Ok, so this chapter might be a little boring, but i gotta fill time and also show some bonding. Ya can't really wright a montage all cartoon like XD. so please be patient, the next chapter is much more interesting X3
Man, Eric is just such a cuddly little dude, i love him with all my heart omg he's so sweet..MY BABY CHEETAH BOY, UGG, MY HEART *Dies of cuteness*
Marcus blinked groggily, it was very early in the morning. The sky above was mostly still blue with stars, slowly turning to pink in the horizon. Marcus tried to move, but stopped himself as he abruptly remembered where he was. The night before Marcus and Eric had scrambled up a tree to get away from the rain, as well as avoid any predators. If Marcus moved now he risked falling 30 feet at the least, not high enough to kill him, but it wouldn't exactly feel good ether…
Eric was leaning on his shoulder; the poor kid was exhausted from the day before. Being stabbed, thrown into a raging river, and then having to march through a jungle was tiring. Eric stirred and blinked, trying to wake up. Eric sat up straight and looked around as he became fully aware of his surroundings.
"Now that you're awake, I think we should continue trying to find the train tracks." Marcus stated as he looked down, figuring out the way to get down.
"Yeah…" Eric mumbled sadly.
"Are you ok?" Marcus looked back at the blond kid.
"I just…I can't believe Chen would betray us! and literally stab me in the back…" Eric gripped the tree with frustration.
"Yeah, she seemed like such a nice girl…" Marcus frowned a bit.
"There must be something wrong with her!" Eric jumped down to another branch.
"I don't know, I haven't known her long enough to make a judgment like that…"
The was a moment of sad silence before they climbed down the tree and continued their trek to the train tracks.
Back to Manny
Manny stirred and groggily sat up, he was still tired and sore, but not nearly as much as the night before. The tiger was gone, but her cub was still here. He was cute little fella, still not fully used to walking. It was wobbling around and playing with a leaf. Manny slowly stood up, using the wall to balance himself. The little cub walked over to Manny and tugged at his shoe laces playfully. Manny chuckled a little bit and leaned down and pet the cub happily.
"Why don't I give you a nickname little guy?" Manny smiled as the cub purred happily.
"How about Stripes?" He patted the side of the newly named cub before standing back up.
He looked around; he was in an old ruin of some kind. There were moss covered pillars and walls covered with old runes. At the end of the ruin was a door way partially blocked by a bush, beams of sunlight shining through the leafy gaps. The boy moved aside the branches and walked outside; he stepped outside onto a rocky area, there were exotic birds chirping, a waterfall somewhere nearby filling the area with a peaceful roaring sound. Sitting peacefully on a slab of rock was the adult tiger, she was looking out over her territory.
"Uhh…high there lady…" Manny chuckled nervously, she might be calm but she was still a wild predator, and without his claws he wasn't so sure he would stand much of a chance if she got angry.
The tiger cast a calm look over her shoulder; the boy smelled like a tiger, and a young one at that, but he looked odd. Never the less, it was her job to help this cub, and by the looks of it, he was going to need all the help she could give.
"So umm…are you just like a normal tiger?" Manny found it weird, he had never heard of wild tigers saving people.
Speaking of odd; Manny turned his attention to the elephant in the room, or rather, the tiger tails and ears in the ruins. Manny felt his head; "Yup, my tigre ears are still there…" Something swished behind him "And my tail too." His costume and claws were gone, but his tail and ears were still there, why? He though back to when he was on the train, one of the last things he remembered was being hit by a glowing red fist and a cracking noise. "Wait…cracking!?" His ribs didn't feel cracked, in fact, nothing on him did. "The only other thing on me that's crackable is…"
"OH HELL NO!" The tiger boy quickly took off his belt and looked at the buckle; cracks clear as day scattered across its metallic surface. "NO! No no no!" He stumbled back and fell onto the ground. He stared at it for a moment in disbelief before growling scowling, struggling not to clutch it and further break it. "Damn it! Leave it to me to break an unbreakable ancient magical item!" He dropped it on his lap and closed his eyes in frustration. How the hell was he supposed to save his friends now! He heard something in front of him, he opened his eyes to see the tiger sitting right in front of him, staring at him.
"What to you want?" Manny asked it in a mildly annoyed tone, forgetting all about his previous wariness.
"I'm stuck in the middle of god damn nowhere, powerless, across the sea from his parents…oh man, my parents!" His eyes went wide. "What if I never see them again!? They'll think I'm dead!" He looked hopeless for a moment before becoming exasperated again; "And look at me, I'm talking to a tiger like it understands!"
"I know your heart."
Manny's eyes shot open wide, for just a slip second, he though he heard a woman's voice. He didn't know where, it was so quick and so close…almost as if it wasn't his ears that heard it, like it was in his head. He stood up and looked around, but he didn't see anybody.
The tiger began to walk away, hoping down the stone side of the ruins. It stopped a moment and looked back at him.
"Hunt now. Follow."
There it was again, the woman's voice. Once again it was so quick it was almost like he didn't hear it at all, yet still somehow understood it. Manny looked at the tiger with shock "A-are you doing that?" He muttered.
The tiger continued looking at him before turning her head back forward and leaping down the rocks and into the dense jungle.
"H-hey wait up!" He scurried after her, avoiding a snake while sticking his belt back on as he stumbled down the rocks.
He wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but somewhere deep inside him he knew she was going hunting, and she wanted him to hunt as well.
"Uhh, Mrs Tiger, I don't really have claws…so uhh, I don't know how much help I will be to you." He stated with slight worry as he ducked under a branch.
They passed by a stream, not very fast or deep, but big enough for some fish. He stopped and looked at it for a moment before and idea came to his head; "Hey, maybe I could fish instead! I can do that without claws!" He exclaimed at the tiger. She just looked at him for a moment before continuing on her way, he took that as a yes.
He stood still and watched the stream waiting for a fish to swim close, when one finally did, he pounced on it. There was a splash and he had the fish, key word being 'had.' "Drats, hold sti-AH!" the fish squirmed out of his hold and back into the stream, where it quickly swam away in terror.
"Ok, this isn't going to work.." Manny mumbled to himself, getting up out of the water. He looked around for a moment, trying to figure out someway to catch some breakfast…or lunch, depending how late it was. His tail knocked something behind him, he looked behind him to see a sharp rock. An idea popped into his head and a smile grew onto his face.
*A few hours later*
The spear went clean through the fish. Manny smirked as he pulled it out of the water, he pulled it off the spear and dropped it on his pile of fish, which was sitting on a large tropical leaf. Manny had made the spear from a large stick, he sharpened it with one of the broken belt buckle pieces. It had been a few hours since he last saw the tiger, which he had decided to call Lady.
The sun was high in the sky and it was getting quite hot, he looked at the fish pile and decided that he had enough for lunch. He used another large leaf to make some sort of a makeshift lift to help carry the fish. He started walking back to the temple.
He still had no idea what he was going to do, he had no idea where he was, which direction the train tracks were, or even what direction to go in. He had his tail and ears, but his senses were still like a normal human. Running blindly into the jungle wouldn't do him any good. Maybe he could get Lady to show him where he fell…
He climbed up the rocks that led to the stone slab of the ruins. He saw Stripes come trotting out of the shrubbery that hid the temple entrance.
"Hey there little buddy." Manny smiled and knelt down, patting the cubs side.
"I brought ya a fish if you want it, I gotta cook mine first though." The boy handed Stripes a fish, who happy took it a and began chewing it.
A few minuets later Manny had a tiny fire going and was attempting to cook a fish, the little cub still chewing on the fish. Lady came jumping of the rocks and onto the stone slab, dragging a dead animal with her mouth. She plopped it down and turned to see the cub eating a fish. Manny looked Lady straight in the eye and once again had that feeling as if her heard something;
"Thank you."
Manny smiled and nodded at her.
Sometime later, after lunch, Lady once again left to go hunt. Manny had meant to ask her to show him the train tracks, but she had disappeared in the jungle while he was turned away. The day went on; Manny rested and play wrestled with Stripes off and on all day until he got hungry, then he grabbed his spear and headed back to the stream.
He caught some more fish and then headed back to the ruins, Lady was already up there munching on another dead animal. The cub turned to see him and pranced over happily, waiting for another fish. Manny smiled and tossed Stripes a fish before going to his camp fire to cook the rest.
The sun was low, painting that side of the sky with vibrant oranges and pinks. The other end of the sky was decorated with dark blue, and the faint glowing of stars glittered as dusk danced its way across the world.
Lady picked up her cub and walked through the bushes and into the temple ruins, she returned a moment later without the cub and looked Manny straight in the eye.
"What?" He raised a brow.
"Follow. Important." Lady walked past him and jumped down the rocks of the ruins, headed for the deep dark forest.
Manny got up and grabbed a torch from his campfire, he followed her down the rocks in into the dark forest. He entered the dark jungle with caution, the dark enveloping him like a curtain, his only light being from his dim torch. He followed Lady closely, not wanting to get lost.
They walked for a while, about 30 minutes, it was well into the night by now. Manny was starting to get tired and a bit impatient. "Where the hell is she taking me?!" Finally, they came to a river, a waterfall filling it upstream. She kept walking though, leading him upstream to the waterfall. Next to it there were some boulders, she looked back at him, still wanting him to follow.
He was becoming more and more confused by the minuet, but he trusted her too much to turn back. She took a steep turn around the boulder and disappeared, he quickly followed ran around the boulder. Next to the boulder were some steep stairs, leading down through a tight and steep rock surrounded area, a great place for something venomous to be hiding. "I can't believe I'm doing this…" Manny grumbled to himself. He stepped down the ancient stone stairs and followed Lady down them as the path slowly spiraled down. Eventually they came to a pitch-black cave opening, Lady walked inside without fear.
Manny swallowed nervously and stepped inside.
I wanted to put a line through the weird telepathic tiger thoughts to make it look more cryptic, but Fanfiction doesn't have that option XD
