Jane felt sweaty, tired, and embarrassed; her patience had ran out. The open door meant that there was probably another zookeeper in there, one that was at least as clumsy as she was to leave the place open to the public. She was going to swallow her pride, ask for help, get dressed, get yelled at by her boss and then end her little ordeal. She walked up to the entrance of the enclosure. With a deep breath she entered the forest habitat.
The first thing she did was scramble to hide in a bush, then she searched for her coworker. A tree covered her hiding spot from the onlookers beyond the glass wall that surrounded the enclosure, no one even knew she was in there. Emboldened by her cover, she poked out her head out and yelled. “Hello? Anyone here? I kinda had an accident and need help.”
No response, at least not a human response. Jane felt something hot and humid upon her back, she fearfully turned around and saw an imposing big mass of brown fur breathing down her shoulders. Reflexively she tumbled backwards, her butt flat on the ground and her arms stretched behind her back with her hands on the floor supporting the weight of her torso. The animal had a big scar that went from the top of her eyes all the way down to her damaged nose. It was Orsa, the zoo’s half blind bear that could barely smell anything at all.
The bear kept coming closer, trying to properly sniff Jane. Orsa had a reputation of being the friendliest animal in the zoo, incapable of harming even the tiger that attacked her in the circus where she formerly lived. But even knowing that, Jane was still terrified at the sight of the majestic animal. She herself had never interacted with the bear in all her days working in the zoo, her boss still considered her too inexperienced to work with dangerous animals.
From the edge of her vision she saw that the zookeeper in charge of Orsa was looking at them with an “Oh god what do I do now” expression. After staring for a couple of seconds he bolted out muttering something that she couldn't quite hear. She hoped that he went to get help. But in the meantime the bear was still getting too close for comfort to her body, and she was still terrified.
Slowly, focusing really hard on not making any sudden movements, Jane crawled backwards away from the bear. But Orsa was not giving up and kept up with her. Incapable of looking where she was backing up, Jane crossed several bushes, branches and was pretty sure she accidently squished a few fruits while she tried to move away from the unrelenting Orsa. Finally, she felt her hands come into contact with something wet, she carefully turned her head and saw that she was at the edge of the enclosure’s pond, with nowhere else to back off and in plain view of everyone outside the glass.
Trapped, Jane closed her eyes and prayed for the second time that day. Orsa finally could smell her at her leisure. She ran her malfunctioning nose all over her body, the expression on the animal´s face twisting as she seemed to be very confused at what exactly she was smelling. The bear withdrew her snout from Jane’s skin and proceed to softly probe the naked zookeeper with her paws.
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