Lillene

Enjoy!

There was a long tail that led to a graceful feline body and a large head. The first impression was of a mighty white tiger, nearly as long as Serenity was tall. It was hard to be certain of the tiger’s Tier without extending his aura over it, but the first impression of the tiger’s aura told Serenity that it was roughly Tier Six. It had to be a particularly inattentive Tier Six, since it didn’t seem to have noticed that Serenity was within its aura, but still Tier Six.

The second impression clashed with the first. The feline was lean and lanky, with a head and paws that were too large for the rest of its body. It looked a little old to be called a kitten, but at the same time it clearly wasn’t an adult. It was also alone. Serenity didn’t know enough about tigers to know if it was old enough to be on its own, but he did know that there was nothing for it to hunt down here and there were no supplies.

It didn’t seem to have noticed Serenity, so he sat and watched it. He had to assume that it was sapient, even though it didn’t feel like a monster. He needed to know more and watching was the best way to find out what it was doing.

The tiger cub slashed lines into the World Crystal in front of itself. Its claws cut through the crystal easily, the same way Serenity’s claws seemed to. As they did, they made the same screech he’d heard periodically for a while. The cub seemed almost like it was going through the motions; it was relaxed, possibly even bored as it hit the World Core. The tiger made one slash, then another, then another, until there was little more than a pile of crystal shards. At that point, the ringing stopped for a while as the tiger cub slowly ate the shards of World Core crystal as if it was kibble.

Before the shards were all gone, the cub half-heartedly slashed at the World Core again.

“That’s enough,” Serenity stated calmly. “You need to stop that.”

“Mrah!” The tiger cub seemed to jump and try to twist at the same time. It would probably have been graceful if it hadn’t smacked both its head and its rear on the walls at nearly the same moment.

Serenity had to suppress a snicker. That wouldn’t help anything. “Come on, let’s get you out of here. Ah … can you understand me?”

If the cub didn’t understand Bridge, this could be a lot tougher. Serenity hadn’t expected to find a tiger cub as the culprit; he’d imagined that the World Eaters were something far more obviously sinister. It was hard to hold its actions against a cub any more than he would against a child. He’d stop the actions and try to teach the child better. The same should apply to the cub, as long as he could figure out how to get a “cub” that probably weighed more than he did out of a confined tunnel.

He also needed to find out how the cub got down here and why it was here. He couldn’t believe that this cub was the driving force behind the World Eaters. It didn’t look like something that could travel in space on its own or create the tunnel through the Near Point. It was possible that it had eaten the tunnel into the World Crystal; that simply took time and it had already shown the capacity.

“Grah …” the cub coughed something that sounded somewhere between a word and a growl at Serenity. It finished its turn and pulled itself up so that it was standing. Its fur puffed up a little, like it was trying to make itself look larger. “Why are you in my den? Get out!”

Serenity felt hugely relieved when the cub spoke in Bridge. The question itself was less important than the fact that it meant they could talk at all. “Only if you come with me.”

“What? My den! Get out!” The cub followed the shouts with a sound that was probably supposed to be a growl. It sounded more like a hiss to Serenity. 

“All right. Please follow me.” Serenity spun around in place. It was tight, but that simply meant he had to be careful. He didn’t want to repeat the embarrassing mistake the cub made. He moved slowly and stayed aware of the cub behind him.

The cub didn’t move, so when Serenity made it to about twenty feet away from the cub, he sat down and turned to look at the young white tiger. It seemed to be staring at him; Serenity took the fact that it hadn’t turned around to attack the World Core again to be a win. It wasn’t following him yet, but he was fairly certain he could get it to.

Cats were famously curious, especially kittens, but that wasn’t the only reason it would follow him. The tunnel was, quite simply, boring. Serenity couldn’t tell if the cub was truly even upset about Serenity being in its “den;” he thought that it might not have decided yet. He could swear he’d seen that body language from Curio right before the shadowkitten got into trouble … and Curio wasn’t even a real cat!

They sat there for a full minute before Serenity decided to poke the cub again. The question was how to poke the cub; should he insult it or invite it again? Perhaps a different method would be better? Could he tempt it outside with treats, maybe? That always worked on Curio.

What treats would work on a sapient white tiger cub? Somehow, Serenity didn’t think kitty treats were the answer, even the kitty treats he’d kept in his Rift for a while. No matter how much Curio loved them, Serenity didn’t think they would do much for a cat that many times his size.

Perhaps the treats Serenity kept for Minu, the cat-like talmis demon that insisted on being a mount for Serenity would work? They were large enough, at least.

On the other hand, simply cooking something might be a better choice. Both Curio and Minu liked to beg for food when they knew Serenity was eating. It wasn’t too large a problem with Curio, but there were reasons Serenity kept Minu-sized meals on hand. Rissa liked picnics; she did not like it when a giant cat-demon walked in and ate most of the meal before she got any.

Serenity wasn’t very happy about that, either. Fortunately, he’d arrived at an agreement with Minu: If he gave her meat, she’d leave the human food alone. Her favorite, oddly enough, was beef. She preferred fatty meat and didn’t mind the gristle, so Serenity always kept some brisket in his Rift. 

That was how he found out that Minu absolutely adored it once it was in his Rift for a month. Serenity had to hope that made it healthier, but he had no way to know. It wasn’t like anyone he knew had ever studied demon nutrition. There was a little information in the Broken Mirror’s archive, but it didn’t mention talmis at all.

Before Serenity reached a decision on what he was going to use to tempt the cub out of the tunnel, the cub seemed to have had enough. It charged at Serenity. It was careful to stay low until the final attack, where it leapt up and knocked its head on the top of the tunnel.

Serenity didn’t move during the charge; he trusted his Shield Skill. He didn’t expect the cub to knock itself silly during its attack, but it didn’t surprise him enough to change what he did with the Skill: as the white tiger cub reached the area covered by the Skill, its momentum died.

The cub softly fell the rest of the way down, as if it had hopped off a six-inch-high step. It stirred quickly, more stunned than actually hurt. At least, Serenity thought it was more stunned by the impact than actually hurt; he definitely wanted to have Blaze check the young tiger to make certain there wasn’t any actual damage. Yes, it felt like it was about Tier Six, but that didn’t make it immune to hurting itself.

Actually, that feeling was odd. At Tier Six, Serenity rather expected a shield and it definitely didn’t have one. If it didn’t have any magical capability, it should have been able to move faster and more powerfully than it did; almost any Path that included fighting would result in either a shield or more physical power than the cub showed by Tier Six. Was his judgment of its Tier wrong or was something else going on? 

It had been eating World Core crystal; did that interfere with measuring Tiers? Was it somehow still on its racial Path despite its Tier? 

Serenity didn’t know. What he did know was that the cub reached out with a paw to swipe at Serenity and missed without even making contact with Serenity’s shield. That wasn’t a good sign at all.

Serenity started running through options. He didn’t really want to move the cat too much, in case he made an injury worse, but he either had to get it to Blaze or have Blaze come to it. Between those two choices, making Blaze have to do a bit more healing in a place where Serenity could keep an eye on the cub and make certain he didn’t harm Blaze was definitely the better option.

A spell was out; he didn’t have any infused that would help … no, that wasn’t quite true. He had one that was intended to reduce the effect of gravity. He still couldn’t fly, really, but with the right spells he could get close. He’d probably eventually be able to locally kill gravity with his Shield Skill, but for now that was far too mana-expensive to try, especially since it wasn’t an attack.

The rest of his infused spells weren’t particularly useful and he didn’t want to take the time to cast something that could carry a several hundred pound feline. He hadn’t prepared a runescript for this exact set of circumstances, either. He’d have to depend on items. It was a good thing that his Rift held all sorts of stuff. 

It wasn’t full, but that was only because there didn’t really seem to be a limit other than his ability to find things. That would have been more of an issue if Aide didn’t keep a complete inventory along with locations inside the Rift.

A flyer was out. He didn’t have any that were small enough for the tunnel. A flyer that could be used to transport an injured individual did sound like something he’d want for the future, so he added it to the wish list Aide maintained.

No, he was going to have to go back to the basics. Fortunately, the basics were easy enough to come up with. There were both tarps and ropes in his Rift; all he had to do was get the huge feline onto the tarp, thread the rope through the grommets, then drag the tiger cub back to the entrance. He was strong enough; he’d roll the tiger to one side, push enough of the tarp underneath, then roll the tiger to the other side and pull some of the wadded-up tarp out the other side.

He just had to hope the tarp would hold up to being dragged across the World Core crystal. It was sharp in places; if it cut the tarp, it wouldn’t protect the tiger from the floor anymore and it would be harder to move the cub.

Lillene

I have got to remember to weave more of Curio into the story when I go back and do edits.