Page 11 of The Last Tiger

Seung

“Look,” Eunji whispers, “it’s still damp.”

I stare down at the footprint. Sure enough, she’s right.

A jolt passes through me; bumps rise on my skin.

Its tail sweeps back and forth anxiously on the wooden platform. The creature’s eyes gleam with a strange intensity; they seem to glow almost from within.

From the look of this print, there’s another tiger out here in the woods. And it isn’t far away.

Above us, a half-moon shines down over the world, casting the landscape into gray-white shades of light and shadow. The stream cuts quietly through the woods, its surface utterly and strangely clear, like flowing glass.

“Seung…?”

Eunji looks up at me with a mixture of wonder, fear, and more than a hint of excitement in her face. I feel my own heart pounding in my chest. Thud. Thud. Thud.

One thing is for sure. Tigers mean danger.

The less we know about this, the better. Otherwise we’re just asking for trouble from the secret police.

“Look, Eunji, I think we should get you home.” I stand up, brushing the dirt from my tunic.

Eunji continues scanning our surroundings, undeterred. The breeze whistles through the valley, making her hair flutter slightly around her shoulders. The mix of bravery and naivete in her expression puts a pang in my chest. Eunji shivers, looking up from the footprint and gazing off into the woods.

“Look—there’s more.”

I follow her pointed finger: Sure enough, there’s another print.

And another.

They’re leading up from the river, into the forest.

“Eunji.” I try again. “We should go—”

But she seizes my wrist, her face gone pale white—

I follow where she’s looking—and then I see it too—

Two yellow, gleaming marbles.

Shining out at us from the dark undergrowth beneath the trees.

The first paw emerges from the shadows.

Now the hair really stands up on my skin—

It’s followed by a black nose…and a wide, winter-white face…

The tiger treads slowly out of the woods, paw by paw. Eunji freezes solid beside me; I ever so slowly move her behind me with a guiding arm. My legs tense, ready—to do what? Fight or run? I don’t know—as the tiger emerges from beneath the trees, its entire body now bathed in moonlight.

It swings its head around, staring at each of us, one at a time.

The tiger steps softly toward the creek, seeming to ignore us entirely. It lowers its head to the surface of the water and begins to lap with a pink tongue.

I don’t dare to move a muscle. The night is mysteriously silent around us—not even the croaking of toads or a chorus of crickets can be heard. There’s only the lap, lap, lap of the tiger drinking patiently by the river. Its tail twitches sporadically, sweeping from one side to the other.

My eyes widen. Seen up close, the animal is longer than a full-grown man is tall. Its lean haunches seem to contain a raw, incredible power. And yet somehow, this wild animal looks so gentle here…drinking by the river’s edge under the moonlight…

It’s beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it before…

Suddenly the tiger looks up from the water, snapping immediately to attention. Its whiskers stand on edge as its eyes narrow on something far down the path, beyond Eunji and me.

The tiger instantly turns and bounds off into the woods. Just like that, in only a few leaps, it’s vanished completely, the fronds shaking in its wake. The surface of the creek is perfect and still, as if it were never touched.

I turn to look—behind us, in the distance, is the bobbing light of a lantern. Someone is approaching from far down the path. Even from here, I can hear the distinct murmur of voices speaking in Dragon language.

Uh-oh. The night patrol.

I glance quickly around us, scanning for an escape route. But there’s nowhere to run, except into the woods—which seems unwise, knowing there’s a wild tiger in there, but there’s absolutely no way Eunji and I can be seen here together by the Dragon patrol.

I mentally curse myself for sneaking Choi Eunji out at night. What was I thinking?

I make a split-second decision.

Acting quickly, I grab a fallen branch and smear out the tiger’s footprints in the mud, rendering them unidentifiable. I glance sharply behind us one last time at the lamp, then back at the woods. We only have a few seconds before we’re seen.

“Here,” I whisper.

I grab Eunji by the arm and pull her after me into the woods, into the shade under the trees. We kneel down in the undergrowth, getting our bearings; I brush away a large frond from my face.

At least here we can’t be seen right away. I try to peer back out at the patrol, to see whether they’ve spotted anything.

Eunji gasps and nudges me.

“That’s Mr.Ogawa,” she whispers, pointing. “He leads our neighborhood military regiment; he knows my father. If they find me here…”

Sure enough, I can just make out the form of two soldiers from the Dragon Army approaching up the riverside path, their rough faces cast into shadow by the lantern in the taller one’s fist. The light provides a gentle bubble around the two men, the halo extending off them into the night.

As if on cue, the lantern freezes. One of the men squints into the dark.

“Did you hear something?” he asks.

Eunji barely restrains a yelp. Luckily for us, with the bright lantern they’re carrying, the soldiers can’t seem to see deeper into the dark shadows of the woods. But we may not be able to evade them for long here. I tap Eunji on the arm.

Follow me, I mouth.

It may be foolish—we’re sharing these woods with a dangerous animal—but we don’t have any choice.

I don’t know where we’re going, but I do know we have to move fast.

Eunji runs headlong beside me through the undergrowth, her face flushed with excitement and fear.

As we run, we pass through the trees to an odd clearing where the forest thins out.

The moonlight falls directly here onto the space between the trees, giving the area a strangely quiet, magical feeling.

Looking around quickly, I can just make out a hulking stone cave at the far end.

It looks potentially like a great hiding place—

Until I spot the pair of golden eyes blinking out from the shadows of the cave’s mouth.

The tiger turns and disappears, its tail swishing in the darkness.

I might be crazy, but it almost looks like it’s beckoning us to follow it…

I notice something bizarre flanking the cave entrance, a pair of oddly shaped rock formations. A shiver passes through me involuntarily as I realize that they’re statues. Statues of some kind of animal…

But there’s no time to waste. I can hear the tramping of boots and snapping of twigs and leaves echoing behind us; the soldiers have entered the woods. Perhaps they saw our footprints back by the creek. Whatever prompted them to follow, they’re not far behind us now.

I have to get Eunji to safety. No matter what. I can’t have this night end in disaster…

This way, Eunji mouths, tugging my arm.

We run past the clearing, past the cave, falling deeper into the woods.

I jump down a ledge, helping Eunji after me, then scan left and right, looking for somewhere to hide.

There’s a narrow opening here beneath the roots of an ancient, withered tree.

The space between the roots and the soil might just be large enough to hide a person.

I make eye contact with Eunji. We both nod.

Eunji clambers down first, worming her way between the roots. I pull up an armful of leaves and throw them over the opening.

Yes. It hides her perfectly.

“What are you doing?” Eunji whispers so quietly I can barely hear her. “Come on, get in—”

“There’s not enough room,” I whisper back. “It’s okay. You’re safe here—I’ll find—”

Somewhere over the ledge, I hear the boots of the officers, frighteningly close. One of them raises his voice.

“Hey! Who’s there?”

Eunji falls deathly silent. All I can see of her are her eyes, wet with fear, staring up at me from between the tree roots.

I move one last armful of leaves over the opening, covering the roots and Eunji’s face completely. Then I turn to run—

And come face-to-face with a Dragon soldier.

“What are you doing out here in the woods at this hour, boy?” he demands.

My heart is pounding in my chest. I swallow several times, watching his face carefully—but the soldier must not have seen Eunji. He doesn’t know she’s there. The old man’s face is harsh and gnarled, with a long scar down the left cheek trailing to his chin. I try not to stare.

Behind me, the other soldier comes up, carrying the lamp.

“What’s this?” he says, peering into my face.

I’m desperate not to give away any sign that Eunji is hidden right below our feet. My mind is racing; I somehow need to talk my way out of trouble while also getting the soldiers as far away from Eunji as fast as I can.

What can I do? What can I say?

Then it hits me. The perfect idea—not just to get the soldiers away from here. An idea that could potentially solve all my problems, here and now.

“I saw a tiger,” I blurt out. “Here in the woods. I saw its footprints by the river, so I followed it. I was hoping to turn it in to the authorities. So you guys can capture it and, um, keep the colonies safe from these wild animals.”

The soldiers raise their eyebrows. Their faces are skeptical, but I definitely have their attention.

The older officer with the scarred face huffs. “Where did you see it?”

“I’ll show you!”

“He wants the reward,” grunts the shorter and younger of the two. His gaunt cheeks look sunken-in under the flickering lantern light.

“Boy,” the older soldier growls. “If you’re lying to us…”

“I swear I saw it,” I say, sweating. “It just ran that way—”

I dart into the woods before they can ask any more questions, leading them in a long circle, far from where Eunji is hidden. The soldiers tromp after me, leaves crunching under their heavy boots.