In love... with her own African beast

Chapter 1

On top of a rooftoptent on a Suzuki Jimney in the African bush, was not the best place to be when a huge live African lion suddenly appeared from nowhere and was now standing right beside the only open door on the driver side of the rather small SUV. His yellow eyes was fixed on her, as if she was the meal he was expecting at three on that sunny Friday afternoon.

Leah Hurter froze while holding her cell phone in the air above her head. She was  desperately trying to find a signal to make a call to her dad. She hated to do so, but she had to admit that she was lost on a farm where she spent so many of her childhood years. Where she got married to a man who pretended to love her… for herself, only to find out a year later that he was only after shares on this property. Eco tourism, he said, was the best way to make big bucks in South Africa. Dollars from overseas visitors. He suggested a new lodge, a golf course and Olympic size swimming pool with an island in the middle.

When her father told him that there was no money to do that, he left.

Not only the farm… but her as well. That was a bitter pill to swallow, so she also left, and stayed away for more than seven years.

Now she was back

Although the voice on her GPS tolfd her that she arrived on Hurter’s Ranch, she just could not find the old farmhouse anymore. Since her last visit many new side tracks and roads are now leading to dams lookout point and bird hides.

So she stopped here to phone her dad.

No signal. A higher spot might help. Somewhere like on top of the rooftent of her little for by four.  Which eventually got her between something like an inferno and a big green river full of dangerous crocodiles.

But forget about crocodiles. Where she stood on the roof of her Jimney, she was within stretching reach of one of Africa’s apex predators. Lion.  

But the lion was not alone. There was a female with him and she was absolutely not happy to see that her male’s attention shifted from her to another species of mammals. Not even one of their own kind. The lioness was in oestrus and there was an urgency for her to get the male’s attention back to her. That is how it works in the reproductive life of lions. They mate every twenty minutes. Up to hundred times a day. And this lady was waiting for him to do his part for the continued existence of the species.

But instead, he was now ready to kill.

Leah had known lions for the best part of her life. You do not provoke a lion. You cannot outrun a lion. And you don’t even consider climbing in a tree, because lions can jump higher and climb better than any human being. And with one big step and no effort at all he could be on top of the Suzuki Jimney and take her to the ground with him.

It is not as if lions usually charge at someone when they see the upright form of a human being. They prefer to just sneak away. Disappear into the African bush. Especially when they suspect that they were not detected.

But this time was different.  

Without even knowing that they were there, moments before, Leah disturbed a very special moment between the lion and his bride. He was about to mount her again. They were mating. Probably for a day or more by now. The male was agitated, exhausted… and hungry. His body was thin. And he saw an opportunity. Maybe he was one of those who tasted human blood before in the light of the recent poaching incidents on the farms and surroundings.

Leah did not visit her father for a while. The northern part of Mozambique was not considered a safe place for a woman who travelled on her own. But she was still on the WhatsAp group created for farm owners in the area.   

The lion paced a few yards back, turned around purposely and measured the distance between him and the animal on top of the vehicle. Then his body retracted and with the speed of lightning he was charging.

Leah hesitated no longer. She dived down on the other side of the Suzuki Jimney. The landing was not soft. It took all the air from her lungs and she felt a sharp pain in her left foot.

She was lucky. After the lion flew over her and the Jeepwy, momentum carried him about thirty yards away. She immediately struggled to sit up. But thirty yards was just a short distance for a determined male lion. He turned around and was coming back for her, the moment she struggled to her feet and reached for the door on the passenger side of the car.

So occupied was she with the problem facing her, that she did not even hear the other vehicle approaching. She heard a man shouting at the lion. Then there was a loud bang of a fire arm going off. She felt arms going around her the very moment she managed to get the door open and stumbled onto the passenger seat.

Not quite true though. She was actually deposited into the Suzuki Jimney by the stranger, who now scrambled in behind her and slammed the door shut between him and the lion.

How he did all of that in split seconds was just short of a miracle.

But maybe the biggest miracle was the fact that the male lion stopped in his tracks a few metres from the left door of the Suzuki Jimney and then started to circle the vehicle. Leah closed the door on the driver’s side. It was clear that tis lion realised that there was food in this tin. She was not going to show him a way to get it out of here.  

“Now what?” her voice was trembling.

“Now you drive!” the man ordered. “But just be carefull. There might still be another vehicle behind you.”

Everything on her was shaking when she turned the key in the starter. But when she stepped on the clutch pedal in order to find a gear, a sharp pain shot through her bare foot.

“Eina auch,” she screamed and reached down.

“What?” At that moment the stranger took his watchful gaze for the first time away from the lions outside and looked her straight in the eyes.

And Leah took a sharp breath in. The man had the most extraordinary yellow brown eyes she ever saw on any human being. Eyes that could make her heart stop instantly in its tracks. Sunbrushed brown hair that was just a bit too long and too out of control to belong to the men she new in South Africa.

He resembled the grace and beauty of a male lion.

But he was definitely only… human.

Or was he?