Chapter 4: A Tigger's Stripes
Tigger
After a long time of walking, I finally decided to make my way over to Tigretta's house to tell her how I felt about her. I thought it was worth a shot after all. If she rejected me, then that wouldn't be a big deal. We could go back to being friends... right? Of course, we were scarcely friends now. How would it make her feel if I just came out and said I liked her after only knowing her for a few days?
I sighed to myself. I was already at her house. Well, it's worth a shot anyway. Here goes nothing. I reached up a hand to knock on the door, but my hand fell limp. I just couldn't get the nerve. I sighed again. What kind of a tigger couldn't knock on a door? Finding courage, I reached up my hand again and was about to knock when the door was opened by Rhoda.
"Oh, Tigger, what are you doing here?" she asked.
"Well, I came here to see Tigretta... is she home?" I asked.
"No, she went out to get food. She should be back soon if you'd like to wait here for her." She opened the door wider and I stepped in. "She and Winnie left about 20 minutes ago. It is likely that they got side-tracked... that Winnie got side-tracked. She sees a honey tree and there's no stopping her until she gets some." At this, Rhoda rolled her eyes. She turned to a counter and said, "Would you like something to drink or eat? We have some leftover tea and cookies from this morning."
"No, thanks, Miss Rhoda," I replied.
Just then, little Peony came into the room. "Rhoda, is Tigretta back yet? I thought I heard the door," she said.
"No, Peony, it's just Tigger dropping by for a visit. He's waiting for Tigretta too," said Rhoda. She then gave a wink to Peony, something that desperately confused me. It was as if the girls had their own secret code that I wasn't aware of. This was confirmed by Peony seeing the wink and giggling to herself. I decided to ignore it.
Then, out of the silence of the day, there came a shout for help. "Help! Help!"
Both Rhoda and Peony looked alarmed. "That sounded like Tigretta and Winnie. Tigretta never stoops to call for help unless..." Rhoda gasped. "Come on, Peony, we need all the help we can get." Rhoda pushed Peony out of the room and went to a closet to get some sticks.
"Help! Help! Please, help!" the voices cried again. I wasn't going to wait for anyone else to take action. I decided, with or without the girls, I was going to get to them myself... even if it meant facing something as horribible as a jagular.
Tigretta
The day had started out so promising. There was cookies and tea for breakfast, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, all of nature seemed delighted with the day. I had taken Winnie out to get more food, but if I thought this was going to happen, I would most certainly have stayed inside.
I really think I have grown careless since we left our old home. Any other time, I would have brought Rhoda with me, but no, I had to bring Winnie. I really care for her since she's my friend, but she can be such a bumbler. She had stopped when she saw a pot of honey lying in the middle of a clearing. I told her not to go near it, that it was a trap. Did she listen to me? Nope! When a pooh bear sees honey, they are not to be deterred. That was when the jagulars popped out.
The jagulars were twice our size and, since there were three of them, we were easily overwhelmed within a minute. I would have been fine, had not a particular jagular I recognized been in the group. Once I saw him, all bets were off. We were able to get out two calls of help before we were silenced by knives at our throats.
"Well, well, well, Tigretta, long time, no see," said the familiar jagular.
"Indeed, Jagger, it has been a while," I replied.
"When was it that we were last together... let me think..." he tapped his chin in thought. "Ah, yes, I remember, it was at the one year anniversary of little Christina Jay's death." He snickered at this.
"What do you want, Jagger?" I asked him.
"Isn't it obvious? I want to reminisce. You see, if you remember correctly, I wanted Rhoda on that night, but you stood in the way. You took the fall for her. Some nights before that, I wanted Winnie, and so on and so forth."
Winnie gasped. "Tigretta! Is that why...?"
"I'm afraid so, Winnie," I replied.
"Enough talk!" Jagger licked his lips, though that didn't help the saliva that was still leaking from his mouth. "Remind me of that night, Tigretta. Remind me, because now... I don't want any of your friends... I want you." He snickered again. The jagular that was holding Winnie stepped back and the jagular holding me pinned me to the ground.
"Let her go!" called a voice.
Jagger turned to the voice, but found no one. "Who dares tell Jagger what to do? Jagger is not pleased with this." Oh, boy. I thought. He only starts talking in third person when he's getting especially angry.
"I'm Tigger, that's T-I-double guh-ur. If you don't let her go, I'm going to have to be forced to get rough wit' ya." Tigger stepped into the light. He was hanging from a tree branch.
"Another tigger? This ought to be interesting. Jagger is pleased with your offering and gladly accepts your challenge." Jagger let out a low growl and roared his cat-like roar and pounced. Tigger bounced out-of-the-way.
"Ha! You missed!" said Tigger.
"Jagger does not miss! Small animal make Jagger angry!" Jagger pounced again and Tigger bounced out of the way. When he did, Jagger's head hit a rock and he fell to the ground, unconscious. The two remaining jagulars felt fearful for their lives since their leader had fallen prey to a tigger, so they let me and Winnie go, took their leader, and ran.
"Yeah, that's right. You better run! You're lucky I was in such a good mood, otherwise, it would have been twice as worse!" Tigger boasted. I still felt stunned from all that happened, so I didn't get up right away. "You all right, Tigretta?" asked Tigger, coming close and offering a hand to help me up.
I took his hand and got up. "Yeah... I'm fine... it's just..." I couldn't find the proper words to express how I felt, so instead, I hugged him. "Thank you, Tigger. You saved my life."
Tigger was shocked at first, but he soon began hugging me back. He said, "You're welcome, Tigretta. Helping friends in need is what tiggers do the best." He pulled away and extended his hand, which I took. "Why don't I take you home?" I followed him, and Winnie followed close behind.
That night, my friends and I and Tigger and his friends were all gathered around a large fire. Tigger was telling his version of the rescue. A lot of the details were being exaggerated, but it was still entertaining to hear. I had my chin in my hand, legs crossed, and I was shaking my head. Boys will be boys.
After Tigger's story, little Roo changed the subject a little by asking a question: "Why do tiggers have stripes?"
I thought of all the different meanings behind this question. Tigger came to the rescue though, "Why, that's easy! Tiggers have stripes because they're tiggers! If they didn't have stripes, then they wouldn't be tiggers at all!"
"What would they be then?" asked Roo.
"I wouldn't be surprised if a tigger with no stripes was actually a jagular," I said spitefully. I poked the fire with a piece of wood. "There is, however, another reason tiggers have stripes."
"What's that?" asked Roo.
"It is a mark given to the tigger from birth because of his lineage, that is, where he comes from," I said.
"Won't you tell the story?" asked Roo. "Please?"
"Oh, yes, pretty, pretty, please, tell it," said Tigger.
I giggled, amused. "All right, but only because I have such an enthusiastic audience," I replied. "A long time ago, there were these orange cats called tigers. They were a very cowardly race and avoided any type of outdoor activity. There was one tiger who was different though. He enjoyed playing outside and was not at all afraid. One day, the tiger was outside playing and came face to face with a horrible jagular."
At this, Roo jumped into his mother's pouch and Piglet and Peony joined him. "J-j-jagular?" asked Peony and Piglet in unison.
"Yes, and the jagular said to the tiger, 'Why are you outside? It is not safe to be outside.'
'Why not?' asked the tiger.
'Because of people like me,' replied the jagular. The jagular was going to attack, but the tiger fought back. Each blow that the jagular received because of the tiger gave the tiger one stripe. By the time the fight was over, the jagular ran off in defeat and the tiger had stripes. The other tigers were much too afraid of the tiger, so he ran off. He changed his name to tigger to avoid shaming his family... very few know the real story. Ever since then, tiggers have had stripes... it was because of the bravery the tigger showed against the jagular."
"You never told us that story before," said Rhoda.
"You never asked," I replied. I yawned and said, "Well, I'm going to bed. Good night." I went into the house and went upstairs to bed. I don't know why I told that story. I might as well have told him outright that I had appreciated his efforts... tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'll tell him.
That's all for now. Until next time, please keep reading and reviewing, thanks :)
