<div class="floatleft">(http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h357/daniellex28/215f5c00-e5d3-4cb3-966e-883c0d3304bc_zpshuk31qlv.png)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Julie Lancaster (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=250173.msg12381790er#msg12381790)<br/><strong>City | Date | Time:</strong>Animal rehabilitation centre near Kruger National Park | March 17 2015 | 09:45 PM<br/><strong>Tagging | Mentioning:</strong>Elena/Nicole<br/><strong>Content:</strong>Coming Home<br/><hr/><br/>It was nothing short of mesmerizing to see the look of wonder that filled Nicole's eyes upon taking in the sight laid out before them. Julie gladly imagined that when she had first arrived on the southern continent she had regarded the world in much the same way, marvelling over how stunningly beautiful, how incredibly surreal and so vastly different from her homeland it was. It was an experience that seemed to find her every time she returned to the wildlife reserve, which made it all the more remarkable that Julianne found herself gladly lingering on the sight of Nicole instead, who remained blissfully oblivious of the undivided attention of her new friend that she had garnered.<br/><br/>The enthusiasm of her new companion was infectious, even if Julie hardly needed any encouragement to exhibit her excitement over returning to the wildlife reserve. She had missed the African continent dearly while she was graduating, and every moment spent here was a blessing that she never ceased to be grateful for. There were also other sentiments present though, ones that she wasn't quite as familiar with. It probably had to do with the fact that in all this time, Julianne had never been able to find someone like her, no, someone like<em>Nicole</em>, who so willingly followed a complete stranger into the best sort of adventure life had to offer. And, although this was something she was a lot less consciously aware of, the fact that she stayed so physically near Julie really helped as well.<br/><br/>"Wouldn't think you've been sleeping for the past three hours,"  she said teasingly as she watched Nicole try in vain to suppress a yawn. The jeep was turning into a smaller road, one that turned rather abruptly before heading up a slope. Julie, knowing what was coming, instinctively braced herself one moment before realizing Nicole would likely be caught unawares. It wasn't like she would ordinarily be so forward, but with her present company it didn't feel strange to reach out and wrap her arm around the girl's waist, pulling her closer as Julie used her free hand to grab the bar that ran along the length of the back of the jeep's cabin. Almost immediately one of the wheels hit a ditch in the road, and they were almost launched right off the side (or into the cargo, rather), and even Julie had trouble remaining upright now. "I'm sorry," she said uneasily, but only when the jeep had returned to a more even path once more, "I probably should have warned you."<br/><br/>Julie's hand remained loosely resting upon the gentle curve of the girl's hip, almost as if forgotten; the familiarity of it was a little unlikely, but to not retreat seemed so incredibly logical that she couldn't bring herself to back away. Instead she pointed over the top of the vehicle towards the buildings that Nicole had noticed not moments before. "That's the lodges," she explained, a bit redundantly perhaps. Julianne indicated a group of ten or so wooden buildings with low gabled rooftops that stood perched upon wooden poles to even their flooring against the uneven slope upon which they were built. There was little horizontal ground to be seen as a whole; the entire area seemed to consist of gently waving grass and darker soil, rolling out towards more densely overgrown areas in the distance. There was electrical lighting visible, and each cabin had a porch light near its door. There were a few more lights scattered outside the one bigger building; the common area, clearly, where the office, the kitchen and the dining hall were situated. Julie dutifully explained it all to Nicole, making it abundantly clear that she loved the place dearly if only by the way she explained every little detail. "A river runs to the east of the place; we sometimes take the primates there to play. The enclosures are a stone's throw away from the lodges. They are purposely kept dark so the animals don't get too used to the artificial lighting. I'll show you all the poor creatures we keep here by morning, although..."<br/><br/>It was at this point that the jeep made another sharp turn before drawing to a rather sudden halt in a makeshift parking spot, and this time the significantly distracted Julie had to hold onto Nicole to keep from falling instead. Her fingers dug, perhaps a bit painfully, into the girl's soft skin as she all but crashed into her."Hah," she muttered awkwardly, her fingers brushing back a few strands of hair, "Sorry about that." Immediately a look of flustered embarrassment overcame her, and now Julie did jump away, right out of the jeep, in fact, as if she needed the distance to clear her head. Julie went in search of her backpack, which was stowed away behind a crate of metal cans. She removed a heavy torch from within and, with a quick smile and a look of insincere apology, turned to her peers. |We'll come help in a moment," she assured them, which was a blatant lie and they all knew it. "But I have a friend who's been waiting to see me all day!"<br/><br/>Julianne turned to Nicole and gestured with renewed excitement. "Come!" she urged, skipping ahead with a sudden impatience. Julie didn't quite explain herself; she merely ventured over to the main building, making sure that Nicole was keeping up with her, until she reached one of the side entrances. In its doorway a woman already stood waiting, a look of playful impatience on her face. "You're late," Cora scolded, "I bet the little devil's going to be upset with you."<br/><br/>"As if he could ever be angry with me," Julianne countered confidently. She approached the middle-aged woman, who had the most beautifully braided, dark hair, and took the generously sized bottle that she was wielding. "Besides, I've got the perfect thing to bribe him with now!"<br/><br/>Again Julie urged Nicole to follow, although the path that she was leading her on to was one that seemed to head into the most intense sort of darkness. Julie almost forgot to turn on her flashlight, and for a moment she halted, clumsily wielding the milk-filled container and the torch for a moment before deciding there was a more practical solution. "Have you ever bottlefed a wild animal before?" she inquired matter-of-factly, thrusting the bottle into the girl's unsuspecting hold. Flicking on the torch was easy now, and a narrow beam of light extended before them, revealing the way to a tall enclosure not fifty feet ahead. From it a high-pitched whine had begun to emanate, a pitiful howl that was pulling at Julie's heartstrings. She grabbed Nicole's hand with her own, leading her onward to the big wooden door, which was barred from the outside. On the opposite side the sound of shuffling feet could be heard, the whinnying noise now all sort of aggravated sounding. Immediately she began to lift the wooden beam and undo the lock. Julie didn't dawdle, although she did spare a moment to warn Nicole. "Be careful," she insisted, "He has a way of hitting you in the back of the knees, making your knees buckle. You don't want to know how many times he had me trip right into a pile of--"<br/><br/>Perhaps she should have kept a bit of pressure upon the door, but already Julie learned that her focus seemed to wander in the presence of Nicole. As a surprisingly strong force barged into the door, she found that she didn't need to be headbutted in the knees to be knocked clean off her feet. A rather shocked "Whoa!" escaped her in the split second before she fell backwards, the torch instantly launched from her grip. It spun along the ground, its beam aiming rather uselessly towards the distant trees. Something brushed past Nicole's legs, causing her to lose her balance at least a little. Julie made a valiant effort to struggle back up, but already it was too late. As happy little grunty noises echoed in the darkness she felt the considerable weight of a baby black rhino pretending to be a lapdog barging into her. A surprisingly soft nuzzle was shoved into her face, causing the girl to first protest with shocked cries of "Khara, no!" before relenting, and with a girlish sort of elated laughter she finally managed to elbow her way into a semi-upright position just so she could wrap her arms around the cuddly creature. She felt rough skin against her far more delicate body and a somewhat unsettling wetness from what she hoped to be excitable drooling. "You big oaf," she said in mock complaint, and Julie pressed a kiss against the little rhino's forehead, her hands finding his favourite spot to scratch, right behind his wiggly ears. "You're supposed to make me look good in front of my new friend!"<br/>