Read Online The Zoo at the Edge of the World by Eric Kahn Gale - Free Book Online Page B

understand me for some reason, or perhaps they didn’t care.
    With no one to talk to, I thought it’d be a good idea to check the worksheet. I unlocked the staff room in back and closed the door behind me.
    Each species of snake prefers certain foods at specific times, with different intervals between meals. Some eat every few hours, and some get sick if they’re fed more than once a week. Everyone on the chart looked up-to-date except Dead Eyes, who was due for an afternoon meal.
    I turned to the small pen in the corner of the staff room. We keep the young capybaras meant for Dead Eyes there. A capybara is a very large rodent that lives in the jungle, something like a giant guinea pig. They weigh about three hundred thirty pounds when they’re full-grown, but the ones we keep for snake food never grow that large. They’re hardly teenagers when Dead Eyes gets them.
    â€œHello,” a furry-snouted creature chirped at me. “Do you know where my brother has gone?”
    For the first time, this new power didn’t seem so great.
    In the pen, there were five little piles of straw where each of the five young capybaras had been growing up. They were born a few weeks previously to Bucktooth, one of the females of the Capybara Camp in the zoo proper. Father decided we had enough capys on display and sent these babies to be used as snake food.
    This capy was the only one left.
    â€œI haven’t seen my brother in a few days,” the small creature mewed. “Before that my other brother left, and before that my sisters.”
    I felt a little ill.
    â€œDo you know where they’ve gone?”
    â€œUm, hello,” I said, blanching.
    â€œHello,” he said in a friendly tone.
    I checked the feeding schedule again. DEAD EYES: ONE (1) CAPYBARA . And the date was today. This fellow was on the schedule.
    â€œCan you help me find them?” he asked.
    I’d fed one animal to another before. I’d done it countless times. I’d eaten animals myself: deer, fish, snakes, frogs. Though I suppose they weren’t alive when I ate them. And they certainly weren’t speaking to me.
    â€œIt’s getting lonely in here.”
    I didn’t know what to do. Dead Eyes had to eat. We’d put him in a cage. He couldn’t hunt. That meant we had to feed him.
    As long as he was in that cage, I had to feed him little capybaras or else he’d die.
    â€œI . . . I don’t want to lie to you,” I said to the little creature.
    â€œDon’t want to lie to me about what?” he asked.
    My lunch felt unsettled in my stomach. I believe I’d had venison that day.
    â€œI know where your brothers and sisters are.”
    â€œYou do?” he chirped.
    â€œIt’s not good news,” I said. “They’ve been eaten. By a snake.”
    The capybara’s hair stood up all over his body. His eyes grew wide. His lips pulled back.
    â€œIs there a snake here? I thought I smelled something bad.”
    He lifted his forepaws to the edge of the pen and tried to jump out, but it was too high.
    â€œPlease save me!” he begged. “Please save me from the snake!”
    He was scared but gave me a trusting look. He didn’t know I was here to make a meal of him. That I’d done it before, even taken one of his brothers when the group was sleeping and dropped him in with Dead Eyes. I’d hardly thought twice about it.
    â€œOkay,” I said finally. “I’ll get you out of here.”
    One creature eats another, the circle of life—I knew all that. But I wasn’t going to kill this little creature asking for my help. I’d sneak him out of the Snake House and take him outside the walls of the zoo, and work all that moral stuff out later.
    â€œYou will?” the capy said. “Oh, thank you!”
    I nodded at him. All I’d need to do was somehow figure what Dead Eyes would eat.
    â€œI know! I know! I’m