Still sipping on his coffee, Chris walked into the actual zoo. He loved the early morning, the animals where just waking up while the nocturnal animals were preparing for bed. The predawn light caused the shadows to be long as the birds began to fully wake up.
Still, something was wrong, he felt like he was being watched.
Then he saw them, coming down one of the paths was a couple of figures which shouldn’t have been there.
“This is so cool.” Said one of the figures, a boy who looked to be 12 or 13. There where a couple of them all dressed in what looked to be boy scouts’ uniform with a couple of adults with them and two zookeepers.
“Morning Chris.” Greeted one of them as they walked past.
Chris shrugged, the zoo did do overnight camps and a boy scout troop taking an early morning tour of the zoo made logical sense.
With that out of his mind, he made the turn and headed toward the large a large island, maybe calling it an island wasn’t true. To the guests it looked like an island, it was labeled an island however the knee to waste high water only surrounded the island on three sides, the fourth was contented to land to allowed delivery trucks to make deliveries behind the scenes.
“Big Cat Island.” Said Chris to himself as he walked onto the island.
Something was off, normally he would hear the almost 2 dozen species of big cats waking up or making noise of some kind. This morning, nothing and the only about half the lights which illuminated the walkway where on. That last part may be because of the early morning sunlight, the lights were on sensors. Still, something was off.
You took one more drink from your coffee before suddenly something hit you hard on the back of the head knocking you down. You fell to the ground hard, only then to hear multiple feet before another blow hit the back of your head. You blacked out then.
When you opened your eyes again, you were lying on soft grass.
“I think he is waking up.” Said a voice you didn’t recognize
“Good, then we can decide.” Stated another voice
“I want him.” Said a third a woman’s voice
“I deserve him.” Added another voice, a second women.
Slowly Chris rolled over and looked up, the sky was still mostly dark so he couldn’t have been out for long.
“Good morning Chris.” Said a deep voice as Chris turned his head toward the sound to see a figure sitting on a raised rock. He recognized the rock, that was the sun bathing rock in the Lion’s habit that the giant male lion loved to sit on and sunbath on. He was inside the habit which meant the lions could get to him. That would have been his first worry if the figure hadn’t taken his breath away.
It looked like a human, but it was far too big and had a long tail, muscular body which would make even a professional body builder jealous and around his neck and head was a large black lion mane.
Before him, clear as day was one of those animal hybrids which he had assumed was a fake on the internet. He wasn’t alone, before him where five she-lion hybrids which had human like breasts and bodies.
There were also a couple of Cheetah hybrids, a large female mountain lion nursing a baby at her very large breast. A leopard and others. In total there had to be around 30 of them all surrounding him looking at him.
“This is impossible.” stated Chris “This can’t be real.”
“Oh…it is very real.” stated a she-lion in a purr. “I say we should get him, we caught him.”
“I don’t think the “king” of the jungle would want to share his harem.” Laughed a tiger man as the lion man glared at him.
“Besides, we could use another male.” Added a white tiger women
“I deserve him, I don’t have a mate.” stated a jaguar women
“I could sure use him.” said a male black Panther licking his lips and looking at Chris with sexual hunger “I have had only females, I want a male.”
Beside him a female black Panther roller her eyes.
“As much as I hate to agree with him, having him get the male partner he wants would shut him up.” Stated the female black panther “And if he should become a female then I can enjoy him.”
“I deserve him.” countered the female mountain lion who was breast feeding a young cub. “I don’t have a mate and he was there when my son was born. He could use a father figure.”
“He spent a lot of time with us.” Stated the cheetah hybrid as some of the smaller “big” cats spoke up placing their case as to why they wanted/needed Chris.
The multiple big cat hybrids kept debating as Chris sat there stunned as he began to realize, the strip pattern on the tiger hybrid, the number of cheetah hybrids, the mountain lion with a cub and other small hints. He began to realize that these hybrid creatures where for the most part the same big cats he had been carrying for and studying for his school. He just sat there stunned not paying attention.
“The furry virus is real.” He whispered quietly to himself, which meant they where debating about turning him into one of them.
“So it is agreed.” Stated the lion as everyone seamed to nod, some where clearly unhappy but accepted it.
Chris realized he was about to learn his fate.