9th Life

Ch. 1 Questionable Decisions

Ignorance killed the cat, but curiosity took the blame. 

The would-be hunter pushed me, reminding me as I hit the forest floor why I prefer animals to people. It was going to be one of those days.

And to think I'd been thrilled working a half-day at my favorite small town zoo so I could hit the woods just beyond for a hike. Any other day, I'd still be on the other side of the fence, pitting my wits against a belligerent spider monkey instead of a sobriety-challenged hunter.

Sir Drank-a-Lot's surprise said I was the first girl he'd literally swept off her feet, but I wasn't holding my breath for an apology.

What did catch my breath was the growl behind me. Hard to say which urge turned me quicker, adrenaline's fight-or-flight or zookeeper's dare-or-scare.

A spotted wildcat with flat ears and an inflamed temper slipped out of the underbrush and onto the narrow trail, all predatory grace and stalking gaze.

Zookeeper it is.

But what kind of cat was it? And why do zoologists have to catalog something first, apparently regardless of situation? I shook my head, not willing to roll my eyes and lose sight of the... not bobcat... not cougar.

"Son of a..." The hunter backed up, cracking sticks underfoot.

I eased to my feet, not wanting the cat to find me more interesting for being at eye level. A moment ago, I'd been telling the man he couldn't hunt in these woods. Now I stood with him, hoping the two of us would seem larger, and the cat would be the one to leave.

Twitchy shifted his rifle.

"No!" I whispered. "It'll go."

"Guys are never gonna believe this," he muttered.

Golden-brown eyes found me, and the cat fell silent, shedding its threatening stance. The revealed long black tufts of fur topping each ear dropped my gaze to its oversized feet.

Lynx!

Lynx? No wonder it threw me. It was huge... and here. They don't live here.

The surprise barely hit me before several things jockeyed to be the first to occur. For the briefest moment, the image of a man hijacked my senses, seeming more real than the most vivid dream, and I flinched away from his oddly bloodied palms. The lynx whimpered, taking a tentative step toward me. The gun went off. I screamed.

The lynx buckled with a strangled cry, clawing earth as Trigger fumbled for a second shot. Unthinking, I did what he'd wrongly suspected me of pre-shove—I grabbed for the gun, only this time, spitting threats for shooting an endangered species.

Surprisingly, the lynx crouched to jump, but by the time its feet left the ground, the man was already turning tail, likely assuming I was right behind him.

The jump had been little more than wishful thinking. The cat changed its mind half-cocked, resulting in a drunken stagger and ending in a graceless collapse.

Running was the thing to do. I suppose your average Mary or Jane would have, but not Skyler Ashcraft. No, my questionable good sense helped land my job in the first place. I opted for frozen shock.

The hunter's retreat faded in the distance, leaving only the sounds of the forest and my own ragged breathing. It was just me, the cat, and the inevitable outcome of my flawed decision-making skills.

My inner voice, as it's wont to do, chimed in. Zookeeper foible #1: Tendency to not equate fur and scale with fracture and scar.

"Don't bite me. Don't bite me," spilled off my tongue like a mantra as I knelt pushing my hair back for a better look. The lynx breathed rapidly, almost panting, its eyes closed but not clenched. I tried to glimpse a wound, but a considerably less-than-healthy dose of fear kept my eyes darting back to its face.

Way too close. Was it dying? "Damn it," I muttered.

The cat's eyes flew open, and I fell back as the image of a man's face flashed across my mind—the same striking young man with dark hair and golden-brown eyes. Sans blood this time.

I stared, blinking as the cat's eyes rolled back, trading familiar brown for haunting white.

A rock dug at my hip, and I shifted, then took a slow breath. Cougar, ocelot, margay, cheetah, jaguar... Some count to ten. I rattle off species.

"The. Hell." Lynx, lynx, lynx!

Shaking, I reached out, still hesitating an inch away and then eased in to gently grip the scruff of its neck.  With the other, I found its racing pulse. Its breathing held even, but seemed shallow.

Having risked contact, my mind accepted the lynx as another case on the job—a good story once I could tell it past tense. Thick spotted fur parted beneath my fingers as I searched for an injury. Wrong side. I eased my hand under its head and gently lifted to find blood pooling under its left shoulder.

Damn. Move quicker, Skyler! Concern for the cat bleeding out triggered a much needed shot of adrenaline. On my feet, I slipped my arms under it, took three quick breaths, and heaved. It had to weigh forty pounds. Bags of Monkey Chow were that heavy, but then I'd never been concerned with keeping kibble from my face either. Caffeine be damned, adrenaline was my new best friend.

I hadn't hiked far. As the only full-time zookeeper, I lived in the caretaker's cottage on the small zoo's property. Both were backed by hundreds of miles of virgin forest surrounding the Nanatelle Mountains. I'd hiked this trail countless times over the last two years and never crossed paths with anything that made me wish I'd brought something more intimidating than a camera.

My ankle caught, slowing my pace, giving my mind time to consider those two inexplicable flashes and the man I'd seen in them. I dream vividly, but what the hell? Shock? And a lynx? Here? The protected expanse of the Nanatelle forest had yet to reveal all it hid, but a lynx was surely out of place—an abandoned illegal pet perhaps.

At The Ark, we'd seen that brand of idiocy before. We had a caracal cat some genius thought a novel anniversary gift. Did he think it novel when kitty took aversion to the pecking order?

By the time I staggered up to my house, all thought was given over to my arms giving out. The cat was gaining weight the more adrenaline I lost. I'd have to stabilize it here. Logic labeled me as much an idiot as that novelty-loving genius, but I was here now, and I couldn't carry the lynx as far as the clinic within the zoo, much less unlock the perimeter fence the way I could push open my own back door.

I almost laughed. Last night, in a miserably failed attempt at a breakup, I'd exerted myself to keep my own future ex-boyfriend out but now pushed even more so to invite a greater danger in.

I smiled. This one I could dart.

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Author's Note:  Thanks so much for reading!