Jamieson Uw watched the young woman from beneath the shelter of a large tree. She was beautiful in the crisp night air and amber light of the setting sun. Her hair formed almost perfect burnished ringlet curls that hung half way down her back. Her eyes were a light brown with green flecks that reminded him of the big cats that they studied. He knew that a car accident at sixteen had left burn scars that marred the otherwise perfect beauty of her mixed heritage.
Katrina Negron stared out over the rocky ridge that rose high above the grasslands. She watched as the lionesses below ripped at the raw meat; each offering small morsels to the young cubs that pounced and played nearby. She was not as tall perhaps as the women from his homeland. She would easily fit beneath the protective embrace of his arms. Her breasts were shapely and high. They were the perfect size to fit into his hands. Her hips too flared out to fit perfectly in a man's hands.
Jamieson shook his head as he felt his body stir within the uncomfortable confines of his clothes. He longed to be free this night. To throw off not only his clothes, but the conventionalities of polite society and run unbound as he had in his homeland. As the woman stretched with the same grace as the lionesses she observed, he realized that he longed too to fulfill other urges that had been denied for too long.
Although they had worked closely for almost two years now, he realized that neither knew much of the others background. He knew that she was an intelligent woman and capable animal behaviourist. He knew that her love for animals, especially exotic cats, was as deep and genuine as his own.
Something deep inside of his tortured soul urged him to break the companionable silence, to reach out to the woman. "Beautiful, is it not?" came the deep, accented voice of her mentor.
Turning her head so that the physical scars glistened in the waning sun light, she nodded. "I've always felt...at home here," she replied as she quickly turned back to the pride to hide her scars.
"It is much like Nigeria," he smiled as he thought of the land that he had not seen in almost a decade. The land of his birth that had been his home for most of his life. A land that was plagued with strife and war. Yet whose peoples held a nobility and beauty as wild as the land itself.
"You miss it very much?" Trina's words sounded more like a statement of fact than a question.
Jamieson simply nodded his dark head, increasingly more grey sprinkled among the cap of tight black curls that boasted his deep African heritage. His dark skin shone under the last rays of the setting sun. "It is deep inside of me," he thumped his chest with his fist.
Trina watched the pride of lions with something more than scientific curiosity. "Why don't you return?" she questioned.
Jamieson paused. "Situations change," was his stoic answer. At moments like this, secrets hung like a dark curtain between mentor and protΓ©gΓ©. As much as he might respect the young woman's courage and passion for her work, he was not free to discuss this matter. Or so many other things. Lives depended upon his silence...and his work. The fate of his race in fact rested upon it.
"I'll make certain that the camera equipment is set up," she excused herself.
* * *
Jamieson took his protΓ©gΓ©'s place at the edge of the cliff. Even as far inland as the wild game preserve was he could feel the faint cool of the ocean breeze as it came off of the Pacific Ocean. He might be thousands of miles from his native Nigeria, but his mind traversed time and space to take him once more to the home that he had left behind over eight years ago.
His brief explanation to Trina of 'situations change' hid a much deeper secret. The centuries old mystery of his people and their unique gifts. His was an ancient race; part human and part lion. Their very origins sheathed in mystery and legend.
The story handed down from generation to generations was that once long, long, long ago, there lived a young girl. She was the daughter of the greatest medicine man in all of Africa. One day when she was little, she was playing on the savannah and found a lion cub whose mother had been killed by hunters. The little girl took the lion cub home and cared for it. She had a magical way with all animals and the cub grew under her care.
As they grew together, the world intruded upon their happiness. The lion was growing so large that the villagers demanded that the chief and medicine man have the animal killed. The girl too had grown into a beautiful young woman. Warriors from tribes across Africa came to win her love and marry her. Not only was she the only child of a powerful medicine man, but her beauty was legendary. Her heart though belonged to her lion.