Chapter Eleven

Jasmine's POV

A cage! I couldn't freaking believe it! They had stuck me in a cage!

My tail lashed back and forth in agitation and I whipped around for another three strides before coming up against the other wall. Restlessness and frustration coursed through me like fire, heating my blood to a near boil.

The need to run was so bad that my legs were shaking. My mouth was parched from hours without liquid, but I dared not drink from the bowl in the corner. Call me paranoid, but although it was completely clear and looked safe, I had the sneaking suspicion that it was drugged; probably with something to knock me out again. Either way, I wasn't going to chance it.

I wanted out, and I wanted it right now! If I was in here for another minute, I was going to go crazy! Being stuck inside this wood-woven cell was making me feel like a caged tiger… The thought made me stop mid step and stare at my orange and black striped paw. …Which was exactly what I was?

I blinked at the realization that, maybe that was my problem. I had never been claustrophobic before, but I also hadn't been in the form of an animal whose habitat was many times larger than what I was currently inhabiting. I knew from a project I did for school years ago that tigers needed space just like any other member of the big cat family and this was far from spacey.

I sat down abruptly, flopping onto the grassy floor with a depressed huff. It had never really dawned on me that I was a tiger. I mean- I knew what I was the moment I caught sight of my feet-turned-paws, but I don't think it had really sunk in until just now how much of a difference that actually made. I was a basically a human consciousness stuffed into an animal's body. One, that I might add, was vastly different from my original.

The idea was unnerving, but got me thinking. I didn't know very much about cats in general or tigers in particular because I had never been interested. I'd never even had one as a pet (a cat, not a tiger), so I wasn't even sure what I was capable of.

I frowned down at my paws and realized with a start that I had been needing the grass under me with my nails (no, claws!), exposing moist soil as I went. Flexing my toes experimentally, I dug my…claws…into the dirt. A twitch and a second later I was staring at claw-less cat toes. What the heck? I flexed them again and saw the sharp, curved claws that cats were known for come back out of what seemed to be nowhere. So where-?

Oh. Duh! I would have smacked myself in the forehead if I could have. Cat claws were retractable! I repeated it several times experimentally and watched, fascinated, as they slid in under my fur and back out again.

"Cool," I whispered.

I glanced around the tent where I kept company with the camp's extra supplies to make sure I was still alone. There wasn't any real way to determine whether or not someone was lurking among the stacks if they didn't want to be known, so I had to assume that no-one was there, even though I didn't think it was likely that they had left me unattended.

Padding over to the nearest corner, I peered out at what kept what basically amounted to a woven cover attached to the ground. I had tried several hours earlier to break through the wall itself without any luck; the thin wood hadn't even cracked, not even a little bit.

With my face pressed up against the mesh, I stared with narrowed eyes at the thin strand of braided rope that was pulled taut between the upper corner and a stake buried in the ground approximately two feet away. There was an identical set at the other three corners as well, effectively tying the whole thing down. I knew I had no way of pulling the stakes up even if I could have reached them, so I decided to try something else. It was a bit of a stretch - literally as well as figuratively – but I thought, What did I have to loose in trying?

I poked my right paw through one of the bigger holes in the weave and pawed at the rope. I figured that if I could get my claws into it, I could some how cut it in two. I wiggled around and tried different angles. It took a minute before…Ah-ha! I caught one in a strand and pulled. It gave with a soft, barely audible snap! I gave a Cheshire cat's grin and fished for another one.

I was so ready to be out of this cage.

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Felix's POV

I gritted my teeth and held back a whine as one of the medics poured a stinging potion that was supposed to help stave off infection over the wound on my mid-section. It bubbled white froth and made little hissing-popping sounds as it settled into the deep teeth marks.

They had been bleeding sluggishly for a couple hours and had only just started to clot up a few minutes ago. With how hard the tiger had bitten down, it was amazing I had gotten away with just some bruising and avoided any broken ribs entirely. I was positive I would be stuck with a faint scar in the shape of that particular animals jaw for the rest of my life, though the medic was optimistic that if it didn't fade entirely, the fur would grow to cover it given time.

I was undecided on whether too be proud of it as my first battle scar as an agent of the King or embarrassed that a cat barely out of cub-hood had brought me down so quickly. Either way, after the medic was finished wrapping the wound and had turned away, I carefully got to my feet and walked out into the open air. Both my ribs and my over-stressed muscles protested at the idea of anything faster than a walk, so I turned and headed slowly towards the tent where I knew the two humans were sleeping.

As I drew away from the medical tent, a flash of orange against a back drop of green caught my attention. I turned to see that confounded tiger's eyes and nose poke out from under the edge of a ten flap and quickly look around before ducking back under. A second later, she appeared again, this time emerging entirely. I backed up behind a neighboring tent and watched as she pressed herself down into the eighteen inch high grass growing along the side of the supply tent as two lady centaurs passed by, deep in conversation.

When they had turned another corner, the cat glanced from side to side (completely missing me in the process) before sitting up. A shift in the slight, early-summer breeze brought me up wind of the cat, making me tense. I prayed to Aslan that she wouldn't catch my scent.

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Jasmine's POV (again)

It took me a while –and the entire first rope- to get the hang of it, but once I had it down pat, the second one was almost easy. I say 'almost' because after the first couple of strands, my claws started to feel like someone was trying to pull them off. It didn't hurt exactly; it was more like someone was tugging at them. It was disconcerting more than anything and I began to ignore it after five minutes of worry and examination. They seemed fine, so I just got on with it.

I figured that I only needed two down, because without them the other two became slack and were pretty much useless when it came to keeping 'a lid on things' so to speak. It was when I started laughing at my own joke that I knew the place was really starting to get to me. If I had been back home, I would have rolled my eyes at whoever had said something "so lame" and flipped my hair over shoulder.

But I wasn't home, was I? As confidant as I had been in my convictions in those screaming matches that I would be better off on my own and I couldn't wait to go; that notion had quickly melted under the heat of reality.

About ten minutes later, I nosed up under the lip of the over-turned basket and wiggled through, lifting it up as I went. Once I was out, I jumped away, remember to just in time to move my tail out of the way before it came thudding back down to the ground again.

I gave a glorious cat stretch, paws reaching forward out front and behind in the air." Ahhhh…" I sighed as my back cracked. It felt good to be out of that thing, but now the itch in my legs had picked up into something more like a buzz. My muscles felt all twitchy, jumping under my skin in anticipation. I wanted to run. And I would, once I got out of here. No way was I staying after yesterday's fiasco.

I poked my head out of the tent flap. Now, where to start?