The See-Through Leopard

by Sibel Hodge

‘Don’t shoot her!’ I cried. ‘She’s mine. She won’t hurt anyone. This man’s a poacher!’

  ‘I’m from the Kilingi Game Reserve,’ Zach said to them breathlessly. ‘That’s our leopard. She was stolen from our reserve tonight and this man is a poacher.’ He jerked his head towards the trees. ‘Another one ran off that way.’

  The tall man on the ground moaned again. ‘Shoot it! Its teeth are in me. Kill it! These kids are lying. I’m an airline pilot and the leopard ran out of the woods and attacked me. Kill it!’

  ‘We can capture her, there’s no need to shoot her,’ I said breathlessly to the policemen whose guns were now aimed at me. ‘He’s not a pilot, he’s a poacher.’

  ‘Look, you stupid girl, it’s already attacked someone!’ the older policeman shouted. ‘We need to shoot it now. Move out of the way so I can kill it before it attacks you.’

  ‘No!’ I yelled. ‘Put the guns down!’ I turned around to face Asha and my heart squeezed tight as I saw how distressed and agitated she was. I put my palm to her face to try and calm her down. ‘Come on, Asha, let go.’ I carried on talking to her in a low voice.

  Zach said to the police from his position on the floor, ‘She’s not dangerous, honestly. She only attacked that man trying to save us. If she hadn’t done that they probably would’ve shot us and left us for dead.’

  Slowly, Asha released her grip on the man and her nervous eyes looked deep into mine as she panted hard. She trusted me and I couldn’t let her down. Those men probably would’ve shot us and not thought twice about it, and Asha had saved our lives. If they were going to shoot her, they’d have to shoot through me first.

  ‘It’s OK, girl. It’s all right,’ I whispered and grabbed her collar, feeling the muscles in her neck taut with fear.

  I heard a Land Rover speed down the track to the airstrip and turned my head to see Dad and Richard pulling to a stop and jumping out. Dad’s eyes widened with horror as he registered the situation.

  ‘Sergeant Abasi,’ Richard barked to the older policeman. ‘This is a leopard that was stolen from Kilingi. She’s not dangerous. Don’t shoot her.’

  I gnawed on my lip, heart racing. If Richard knew the policeman, maybe he would listen to him.

  The poacher groaned in pain and then he slipped into unconsciousness.

  ‘Sergeant, that’s my daughter out there!’ Dad cried. ‘Please, don’t shoot.’ Dad looked at me, his forehead crinkled in a worried frown. ‘Are you OK, Jazz?’

  ‘I’m OK.’ I nodded, feeling Asha’s head and neck straining against the collar as I stared at the police. ‘I need to protect Asha. I’m not moving.’

  ‘Zach, are you hurt?’ Richard shouted to him.

  ‘No, I just need untying.’

  Richard hurried towards Zach and pulled a pocket knife out of his shorts, cutting the ropes binding his wrists and ankles.

  The sergeant looked at Richard. ‘The leopard already attacked this man.’ He jerked his head towards the mauled man.

  ‘But he’s a poacher!’ I cried, feeling tears pricking my eyes. ‘She only attacked him to save us from being shot.’ I sucked in a breath and waited to see what Asha’s fate would be. Had we managed to save her from poachers only so she’d be shot by the police?

  Sergeant Abasi was silent for a moment, thinking. He looked at me, standing in front of Asha, before he turned back to Richard. ‘Can you capture it, Richard?’ The sergeant’s dark eyes clouded with worry.

  Richard nodded. ‘Yes, but we need you to lower your guns and move back. It’s agitating her.’

  Sergeant Abasi turned back to me, quickly appraising the situation.

  Zach walked past the armed policemen and stood next to me in front of Asha, trying to shield her from them.

  ‘Get your men to back away slowly and lower their guns.’ Richard stepped towards the policemen.

  The policemen looked worriedly at Sergeant Abasi for instructions.

  ‘I trust your judgement, Richard,’ the sergeant said, then nodded at his men. ‘Do as he says.’

  Slowly they lowered their guns, backing away. I turned around to Asha and bent down in front of her, whispering reassuring words in her ear.

  ‘It will be OK, Asha. Don’t worry. Shhhhh.’

  ‘Bring the Land Rover up to Asha,’ Richard said to Dad.

  Dad reversed the Land Rover next to us.

  ‘Come on, Asha.’ I tugged her collar, encouraging her to move, but she was so scared she’d frozen. ‘It’s OK. Come on, girl. You’re OK.’

  After a few minutes of coaxing, she allowed me to lead her to the Land Rover and she leaped up into the passenger seat. I climbed in after her as she nuzzled her head into my armpit. It wasn’t until I sank down next to her that I realised I was shaking uncontrollably.

  The policemen swarmed around the unconscious poacher, guns trained on him.

  ‘The other man you want ran off in that direction.’ Zach pointed towards the trees and gave them a description.

  Sergeant Abasi nodded. ‘Take the leopard back to the reserve. I don’t want any more trouble with her. We’ll come and question you after we search for the other man.’

  Zach got behind the steering wheel and we drove away, passing an ambulance heading towards the airstrip.

  When we arrived back at our quarters, Asha was very subdued and wouldn’t leave my side. I sat quietly in the corner of the lounge with her. She rested her head in my lap and I stroked her soothingly until Richard and Dad arrived back.

  At the sound of their Land Rover arriving, Asha buried herself against me. She was probably terrified that someone had come to take her away again.

  ‘We got the other poacher,’ Richard said proudly as he walked into the lounge, closely followed by Dad. ‘Luckily, here we have the support of the local police and Sergeant Abasi is a good guy, otherwise it could’ve turned out very differently.’

  ‘How is that man?’ I asked. ‘Will he survive?’

  ‘He lost a lot of blood and he’s got some nasty bite marks,’ Dad said. ‘But it looks like he’ll be OK.’

  I couldn’t work out whether I was glad or not.

  ‘They admitted everything. They were working for that circus scout,’ Richard said. ‘They told the police they’d fed Asha drugged meat and then loaded her in the back of the van when she became unconscious. They were going to transfer her into the cage and load her on the plane, but luckily for us, she hadn’t eaten enough of it to knock her out completely and she woke up, otherwise she wouldn’t have managed to escape out of the van.’

  That’s my girl. My brave and clever girl.

  I dared myself to breathe a sigh of relief, but how long would it be before someone else wanted to take her?

  ‘We’re going to need to increase the anti-poaching patrols yet again,’ Dad said.

  ‘I agree,’ Zach said. ‘It’s nearly time for Asha to be released out into the reserve on her own, but she’s a sitting target in that enclosure.’

  ‘I’ll see if we can borrow a few from Mumbi Game Reserve tomorrow until we can hire more people,’ Richard said, wearily rubbing his forehead. ‘I’ll make sure she has a twenty-four hour guard.’

  But would it be enough to ensure the safety of Asha and all the animals here? Would it ever be enough?

  Chapter 25

  It took a while before Asha finally settled down after she’d been stolen. She didn’t want to leave my side for weeks, and it always tugged at my heart when I had to leave her in the enclosure, but if she was going to be successfully re-wilded, we needed to try and reduce the amount of time we spent with her so she’d get to being on her own. At least now she had her own guard, called Mosi, whenever she wasn’t with me, so I knew she was safe, and I hoped that she’d learned a lesson that night to be afraid of humans that she’d remember for her own protection.

  Over the next few months we left Asha for longer and longer periods during the daytime to explore her territory. Mosi would track her on foot at a distance, and she wore her new rad
io collar so we could track her from the lodge on Zach’s laptop. Mosi reported how she managed to successfully kill small zebra, antelope, gazelles, lizards, and every time she brought down prey, Zach and I would cheer. When her hunting wasn’t successful, or if she lost a kill to other predators, we’d shake our heads and feel disappointed for her, but one thing was certain: she had honed her hunting skills sufficiently to live a successful life, and was now marking her scent on trees and bushes in her territory as she reached sexual maturity.

  My little girl had finally come of age, and it was time to let her go. We would have to try and cut off all contact with her and let her live out on the reserve permanently.

  The night before her release was due to happen, I couldn’t sleep. My moods swung from sadness to immense happiness. To all intents and purposes I’d been her mother for almost two years, and if she loved me like a mother, then I loved her more. We’d been through so much together, and I wondered if she’d miss me as much as I would her. Yes, I knew I’d still see her as often as I liked on the reserve, but in the wild, when their mothers left them to fend for themselves, did the cubs miss them? With any luck, she’d be a proud mother of her own soon, bringing up the next generation of leopards at Kilingi.

  But then what? I wouldn’t be there to protect her anymore. What if something happened to her? I couldn’t stand the thought of her being cruelly taken away. I couldn’t believe that I’d actually succeeded in re-wilding her, either. All those months ago when I’d found her starving to death and scared out of her mind, I never knew she would take me on such an incredible journey. We’d both come a long way since then, and this was her time. It wasn’t the end, only the beginning. She had her own journey to go on now.

  I crept into Asha’s enclosure at first light and shut the door behind me. Zach was right, animals do have a sixth, or even seventh sense, and somehow she knew that this would be our last time together, because instead of trying to play with me, she just sat quietly next to me, resting her huge paw protectively on my leg and staring up at me like she could read my mind and felt exactly the same way.

  ‘Are you ready to go?’ Zach found me a few hours later.

  I wiped the tears away from my cheeks and nodded. ‘Come on, Asha.’ My voice cracked on her name.

  As we all piled into the Land Rover, Asha looked at me, instead of excitedly looking out of the window like she normally did. I held her gaze and spoke silently to her in my head.

  You’ll be fine, Asha. You’re going to live an amazing and happy life. I love you, girl. I’m going to miss you so much. Please stay safe.

  Zach and I didn’t speak on the journey, and as we pulled up in Asha’s territory, I just sat for a few minutes, staring out at the bush but not really seeing anything around me.

  Finally, I took a huge sniff, wiped away more tears, and opened the door.

  Zach got out and focused the camera on us.

  ‘Come on, Asha,’ I said.

  She jumped down and sat, staring up at me. I knelt in front of her, placing both hands on her cheeks and staring deep into her eyes. ‘Make sure you take care of yourself, do you hear?’ I kissed her gently on the forehead and stood up, pointing off in the distance. ‘This is all yours now. Live and be happy.’

  Her gaze followed where I was pointing before looking back at me, her amber eyes warm with love. Then, uncertainly, she took a few steps away and stared into the distance. I watched her as she stopped, seeming torn between whether to go or stay.

  ‘Go on, Asha,’ I croaked out. ‘You deserve this.’

  She came back to me, rubbed her head against my legs one final time before she slowly walked into the distance. As I got back into the Land Rover, I couldn’t control myself anymore and succumbed to the sobs that shook my whole body.

  Zach turned off the camera and got behind the steering wheel. He put his arm around me, pulling me towards him until my head rested on his shoulder. ‘You’ve done an amazing job, Jazz. She’s ready to go.’

  I nodded through a loud sniff. ‘I know, but it doesn’t make it feel any better.’

  ‘Something truly special has just happened. Every time you think about her, remember that.’ He held me for a long time, rubbing my back until my sobs had subsided before we finally drove off, catching sight of Mosi in the distance.

  I looked out of the window at Asha’s silhouette retreating to the edge of her territory. She stopped, tilted her chin up and opened her mouth slightly, looking like a regal leopard queen.

  I wanted to get out and call her. Run to her and throw my arms around her neck and let her nuzzle into me. Feel her soft fur and whiskers underneath my fingertips. I wanted it so much it nearly broke my heart in two, but I had to let her be a proper wild animal.

  Goodbye, my amazing leopardess.

  ****

  For the next few days I moped around. Zach was busy editing the documentary to send to National Geographic and Asha was busy getting used to a life of freedom. Without both of them, I suddenly felt lost. I monitored Asha’s movements on the laptop practically every minute of the day, and lay awake at night, tossing and turning beneath the sheets, wondering what she was doing. Did she think I’d just abandoned her? I couldn’t bear it if she did.

  On the second day of not seeing her, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I picked up a cookbook and flicked through the pages but couldn’t take anything in. I wandered aimlessly round the house, knowing I had to try to keep away from her, to let her settle in. I stared at the photo of us that Zach had given me that Christmas. I helped Chef in the kitchen but ended up cutting myself as I chopped vegetables because I was so distracted. The days dragged on forever, and I tried desperately to ignore the raw pain inside. Asha was my drug and I needed a fix badly. The sense of completeness and contentment I had when I was around her was overwhelming, and now there was a huge gap in my life. My thoughts bounced around in a turmoil of worry and anxiety.

  On the third day, I woke up early to turn on the laptop and check her movements from the radio collar but there was no signal. I pressed various buttons, closed down the programme and reopened it, but it was still the same. There was no trace of her.

  A force like a boxer’s punch hit me straight in the solar plexus. It could only mean one of two things. Either the collar had stopped working or something had happened to her. Visions of her being kidnapped again or killed flew into my mind.

  I hurriedly pulled on my clothes and jumped in the Land Rover that I now used after Zach had finally taught me to drive. I headed up to the lodge to get Zach, screeching to a stop outside, calling out his name as I ran through the empty reception, but it was still too early for anyone to be around.

  Running through, I made my way to his quarters, a similar structure to the guest rooms but larger, with a kitchen and dining room. Banging on the door, I breathlessly prayed that she was OK and that nothing had happened to my little girl.

  ‘Zach!’ I cried as I carried on banging. ‘Come quick!’

  He was pulling on a T-shirt over his shorts when he opened the door with sleepy eyes. ‘What’s the matter?’ He frowned when he saw the state of me.

  ‘It’s Asha. There’s no signal from the collar. We’ve got to go and see if she’s OK.’

  ‘Did you radio Mosi?’ he asked.

  I slapped a hand to my forehead. ‘No, I was so worried, I didn’t even think of that.’

  Wasting no time, Zach got on the radio and said, ‘Mosi, come in, Mosi.’

  I gnawed on my lower lip and waited for a reply.

  ‘Mosi,’ Zach repeated. ‘Come in, Mosi.’

  No response.

  ‘All units, does anyone know where Mosi is?’ Zach called over the radio.

  One of the rangers said, ‘It was his day off yesterday. He’s due back this morning.’

  ‘Who was tracking Asha?’ Zach’s urgent voice said.

  One by one they said they didn’t know.

  ‘Shit! How could this happen?’ Zach muttered. ‘We need to do
uble check the guards’ rotas from now on. The animals’ safety is only as good as the guards looking out for them. Come on.’ He rushed out the door and we ran to the Land Rover.

  ‘I’ll drive.’ He held his hands out for the keys.

  I obliged, since my hands were shaking so much there was no telling what might happen.

  ‘Where did you last see a signal?’

  ‘Last night when I checked the laptop before I went to bed she was in the northern quarter of her territory along the river bank.’

  Please let her be OK. Please let her be OK. I repeated it over and over in my head as we drove.

  When we got to the area where I’d last seen her signal, we slowed down, driving around the bushes and trees, eyes scanning frantically in all directions.

  There was no sign of her.

  ‘Asha!’ I called out. ‘Asha!’

  Nothing.

  I bit my lip, waiting for any sighting of her.

  ‘Maybe she headed off elsewhere in the night. We need to drive around,’ Zach said.

  We drove and searched, an overwhelming fear twisting a knife inside me. The blood pulsed loudly in my ears, and palpitations banged out a tribal beat in my chest.

  We had to stop to let a line of wildebeest trundle leisurely across the road, their hooves kicking up a trail of dust. I willed them to hurry up, but they were on Africa time and going at their own pace.

  ‘Come on!’ I cried, jumping up and down in my seat. ‘Hurry up!’

  Eventually, after what seemed like two hours, but was probably only fifteen minutes, we managed to drive on.

  ‘She must be here somewhere,’ I pleaded, more to myself than Zach. ‘She’s got to be.’ I swivelled round in my seat, trying to get a three hundred and sixty degree angle.

  ‘Surely she’d hear the Land Rover and know it was us if she was here,’ Zach said.

  ‘Asha! Asha, come on, girl.’

  ‘There!’ Zach pointed to a movement in a tree in the distance. ‘I can see something.’ He pulled out his binoculars.

  I cupped my hands round my lips and screamed for dear life as the panic rose in my throat. ‘Asha!’