{Night 05: Malik and Uriel}

"So it's a boy?" I asked, gently pulling the pouch away. The tiger made an unhappy noise, reaching up to grab at it.

"'E's got balls, dunn'e?" Zaria smirked, reaching out to play with his tail. I scowled, shifting so she couldn't reach him. Pouting, she smacked my side.

We were at my house. Master Alban had given me back my pants, and my mother was working on dinner. Dry and healed of any injuries or illnesses, the tiger-cub was calmed down and cradled in my arms. I was feeding it goat-milk from a burlap bag, having visited the next town to ask the goat's owner for food for my charge. We were sitting around the center of the hut, the curtain-door pulled back to let in the light. The fire in the back of the hut was lit, my mom making a stew of the crawfish and some dried herbs we'd collected almost a year ago.

"You should know that snow-sabres can get to be taller than me at shoulder-height. They're big animals, Malik." Master Alban warned.

I looked down at the poofball in my arms. He was about the size of a full-grown cat, with soft white fur. His fur was thick and floofy. Just barely there, hardly visible on his fur, were gray stripes that Master Alban said turned black as these cats grew up. His paws were big and clumsy, his tail almost as big as him. His ears were gray, like his stripes, small and rounded. His nose and paw-pads were pinkish-gray, and his big, childish eyes were bright blue. I had a little trouble picturing this little thing as the huge, muscly cats with long, ivory fangs that stalked through snowy mountaintops. Snow-sabres were rare, I was told. The idea that one would be in the ocean, here in the hot Rotter-turf...

"Perfect." I mumbled.

"Ehh?!" Master Alban and my friends demanded.

"And how is that?" my mother asked calmly, not turning her attention from the stew.

"If he's gonna get that big, I can ride him into victory when fighting!"

Zaria snorted.

"But... Mal, you'll never be able to—" Hassan started.

"Shuttit!" I ordered, hugging the cub to my chest as I pointed defiantly. "I can do it! Don't doubt me! I'm gonna raise this cub into a full-grown sabre, healthy, strong and full of life! Don't treat me like I can't or say it's impossible! Impossible is a word used by Not-Rots so they don't feel like trash! Just because it doesn't look doable, don't give up the second you think it, or you'll never see how far you can go! This cub and I are going to break down impossible and bring forth the unthinkable, got it?!"

Right at the end of my speech, the cub bit me.

"... Owowowow! You little bastard!" I yelled furiously, holding the creature at arm's length.

As everyone laughed, the sabre-cub squirmed out of my hands and attacked the abandoned milk-pouch. I scowled, "Ya coulda said somethin'..."

"Anyway, what'll you name him?" Mom asked with a smile, dishing out stew-portions.

I looked at the cub sucking fiercely on the burlap bag.

"... Uriel." I decided after a minute of thinking.

"Uriel?" Chaya asked.

"Yeah... I mean, these guys come from places covered in snow, right? And I may not have ever seen snow, but I'm told that it's actually hundreds of billions of tiny white crystals that fall from the sky... and crystals refract light and sparkle in it, don't they?" I muttered, picking the cub back up. I let him keep the pouch and began stroking his back. "If his fur is as white as the snow, which shines in the sunlight, it's only appropriate that his name mean 'shining one.'"

Mom smiled, nodding as she offered me my stew. I shook my head, too busy nursing my hungry new friend.

"Whatever, just keep your romanticized mushy feelings t' yerself, hear me, brat?" Master Alban snorted as he moved his bowl away from Zaria. She was already half-done with her portion and seeking more.

"That's fine, I don't need you to fix this country. Uriel an' me, we can do it on our own."

"Oya, oya! Don' fergit us, ne? Er me, anyways, ah'll help ya out!" Zaria objected.

"Y-yeah... We're friends, aren't we?" Hassan smiled. Chaya nodded, smiling sweetly.

I huffed, turning away from them to play with Uriel.

Because they'd totally ruined my grouchy-independent attitude.