30.03.2020 Views

New Orbit Magazine Issue 08; Feb 2020, The Future of Animals

  • No tags were found...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

_____________

Halfway up the rocky slope, Tama was starting to

question his life choices. He grabbed at a clump of

tussock to pull himself up.

“‘Get a PhD’, they said,” he muttered. “‘It’ll

be fun’, they said. Nobody mentioned agricultural

genetics research would mean having to play

sheepdog.”

“Go left, Tama!” shouted Doctor Makereti,

from a more comfortably level position far below

him. Tama obliged, stopping to curse when he

slipped into the embrace of a prickly gorse bush.

“That’s it!” the professor shouted as he

extricated himself. “Now make some noise!”

“Woof,” Tama said, under his breath. He

clapped his hands and let out a whoop. A dozen

sheep burst out of the patch of bush in front of

him and flowed down the rocky slope as easily as

if it were a flat paddock. Down below, Jack Davey

and his dogs set to work, herding them into the

temporary yards on the flat to join the rest of the

flock.

“Hey Tama, you missed one,” Makareti called.

He could swear she was grinning.

A few metres away a young ram stood atop a

rock, glaring at him. Tama leapt to an adjacent

rock.

“I should warn you that I’m an Aries,” he told

the sheep.

The ram seemed entirely unimpressed. Tama

edged closer, readying himself for a flying rugby

tackle. The ram anticipated his move and instead

of heading down the slope after his flock, he dived

straight over the edge of the small cliff. Tama

stepped to the edge and looked down. The ram

appeared to have backed himself into a dead end,

stuck in the scar of an old landslide with a big gap

between the outcrop he was perched on and stable

ground.

Angie came panting up the slope.

“Want me to go get the ropes?”

“Nah,” Tama stuck out his chest. “I can

manage.”

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!