"Oh, yeah." Torrence blurted, feeling guilty for not mentioning that fact.
"No one around but us. Here, I'll put all of you on the ground. Which one of you is Eddie? Eddie? "
She gently places several salamanders on the ground, except the one she ascertains is Eddie. She places his salamander body on the seat of the wheelchair and double checks that the brakes are applied.
"You're in the chair, Eddie."
Torrence turned and moved closer to the leopard.
"I'll give you guys some privacy while I get to know our girl here."
She crept up the hillside that the large exhibit had been built into. Her foot caught on something that caused her to stumble against the cage- and she looked up to see the leopard watching her casually from its perch six feet away. Even in its casual lounging position, it seemed certain she wasn't a threat. The teenager climbed further up the hill until she found the cage door. Trying the handle, she found it locked.
She studied the cage around the door handle- the gaps were in inch or two square at the most, likely to prevent the hands of idiots to fit through. Stepping back, she thrummed the salamander morph she'd acquired with the others. Her skin immediately began to change, rippling over her hands, arms and face. She began to shrink, but not before her limbs began to shrink. Just a little more...
The things that had once been her hands had now shrunk considerably. Unfortunately, so had her legs. She stopped the morph, finding herself eye level with the door. Shifting her oddly not helpful legs, she hefted herself up onto a rock. She inserted her hand through the gap around the door knob, small enough to slip in and press the locking mechanism. She did an odd jiggling motion for several moments trying to get her hands over to the mechanism. Apparently salamanders elbows didn't function right- or did they not have elbows? It took much too long than she first imagined, but she managed to depress the mechanism with a click.
"Dooosh," She tried to signal the others, only to realize her mouth and tongue had shrunk as well. Only thing for it was to morph back to human, which she began to do.
"That's African right?" Christina hedged, walking over to look at the map as well. "African Savannah." Her finger darted to the map, indicating a large area to their left.
"Isn't that the one where its all open ground with lots of animals and you ride the tram through it?"