CHAPTER 5 – Hard Lessons

I awoke the next morning to a cracking sound.  At first, I thought it was thunder, and forgot for the moment where I was.  My eyes flew up at another crack.  Nope, it wasn't a dream.  We were all still stuck in the cage.

Klins was standing before our cage, dressed much as he had been the day before, only this time the gold colors were replaced by red.  In his right hand he held a long slender instrument, which I found out much later was called a whip.  He lashed it through the air and it made the cracking sound that had woken me up from my slumber.

"Get up, get up," he ordered, and my family, who hadn't gotten too much sleep that night anyway, yawned and got to their feet.

Narma came into the room, and one by one, each of us were led out of the cage and into another room.

This room was very large and the ground was a mixture of soft wood chips, dirt, and dried grass.  Three large wooden rings lay in a row down the width of the floor.  All around the central arena with the rings were platforms where we later saw that other humans would sit to watch the captured animals perform.  Vents on the walls and ceiling blew cool or warm air into the room, to meet whatever needs the humans had.

We were all led to the center ring, another cage having been lowered from the ceiling to fit around.  Narma chained us to the ground, leads just long enough to accommodate Klins' needs.  I pushed against the chain, using all of my neck muscles, but nothing gave way.

Klins raised the whip, and cracked it right before our faces.  And our training thusly began.  For many hours we worked, and Klins forced us to obey his commands with that ever cracking whip. We grew weary, and at length, Klins decided that he had accomplished enough for the day.  We were led back to the cage, all of us, except for my father.  Klins still wanted to work with him, and after another two hours, he was finally returned to us.

He was panting and weak.  Klins himself led him in, knowing that Rama was too tired to pose any real threat to him.  The human gave us some water and just enough food to keep us from starving to death.  Then the lights were shut off and we were left alone once more.

"Ahadi," my mother said, bringing a piece of meat over to where my father lay in the furthest corner of the cage.  "Are you alright?"

"That human – that Mr. Klins – he must be stopped.  I saw him bring out other animals, presumably to work with them the same way that he did with us."

"What did he do to you dad?" I asked, padding up to him, my voice filled with worry.

"What didn't he do is more the question.  We must find a way out of here."

"There is no way out, not out of this cage anyway," Taka said with a disgusted sneer.  "We must wait for our opportunity, and fight our way out when the humans are working with us."

"You may be right," dad agreed.  "But we must proceed with precaution.  Keep your wits about you, and wait for the right opportunity to come along.  If we aren't careful, the humans are likely to kill us out of fear."

With that said, my father sunk his teeth into the hunk of meat before him, and lapped a little water from the bowl that had been set down for us. 

From a high window, I could see the stars peaking out from behind a few wispy clouds.  That night, we all slept soundly.  Not because we were comfortable with our surroundings, however, but out of sheer exhaustion.  I slept alongside Sarabi – her head rested lightly on my neck. 

Morning came too early, in much the same fashion as the previous day.  Klins was ready to train us again, so once again we spent most of the day learning new tricks to avoid the sharp sting of the whip, which the human wielded mercilessly.

At the end of the day we were returned to our small confines without my father, who Klins kept with him in the center ring.  When he did return, he was more beaten looking than he was the day before.  Again we got little food and water to sustain us.

This same pattern went on for many days, and after a while, I ceased to keep track of the passage of time.  Life became routine, and my father grew ill.  Secretly, when no one was looking, I would take half of my food ration and give it to my father and mother, saying that it was left over once I had finished.  Still, my father grew worse day by day.