Page 11

ELEVEN

My stomach was roaring by the time I got to the canteen, and I felt a little lightheaded which was not actually great. It was a bit ironic that my job was to take care of animals, but I didn't manage to do that for myself.

I made my way through the tables towards the food line and felt weird prickling in the back of my head, like people were paying extra attention to me.

Was it just my imagination, or did I smell? I didn't think anyone had peed on me today, but who knew if I stepped into something questionable during my rounds.

I got to the front, grabbed a tray, and ordered some food.

Everything looked really good, and I was craving carbs, so I got fries that looked golden and delightfully greasy and a big slice of lasagne to go with it.

The wonderful aroma made my stomach rumble even louder, and I was glad that I quickly spotted Felicity, so I didn't have to waste time looking for her.

She looked up from her phone when she heard me coming, but had a weird smile on her face. "Hey, Char."

I set my tray down so I didn't drop it before leaning over to kiss her. "Hi. I'm starving."

"When's the last time you ate?"

"Breakfast." I didn't wait and stuffed some of the fries in my mouth. They were salty with just enough crisp and so satisfying. That hit the spot.

Felicity hummed. "Right. That's really not okay, but that's a problem for later. Have you been on your phone?"

"Not really. If I had a break to be on my phone, I would've eaten."

"I thought as much." She grabbed hers from her tray and pushed it my way. "Look at this."

There was a strange tone to her voice that made me put down my fork so I could focus. Her phone was queued up with a video, which wasn't unusual, we shared funny videos all the time.

"Unicorn bites girl's butt, #animalfails," I read, dread replacing the hunger in my stomach. "Oh no."

I hit play, and the video started, bringing up the very familiar sight of the unicorn herd from one of our viewpoints. The quality was pretty bad because it was so zoomed in, but I recognised myself and Felicity when we entered the habitat.

I wasn't sure why I kept watching, I knew what happened. And yet, I was glued to the video that captured the unicorns swarming us, the little disagreement between the colts, and Criss trotting up to me for the treat.

"Look at his face," I pointed out, tapping the screen to pause. "His eyes are so wide, and his lips are pulled up. That's such an aggressive look."

Felicity nodded. "Criss has been so naughty recently. No, you know what, it's not fair to call him naughty. In the wild, this is exactly the kind of behaviour you'd want to see from a subadult male. He's challenging boundaries, getting possessive over the ladies."

"It's giving leader of the pack material," I added.

"For sure. If he got too daring and annoying, the Sergeant would kick him out, and Criss would start a herd of his own where he can flirt with the ladies as much as he wants." She sighed. "In here, he's just not got the freedom to display those behaviours."

I nodded and pressed play again, even though I knew exactly what was going to happen. It was just one of those morbid curiosities that I couldn't contain.

I grimaced when Criss made his attack, and my bruised bum cheek throbbed when I watched him bite me with his big teeth.

"Ouch. No wonder it hurts when I sit," I muttered.

"Does it still hurt?"

"Yes, of course. Didn't you see how hard he bit me?" I asked, pointing at the video.

Felicity gave me a pity smile. "Yeah, it did look brutal."

"It was. Absolutely brutal."

"You know, if it still hurts tonight, I can kiss it better," she said with a cute wink.

That made me laugh. "I'm up for that, if I'm not too tired. I'm looking after Obie, the hellhound. I'm actually kind of in charge of his care," I announced, grinning with pride.

"Oh, really?" Felicity's smile grew into a real one. "That's amazing. I mean, you deserve it. You've worked so hard in the past months."

"I have. I've run myself ragged for this place," I said, sighing when I thought about just how many hours and energy I had put into this job. It was worth it, but that didn't stop it from being more exhausting than anything.

And now I was in one of those fail videos online.

"How many people have seen this?" I asked, scrolling down to the stats of the video. "Fifty thousand people?"

"You know, considering internet stats, that's really not a huge amount. That's not even semi-viral," Felicity said with a reassuring grin that was entirely unconvincing.

"You saw it. How did you come across this? Just from swiping, or did someone send it to you?"

"Just showed up in my feed," she admitted. "But! But, I'm subscribed to this channel because... well, I find these kinds of fail videos funny. I mean, not the ones where people get seriously hurt obviously."

I glared at her. "And you don't think Criss biting my butt hurt?"

She pulled a face. "Sorry."

"It's fine." I tapped the video again, replaying it to torture myself.

At least my face wasn't hugely recognisable.

Or at least, not to anyone who didn't know me.

It was frustrating that the Griffin Sanctuary was tagged in the description but it wasn't like viewers actually cared about the people in the videos.

They just wanted a quick laugh and then would've forgotten all about it within five seconds when they scrolled to the next video.

At least, I hoped that would be the case with this video.