CHAPTER SEVEN
By the time Reggie got to bed, Lupine-boy had already been traversing his new territory for eight hours, covering over 10 miles. Moving in a zigzag pattern, he stayed on constant alert for other lions and his next meal. He could tell when he was approaching the boundaries of his homeland by the sweet smell of strawberries on one end, and when he approached the fields on the other end, he found the smell of the tall four-legged animals that two-legs rode on top of. Then there was the boundary of the salty breezes from the big water and finally the boundary from the roar of the beasts on the wide path he once crossed.
Attuned to the scent of a dominant male, he knew if he smelled one he would be at risk, so he instinctively knew not to leave his scent as he travelled through the territory. Soon, he came upon a pile of urine-soaked debris that another lion had left to mark its presence. He bent down and touched the little pile with his whiskers, curled his lips, and opened his mouth to a grimace to learn more about who left it and what they were communicating. It was the fresh scent of the female that he first picked up when he entered his new homeland, the same sweet and sour perfume that stirred his body before.
But her scent also told him she was not in heat and may not be receptive to his sexual advances. He continued to follow the scent trails that she left behind in the scrub. A few hundred yards later, near an open space with buildings that humans visited, he picked up a strong lion scent with a foul edge to it. He slowly moved closer to the source, stopping every few body lengths with his ears and nose on high alert.
The scent was sour and heavy, not unlike the smell after eating a deer kill on the fourth day. But this was not a deer.
There, lying alongside a hillock, he could see the rear of a motionless animal: the long tail of a mountain lion; a male. As he moved closer, the smell of rotting flesh made him afraid, but curiosity pulled him in closer. When he first got a good look at the body, his instincts caused him to jump back in fear as the lion was a male about his age. The dead lion’s head was cut off and missing, and its front paws were severed at the knee and removed.
Lupine-boy stood there transfixed for a long time. He could see no battle scars as if the lion had fought with another lion and the body was not eaten; there was only one round bloody spot near its chest. The blood beneath the headless neck had long since dried in the leaves, but he noticed the fur around its neck was ruffled and worn. He put his nose closer to shake off the cloud of flies laying eggs on the rotting flesh. Immediately he picked up the scent of something he knew intimately—a leather strap around its neck. Running his nose along the body he could pick up the smell of the sweaty oil from the hands of two-legs. He could not understand how this could be, but the danger came from the two-legs, and Lupine-boy darted up the canyon.
He continued on with his exploration, but with an even more heightened level of awareness. His slender, supple body glided over the landscape. With his keen night vision, he easily saw the best way to bend around rocks. His long tail waved independently, keeping him balanced as he navigated gullies. One time, his paw landed in a rock crevice followed by a shaking sound and a darting motion. Lupine-boy jumped in an instant, springing 10 feet in the air, landing far away from a large rattlesnake.
Feeling hungry, the lion kept his nose high for the nocturnal meanderings of his main prey. He got an occasional whiff of deer, as they seemed to be plentiful in the area, but he hadn’t spotted a single one this night. Soon, though, his ears picked up a scratching and digging sound behind a thicket of sagebrush. Both ears pivoted to the front and then independently in opposite directions to pick up the strange sound. He moved very slowly, silently then stopping, waiting for a sighting of the target and a line of attack. Moving within no less than five body lengths from the source of the sound, his one eye peered around the bush.
There, unaware that his back was facing the jaws of his demise, sat a fat raccoon. He was furiously clawing at a decaying tree stump; splinters flew as he grabbed grubs and gorged himself with both hands. It had no idea that this would be its last meal. Lupine-boy, with head and body low to the ground, began the stalk. He drifted silently toward his prey, tail up in the air swaying rhythmically. As he got close, his body tensed and he shifted his rear leg muscles into power gear, raised his heels, and pounced. Just as the raccoon turned around, Lupine-boy clamped down on his head and the lion had his meal. He quickly ripped open its underside with a single swipe and eviscerated it, eating the warm organs first. Then he took a few minutes to lick away the blood splatters before heading off on the trail.
Lupine-boy decided to rest, so he lay down near a rock outcropping. Closing his eyes and taking in some light, but alert, sleep, he was awakened by a scritching sound. He opened one eye and found a little chipmunk sitting a short distance away, scratching its hindquarters. Lupine-boy kept his sleepy eye on the little critter and then slowly lifted his head and placed it on an outstretched paw in order to better watch the striped rodent with both eyes.
The chipmunk finally took notice of the lion and scampered into a crevice in the rocks. Lupine-boy grew tired again almost immediately, but as soon as his eyelids drooped, the chipmunk poked its head out of a crevice and gave the lion a teasing squeak. Since the lion had just eaten and the chipmunk wasn’t even a snack, the lion felt an impulse to have fun. He jumped on the pile of rocks, sniffed the hole where the chipmunk fled and waited on top as still as a statue. Moments later, the chipmunk poked its head out below the lion and squeaked at his rear end. The lion jumped and spun around in the air, and then with a growl he took a big swing and fanned the air. Squeaking and swiping, the hide and seek game went on for several minutes until the cat lost interest and moved back through the scrub.
Moving up a canyon, Lupine-boy again picked up the fresh, sweet-sour scent of the female he smelled earlier. As it got stronger, he picked up another lion’s presence in the air: a male. Soon, he found a line of lion claw scratchings on an alder tree trunk, so he put his nose to it and fully took in the scent. He could tell the markings were two or three days old, and that they were definitely made by a huge male. When he found a front paw print nearby in some dried in the mud, Lupine-boy placed his paw next to it and saw his was only half its size. He immediately feared this unknown, big-pawed lion, and so he quickly moved on.
A half-mile further on he quickly picked up another, but fresher scent of the big-pawed male. He knew Big-Paw was clearly posting warning signs all over his territory. Lupine-boy knew instinctively this was the most dangerous place he could be. This time, the young cat chose to follow the instinct to survive instead of the instinct to mate. Perhaps he would have another opportunity to find her. And hopefully, find her alone.