Page 131 of Tiger's Quest
“Really? Why do you say that?”
“We rub up against and scratch trees to mark territory, and we sometimes snack on porcupines. A smart tiger attacks it from the front, but occasionally they whirl on you. I’ve had quills stuck in my paws before, and they hurt and fester. They break off as I walk. There’s no way for a tiger to get them out, so I’d have to wait until I could change into a man and pull them all out.”
“Oh! I wondered why Ren was always rubbing against trees in the jungle. Don’t the quills eventually work themselves out though?”
“No. They actually bend into a circle and stay in the skin. They won’t dissolve either. Splinters can, but quills won’t. They can stay in a tiger’s body their whole lives. It’s what makes some become man-eaters. With an impairment like that, they can’t hunt fast prey anymore. I’ve even come across a couple of tigers who had died from starvation because they’d been injured by porcupines.”
“Well, the common sense thing would be not to eat porcupines then.”
Kishan grinned. “But they’re delicious.”
“Ugh.” I sucked in a breath. “Ow!”
“Almost got it. There. It’s out now.”
“Thanks.”
He cleaned the worst of my scrapes with alcohol wipes and then bandaged up what he could.
“I think you’ll heal here quicker than normal, but not as fast as I do. We should rest.”
“We’ll rest when we get down.”
He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Kells, it took us days to get up here. It will take days to get back down.”
“No it won’t. I have a shortcut. When the ravens cleared my mind, I saw what the Scarf could do. We just need to walk out onto a branch.”
I could tell Kishan was wary, but he followed me anyway. We made our way to the edge of a long branch.
“Now what?” he asked.
“Watch.”
I held the Scarf on top of my palms and said, “A two person parachute, please.”
The Scarf twisted, snapped taut and lengthened, and then folded itself over and over. From all four corners, threads pulled out and stretched. They wove and twisted together, forming belts, risers, and ropes. Finally, the Scarf stopped moving. It had become a double-harnessed large backpack.
He stared at it incredulously. “What did you do, Kelsey?”
“You’ll see. Put it on.”
“You said parachute. You think we’re going to parachute out of here?”
“Yep.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Ah, come on. Tigers aren’t afraid of heights, are they?”
“This isn’t about heights. This is about being extremely high up in a tree and hurtling our bodies into oblivion based on a strange fabric that you now claim is a parachute.”
“It is, and it will work.”
“Kelsey.”
“Have faith, like the Ocean Teacher said. The Scarf does other cool stuff too. I’ll tell you about it on the way back. Kishan,trustme.”
“I trustyou; I just don’t trust the fabric.”
