Tiger's Voyage

by Colleen Houck

  Obviously arrogance was a weakness in this dragon. Maybe I could use it against him. Demurely, I said, “That’s such a big risk for you. It’s a brave thing to do, really.”

  Confused, he stopped. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, if you’re truly going to emulate the great hunters, you will be hunting as a human. I mean, you weren’t planning on using your dragon senses were you? Your incredible speed, sight, and hearing would give you such an advantage.”

  “Oh … yes. I suppose I could limit my abilities to hunt as a simple man.” He continued to guide me into the castle and down a circular staircase.

  “It would make the game so much more interesting, wouldn’t it?” I asked innocently.

  “Yes. Yes! It would. I will do it. I will hunt as a normal man.”

  I put my hand on his arm and tried to sound concerned. “But then you might be in danger. The tigers are very resourceful.”

  “Ha! There is no danger for me. I will win in the first hour.”

  “Still, it would be too tempting to use your special abilities. I wouldn’t blame you, after all. All it would take is a tiger leaping at your throat, and you’d be tempted to zap him. I’d understand, of course. It’s very difficult not to use power when you have it.”

  “I do not need my powers. My mind and my skills are enough to win the game.”

  “Well, you could always fall back on it, so you are guaranteed safety.”

  “I am not concerned with safety! Fine. To prove it to you, we will add another rule!”

  “What rule would that be?”

  “The rule is that if I use any abilities in the hunt that a normal man wouldn’t possess, then the tigers will win.”

  “Oh! How very brave of you! It’s really too bad I will be trapped here and unable to watch you in action.”

  “Yes, it is,” he said thoughtfully. “Ah, then as a special courtesy to you, you will be allowed to watch the hunt.”

  “You mean, you’re taking me with you?”

  “And risk them stealing you back before we finish the game? No, deti dama, you will remain here in the tower. I will allow my special mirror to show you the hunt. When you want to watch, just approach the mirror, and tell it what you wish to see. Make yourself at home, my dear. Food and drink will be left on your windowsill every day, but you will remain trapped in here until the game is finished.”

  He started for the stairs with a flourish, just as the heavy wooden door closed behind him and locked itself. I waited until I couldn’t hear him anymore and held my hand up toward the door. Nothing happened. I went to the window to send a flare. Again, my lightning power was useless. I sank down on the small bed with the rough woven cover. There was nothing else for me to do.

  “Mirror? Show me the hunt.”

  The mirror turned black before creating a bird’s-eye view of the island. A green flash outlined the dragon as it flew back over the water, landed on the beach, and switched to a man. Entering the jungle, he carried an old-fashioned, long-barreled hunting rifle and a sack of provisions—he even had a canteen. I sure hope he keeps his end of the deal and hunts as a mortal.

  Even if he did, there was a good chance he would catch one of the two tigers, if not both. Kishan was used to life in the jungle, but it had been a long time since Ren had had to take care of himself. I thought back to the antelope hunt when Ren couldn’t catch one by himself. I bit my lip as I considered that his white fur would make him easy pickings. If they could hide well enough during the day, the tigers might have a good chance of hunting the dragon at night when his human vision would be more limited.

  Lsèlóng began carefully picking his way through the jungle, looking for signs of the tigers. I asked the mirror to show me Ren and Kishan. The mirror backed out of the view of the dragon and zoomed in on a piece of the jungle on the other side of the island. I couldn’t see anything at first, and then I saw a flash of white behind a bush. It disappeared, but soon, a flick of a tiger’s tail appeared from behind a rock. I asked the mirror to zoom out a bit. It showed Ren standing next to a spiked board, trying to spring the trap by batting it lightly with a paw.

  Kishan entered the view with something in his mouth—a dead monkey. In fact, on closer inspection, the area was littered with monkey bodies. Kishan tossed the body into the trap, and the sharp end zoomed up at tiger level and fell away. I watched their slow progress as the tigers cautiously moved on deeper into the jungle.

  An hour later, Kishan stepped into a side-closing trap, and two spiked wooden slats slammed together on his leg. He violently jerked his leg free, though the spikes tore his flesh. He limped for about twenty minutes until he healed.

  Other traps awaited them. They narrowly avoided being impaled with a spear that shot out from the foliage when one of them tripped a wire. Ren stepped on a rock that set off another trap. A bent bamboo pole whipped across Kishan, who managed to leap out of the way, but it hit Ren full in the side. The whipping pole was studded with five-inch nails that were now buried deeply in Ren’s fur. Kishan took the pole in his mouth and held it steady while Ren painfully jerked his body away. Blood dripped to the ground. They went on, slowly.

  They traveled in the treetops for a while by leaping from branch to branch, but they soon discovered that many of the branches had been sawed through and didn’t hold their weight. They moved back to the ground, and that’s when they hit the worst of the snares: a Venus flytrap. I knew what it was from studying different types of warfare with Mr. Kadam.

  A huge stone rolled across their path, causing both tigers to move quickly backward. Ren’s back legs fell into a rectangular pit that had been hidden beneath leafy camouflage. Long metal spikes overlapped each other on the sides of the pit. They pointed downward, which scraped his legs as he slid toward the bottom of the pit. They were so devilishly set that if he tried to pull himself up, they would rip into his body like “wrong way” tire spikes. Once caught in the Venus flytrap snare it was almost impossible to get the victim out without killing him.

  Kishan paced around the pit looking for a way to free Ren. He tried pushing the spikes down with a paw, but he slid on their smooth finish and almost joined Ren in the trap. After ten minutes of Kishan’s fruitless efforts, Ren roared softly and started dragging his body out. The spikes sank deeply into his haunches and legs. He dug his claws into the dirt, and pulled himself forward inch by painful inch. Kishan sat and watched his progress.

  Finally, Ren lay on the dirt panting. The entire back end of his body was a bloody mess. Long jagged furrows ran across his lower back and all the way down his legs. The tigers rested for an hour, which allowed Ren to heal at least partially, and then started moving again. At sunset, they found a place to rest, lying down side by side. One of them always remained awake. I could see their sleepy eyes blinking.

  There was no candle or lamp in my room, but food had somehow appeared on the windowsill. I broke off a piece of the bread and sipped from the flagon of water. Saving the apple for later, I bit into the cheese and sank back onto the bed to watch my tigers. After checking the whereabouts of the dragon and finding him still tracking on the other side of the island, I relaxed and eventually nodded off in exhaustion.

  I woke to the sound of a gunshot and panting and movement in the trees. I sat up startled and was confused for a moment, before remembering where I was.

  “Mirror, zoom out. Find the dragon.”

  Lsèlóng had found the blood trail in the night and was standing in the very spot where Ren and Kishan had been sleeping. Turning in a circle, he fingered a broken leaf. He took a few steps and crouched down to touch the depression of a tiger track. Then he picked up some dirt and smelled it, dusted off his fingers, smiled, and started through the trees. He stopped to touch a fern. There was fresh blood on it.

  Panicked, I shouted, “Mirror, show me my tigers.”

  The image retreated and sped ahead a half mile and zoomed in on a running Ren and Kishan. There was a bleeding gash along Kishan’s side
where a bullet had grazed. They ran for a half an hour, putting a great distance between themselves and the hunter. Slowing to a walk, they panted and rested on the ground.

  As the morning passed into the afternoon, I wrung my hands and said, “Please be alright. Please be careful. I’m over here across the water. I’m on another island.”

  Ren lifted his head as if he could hear me and flicked his ears back and forth. I leaned closer and spoke again, but he suddenly darted up and attacked something I couldn’t see. I heard the sound of an alarmed squeal suddenly cut off, and he soon emerged from the brush carrying an animal in his jaws. He dropped a small adolescent boar on the ground, and he and Kishan began to eat.

  I estimated their meal to be about fifty pounds—a mere snack considering the amount of energy they were using up. I was sure they were still starving. A few hours later, I was proved right. They’d found another trap, this one with a large haunch of deer hanging over it.

  Both tigers circled the obvious pit and stared up at the meat, licking their chops. Kishan leapt completely over the pit, swatting the meat with his paw on the way, which caused it to swing wildly back and forth. Ren, meanwhile, began gnawing on the rope where it was tied to the tree. He used his claws to try to break it. Kishan joined him and added his teeth and claws until the rope frayed, and the heavy haunch of meat fell into the pit with a thunk.

  The tigers peered over the edge, and Kishan crouched down to dip a paw experimentally down the side, feeling for a hold. He stretched a little farther and dropped down into the pit with the meat. Getting a good grip on it with his jaws, he stood on his hind legs and stretched his neck out so Ren could grab it. Ren batted with his paw until his claw snagged the rope. He yanked until he could catch it in his jaws with a snap. Dropping the prize onto the ground, he leaned over the edge of the pit to peer down at Kishan.

  Kishan backed up as far as he could, then ran, and leapt up the side of the pit. His claws grabbed the edge, but he slipped back down. After three more unsuccessful tries, Ren nudged a nearby log into the pit with his head, and Kishan carefully made his way up. At the top his leg slipped, and he almost fell again, but Ren stretched out and bit into the ruff of Kishan’s neck to hold him steady until he was safely out.

  After they ate, they kept moving until it was dark again. They soon reached the beach on the western side of the island and ran along the wet sand for a time. Frantically, they searched for the hedge, but I knew they wouldn’t find it.

  When they bedded down for the night, Ren stood guard first. I had the mirror zoom in close to his face. His blue eyes stared straight ahead as if he was watching me. He sighed heavily, and his pink nose twitched. I watched him until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore.

  Early morning of the third day brought me another hot loaf of black bread and a small cauldron full of stew. The sun hadn’t even risen yet, and as I ate, I settled by the mirror to watch the hunt’s progress. The tigers were running along the beach, taking advantage of the darkness to move freely in the open. I searched for the hunter and found him just waking up near a burned-out fire. He held a cup of liquid in his hands and looked to one side, then the other, and secretly blew some fire into his cup to warm its contents.

  “That’s cheating,” I shouted at the mirror. “You broke a rule!”

  The dragon looked up and grinned. I heard laughter and his voice in my head. It’s just a warm drink, my dear. And the rule clearly states that I won’t use my powers in the hunt. I’m not hunting yet this morning, so this doesn’t count.

  I snorted and watched him finish his drink and shoulder his gun. He tracked the tigers all day, and he was good. He never missed a broken blade of grass or a depression, however obscure, in the ground. Unfortunately, the ocean didn’t wash away the tigers’ tracks along the beach, so they were easy to pick up and follow. When the dragon dipped into the jungle, he stopped suddenly, and we both heard the multiple roars of big cats fighting. He quickened his pace. I asked the mirror to hurry and show me the tigers.

  At first I didn’t know what I was looking at. It was a close-up of furry creatures rolling, and claws slashing. When I finally got the mirror to zoom out, I sucked in a breath as a shiver ran down my spine. Ren and Kishan were in a bloody battle with a large group of jaguars. Ren had told me that big cats don’t usually hunt together, except for lions, so I was surprised at the large group of cats working together. One of the jaguars was lying on its side on the ground, dead. Ren and Kishan stood back-to-back and growled at the circling pack.

  I counted six more jaguars on the ground, but there may have been more. It was hard to tell because they were constantly moving. It was eerie the way they moved. They paced back and forth as one, circling the tigers. Their eyes never left their prey. One darted in and slashed its claw across Kishan’s face. He swiped back but missed as the lighter, more agile cat leapt out of the way. Two jumped at Ren, one from each side. He bit the leg of one, and it limped off, but the other one landed on his back, claws extended. It bit Ren’s neck and locked on. Kishan turned around and knocked the cat away, but two more jumped on Kishan.

  Ren bit one in the throat and shook the cat violently. Its neck snapped, and he tossed the body aside. They bit and clawed until the spotted cats slunk off to regroup. Ren and Kishan tried to lope away, but the jaguars quickly cut them off.

  They must be really hungry, I thought. They seemed to be herding the striped cats toward some thick brush.

  They started pacing, circling around the tigers again. A cat snarled and darted in but ran off before the tigers could get him. Another one did the same thing. They seemed to be playing with the tigers. A moment later, two cats leapt from an overhead tree onto Ren’s and Kishan’s backs. They bit and held. Ren was bleeding from his chest and shook hard to get the jaguar off his back. It wouldn’t budge.

  The other jaguars leapt into the fray and began biting. One bit Kishan’s cheek, and another his back leg. Ren wasn’t faring any better. The tigers were panting from the exertion, and even with their ability to heal, I worried. The jaguars could still take bites out of them. How would they heal from that? Ren roared, stood on his hind legs, and banged his back into a tree. The stunned jaguar released its grip and fell off. Ren was attacking the cat on Kishan’s back when a shot rang through the jungle.

  The dragon had caught up. A jaguar fell dead and dropped near Kishan’s front paw. The jaguars disappeared like shadows back into the verdant jungle, while Ren and Kishan mustered the strength to run. Shots rang out again and again as the hunter pursued the tigers. A bullet grazed the top of Ren’s head, and I could hear his yelp of pain. He shook the blood out of his eyes and kept running. Another sank into Kishan’s shoulder. He roared angrily and staggered, but continued on, though with a limp.

  Then they decided to go on the offense. Ren leapt onto a large rock and into an overhead tree. Kishan exaggerated his limp to let Lsèlóng catch up. The hunter followed Kishan’s tracks but paused when Ren’s suddenly disappeared. He paced back and forth, started down Kishan’s trail and then went back to where Ren was last seen. He stopped and carefully studied the surrounding bushes. A wet drop hit his cheek. He touched it and drew back his finger. It was blood.

  His eyes widened, and he looked up but it was too late. The five-hundred-plus-pound white tiger had leapt out of the tree, jaws gaping and claws extended toward the throat of the dragon. Behind him the black tiger had leapt into the air also. The hunter sucked in a breath and everything froze. He stepped gingerly away from the two tigers, who hung suspended in the air, less than a foot away from mangling the hunter.

  I screamed, “That’s cheating! They had you!”

  Lsèlóng ignored me and walked around both tigers curiously. “I congratulate you. No one has ever gotten the jump on me before.”

  “Lsèlóng! You are breaking the rules!”

  The dragon laughed and spoke in my mind. It doesn’t count. My rifle was down.

  I banged my fist against the mirror in frustratio
n, but the dragon walked off several paces, aimed his rifle, and then snapped his fingers. The tigers hit each other and rolled in the dirt. They got up, shook the dust from their coats, and the hunter fired. The shot hit the dirt inches from Ren’s head. Ren and Kishan quickly broke apart and scrambled into the trees.

  Fortunately, they didn’t hit any traps this time. Soon the shots and sounds of pursuit could no longer be heard. They only rested for short times and kept up their wearying pace for hours. They hit the beach on the eastern side of the island and searched back and forth, looking for the castle or the hedge.

  “No. No. It’s not there. I’m over here. Across the water!” I shouted to the mirror, but I knew they couldn’t hear me. When night fell again, I wrapped a blanket around me and sat in front of the mirror. Lsèlóng was still searching, but my tigers were safe for the moment. Kishan’s eyes closed and soon, too exhausted to keep watch, Ren’s eyes closed too. I watched them wearily for a long time, and then I walked up to the mirror and traced the outline of Ren’s white furry ear.

  “You’re not going to make it. He’s going to wear you out. The dragon cheats, and there’s not enough food to sustain the two of you. Do you hear me, Ren?” I slapped the mirror on the side of his face. “You’re going to die, and who am I going to argue with then? I’ll be a dragon’s consort on a nonexistent island, and you’ll be dragon kibble.”

  A tear plopped on my cheek, and I touched the glass with my fingertip as if smoothing the fur of his brow. “It’s not supposed to end this way, you know. I didn’t get to say good-bye to you. To either of you. There are so many things we left unsaid.” I sniffed and felt tears rolling down my face. “Please live. Please find me. I’m right here.”

  I placed my hand over my heart and felt its beat. I could feel my connection to him, the tether that bound my heart to his. If I closed my eyes and concentrated, I could feel the steady thump of his heart as he rested. I pressed both palms to the mirror on either side of his head and touched my forehead to the glass while I cried.