SV Part 5

Noblong, having heard the shouts, the screams and the roars, had grabbed his gun and come running apace. He was not a particularly heroic type, but if his meal ticket was becoming a meal, he felt he should at the very least see if there was something he could do. He threw back the tent flap, stepped in and took immediate note of the riot on the bed-cot. He was about to contemplate the blackmail possibilities of that situation when he took secondary note of the lion in the room. In fact, “Lion In The Room”, was the exact phrase that lit up his thoughts in flashing neon. As fast as Noblong had entered the tent, his departure was many times faster. In fact the only action visible to the human eye between the coming and going was when he threw his gun in the lion’s general direction; an action that diverted Leo’s attention from the dinner arranging itself on the bed-cot.

A fleeing thing is a frightened thing and hence to a lion’s way of thinking, prey. Instinct demanded chase, so Leo bounded out the door and after the running man. His chances of catching the fleet African, however, were less than good as Noblong was half Kenyan, half Ethiopian. As any track and field aficionado will tell you, these people weigh nothing at all and are as a result not slowed much by gravity.

Miles, on the other hand, felt both gravity and Lady Sackable’s softly lumpy weight as he lay plastered to the bed-cot. Looking over her fair shoulder he had seen the lion bolt off in pursuit of Noblong and his fear factor had dropped from a high of “I’m going to die now” to its current “What if it comes back?” Even with that latter in mind, he took a deep breath and lay back to enjoy the feel of Lady Sackable’s contours against his own. What allowed him to do this was the realization that his shield was still in place.


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