The Zookeeper 2: The Past and The Present

Ch. 3: Show Time

Elsewhere, Amity was on the viewing deck, looking out when one of the giraffes she helped raise from birth came up to her. It began to lick her, and she smiled.

"Yeah, I love you too." Amity said, "God I wish I could speak to you guys like Luz can."

There was a way, Eda had told her about a type of magic called "Beast Keeping" magic, but she said Amity wasn't ready to learn that level of magic yet. Amity pet the tall animal and smiled.

"You are the most beautiful creatures I've ever seen."

The giraffes hummed at Amity, acknowledging her compliment to them.

"Well, at least I know what that means." Amity said, "Go eat, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon."

The giraffe licked Amity's cheek before heading off the eat.

"They're beautiful." Amity said.

'Demons my ass, they're majestic.' Amity thought.

Amity still couldn't believe that giraffes were from the boiling isles, banished and called "freaks" compared to the other creatures in that realm.

"How can anyone call them freaks? They look pretty normal to me." Amity said to herself, "I hope Luz doesn't get hurt."

Later, Luz was in the alligator pen.

"Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen!" Luz said through a mic attacked to her uniform.

The crowd clapped for Luz as a few alligators were gathered around her.

"As you may know, these are American Alligators or Alligator mississippiensis, an ancient killing machine, the perfect predator." Luz said, "And here at the San Diego Zoo we have, the King himself... Tank!"

Tank came out of the water and "Scared" the other alligators in the pen, making them retreat in the water. At least that's what it looked like to the crowd. In reality, Luz had been going over this with the other Gators for a couple weeks, just to help give Tank that extra scare factor to the crowd.

"This is ridiculous." Tank muttered before he hissed, getting claps from the crowd.

"Don't worry, folks. Tank here is a sweetheart!" Luz said through the mic.

"Now, Tank is the biggest one here, at 17 feet long, almost 1,500 pounds. And he-"

Tank lunged at Luz with a hiss. Luz jumped up to dodge his lunge before landing back on the ground.

"Has a bad temper." Luz finished, "Don't let his tough exterior fool you, he's a big softy. Isn't that right Tank?"

Luz patted Tank on the snout and he hissed at her. He opened his mouth and Luz put her hand inside, quickly pulling it back out just before he closed it.

"As you can see, Alligators and other crocodilians are very quick when it comes to biting something... sometimes, trying to comprehend it can make you lose your head."

Luz put her head in his mouth.

"Fun fact... Alligator breath smells real bad."

Just as Tank slammed his mouth shut again, Luz pulled her head out, much to the surprise of the crowd. The crowd gasped while the children looked in awe.

"Don't try that at home, folk. Only a licensed and trained Zookeeper can handle day to day interaction with such wildlife." Luz said.

"Yes, that's why your safe doing this." Tank said, "Totally not because I don't get mass amounts of meat for it."

"You love me, and you know it." Luz whispered away from the mic.

"Sigh... you're right." Tank said, "Now, shall we do the finale?"

Luz smiled.

"Ladies and Gentlemen... you should never swim in the water when you see an Alligator nearby... but, as my mother says... I don't listen."

Luz fell backwards into the water, with Tank crawling in after her. The crowd gasped... and then Luz popped out, riding on Tank's back. The kids cheered as the adults clapped in awe as Luz gave a bow to them while on Tank's back.

"Thank you, thank you. This never would've been possible it if wasn't for my good friend, Tank. Give him some love, folks!" Luz said as she patted his head.

The crowd cheered.

"They love you, Tank."

After getting out and getting into a dry uniform, Luz got a call on the radio.

"Ms. Noceda, please come to the office."

This made Luz curious, the boss never asked her into his office before since she did a good job all the time.

"Right away, sir." Luz said into her radio.