HEART FULL OF LOVE / o, mutant crocodile

ROSEMARY ROUX

Drawn by the crowd, naturally curious what got everyone so interested, the ocelot seemed a bit more mystified than the rest. Her orange-amber eyes widened at the site of Kal's large form, at least as perplexed as his feline mother - she knew that crocodiles, even if overfed, never managed to grow this much in such a short time. The reptiles did live for decades, but Kal seemed to have achieved his full growth. Immensely interested in just how this happened, she opened her mouth to ask Roxanne about this; though, as far as she could tell by her sister's equally perplexed aura, she'd just waste her breath.

Turning her attention to the hatchlings, she cooed as one of them hopped onto her left forepaw. "You've such tiny lil teefs," she babbled at it, holding up her paw as she gently booped him on the snoot. The piebald croc simply stared at her with its mouth open, its pupils staring straight at one of her eyes. Laughing softly to herself, she booped his snoot again as she added, "I think I'll name you Eriocalyx, Eri for short." It seemed fitting since he was her pet: that happened to be one of the Latin names for a species of rosemary.

© MADI