Page 33 of Tiger's Tale
When a rumble came from the red tiger, Nik grunted in reply and slung his bag over his shoulder, wobbling a little when he stood up to follow them. They didn’t walk too far. Nik was grateful for that. He was starting to feel dizzy and very, very weak.
They stopped at what appeared to be a little farm complete with sheep, a few cattle, and some pigs. It was dusk and Nik figured he could probably scare up some milk, eggs, or cheese, or maybe find something saved for the animals in the barn. “You two stay here out of sight. Remember what the soldier said. Farmers are allowed to kill tigers. Poachers, too, I imagine, assuming they can catch me. But they might think twice about it at least. I’ll be back soon.”
Stacia and Veru crouched in the brush watching and waiting as the setting sun disappeared and the stars filled the sky. When the moon rose over the horizon, filling the little farm with pale rays of limpid light, they heard a dog bark. A second dog echoed the first. Quickly the bark was silenced. Then they heard a shout and a scream. They stood, hackles rising as they caught sight of a man running with a torch toward the barn. Another followed with a long, sharp sickle in hand. They heard a stamping sound nearby, and soon Nik had returned.
“Hurry—this way. They’ll be upon us soon,” he said.
They ran together, but Nik was slow, and the bright moon made hiding difficult. They heard the bark of not one but many dogs, and both Stacia and Veru knew the moment when the pack had caught their scent. The pursuing animals nearly erupted in a frenzy of yips and baying. The shouts of men followed as they crashed through the brush after them.
Continuing to run, the twins keeping slow pace with Nik, they could hear the pack quickly overtaking them. Veru glanced at her sister and with a gruff growl, whipped in a quick circle.
“Veru!” Nik whispered in alarm. “Don’t! You’ll get hurt!” He stumbled then and fell. Stacia stopped and pressed a paw on his chest, peering into his face in the moonlight, trying to convey to him to hide, then she was off, moving like lightning through the brush. Nik scurried backward, hiding himself behind a large rock, and stuffed a large hunk of rye bread in his mouth, chewing quickly, and then pulled the stopper from the leather.
He drank down half the bag—delighted to find it was spiced cider—and tore off another piece of bread when he heard a terrible roar and a scream of pain. Nik dropped his loaf of bread and grabbed his head, rocking back and forth, praying it wasn’t Veru. He didn’t know what he’d do if she was hurt. Tears pricked his eyes when he heard a yelp and a large body hit the ground. Quickly he rose, stuffing the bread in his bag. Putting on his boots, he centered himself, pulling the magic to him, and began moving toward the sound, not quickly but quietly.
When he arrived, he found some of the dogs dead and two people injured. The tigers were circling the remaining humans, two of which carried huge scythes, and they looked like they had the muscles to use them. Even from his hiding place and with the moon now hidden in the clouds, he could see both the tigers were injured with dog bites and long cuts on their shoulders and sides.
They’d need to heal. Could they even travel with injuries that bad? At least most of the dogs looked like they were in worse condition, if not dead. They wouldn’t be chasing them anytime soon. He thought they might be able to outpace the men, at least for a while. Softly, Nik cursed himself. Hewasa duraki. This was all his fault. Well, then the least he could do was get them to safety.
Racing back to the farm, he started a fire not at the barn but in a pile of hay outside it, near enough for them to be alarmed but far enough away that they’d likely be able to stop it before it spread. Then he shouted, “Pozhar! Fire!” until he was certain the cry had been picked up by others.
Once the men headed back to the farm and the growing blaze, he hurried back to the two tigers who had just dispatched the last snarling dog. Stacia was limping but she froze when he put a hand on her back. He asked, “Can you walk?”
She huffed in response.
“Come with me.”
Walking beside him, his hand still touching her neck, he crouched down next to Veru who was licking her bitten hind leg. She turned abruptly at his touch and snarled, baring her bloody fangs. “It’s me, Veru,” Nik said, backing away but then returning when she closed her mouth. “Can you walk on it for a bit? I want to try walking with my boots on while touching both of you to see if we can go a distance away.”
She returned to licking her back leg and growled when he touched her head but didn’t attack. He waited impatiently for her to finish seeing to her wound, keeping a hand on both tigers. Stacia sat next to him, waiting, and when Veru finally stood and the three of them began to move forward, walking slowly, both Stacia and Veru limping, their gaits moving in strange opposing ways, he wasn’t sure the magic boots were working.
They continued their slow progress, tracking time by the movement of the moon, and when it had gone halfway across the sky, they finally stopped. Nik didn’t sense a blur or feel as if the boots had created any speed for the three of them, but at least the farm had fallen behind them. When he stopped and pulled off the boots, he crouched down to examine the wounds on the tigers as best as he could in the dim light and was surprised to see they had fully healed during their walk.
“The boots created another miracle!” he exclaimed. “Your injuries are gone. I don’t know how far we’ve come, but that in and of itself is exceptional! Do you want to continue on, or would you like to rest for a time?”
Stacia stared at him for a moment, blinked, and then headed off to a patch of grass and then slumped down, laying her head on her paws, shutting her eyes almost instantly. Veru blew a hot breath on Nik’s hands and then moved over by her sister, yawning hugely and stretching before she, too, laid down to sleep.
“Okay, sleep it is,” Nik said. He didn’t bother making a fire at all but drank several swallows of the cider, then, using his bag as a pillow, made a bed for himself near the two tigers and fell asleep almost instantly.
* * *
The sun was well above the horizon when Nik woke, and the only reason he did was the unpleasant sensation of his body being saturated with a spray of water. He rose with a start, the hard sleep making his eyes sticky. “Gah!” he said, wiping the damp from his face. “Hey!”
Stacia guffawed and stalked away, her body still wet from her bath. Bending her upper body low to the ground, she lifted her rear in the air, twitching her tail. She relished the feeling of her entire spine stretching out.
Nik, seeing her tiger rear aimed at his face, reddened and looked away, just in time for him to get his face flicked with her red-and-black-striped tail. He rolled to the side and stood. “Keep your tail out of my face, would you?”
The red tiger wrinkled her nose and sneezed.
He pointed his finger at her. “You’d better not be laughing at me, Stacia.” Sitting on a log, he pulled out the magic boots and the crumbling rye bread. Taking a bite and chewing, he studied their surroundings. They’d walked in a southeasterly direction from the farm the night before, and though they hadn’t run, it was obvious they had indeed been moving faster than normal. Not as quickly as he’d been moving on his own, but much quicker than they could walk before.
When Veru walked up to him, he reached out and stroked the golden tiger on the head, not noticing when she pulled away and sat down. “Look, Veru. See those mountains? They’re closer. If we walk the same way or even try to run in tandem, I’ll bet we could make it there in a day or two.”
He looked at her. Even as a tiger she was prettier than her sister. “Are you hungry?” He tore off a piece of bread. “Want some?”
Holding it out on his palm, he smiled in a way he hoped looked charming, but the gold cat just looked at the meager offering and then up at him and turned and walked off. He heard a noise from behind and turned to see the red tiger. “I don’t suppose you want it?”
Growling softly, the red tiger stood and started walking after her sister, who had disappeared in the brush. Stacia then paused and waited patiently for him to follow.
