Requiem III: The Search for The Truth

by Bonnie Eagan & Alisa Joaquin

Part 33: The Tiger's Den

'Let the tigers out,' he said. But I don't think my pop had this in mind,' Peter quipped. He kept his eyes on the large cats as they circled the arena. Slowly, he pushed Mia behind him to shield her from the advancing tigers. If they could make it to the steps, they might be able to find a way out of the arena. He just hoped it did not lead them to more tigers.

As Peter did his best to shield them, the tigers, however, had other plans. Slowly they circled, sniffing the air, tasting, and testing the quality of this new prey. One was obviously afraid and wounded. It would be an easy kill, but the other held a courage and strength of will that seemed to rival their own. It would not be easy to bring that prey down. If they could separate the two, they would have an easy meal, and perhaps the stronger of the two would flee to live and to be hunted another day. The first thing was to keep the prey from escaping.

Prey and predator circled each other. Both could play this game well. The tigers, however, would not put up with it much longer. Their hunger would get the best of them sooner or later. The male prey, on the other hand, had other means of defense hidden up his sleeves.

Finally, one of the tigers came in close and tried to claw at the prey's legs. The female of the two screamed and the hunt began. Both were off and running and the tigers were in hot pursuit, trying to bring them down. But the male of the prey once again was between the female.

"Go, go! Don't stop. Head for the stairs."

Mia raced as fast as she could, trying to make it to the stairs. She imagined she could feel the tiger's hot breath on her neck, and it frightened her more. Terror gripped her mind, and she no longer knew where she was heading. She only knew she wanted to get away.

Peter did his best to keep Mia ahead of him, but it was difficult to watch her and the tigers at the same time. He thought there was only going to be one way to solve this, and it would be either him or the tigers. An old story came to mind, and he would have burst out laughing if the situation had not been so serious and grave.

Peter felt the scrape of claws on his leg as one of the tigers caught up to him. He stopped, and surprisingly, gave the big cat a back kick to the nose, causing it briefly to flinch and close his eyes. It reminded him of when the Blaisdell's cat Isis would receive a rap on the nose from some transgression she had committed. Those raps were never that hard, just enough to discourage her from committing the same offense twice. But cats are stubborn, and they follow their own curiosity and nature. Peter hoped that the rap on the tiger's nose was hard enough to discourage the beast from coming any closer. But there were two tigers to contend with and Peter was starting to become weary.

The tiger chasing Peter came closer and reached out with his paw, trying to snag the prey with his claws. He almost had him when the prey suddenly stopped and struck him squarely in the nose. No prey had ever done that to him, and the tiger stopped for a moment and shook his head. The kick was just hard enough to string, but not hard enough to enrage. The second tiger tried to close in, but before he could react, the prey was out of his reach and once again heading to the stairs.

Both tigers were in pursuit as their prey finally made it and headed to the top of the stairs. The tigers slowed their pace, one sitting on his haunches to watch the proceedings while the other slowly ascended the stairs. If they did not act now, their prey would get away, but both tigers were becoming weary of this game.

As Peter and Mia reached the top of the stairs, Peter turned and brought his arms up. Focusing his chi, he sent a column of air slamming into the one pursuing tiger. It caused the animal to react with a surprised growl and then the big cat turned and hissed at him. Realizing this prey was just too difficult to bring down, the tiger turned and descended the stairs back to the arena floor. There would be other prey far easier.

Releasing a deep sigh, Peter turned and took Mia by the arm. "Let's get out of here. They won't come after us now. I've got a bone to pick with the Master."

Continues with Part 33