00:00Mark Thompson, 35 years old. He is a veteran veterinarian who has been treating wild animals on the African savannah
00:08for 10 years.
00:09Today, as always, Mark was heading out for a field visit under the morning sun.
00:15It was an ordinary morning, just like any other.
00:19But then, something lying at the edge of the bushes caught Mark's eye.
00:24Animals sometimes got caught in traps on the savannah.
00:27Thinking this was one of those cases, Mark moved closer.
00:31But the moment he did, his body froze like ice.
00:35The animal caught in the trap was a lioness.
00:38She was lying curled up at the edge of the bushes, one front paw gripped by an iron trap.
00:44Even caught in a trap, a predator was dangerous.
00:48Mark carefully took out his tranquilizer gun and aimed it at the lioness.
00:53But just as he was about to pull the trigger, the lioness's desperate gaze caught his eye.
01:00The lioness was pleading with him for something.
01:03Mark put the tranquilizer gun away and carefully approached her.
01:07He felt no threat from the lioness at all.
01:10She seemed to be staring at something in the distance, as if trying to tell him something.
01:15Mark first removed the trap and examined the wound.
01:19Fortunately, it was not deep.
01:21He disinfected it and applied antibiotic ointment.
01:25When the treatment was done, the lioness struggled to her feet.
01:28Then she turned her head in one direction and began to let out a low cry.
01:34Mark looked in the direction the lioness was pointing.
01:37Several tracks were clearly visible on the ground.
01:40Large, distinct hyena prints mixed with much smaller ones.
01:44Mark's expression hardened.
01:46They were the tracks of a lion cub.
01:49The savannah had been suffering through the severe drought.
01:53And Mark already knew that the conflict between hyena packs and lions was growing, as prey became scarce.
02:01The hyenas wanted the adult lions dead.
02:04It was clear that the cunning hyenas had taken the lion cub as bait to lure the adult lions into
02:10their territory.
02:11Mark immediately took out his radio and reported the situation to the ranger station.
02:16But the response was cold.
02:19Without an exact location, they could not deploy.
02:22The only thing Mark could offer was the tracks in front of him.
02:26Mark set down the radio and paused in thought.
02:30Logically, this was outside the scope of his duties.
02:33Going in alone to find the lion cub was far too dangerous.
02:37But he could not take his eyes off those small tracks.
02:42Knowing that a young life was in danger, he could not turn and walk away.
02:47As if he had made up his mind, Mark picked up his bag and stood beside the lioness.
02:53Then, together, they began slowly following the tracks.
02:57The lioness kept moving without stopping, even as she limped on her injured leg.
03:03The instinct driving her toward her cub was stronger than the pain.
03:08Mark walked silently beside her, following the tracks with his eyes.
03:12The hot savannah sun beat down on their backs.
03:16But neither of them could stop.
03:18About an hour into the walk, in the distance, a hyena was tearing at a piece of hunted meat near
03:25some bushes.
03:26The lioness immediately tensed, ready to charge straight at it.
03:31Mark grabbed her and calmed her down.
03:33Right now, finding the lion cub was more important than revenge.
03:38Mark and the lioness hid behind a rock and watched the hyena.
03:42If the hyena finished eating, it would return to its pack.
03:46And following it, would lead them to the lion cub.
03:49But chasing a hyena while the lioness was injured was out of the question.
03:54As if an idea had just come to him, Mark pulled out the tranquilizer gun and fired at the hyena.
04:01The dart hit the hyena squarely in the neck, and it staggered and collapsed.
04:07Mark quickly reached into his bag and pulled out a GPS capsule.
04:12It was a device he used for tracking wild animals.
04:15A capsule with a location signal transmitter built inside.
04:19He pried open the hyena's mouth, forced the capsule down his throat, and poured in some water.
04:26Then he injected the antidote and slowly stepped back to watch.
04:30About five minutes later, the hyena, now free from the sedative, opened its eyes.
04:36It staggered to its feet, looked around for a moment, and then began running off somewhere.
04:42Mark switched on the GPS tracker and started following the hyena's signal.
04:47After about an hour of walking, the signal stopped moving at a specific location.
04:54Mark thought the hyena had arrived at his habitat and quickened his pace.
04:58A moment later, an open plane appeared, and in the middle of it, a lion cub was sitting alone, crying.
05:05Mark felt something slightly off.
05:08This was not the situation he had expected.
05:10But before he could think further, the lioness spotted the lion cub and charged toward it before Mark could even
05:18stop her.
05:19She wrapped her front legs around the cub and pressed her face against it, and a look of relief spread
05:26across her face.
05:27The lion cub stopped crying the moment it caught its mother's scent.
05:31Mark slowly walked toward them.
05:33But something felt wrong.
05:36There was no trace of hyenas anywhere nearby.
05:39No footprints, no scent, nothing at all.
05:43It was too clean, as if no one had ever been there.
05:47Mark looked down at the tracker.
05:49The signal was still pointing to the very spot where he was standing.
05:53If that were the case, there should be a hyena somewhere here.
05:57But there was nothing.
05:58Mark slowly knelt down and began digging into the ground, where the GPS was pointing.
06:05About a finger's depth in, a red light was quietly blinking inside the hole.
06:10It was Mark's own GPS capsule.
06:14A chill ran down Mark's spine.
06:16He could not even begin to imagine how something like this was possible.
06:21At that moment, everything went silent around him.
06:25The wind stopped.
06:26The sound of birds disappeared.
06:28Mark slowly raised his head and looked around.
06:31Just then, hyenas began emerging one by one from the bushes.
06:36The lioness growled at them, but the hyenas did not even pay attention.
06:41Moments later, dozens of hyenas had completely surrounded Mark and the lions.
06:46At the center of it all, the largest hyena with the coldest eyes slowly bared its teeth at Mark.
06:53It was a sneer directed at a human.
06:56The hyena, who appeared to be the leader, seemed to have turned Mark's own plan against him and set a
07:03trap.
07:04Mark finally realized, fully and completely, that he had been lured.
07:08But no matter how he thought about it, he could not make sense of it.
07:13No, he refused to accept it.
07:16Two hours earlier, when the hyena that had swallowed the GPS capsule returned to the pack, it was met by
07:23the leader's suspicious gaze.
07:25The returning hyena's eyes were glazed, and its movements were sluggish.
07:30It seemed dazed, as if under some kind of spell, and kept retching over and over.
07:36The leader watched it in silence for a while, then walked over to a patch of grass and pulled up
07:43a specific plant.
07:44It was a plant known on the savanna for inducing vomiting.
07:49After being forced to eat it, the hyena curled up and began to vomit.
07:54The leader crouched in front of it and stared at the ground.
07:58Among the vomited contents, a red light was blinking.
08:03The leader slowly prodded it with its paw, then raised its head and looked at the hyena.
08:10The leader's eyes were filled with rage.
08:13With that same rage-filled gaze, the leader snapped the throat of the hyena that had returned carrying the GPS.
08:21The hyena fell to the ground without making a single sound and died.
08:26The leader sensed that the lioness, the mother of the lion cub, and a human were heading this way together.
08:34It could not stay still.
08:36The leader glanced at the lion cub.
08:38If it used the lion cub well, it seemed like it could create a perfect opportunity to deal with both
08:46the lioness and the human at once.
08:49The leader ordered the hyenas to dig a small hole.
08:52The GPS capsule was buried inside, and the lion cub was placed on top of it.
08:59The hyenas made sure to threaten the lion cub so it could not move.
09:03The frightened lion cub froze in place and cried, and the entire pack buried themselves deep in the surrounding bushes,
09:12waiting for Mark and the lioness to arrive.
09:15Surrounded by the hyena pack, Mark took out his radio and called for emergency rescue, but there was no response.
09:23Even so, he could not die like this.
09:26He had to find a way out somehow.
09:28Mark knew that hyenas were extremely sensitive to smell.
09:32He quickly grabbed a bottle of disinfectant from his bag and sprayed it in a circle on the ground around
09:38him.
09:39As the powerful chemicals drifted through the air, the hyenas wrinkled their noses and stepped back one by one.
09:47It was working.
09:48But then, the leader, who had been watching from a distance, slowly walked toward the water's edge.
09:56It buried its nose deep into the mud.
09:59The soft mud filled its nostrils and blocked out the smell of the powerful chemicals.
10:05The leader had found a way to shut out the scent.
10:08As the leader coated its nose with mud, the other hyenas began doing the same, one by one.
10:15Moments later, the hyenas with mud-packed noses began advancing toward Mark without hesitation.
10:23The leader's strategy had worked again.
10:26Cold sweat ran down Mark's forehead, but there was no time to hesitate.
10:31Mark quickly grabbed an alcohol bottle from his bag, stuffed a piece of gauze into the opening, and made a
10:38firebomb.
10:39His plan was to set the area ablaze, drive the hyenas into one direction, and use the gap to escape.
10:46Mark lit the firebomb and hurled it toward the hyenas with all his strength.
10:51As it hit the ground and erupted in flames, the hyena pack lurched to one side.
10:57Mark threw another, then another.
10:59The hyenas, scrambling to avoid the fire, were pushed in one direction, and an opening began to form on the
11:05other side.
11:06The panicked hyenas stumbled around in confusion.
11:09This was the last chance.
11:12Mark held the lion cub against his chest and prepared to run in the opposite direction, counting silently to himself.
11:19One, two, three.
11:22But at that very moment, something fell on the tip of his nose.
11:26Mark looked up at the sky.
11:28Rain.
11:29At the most unbelievable moment, raindrops began to fall from the sky.
11:34The drops turned into a heavy downpour in an instant, and the flames that had been protecting Mark and the
11:41lions went out all at once.
11:43The eyes of the rain-soaked hyenas began to glow.
11:47The leader threw its head back and let out a long howl, as if the sky itself was on its
11:53side.
11:54The hyenas all tensed, ready to rush at Mark and the lions at once.
11:59Mark had no cards left to play.
12:01The lioness had already given up, it seemed, lying flat on the ground with the lion cub pulled tightly to
12:08her chest.
12:09Mark looked at the lions once, then slowly closed his eyes.
12:13At that very moment, a mechanical sound broke through the noise of the rain.
12:18Mark slowly opened his eyes and looked toward the sound.
12:21A massive rescue helicopter was cutting through the downpour toward them.
12:26Even the hyenas seemed startled, frozen in place, staring up at the helicopter.
12:32Then, dozens of blank rounds were fired from the helicopter.
12:36The thunderous noise swallowed the sound of the rain, and the hyenas all flinched at once.
12:43The leader took one last long look at Mark, as if reluctant to leave.
12:48Then it turned and began running deep into the savannah.
12:52As the leader fled, dozens of hyenas disappeared into the rain after it.
12:58Mark sank to the ground where he stood, and for a long time, could not get up.
13:04He sat there, soaked by the falling rain.
13:07Shortly after, a rescue worker came running over and checked on Mark's condition,
13:12explaining how they had been able to find him.
13:15Mark's colleague Kate had happened to notice that Mark's GPS signal had gone outside the managed zone
13:22and reported it to the hospital director, who then contacted the head of the ranger station,
13:27with whom he was personally acquainted, and requested an emergency deployment.
13:33It was a colleague's small act of attention, not turning away from a single signal on a screen,
13:40that had saved Mark's life.
13:42Meanwhile, on the other side, veterinarians were checking on the lions.
13:47The lioness and the lion cub were fortunately in good health, aside from a few minor scrapes.
13:54The vets determined that after brief first aid, they could return to the wild right away.
14:00A moment later, through the heavy rain, Mark and the lioness locked eyes.
14:06Her gaze held a depth of gratitude that no words could express.
14:10After looking at Mark for a long while, the lioness and the lion cub quietly turned their backs
14:16and began walking toward the savannah.
14:19Even as they walked away, the lion cub looked back at Mark several times.
14:24It seemed as though the lion cub was saying goodbye and thank you.
14:29Mark watched the backs of the lion family in silence for a long, long time,
14:34and he thought, it would be a lie to say today's choice had not been frightening.
14:40To Mark, the savannah was always a place of wonder, but also of fear.
14:45Even so, if the same situation came again, he knew he would make the same choice.
14:52He made that promise to himself, and also promised that if he were born again,
14:57he would once again be a veterinarian on this savannah.
15:01Today, somehow, the sun of the savannah seemed to shine brightly through the falling rain.
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