BEGINNINGS

10 – A Change of Heart

Finally, it was Sunday and with it, a chance to sleep in and relax. Derek had been incredibly miserable the past four days since arriving to the zoo and was already wanting to leave. His uncle was more of an asshole then he remembered and how he favored that snarky brat of a freak boiled his blood. They would laugh and joke with the other, sometimes wrestle and even confide in the other. It had to be confining, anyway, since their voices were low in their conversing from time to time.

No matter how much time Derek spent around the freak, er, hybrid, he couldn't get over how disgusting her disformed feet looked. He could easily see her being a virgin for the rest of her life given her ghastly appearance without her shoes on. Not to mention her weird ass eyes and clawed hands. No one in their right mind would want to tap that, ever!

Muldoon barged into his room and paid no mind to his nephew asleep on the cot he had set for him at the end of the bed. "If you're interested in joining Pet and I for some target practice shooting then you getter get up and get ready. We leave within the hour."

Derek mumbled, "Only if lizard girl is the target."

Muldoon gave no answer while his removing two rifle cases off the top shelf of his closet. He left the room and strode to Pet's room.

She was fishing her own rifle case out from under her bed. "Can I bring my Beretta, too?"

The senior game warden answered. "You mean the one Roland gave you as a birthday present?" Pet nodded. "Just know what whatever you bring, you're buying the ammo for with your money."

"I always do." Pet reached further underneath her bed to pull out a grey pistol case.

One round after another was shot off. Muldoon had his favorite .30-06 Springfield firmly pressed into his shoulder and his sites resting on an empty soda can down range. Pet was loading up two magazines to the rifle to shoot herself as Derek stood nearby, glowering at the hybrid.

He kept eyeballing the pistol and two magazine pouches strapped to her belt and wondered why she even had such a piece like that. She was just a kid and hadn't even started puberty yet! Or had she? He felt revolted thinking on it and hated himself a bit more for asking himself that. Derek looked down at a .22 resting on top of its case and figured why not, it wasn't being used and he was bored. He already knew his Uncle Rob wasn't going to let him touch the Springfield so he didn't bother asking. But harm would it be to use the .22?

Pet chuckled to herself. "Try not to hurt yourself with that."

"Shut up," he groaned and shouldered the rifle.

Muldoon stood back to watch his nephew's aim only to see two of the fired rounds hit the target. Grey eyes settled on the disgruntled teen. "I thought you said you knew how to shoot."

Derek rolled his eyes. "Yeah, with a pistol!"

"Oh yeah?"

Pet cut in. "With that, a water pistol?"

The teen glared down at the seated hybrid. "Give me your gun and I'll show you."

The hybrid snorted. "You break it, I gut you." She handed Derek the pistol and watched as every shot hit its mark. Once the last shot was fired, he put the gun back on safety and ejected the empty magazine. Pet smirked. "Not bad for a city kid wannabe bounty hunter." She snickered again. "But you're in the African savannah now. Too bad you can't shoot a rifle to save your butt, though. All that pistol is going to do is tickle anything angry enough to come at you."

She got up with two .30-06 magazines in hand and accepted the rifle Muldoon handed her. Pet shoved one into a back pocket of her shorts and loaded one into the gun. She took it off safety and shouldered the Springfield, aiming at the paper target mounted to a dead tree. One shot, two shot, three shot, four shots fired and all hitting very near the bullseye. Derek's jaw dropped. But, she was just a kid!

Muldoon could see how angry his nephew was and suggested to Pet she let him try shooting it. One shot, two shot, three shot, four shots fired and not a one hit the tree anywhere. Pet walked away giggling to herself while Muldoon studied his nephew. "I sure hope your balls drop soon because that," Muldoon pointed at the target, "is not the kind of shooting any man should do."

Derek shoved the rifle back at his uncle and stormed off to the zoo's Jeep nearby. Pet was laughing even harder and not afraid to show it.

That evening and after a nice grilled steak dinner, Pet and Muldoon were seated on the couch and hovering over the coffee table. In front of them was his disassembled .30-06 and her Berretta as they busied themselves cleaning it. On the TV was a show called Paleo Science that Derek quickly figured out was something his uncle and the freak watched regularly. The show panned around the vast, barren landscape of where, Derek wasn't sure, before focusing on an area with tents and trailers. A few moments later, the scene shifted to show a team of men and woman gathered around a dig site where a medium sized dinosaur fossil had been located.

A man by the name of Dr. Alan Grant began explaining some fancy science stuff Derek was already lost about. Pet's brow arched and stated, "Hello doctor."

Muldoon shook his head. "God rest his soul the day you ever meet him in person." The hybrid girlishly giggled.

This surprised Derek and he gave her a baffled look. "Seriously, that guy?" He reached over the coffee table to get the remote.

A clawed hand took a firm hold of his wrist as Pet snarled, "Don't you even think about it." She shoved Derek's hand away and went about her business like nothing had happened.

The teen grumbled and sunk into the couch in silent infuriation.

Almost a month and a half had passed since Derek's arrival to the zoo. By now, Muldoon had separated Derek and Pet before either of the two could kill the other. Every day it was something new with them. One day, he put peroxide in her shampoo that caused her hair to bleach a little before she washed it out. In retaliation she smeared icy-hot in the crotch of his boxers. Muldoon could only hope that would've been the end to the feud but was he ever wrong! It only got worse from there. A few days after the icy-hot event, Derek slipped a laxative into Pet's morning glass of juice. To say shit hit the fan, that day, was an understatement. In an act of sheer aggression, she attacked Derek so bad he had to get stitches in his leg after clawing him with her foot. After that, Pet was made to stay in the zoo's permanent party dorms while Derek stayed at the trailer where Muldoon could keep an eye on him.

As usual, Derek couldn't wait to get out of the warden shack and start his chores. He might have loathed his disciplinary work but he enjoyed it a lot more than he did being around the freak. The teen popped a rock band cassette tape into his Walkman and set out to start his day.

Come early in the afternoon and he was changing out the batteries with spare ones he kept in his now stained up baggy jeans. He knew he wasn't supposed to work with headphones on as it hindered his ability to hear what anyone was saying to him. He didn't care. Derek did what Derek wanted. There wasn't too much longer on his parole, as he called it, before he was back on a plane to London. That was another place he couldn't wait to leave. He kept telling everyone that as soon as he was eighteen, he was going to the United States to get as far away from them as he could.

At first, he thought maybe New York, where he was sure there was to be a lot of opportunities to expand on his desire to be a bounty hunter. That idea was quickly scratched off his list, however, when learning how cold the winters were. He hated the cold enough as is and wanted to get away from it. Then came other ideas like Miami where he would be surrounded by hot babes in bikinis. That, too, was scratched off the list due to the number of hurricanes the area got far too much for his liking. One of the things he disliked about London was the cold. Another was the frequent rain. The urge to get away from the cold and the rain landed him in the west coast of California. It was perfect. There were plenty of beaches to ogle the hotties in bikinis as well as warm temperatures and sparse rain.

In the time it took him to figure out where he wanted to go with his future, he had finished almost all the daily chores. All that was left was the tiger enclosure. As per protocol, he went into the back where the large kennels were kept to make sure the animals were accounted for before going into their primary pen. Seeing that the two cats were in fact in their night cages, Derek took his trash bag lined bucket and went into the spacious habitat.

He was almost done when he came across a particularly nasty mess. It was safe to say that whatever that tiger ate didn't agree with him. The teen knelt down behind the artificial tree trunk and started to scoop the gag worthy pile up.

Meanwhile, across the enclosure a tiger specialist entered the premises through a special employee entrance built into the side of a fake tree. He looked around the area from where he stood and called out, "Is anyone in here?" No answer. "Hello? Anyone?" Still no answer. And there wouldn't be for Derek still had his headphones on and was out of sight of the specialist. Satisfied the enclosure was safe for animal release, the tiger handler disappeared back behind the access door.

Moments later, one of the tigers was released into the habitat via its own special entry point. Derek, unaware of this, tied off the waste bag in his bucket and stood up. That's when he saw it and it saw him. The tigers eyes didn't blink off the teen as it lowered its head and fiercely hissed.

Derek cried out, "Hey! Hey, somebody, help! There's a big ass tiger in here!"

Fortunately for him, the tiger handler heard the desperate cries and peeked his head into the cat's habitat. "Oh my G-" He grabbed the radio on his belt and cued it. "Emergency, emergency! Immediate game warden assistance at the tiger cage in Catmania!"

Inside the game warden shack, Muldoon had just checked in his pistol and was about to call it a day when he heard the call over Jophrey's radio. Both men met the other's panicked faces and made a beeline to the Jeep.

Pet was inside the veterinarian office and talking to Miss Liz about a new litter of hyena pups when she, too, heard the distress radio call. It took no time at all for Pet to respond. She was running the fastest she could and even jumping over a lot of the walkway railings like they were hurdles. The hybrid slid her ID through the secured access point leading to the tiger pen and erupted into the kennel room. She shoved the specialist aside so she could get into the primary enclosure and to aid the person trapped with the tiger.

The knot of nerves that had formed in her stomach lunged into her throat when she saw Derek backing himself into a corner. The tiger was slowly approaching him, its body low to the ground as though preparing to pounce on him at any moment. Pet let out an ear piercing shrill and tore into a run at the tiger. Her powerful legs sprang her into the air and landed her onto the back of the large cat with sickle claws hooking into its haunches. She bit into its neck and her clawed hands raked across its back.

The tiger let out a painful roar and was just able to shake its attacker off its back in a fit of trying to claw at the hybrid. Pet tumbled and rolled across the ground, but was quick to get back to her feet. She side stepped closer to where Derek stood, mortified, and growled a screech at the tiger in warning. The tiger lunged at the hybrid, swiping a massive clawed paw at her. Pet dodged the attack and swiped her own claws at it, scratching the tip of its nose in the process.

Derek didn't know if he should run or stay behind the challenging hybrid. In those moments, that felt as though an eternity, he came to see Pet in a much different light. He saw what her claws did to the tiger as bleeding gashes shined against its black and bronze fur. Streaks of blood painted various portions of Pet making hard for Derek to know what was the tiger's blood and what was the girl's. Here she was, just a kid, and staring down a fucking tiger just to protect him. It was hard not to admire and respect that level of fearlessness and from someone so young.

Pet screeched again but the tiger didn't seem to challenge back. It hissed but made no attempt to make an attack at her. Rushing onto the scene was Muldoon was Jophrey. In the senior warden's hands was a tranquilizer gun, loaded and ready to go. Never had he seen someone so terrified before as Derek was, cowering from the deadly challenge in front of him. Muldoon took aim at the obviously injured tiger and fired. His grey eyes followed the tranquilizer dart's red feathers to its target where it impelled the feral beast just below the back of its neck.

The tiger roared out, once more, and bared its fangs at the hybrid. Pet saw the tranquilizer in the back of its neck and knew it was just a waiting game, now. In a few short minutes, the tiger would be asleep and no longer a threat to her or Derek. Her raptor like eyes met Muldoon's across the habitat and she gave a thankful nod.

Hammond was quick to arrive at the zoo's small clinic, which didn't consist of a much. There were three medical beds for the ill or injured to rest on as well as cabinets, drawers and shelves full of medical supplies. It was enough to allow the necessary treatment for dehydration, lacerations, and temporary aid in broken limbs. At least there was a doctor and two nurses on staff. Outside the facility was an ambulance to transport the more severe patients to the Nairobi hospital where more proper care could be had.

Sitting on the side of one of the beds was Pet getting dried blood wiped off of her. All Hammond could see of her immediate injuries was a gauze bandage around her left calf muscle. Derek was seated on another bed, as well, but appearing more shaken than anything. Muldoon and Jophrey were there, too, and writing details reports on what happened.

Hammond glared at Pet, first, then at Derek. "Anyone care to explain to me what happened?"

The teen met the zoo owner's furious blue eyes with his teary brown ones and gave a very detailed story of what happened. Over the course of the next two days, a thorough investigation was made involving all persons associated with the incident. Luckily for Hammond, there was no loss of life; just a minorly injured employee and an even more injured tiger recovering from its wounds.

Pet took a hefty swig from her canteen and shoved it back in its pouch she kept secured to her belt. She looked at the wagon and wheels she had checked out for the day and frowned at the trailer full of trash. She really needed to stop snooping into peoples' business, as she had done yet again this time with the incident report files. Pet slid her rubber gloves back on and was about to tackle another raunchy bag of petting zoo trash when a second pair of gloves did it for her.

Pet watched Derek curiously and cocked her head to the side. "Aren't you supposed to be helping Robert with some inventory stuff in the shack?"

Derek tied off the trash bag and hoisted it into the trailer. "Been there, done that. Everything accounted for." He reached into the Busted Box for a clean trash bag and stuffed it into the empty trash can. "So I thought I'd come help you with your chores." He snickered on the last word. Pet huffed a laugh and was on her way to the next trash can, but Derek stopped her. "Thank you." The hybrid turned around to face him and saw the most sincerely grateful pair of eyes she had ever seen. "I owe you one for saving my life."

Pet smiled back. "Just don't go telling anyone about me and I'll call us even."

"I didn't plan on it. That non-disclosure agreement I signed after I got here has some pretty nasty consequences should I say anything."

That afternoon, Derek was back on an airplane and headed home for London. Within the week, Muldoon's younger sister was calling and demanding to know what happened to change her son's toxic behavior. Muldoon just smiled and looked at Pet sweeping the warden shack floors.