Chapter 2

The quiet contentment of a full belly was shattered by the snap of a twig.

Franco's head shot up, the last piece of hyrax forgotten. He instinctively shoved the cubs behind him, pushing them flat against the ground with a heavy paw.

He held his breath, his ears swiveling to catch the sound again. There it was. A heavy, shuffling footstep, too clumsy for a cat, too predatory for an herbivore.

Through a gap in the tall grass, he saw it. A spotted hyena, its powerful shoulders hunched, its ugly head swinging from side to side as it sniffed the air.

Franco's heart hammered against his ribs like a subway train rattling through a tunnel. He knew, with a certainty that chilled him to the bone, that he couldn't win this fight. Not now. Not in his current, pathetically amateur state.

The hyena's nose twitched. It had caught the scent of the kill. Its head turned, its dark, intelligent eyes locking onto their position. It started toward them.

Franco's mind raced, a frantic slideshow of bad options. Fight and die? Run and hope the cubs could keep up?

His eyes darted around, searching for anything, any advantage. They landed on a thick, thorny bush nearby. He recognized the thick, thorny bush from a documentary he'd shot in Namibia. He remembered the guide warning everyone to stay clear of it, mentioning something about its nasty sap.

An idea, insane and desperate, sparked in his mind. It was a long shot, but it was the only shot he had.

Without a second thought, he burst from cover, deliberately placing himself in the hyena's path. He let out the most ferocious roar he could muster, a sound that felt ridiculously inadequate coming from his lean frame.

The hyena, surprised by the challenge, stopped. A low growl rumbled in its chest, and a string of drool dripped from its jaw. It was furious.

That was the plan.

Franco turned and ran, not away, but directly toward the patch of desert thorn.

The hyena, its small brain consumed by rage and the promise of an easy meal, gave chase.

Franco poured on the speed, the ground blurring beneath him. He felt the hyena's hot breath on his heels. Closer, closer... now!

Just as he was about to impale himself on the thorns, he dug his claws into the earth. He used his human understanding of physics, of inertia and momentum, to execute a hard, screeching turn that would have snapped the spine of a lesser creature.

The hyena, not equipped with such advanced braking technology, was not so lucky.

It plowed headfirst into the dense wall of thorns with a wet, sickening crunch.

A high-pitched, agonized shriek tore through the air. The hyena thrashed, but every movement only drove the paralytic thorns deeper into its flesh. Its struggles grew weaker, its limbs twitching, until it collapsed into a heap, whimpering.

Franco stood a safe distance away, his sides heaving. He watched the predator fall, a cold sense of satisfaction settling over him. He had won. Not with muscle, but with his mind.

He went back for the cubs. They were trembling, but alive. He knew they couldn't stay here. They needed a fortress. A home.

After an hour of walking, he found it: a massive, abandoned termite mound. It was a giant, sun-baked castle of hardened mud, hollowed out by time. The entrance was a narrow slit, too small for a lion or a hyena to squeeze through. It was perfect.

He ordered the cubs to wait outside while he went in first, clearing out the spiders and scorpions that had taken up residence.

When he was done, he looked at the entrance. It was good, but not good enough. It needed an upgrade. A New Yorker's upgrade.

He trotted back to the scene of his victory. Ignoring the stinging pain, he bit off branch after branch of the desert thorn, dragging them back to the termite mound.

He spent the next hour weaving the thorny branches into a complex, tangled maze around the entrance, leaving only a small, cub-sized tunnel through the middle.

Sean and Roy watched their new father's bizarre construction project with wide, confused eyes, but they dutifully practiced wiggling through the thorny passage when he commanded them to.

As night fell, a chill crept into the air. Franco and the cubs huddled together in the deep, dark safety of the mound. For the first time since he'd woken up in this world, he felt a flicker of security.

Roy, his belly rumbling again, started to lick Franco's chin, making small, plaintive noises.

Franco sighed, a very human sound. He wrapped a paw around his boys. He cleared his throat and, in a low, rumbling murmur, began to tell them a bedtime story.

He told them about the great squirrel wars of Central Park, of epic battles fought over hot dog buns and the eternal struggle against the pigeon mafia.

The cubs didn't understand what a hot dog was, but the sound of his voice, a low, steady vibration in the darkness, soothed them. Their breathing deepened, and soon, they were fast asleep.

Franco looked down at their small, trusting faces. A strange, fierce tenderness bloomed in his chest. He was their dad. He was their protector. And he would keep them safe.

Later that night, a soft slithering sound from outside the mound woke him instantly. Something was testing the thorny barrier.

He peered through a crack in the mound. In the pale moonlight, he saw a long, black mamba, its scales glistening. It had been pricked by the thorns. It hissed in frustration, then retreated back into the darkness.

The trap had worked.

Franco closed his eyes, a small, grim smile on his face. He had a home. He had a defense system. Maybe, just maybe, they were going to make it.

Then, as the first rays of dawn painted the horizon, a deafening roar ripped through the savanna. It was a sound of pure, absolute power that shook the very ground beneath them.

A lion.

Franco stiffened. The air had been growing drier each day, the grass more brittle under his paws. The big puddles from the transition weeks had vanished. But a strange heaviness still clung to the pre-dawn sky-a weight of moisture that didn't belong. Out on the horizon, dark clouds gathered, dense and swollen. He knew what it meant. The dry season was coming, yes, the lion's roar had announced it. But the season was still young. One last storm was brewing, a final, deceptive gift before the world turned to dust.