Free Journey to Freedom by Colin Dann

time trying to chew your tough hide,’ Lorna replied in a bored tone. ‘I’ve a much better plan in my head.’
    ‘What’s that?’
    ‘Come out and I’ll tell you,’ the lioness continued slyly. ‘I can’t see you properly.’
    ‘That’s what I hoped,’ said the honey badger. ‘I – er – think I’ll just stay in here a while, lion. At least, for as long as you’re hungry.’
    ‘Then you’ll have a long wait. I shan’t return to the hunt until nightfall, when those interfering humans will be sound asleep.’
    All day long in the cave Lorna thought she could smell calf. The scent was in her nostrils, maddening her. She paced up and down her lair, unable to rest for a minute. Water drooled from her mouth and she grumbled to herself, growling constantly. The honey badger hadn’t quite kept to his word. He had moved from his temporary shelter to his favourite burrow and there he had lain low. Dusk came slowly. Lorna stood at the threshold of the cave and roared at the darkening sky. She remembered her sister, but she had almost forgotten the zoo.
    ‘Sister! Sister! Why are we no longer together?’
    In the cave a faint echo of her cries could be heard as though there was an answering roar from the refuge at Kamenza: ‘Why have they parted us?’

Injury
    Ellen had eaten almost nothing for a week. She drank milk or water and spent most of her time resting in the shade and pining for her sister. Joel had been unable to tempt her to eat any substantial rations. The lioness was growing weaker and weaker. Joel knew that only Lorna could save her sister and he wanted to devote himself to reuniting them. He prepared to leave Kamenza.
    Simon Obagwe brought him an up-to-date report on Lorna. ‘She was seen at a dairy farm only yards from the farmhouse,’ he told Joel. ‘The farmer thinks she was after a young calf.’
    Joel gasped. ‘What happened?’
    ‘He managed to drive her off, but he thinks she’ll be back. He’s asked for police assistance.’
    ‘Oh no!’ Joel groaned. ‘They’ll shoot her.’
    Simon looked grim. ‘Possibly, if she’s a danger to the family as well.’
    ‘I wish I’d gone sooner!’ Joel exclaimed anxiously. ‘I might have saved her. Now they’ll both die.’
    ‘Hold on, hold on.’ Simon held up a hand. ‘Nothing’s happened yet. You’ll be back in England within twenty-four hours. Perhaps you can still do some good? Why don’t you contact the press people and get them to persuade the police to stay their hand untilyou’re on the scene? They could keep Lorna at bay by putting down raw meat.’
    ‘They’ve tried that,’ Joel replied. ‘It didn’t work. She left it. Unless’ – a thought struck him – ‘unless it could be a dead animal, completely untouched. I believe Lorna associates raw meat too much with the fact that humans supply it. She just might accept a dead farm animal.’
    ‘Good thinking,’ Simon concurred. ‘I reckon you should telephone right now.’
    They turned to watch Simon’s nine-year-old daughter Annie running across the yard to Ellen’s pen. The girl was full of sympathy for the unhappy lioness and could often be found talking to her through the enclosure fence. Annie sat down and began to speak.
    ‘I wish you didn’t look so sad and I wish I could help you. I’d like to make you happy.’
    At first Ellen hardly noticed the girl who chattered on as usual in the hope of comforting her, but eventually the lioness gave Annie her attention. The girl was always thrilled when she received that solemn, steady gaze. She gazed back, trying hard to make her own expression convey her sympathy.
    ‘I wonder if you understand my feelings for you?’ Annie whispered.
    That night Ellen lay with her head on her paws, close to the entrance to her enclosure. She felt listless and abandoned. Even Joel had left her now. The African night with all its strange sounds hardly penetrated her consciousness. Upesi the cheetah patrolled her own pen. Every time