"Good riddance!" I roared to the skies, watching the thing I'd learned to call a helicopter fly away. I turned away from it, lashing my tail from side to side. Stupid twolegs… How dare they do this to me!
I looked around me; forest… That was all I could see. A cool drop of water landed on the tip of my tail. I shook it off and gazed up into the lush canopy. My ears swiveled up in surprise. A tiny little creature was staring down upon me; its big brown eyes seemed glazed over with shock. It waved its black and white ringed tail in the air and made a squeaky hooting noise. I chuffed, amused, and began to walk in the other direction. I took one last glance at the odd creature, and wondered if I looked as odd to it as it did to me. It hooted again and leaped further into the treetops. I blinked and stood still for a few heartbeats, my eyes fixed on the spot where it disappeared, before continuing on.
I wandered through the steamy forest for what was left of the sunlight, before finally settling in the low branch of a tree. My eyes flickered across my line of vision, searching for any movement. My eyelids drooped, heavy with sleep, though I fought to keep them open. Sleep was going to win me over at any moment.
"No, no," I whispered. "I can't fall asleep. What if the twolegs tie me to their cold silvery web again? What if they shut me in?" I mentally shivered at the thought. Cold bars clashing. The poking and prodding. The lights. The noise!
I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for those stupid twolegs. If they hadn't killed my mother. If they hadn't taken me from my home. If they hadn't trapped me inside that silver web and taunted me with my prey on the other side… Then I would be back in my homeland. Back where I belong. But of course that couldn't be changed.
A tear slipped from my closed eyes and I wiped it away with my tail.
I was here, wherever they had put me, and a tiger could only change his future, not his past.