Chapter 2 New World
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"Stay away, you pervert. Put on some pants." I scream, my arm still swinging to launch another handful of sand.
My heart hammers so hard it feels like it would burst out of my chest, my mind is blank but somehow a beeping danger alarm ringing.
Why did the tiger turn into a huge blonde guy.
Was this some magic welcome.
Did Mei Mei say this was that kind of retreat. And why was it look like that?? Prickly croocked sausage!
Mid swing, the boy's smile drops.
His amber eyes snap to the treeline behind me, pupils narrowing into slits.
A low, guttural snarl rumbles in his throat, nothing like the playful irritation from a second ago, this one is pure, unfiltered fear.
"Be silent," he hisses, moving faster than I can follow.
One large hand clamps over my mouth, the other yanking me roughly behind the mossy rock I had been sitting on.
Sudden rush of blood to my cheek, my heart beating wild, trying to struggle pushing this bare chest out of my face.
His body tenses, muscles coiled like a spring, and my protests die in my throat as I feel the ground vibrate beneath my knees.
A roar splits the air, louder, deeper, more terrifying than anything I have ever heard.
It is not the tiger's roar.
This one shakes the leaves off the trees, makes the earth tremble, makes my teeth rattle in my skull.
The boy's face goes pale. "Catastrophe beast," he mutters, his voice tight.
"I should've smelled it earlier, too distracted by your yelling."
Before I can process what that means, the boy's form blurs.
Dust and wind swirl around him again, but this time, he does not shrink, he grows.
His muscles bulk up even more, his golden fur thickens into a shaggy pelt striped with jet black, his claws lengthening into dagger sharp talons.
He is bigger than before, taller, broader, an apex predator in every sense of the word.
The only thing that stays the same are his amber eyes, now glowing faintly in the dappled light.
He turns his massive head toward me, and his voice booms in my mind, deep, resonant, no longer the boy's casual tone but something ancient and fierce.
'Get on. I can't fight it and protect you at the same time. We have to run.'
I freeze, my brain short circuiting again.
Fight? Protecting me? Running from what?
The bushes to their left explode outward.
A beast steps through, taller than three tigers stacked on top of each other, with a massive, crocodile like jaw lined with serrated teeth, scales like polished obsidian, and legs thick as tree trunks that end in claws the size of my forearm.
It looks like a T-Rex, but wrong, sharp scale covering it body, bigger than fossil at the museum, and growling hungry.
Its eyes glow a sickly red, and it sniffs the air, letting out another ear splitting roar that makes my ears bleed.
I do not need any more prompting.
Scrambling onto the tiger's back, I wrap my arms tight around his thick neck, my fingers digging into his shaggy fur.
The tiger does not waste a second, he launches forward, his paws thudding against the dirt as he bolts away from the catastrophe beast.
The wind whips through my hair, and I squeeze my eyes shut, clinging on for dear life as the beast's roars fade behind us, only to be replaced by the sound of its thunderous footsteps chasing us.
We run for ten solid minutes, through thick underbrush, over fallen logs, up a steep hill that makes my muscles scream.
Finally, the tiger skids to a halt in front of a barricade made of sharpened logs and woven branches, draped with the skins of animals I have never seen before.
Two figures step out from behind the barricade, both tall, both muscular, both shifting from bear form to human as they approach, their fur fading into skin.
"Tigris." one of them calls, he is a burly man with a beard that covers half his face, and he stares at me, perched on Tigris's back, with his mouth hanging open.
"What in the."
"Patrick," Tigris rumbles, his voice still echoing in my mind.
His tiger form shrinks back into the blonde boy, and he is naked again, but I do not care, I am too busy gasping for breath, my legs wobbly as I slide off his back.
"There's a catastrophe beast ten minutes from here. Round up the warriors. I'll deal with the rest."
He glances down at me, his amber eyes sharp. "This female is mine. I'm going to mark her."
Patrick's eyes go wide. "Mark her. But who is she?."
"Just do it," Tigris snaps.
He grabs my wrist, his fingers warm and strong, and starts pulling me toward a cluster of caves carved into the side of the hill.
I stumble after him, my brain finally catching up to what he had said.
Wait.
Mark her.
"Wait a second." I yell, yanking my wrist out of his grip.
"What do you mean mark me? Mark me for what? And where the hell are we? Where's Mei Mei?"
Tigris does not slow down.
He does not even look back.
He just keeps walking, his bare feet thudding against the dirt, as the villagers stare, some shifting from animal to human, some from human to animal, all of them staring at me like I am a ghost.
My heart sinks.
His grip on my wrist never tightens, not even when I stumble over a gnarled root or trip on the loose gravel that lines the path to the caves.
It is a surprising gentleness, given his earlier ferocity, the way his fingers adjust to my unsteady steps like he is afraid to hurt me even as he hustles me toward safety.
The cave mouth looms ahead, shadowed and cool, a stark contrast to the sweltering heat of the forest outside.
Inside, it is surprisingly dry, the walls smooth and worn, lit by the faint glow of glowing moss that clings to the stone like scattered stars.
There is a pile of soft furs in the corner, a makeshift bed, and a small hearth filled with cold ash, evidence that this is his space, his home.
Tigris finally lets go of my wrist, his amber eyes scanning the cave quickly before settling back on me.
His expression is hard, unyielding, but there is a flicker of something else, warning, maybe, or a hint of concern.
"Stay here," he says, his voice low and rough, no longer the booming echo in my mind but a gravelly baritone that rumbles in his chest.
"Don't leave the cave. Don't make a sound. The catastrophe beast isn't the only danger out there, and the warriors will be busy. It's not safe for you."
I blink, my brain still spinning like a top, my mouth dry.
The words register, but they do not make sense, not really.
Not when one minute I had been on my way to vacation with Mei Mei, and the next I had been throwing sand at a naked tiger dude and running from a monster that looked like a nightmare T-Rex.
I shake my head, my hands coming up to press against my temples like I can physically squeeze the chaos out of my thoughts.
"Wait, this is a prank, right?" I say, my voice cracking a little, half hope and half desperation.
"A reality show. Mei Mei put you up to this, didn't she? She's been bugging me about 'spicing up my vacation' for weeks, this is her idea of a joke, isn't it? The costumes are great, by the way, super realistic, but can we cut it out now? I'm kind of freaked out."
Tigris's jaw tightens.
He does not laugh.
He does not even smile.
He just stares at me, like he is trying to understand a language he does not speak, before he turns toward the cave mouth.
"I don't have time for this," he says, and there is a sharp edge to his tone now, a reminder of the predator beneath the skin.
"Stay here, okay. If you need anything, go to the female in the tribe, tell them you are my female, Tigris, is my name."
With that, he steps back into the sunlight, his form already beginning to blur, and the sound of his paws thudding away fades into the distance.
I stand there for a long moment, staring at the empty cave mouth, my heart still hammering in my chest.
Then, slowly, I sink down onto the pile of furs, my legs giving out beneath me.
I fumble in the pocket of my cutoff shorts, thank god I had kept them on, even when I had been throwing sand, and pull out my phone.
The screen lights up, bright and familiar, and I tap the signal bars, as if willing them to fill in. But they are still empty.
No service. No WiFi. No bars.
Just a dead, blank screen staring back at me, the wallpaper a photo of me and Mei Mei grinning on the beach that morning.
I drop the phone onto the fur beside me, my shoulders slumping.
The cave is quiet now, except for the distant roar of the catastrophe beast, faint but still loud enough to make my blood run cold.
This isn't a prank.
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