Author's Note: There was a slight hiccup in this contest. The clue I gave out to the lucky reviewers made it so there were two right answers, so here they both are:
First correct answer: The animals from the fact war are the spirits of the Jungle Fury Rangers and Masters*. The leopard is the one that doesn't belong because in the show there was no leopard spirit. However, I chose to add it as a subtle tribute to my Kaylee Series, where the main character Kaylee had and mastered the spirit of the Leopard.
Second correct answer: The animals from the fact war are the spirits of the Jungle Fury Rangers and Masters*. The rhino could be considered the odd one out, even with the leopard (for Kaylee did master her spirit) because Dom never earned his master stripes.
*The impala (a type of Antelope) is Master Lope. The (emperor) Penguin for Master Guin. The Gorilla as Master Rilla. Then you have Elephant, (vampire) bat, and (great white) shark for Masters Phant, Swoop, and Finn. Finally, the spirits of the Rangers and Jarrod: Tiger, Cheetah, Jaguar, Wolf, Rhino, and Lion.
Anyone with either, or both, of those answers won the deleted scene. The answer had to be complete: why those animals, which animal doesn't belong and why I chose the leopard.Many of the answers were given via PM. Thanks everyone for playing!
The winners of the deleted scenes are: Darien Fawkes, xXxKaraBeckerCutterxXx, DeviousGryphon, thunderyoshi, Supersentairanger, KLR, Charlotte 'Charlie' Hartley and Devil Hunter 64. Leave a review when you're ready to receive your deleted scene.
Honourable mentions for getting a part of the answer: Giraffelover5, Maeve111999, Earthbird, jg13145, El Cheque1, yellowinx65 Fallingstar22 and some anonymous reviewers guessed part of the answer correctly but left no name for a mention.
I gave everyone a fair chance to win this contest. If there was any confusion I cleared up through PM messages and gave you all a chance to submit final answers right up until this chapter was posted, which I think is a fair way to rule. If you think you should have won but didn't, please send me a PM with justification and I'll review your answer and the contest rules again.
It had been about an hour since the zoo had closed its doors. All the guests had gone, leaving the zookeepers to give the animals their last feeding for the day, clean up the park and the exhibits and then they were home.
While many zookeepers liked to finish up as quickly as they could, one decided he liked to hang around after hours. He would always make sure the exhibit was tidy, the animals were all well looked after and that they would be okay until the next day. He didn't like to think maybe he had missed picking up some feces or that he hadn't caught a water bottle or napkin that some guests carelessly dropped into the exhibit. He didn't want the animals to be at risk of getting hurt because of humans' recklessness.
"Casey, are you done yet?" he heard her voice and smiled as he looked up. He saw Lily standing over the exhibit, holding the hand of their young daughter. Casey gave a little nod but continued to rake the exhibit.
Growing up, he had never imagined working in a zoo. As a boy he loved the zoo and he loved animals as much as the next guy, but walking around the cages of dangerous animals and picking up their poop was not the most appealing job. Fortunately he found himself at the Pai Zhuq, and after extensive training as a Ranger he earned himself the title of Master. With help from his teammates they defeated the threat of Dai Shi, and Casey took on the responsibilities of becoming the headmaster of the Pai Zhuq Academy. The other masters had all moved on to other things in their lives and had branched away from the Pai Zhuq. RJ had his pizza place, which he had since expanded to a second location in Ocean Bluff. Business was doing well and he was really happy working full time and occasionally dropping by the Academy to train or teach.
Dominic and Fran were travelling around the world. Fran had always loved the idea of visiting different countries and exploring new cultures. Before she met Dominic, the only new places she could visit were the ones in books. Now she got to live out those adventures. Dominique was only too happy to take her. He hated settling down in one place, and though he had made Ocean Bluff his permanent home, he was usually only for a couple of weeks every year and major holidays.
Theo spent some time around the Pai Zhuq, but even he had moved on. He had taken up classes at Ocean Bluff Community College to earn a degree in business. Working in Jungle Karma Pizza had inspired him to start up his own business. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do yet, though everyone teased him by suggesting he start a professional cleaning and organizing service, but his courses kept his very busy.
Lily – Casey saw her often. Unfortunately not as often as he liked. After their days as Rangers, Theo and Lily dated. It only lasted just over a year before the two of them realized it wasn't working out. Theo had gotten a little too wrapped up in his classes and Lily couldn't get past the idea of Theo being anything more than her best friend. Dating became difficult and a little awkward. Mutually, they decided to split and to this day were still the best of friends.
After the break up, with Theo spending a lot of time at school, Lily turned to the Pai Zhuq, and helped Casey with his classes. They grew even closer over the course of working together and after a couple of years together, they attended a party and had a little too much to drink. After that it was all a blur, as all of a sudden Lily was telling him she was pregnant. The months after that flew by as Casey and Lily had to make arrangements for their coming child. In that time, they started dating, and their relationship had lasted until after their daughter was born. However, they had broken up.
The Pai Zhuq offered Casey enough money to support himself, but with a baby on the way Casey needed other arrangements. He kept his job at the Pai Zhuq but had to cut down his hours. He shared the responsibilities as headmaster with Jarrod in order to have the time to work at the zoo and earn more money for his growing family. The zoo never would have been his first choice, but when he saw there was an opening for a zookeeper for the tigers, Casey knew he had to seize the job. Working with real tigers would help him bond a lot more with his tiger spirit and every day he got new ideas that would help shape, sharpen and perfect the tiger style for his students. On top of that, his tiger animal spirit made it so that he could understand the needs of the tigers in the zoo and how to care for them. His jobs complimented each other.
But they took up a lot of his time. Teaching at the Pai Zhuq meant he had to work every night to come up with new lessons and new strategies to help his student. It was hours of work at home and a lot of early mornings and late nights. His job at the zoo was the same. His connection to the tigers meant he couldn't just ignore them like some of the other zookeepers. While none of the animals were ever neglected at the zoo, as there was a zero tolerance policy that was strongly enforced, other zookeepers could get away with checking none of the animals were sick, dumping out their food, cleaning the cages and then leaving. Casey couldn't. He knew the tigers liked their food a certain way, they liked their exhibit cleaned a certain way and they liked to feel cared for. Every night he had to work hard to keep them happy, and it mean working late or getting to the zoo at very early hours in the morning.
With a newborn, that wasn't easy. Just to support his daughter, himself, and Lily, Casey needed to work all those hours. That left Lily at home alone with the baby. After a few weeks of Casey coming home late into the night and leaving early, Lily had gotten fed up. She walked out and moved back into RJ's loft over the JKP with their daughter.
Casey got to see Lily every Wednesday, Thursday, and every other weekend when she would either pick up or drop off his daughter. While they were no longer together, they were both still the little girl's parents and promised to share custody over her.
For Casey, that wasn't enough. Lily had gotten fed up with him and walked out, but he had since fallen more and more in love with her.
"Casey, you promised you'd pick Ava up at six. It's eight and I'm late for my shift!"
"I'm sorry," Casey called up. "There were a lot of people around today. I've just got a few more things to do..."
"How long is it going to take?"
"You can leave Ava here with me," Casey looked up. "It's just a half-hour."
"Can I come inside the tiger cage, daddy?" Ava asked as she looked through the bars and bounced excitedly.
"You know the way in, Kit-Kat," Casey nodded. Ava smiled, gave her mother a hug and then ran for the gate to the tiger's exhibit. Lily watched her daughter walk inside and then waved Casey up. She knew Ava would be fine with the tigers. Her little girl had inherited more than just Casey's eyes. Casey saw Lily waving him up and knew he shouldn't ignore her. He set his rake down and walked to the gate.
"Stay close to Kitty," Casey told his daughter and pointed to one tiger sitting by the pond. The tiger, Kitty as Ava called him, was Casey's animal spirit, and while it looked no different from the others in this form; it was just as much of a father to Ava as Casey himself. If any of the other tigers did suddenly decide to attack, his animal spirit would be able to protect her.
Casey stepped out of the exhibit and walked over to Lily.
"You're always late."
"I know. I'm sorry. It's just a lot of work..."
"I know that, Casey," Lily shook her head. "I work in a zoo too."
"JKP's not actually a zoo."
"Some of the people behave like animals," Lily rolled her eyes. "She's your daughter, Casey. These tigers can look after themselves at least for the nights you have her."
"I lost track of time. Besides, she loves coming here. She always has a good time with Kitty while I finish up."
"I'm not just talking about late nights at the zoo. When you're teaching, Casey..."
"My students are asking for my help. I'm their Master, Lil. I can't turn them down. And the longer I work, the more money..."
"Casey, it's not about the money!" Lily rolled her eyes. They had had this discussion before, and it seemed that after three years Casey still wasn't getting it. "Ava needs to be able to count on you. You're her daddy and you're never on time to pick her up!"
"This job pays for my apartment," Casey said. "For her bedroom, her toys, all her school supplies."
"I know, I know..."
"I don't work as much as before. You know that."
"Yeah, but..."
"I'm still figuring this out," Casey said. "But she knows I'm here for her. She knows she has two amazing parents. Next time I'm late to pick her up, just bring her by here. She can help me with the tigers. Look at how much she loves it."
Casey pointed into the exhibit but he couldn't see Ava. He looked around, but his daughter was nowhere to be found.
"Ava?"
"Ava!" Lily called and started to run to the gate. She trusted the tigers and Casey's animal spirit but at any moment something could happen. In spite of everything, the tigers were still wild cats and Ava was just a little girl.
"Tiger!" Casey called for his animal spirit but he couldn't feel it. He assumed that wherever Ava was, his tiger had gone with her. But because he could no longer feel his tiger, he had no idea where that was.
"Daddy!" Ava suddenly screamed from somewhere in the exhibit. Neither Casey nor Lily could see where beyond the foliage but followed the sound of her voice. By now, Lily had summoned her cheetah spirit, who was moving quickly ahead of them to see if it could catch up to Ava before anything happened. While in the wild cheetahs were generally no match for a tiger's size and strength, Lily's animal spirit could fight with the best of the tigers in this exhibit and had on several occasions, beaten Casey's tiger.
When the two former Rangers caught up to the cheetah they found it nursing Casey's tiger, who looked like he had taken a rather bad beating. Casey summoned him back to rest and had a look around. Something had to have happened. None of the tigers in this exhibit could beat his animal spirit.
"Ava!"
"Casey, where is she?" Lily turned to him worriedly. Casey shrugged his shoulders. He called for his daughter again. His only reply was silence and a sob escaping Lily's lips. He pulled her into his arms.
"We'll find her," he promised.
