Page 37 of Tiger's Tale
She closed her eyes and imagined twirling, raising her hands in the air while snow fell around her in soft, fluffy flakes landing on her cheeks, hair, and cloak as her skirts billowed out. Then as Veru kept dancing, she was no longer alone. Warm hands, toughened by wind and work, grasped her own tightly and held on to her so she could spin even more wildly. Rich male laughter tickled her ears, and she laughed in unison.
All at once, the song finished. She felt desperately disappointed and breathless and thrilled all at the same time. As the last notes drifted away into the starry evening and disappeared, Veru opened her eyes, wishing she could catch them and bring them back. She was surprised that the laughter was still there, as were the snowflakes.
Fat, white puffs floated down lazily from the dark sky, landing on her furry ears, her nose, and her paws and then slowly melted. The young man was leaning over, looking down at her and chuckling, his blue eyes gleaming as he lifted his winter cap and pushed back his dark blond hair.
“You liked that one, didn’t you?” he asked, propping his instrument on his knee. “I’ve heard stories of music taming savage beasts, but I don’t think you’re too savage at all, are you? How could you be when you purr like a house cat?”
Purr?Veru was horrified to realize at that moment that a telltale rumble was indeed coming from her chest. How humiliating! Worse than that, she couldn’t seem to stop it. The seesawing vibration was something that appeared to be connected to her... her heart. She felt happy. Veru didn’t know when she’d last felt joyful.
Truthfully, she knew she shouldn’t be feeling that particular emotion now. She was stuck in a pit with a steel trap around her leg; she had no idea where Nik or Stacia could be; she’d been cursed to the form of a tiger, been run out of the palace, the empire was in a shambles, there was a strange sorcerer with an army either attempting to take over the capital, or on the road searching for her and her sister; and her beloved mother had just passed away.
But for some reason, being around the young fur trapper made Veru forget things of which she should be cognizant. He was entirely too distracting and far too... effervescent for her liking. Besides, he was a particularly good-looking young man, and she didn’t trust men like that. Chiding herself, Veru shook her head, raining slush all around her.I’ll certainly be muddy tomorrow, she thought. This was followed by the notion of,My hair must look like a bird’s nest.
Then she remembered it no longer mattered what her hair looked like. She had no one to impress. The good-looking young man wasn’t helping her or speaking kindly to her because he wasin lovewith her. He was simply a good person. And as far as his effervescence went... he wasn’t doing it to influence her or gain her favor. She was a tiger. He played her a song because he loved music. That was all.
Still, somehow Veru managed to get her purring to stop and laid her head down to try to sleep. Just then the good-natured young fellow leaned over to say, “Spokoynoy nochi,” and grinned again before disappearing. Soon she heard a soft snoring sound from overhead and the hoo-hooing of an owl.
Huffing out a steaming breath from her nostrils, Veru laid down on her side, shifting to make her leg more comfortable, shut her eyes, and thought,Good night, indeed. Rest well, young man.
* * *
Veru woke in darkness, used to doing such a thing in the winter season as a human with the limited daylight hours, but her tiger body told her she should roll over and keep sleeping. It wasn’t even sunrise yet, but the early hours brought both the musical young man and Veru a surprise neither of them would soon forget.
She had awoken abruptly, not to the sound of the young man descending quietly into the pit like she should have under normal circumstances, nor to his near presence when he approached her with his heavy footfalls. Instead, she’d been jolted awake when she felt the screeching pain of her leg being torn open once again as the steel trap was disengaged from her back ankle.
Instinctively, she whipped around to protect herself, tucking her injured leg beneath her and roared, only to realize her muzzle was now tied with a rope, and she felt dizzy to the point of stumbling. Veru was confused. It was still very dark. She couldn’t smell anything or anyone except the young man.Why has he come down now, in the middle of the night? Hadn’t he said he’d be coming down in the morning? Why is he awake so early? Is he leaving me?
As for him, the young man in question was surprised the tiger had woken up at all. He thought he’d found enough of the valeriana root to keep the large animal asleep for many hours if not a full day. In fact, he’d worried it had been too much. That he might have killed her outright. It had just been his good luck to come across a patch of the spent flowers near one of his traps, and then it had taken some time to pack each carcass full of the stuff. He was lucky she’d been so hungry that she didn’t notice how he’d carefully sewn each one shut with the herbs inside.
Danik rationalized that even if it had been too much, he didn’t want the poor creature to suffer. He highly doubted she’d survive with the type of injury she had anyway and debated putting her out of her misery himself depending on how bad her wound looked. What he certainly didn’t expect was her fast recovery.
He’d waited several hours to make sure she was completely asleep. Only after he was certain, checking by tossing some large rocks into the pit and seeing she didn’t even flick a furry ear in that direction, did he risk throwing down his woven ladder. The first thing he did was tie a slip rope around her mouth, just in case. It wouldn’t stop the claws, but at least she wouldn’t bite him.
Once that was in place, he bent down with his torch to try to get a good look at her leg. Truthfully, it didn’t look too bad. It wasn’t bleeding and didn’t even look sore. In fact, if it weren’t for the steel trap biting into her ankle, he’d say she wasn’t injured at all.
Gently, carefully, he lifted her heavy leg, maneuvering it away from the other so he could stand on the springs. He’d have to in order to apply the necessary force to open the jaws. When he did, he could hear the meaty squelch as the trap wrenched itself free from her flesh, tearing a fresh wound in her mostly healed foot.
Danik gasped as hot, new blood wet the ground. He was trying to make sense of it when the foot disappeared, and he was suddenly faced with a very angry, extremely large tiger.
He held up his hands and spoke softly, unwilling to step off the trap while she was still so close. “Now, now, my krasivaya kotenok. I know it hurts,” he soothed. “I was only trying to help. If you’ll just back away a bit, I’ll make sure this trap doesn’t get you again.”
Veru’s body trembled, and she managed a plaintive sort of whine, then she collapsed sleepily against the side of the pit and watched him with half-hooded eyes as he took a tool from his pack, quickly disassembled the trap, and placed it into his bag. Tying it closed, he stooped to refill her water bowl, then took hold of the thin rope keeping her mouth shut.
Without a word, he climbed the bouncing rope ladder, and when he reached the top, pulled it up and gave the thin rope around her mouth a yank. It came free with just a sharp tug, and he rolled it around his hand and then placed it, too, in his bag. “Try to sleep now,” he said softly. “I’ll find you more food in the morning.”
* * *
Not only did Veru sleep; she slept soundly. It was midday, in fact, when she woke next. She was surprised to find the young man had not only kept his word but had also provided a means for her escape. There were more rabbits for her in the pit, but there were also a handful of small mammal carcasses left atop the long tree trunk he had rolled into the pit as incentive for her to climb out.
After eating and licking her water bowl clean, she stood and tested her weight on her ankle. It was fully healed—a miracle she was grateful for yet still didn’t understand. Only slipping once, she bound up the tree trunk, scooping up the bits of food as she went, and finally exited the awful pit, grateful for the young man and eager to greet him personally, only to find he’d vacated the area. Veru sniffed around his fire and determined he’d left many hours before. The coals were cold, and there was no warmth in it at all. Nor were there any signs of his footprints remaining in the snow.
For once, Veru had no idea what she should do or where she should go. She let out a loud roar, listening for an echoing response from her sister or a sign of Nik, but she heard nothing in reply. Though she was a large animal, she’d still need to climb a hill to get a general idea of direction. For now, she supposed she should continue in an easterly course, following the rising of the sun and keep the setting of it on her tail.
She’d also need to find water and more food. It wouldn’t be as easy to hunt without her sister, but she was sure she could manage on her own. Veru set out, and it didn’t take her long to come across the young man’s scent. Realizing he was headed east as well, she decided to track him for a while and rationalized it was good hunting practice, and it wasn’t at all because she missed his company.
Finding the stream he’d stopped at for water, she drank her fill for the first time in several days and washed the crusty blood from her fur. After catching a small fish for a snack, she then pressed forward, picking up his trail on the other side. Soon she realized, just as evening was coming on, that she wasn’t the only animal stalking the young tracker.
It just took a moment for her to figure out why. His scent was not just that of a man, which was enticing aplenty if an animal was big enough and hungry enough, but this particular human also carried with him the scents of many other animals, dead and bloody ones. That might scare off some, but it wouldn’t scare off a pack. Certainly not a pack so large.
