fh_trips | Loisaba Conservancy, Kenya [Tuesday Daytime]

Even with Kurt's awed reaction, Libby was not prepared for what she saw when she managed to lean in close to him and followed his gaze through the grass. The gasp left her before she could hold it back, and her hand flew to her mouth to cover it a little too late. And her hand over her mouth was probably the only thing stopping her from actually gushing something out, but, thankfully, practically miraculously, she was able to hold the words back.

Kurt held a finger to his lips and gestured fervently as he grinned at Libby's reaction despite himself. He leaned back over and peered back through the grass, glancing between Libby and the rhino several times.

A moment or two of gawking later he remember the camera and slowly lifted it and started snapping off some photos, glad he remembers to set the shutter to silent mode before they had headed out that morning.

Libby had both hands on her mouth now, as if for extra protection, but the more she looked out at the rhino, the more she thought about how close they were, out here in the bush where there were also lions and elephants....it was almost almost too much to process! Without even realizing it, she started to lean forward a little; her hand reached out for Kurt's shoulder to steady herself, shifted her position to try and get even that much closer...

Which, of course, meant her knee went pressing into the ground....and into the oh-so-inconvenient twig that happened to get caught in between the two.

Her heart stopped. Her eyes somehow managed to get even bigger.

Oh, shoot.

Oh that was not good! Kurt's eyes went wide as well as he looked at Libby and then to the Rhino.

"Oh Verdammt..." he muttered as he saw the rhino's ears fold back against its head as it turned facing them, giving a snort of alarm.

"Libby..." he said still trying to stay calm and quiet as he could. But it was too late, the rhino was spooked and started to charge. "Run!" he shouted as he jumped to his feet, dragging Libby with him as he turned to run, silently cursing the tall grass that blocked his view at that moment.

"R-run?" asked Libby, her brain simply not able to keep up with this sudden turn in events, gawking over at the rhino and not fully processing what was happening until she felt her arm being tugged by Kurt. It wasn't exactly her proudest moment, maybe; it was hard to really be brave when there was an actual rhinoceros charging after you, but she let out a little shriek as she scrambled to her feet to run after him, willing her legs to move faster, praying desperately for salvation in the very rea and immediate sense of the word!

Kurt kept running, making sure Libby was keeping up beside him. Glancing behind them quickly, Kurt shifted direction and turn to the side, pulling Libby along with him as he did.

"Trust me!" he called out as the rhino seemed to gain on them with that change of direction. But it also brought them out of the tall grasses where Kurt could see ahead clearly.

"Hold on tight" he yelled as he wrapped an arm around Libby, pulling her closer as he got ready to port away.

Boy, was Libby sure feeling glad she ditched her usual long skirt for a pair of pants for this excursion! Not that they were doing her that much good, because she really wasn't much of a runner at all, and if it weren't for Kurt pulling her along...

She felt her feet tangle up in each other as he changed direction, made the terrible mistake of looking back to see where the rhino was, and then before she could even think to scream, she felt herself being pulled into Kurt and stared wide-eyed at him while her brain caught up and she remembered, that's right! The plan! And not knowing what else to do, she closed her eyes and clung onto him tightly and prayed that God at least would make being turning into a pancake by a rhino quick and painless...

Muttering a quick prayer of his own, Kurt fixed his eyes on a spot as far ahead of them as he could. Then taking a deep breath, he held it and then ported out of sight, just as the rhino picked up speed again, charging through the wisps of black and purple smoke that was left where they had been a second before.

A few seconds later the two popped back into existence a safe distance away from where the rhino went charging past. They managed to roll into a another patch of tall grass. Kurt held his breath for a moment, not hearing the sound of the beast charging at them any longer and let out a ragged sigh, his heart about to beat out of his chest.

He looked over at Libby laying beside him, wanting to make sure she wasn't hurt and also worried about how she would handle the teleporting as it usually threw most people for quite a loop when they weren't used to it.

"Libby! Libby, are you alright?" he asked, a look of deep concern on his face.

Libby hit the ground with a faint grunt, rolling onto her back and feeling like she couldn't even move, as her mind seemed to be racing with the erratic beating of her heart. She stared up and saw only vast blue sky overhead, and thought for a moment that, hey, being trampled wasn't so bad after all. She barely even felt anything, except maybe her stomach almost dropping to her feet and an odd dizziness even though she was laying perfectly still.

But then she heard Kurt calling her name, and she blinked, and turned her head, and there he was, and she realized she wasn't trampled at all, he'd managed to port them out of danger, just like they'd planned...

...and then she just started laughing and wasn't sure she could stop.

Sure, it was probably some sort of trauma response to it all, but she was laughing and couldn't help herself.

"That was...amazing!"

But it wasn't over yet, so she did stop long enough to push herself up on her elbows to look around to find where the rhino had gone.

"Is it safe?" she asked, confirming that it was with her own two eyes. "We're in the clear?"

Kurt looked at Libby for a moment, convinced she was ok, despite the odd nearly hysterical laughing. Kurt rolled over onto his back and sighed, trying to get his own breathing to slow down as well. And eventually he started chuckling himself and soon he was laughing along with Libby.

"I... think we're good. I don't hear it anymore" Kurt said as he slowly rolled and stood up, motioning for Libby to stay down. Standing up to full height, Kurt was able to see over the grass and quickly scanned the area.

"I don't see it anywhere. I... I think we are in the clear." Kurt turned to look back to Libby as he held a hand down to her. "You're sure you are ok? Not hurt?"

Loisaba Conservancy, Kenya [Tuesday Daytime]

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