Journey to Freedom

by Colin Dann

  The barn was closed. There was no way in now for a lion, but it was an old barn, and some of the boards were damaged. There were gaps for a small animal to wriggle through; the honey badger was capable of squeezing through surprisingly small spaces. He found one that would serve and scrambled through. The cow and her calf lay in a corner, the cow peacefully chewing some hay. The badger listened carefully. All he could hear was the champing of her teeth.

  ‘She doesn’t suspect yet,’ the badger chortled to himself. ‘What a din there will be when the lion discovers I’ve played a trick on her!’

  Mother and calf got to their feet, suddenly sensing danger. The badger trotted forward and at once the cow began to stamp nervously and moo. The calf echoed her alarm. The badger was about to dart between them when there was a tremendous roar in the distance which he recognised at once. He stood rooted to the spot. Lorna was calling him. She was furious.

  The men keeping watch on the farm tightened their grips on their weapons. Powerful lights were switched on. Their beams swept the farmyard and the farm’s precincts, pasture and meadow, while Lorna continued to roar. Ratel marvelled at the noise, his skin bristling. The cow and calf were terrified. The lioness, angry and vengeful, was climbing the thorn hedge, her anger overriding her discomfort. Her face was scratched, her skin torn, but she ignored the irritation. The cunning of the honey badger had surprised and riled her beyond bearing. She was not so much furious with him as furious with herself for failing to anticipate his deception. She teetered on the top of the hedge. Thorny twigs and stems snapped beneath her weight and showered to the ground as she steadied herself for a jump. Just then the beam of an arc lamp swung towards her and stopped, bathing her in light and dazzling her. Lorna roared again, this time with fright. Desperate to escape the blinding light, she struggled to free herself from its glare. There was no refuge on the farm side of the hedge, where most of the area was starkly illuminated; Lorna half jumped and half fell backwards into the comparative darkness behind her. Pierced and ripped by thorns, she howled with pain. Then she retreated to the woods to lick her wounds, limping noticeably from a large thorn caught in one of her paws.

  There was no direct path that could be taken to follow her. By the time the armed men were on her trail, Lorna was well hidden. The deep darkness of the forest made pursuit difficult and dangerous, and the men reluctantly decided to abandon the search. With fear of capture removed, Lorna became more conscious of pain. She lay in some undergrowth and tried to bite the thorn free from her left hind foot. It was a very awkward manoeuvre; the thorn was too fine for her great teeth to grasp. She licked the place to soothe it, then continued on towards her lair.

  By the time Lorna reached the cave, her paw was throbbing agonisingly. With each step the thorn had been driven further between her toes. She hobbled into her lair and lurched on to her side, keeping her injured foot free. Lorna gasped wearily and wondered how she could ever stalk prey again.

  A Friendly Act?

  The honey badger had been scared by the brilliant lights. He hadn’t known where to run. He tried to skulk in a corner of the barn but the cow’s continual mooing made him jittery. He thought that eventually some of the men would come to investigate, so when he heard them set off in pursuit of Lorna he made haste to get clear.

  He got out of the barn and scurried back to the hedge. He wasn’t sure where Lorna was and he knew she was angry with him. He needed to avoid her, at least until she had calmed down.

  ‘That wasn’t a clever trick,’ he told himself. ‘I gained nothing by trying to cheat her. Now she’ll be hunting for me.’ He climbed the hedge and carefully descended on the other side. ‘She’s so silent when she’s hunting,’ he muttered. ‘She could be lying in wait anywhere.’

  He couldn’t catch her scent so, with distinct nervousness, he edged along the hedge bottom, constantly wondering if he would suddenly be crushed by the lioness leaping out at him from the darkness. Gradually, as the moments passed, the badger gained a little confidence. Maybe Lorna had forgiven him. If she had been hunting him, she surely would have found him by now. He felt easier and yet he was puzzled. Where could she have gone?

  He returned to the forest and set about finding something to eat. Insects and a skinny frog were all that came his way that night. His concentration was upset and he spent as much time trying to locate Lorna as he did his prey. The forest, of course, was large and the lioness could have been anywhere. Yet the badger began to worry that somehow the humans had taken her.

  ‘Only one way to find out,’ he told himself. ‘I must go to her lair.’

  Some distance from it he knew Lorna was inside. He sensed her presence even before he heard her panting breaths. She was in distress, he could tell, and he approached more boldly than he otherwise would have done.

  She heard him and was surprised to find herself relieved. ‘Ratel! I wondered if you’d come.’

  The honey badger paused at the entrance. ‘Are you ill?’ he asked. ‘What has happened?’

  ‘I got injured,’ the lioness answered in an unusually plaintive voice. ‘The thorns ripped at me. I’ve got one stuck in my foot. I can’t get it out and it’s lamed me.’

  ‘Thorns?’ the badger echoed. ‘From the hedge?’

  ‘Yes. I came after you. You must have heard me. I wanted to teach you a lesson, you treacherous little . . .’ Lorna’s voice subsided into a sigh but the badger began to back away none the less.

  ‘I caught nothing,’ he said. ‘There were humans all around. But are you sure you’re lame? How could you have got back here so easily?’

  ‘I didn’t get back here easily,’ Lorna snarled. ‘Every step was agony. Ratel, how can I hunt? I can’t walk.’

  ‘Let me see your injury. Perhaps I can help. Where is the thorn?’ He inched forward, unsure if he would be permitted to enter the cave.

  Lorna was past caring about that. ‘You’ll see nothing in here,’ she told him. ‘It’s far too dark. But you may come in. I – I’d welcome your company.’

  The honey badger had never before been treated like this, not even in Lingmere. He trotted inside. ‘Well now, lion, this is a problem indeed,’ he commented. ‘When there is more light, I’ll inspect your paw. I can see which one is paining you, by the way you’re lying.’ He glanced around at the scraps of bone and hide littering the cave floor. ‘You won’t be doing any pouncing for a while, will you? You can’t make a leap on three legs.’

  ‘I know all that,’ the lioness growled. ‘I shall be confined to catching prey that walks past my nose.’

  ‘Whoops! Maybe I won’t come so close,’ the badger remarked jocularly, but he didn’t advance any further.

  ‘I shall starve,’ Lorna moaned. ‘I can’t live off beetles and grubs.’

  ‘I will bring you prey,’ the badger said. ‘There are plenty of rabbits and birds and squirrels. I won’t let you starve, lion. We have always been friends, haven’t we?’

  ‘Yes we have,’ Lorna purred. ‘Thank you, Ratel.’

  ‘And when you’ve recovered,’ the badger went on, ‘we’ll plot how we can trap that succulent, tender animal we both want so much.’

  Lorna snarled. ‘The humans are guarding it. They threw lightning at me and forced me away. They would do the same again.’

  The badger grinned, showing his powerful teeth. ‘It was night-time. What if we go by day?’

  ‘You are cunning. But would it be sensible? Humans are more active in the daylight.’

  ‘Yes – too busy to wonder if we’re coming.’

  ‘We’ve tried both daylight and darkness,’ Lorna reminded him. ‘Humans are always on guard, it seems. I can’t think about it now, Ratel. Pain wipes out everything else.’

  ‘Do you want to sleep? If so, I’ll go.’

  ‘I can’t sleep. My foot pounds so.’

  ‘Unfortunate lion,’ said the badger. ‘I’m sorry for you. Do you ever wish you were back in the care of humans?’

  ‘Until now, no. Now
I don’t know how I feel. But I would like to see my sister again.’

  On his way back to Lingmere Joel thought a lot about the lionesses and how time was not on their side. When he arrived he was relieved and gladdened by the news that the police had stopped short of shooting Lorna. Now he had a few days’ grace in which to try to trace her and coax her into the open. He believed she might still respond to him in a way she would never do to anyone else. That she would remember him he had no doubt. Theirs was a long association and if anybody could save the day, Joel knew it was himself. But the news from Kamenza was not good. Ellen’s fast continued and she was thin and weak.

  Joel lost no time in acquainting himself with all the places in the forest where Lorna had been sighted. Martin accompanied him to the woodland and described everything that had occurred there and how his team had failed at every point. ‘We needed you here from the word go,’ he finished.

  ‘That might have been wiser, yes,’ Joel agreed. ‘There was no time, though, to think about it. Things went wrong from the outset.’

  The team gathered together again with Joel as their leader. They combed the woods, Joel calling the lioness by name at regular intervals. He was confident of some response from Lorna if he could only get to a spot where she could hear him. Each time Joel called, the men stood silently and strained their ears for a sound. When they heard nothing, they moved to another place.

  ‘Lorna! Lorna! Lorna!’

  The lioness heard the calls faintly from a distance, but the men were not sufficiently close for her to recognise Joel’s voice. She stayed in the cave, only moving to hobble to the stream to drink. While there were humans around she kept herself hidden. The wound in her foot made her extremely vulnerable. If she were discovered in the open, she would not be able to run away.

  The honey badger also heard the human cries. He emerged from his burrow at dusk and hunted for small mammals that were easy to carry to Lorna’s lair. Mice, voles, squirrels and frogs were not a problem. Rabbits were too heavy so he ate those himself. Lorna’s hunger was always with her. And her wound was festering.

  ‘Is it any better?’ the badger would always ask as he arrived with food.

  ‘No. Worse,’ was the invariable reply.

  ‘Shall I try to bite the thorn?’ Ratel asked eventually.

  ‘You said before that you couldn’t,’ Lorna moaned. ‘Besides, I’m much too sore to bear your teeth nibbling at me. If you had only done it at first . . .’

  ‘You told me I couldn’t see properly in your den,’ the badger reminded her. ‘Why didn’t you come outside where I might have had a chance?’

  ‘It wouldn’t have made any difference if it was dark.’

  ‘But in the daylight?’

  ‘Men are about. You must have heard them. How could I risk it?’

  ‘Well then, what will you do?’

  Lorna’s head dropped on to her front paws. ‘I don’t know,’ she groaned. ‘I can’t think straight.’

  ‘Well, I’ve brought prey. As much as I could manage,’ the badger pointed out. ‘Shall I fetch more?’

  ‘Just as you like,’ the lioness answered without interest.

  ‘Come on, lion. Don’t give up!’ Ratel chided her. ‘Think about that new-born animal . . .’

  ‘I can’t think about it!’ Lorna snapped. ‘I shan’t ever get there!’

  The honey badger gaped. The full implication of Lorna’s wound sank in and he stared at her for a while without moving.

  ‘What are you gawping at?’ she growled irritably.

  ‘I – um – nothing, really,’ the badger mumbled. His thoughts were racing. ‘I’ll go and get more meat.’ He hurried away, glad to be alone to think. A plan to help Lorna was forming in his head. ‘It might be the only way out for her,’ he said to himself. He paused to ponder a little. ‘I’ll be putting myself in danger,’ he muttered, ‘but if I do it right, it should work out.’

  The next morning the badger squatted inside his burrow and listened to the human’s calls. It was Joel’s second day of searching and he and the team were threading through a different section of the forest. The badger heard them and Lorna heard them. Joel’s voice was closer now and the lioness raised her head and tried to recall what was familiar about the sound. But she couldn’t quite grasp it. Pain and misery took control again and she rolled back on to her side.

  The honey badger’s heart thumped quickly as he deliberately pulled himself from his den and looked carefully around.

  ‘Lorna! Lorna!’

  The badger heard but couldn’t yet see the men. Then footsteps, crackles of twig and leaf and eventually the smell of men was detectable too. The badger waited, steeling himself to be still until he should catch a first glimpse of the party.

  ‘I must be mad,’ he murmured. ‘I must be mad. I’ll be sorry for this, later, I know I will.’ He gulped as he saw Joel, at the head of the group, stumping along a path through the trees. ‘Now for it!’ Ratel hissed and ran forward.

  ‘Lorna! Lorna! Lor— Great heavens! Look, Martin!’ Joel pointed in amazement as the honey badger ran across their path about twenty metres away.

  ‘A honey badger!’ croaked Martin. ‘What on earth . . .’

  ‘He’s been here all along!’ Joel cried in excitement. ‘Let’s follow him.’

  ‘You’ll never catch him.’

  ‘He’s stopped!’ Joel yelled as he sprinted off. ‘Come on, he’s turned to look.’

  The badger had indeed paused on purpose. He wasn’t running away. Not yet. He had something else to do first. He watched the men lumbering after him, then set off again.

  ‘Do you want to take him?’ Martin panted. ‘He’ll never let us near . . . enough . . . to throw a net. Should . . . we leave him?’

  ‘No. Why do that? He’s probably heading for his den. If so, we’ll have him cornered. We could dig him out.’

  But the badger wasn’t heading for his den, of course. He was heading for quite another place. Every so often he would stop just long enough to make sure the men weren’t too far behind, then trot on. His tireless loping run had his pursuers badly out of breath in only a short time, but Joel wouldn’t give up. It had occurred to him that since the badger and the lions had been close neighbours in the zoo it was possible that Lorna and the badger were living near each other in the forest.

  Ratel neared the cave. His plan was for the men to find the lioness and take her into their care. He knew enough about humans to know that they could heal her. But he wanted Lorna to believe the men had found her by chance; he didn’t want her to feel betrayed by her only friend. Somehow, he must lead the men to the cave and to Lorna before making his own escape.

  The men were a long way behind when the honey badger reached the stream. Ratel waited as long as he dared, then growled loudly so that Lorna could hear him.

  ‘Take care, lion. Humans are in the woods and may be coming this way.’

  There was no answer from the cave.

  ‘Can you hear me?’ the badger whistled.

  ‘Of course I can hear you,’ Lorna roared.

  At first, the badger thought he had done enough. The lion’s roar had been unmistakable and Ratel could see the leader beckoning the rest of the team forward in a fever of impatience. But the man hadn’t seen the cave; its entrance was camouflaged too well by the clinging plant growth. He was cautiously advancing on some thick undergrowth, believing that to be where Lorna was hidden. The badger watched in dismay. Did these blind humans need to be led literally into the lion’s den? Terrified of being cornered himself, longing to flee, he came to an agonising decision. ‘The men are after me,’ he squealed, and ran right into the cave mouth.

  ‘Don’t bring them here!’ roared Lorna, struggling to get to her feet. She yelped with pain as she put pressure on her injured foot, and fell back on the cave floor.

  ‘She’s in there!’ Joel cried to the other men as he finally located the lair. ‘We mustn’t alarm her. I’ll go first. Give me the air rifle.
’ He strode to the cave entrance. The honey badger was nowhere to be seen, having run as far back into the cave as he could and was crouching there in total darkness. But Joel could see the lioness, lying on her side by the stream. She snarled but made no effort to rise.

  ‘There’s something wrong here,’ Joel whispered to Martin. ‘I think she may be sick. Get the stretcher ready. I’m going in.’ He crept forward, stooping as he entered. Even in the dim interior the lioness was an easy target. Joel knelt, fitted the dart and raised the rifle. Lorna remembered Ellen and reacted violently. Swinging round, she got on to her good feet, holding the bad one off the floor. Joel could see she was going to attack. Her muscles rippled.

  ‘Lorna! Don’t you know me?’

  The lioness hesitated as she recognised her old keeper. Joel had just long enough to fire the dart and back away. It was all over in seconds. Lorna crashed to the floor as Joel got himself out of her range. For a while the lioness thrashed about, and then the drug took effect.

  ‘Hurry!’ Joel called. ‘We must tie her and get her into the sling. She’s quite quiet now. Leave the net for the badger.’

  Lorna was rolled on to the stretcher. As they tied her limbs together they noticed the wound.

  ‘Looks septic,’ said Joel. ‘We must attend to that.’

  They hauled the lioness outside. Then Lorna was hoisted into the air, six men bearing her weight, three on either side, taking the poles of the sling on their shoulders. They gasped at the weight of her. Joel was left free. He took out his mobile phone. The carrier firm that had transported Ellen had been on standby for days; their vehicle was parked at the old zoo premises. ‘We’ll need a trailer,’ Joel told Martin. ‘I’ll get them to bring one through the sheep pasture. You know – where Lorna first got away. It’s a long haul, but we’ve got a couple of hours to get her to the zoo laboratory. I’ll have the vet waiting. Can you do it?’

  ‘Case of having to,’ Martin grunted as the men staggered away with their burden.

  Joel was already calling the carriers’ mobile phone number. ‘I’ll try to take the badger,’ he called after the stretcher crew. ‘Africa’s the place for him!’