing, it was almost too much for her.
"Lee, honey, you still have a while before you can enlist. So let's put a pin in that okay?" she asked in her regular gentle, angle like voice. I simply nodded in response and continued to gaze out the window. My mind would occasionally drift to the lioness, hoping she would be okay.