Chapter 1

Chapter 1
April 5
4:00 a.m.
Waza National Park, Cameroon

Gabrielle Chambers sat motionless in the tall grass for over thirty minutes, while the lioness approached from the distance. The ends of her dark hair danced on her shoulders in the gentle breeze, while her narrow face remained fixed on the animal's movements. The near full moon allowed her excellent visibility, and she had been able to watch the lioness for almost the entire time. Now the lioness was within a hundred yards from where she was sitting and she was beginning to get nervous. She started to twirl her gold crucifix that dangled from her neck between her thumb and forefinger. She wondered how she would fend off an attack if the lioness came at her. "A hundred and twenty-five pounds of food, that's what I'd be," she thought. Gabrielle had never shot a lion of any kind before. But she had enough experience shooting other animals, so there was no real reason to worry. She worried anyway, about a variety of potential problems. Was it still too dark out? How close should she let the lioness get? She even began to wonder what had possessed her to beg Alex to let her come on this trip anyway. "What about Alex," she thought. She glanced over her right shoulder and saw Alex wrapped up in a blanket at the base of the tree that was providing cover for them both. “Too late," she thought. She would not have enough time to go over and wake Alex up and shoot the lioness. She would simply have to shoot the lioness by herself and hope everything went well.
The lioness came to a clearing in the grass and paused. Gabrielle saw the moment she was waiting for, she took aim and shot. Again she shot, and again. The lioness paid no attention. Gabrielle was ecstatic. The lioness simply waltzed around the clearing while Gabrielle shot it repeatedly. Before she knew it she had gone through the entire roll of film, and was quickly rewinding it. She took out the spent roll and stuck it in her shirt pocket. Then she frantically searched her other pockets for more film. She found none. Gabrielle remembered Alex insisting on carrying the film. "Well," she thought, "nap time is over."
Gabrielle started to get up. When she realized her legs had fallen asleep, it was too late. She had already stood with her whole weight on them before she felt the infamous pins and needles. She cringed and stumbled forward knocking over the tripod in the process. She looked up to see if the lioness had taken off after being startled, but it had not. It was shitting. Gabrielle could not help but to laugh. "Here I am all worried about being stalked by this lethal beast," she thought, "and it was really just looking for a good place to crap!" After her legs had woken up, and the lioness had gone, she made her way over to Alex.
"How could anyone sleep through all that?” she asked.
No reply, Alex was still not conscious. Gabrielle crawled up closer to Alex and repeated.
"How could anyone sleep through all that?"
Slowly a hand emerged from the six foot long blanket cocoon. Alex's left hand grasped the blanket at the very top and began to slide it down. First it revealed hair, dark brown hair with a serious case of bed head. The blanket slid further down until it revealed an eye, also brown and fighting to stay open.
"Did I miss something?” came the mumble from beneath the blanket.
Gabrielle lunged forward grabbing the blanket and yanking it off him.
"You sure did," she said.
Alex sat himself up and began to warm his hands together, it wasn't cold out. He just wanted to show Gabrielle that he wanted his blanket back. Alex let loose a huge yawn and stretched his hands skyward, then out to the side. Whether he liked it or not, he was beginning to wake up. He rubbed his finger across his large unshaven chin. The fatigue was slowly wearing off, at about the same rate as the lines the blanket had created on his face. He looked up at Gabrielle, and all he saw was excitement. She was just waiting to blurt something out. If she were any more elated she would have been bouncing up and down, and he wouldn't have to say anything in order to find the cause behind her frenzied state.
"And what might I have missed?” he asked.
"I saw a lioness," Gabrielle said anxiously. Blurting it out exactly as Alex had pictured it, though the news still caught him off guard.
"And what happened, did you get any good pictures?" Alex asked, now fully awake at the news.
"I did everything right," she began, "the lioness was within a hundred yards, in a clearing. The moon was providing excellent light. The lioness was prancing around. She'd go back and forth, not moving too fast. Everything was perfect."
Alex took a deep breath of the morning air, and paused.
"Did the lion sniff the ground a lot?” he asked.
"Yeah, why?” she said.
"Oh, nothing," he said, "I just wanted to know if you took any pictures of lions that weren't taking a dump."
With that Gabrielle threw the blanket back at him. It caught him off guard, and hit him in the face.
"I couldn't get any other pictures," she said.
"And why not?” Alex asked.
"Because somebody was sleeping with the film," she said.
Alex thought for a second, yup. He had insisted on carrying the film, and he had assured Gabrielle that he was not going to fall asleep.
"What are you, Jealous?” He asked playfully, egging her on. It was enough to do the trick. Gabrielle pounced on him and pushed backwards until he was lying down. Then she sat on his firm stomach and began to question him.
"What did you say?"
"I said," Alex paused, "How many pictures did you get with the lens cap off?"
Alex began to laugh even before Gabrielle started to tickle him.
"I don't think I heard you correctly," she said as she continued to tickle him, relentlessly.
"Now what was it you were saying?” she asked again.
Alex was laughing so hard that he was finding it very difficult to reply. He thought for a second as she continued the onslaught.
"I said let me sleep until noon, and stop squashing me you cow." With that Alex started laughing uncontrollably, even to the point where no sound came out but the laugh was still there. Gabrielle leaned over him and grabbed the pillow from behind his head. His head hit the ground with a dull thud, and he didn't even notice what had happened. At least not until he saw Gabrielle beating him with the pillow. Even then it didn’t fully register, because he reached behind his head for a pillow to fight with.
"Uh, Duh, there is just the one pillow," Gabrielle said as she struck his unprotected head. Alex fended off enough shots to get his hands firmly on her small biceps, preventing any further blows. Gabrielle still began to squirm in a frenzy, still trying to swing the pillow. Alex rolled her off to his right, as he did she flung the pillow off into the distance. Then when she landed on her back Alex sat down on her hips, pinning her hands at her sides with his knees. Alex knew the weight wasn't too much for her to bear. Granted, it might be a strain for someone to support a hundred eighty-five pounds, but Gabrielle had done it several times. They had wrestled before, and afterwards she had told him that it was no problem. She had even gone as far as to say that she thought he hadn't been resting his full weight on her.
"Now what are you going to do?” Alex asked, still out of breath.
"No, what are you going to do," she began, "you know I'm not ticklish, and the pillow is too far away to reach. Since I am pinned down, the question is what are you going to do?" She was right the pillow was no closer than six feet. Any attempt to get it and she would be released. No, this situation would require something else. Alex starred at Gabrielle, and she starred back at him. Then he saw her green eyes widen and begin to glow in the predawn light. In an instant she turned her head to the right and her long brown hair obscured his view of her face. He had heard it too, there was no doubting it. The pride was heading their way. Alex stood up off her, then gave a hand to help her up. She took his hand and stood to a crouch, the same as Alex. Then they proceeded to sneak toward the tripod. The lions were at least two hundred yards off, and they weren't moving toward them, they were eating. Gabrielle reached down and grabbed hold of the tripod and stood it back up. Alex reached into his pocket and pulled out a fresh roll of film, and handed it to Gabrielle. She looked back at him with surprise.
"You're not going to take the pictures?" She asked.
"Not today," he said, "today it is all yours."
Gabrielle took the film and loaded the camera. She thought about what it meant, for her to have total control. Alex Taylor was one of the leading photographers of lions, and he was letting her run the show.
"OK," she said, "you're the boss." But to Gabrielle he was more than just her boss or her friend, he was her mentor. Gabrielle had not expected to do much of the actual photographing when she was told that she would be making the trip to Cameroon. She had only hoped to watch and learn from Alex, as she had done before. Now it appeared that he was taking her to a new level, and she liked that very much. Gabrielle began to photograph the lions as they fought for dominance, and it had made her think. Here she was barely twenty-four years old, and she was being handed the torch to carry on. No, that wasn't it. Alex was far too young to be passing up the limelight. Thirty-two is hardly over the hill in this industry. She was being allowed to enter the group, much like the lions that she was now photographing. She had completed her struggle for dominance. Not the wrestling that had occurred earlier, but something before that. She had dared to photograph the lioness without waking Alex up. Although she was forced to do it, due to her own mistake. She had let the lioness get to close before thinking to wake Alex. But, Alex didn't know about that part. In Alex's mind Gabrielle had attempted to venture out on her own. That had been enough to earn his respect on this shoot. If Gabrielle felt that she was ready to take the lead, then he was willing to let her. He would be there to help her in any way he could.
As dawn rolled in, the lions finished their feast and the pride moved on. Alex and Gabrielle lay on their backs watching the moon drop out of sight and the day begin. Gabrielle played with the spent rolls of film and wondered what she had achieved. The contents of her hand certainly wouldn't break her career, but it could make it. Alex just lay there thinking of all the potential the fresh new day had in it. Alex was never much of a morning person, by the time he usually got sight of the new day it was already many hours old. Whatever they lay there thinking, neither one of them could have imagined what the new day would truly bring. They could not have imagined, in their wildest dreams, the chain of events that were about to take place. A chain of events that would take them on a fantastic journey and change their lives forever.

Reviews

[theking]

Hahaha, what a great way to end my reviewing session here on the Cafe :) I'm glad I decided to give this one a go, cause it definitely payed off in the end. Humorous, great writing, and some of the best dialogue I have seen in a long time on something submitted here. I just thought it was wonderful.

I came to this because I felt like giving a chapter a review, considering I mainly stick to just poetry. So does everyone else for that matter, and I personally feel like the stories, books, and chapters should get a bit more attention. Aside from my personal opinions (ironic cause that's all this review is) I think it deserves many more reviews and views than what it has right now. I read this over twice, trying to find a significant flaw that I could point out just because I hate to leave reviews without constructive criticism, but I couldn't find anything. And that, my friend, is a miracle.

All in all, a fantastic piece of work. I'm most impressed with how easily you made the dialogue between Alex and Gabrielle flow. Some of the best work I saw on the Cafe today. You have my full support :)

Keep up the good work, and rate my review if you found it helpful!