CHAPTER 8
No one could possibly be expected to handle the Collins with as much grace as Aoife was managing, Elliott thought. He didn't think he could manage the line she was straddling, between 'competent professional' and 'not a complete pushover' with a side of 'oh, I see,thisis how you all are.'
A queen must know how to fight her rivals,his lion said proudly.Our mate understands that some battles are only fought by the weak. The human queen is no match for our lioness. When will we mate and have cubs?
Not right now!
The lion lay down on its belly with the air of a tremendously disappointed cat, and emphasized its point by folding its front paws over one another. It was so effective Elliot almost felt guilty.We hardly know each other! I haven't even told her about fated mates yet! We can't just start having kittens right away!
She smells good when she is near us,the lion said with regal confidence.She will want to havecubswith us soon.Itemphasized thecubs, making it clear Elliott should not mistake something as magnificent as an infant lion for a sillykitten.
That was not, Elliott decided, the hill to die on. Especially when the topic was whether they were having babies or not.Soon, maybe, butnot right now! he repeated.
Truthfully, right now, watching Aoife deal with a kid who was obviously spoiled rotten, Elliott was torn between thinking possibly he personally never, ever,everwanted to have kittens—er, kids—at all, and thinking Aoife would be a natural at parenting. She'd made Molly happy with a soft-serve ice cream cone dipped in strawberry goo and sprinkled liberally with tiny bright bits of candy. She'd made Molly's mother happy by spoiling the kid a little.
She had also then made everybody else happy by surprising themallwith ice cream, although none of the others were quite as elaborate as Molly's towering, swirling cone. Kanvas had returned from communing with the capybaras and received hers with as much delight as Molly had shown, and the two businessmen looked sheepishly pleased at their own.
Only Ms. Collins refused hers. Aoife stood there a moment, two cones in her hands and an expression of genuine surprise and slight hurt on her face. Elliott's lion growled, although it might have been Elliott himself.The human woman is not a kind queen,the lion said.Her pride will suffer for it.
Elliott thought Ms. Collins'spride, like, her self-satisfaction, might be unassailable. But her pride in the way the lion meant it, her family and those whom she was responsible for…well, the lion was absolutely right about that. Poor Molly alreadywassuffering for it, even if she didn't know it.Limits are important,the lion said.Cubs must learn this, or they may be killed and eaten by hyenas.
"'Never go to the elephants' graveyard,'" Elliott mumbled, fairly sure he was misquoting the line. His lion, which hadloved'The Lion King' when Elliott was small, nodded solemnly.
Aoife looked around at the various people eating their ice cream cones. Elliott could see her considering whether she should offer the extra one to him. His lion perked up.We are large. We require more sweetened milk products than everyone else.
He was about to nobly volunteer to eat the extra cone when a sly look came over Aoife's face and she went to Molly, extending the second ice cream. "Hey, Molly. Your mom didn't want hers. Want another?"
That will make the cub sick,the lion said with mild concern.
Elliott grinned.It'll probably just make her really bouncy from the sugar. But we're more than halfway done going around the park now. She might not get hyperactive until she leaves with her mom and is stuck in a car.
Ah,the lion said wisely.A lesson for the inattentive queen to pay attention to her pride. Our lioness isclever.
Molly took the second cone with the look of a tweenager who had just been handed two ice cream cones, beaming from one to the other. She ran back to ask for sprinkles and chocolate on the new one, and the person behind the cart, with an air of long-suffering patience, gave her what she wanted.
Aoife said, "Grand," with a huge, if slightly wicked, smile. "Shall we go on? I see there are lemurs and spider-monkeys out today." They headed for the large pond that Aoife had sped them by earlier, where a band of ring-tailed lemurs were lounging and grooming one another. One, sitting by itself and contemplating birds on the lake, glanced up at Elliott as he went by and gave him an obvious thumbs-up.
So there was at least one lemur shifter at the park. Elliott returned the thumbs-up and lifted his eyebrows, swirling a finger around the park at large as if in question.
The lemur shrugged. Either it didn't know if there were more shifters around, or couldn't communicate it without shifting. Elliott said, "Nice to meet you. See you around," and felt both the other men on tour give him weird looks. "You never know," Elliott said. "Never hurts to be polite."
Doug, the guy with the mustache, said, "There's that," but Graham, the tall thin one, kept looking at him like he was nuts.
"LEEEEMUUUUUUURS!" Molly barreled into the scene with an enthusiasm contained only by eleven-year-old girls. "Oh my gosh they're so CUTE!"
They really were: knee-height, with fluffy fur that was grey on their backs and white on their bellies, with the distinct black and grey rings around their tails, they were some of the cutest animals Elliott had ever seen.
And delicious,his lion suggested hopefully.
Even if they are,no!
For such a magnificent animal, the lion sulked remarkably well.Just one? They're small. They wouldn't notice.
They're small, but there are sixteen of them here, not including the shifter. I bet sixteen angry lemurs would be a lot harder to deal with than you'd like to imagine.
The lion imagined swatting them away like they were balls of paper, and for a few minutes Elliott was able to concentrate on eating his ice cream and on Aoife, while the lion bounced around inside his head, pouncing after its imaginary lemurs.
Aoife was talking about the lemurs, their habitat, their endangerment, and how their friendly, inquisitive nature was mostly because these particular lemurs were accustomed to human visitors. Apparently in the wild they were quite territorial and protective.
