I don't own any of the animals.


Vitani woke the next morning, and for one blessed moment, thought she was in the Pridelands, in the middle of the slumbering pride. It 'was' only a moment though, before the cool air began to bite, and she remembered she was still, damnably, in Central Park Zoo. She was warm though, and turning to see where the warmth was coming from, she recoiled slightly when she saw the source of the warmth was Alex.

Vitani didn't recoil too much though, the air was cold, and Alex was warm, and in any case, sleeping next to him, this 'had' been one of the best night's sleep she'd had in a while, ever since the humans had first caught her in fact. Nevertheless, she wanted to get the lay of the place in daylight, so, slightly reluctantly, she slipped carefully away from Alex, and exited the enclosure.

Wandering through the zoo invoked memories of the Outlands in Vitani, though here things were grey, as opposed to the red-brown of her first home. There was one enclosure though that intrigued her, it was an island of white in the middle of a small lake, and was unlike anything she'd seen before. Intrigued though she was, she decided to wait before investigating.

"You're up early," Alex said, as Vitani returned to the enclosure.

"Mm-hm," Vitani said.

"How was last night," Alex asked.

"Sleeping with you," Vitani asked, and when Alex nodded, replied, "I've slept worse."

There was a moments silence, then Alex asked, "you feeling okay today?"

"Well enough," Vitani replied, "why?"

"You seem, I don't know, a bit calmer," Alex replied.

"It was a big day for me yesterday," Vitani replied, starting to get a bit impatient "and I'm still stressed."

"What's to be stressed about," Alex asked.

"Well, other than the fact that I'm missing my family," Vitani replied, sharper than she'd intended, "I'm bored, I'm cold, I don't want to be here, and I don't even damn well know where here is."

"Okay okay, calm down," Alex said, worried both for himself, and for Vitani, who was tense, and breathing hard.

"Calm," Vitani said, baring her teeth, "I'll give you calm."

"Okay, I'm sorry," Alex said, louder than he'd intended, "I'm sorry I went hard on you."

Vitani calmed down a bit at this, and glanced down for a moment, then said, "yeah, I suppose I went a bit over-the-top as well, but, well, when I get worried or stressed, I get annoyed, and when I get annoyed, I get angry, and I've been quite stressed lately."

"We all have," Alex said, "at least, a bit."

"You, stressed," Vitani asked, looking at Alex, "why're you stressed, I thought you liked this place."

"I do," Alex replied, "but a while back, I was in a jungle, and then the humans caught us, and brought us back here."

"I thought you said you'd lived here all your life," Vitani said.

"Well, it wasn't long," Alex replied, "and apart from that, I have been."

Vitani gave Alex a long stare, which made him uncomfortable, so he asked, "coming to help me wake the others?"

"Others," Vitani asked, "what others?"

"You met them last night," Alex replied, "Marty, Gloria and Melman."

"Uh," Vitani said, obviously not recognising the names.

"The zebra, the hippo and the giraffe," Alex replied.

"Oh, them," Vitani said, "okay, I suppose."

"Come on then," Alex said.

The first enclosure they came to was more-or-less a deep pool, in the middle of which, Gloria was sleeping. Vitani drew back a little for a moment, then raised an eyebrow, "you're going to wake her up?"

"Sure," Alex replied, surprised, "you're not coming?"

"I'd prefer to stay dry if it's all the same to you," Vitani replied.

"Okay," Alex said, and shrugged, then leapt over onto Gloria, and, dancing, said "Gloria, time to wake up."

Vitani watched in surprise, as Gloria, a name which she just couldn't really associate with a hippo, merely rose slightly, and murmured, "jus' five more minutes hon'."

Leaping back to the shore, Alex caught Vitani's incredulous expression, and said, "what?"

Turning away, Vitani shook her head, and replied, "nothing, where next?"

"This way," Alex replied.

Fairly soon, they came to a tall, brick wall, and Alex said, "hup hup hup," and scrambled up. Vitani followed, and though she jumped higher, she found it much harder to scramble up the brick. "Graceful," he said, when she finally made it.

Vitani glared at Alex for a moment, then said, "climbing's for leopards, not lions, and besides, that's got practically no traction."

Alex stared for a moment, then was on top of what Vitani saw was a tall cave. He then started dancing, as he'd done with Gloria, and said, "Melman Melman Melman, time to wake up."

Melman emerged after a few moments, saw Alex, and said, "oh, morning," then saw Vitani, flinched, and said, "er..."

It took Vitani a moment to realise what Melman was worried about, then she sighed, and said, "forget what I said last night, I was in a real bad mood."

"Okay," Melman said, though he was obviously still worried.

Alex could see Melman's discomfort as well as Vitani, and so said, "come on, let's go see Marty."

"Okay," Vitani replied, then glanced down, and decided it was too far to jump down safely, so she began to skirt the pinnacle looking for a smaller drop.

"What you doing," asked Alex curiously.

"Looking for a way down that won't break a leg," Vitani replied.

"Oh, right," Alex replied, "well, this is the way I usually do it." Making sure Vitani was watching, he swung himself off the edge till he was only just holding on with his paws, then dropped. "See, easy," he called up.

Vitani looked incredulous for a moment, then, attempted to copy Alex's moves. It didn't work though, because just as she was turning around, she slipped, and landed hard on her belly, before her weight dragged her so she was held only by her elbows and paws. Nor did the rest of it go any smoother, because she came down too fast onto her paws, lost her grip, and landed awkwardly, which startled a low roar out of her.

"Are you alright," Alex asked, racing over.

Vitani paused for a moment, then, managing to momentarily suppress the pain in her right rear-leg, rose, and said, "I'll live." She then turned to Alex, and continued, "but next time, you can go up there on your own." She took a step, and winced, as pain shot up the leg, though it was, hopefully, 'only' pulled muscles.

You, uh, coming to see Marty," Alex asked.

"Not at the moment," Vitani replied, then began to limp back towards their enclosure. There were two chunks of meat there, probably one for her and one for Alex. As she sat down to eat, she took stock of her injuries. Apart from her right rear-leg, she'd also got some painful scrapes and bruises on her belly, chest, and the lower halves of her fore-legs. Still, she knew now never to bother with helping to wake Melman, at least, by dancing on the top of his cave.