West Valley Safari Park Little Roots, Little Shoots
#1

Outfit



A cool breeze had picked up dirt and grains from the earth. Maxine shielded her eyes from the incoming onslaught at just the right moment, but that didn’t stop her, ”ACHOO!” which came from outside the wildlife centre.

She stood there, utterly still as she pulled her burrowed face back from her arm.

... Only to see that her jolt had caused half the pellets she’d purchased to scatter across the ground. :(
#2

Outfit



Parker was here out of cautious curiosity. She'd discovered while on a walk that the cat she always admired from afar on account of it being frightened of her decided she was not so scary after all. It'd let her pet it, which was a privately magical moment for Parker. Further experiments like walking beside dog walkers and feeding birds had resulted in... a change in behavior she hadn't expected. Animals seemed as friendly to her as they did for any human.

Testing it out on wild, exotic animals was daunting, but she had read about this place when exploring what Hollowstone had to offer. This was one of its shining jewels.

That was all beside the point. She was making her way back to her car, map and animal guide in one hand, cup of pellets in the other when the wind picked up. She lifted her hand to clutch at her hat, squinting at the dust, but jumped as the sneeze sounded from nearby. Blinking, Parker looked upon the woman who's presence seemed imposing, and saw that she'd spilled her pellets. Smiling softly, she moved to bend to start help pick them up, "I don't think the animals will mind a bit of dust." She reassured.
#3
The last thing she could’ve expected was to be joined by another Were, but that was exactly what happened. A nice girl with a calm aura about her, dressed in fashionable fall clothes Maxine wished she would’ve known how to pull off.

The black bear loomed gently and curiously, as she did with most creatures that were smaller than herself. Her instinct to nurture was prevalent in moments like these.

”Don’t think so either,” Maxine returned just as softly, smiling. She lowered her cup and crouched with her, briefly pressing her nose against the sleeve of her t-shift before her fingers got to work picking the pellets up.

”Um...” She breached the topic with sheepish care. ”Didn’t expect to see someone else like me around here.”
#4
The woman was very pretty and had a warmth about her that eased her initial intimidation. Whatever she was, she was large but seemed in control enough not to be a threat. It didn't stop the flutter of her heart in her throat at her willingness to address the similarities between them. Gathering the pellets in one hand, Parker nodded and averted her gaze away. "I... wanted to see if it worked with all animals." She explained, assuming the woman knew what "it" was. Or else she was here still under the assumption that animals hated their kind, and taking some kind of risk.
#5
Shy thing, that seemed to hold her head away in a manner which was purposeful. And that was alright. Maxine understood the feeling. She pried her eyes away, dropping a handful of pellets and dusty earth into the cup. Didn’t look too pretty, but oh well.

She started picking up another handful.

”Far as I’ve seen, it works on horses and cattle,” Maxine huffed a laugh, trying to ease the mood. ”So I’m thinking it should be alright here, too.”

There was an offer to brave the task of novelty together somewhere there but hey, Maxine had just met her. And she was the one helping her be less of a mess, not the other way around.
#6
Horses and cattle. Parker had not interacted with either in years, well before she had even been adopted. That being said, she felt some vote of confidence that things wouldn't turn disastrous on this excursion. Squinting briefly up at the woman, she smiled softly, "Do you spend a lot of time around animals?" Parker did, but they were much less alive than what she as implying now.
#7
”Indirectly,” she told her, eyes bright to match her curiosity. Maxine even met her squinting gaze, pausing the task at hand for a second or two.

”I work wherever folks will have me on this side of town. Farms and ranches usually have some type of labour-intensive work to give me. So far... no problems with their livestock.” A small, content, shrug.

That was true. But she did also give them all an especially wide berth the closer the full moon got—but that was a separate topic.
#8
Parker looked to the woman's hands as she explained. They were feminine, but not soft in a way that suggested she never used them. Instead, they bore the wear and tear of acting as tools. Her mother's hands had been the same way, she remembered. Her own hands were not so worn, but they were often dry from frequently being washed. She couldn't decide if she hated that. Anyway.

"That's good." Parker decided. Scooping up the last of the pellets, she reached to place them in the woman's cup, "I still think I'm nervous about this, though." She admitted. "I don't want a zebra bite." A small joke, delivered with a tiny sound that could pass for a laugh.
#9
Maxine didn’t notice the small study she did of her hands. Timing and all that had her eyes back on the pellets. Not too many were left, but a few scattered to the wind all of a sudden, causing Maxine to laugh and groan at the same time as her own meek laugh.

”You could always hitch a ride with me. Make sure that doesn’t happen,” she offered then and there, just because it made sense to her.

And then she ushered the rest of the pellets onto her palm with the edge of her hand.
#10
Oh. She looked to the woman's face briefly, wondering if it was some sort of strange joke. But she seemed genuine. Parker's initial response was to deny her, to assure her that she would be fine alone. But... well. She did think she may be less nervous if she weren't alone doing it. What if she talked herself out of feeding any animal because she was too cowardly alone? In the end, she also just felt too uncomfortable to deny the woman.

"Oh. Erm. Alright." She agreed with a small smile, sitting back some as she tucked her hair behind her ears. "I... don't want to intrude, though." She added her objection. Pitiful.
#11
”No intrusion,” she quickly and easily abolished the thought, giving the cup a little shake. ”I was feeling sort’ve lonely anyway. No fun in doing this by myself.” Which was true, now that she’d said it.

Maxine rose with a smile, offering a hand to the young woman.
#12
Right, Parker. It was rude to question her after she'd already offered it. Besides, she had her own intentions with inviting someone along, beyond trying to repay her for her help. Don't be so self centered.

"Well, in that case." Parker said with a small laugh, shaking her own pellets lightly. "Erm, who's car did you want to take? I have a Versa." Not quite an impressive car.
#13
”Mine?” she said without much delay, dusting her dominant hand off the side of her pants. ”My Ford’s high up. Should keep you safe from any zebra bites,” Maxine spun it back around to her earlier concern with a chuckle.

It wouldn’t do much, really, but hey, maybe the sentiment would work?

Maxine... would begin leading them towards it, if the other Were was alright with it.
#14
A truck was better suited.

"Alright." She agreed with a small smile, letting the woman take the lead. As they walked, she pressed her thumb against the side of her cup of palettes, squinting against another buffering wind. It would be better inside.... the woman's car. "Erm, what's your name? I'm Parker." She offered.
#15
It was relative silence for a few moments. The sort that made Maxine a little nervous around strangers, but... at least there was a destination in mind. When the breeze picked up again, she shielded her eyes some with a glance to Parker.

”Maxine,” she revealed, smiling tightly like the sun was blasting her face. Except it wasn’t. Just dirt. ”You live around here or have you come from further in?”

Black Ford. There it was. Maxine unlocked it, but she wouldn’t swing around to the driver’s side until Parker had answered.
#16
Maxine. It was an uncommon name, but pretty. Parker liked it.

As for her question, "Lauderhill." In short. She slowed as they neared the car, "But I visit Hollowstone often." Because it very stranger to keep it at a one word answer while readying to climb into a stranger's car. God, was this a stupid idea? No. She didn't seem untrustworthy. But wasn't it foolish to assume a woman had any better intentions than a man? What if...

Parker. It was fine. This was broad daylight in an enclosed park. It was going to be alright.

"What about you?"
#17
To Maxine’s ears, that just meant she worked here or something along those lines. Though... Maxine wasn’t sure what a pretty girl like herself had to do in Hollowstone. Family business? Yeah. Not sure.

She answered her question when she’d lifted herself into the driver’s side, her own cup of pellets sitting between them. ”I’m over in Camp Baron myself. There’s a group of us over there,” Maxine confessed readily now they were... inside.

Oh, and she opened the windows after she’d turned the ignition on. Car safari things.

”Don’t know how familiar you are...?”
#18
Camp Baron, not far at all. Parker had shifted there many times. She nodded in understanding. "Erm, a group of bears, right?" She questioned. Either Calvin or Adina had told her that. She settled into the seat, feeling uncomfortable in a stranger's car. There were small things that stitched together what type of person Maxine was, and she observed them as she buckled herself out of impulse.

The front was extremely clean, but a swift glance back through the rearview illuminated where the woman stored stray belongings. Nothing uncleanly, likely things for her job, possibly necessities for Weres. She'd learned after her two public shifts to always keep spare clothing in her car.

Anyway. She set her eyes on the road ahead.
#19
Oh, she knew. That was gratifying in some strange way. ”Yeah,” Maxine huffed easily, fondly, as she began along the road. ”It’s um... five of us. You have a group of your own by any chance?” Or know anyone like her?
#20
Yes, five bears. The number was needlessly intimidating. It was only one more than they had. But there was a difference between five bears and... really and amount of small cats. Though, Parker knew the size of their beasts held no stock in the threat they posed. Thus far Maxine was proving to be kind, so it was easy to assume the others she associated herself with were kind as well.

"Um, four of us." She answered. Four, what? "Cats. Black footed cats."
#21
Hey, that name immediately rang a bell. Maxine gasped lightly in pleasant surprise, teleported to what... ten years ago?

”That’s sweet,” she said before correcting herself, offering a glance Parker’s way. Didn’t mean to sound patronising. ”Sorry. Mean they’re sweet. I’ve seen them before. Don’t reckon they might have them at this park?”

Not that they’d see them if they did, but!
#22
It was sweet. Parker didn't read too much into it before Maxine rushed to elaborate. She meant black footed cats were sweet, that she'd seen them before. Oh, had she met someone else? Suri and Hope came to mind with the word "sweet", sorry Shane. But then... she wondered if there would be any here. "Oh, you mean wild ones." She said, unstitching her brow with a sheepish smile.

She hadn't thought about the fact that in some places, black footed cats were kept in captivity. They were wild cats, after all, for all they were small and unassuming. It was easy to live with your head in a bubble, believing you were some sort of rarity. Right. She opened the booklet she'd gotten with a guide to the animals in the part, scanning through the pages. "I think I only read about cheetahs."
#23
If that wasn’t the expression of someone who wasn’t keeping up, Maxine wasn’t sure what was. So she uh... bit her lower lip in, glancing back ahead, eyes on the road.

”That’s alright then. They’re not too bad themselves,” she said brightly, but it was sort of a question?
#24
Not too bad themselves. Parker nodded as if she was any kind of authority on the matter.

For a moment, she was quiet as they passed over a cattle guard on the thin dirt road that would carry them in a winding safari through the park. Her eyes cast to the stretch of open land on either side of them, spying for any sight of animal. So far, nothing but a flock of long legged birds gathered near a small pond. "Did you work with wild cats?" She questioned, unwilling to let the silence become pregnant.
#25
A nod! Alright, this was difficult. Maxine wasn’t so good with quiet talkers, but at the same time, she also felt... older here, and somehow in charge due to that, so she was committed to taking it easy.

There was plenty of land to look around at, animals to try and spy.

Turned out Parker was incredibly observant, though. Which made sense. ”Oh, um...” She grinned lightly, caught off guard. ”I did a while ago. Technically it was just me volunteering at this conservation place, but...” Inhale! ”Good experience. Got to meet plenty of cats.”
#26
A volunteer at an animal conservation. That sounded endlessly more interesting than anything Parker had ever done. "That must have been fun." She mused, smiling genuinely, though it didn't show her teeth. "The closest I have come to animals recent has been with... taxidermy." Eesh, maybe not a thing to say to someone who clearly cared for animals. Speaking of, there seemed to be a herd of some hooved creatures up ahead, gathered near another car that was stopped on the road, a few hands waving out of the windows to toss pellets to the ground.
#27
Fun, yeah. But Maxine had had an unnecessarily busy life up until her mid-twenties. Maybe it was why she craved something simple now.

”That’s like those animals you see at museums and all that, right?” she asked curiously. Stuffed, dead, animals?

She slowed the truck not far behind the other one, thinking maybe Parker could try and attract some of the herd herself.
#28
"Mm," She confirmed, moving to gather some of her pellets in her palm as she spoke, rolling the window down with the other. "But, I do it on a much smaller scale. Bugs and rodents, some birds." She explained, then leaned out of the window tentatively. She didn't expect the creatures to go bolting, but she also didn't expect some of the stragglers around the first car to come loping up toward theirs. Heart fluttering, she peered down at the little deers.

A group of four does, all tawny and cream. Then, two bucks. One, a dark ruddy brown, the other a soft cream that darkened over it's back, which was speckled with white spots you'd see on a fawn, despite its rack of antlers.

Parker dropped the pellets onto the ground when they were close enough, withdrawing her hand to dust it on her jeans as she pulled up her pamphlet of animals. A brief glance at the first page, and she spotted a photo of a herd of deer matching the ones outside, "Fallow deer." She announced softly, ever worried that if she spoke too loud, the world would shatter around her.
#29
It was a bit of a strange occupation for the face that went with it, maybe, but Maxine didn’t have strong feelings. She’d seen probably... too many taxidermy heads indoors before. Deer. That sort of thing. Wouldn’t want it in her own home, but-

Oh, deer. Really, those were deer.

Maxine leaned back into her seat, elbow on the frame of the window as she watched Parker take initiative. Watched her dutifully open the pamphlet up again. ”Gorgeous,” she commented with a steady smile, eyes flickering to their company as they came in and out of view. ”They from around here? Don’t really look it,” she asked stupidly because this was a SAFARI AND APPARENTLY MAXINE HAD FORGOTTEN.
#30
They were, really, very pretty. Ethereal, thought Parker as she read over the small blurb. "Mmm," She said, her trimmed nail pressing to the word as she found it, "Europe, and the middle east." She read aloud, then looked over to Maxine. The car ahead of them was moving on, drawing the rest of the herd's attention to them. "Try to get some on your side." She suggested, gesturing to the pellets.
#31
Made sense, she supposed. Their pelt didn’t really look like it fit in here—not that Maxine was an expert. History being a ranger didn’t suddenly make her a wilderness expert! Just another person with an outdoor job.

”Oh, sure,” she perked up, a little surprised by the instruction. Not averse to it, though. ”Let’s test my deer whispering abilities,” Maxine chuckled quietly.

She picked up her pellets, shaking through her side of the window. But... no success. The deer that weren’t distracted warily approached closer to Parker’s side, though, so there was that.
#32
Parker looked back to the animals below as Maxine shook her cup, the beads of compressed grass and seed clattering hollowly against their container. The deer, however, seemed uninterested in the noise that was likely drowned by the hum of the engine. Instead, they did as any herd animal might do, and flocked to where they knew their companions were fairing well. Parker, grimacing some, moved to drop a few more pellets onto the gravel below. "That's okay. They're saving some for the other animals." She decided. "They're probably full." Maybe she shouldn't have dropped so many to begin with.
#33
That’s okay.

Maxine chuckled again, sweetened by the reassurance which seemed to be attached, inherently, to Parker’s nature. She put her foot gently on the gas again, holding the pellets in her lap with one hand.

”They clearly don’t mind you, though. That’s good. Means it’s not just... horses and cattle,” she kind of laughed at herself and how uncool she sounded, because why not.

Laughter remedied everything.
#34
"That's good to know." She agreed, even though she already knew it extended beyond that. Cats and likely dogs, though she was rather frightened of dogs nevertheless.

The land was pretty here, if not a bit like a monochromatic painting. All golds and brows, russet and red. The sky, of course, was bright and blue, though streaked with some brownish clouds that promised rain in the next day. It was a nice drive through, and not long after the deer, another herd of some kind of beast came into view gathered near a pond on Maxine's side.

On the other side of that pond, a few standing figures. Parker eyed them a moment, realizing belatedly they were ostriches. The herd, closest to them, was comprised of larger hooved creatures. Grey in color, sporting short and spiky manes along their necks and shoulders, which were striped with darker grey. Parker didn't need to look in the book to say, "Wildebeest."

Despite herself, a smile bloomed across her lips.
#35
Oh, wildebeest! Behind them, Maxine saw some ostriches. Both looked appetising, if she was being grimly, bearishly, honest.

She hummed in acknowledgement of Parker, half-wondering if her own cat, small as it was, felt that urge with larger prey. ”I always thought they were pretty pretty—when you see them running in those big herds of theirs,” Maxine said, shaking her pellets before scattering a handsome amount about. A few wildebeest picked their heads up, coming over and summoning more with them.

She’d also always sort of sympathised with them. Plenty drowned in those African rivers of theirs.
#36
Parker was glad to see Maxine was able to coax the beasts forward. They were larger than they appeared to be on any documentary she'd seen, making her glad that she was on the other side of the car from them. Still, she was curious as her cat was, stretching her neck slightly so she could get a good view. "They're very unique looking." She agreed. "I always imagined what it would be like to be in the migration across the river." Terrifying, really. But in such large numbers, maybe powerful.
#37
The hand came back in as the wildebeest stopped to graze (was graze the right word?). She glanced to Parker, who she trusted would tell her if one of the herbivores started to think coming too close was a good idea.

”And? What’d you come up with?” Maxine prompted with soft curiosity.
#38
Oh... well. She hadn't anticipated being asked, for some reason. Smiling sheepishly, she shrugged. "Probably very afraid. Crocodiles, and drowning..." She said with a shake of her head, and inhale. Too dark! "But, also very... brave. In a sense? To be part of something so big." Safety in numbers, in its truest form. No matter your chance of survival in the same situation alone, it was endlessly made more likely if you had more yourself around.
#39
They took a sinister turn, Parker moved past it, and in the end Maxine huffed with wonder, gaze turning back to the wildebeest. Brave, right. That was true. But she doubted wildebeest could process emotions like that.

Maybe Parker thought it was brave.

”Yeah, I don’t know...” she hummed, responding to a thought in her head. ”I wouldn’t mind being brave like that myself.”
#40
Parker laughed softly at that, regarding Maxine with genuine amusement. "You're not brave? You can turn into a bear..." How could she not find bravery in that?
#41
She sure could! ”Right. I can,” she agreed, mirroring Parker’s amused look. ”But I still get held back sometimes. And she’s not completely fearless, you know.”
#42
Right, Parker. Big and powerful did not mean infallible. Deadly did not mean dauntless. Every beast in the park could be dangerous if they wanted to be. But they could be so vulnerable, too. "Right. I suppose it's the opposite for me. Small, but not always fearful." She laughed softly. Tragically, that meant she ended up hurting people in the process. Too much to unpack there. It was an acknowledgment of a balance if nothing else. A balance of the world, of all living things. Strangely, she felt at peace with her part in that.
#43
Small, but not always fearful. The sentiment could've easily carried a deeper meaning. Did it? Maxine couldn't claim to know, but she did look at Parker as if she'd just seen a little bit more of her. She was a fine young woman.

"Two odds make an even, right?" she squinted, cheeks hurting from the smile she wore. "Or how's it go."

Saying their goodbyes to the wildebeest, she'd keep carrying the light conversation. When they did finally finish their tour of the safari park (unharmed!), Maxine would more than happily cover a little pick-me-up drink for both herself and the black-footed cat.
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