My First Coven

At the Zoo

 'Oh my Goddess. This is amazing.'

An hour after picking me up, Duncan had driven us to the Paradise Wildlife Park. Apparently, this was our date for today and to be honest, I was not complaining. I love animals and any chance I get to see all kinds of is a win for me. I can't remember how many times I had said "this is amazing" but I was probably getting in to double digits as the day went on. We saw all the big cats; the lions and the tigers but my favourite was the Jaguar that actually came out for a wander in his enclosure. I couldn't even remember just how many photos I had taken. Best of all, I got ice cream too.

We walked around the wildlife park for ages, stopping to look at the primates; the birds of prey, penguins, various farm animals, then all of the snakes and lizards in the reptile house which I didn't mind even though I'm not the biggest fan of reptiles. The snakes were pretty cool though.

'You having fun?' Duncan asked me as we took a seat on a bench near the Sun Bear enclosure.

'I am!' I beamed. 'I haven't been to a zoo or a wildlife park in ages it's been awesome! Thank you for bringing me here.'

'It's no problem, I'm glad you're enjoying it. I do have um, another surprise.'

'Surprise?' I quizzed. Duncan nodded at me.

'Yep.'

'Are you gonna tell me what it is?' I asked.

'Nope, it wouldn't be a surprise then would it?'

Yeah nobody tells you what the surprise is when you ask them but what the hell, if you don't ask an all that.

Duncan looked at his watch after a few moments whilst I decided to rake about my bag for the bottle of water I got earlier. Walking around this much was thirsty work and I had downed half the bottle by the time I realised Duncan was now stood up in front of me. I shoved the bottle back in to my bag.

'It's about time. Come on lets go to this surprise.' Duncan held out his hand in front of me. I took it as I stood from the bench thinking Duncan would let go when I was upright, but he didn't. He firmly, but gently held my hand in his and didn't seem to be letting go. So I guessed we were at the hand holding stage now, another thing on which I wasn't complaining at even though his hand was shockingly cold. He led me a little distance to a part of the wildlife park we had passed a while ago, to where the red panda enclosure was.

'This is your surprise.' Duncan said to me as he nodded his head to ward the enclosure.

'I, don't get it?' I said unsure.

'They do what they call "experiences." He emphasised that last word. 'I booked us in to hang out with the red pandas.'

It felt like my eyes were welling up slightly just from sheer joy. Now this was the kind of surprise I could get behind. Sure my Aunt got me surprises, usually some kind of present like jewellery or clothes or whatever. My mum sort of gave me surprises too, but they usually came in the form of her telling me she was working on my birthday or she was going away on a business trip for most of the summer holidays when I actually went home. But this, was quite possibly the best surprise ever.

'This is quite possibly the best surprise ever!' I squeaked at Duncan. Not knowing what came over me I threw my arms around Duncan and gave him the biggest hug I could manage. He laughed a little when I finally let him go.

'C'mon, lets go feed and chill out with some red pandas.'

I was gearing myself up to take loads more photos. I even got a few of Duncan too which I knew my friends would be dying to see as they were now invested in what was going on in my now existent "love life." They'd never forgive me if I didn't get at least one picture of Duncan to show them and I'd never hear the end of it if I didn't.

I was stood there daydreaming with what must have been an idiotic grin on my face. Duncan gently squeezed my hand and motioned for us to go through in to the enclosure where a keeper was stood checking bookings on an iPad. We joined the small queue that had formed and waited for our turn.