“What kind of huntin’ are ya thinkin’ about?”
Mal gave him a sly look. “Well, we’re in the woods back near the hotel…”
“Oh, you wanna be an outdoor kitty.”
“Dining al fresco. Speaking of dining, what’s in that booth..?”
After having a crazy burger (a burger with a bun made from a doughnut), they started heading toward the midway. It was dusk, and the lights from the rides were already on. Knight was looking around at each of the booths, looking for something. Then he stopped in front of one, looked up at the array of stuffed animals and nodded. He turned to the bored young man at the game, then the game itself.
It was a fishing game, where you held a fishing pole over a tank of running water and colored disks went by quickly. You had to dip the fishing pole just so and catch the right colored disk. You couldn’t hold your fishing pole over the spot where you thought the disk would be. Everyone was a winner, usually of a plastic spider ring or a box of snaps. The blue disks were the largest, about three inches in diameter, and the smaller disks were two inches and then a quarter in size. “Five tries for a dollar,” said the bored kid.
“How much will five dollars ge’ me?” Knight asked.
“Five tries for a dollar. You do the math.”
Mal grumbled, “C’mon, let’s – ”
Knight didn’t move, shelling out five dollars. “I know I won’t ge’it in th’ first shot, not ’till I see it go by.”
“No hovering,” the boy said, handing Knight a little plastic fishing pole and four dollars in change. Knight sighed, and watched the water go by. Knight flicked the fishing rod in, and got a blue disk. The kid reached behind him and got him a caramel. “You’re kiddin’, right?”
The kid showed him the blue bin, full of different sorts of candy and novelties. “One out of the bin. Got a problem, talk to the boss.”
“Knight, let’s go,” Mal said.
“Not leavin’,” Knight said, and tried four more times, getting four more bits of candy. He took out another dollar bill and tried again.
Mal had never seen Knight so determined. Dollar after dollar exchanged hands, and still he kept getting blues or yellow – medium sized – disks. A small crowd started to gather, watching Knight, groaning when he missed, sighing when he would come up with a blue disk or a yellow disk. Finally, after a good half hour of fishing, he caught a red quarter-sized disk. The small crowd cheered when he got it.
“That right there!” Knight cried out triumphantly, pointing. Mal looked up and now he realized what he was so determined to get. Nestled among the orange tigers was one white cat, spotless, with a long, tiger tail and blue-irised eyes. The young man took it down and Knight, in the presence of the crowd there, handed it to Mal.
Mal’s eyes went glassy, and he said, with a serious look, “Let’s get out of here.” They walked a little ways from the crowd, and then Mal grabbed Knight, and kissed him softly, in full view of the midway. “Do you have any idea how much money you sp–”
Knight kissed Mal, then smiled. “Shhh, let’s go ride the rides.”
“They don’t look very safe.”
“No, they don’t.” And Knight dragged him to the ferris wheel.
At the top, Mal kissed and made out with Knight even to the point of them coming down, holding hands. Knight was breathless and bulging, and Mal looked like he had eaten the canary. They started walking off the platform when Knight whirled around and glared into the crowd. He’d distinctly heard, with his superior hearing, some guy say, “Faggots.”
Mal had heard it too, but chose not to react, as he took Knight’s arm. “Don’t,” he said. “Don’t let some asshole ruin this evening.”
Knight looked at the tiger, then back up at Mal. He started through the crowd again.
Someone let off a fire cracker which meant fireworks were about to start. They jostled for position near the horse dressage area, Knight using his bulk to push his way forward to the fence, and pulling Mal forward to stand in front of him. Knight put his arms around Mal, and the light show began from one end of the dressage field.
The noise was deafening, the colors bright. It was as if the sparks would hit them, they were that close. Knight and Mal were caught kissing in the lightshow, cuddling with each other, the crowd more concerned with what was going on above them than what was going on before them. After the finale, Knight waited at the fence for the crowd to die down, holding Mal’s hand and caressing his fingers.
“I’m too wide awake t’ go back t’ the hotel.”
“Me too,” Mal said. “I was wondering…want to take that night run?”
“We c’n go behind the stables, there’s a mountain back there.” He started to push against the tide of people. “Traffic’s gonna be a nightmare f’r a while.”
The two men got past most of the people, and headed to the back of the stables. They wove their way through cars and trucks parked there, then campers and tents, using their innate natural grace and ability to stick to the shadows and avoid people. They found they faced a fence, with a road snarled with cars in one direction, but fast moving in the other.
They easily climbed the fence, avoiding the razorwire on the top, and stayed behind some trees. “Here good enough?”
Mal frowned at the two-lane highway on the other side with its fast-moving cars. “How fast can you go?”
He started stripping. “I c’n keep up, but we c’n go down a little ways to the parkin’ lot – ”
“We’ll be seen.” Mal concentrated and changed into the beautiful, proud snow leopard. “One good thing about that mage,” he said.
“Heh,” Knight changed into his larger leopard form and then the two stepped out into the light. At some unsaid signal, both of them bolted out into the road, quickly crossing the highway, and then jumping on a couple of cars to get to the other side of the road. After a cospe of trees, there was another fence which they climbed over by using a tree, and soon they were bounding up into the mountain, into the night.