Once the boar were dead, the lion tamer had to drag them back to the lions using the horse harness. Then, he had to use more than brute force to cut them up while they were still warm; he had to become as savage as the wild cats. By the time the eight felines with the gaping mouths saw him coming with the bloody meat, they had been salivating for hours. He always began by feeding Théo, since he was the most senior, and then the others. He tossed them whole sides of animal, tough and full of bones, so that they would experience some of the barbarity that was the joy of their lives. The big cats plunged their snouts into the scarlet animal parts, biting into them as if devouring the evening sun they had never been able to catch, a red sun tasting of death. As they tore apart the flesh, they were drunk on the odour of the cadaver, their jaws and forelegs covered in blood.

The lion tamer stayed close as they ate. An eating lion does not purr, nor does a tiger. They devour their food with complete concentration, making an arresting picture of pleasure and displaying the kind of carnal greed that he had known himself and that still plagued him if he crossed paths with that woman. He could not stop thinking about her although he tried not to. It was just that since he had held her in his arms, the day she had fainted on her horse, since he had felt her body so light and gentle against his, he had imagined himself holding her again many times, and could not rid himself of his unquenchable desire. Sometimes he saw her passing on her horse on the lower paths, as if she sought to lose herself or perhaps to find herself. Each time he saw her, it was more than desire that he felt, it was a hunger. Yet if she were to come back here, if they got close enough to each other to embrace or even to form a bond, he would be impregnated with her scent, her odour, and the lions would not put up with that. From that point on, he would definitely lose all authority over them, and his wild cats would respect him no more.

August 2017

August 2017