#y8-tiger

"Any last words?" The huge tom above you growled and you bared your fangs back at him in defiance. You'd be damned if you would let yourself be killed just like that. Damn these toms surrounding you, you would die fighting.

How did you exactly end in here and in this kind of dire situation? It's a long story so let's make it short. It started as soon as you were born all those years ago. You were born in an everyday Tigers family, but you were anything else than an ordinary.

Your snow-white fur with darkest stripes set you apart from your orange, red, and crimson siblings the moment your carrier and sire saw you. You might have been beautiful, but your looks didn't help you. You were the runt of the litter, the one that was never meant to survive the first night and even less until your eyes opened finally opened.

Even from the moment of your birth, you had to fight so you could survive. Be it your sister and brother pushing you away from your source of milk or little animals that your sire brought to you little cubs of his to eat. Others learned to hunt by playing with each other, but you used your play-time to forage little things like bugs, frogs, mouses, and birds for you to eat.

Your siblings, old and new never stopped teasing you about your size. Tigers were supposed to be big and strong so why were you so small? Heck, if you knew you would have answered them, but you just focused on your little hunting trips and getting stronger.

As your siblings grew into fine fighters you grew to become a carrier. You absolutely hated it, you hated your body and how your siblings had spikes and you had valve. Your carrier wanted you all to continue your family line but you weren't exactly the carrying type. You trained and hunted like a fighter, but you were destined to carry someone's litter. At least that's what your sire kept trying to drill into your head.

One day you wandered further than ever before but it was worth it when you caught this absolutely delicious rabbit, but your meal was interrupted by the smell of smoke. You looked to the skies and saw huge dark clouds of smoke rising from your home.

Distraught, you abandoned your rabbit and ran as soon as you could, but you were late. You had no idea what set the fire but you didn't stick around to mope. With your home, prey, and family gone, you had no reason to stay at South. You set a strong pace and kept on walking until you would grow hungry. Then you would hunt, eat and continue walking.

There were suitors pawing after you here and there, but with a quick swipe of your claws, the weak toms would turn a tail and run like there was a fire under their tails. Your journey started around a year, maybe half ago and it had brought you from hot climates to cooler ones filled with snow. This time around the year, you resided in the exotic yet very wet forest.

You were no stranger to rainforests, but your coloring certainly made it hard to blend into the greenery. This often cost you a well-earned meal. That is why you often found yourself a nice puddle of mud and rolled in it so you could actually camouflage into the forest surrounding you. It was a shame that you needed to cover your beautiful fur, but survival was your main concern.

You were often overlooked by other cats because of your dirty fur, but what else could you have done? Starve but look good while dying? No, you rather sucked it up and rolled in the mud. Besides, there was no way you would submit and become just some common carrier.

You had just gotten your fur coated with a new layer of mud thanks to last night's rain. The rainy season left the forest feeling hot and damp, but you needed to eat and quickly. After prowling for a good hour after mice, reptiles, and birds, you hit a jackpot.

A beautiful plump bird, as colorful as it was chubby. A delicious delicacy that came down to the forest floor just to tease you. Or that's how it felt having it wave its feathers at you when you would usually fail, but you had a good feeling you were having bird for dinner.

You were just about to jump at the bird when suddenly-!

"Help!"

Your jump failed as you were distracted and the fat bird flew away. You growled under your breath but then you heard the sad cry of help again so you abandoned your dinner plans and ran through the greenery towards the sound. You could hear water streaming somewhere, but the loud cries for help also got louder.

Finally, you jumped out of the greenery and saw you had made it to a strong stream with a waterfall just around the corner on your right. Your eyes darted from left to right and then you heard it again.

"Help!"

You flicked your head to the left and saw maybe the smallest turquoise kitten you had ever seen, stranded on a boulder in the middle of the stream. It was a miracle you managed to hear their crying over the raging water. You ran to the point where the kitten was and the two of you locked eyes.

"Please! Help me!" They cried and you looked at the stream. It was strong, but you knew you were stronger. "Hold on, I'm coming to get you!" You called and without any further waiting jumped straight into the water.

Oh scrap, the stream was stronger than you thought, but the little kitten's cries pushed you to push your frame to its limits. You swam to the kitten and just as the water was about to take them you snatched them by the back of their neck with your mouth and you started to swim back to the land.

As soon as you made it to the land, you dropped the kitten on the ground so you could catch your breath. Frag, that was exhausting... But the kitten was safe. You looked at the little one and saw them shaking water from their fur. You took notice that they were a little femme and that for a kitten she was... Cute.

You glanced down at yourself, only to see that the hard current had washed your white fur clean once again. You would need to find a new mud puddle to roll around in.

The kitten must have noticed you staring because the little one turned her bright blue eyes at you. You weren't sure how to exactly react so you tried to go with the caring route. "Are you alri-?"

"What the frag took you so long!?" She hissed at you and you blinked. What did just happened? The little one shook her fur dry before she bared her fangs at you. "I could have drowned!"

"I- I-" For once, you had no clue what to say. You had met tomcats ten sizes larger than her and none of them stayed around to find out what you could do to them if they crossed you. So how come this little one could order you around like that? You must be nicer than you thought you were.

"At least you heard me..! So you aren't completely useless." She said as she started to lick per hand. You started at her until she took notice of it. "What are you looking at?"

You blinked and shook your head, "Nothing." You said and quickly added, "Are you alone? Where are your-?"

"My pack is resting on this side of the stream. If you just help me get over I'll be out of your fur." She said and you blinked. She was awfully mature for such a small kitten. You looked around and saw a long vine hanging from the tall trees just by the stream. You got up and caught the vine and looked at it. It should be long and sturdy enough to carry the kitten over the stream.

You turned to address the kitten. "Do you think you can hold onto this or should I carry you over the stream?"

"I'm old enough to cross with the vine." She said before getting up and walking to you. You just stared as she grabbed the vine from your hand and got ready to bounce, but you stopped her before she could cross. She turned to glare at you, but you weren't shaken by it. "What?"

"Just say a word and I'll carry you over. You don't need to be ashamed or anything." You said and you meant it. Despite being a tough cat, you still had a heart... And apparently soft spot for kittens. The little cat stared at you before scoffing and suddenly jumping. You blinked in shock and turned to look, only to see that the little one had crossed the stream with ease.

You could see her smirk from your spot on the other side of the stream. "Told you I can do it!" She was smug and for a reason. You had to be impressed. You weren't sure if you had made that jump at her age. So you smiled and called, "Be safe and stay dry!"

The kitten frowned at your obvious jab, but just as you were about to turn and start hunting your meal-!

"Hey!" The kitten called and you turned to look at her. She nodded, "Thanks. I won't forget this."

Despite her being so sassy and rude, she was a kitten after all. So you smiled and waved your hand at her, "Get back to your pack and we can call it even!"

You saw her nod before she disappeared into the thick forest. You smiled but it was a bitter-sweet smile. As fun as it was to meet her, she had her pack and you had your own company. You two came from two different worlds. With that in mind, you started to seek out your next meal.

A week or two went by when you decided it was time for you to change your hunting grounds. As juicy as some animals were, you had seen deers, hogs, and such on the other side of the stream.

Yeah, there might have been some other cats, but you were confident in your ability to survive and fend them off. You had seen the animals that gathered by the stream where you rescued the little kitten from. Those animals would fill your aching belly in no time.