Tig on the Run
#1 of Tigs Tales
He Was half asleep as his mother rocked him in her arms. His eyes grew more and more heavy but he was fighting the sleep he had grown today into a young lad, he no longer depending on his mother for his food. Today he had eaten on his own. His mother was proud of him but also seemed worried. He was basking in that feeling of pride as his parents whispered above him.
Tirrisa sighed softly, " They watch him everyday Marcel, waiting to see if he will be able to alter forms. And now that he is able to care for himself, Im worried." Marcel moved in behind her wrapping his arms around her his head resting on her shoulder and gazing down at their cub. " I wont allow them to take him, Ill sacrifice myself before they get him". They talked on further into the night but he drifted fully to sleep and lost what they were talking about.
In the darkness he drifted floating unsure of where he was. Slowly shapes began to form around him. He crouched beneath a hollow log watching a field before him. There in the center of the field stood a Mighty Buck, his horns spanned high into the air. This one would feed him and his family well for a few days. He crouched low waiting to make sure the wind would not shift and give him away. Slowly he stalked towards the deer. Moving effortlessly he snaked through the grass over the next five minutes as the buck drank from the creek.
He was nearly there, just a foot more and he would have the male deer. Silently he inched forward patience on his side. The deers head jerked up the wind had shifted. Tig leapt from the high grass his jaws closing around the deers neck as his head swivelled up. His teeth tearing the tender flesh with ease as the deers blood filled him mouth. He crunched down breaking the deers neck.... The images swirled about him as he was ripped from the dream he was being jostled.
He awoke in his mothers arms she was running down a hall and pushing through a door as his eyes came open. He started to speak but she laid a finger across his lips and hushed him. He snuggled in close to her chest holding on as she carried him towards the end of the building.
She put her back to the wall and peeked around the corner. With a sigh she looked to her left and it was then that he realized Marcel was there with them. He smiled and swatted and marcel but marcel just gave him a small sad smile and patted his head.
Moving close to each other they embraced in a hug squishing tig between them. " There are three guards out there Marcel. They are at the far end opposite the tool shed " he only nodded watching them both as if looking at them one last time. Tig could sense the sadness in both of them as well as the worry. Marcel leaned in close to tig his mouth right at his ear, " you listen to me well tig, you be strong no matter what. If we get separated you run south, you run and run until you find others like us. The men are dangerous you must not stop til you are with other animals." Tig nots afraid to say anything. Marcel leaned in close and kissed his cub on the top of the head. " I love you tig, always remember that."
He kissed Tirrisa and stepped back away from her his form shifting as he stepped away. He nuzzled her in her side and then crouched and moved around the corner towards where mother said the men waited. Tirrisa set him down and shifted her Tiger form she moved close to tig and whispered, " We love you tig, always remember" Tig loved when she was a large tiger she always played with him. But today he sensed was not going to be a day to play.
He hear a low growl then a scream as his father tore into the guards. He was yanked up by the scruff of his neck as his mother broke into a run across the yard. She ran straight for the fence but it was fifteen feet high and topped with razor wire they would never get over that, Half way across she switched corse heading for the corner where the tool shed was. From this angle he could see his father fighting the guards. Two of the guards lay unmoving on the ground and the third was backing away from the 600lb tiger. Marcel leapt at the last guard catching him by his arm he drug him to the ground and ripped his throat out. He turned towards them and was about to start after them as three more guards stepped out from behind the buildings. Each raised a gun and fired. Two darts hit Marcel in his hind quarters. He staggered his movement now sluggish.
The guards drew near him as he staggered. He put his feet beneath him and launched himself at the guards he took the lead guard right across the neck tearing his throat out with a paw swipe. The other two raised their guns and fired two more of the tranquilizer darts into marcel. He staggered as he took a step towards them then fell to the ground as the tranquilizer worked through his chest this time. Tig jerked in his mothers arms feeling the urge to help his father but the sadness coming from mother and the worry won over and he settled down so she would not drop him.
Her powerful muscles carried them to the tool shed in a matter of strides. She leapt at the last minute catching the low overhang of the shed and propelled them up on top of it. Without even breaking stride she took two more steps and launched them both over the fence. She was a little low and felt the sting as her back leg caught the razor wire as the crossed over it. She felt the blood running down her thigh. She landed off balance slinging him from her grasp. He tumbled head over end for a moment before rising to his feet and trotting back to her.
She Licked the town skin inspecting the damage. It had sliced cleanly through the skin and slightly into the muscle. She lapped at it a moment to stem the blood flow then looked back where the guards would soon realize that it wasn't only Marcel that was out. She grabbed up Tic and darted into the woods heading south. They Ran and Ran til the sun had risen and dropped once more. Finally they stopped to rest beneath a hollow log den that had been abandoned. He purred and snuggled in close to her to keep her warm. He licked at the wound cleaning it further as he snuggled close to his mother. She was looking tired and worn down, he wasn't sure how much blood she had lost from the wound. He laid his head down over the wound and soon drifted off to sleep.
When he awoke the Moon was still high in the sky. He moved close to mother to make sure she was well he knew she was weak from the blood loss and the constant running. They had not stopped to eat at all for the last two days and he knew she was wearing down. He slipped out of the small den and off into the woods quietly. Thirty minutes later he returned dragging a dead rabbit, and two dead little pigs. He pushed them in close to her as he gnawed on a piece of one of the pigs. He nuzzles her til she stirs and pushes the food at her. He could sense that she wanted to yell at him for leaving the safety of the den and her, but under it she felt proud of him. She was his protector and here he was taking care of her. She tore off a chunk of the rabbit and gnawed on it as she watched him. " thank you Tig, one day you will make a great hunter" they ate in silence and returned to sleep after they were done. He curled up next to her unable to sleep as he felt the warmth radiating from her. She was proud of him and so he was proud of himself he had done good in her eyes.
He awoke shortly after the dawn the dew still heavy about the forest around them. His ears perked up and he heard it again. He had heard them before, it was the mastiffs and the mastiffs meant the men were coming. He nuzzled his mother hard til she awoke, "mother they are coming we have to go" she rose sluggishly unsure what he was talking about. Then her ears shot back as she heard them too. Without a word she snagged him up by the scruff of his neck and headed south once more.
They ran for near to a full day and it seemed the mastiffs were always nearby they were not gaining any ground on them. Soon they were standing on a cliff edge over looking a river that was running to the south. The mastiffs barked again getting closer. She set him down and looked along the river then back towards the heavy woods behind them, " You must run tig, always run towards the south til you find a protector. Don't trust men, don't stop unless you have too." she looked at the river again and started to turn back to him as the mastiffs burst through the undergrowth. She shoved him off the ledge and he hit the water with a splash.
He couldn't see the fight but he knew his mother was hurt he could feel it. He heard one of the mastiffs yelp then go silent. Then a growl and another yelp. He felt a sense of relief from his mother she must be doing well then suddenly he was dunked below the water as a wave of dread hit him. She was scared something had changed up top. His link to her was muddled now it was growing dim. Something was wrong. He fought to get back above the water his wet fur dragging him down. Finally he managed to get above the water and trudged to the edge where he trudged out and collapsed for a moment as the water ran out of his lungs. He looked back to the north far up the cleft and sobbed. He could feel her but barely. She was hurt bad.
He got to his paws and began to run. He ran south for as long as he could turning only when he had to and always turning south again as soon as he could. He ran for five days stopping to drink and eat only when a spring or game animal crossed his path. It wasn't much but it kept him on his feet and moving. On the fifth night he sheltered in a follow log just a hundred feet from a fence. He had to find a way past the fence but he feared to move. He could smell men in the area. They were not compound men but they were men. He lay watching the wall. The moon was high in the air as he stared at it. A cloud rolled past then away and it was then as the moon came back out to shine on the wall that he saw his way.
There was a door slightly askew of its hinges just fifty feet in front of him. But the scent of man was everywhere. He laid his chest pressed to the ground for near an hour watching the door before he decided to move. He moved slowly inching across the ground. He made slow time but was cautious and moved with patience. He was no more then ten feet from the door when he heard a twig snap in the woods his caution broke and he bolted for the door. Mere feet from the door he heard a loud snap and then felt pain as the man made trap snapped around his front paw.
He Screamed in pain as the slack in the chain holding the trap snapped tight and yanked him from his paws. He felt as if the bone had snapped and the pain was so intense that he blacked out from the pain.
He drifted in a dreamless sleep for a long time or at least it felt like a long time. He didn't know where he was or how long he drifted but he knew he was hurt. He awoke some time later prepared to see his leg broken and mangled in the trap was shocked to find he was not laying in the open field anymore. He was crammed down into an animal den of some sort the scent of man and mole hung in the air though the scent of mole far out weighed that of man but no one was near. Who had his rescuer been. Had he finally reached the area he had sought the kingdom of animals his father had told him about. He lay his head back down to tired to go on. He drifted in sleep dreaming of his mother and father and hoping they were okay. He knew they gave themselves for him to live. He would not stop, would not give up and one day he would return to save them.
to be continued. ,,,