Chapter 11

"Batman, this is Batgirl, respond."

Still nothing. She'd been calling for hours now. If Batman was alive, the transceiver was probably damaged, or lost. Still, what else could she do? Perhaps she ought to focus on finding shelter for the night. Batgirl scanned her surroundings. Some of the trees had fairly large, low hanging branches. She could use her knife from her belt to cut one down…maybe. Plus she had a water proof compressed cover as well. Combining the two, she could make a tent. She needed to get to work though. She pulled out the largest blade her belt carried and began hacking away at a nearby tree branch. It took some effort, but she managed to splinter the stick off of the tree.

Propping it on another tree, she reached in her belt and pulled out a small packet. She ripped it open, and with a few waves or her hand, she unfurled a full sized plastic tent cover. After securing it over the branch, she climbed into her make shift tent. The jungle floor was wet and muddy, but at the moment, but at least the heat and humidity would make sure she didn't catch cold. She tried to prop some leaves against the tree for a pillow, and laid her head down. She tried not to think about the number of bugs around her and attempted to get some sleep.


Selina awoke gently to the sounds of the slow cackling fire and the morning bird songs that echoed against the cavern walls. As her senses came into focus, she caught a surprising aroma in the air, a heavenly scent of cooked flesh. Her eyes opened, quickly adjusting to the morning light pouring in through the mouth of the cave, and she rolled over to see a make shift spit with two large creatures with rat like tails but cat like ears and faces cooking over the fire, which had been expanded with more wood and with a small circle of protective rocks. She brought herself to her hands and knees and leaned closer. Closing her eyes, she breathed in deeply, taking in the succulent smell of the roasting meat.

"Your timing is excellent, they are ready to eat," a deep voice said from behind. Tygrus' came to her side and lifted the stick on which the meat was cooking from the fire.

Selina smiled widely, her fangs were wet with anticipation. She couldn't recall the last time she was so hungry, or when anything had looked so appetizing. With a single twisting motion, Tygrus broke the stick in half, handing one creature to Selina, and taking the other for himself.

Selina didn't stop to think about what the creature she was eating was, or that the head and everything save the hair was still on it. She dug into the flesh ravenously. The meat was a just a tad rare, but this did not bother her. In fact the tender meat seemed to melt in her mouth, and flow down her throat.

She stole a glance at Tygrus as she downed some of the flesh off the creature's back. He ate like a machine, seeming to strip entire sections off at once. Yet he seemed to savor the taste as he swallowed. The piece would cause a slight bulge in his throat as he devoured bite after bite in succession.

He suddenly noticed Selina's gaze, moving his eyes toward her, causing Selina to look away, slightly embarrassed, her tail twitching nervously.

"Does my way of eating seem strange to you?" Tygrus inquired.

Selina replied, her cheeks darkening slightly, indicating she was blushing under her fur, "Oh…no, um…" she replied, "I guess I am a bit surprised you cook your meat."

Tygrus replied nonchalantly, "I can eat either way, though it seems people from your world prefer their meat warmed. I am told it is safer to do so as well."

"Yes, it would kill parasites in the meat." Selina replied. She smiled as gently as a mouth full of daggers can, "You'll have to excuse me Tygrus, you just…aren't what I expected."

"What did you expect?"

"I…" She hesitated, unsure what to say.

After a few seconds, Tygrus seemed to lose interest in waiting for an answer and turned his attention back to the nearly bare rodent creature. With one clawed hand, he braced the head of the cat-rat, what Selina finally decided to name it in her head, and with the other he gripped the stick. He then engulfed the creature's skull in his jaws. Selina heard a snapping noise. He removed his jaws, and then took one claw, prying off the skull cap, revealing a sizable brain. Before she even had time to feel repulsed, he'd devoured it in one seamless motion.

As Tygrus wiped his jaws, Selina looked at her own meal. The meat was mostly gone, but she had to admit she could use a bit more. She'd need all the energy she could get, right? As she stared at it, the gut reaction of being repulsed at eating the creature's brain seemed to subside, replaced with an intense curiosity as to how Tygrus had broken into the skull so effortlessly. She tried to grip the stick as he had. Then, after a moment of mustering the nerve, shethrust her jaws onto the skull. The first thing she felt was surprise at how wide her jaws could open, then pain as she nearly broke a fang. Removing her mouth, she saw she had punctured the skull rather messily, but she was no closer to the meat beneath.

She heard a slight chuckle to her side. Tygrus had been watching her the whole time.

"You need to bite lower," he said, pointing to a spot near the base of the head. She tried again, and under the force of her bite, she felt the skull crack open. She removed her mouth, and saw the head unfold like a flower petal. She was satisfied with herself as she moved in to grip the meat by her teeth. But unlike Tygrus, her method was messy, and the brain fell to pieces as she tried to pry it out. She couldn't help but laugh, and soon they both were roaring at her own ineptitude. Selina realized she had never heard Tygrus laugh before. It was a low, booming guffaw which echoed from bottom his deep chest, which resounded throughout the cave.

Finally containing herself, she wiped her mouth and said, "I guess I'm done."

Tygrus smiled and stood up, "Then we should go, while the day is early."

Selina agreed, and after they put out the fire, they exited the cave. The forest was well shaded, light seeping softly through the canopy of trees above. In the day time, it seemed much less dark and foreboding. No longer in immediate danger, she also had the time to stop and truly take in the sights, sounds and smells around her. Since her change the whole world had seemed more alive, more vibrant, but the jungle was worlds above the bat cave. Memories of her first visit, however brief, came back to her. Yes, she thought, she knew this place. The air was full of the moist morning dew. Breathing it in was like tasting the air. The plants seemed almost animate, their various scents filling the atmosphere around them, the rustle of leaves in the breeze creating a cacophony of sound, which mixed with that of the animals around her. She couldn't see many of them at first, though her eyes quickly spotted several birds in the trees, all well out of reach from them, and various insects crawling amongst the dirt and foliage. But in fact she could hear and smell several other unseen creatures, some a ways away, others close by. She counted seven different species, and 14 creatures in all around them. The scents of all but a few were unfamiliar. As they moved out of the cave, she could sense their own movement. She felt their fear as they moved through the forest. All the animal life seemed to make way for them, as if they were paying respects to the rulers and head predators of the island.

She glanced at Tygrus through the side of her eye. She realized that around the Cheetah, Batgirl, even Batman she had felt strangely…threatened. A side effect of her new instinctual feline territorial independence, she presumed. For some reason, Tygrus seemed to emanate a different feeling, a comforting one. Her senses seemed to understand Tygrus meant no harm to her, and she felt no desire to evict him from her territory. Her bestial side, she liked to think of it as an entirely different entity from herself, clearly liked having Tygrus around. Just as well.

"We have enough time that we may walk," Tygrus said, "It is best to save energy, as well as not risk accidentally running into a group of the men who were searching for us last night."

Selina nodded, and they began to walk. East, she noticed. Her sense of direction was keen.

"Thank you for breakfast, by the way." Selina said.

"We needed food, and I awoke first." Tygrus responded.

"The proper response is, 'You are welcome,'" Selina said in mock rebuke, with a slight flick of her tail.

Tygrus smiled and responded, "Then…you are welcome Selina."


Barbara Gordon glanced out from under her makeshift tent. Wonderful morning she thought. Except she was damp from the ground, her back hurt from how she slept, and her clothes were starting to smell. And itch. Well, best get going…for where?

She couldn't figure out where the other parachutes had landed, the transceiver was worthless, she had no idea where she was on this god forsaken island that she'd never been to before and for all she knew she was just as likely to run into the people who shot them down as any friendly faces.

As if on cue, she heard footsteps in the distance. Definitely a group, definitely not anybody she knew. Well, even though she had no idea where to go, she'd better pick a direction and get moving.