The boy

Read to find out!

The boy

By Mackenzie Carver

A herd of several elephants, eighteen of them from what I can tell. One of them happens to be Cafe, just born last night. I stand a great distance from them, filming them with my video camera that I was holding in front of me. Here me and my friend, Jamani, capturing a great moment for Kibur reserve.
I was standing just a few feet from the vehicle and in the tall light brown grass, I help my camera up to my face, peering through the scoop on it’s left the side. I took a glimpse of the herd. The females were standing along with the mothers all surrounding the newborn calf. I could see the new newborn pushing himself up off the ground on his two front legs, struggling as he came up.
“The calf's trying to stand up,” I said.
“It’s his first day here in Kibur reserve. Such a great experience to be here to witness it on they're circling around the calf.”
“I see it, Len.” Said Jamani, who stood in the roofless jeep
As I continued to observe, I saw the other members of the herd beginning to surround the calf. All of them happen to be females. This was a common behaviour on the part of elephants. Whenever the was a newborn in the herd, the calf would be greeted not just by his mother but also by the females. It was within the first minutes that a calf was born into the world, they would trumpet and scream.
One of the females, presumingly the mother came toward the calf. She gave out her long grey trunk and took hold of the calf's. She began to pull him up. The calf’s backs began to come up, slowly rising up to bring the calf onto all fours. The small elephant then began to take his first steps toward the belly of its mother.
“There it goes,” I said, continuing to film the occurrence before me.
“The calf has now taken its first steps. Now it’s about to suckle on its mother for her milk.”
The calf came to one of its mother's teats and began to suckle for her milk. I only continued to watch it all unfold. This was another addition to the reserve, far from being the first in the case of elephants. I’ve captured many of them on camera whether it be in film or photography. This has been something that I've done for over five years here, taking video’s and photo’s of Africa’s most majestic animals. Not only that but I also give safari tours around the reserve for tourists. However, it wasn’t always what I was doing. I had come from the state of Virginia, Richmond. I once worked at the city zoo, training big cats like lions and tigers with my long passed friend, Sarah.
I and she had been together since we were kids. Both of us loved animals, our favorite past time was spending time at the zoo. Her parents had worked there and her father, Lucas had taught us how to train and bond with animals. I still remember the time when I was faced with a full grown male lion. I was only eight years old at the time and he was over my head. I was a bit intimidated by him, the only thing that stood between us was a mental cage barrier. Never could I have ever imagined being up close to one without that small barbed fence to keep me out from the lion's reach.
I held up a piece of red meat to the lion In the palm of my hand through one of the square gaps of the fence. Amazingly the lion was eating right out of my hand. That was the very moment that I wanted to be a part of the zoo. I wanted to train animals. As I grew older, me and Sarah had already graduated University after seven years and we began working at the Richmond zoo. We both did as what her parents had showed us when we were young. We had also been equated with the lions there, developing a strong bond with three males and four females.They became the equivalent of the family to us. They, in turn, had come to see us as part of the pride.
However, there came a day when the zoo had decided to shift the lions to the reserve that I work in today. Me and Sarah had both made a decision to go along and stay with the lions we’ve raised. We moved along with our families here in Africa. I’m a currently married man, who has two sons and a single daughter in my life. Sarah was a single mother with but one son. His name was Jay and he was much like his mother. He was always so eager to see animals. When he was just a year old, Sarah had him along with the animals.
I can still recall the times, I’d see a young toddler along with one of the lionesses, being groomed along with the Cubs. It was for a time that things were going well, that is until one day a storm had come by. Sarah and Jay were somewhere out in the reserve at that time. I received a call from her that concerned a poacher trap. But that was the last I ever heard, as well as seen her. When the storm had passed I had gone out looking for them, but I only came to find that she was killed and Jay was missing.
Not only that, I came to find that the lions were gone as well. We had been unable to ever find them again. We came to the mindset that they must had been driven far out of the reserve by the storm. It was a few months later that new lions from the Toronto zoo were shipped here to the reserve to cover the place where the lions once had been. However, it wasn’t the concern to me as much. What really concerned me was the fact that Jay was missing. It’s already been two years since the storm and he was never found. People have all said that he died along with his mother, however, I never really believed that rumour.
I found Sarah’s body when I showed up, but I never saw Jay’s. My guess would be that he must have ran and was shot close the river where he must have fell and drowned. I spent many days trying to come to terms with the pain I had endeared. Losing the one closest friend that I ever had was a great tragedy in my life, but also with the loss of Jay who barely had a chance at life, that was but an addition to my pain. But that's now all in the past. Now continued my work here in the reserve and proved for my family.
As. Continue to film the herd of elephants, then heard static coming from my side. It was then I hear a voice following afterwards.
“Len, Len come in.”
I looked from the scope of my video camera To that radio attached to my belt. I grabbed hold of it and brought close to my mouth.
“This is Len,” I said into the speaker.
“Len, it’s John. Where about are ya? I’ve got a bunch of people here at the lodge, they're. Wondering if they can go on a safari.”
“I’m over here With Jamani in the southern end of the reserve,” I said.
“I’m near the elephants.”
“Are you a far distance from the lodge?” John asked.
“I’d say about a two-hour drive back.”
“Well I got no one else here that can do it, so you think you can start heading back.”
I pondered for a second before coming to a decision. While I was still filming the elephants here, I was here for about an hour and I did have enough footage to go with.So I suppose that I could give a tour right now.
“Sure, we’ll be there as soon as we can,” I said.
“Thanks, Len, see you when you get here, out.”
After that last sound of static, I set by radio down on my belt. After of which I stopped the filming on my camera before I turned and began walking back to the jeep.
“Jamani,” I said as came up to the dark green jeep.
“We’re heading back to the lodge. John has another batch of guests for a safari.”
Jamani sat down in the driver's seat and started the engine. I opened the passenger side door and climbed into the jeep. Jamani then shifted the jeep into drive and turned us around the dirt road that cutter a clear path through the Savannah. We turned leftward and began driving back toward the safari lodge.
As we drove down the road, I tended to my camera and watched the footage that I took off the elephant herd. For the most part, I seemed to have captured the event well. I was zoomed in on the calf just enough to observe it taking its first steps. Along with that, I did capture a good look at the mother and other females. However, I still had to do some editing before I could release it on the web or at the lodge.
“Would you look at that, Tamani?” I said as I turned to him.
“The birth of a new elephant here in the reserve.”
“It’s truly a sight to behold.” Said Tamani.
“Another addition to being made to the herd.”
I shut the to camera screen and placed it in the back. After I turned to face back toward the windshield, I suddenly heard something faint. The sound was familiar to me, yet I couldn’t entirely hear what it was. I turned to Tamani.
“Stop!” I said.
“What?” He said curiously.
“Stop,” I said again.
Slowly, Tamani pressed on the break and the jeep began to slowly slow down before stopping entirely. I continued to listen for the sound to appear again. For a short while, I only heard silence and the soft African wind.
“What is it?” Tamani asked curiously
I turned to answer his question. But as I was about to speak, the sound came once more in the far distance of the plains. I turned and gazed back out to the open Savannah. The sound was coming from over the hill rightward from us. It resembled that of a lion's roar.
“Did you hear that?” I asked, looking to Jamani.
He nodded his head yes.
“It sounds like it’s a lion,” he said
While it wouldn’t be so surprising that we would hear a lion's roar in the reserve, there was still something that felt odd about it. All the know lions in the reserve were westward in the reserve. As far as what we knew, they had made their territory there, it had plenty of game for them. Another was that one of the other rangers had last reported them being there. That report was over a short while ago, that wasn't enough time for them to come in this direction. One of the logical explanation was that it may be lions that are coming from far off the reserve.Offen male lions would wander into a pride's territory. Reasons being that they were in search of a pride of their own. With that in mind, there was also conflict with the trespasser and the alpha of the pride to follow.

With that said, this was something that I thought that needed to be looked into. The lions here in the reserve, the two males here, Blyds, the eldest and Jengo the youngest were on the line of competition. I wasn’t thinking that they would lose the fight, but it was the aftermath that would follow that had me concerned. If they were badly wounded or injured, they would be unable to cope with the pain and would surely die. I wasn’t about to let more lions be driven away like the ones had before them.
“It must be male wandering,”
I turned back to gaze upon the hill. With my growing concern for the two males from Toronto, I felt that it was best to look into the situation. I felt the need to confirm my suspicions, my hope was that it would be either Blyds or Jengo who had just wandered this way. Even though it was reported that they were still westward in the reserve. Maybe one of them wandered off afterwards and came this way in the search for food.
“I hope not,” I said.
“We don’t need for another dead lion in the reserve.”
I pushed the passenger door open and stepped out of the jeep. After of which to the back of my jeep, to my grey bag that laid behind my seat. I unzipped the top and reach into the bag. I pulled out my binoculars, taking the small string and slipped my head through the large hoop of the black string.
“Radio, Jessica.” I said.
“Ask her if Blyds or Jengo are missing. I’ll go up the hill and see if we do have an unexpected visitor.”
I then turned and ran toward the green, grass covered hill. As I came up to the top and to the side of the umbrella tree. I gazed out over the wide fields mixed with but green grass and light dirt ground below. With few umbrella trees that stuck high up from the earth below. But I saw no lion, I saw no sign of any other animals. Not a giraffe, not a zebra, not even a small meerkat and warthog. Only a deserted land of dirt and plants and a soft presence of wind. I raise my binoculars up to my two eyes and looked through the siding scoops.
Looking to a close view of the land, I still saw nothing out of the ordinary. I began to slowly turn myself around, continuing look upon the savannah. There was still no sign of any lion. That is until I came to hear another roar. For a second, i looked from my binoculars and looked to my right, where I saw in the far distance a watering hole. I turned myself around and looked in through my binoculars the small watering hole. As I gazed down below at the wide pond. I began to lower my sights down the bed of the waterhole. Thereby the tall green grass by the bank of the watering hole was a full grown lion.
I looked completely shocked. I dreaded that this would be the answer to my question. The lion looked to be much younger then Blyds and may even be stronger than him. He might even overthrow the old lion. Not only that but he could drive out Jengo. I lowered my binoculars and turned to the jeep below. I waved toward Tamani. After of which I turned back and gazed down below at the lion. I saw him gazing at the open path through the green grass. He looked as if he was expecting someone. It was then I found out that my previous prediction was wrong. As I shifted my sights to the tall green grass and that's when I saw that his lion was not a lone wanderer in search of a pride. There were three lionesses walking through the grass toward him. Another to follow was a young lion with a darker mane.
Watching this small group of lions, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the lions that I had once brought from Virginia. They had some resemblance to them, however, I recalled that there were three males in the pride, Ali, Leon and Osama. There were only two here. However, they both looked to be somewhat familiar to Areli and Leon. The three lionesses along with theses two males looked to be like the three females, Leandra, Arielle and Sahala.
“Len?” a voice called to me.
I turned to see Tamani approaching me.
“Is it a lion?” he asked curiously.
“Lions,” I answered as I turned back and raised my binoculars back to my two eyes.
“Theres a pride?" He asked.
"Looks like it." I said as I turned to him.
"Theres a group of maybe, five of them.
I gazed down below the approaching lions to their fellow pride member. However as one of the lionesses leftward from the other two is when I saw something following behind her.
“Wait,” I said.
“What?” Tamani asked.
I locked my sights upon this strange lion that followed his members. I noted in my mind all that seemed to be out of place. It looked to have no fur, only barring skinned that looked tanned, it also had a long dark brown mane that reaches no further than the top of it’s back. I lowered my binoculars to my chest and continue to gaze down toward the watering hole.
With everything that I had saw, there was so much that didn’t add up to it.
“There's about six of them,” I said looking back to Tamani.
“But there’s something off about one of them.”
“What is it?” Tamani asked curiously.
"Hang on." I said.
I turned back to the waterhole below. and raised my binoculars up and gazed down at the group of lions below. The lionesses came to the edge of the water and leaned down to drink the pond water below their paws. As the lioness came out from the grass, I saw that she carried a small cub in her jaws. There were two more who walked at her side. It was clear that she had come to mate the Alpha who drank from the watering hole. I spied upon the strange lion that came to ending line of the grass, to which I saw the lion in the short clearing I had. Only that, what I saw wasn’t a lion I saw. It looked like a…. boy!

I was completely shocked. Down among the group of lions was an actual human boy. He stood beside the lioness who he followed. From all that I could, he looked to be thirteen years of age and was also completely naked. His skin was darkly tanned and ha a few claw marks inbedded on his back and sides. He stood in a crouching position and scooped water in the palm of his hand brought it up to his mouth to drink. I dropped my binoculars and my mouth hung open.
“Oh my god,” I said in complete shock.
“What?” Tamani asked.
I turned my shocked expression to him.
“It’s a boy!” I said.
“A boy?!” he asked.
I took the binoculars from neck and handed it to him.
“Yes, there's a boy down there!”
Tamani took them and looked down to the watering hole. After a short while of gazing down at the watering hole, he lowered them from his eyes looking just as shocked as I was.
“Oh god,” he said just as he looked to me.
I continued to study the boy from inside my mind. From the single image of him in my head, from the details of his nude body. His skin looked to be tanned, once looking as if it was white. His hair was long brown. It was clear that he didn’t look to be a child from a village. He didn’t look like he came from any African heritage. My interest in this lion boy sparked and grew like a fire. If there was something I could see out of this was something out of a book by Edgar rice Burroughs. If there was any story that me and Sarah loved to read at a time was the Adventures of Tarzan of the apes.
We loved the original books of the Burroughs most iconic character. Another of our favorites were of Mowgli from the Jungle book. We loved any of the novels from the imagination of Kipling or Burroughs. Sarah most of all. In fact, she would always read those stories to Jay when he was five. He always loved those books. In many ways, I had always seen him as being either one of those characters. As the king of Apes or the boy who runs with wolves. Sarah I could see as being the she-ape Kala or Raksha, the caring mother wolf of Mowgli.
With a story such as those here before my eyes, I knew that this needed to be known by the others at the lodge. However with just words, I was sure that no one would believe me. That is why I had already decided on another way to go about this. I looked Janami.
“Tamani,” I said.
“Get my Camera from the jeep and put in one of the other tapes in the bag. Quickly!”
Janami quickly ran back to the jeep below the hill. I stayed and gazed down to the lions at the watering hole. I raised my binoculars back up to my eyes and continued to gaze down upon the boy and his lion counterparts. To my luck they were still there, drinking from the watering hole, It wasn’t long before Janami finally came just a short while later, bringing his video camera with him.
I turned to my friend and took my video camera.
“Come on,” I said.
I began making my way down the hill of to the waterhole below. Along the way, I looked toward the waterhole to the lions. They looked to be the same place as they were.As we reached the bottom of the hill, I looked through my binoculars and gazed upon the pride. I did see some difference to where they had stood, now the two of the lionesses, one of them being the mother of the three cubs walked from the shore of the watering hole and at the front of the grass. The several cubs came to his side and began to play with one another. The boy drinking from the water turned and walked toward the two lionesses, He lied down next to one of them, nuzzling against her tanned fur. The lioness in returned began to groom him, licking his hair and tanned skin.
This was a sight that left me feeling so eager to capture this one film. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The boy was sharing what looked to be a bond to one of the lionesses. What seemed to be that of a mother and cub. He must have been one of her cubs. I lowered the binoculars and looked to Tamani,
“We need to get close!” I said.
“Just look at this.”
Jamani took the binoculars and looked through the two scoops, gazing toward the boy. There he saw this strange wild boy, being licked clean by the lioness mother. Even more, the shock was written upon his face at the sight of the lionesses affection to the boy. He lowered his binoculars as he continued to gaze ahead at them.
“Stay here,” I said.
“I’m going get a close to them.”
I began moving toward the watering hole, holding my camera over my shoulders. I moved in a crouching position, trying to keep myself from being seen by any of the lions, that especially being the alpha lion. As the most protective over his pride, he surely wouldn’t give me a fighting chance. As I approached them, I came up to a tree that stood close to the group of lions. Looking over to the boy, I saw him now being climbed upon by what looked to be his three siblings, one of them now in his arms and reaching up to his face by its paws. By then, I was in a close sight of them.
I stood beside the tree, I stood upon my rights knee and aimed my camera at the boy and two lionesses. I began to film the three. They were completely oblivious that I was watching them. The boy was too busy with the three lion cubs that crawled all over him. The boy growled playfully to his three cubs. One of them crawled up his back and bit down on his ear, pulling and tugging it, He turned and growled at the cub as he continued to pull upon his ear. The boy rolled upon his back, pressing up against his mother as the cubs crawled up upon him. I just chuckled, seeing the boy continue to play with the three lion cubs. All the while, I couldn't help but think of something that was somewhat familiar to me. There was just something about what I was seeing here. The sight to which this boy played with the lion cubs as if he was one of them. I seemed to remember that Jay often played with Areli and Leon when he was five years old. Of course behind the glass barrier. Jay would often tape on the glass and get them to follow him.
As I gaze to the boy through the scoop of my camera, there was something familiar about him. He looked somewhat like Jay. I remembered that Jay also had brown hair just as this boy had. Though I gaze upon him now, seeing his eyes, I saw that they were blue. Jay had those same eyes as he did. It had been six years since I had last saw Jay. So the boys age was also something to be expected.
Yet as I continued to ponder over the similarities they had, it was then the boys sights shifted to my direction. He gazed over to see, looking straight into my camera. I looked upward toward them, looking at them in shock that they saw me. The boy in a moment stood up on all fours in a crouching manner of that of a lion. He hissed at me like a cat, baring his teeth as he and the two lionesses quickly got up and quickly dashed into the grass and out from my sight. I then saw the boy reach his head down to the cub below him and grabbed him in his mouth. After of which he quickly turned followed his supposed mother. Up ahead at the bank of the river, I saw the two males quickly move into the cover of the green grass.
I stood up on my two feet and looked to the grass. I saw the boy and the lions make their way through the grass and out into the Savannah. A common behaviour of a wild lion when faced with humans. I was left to stand and wonder about this boy. With all that I had seen of him, there was something about him. Something familiar.
“Len!” I heard Jamani on my radio.
“Len, what happened?
I took my camera off my shoulders and continue to gaze in the direction of the boy and the group of lions. As I ponder to what I have seen of this wild boy, and with Jay in mind as well. I can’t help but think of what these two shared in looks and what they had in common with one another. Even with my question of what had happened to my friends son, I suddenly had one that I continued to ask myself. Could this boy who walks along this group of lions...possibly be Jay?