The Cat

Kalyi Tan Ze sat alone on the forest floor, leaning casually on her usual tree, eating the pork curry wraps her mother had packed her earlier that day. She had slipped quietly out of the schoolyard and vanished in the nearby woods, savoring the blanket of quiet eerily surrounding her. Accompanied by towering Western Hemlocks and Birch trees she felt a warm peace. The bubbling creek nearby let her mind drift, rolling like the current. Isolated bird calls sounded every other second, their muddled song dancing across the treetops.

She often came to these woods near her school during lunch break. Whether she returned to school or not was a debate in her head every afternoon. It was as if the forest were hiding her, keeping her invisibly protected from her daily life. Out here she could be whom she wanted - not an exasperated studying student. She could listen to the breeze ramble on, or twiddle with the lichen and moss on a nearby rock as long as her lunch break permitted her. These woods dangled freedom in front of her face with each step she took deeper into its green shadows.

Her pork curry wrap smothered with cream disappeared quickly. After a finicky seared piece of pork dropped in the dirt she threw it a few meters away. Refusing, kindly, to eat it. The dirt-covered slab of meat would be eaten by wildlife, she figured nonchalantly. Kalyi pulled out her worn sketchbook and heartlessly sketched away, continuously distracted by the world around her. Minutes crawled by, and how long she could stay here was unclear. But she felt as though it was a sin to leave. Just a few moments longer, she pleaded with the bell.

Her eyes peered over the top of her sketchbook and saw something pleasantly intriguing. The abandoned scrap of pork was gone, vanished into thin air as though she never discarded it. Kalyi’s eyes widened in disbelief, so she tested the theory bubbling in her mind. She threw the last shred of her pork into the woodland, watching it land on a Fern bush, the leaves shaking violently at the new disturbance.

Kalyi narrowed her eyes and waited. Hugging the side of her towering tree as she slipped behind it, hoping to see, but not to be seen.

Long minutes twisted by as she stole glances at the Fern bush - a warm pink piece of pig balanced on of the bending leaves. Confusion grew as she tried to anticipate what would snatch her meat again. Red Squirrels don't eat pork. Foxes and Monkeys are much too skittish. Only something in absolute dire need would be brave enough to come that close to her.

She absent-mindedly tuned in to bickering Ravens and the scuffling in the branches above. Ravens darted in and out, dive-bombing a hidden figure low in the brush beside her pork. She tried to drown it out, but soon the Raven calls were getting more and more urgent, more and more vital as if preying on something. Kalyi rolled her head over to scan the treetops. She sifted through branch after branch and saw nothing. Until a shrill high scream pierced the canopy. It felt like vital warning cries from the thing being annoyed by the enthusiastic ravens.

The scene exploded within the seconds closely following. A cloud of Raven wings shot up from the forest floor as a long orange and black striped arm appeared, knocking one of the birds out of the air. The thud of the paw hitting the bird could be heard from where Kalyi was, just yards away.
And that's when the whole body materialized.

A royal-colored orange body streaked with sinister black stripes appeared from the foliage. Tantalizing amber eyes flickering up to the birds now fluttering around in the tree tops. The cat leaped from his hiding spot with grace and agility. Long and lean body causing Kalyi’s heart to nearly stop in her chest. The cat’s mouth hung open. Flashing a beautiful set of deadly whites. His teeth were almost longer than her pinky finger. Kalyi watched silently as the cat’s tail flickered, ears rotating and eyes darting about.

He stooped down after a moment. And licked the pork off the earth.

Kalyi’s mouth went dry from holding her breath. Her hand shook as she gripped the tree's trunk and tried to slow her ever-racing heart. Suddenly she was keenly aware of the fact that she was out in the open with a living, breathing, Tiger. And even more aware of just how far she had wandered from her precious schoolyard.

The Tiger seemed calm, yet cautious. He swallowed. Sniffing the ground tenderly, wishing there was more. His hackles were still raised, and Kalyi could see the hair bristling on his back. She let her gaze fall to his paws. Nearly the size of her face.

Her breath caught in her throat. And she felt as though she was frozen in time... everything coming to a pause. The world stopped spinning and the gentle benevolent breeze - was gone. Every falling leaf or waterfall cascades to a stop. She ceased all her movement, fearing it would swing this moment back into motion. And that fear became very, very gripping.

Then, without a hint of warning, the Tiger’s mood shifted. He held his head up high, glancing deep into the direction opposite of Kalyi. His eared pinned back flat. Kalyi could almost feel his own heartbeat quicken with her own. She looked desperately to see what had spooked the great creature - only there was nothing but shadows and pools of light. Coating as empty woods. However, the second she looked back -

Her Tiger had completely, utterly, disappeared.

Kalyi’s heart slowly beat back to life as though realizing it had stopped for too long. Her nerves buzzed and she refused to close her eyes. What had just happened? Her body and mind couldn't keep up with each other, couldn't recount the last few seconds. She knew she hadn’t dreamt it - but how was it possible? Years and dare she even say decades before she was born… Tigers were dubbed an extinct species. The last one was killed ages ago at some crazy American man’s home as some pet. The thought of which always disgusted her. But that was the facts. Not a single living Tiger had been seen since a few years after that.

Kalyi stared so hard into the bushes that she thought her sight could burn a hole through the branches. Something urgent burned inside of her, it almost hurt.

Far away, sounding like nothing more than a memory, the school bell rang. But Kalyi hardly heard it.

She was already, silently, slipping away further into the woods. Following huge sunken Tiger prints, deep in the undergrowth.