Tiger Eyes

Tiger Eyes

New York - Jai Spencer walking home from school

India - Shikan the tiger padds home through the forest to her
cubs

I notice them both, they stand out, not like a sore thumb, but like
something, unique, special. Shikan with her fiery, thick coat,
different shades of yellow, gold, saffron, orange, tan, crimson, red
and black. She is like a living fire, with the light of the blaze
coming from the tips of her fur, the heat from her tired feet, and a
different sort of warmth coming from her eyes as the green, emerald
green, forest hides the caves which holds three beautiful cubs. Shikan
lovingly nudges aside a fern, and then is revealed to her cubs. They
are the most precious things to Shikan. To boys and a girl. The boys
are already growing fast, with fur blood red and muslces that remind
Shikan of their warrior father. The girl remains smaller, but is elgant
and fast. Her fur is black, silver and yellow, shimmering in a way that
bursts her mother's heart with pride. The girl cub is more beautiful
and handsome than her father. The sun sets over the trees, and the
nearby golden tamirans stop their noise. Night has fallen.

Jai was a normal boy, thirteen years old, but he was different in his
soul. The eyes are the windows of the soul, and they, perhaps, showed
the outside world a little of Jai's wonderful difference. They were
amber near the jet black pupils, but lightened as the colour neared the
edge of the iris. They nicknamed Jai 'Tiger Eyes' and 'Fire Soul'. He
loved that. The sun was setting over the skyscrapers, and he hurried
home along the New York streets. It was getting late, and the city
would be crammed with people soon, wanting to visit the theatre, a
club, or any other night time venues that New York cradled in it. Soon,
night had fallen, and Jai, just before he fell asleep, thought of his
beautiful city with its splendour and mix of different types and races
of people, and thought of it as a fantastic rainbow. He then fell
asleep.

While asleep he dreams. Shikan dreams also, with her cubs by her side
so that they are warm. She dreams of a young boy that comes to her cave
with eyes like fire. He says nothing, and leaves her and her cubs along
again. She then dreams that hunters come, coming to kill her and sell
her fur to the highest bidder, and either kill her cubs or leave them
to fend for themselves in the enmormous jungle, where they would be
killed, or even put them in a zoo. NO! She whimpered in her sleep, and
then awoke. It was still night. Contented that it was not real, she
fell asleep again.

Jai dreamed of a forest, with rainforest and lush ferns, all blending
in the emerald green. He saw two men before him, with guns. He
panicked, thinking they had seen him and would kill him. He brushed a
fern aside to escape one way, but found him facing a family of tigers.
They were the most magnificent yet delicately gorgeous things he had
seen in his life. Still, he would have to leave. He ran the other way,
and no-one followed. He then realised what the men were hunting. The
beautiful creatures he had seen. The sleeping beauties that the tigers
were. He ran back to the cave, and just as one of the men was about to
fire, he jerked the gun up, and out of the man's hand.
'No! This is not right. These wonderful creatures do not deserve to
die, for any profit or revenge.'
'You are only a boy. You do not know of greater things than right and
wrong. The world of the just is a complex one. A child would not
understand. Give me the gun.'
'Then tell me, before I am implied to kill you, what is the just reason
for killing these creatures?'
'Do not meddle in things you have no concern in and don't understand!'
The man was angry. The other man ran off, afraid of what the shouting
man could not see. Shikan had woken, and leapt to attack the hunter.
She did not injure him, put pinned him down, and her face set against
his, said in Tiger Language, 'Leave this place. Never hunt again.' The
hunter did not understand, but vowed the same, and ran off. Jai could
not move, for he was Tiger Eyes and could understand what Shikan had
said. It frightened him.
'Do not fear. Leave this place, but I will protect you if you ever come
again. I will never forget you, because you saved my cubs and my life.
I thankyou.' Jai nodded, for he understood what he should do. He felt
himself drift back into consciousness, and picked a fern before he left
that Tiger world again. When he awoke, he had the fern in his hand and
Shikan in his heart.