Trevor let out a sigh as he watched the van speed away down the paved road that wound through the cacti and jagged rocks. As much doom and gloom as the van driver preached on the way over here, Trevor convinced himself that he wasn’t about to give up and go home because a few peoples’ trips ended on a low note. It probably wouldn’t happen to him anyway.
Biting his lip, he turned around and headed in to the Visitor’s Center for deep desert, an impressive two story adobe building. He had to work his way around a couple of other people and animals milling around the headquarters building to get to the front door. He was so busy looking at a pair of camels next to the sidewalk that he yelped and nearly fell on his back when he rounded a short wall and came face to face with a mountain lion.
The mountain lion just snorted out a cat-like laugh and shook its head. “Easy there, new guy,” it said in a distinctly female voice. “I was a two-legger like you just a few days ago.”
“Sorry,” Trevor said sheepishly. “I just didn’t expect…”
“To see a mountain lioness chilling out next to the visitors’ center. Yeah, I know. It takes some getting used to around here. I’m Louise, by the way,” the lioness said as she held out her massive paw to him.
Even though he knew it was just another transformed visitor, Trevor was still a bit hesitant to shake her paw. Finally, though, he got the courage for it and grabbed the heavy paw, feeling the thick pads underneath. “Trevor,” he said back.
“So what brings you here, Trevor?”
“I’m here to try and enter the raptor lottery since they’re not allowed in The Flight Dome,” he said, gesturing at the front doors to the visitors’ center.
Louise’s large bronze eyes lit up and he got a glimpse of her tail twitching behind her. “Really? Never would have guessed that.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t on the brochure,” Trevor said back, surprised at how quickly he was getting used to talking to a mountain lion. “Apparently they made some changes to the policy recently.”
“Well good luck with that,” Louise cooed. “Being a raptor sounds like a lot of fun. Hell, I wish I would have known about it when I first got here.”
Trevor shrugged. “Well, maybe you could join the lottery, too,” he suggested without really thinking about it.
Louise waved it off with a flip of her paw. “No, that’s okay. I’ve actually only got another four days left before I change back, anyway. I came here to be a mountain lion and that’s what I’m going to do. But, if you don’t win the lottery, I can tell you that being a mountain lion’s a real kick – especially when you go out on some of the mock hunts the staff here sets up.”
“Mock hunts?”
“Oh, yeah,” Louise said excitedly. “They set up these dummy prey animals made out of hard rubber on tracks that wind through an area of the desert so people vacationing as predators can see what it’s like to stalk and take down a prey animal. Like I said, it’s a lot of fun. Who knows, they might have one of those for raptors, too.”
“I might have to look in to that,” Trevor said with a thin smile. “Anyway, it’s been nice talking to you, but I better go and see if I can enter this lottery. Maybe I’ll see you around, though.”
“One can only hope,” Louise said as Trevor turned and strode in to the visitors’ center.