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“Do you want him to physically come back here to scare you off or will you let us pass?” Fleur asked.
“That lion couldn’t care less about you. He’s reacting to all of us watching his pride.”
“You’re wrong. If he were annoyed by that, he’d leave. They’re waiting for Maximum and me, and you’re in the way. I’ve told him we can’t pass until you leave our car.”
The ranger snorted and shouted something in a local language to the driver.
When Fleur switched into the same language and spoke, his eyes doubled in size. “You speak Xhosa?”
“Well enough to understand when I’m being insulted. Please, go back to your work and let me do mine.”
The fearful outburst from the tourists made us all look ahead to the alpha and his brother, now jogging straight toward us.
“You’re upsetting him,” Fleur said.
My heart was beating fast from the intensity in the eyes of the two lions, and I gripped the steering wheel harder. I had no doubt that if they wanted to hurt Fleur and me they would have done so long ago. But I was scared of them hurting the ranger or one of the tourists.
“Relax.” The driver shouted to the tourists. “Just relax.”
Finally, the ranger got down from the running board of our car and moved sideways back toward his van. The alpha moved closer to him, showing his teeth in a guttural roar that sounded like it came from the pit of his stomach.
“Everyone just relax!” the ranger kept shouting to the tourists, who were freaking out.
“I’ve got to do something before they end up shooting one of the lions.” Fleur opened the door and stepped out before I could do anything about it.
Without a word, she walked along the path toward the rest of the lions. As if she were Mowgli from the Jungle Book on a Sunday stroll, the two males turned to trot along after her, quickly overtaking her and getting to the other lions first.
Fleur turned around and waved at me to follow. As I drove off the track to pass the safari Jeep, I saw them all recording my brave woman like she was as exotic as the animals they’d come to admire.
As soon as I caught up to her, Fleur got into the car. “Stupid man.”
“What did he say to you in that clicking language?”
“That I belonged in an asylum for crazy people.”
“You should have let the lions take a small bite to teach him a lesson then.”
Our shared laughter helped release some of the tension from the confrontation. We had only rolled about ten more minutes when the lions suddenly veered off and walked into the bush.
“I don’t think the car can go that way,” I said. “I mean, it’s got four-wheel drive, so maybe, but I don’t want to get stuck out here and have to wait for someone like that arsehole back there to help us.”
“It’s okay. We’ll walk from here. It’s not far.” Fleur turned to the back of the jeep and picked out the gloves and plastic trash bags that she’d insisted we needed to bring.
I got out of the Wrangler and shoulder to shoulder we walked in the direction that the lions had gone in. “This is insane, Fleur.” I whispered. “If I make it back alive, I will tell everyone about us following lions into the wilderness.”
“It’s a preserve, not the true wilderness.”
“What’s the difference?”
“There’s a large fence around this place to keep the animals in. Many of the species here were reintroduced to the area, with whole herds of elephants being moved here.”
“Where did the lions go? I don’t see them.” I craned my neck from side to side.
Fleur stopped and looked around too. “Hmm.”
“What does hmm mean?”
“That we’ll have to use more than our eyes to follow them.” Squatting down and touching the ground, Fleur sat with her eyes closed for a moment, before getting up and walking with long strides in one direction.
