Author's Note: Hi, this is a story about what happens after the third book in the Tiger's Curse series and is told in the perspective of Kelsey. Please comment and let me know if I should continue or not.
I was still trapped on Lorkesh's ship in a small, wooden cabin. The cabin consisted of a bed, a writing desk, a dresser, and two small windows. There were no clothes in the dresser and I hadn't come with any extra, so for now the lonely mouths remain vacant for dust clots. A violet sheet with a small, round pillow to match covered the bed. The writing desk was made of old, dark brown wood. Inside one of the writing desks were several sheets of lined paper along with a pencil, which were both long forgotten. On one of the sheets had three tally marks for each day I've spent on the ship. It can be easy to loose track of time and days when you're stuck in a musty cabin, and I figure that any info I can get will be important, so every morning I draw a single line. Part of me wonders how many more tally marks I'll be able to stand…
Every morning and night, one of Lorkesh's guards comes in and leaves food on the writing desk. The breakfast usually consists of bread and plain, watery oatmeal while for dinner I get rice and a few, slim slices of meat. That's the only contact I've had with people since I've been captured. I've yet to see Lorkesh, which is both a shock and a relief. I figure he's plotting some evil plan, but for now I can only wait.
I've had endless hours of time to think, but this scares me. Being alone with your thought can drive a person mad if they're cooped up long enough. My mind seems to wander through various things that have the slightest bit of importance. One thing that seems to help me is the window. One of them is above my bed, so sometimes I open it up and poke my head through its circular shape. I'll just sit there and breathe in the salty, fresh air and let the wind whip through my hair.
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my two tigers, Ren and Kishan. We had been through a lot together and they have been my best friends through this whole journey, but I worried about Ren. Kishan meant the world to me, they both did, but I wasn't sure if Ren was the right choice anymore. I wasn't mad at him for having Durga make him forget about me. He had done it to keep me safe and not let Lorkesh find out anything about me. It was more about what had happened after. When he had come back without his memory of me, he had fallen in love with Nilma. Wouldn't he have fallen back in love with me, even if he didn't remember everything? After a while he had decided to go out with me again, but by then he knew that I was the key to breaking the curse. Was he pity dating me? He knew that I was upset for him not remembering me, so maybe he was trying to keep me from leaving. I remembered the first time I had accused him of pity dating me. Had I been right all along? I wanted to believe that he loved me, but I'm not sure anymore. And not long after we had tried to be together again, he had broke up with me and shattered my heart. Kishan wasn't like that. Kishan was kind and gentle. Ren was a roller coaster ride; it was only so long until you were plummeting down, fearing the worst. And when Ren's memory did come back, he expected me to jump back into his arms and forget about Kishan.
This time I would hold my own. I loved Kishan. When we met again, I would show him that. He was my choice. I would no longer be nervous or doubtful around him. I yawned softly and walked over to my bed. It was dark out, but the sky held millions of shimmering stars. I laid my head on my round pillow and felt sure that Kishan was the one I loved the most. I remembered the night when we laid on the deck of our ship together and I had fallen asleep in his arms. I missed him. I closed my eyes and sleep soon engulfed me. The last thing I saw was an eye staring at me through the window. Half of it was a blue ocean and the other half was the black sky.