BEGINNINGS
17 - Changing of Times
An hour later, a knock came at the game warden office door followed by the head of a reddish blond-haired man poking his head inside. "Excuse me, is this the game warden office?"
Jophrey gave a welcoming smile to the nervous looking man and replied. "Yes, it is. Come on in."
The other man did so as Muldoon greeted him. "Terrence Mitchell, I presume?"
The newcomer nodded his head and smiled widely. "Mr. Muldoon, I just want to say how happy I am to be here and working with you."
"Won't be for long. Just a week until I transfer to another job location."
The newcomer, Terrence, nodded cheerfully. "Congratulations, by the way, on that. It seems like it would be much more exciting than here, that's for sure." The man's cool blue eyes visually took in the details of his surroundings until his eyes fell on a pair of bare, clawed feet propped up on a desk. He traced the muscular features to a pair of golden yellow eyes intently watching him. "Hi. You, uh...must be Pet, right?" The hybrid snorted and drummed her clawed fingers on her desk chair's armrest. "So, you're the reason I had to sign a twelve-page non-disclosure agreement, huh?" The man's smile didn't falter in his continuous nodding. Muldoon studied the man with the impression he was truly on a personality altering drug. There was no way in hell anyone could be that happy and bubbly with personality. "I can't wait to start working together."
Pet's deadpan expression shifted into a partially threatening one as her upper lip curled in a snarl, revealing a section of carnivorous teeth. Muldoon blocked the other man's view of the hybrid and cut in. "She's not an immediate people person."
Terrence chuckled. "Oh, it's fine. I'm great with animals so I'm sure she and I will get along." On the other side of the shack, Jophrey buried his face in his hand and shook his head.
Pet snorted again and looked at Jophrey in annoyance and disbelief at the newcomer. She had to get out of the office before she attacked the man and stood up. "I would love to stay and chat about the upcoming great times, but I'm overdue for my afternoon disemboweling of a defenseless creature."
Pet strode out of the office and slammed the door behind her. Terrence watched her with a perplexed expression. He looked back to Muldoon and continued to smile, rather stupidly, too. "What's the first thing I should know about?"
Muldoon saw movement outside the door window that was behind Terrence to see Pet holding up her two middle fingers. The bitter and enraged look the man gave the hybrid made her leave the window when a curious Terrence turned to see what had made the other warden so sour.
Muldoon grumbled, "Follow me. I'll give you a tour of the grounds," and grabbed up his rifle on his way towards the door. He stepped out into the hot Kenyan sun to see Pet quickly scurry off around the corner. "PET!"
A moment later, an annoyed pair of eyes peeked around the corner of the warden office. "Yeah?"
Muldoon waved a hand at the Jeep for her to get in. "You're coming with Terrence and me on a tour around the zoo."
She hung her head low and whimpered, doing as told. "Why me? Why not Jophrey?"
The game warden unclipped the keys from around a belt loop and dangled them in front of the hybrid. Pet's annoyed glare turned into a vicious smile as the senior warden winked at her. Terrence, not noticing the two's plotting, climbed in the backseat. Muldoon slid into the passenger seat without another word.
Pet adjusted the seat and mirrors to see the unusually excited Terrence in the backseat. If only she could slap that stupid overly happy smile off his face, but she had another idea. "Where to, first Robert?"
He shrugged and buckled himself up. "Let's start from the beginning, shall we?"
Pet nodded and put the Jeep into first gear, driving off. Terrence continued. "If there's anything I should know about, please tell me so I can take notes for future reference." The hybrid watched the man behind her take out a small pocket-sized notebook and mini pen from his shirt's breast pocket.
"First thing to know," Pet started as the Jeep proceeded down the bumpy trail, "hold onto your ass when going down the trails.
She had no regard for making the trails seem less bumpy by slowing down. Terrence gave her a look of uncertainty in the rearview mirror as he bounced around in the backseat. Not even holding onto the canopy supports prevented him from being tossed around.
Two hours later, the Jeep pulled back under the carport beside the warden shack. A sick Terrence had his head hanging over the side of the vehicle. He had been that way for the last quarter mile of the tour.
Muldoon shot a quick smile to Pet before turning around in the front seat to better observe the other man. "Are you okay, Mr. Mitchell?"
He lazily nodded and waved a hand in the air. "Yeah, I just need a moment."
"Okay."
Pet chuckled and followed her best friend into the shack. Jophrey raised a brow in interest to the two. "So? How was the tour?"
Muldoon replied. "Well he got further down the trail than I thought he would and Pet was driving."
"Oh boy." Jophrey wrinkled his face in sympathy.
Terrence shuffled back into the shack and sat down near Pet sat and hoarsely spoke. "From now on, I will drive."
Pet tried to appear offended. "But I don't get to drive often."
The ill man rubbed his sweat glazed face with his hand. "I can see why."
Muldoon patted Terrence on the back and stated, "Welcome to Kenya."
The following days went by smoothly as Muldoon explained to his replacement the order of things as well as what would be expected of him. He also introduced him to the rest of the staff, like the veterinarians and medical teams on permanent duty status.
That evening, Pet laid in her bed, and watched it get dark outside through her partially opened dorm window. She didn't bother turning on a light but instead allowed the darkness to consume everything around her. She sighed with the surging ache of sadness she felt in her chest. In just five days, her best friend would be gone halfway across the world while she would be forced to stay in Africa to deal with Mr. Personality.
A subtle knock came at her door, which startled her. She sat up and turned on the light next to her bed, calling, "Come in." Muldoon cracked the door open and peered inside. "Can't sleep either, huh?"
He shook his head and stepped into the dimly lit room. "Too much going on in my head right now."
"I know how you feel." Pet watched the man sit slowly on the couch and get comfortable; his head hung low.
"I'm sorry, Pet. I tried."
The hybrid forced a smile for the man's sake. "I'll make it just fine. Might take a while, but it's nothing I can't handle. Mr. Personality is going to need a good breaking into, is all."
The two sat in silence for a little while, Muldoon softly speaking. "At least Hammond waited until Saturday morning to fly me out instead of Friday so I could be here for your birthday."
Pet tilted her head off to the side in thought. "So much has been going on, I forgot about Friday being my birthday."
"Fifteen years." He smiled when meeting the gaze of the teenage girl.
"Doesn't seem like it."
The man snorted. "To you! You're not the one that had to deal with the crap over the years."
Pet shrugged. "It'll all be over soon, and you won't have to worry about being there to babysit me anymore."
Muldoon cursed under his breath and ran his hands through his hair. "I would do anything to spend the next fifteen years doing it all over again." He brought his saddened eyes back on the hybrid, seated on her bed with her legs crossed. "Exactly the way I did the first fifteen years."
The hybrid's expression wrinkled in disagreement. "Can we skip the whole diaper phase? Because I'm sure I had some moments, during that time, I'd rather not relive and remember..."
Muldoon chuckled and threw one of the small decorative pillows on the couch at the hybrid. "Brat." Pet collected the pillow in her clawed hands and held it against her chest. "Which reminds me..." The man withdrew a small, fist-sized box from his back pocket and handed it to the girl. "Happy Birthday."
The hybrid opened it to find a brand-new leather collar in it with a dog tag hanging from it. She read the stamped letters on the tag out loud. "Pet. I-260102 0579."
She met the gaze of the man before her and smiled. "You said you didn't have a collar and what good hunter doesn't keep his Pet on a leash."
Muldoon took the collar from her hands and put it around her neck, which looked more like a black choker than a collar. "This Pet belongs to me."
She smiled and wrapped her arms around her best friend. "And I always will."
He held her tightly. "Always."
The five days following felt as though time had passed overnight.
Five in the morning came too soon as a black Mercedes pulled up to the zoo employee dorms. Hammond could see the light shining in the window of Pet's room and Muldoon's luggage outside the door. He looked at the vehicle driver. "Load the bags, will you?" and got out of the car to go to the room. He paused in front of the door and listened to the two people inside talk. Gently, he knocked on the door, and Pet answered soon afterward.
She locked gazes with the regretful appearing, white-clad man and snorted. Behind her, Muldoon stood up with a mixed expression of sadness and anger. Hammond spoke. "Alright, lad. We better get a move on if we're going to catch our seven forty-five flight."
Pet bit her quivering lips together and stood aside to let her friend pass. The game warden laid a hand on the girl's shoulder and drew her in for a final hug. He spoke into her ear. "It's not goodbye. I'll call you when I get there."
Pet choked back a sob. "I better not find out you've replaced me, either, with some other raptor."
Muldoon laughed. "Well, I was planning on it. I mean, if a half-breed can half-ass the job, I at least figured a full-blood would get the job done completely."
She lightly punched him in the arm as they both walked outside and to where a Mercedes waited. "Bastard."
"Brat." He patted her head.
The hybrid playfully slapped the man's hand away from her head, continuing. "If you don't call me, I will find you. Remember I specialize in tracking and hunting."
Muldoon smiled and headed for the car, Hammond following. Once the bags were loaded up, the car started to drive off as Pet watched on through teary eyes. She dug her feet's claws into the dirt, fighting the urge to cry until she couldn't fight it anymore. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she shrilled into the calm, night air in anger and sadness.
Before she knew it, she was tearing off into a run, in pursuit of the dust cloud trailing behind the Mercedes roughly one-hundred yards away. She kept running as the lights in the distance didn't seem to get any closer but only further away. Pet finally allowed herself to fall to the ground, light headed and out of breath, watching the lights completely disappear over the hill. She let out a screeching roar of pain again and again until her voice was hoarse with sobs. Behind her, the headlights of another vehicle shined down on her, but she didn't care, not anymore. She could hear the door open as footsteps neared her. She let another roar of pain as gentle, yet firm hands guided her to the vehicle and sat her down.
She balled up in the passenger seat of the Jeep, body racking with sobs. Jophrey got in the driver's seat and made a U-turn in the grass. He wished there was a way he could help the distraught hybrid but he couldn't. "I'm here for you if you ever need anything." Pet was silent of words, but not of snorts and shrieks as he drove her back to her room.
Meanwhile, Muldoon sat quietly in the back seat of the Mercedes, not wanting to look behind him for fear of seeing Pet chasing the car. He whispered to himself. "Goodbye, Pet."
