I LIVE! Okay, just barely now, I've been sick as all get out for like, EVER! It's just horrible, I never feel up to writing, so it's just... UGH! Annoying. Like seriously, the whole time I'm working on this, I'm coughing, and everything! UGH! UGH! UGH! But yeah, I've just got a quick something to say, then I'll shut up. I've got a friend, and he's doing a, as he calls it, dramatic reading of Tigress' Secret. So, basically he's reading my story aloud. His name on Youtube is, The Flaming Arrow. And I'm not sure if he's making all the chapters public yet or not, but if you could check him out, it'd mean a lot! Also, if you're curious and want to know more about it, just PM me! So yeah, I'll shut up now...

Chapter thirty eight: Adventures in Babysitting

Rose laid in her bed that night. It had been storming all evening, and she had always been afraid of storms, since she almost lost her mom in one.

She shuddered when lightening crackled across her window, and squealed in fear, as she pulled her blanket over head, when the thunder sounded.

She shook under her blanket and didn't want to come out. She hated the storms so much. As much as the plants need rain, she couldn't stand storms.

After a few minutes, she peeped her head out, when her door opened, and she saw Shadow standing there.

"Hey, are you okay sweetie?" she asked softly, as she sat down next to her, and smiled at her.

"I... I don't like storms..." she quietly confessed to the concerned white tiger.

Shadow smiled at her and sighed softly.

"You know, I don't like them either." Shadow said to the scared tigress.

Rose looked up at her, almost surprised. "You don't?"

Shadow chuckled and nodded. "No, I don't like them one bit. I was always scared of them. But, my mama taught me a trick, to keep them from scaring me so much." she said.

"What's that?" Rose asked, getting curious and slowly coming out from under her blanket.

"My mama told me to sing. She said that if you sing, then the storms will sing with you." Shadow said, as she gently sat Rose in her lap and started rocking her and singing to her.

She would do this with her own cubs when the storms scared them, and she felt it would work for Rose as well.

She smiled when she saw Rose yawn and snuggle up closer to her. But what she didn't expect, that made her smile the most, is what the young tigress said, before she fell asleep.

"I love you mama..." she said, with a yawn, and then she was soon sound asleep.

Shadow smiled and gently laid her back in her bed. She carefully tucked her in, and softly kissed her forehead.

"Good night, sweetie. I love you too." she quietly whispered, before she got up and walked out.

*The next day*

Rose flinched when another bolt of lightening struck the sky. She was getting very tired of this storm. It had been going all night and day. It was getting to be the evening hours now, and it was still going strong.

But what made her blood really run cold, was when Shadow ran in, fur dripping wet, with Silver and Blaze close behind.

"Rose, there are bandits in the village! I need you to babysit the twins early for me." she said, pushing the two cubs towards her.

"But, what about the bandits?!" Rose complained.

"The five, and pretty much everyone else is coming with us. So, you're on your own here. You'll do fine kiddo." she said with a wink.

"But why can't I come with you?!" she asked.

"You're still to weak to be fighting. Sorry sweetie." Shadow replied, as she bent down in front of the cubs. "You two be good for Rose, got it?"

The two giggled and nodded. "Yes mama, we'll be good." they said, with grins on their faces.

Rose closed her eyes and face palmed. 'I'm so doomed now...' she thought.

Shadow smiled and kissed their foreheads, then winked again at Rose and bounded back into the rain, leaving Rose alone with the cubs.

The two both suddenly jumped and squealed as a loud crash of thunder sounded, and the next second, were clinging to Rose's legs, shaking in terror.

"Hey now, it's just a little lighting is all, no need to be scared you two." Rose said, as she tried to mask her own fear of the storm.

They both looked up at her, wide eyed in fear. She smiled softly and picked them up and walked towards the twins room.

"How about we play a game, like build a puzzle or something." Rose suggested, trying to draw their attention away from the storm.

They slowly nodded and once Rose made it to their room, she sat them down on their beds and walked over to their closet to find a puzzle.

She found one, and turned around, only two find the two fluff balls hitting each other with pillows. She shook her head and set a table up, and poured out the puzzle.

The two stopped and looked over at her, then continued with their pillow fight, until Rose broke them up, with a pillow of her own.

They both laughed and put their pillows away, and pulled chairs up at the table, and looked at the puzzle.

"What do we do now?" Blaze asked, as she picked up a few pieces, looking quite confused.

"Well, what I always do, is find the ones with edges, and work my way in." Rose said, as she sat herself in between the two.

"That's what mama does!" Silver said, grinning playfully.

"Then lets give it a shot." Rose said, as she dug into the pile for pieces with edges, as did the twin tiger cubs.

After a while, the puzzle began to take form, and soon it was finished, and Silver and Blaze giggled, when they saw it a was a little white bunny.

"It's cute." Blaze said.

"It looks yummy!" Silver chimed in, earning him a stern glare from Rose.

"Bunnies are friends, not food." she said.

He laughed and replied, "I know that! I was talking about it's tail. It's all fluffy, like that fluffy sweet stuff we get at the carnivals that come into town."

Rose tilted her head to the side, wondering if maybe he meant cotton candy, or something along that line.

She shook her head, when the twins started running around the table, chasing each others tails, laughing and giggling.

Rose smiled and gathered up the puzzle, and put it back into the closet. She then put the table and chairs away and went to get the cubs some dinner. She looked outside, worried about how bad the storm was.

"I sure hope that everyone is alright. It must have been a lot of bandits, to have taken everyone! I just wish I could have helped..." Rose muttered softly to herself, as she picked up the cubs food and headed back to their room.

She was half way to the twins room, when two scared screams made her fur stand up on end.

She dropped the plates of food and took off running to the twins room as fast as her legs could carry her.

When she got there, she felt her heart skip a beat.

Silver's bed was turned over, and a lot of the furniture as well. The window was wide open, and claw marks were in the wood, as if someone had been trying to hold on.

Rose ran to the window and gasped in fear.

The twins had been kidnapped...

Heh heh heh, and everyone says babysitting is EASY! HA! So, that enough of a cliff hanger for ya all? Hehehe, no worries my friends, I'm gonna have another chapter up before too long, so you HOPEFULLY won't be hanging long. I'm gunning with this story, because I've got a lot of ideas, and the chapters don't depress me, like another story I need to work on... SO yeah, I hope you liked that, and please don't forget to review! I wanna know what you all thought! SO yeah, I'll talk to ya all later!