Hey there. I don't mind if you review this or not, since it was written for LavenderBlue. She gave me a challenge, and I accepted. Anyways, here it is. Love it or hate it, I don't care. But please, do enjoy it.
Hope you like it, Lavsy!
The Vegan Lion.
The lion paced, caged in stone and metal bars. The zoo was silent in the predawn light. All the other animals were still asleep....and yet the lion was awake. At dawn, which was only an hour (or less) away, the Zookeeper would come and check on him, and the rest of the animals. The lion watched the sky as it lightened and eventually the sun climbed higher into the sky.
He was hungry. So hungry. But he didn't want the meat the keeper would give him.
You see, there was something very odd about this lion. A strangeness he did nothing to change.
This lion did not eat meat. He did not like meat. He despised the taste, the flavour or it. He hated the texture. The very thought of it, the very idea of eating meat made him feel sick. In fact, everything about meat disgusted him.
Who would kill a poor, defenseless creature just to cut it up later for food, and then to sell that food for money? What kind of creature would do that?
The lion had his answer.
Humans. Humans would do that. And the lion knew why.
Humans were empty inside. They killed and ravaged and destoryed everything around them for their profit. They did it just so they could have more and more. Humans did what they did because of greed.
Greed because they did not have something and it left them hollow inside. Greed because they did not, and could not, understand certain things... Like the wind through grass or the cries of a thousand birds in midair. Or the scent of lavender that drifted to the lion on the breeze from somewhere beyond the stone-and-metal walls of his home. Or even the way a butterfly was beautiful, with its flashes of gold and black in the sunlight. Or the way the sunlight played across the ground when it shone through the leaves of the maple tree overhead.
Or what it truly meant to be free, as when an gazelle raced across the plains in the wake of a gathering thunderstorm.
Life was free. The lion knew that. All animals knew that.
Life was precious. Especially to the lion, who knew that at any moment, the humans who had caged him might sent him free--or choose to destory him.
The lion paced back across his home, which was really a cage, his prison. He watched absently as the sun climbed ever higher into a bright blue, cloudless sky. The scent of lavender drifted past him again and the lion turned, trying to scent it out. He loved the scent of lavender, enjoyed it. It reminded him of what it was like to be free.
The Zookeeper was approaching his home, his cage. It was her perfume he could smell, along with the potplant she carried. Both were lavender. The lion grinned his lion grin--a smile full of teeth and snarl. The zookeeper ignored it. She even smiled at him and placed the potted lavender near the edge of his cage just beyond the bars. She called his name, told him he was a good boy and then turned away, leaving the lavender where it was and disappearing around the edge of a building.
The lion stared at the lavender and then glanced at the sky. The sun was nearly soaking his entire home in light. It would be time for the zoo to open soon and that meant that she would be back, the zookeeper. And she would give him meat. Again. Just like she had ever other day. The lion knew, for it was as regular as the rising and setting of the sun. And just as set-in-stone.
And he would eat it, because it was all they ever gave him.
But he would hate it.
And then she was back, as the lion had known, for the growing scent of lavender had warned him. And she would have the meat. The lion growled, watching as she came into view. She would throw the meat over the fence to him (which she did) and he would eat it (which he did).
But he did not have to like it (and he didn't). And he would have to deal with it, for he would not escape and the only escape he did have would be death....but he did not want to die. Yet. He had a little longer to live--a reason for just a little longer. He could do it. Just a few more days.
And so, as the sun rose and humans flooded the zoo and the scent of lavender brushed past a pacing lion, the animals kept watch. And they listened. The birds sang, the monkeys chattered, and the humans made a racket.
It was just like every other day at the zoo. Stone walls, ponds of water, fields of grass or dirt and an old, old lion with beautiful golden fur that did not eat meat and loved the smell of lavender, for lavender reminded it of freedom and life.
The lion knew. Life was free. Life was precious.
Life was not meant to be caged.
