On the Trail

Sightings of Heinrich were hardly in short supply. When a constable had reported to Captain Smith, Inspector Thompson, Detective Williams and Constable Harris that Heinrich had recently been sight in Cabbagetown, located in central Toronto, thus did the group travel to that portion of the city. While the men questioned those who had sighted Heinrich, Alexander and Cnut both proceeded to search themselves. Heinrich's scent was in the air and it stood out like, as humans said, a sore thumb.

For a couple of creatures who had never before smelled the scent of a lion before, the scent was something anomalous and somehow evil. They knew nothing of Heinrich and could not imagine that he was a thousand times more monstrous now than when he was a pale imitator of the Ghost and the Darkness back in Tsavo. Herr von Fell prided himself on being able to cow most animals and as he acknowledged that Heinrich was a pale imitation of the Ghost and the Darkness, he decided to spare the man-eater and so captured him, with the intention to add him to his circus. In the Ludwig von Fell Circus, Herr von Fell was owner, ringmaster and circus owner, able to put the fear of him in even the mightiest and fiercest of beasts and in a man-eater, he saw a challenge… A potentially self-destructive challenge. He did indeed cow Heinrich, but never permanently. Whenever Herr von Fell would pass by Heinrich's cage, the maneless lion would attempt to reach through the bars in an attempt to slash him. What resulted was every cowing becoming more brutal and Heinrich becoming even more aggressive as a result. He may have been a simple monster when he had been a man-eater roaming Tsavo, but now he was a demon!

Alexander had heard the Nemean Lion spoken of, a monster with impenetrable hide that was said to have fallen from the moon. Was Heinrich of the same breeding? Had the Egyptian lions, long since wiped out, been of the same breeding? Had the Ghost and the Darkness been of the same breeding? That Heinrich was a Tsavo lion like the Ghost and the Darkness and thus maneless was established, but the Ghost and the Darkness were legends in their own right, equal to the Nemean Lion, while Heinrich was someone that Alexander had never heard spoken of until today, so he must have been lesser than the more fabled Tsavo Man-Eaters.

Walking away from the Cnut and the men, Alexander followed the scent of Heinrich. He could smell it coming from one of the nearby backyards, at least that was what seemed to be the case. The concept of the backyard was one Alexander did not know, living on the heavily forested estate upon which Quebec Castle was located and a river ran through, things such as front yards and backyards was something simply something he had never seen before. Even back in Egypt, he had not seen such a thing. As he entered the backyard, sniffing the air, he saw some fine green grass, upon which Heinrich's footprints could be seen, a rose garden and a shed.

Eventually the footprints vanished, but the scent remained. Heinrich had jumped upon the shed and thus, had exited the backyard by jumping over the fence. A human or a canine might have had trouble getting on top of the shed, but for Alexander, it posed no obstacle: as a caracal, he could jump twelve feet in the air and the she couldn't have been more than eight or nine feet tall.

Leaping on top of the shed, Alexander looked out at what he saw. Down by a river, Heinrich could be seen, walking southward. He was dark brown in colour with a black tail tuft and from where he stood, Alexander could tell that Heinrich dwarfed him. He had never seen a lion before, but suddenly he felt like that story about a small fellow fighting a larger fellow named Goliath.

From all appearances, Heinrich did not seem aware that Alexander saw him. The maneless lion carried on southward along the river, until he suddenly stopped in his tracks. Eyes widening and ears pricking up, Alexander watched as Heinrich turned his head in Alexander's direction and upon seeing him, began to charge.