Outside, rain hammered down melting the frost and lightning roared overhead. Inside, Mia bolted through the old, run down building, gazing desperately for somewhere to hide. Ancient pieces of burned wood, rotted chunks of metal laying on the dusty, dirty ground and missing parts of the roof. To her horror, she could just about make out that there was only one way out through the door. It was locked.

Behind her, the psycho man stood illuminated in front of the door, a gold tooth in the moonlight. Mia gasped…

At that moment, something roared, louder than the thunder outside. Out of the shadows, two amber eyes appeared, a flash of tawny brown and the whitest of teeth. Whatever it was burst past Mia and stood between her and the psycho, homeless man.

It was huge. Huge and tawny brown. Mia realised that he was standing beside a massive lioness. It threw back its soft head and roared. At that moment the man fled. Mia stood rooted to the spot paralyzed by fear.

The lion rotated to face Mia and sat down, holding out her paw as if it was saying you’re welcome. She could see that she was injured. There was a line of blood across her leg. She had never been so close to a creature like this before. She could smell an earthy odor and watched as her pelt of tawny brown fur ripple across her back.

They stared at each other and Mia felt a weird connection between them, seeing deeper and deeper into her very being. But her horror began to fade away. Mia held out her hand facing her fear. The lion looked confused until Mia held her other hand over the lions head ready to stroke her.  Suddenly, the lion understood what Mia was doing. The lion lent forward and licked one of her hands and let Mia stroke her soft, fluffy head. Her eyes lit up as if heated by fire. She could see kindness but also pain.