In the deep forests of Russia live the most endangered large cats in the world; the Amur Leopard. As of 2012, 35 adults are estimated to live in the wild. This is a fictional story about the last female Amur “Rae” on her search to find another of her species in 2019.
She could hear it shivering; she could hear it twist around for a way to get out. But she knew it couldn’t. Hungry and heartless, she tensed her muscles, twitched her ears and pounced.
A few minutes later, Rae was enjoying a –if very small- delicious meal of fresh squirrel in her cave. Having finished her skimpy meal, Rae looked out of the mouth of her cave. It was nearly dawn, but the leopard was still starved. “I’ll go out tomorrow.” She thought wearily. Rae lay down went to sleep.
But even sleep could not keep away the dreams, the memories. They haunted her day in and out since the …..thing about 2 weeks ago, dancing on the edge of her dreams; waiting to attack. She hated them as much as anyone could ever hate anything. Remembering…seeing again……what happened to her mother. But not tonight, Rae wanted to see them tonight, to remember why she was fighting so hard to survive. For her mother.
“Rae! Get up! Hurry! C’mon!” whimpered Valerie, her younger sister. “No, Valerie!” came her mother‘s harsh voice “Don’t wake her up!” Rae remembered being nudged out her soft nest and into a narrow cave ledge, she had grown and it was a tight fit, she remembered lifting herself up out of it only to see in red. She remembered hearing the tortured cries of a leopard. Running toward the cries only to find the dead body of her sister and the bones of her mother, she remembered feeling like she was alone in the world. Because Rae is the last Amur Leopard.
Waking up, she was just as mad and scared as that day. She knew she couldn’t keep going around in circles, she needed to do something. She needed to get revenge. But from whom? Where? First she needed to find out who did it.
Well, the scent should still be there. So I should be able to follow it. Rae said to herself. She jumped out of her cave onto the cold ground. Through the forest, she heard birds twittering and leaves rustling, she felt the wind in her fur but she had no time to enjoy it. Trees loomed from each side, rocks jutted out here and there; her forest was one of a kind. Lots of prey but not enough predators.
Nose to the ground, paws at the ready, Rae revisited the sight of her mother and sister’s death. Now all she had to do is trace the trail of blood. It wasn’t very helpful but as the blood became less and less, the smell became more and more. Too soon she stopped. Has our territory really become this small?! She thought disbelievingly. The stench smelled of…crow food, death, dried blood; it smelled like Valerie’s body. She stood in front of a shack, and that’s where the smell was coming from.
“Who’s there?” snarled a gruff voice. Rae ducked behind a large boulder on her right. The voice had come from inside the hut. A figure standing on its hind legs opened the door of the shack. She could see fur, but no animals. That was bobcat fur in the corner! There’s a black bear’s coat! Her eyes fell on a coat just like her’s but bigger. It was Mother’s! Rae sprung out her hiding spot and ran toward it. Elated and agitated at the same time, Rae’s eyes swam with tears. Recollections flashed in her mind’s eye and if for only a fleeting moment she saw her mom again. Healthy and exuberant, bounding through the meadow they so often played in. Before.
“Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!” yelled the Hunter. His scream brought her back to the present, Rae skidded to stop; right in front of him. She’s gone…not there ……wait…who? What? Run! She shook out of her dream to hear the deafening sound of gunfire. A splitting pain stabbed her ear. Rae crashed to the ground and blacked out.
Cold, metal bars surrounded her; encased her. Tufts of her fur stuck out of the bars. She was in the dark and caged but still she was moving. How? Rae blinked and started to stretch and yawn but had no space for it. Her ear throbbed with pain. Angry at everything, for not being able to stretch, for her mother, overcome with anger and indefinitely annoyed.
Her ears picked up the sound of muffled talking.
“Eh, ha! We’ve got ’em this time!” bellowed a muffled voice.
“Whatcha talkin’ about?” the answer came in much higher tones.
“I think this kitty-cat is the last one of the species! Isn’t it a got thing we…disposed of the other poachers? Eh? No competition for us…Hey! Isn’t this the road we always take to the …ya know….”
“How much ya pricin’ for it? Yeah it is, why?”
The rocky road began getting smoother.
“A million. Ain’t no-one supposed to be guarding.”
“Ain’t no-one gonna buy it! Whatcha talkin’ bout?”
Rae was annoyed by the constant yapping.
“How do ya know? You’re an idiot!”
Rae growled.
“Did ya hear that? Sounds like it’s coming from the back of the truck. Is it the cat? It’s alive!”
“Of course it’s alive you stupid blockhead!”
Rae growled again, louder and harder that the last time.
“Shut it up! We are crossing the border!” the gruff voice sounded very angry.
The car came to a sudden halt; Rae was thrown against the bars by her own body weight. Suddenly everything was quiet. Then gunshots rang out of the silence.
“Step on it! They’re coming! We need to get out of here!!!!” roared the hunter, quite furiously.
“Hey! Watch where you’re going! You’re gonna crash into that tr-“
Both men screamed in unison. The car lunged off the road at a dangerously fast speed and slammed in to a tree.
With the impact came life and death. Rae was thrown out of the back of the truck and onto the ground. The blanket slipped off, revealing the bright sunshine coming through the trees. Rae blinked. The door of the cage was open. She shot out and ran through the trees, as soon as voices came again.
“Let’s call an ambulance! Someone’s crashed!”
“Wait, what’s that in the back?”
“Looks like…..furs.”
“Poachers! I’ll call the ambulance and the police!”
“Wow, someday, eh, Bob?”
“What do you mean?”
“On the upside; we just caught a pair of poachers. On the downside; we accidentally let a male Amur Leopard escape the zoo…”
“Now that you mention it, it has been a crazy day hasn’t it?”
In the bushes, unseen by everyone except a small bird watching her from above, a female Amur Leopard melted into the shadows. She had gotten her revenge.
By: Angelica Lucia Casey
