neck first.
Without thought or plan—acting on mama bear reflex alone—I threw myself toward the snarling fray.
A third shot cracked out, the echo of it reverberating in my bones.
“No!” My only thought was that Gus and the hyena were too closely locked for a clean shot. I waited in fear for one of them to fall, and it took a long instant for me to realize they weren’t the target when neither even flinched.
In the paddock, Nyota bleated in distress. From the corner of my eye I saw a gray-and-tan spotted shape crumpled in the middle of the field.
Using the leash as a whip, I brought it down, heavy metal clasp first, on the second hyena’s haunches. Adrenaline flooded her every nerve, though, masking whatever pain either I or Gus inflicted. Her grip on him didn’t loosen. Flecks of blood spraying over my hands empowered me. I swung again, at once horrified by what I was doing and determined to keep on whipping her until she was forced away.
By the hold Gus had on the hyena somewhere between her cheek and throat, however, I wasn’t sure I could drive her away. He had to relinquish his hold on her at the same time she released hers.
I struck again, tears nearly blinding my aim.
“ Usifanye hivyo! ” I pleaded to them both. “Let go!”
Then Mark was beside me, rifle cradled in his strong hands. In my mind, I saw the inevitability of what a single bullet fired dead on would do. “Run!” I begged to the hyena. “ Nenda zako! Run!”
The rifle came down, butt first and hard between the animals. The impressive bulge of Mark’s muscles testified to the force he was using as he pried the rifle between the stubborn beasts. What would happen if they did let go? Would they both turn on Mark? I grabbed the tail nearest me, which turned out to be the hyena’s, and hauled hard on it with both hands, laying back with the effort. I was overbalanced, my hands on her short, thick tail the only thing keeping me from falling, her weight a match for mine.
And suddenly I was falling backward, my butt thumping the ground, knocking the breath from me. Letting go of the tail that had been bracing me, I threw the clasp end of the leash behind me to gain the most momentum when I swung, but without leverage, the leash flew too slowly to harm or even threaten. As the hyena whirled in fear, she flashed her teeth mere centimeters from my face, my throat. Breath and heart froze—the only thing in the rainforest with more powerful jaws was the crocodile. She wouldn’t even have to try hard to crush my windpipe and sever my carotids, my jugular.
And still the only word I could find was the one that would save her life. “Run!” I gasped it out, half command, half prayer.
For a split instant, her eyes met mine and she and I were one. Their fire, her pain cut through me right before she gathered her short hind legs beneath her and sprang away on powerful legs. She ran alone, her pack members dead. Her grief overwhelmed me as she lunged past, and I would have collapsed under it if not for the snarling mass of fur and muscle straining after her.
Only Mark, one hand clutching Gus’s collar and the other braced dangerously around his chest, with pure weight and brawn kept the dog from racing off to finish the fight. And by the wild look in Gus’s eye, he was about to turn on the stranger who was keeping him from his prey.
Scrabbling to my knees, I dared his wicked jaws as I threw my arms around him to further block his efforts.
He snarled at me, baring a bloodied canine capable of doing serious damage. Never had he lifted his lip to me before—a revelation that appeared in his eyes the moment I thought it myself. In that moment I was as connected to him as I had been to the hyena. I saw clearly the point where anger turned to profound guilt as he realized who he was challenging.
If he had chosen that moment to attack, with or without Mark there, he could have killed me, easily and with little harm to himself. Knowing that, I
Without thought or plan—acting on mama bear reflex alone—I threw myself toward the snarling fray.
A third shot cracked out, the echo of it reverberating in my bones.
“No!” My only thought was that Gus and the hyena were too closely locked for a clean shot. I waited in fear for one of them to fall, and it took a long instant for me to realize they weren’t the target when neither even flinched.
In the paddock, Nyota bleated in distress. From the corner of my eye I saw a gray-and-tan spotted shape crumpled in the middle of the field.
Using the leash as a whip, I brought it down, heavy metal clasp first, on the second hyena’s haunches. Adrenaline flooded her every nerve, though, masking whatever pain either I or Gus inflicted. Her grip on him didn’t loosen. Flecks of blood spraying over my hands empowered me. I swung again, at once horrified by what I was doing and determined to keep on whipping her until she was forced away.
By the hold Gus had on the hyena somewhere between her cheek and throat, however, I wasn’t sure I could drive her away. He had to relinquish his hold on her at the same time she released hers.
I struck again, tears nearly blinding my aim.
“ Usifanye hivyo! ” I pleaded to them both. “Let go!”
Then Mark was beside me, rifle cradled in his strong hands. In my mind, I saw the inevitability of what a single bullet fired dead on would do. “Run!” I begged to the hyena. “ Nenda zako! Run!”
The rifle came down, butt first and hard between the animals. The impressive bulge of Mark’s muscles testified to the force he was using as he pried the rifle between the stubborn beasts. What would happen if they did let go? Would they both turn on Mark? I grabbed the tail nearest me, which turned out to be the hyena’s, and hauled hard on it with both hands, laying back with the effort. I was overbalanced, my hands on her short, thick tail the only thing keeping me from falling, her weight a match for mine.
And suddenly I was falling backward, my butt thumping the ground, knocking the breath from me. Letting go of the tail that had been bracing me, I threw the clasp end of the leash behind me to gain the most momentum when I swung, but without leverage, the leash flew too slowly to harm or even threaten. As the hyena whirled in fear, she flashed her teeth mere centimeters from my face, my throat. Breath and heart froze—the only thing in the rainforest with more powerful jaws was the crocodile. She wouldn’t even have to try hard to crush my windpipe and sever my carotids, my jugular.
And still the only word I could find was the one that would save her life. “Run!” I gasped it out, half command, half prayer.
For a split instant, her eyes met mine and she and I were one. Their fire, her pain cut through me right before she gathered her short hind legs beneath her and sprang away on powerful legs. She ran alone, her pack members dead. Her grief overwhelmed me as she lunged past, and I would have collapsed under it if not for the snarling mass of fur and muscle straining after her.
Only Mark, one hand clutching Gus’s collar and the other braced dangerously around his chest, with pure weight and brawn kept the dog from racing off to finish the fight. And by the wild look in Gus’s eye, he was about to turn on the stranger who was keeping him from his prey.
Scrabbling to my knees, I dared his wicked jaws as I threw my arms around him to further block his efforts.
He snarled at me, baring a bloodied canine capable of doing serious damage. Never had he lifted his lip to me before—a revelation that appeared in his eyes the moment I thought it myself. In that moment I was as connected to him as I had been to the hyena. I saw clearly the point where anger turned to profound guilt as he realized who he was challenging.
If he had chosen that moment to attack, with or without Mark there, he could have killed me, easily and with little harm to himself. Knowing that, I
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