SPOTS (M)

      At 6.30.am a Toyota Landcruiser drove across the veldt heading for the blue mountain range beyond the plains.  Jenny was hoping to get pictures of zebra in the low mist.  She fancied that just before it lifted above the horizon, the sun would wash the plains in pink and bruised plum colours, giving the illusion of animals standing in pockets of tinted water.  Bill was hoping for photos of a leopard, seen late yesterday lying on piled rocks running along a dry wash about two miles from their safari camp.

     Stretching along the thick branch of an ancient gnarled Marula tree was a female leopard, gold-tinged from the first rays of the imminent sun, posing in profile as if she’d spent her life being photographed.

     The jeep stopped twenty yards beyond the tree facing the sunrise its driver jumping out for a smoke, while Bill edged slowly towards the Marula tree.  Small birds flitted across the thorn bushes and acacia and the insect orchestra started tuning up for the day.

     After spending a few minutes observing Bill, the leopard began licking her shoulder and lower leg.  She yawned languidly before flexing her paws, displaying their sharp, lethal armoury.  Unhurriedly, she leaned forward, tearing her claws along the branch, flirting bits of bark and strips of white tree trunk into the air.  Yawning again, she exposed long yellow curved fangs, the terrible tools of her trade, before closing her eyes as if to sleep.  Between the black rosettes, her pale yellow fur seemed to be liquid honey, pooling like plasma when she rippled her skin in relaxed contentment.  Opening one eye she watched Bill, who was standing in small, multi-coloured drifts of early blooming flowers, glistening sharply in the dew.

     Grunting softly deep in her chest, her tail began swishing in irritation at the intrusion.

     ‘Welcome to show business,’ Bill breathed, the click of his Nikon camera the only sound as the cat turned its gaze to the coming sunrise.  The leopard rose, standing in silhouette against the large circle of a waning, grey-shadowed moon.

     'Star struck too, just two more seconds beautiful one, please - two seconds should do it,' Bill whispered huskily, as if to a lover.  The big cat stared down at the camera intently, appearing to focus on its whirring and quiet clicking.  In an instant she disappeared, pouring down the back of the tree like syrup off a hot spoon to land softly on the wet grass.  In two bounds she was on Bill tearing at his throat, before leaping away across the long grass.  Slowing, she walked into light scrub along the dry waterway.  Moving partway into a patch of shrubbery, her protruding tail twitched from side to side before being swallowed up by foliage.  The bush shivered for a few seconds as its leaves closed behind her. 

     It all happened so quickly, nobody had time to do anything.   

         

 

by david lavisher (Viewed 419 times)