Page 29 of The Last Tiger

Seung

Jin runs her finger over the strange statue. Its pale white stone surface glistens under the hazy daylight.

“Weird,” she mutters.

Light trickles gently in through the canopy of oaks and maples surrounding the wooded clearing where I last saw the tiger more than a year ago. By daylight, it’s much easier to make out the area around here. I’m certain this is it—there’s the cave where I saw its tail disappear—

Only, this time, instead of an open mouth…the cave entrance appears to be sealed by a thick wall of rock.

On either side of where the entrance used to be stands an odd pair of statues. They depict some kind of mythic animal I’ve never seen before, with the face and body of lions but their skin covered with scales. They grin emptily out into space.

“Haechi.” Jin turns to me. “Ancient guardians, from the spirit world. There must be some kind of protective spell over this place.”

She looks at me with a curious mix of newfound respect and curiosity.

“I know this corner of the woods by heart,” she says. “But I’ve never once seen this cave before. I guess the Haechi are guarding it. Maybe we can only come here if they want us to?”

I nod, uncertain, remembering the first night that Eunji and I snuck out together. I remember passing this clearing under the moonlight in a frantic dash—helping her down under the tree roots—that feeling in my chest—

“But why would they let you find this place?” Jin frowns.

So much for newfound respect. Her tone says the unspoken: a nobody like you .

Something flickers in the air. I squint, waving my hand, but the trick of light doesn’t disappear. There’s some kind of yellow beam, as bright and beautiful as sunlight, emerging from Jin’s chest. I can feel the excitement beating in her heart as clearly as if it were my own.

The statues continue grinning emptily out at us with their eerie stone faces. I lean forward, drawn toward them by an intuition I can’t place. I stare down at the stone tongue of the lionlike Haechi. Slowly, as if answering a call, I lift my hand—

And place it into the statue’s mouth—

Immediately the Haechi’s eyes spring to life, transforming from blank gray to a brilliant crimson, red as rubies. A blinding, red flash suddenly showers the clearing before fading away.

Jin whips around with a start.

“Wha—”

The earth releases a low rumble. I clutch the statue for stability as the ground shakes; before us, the wall of rock covering the entrance to the cave gradually begins to open, slowly unveiling the cavern within.

Jin turns to face the rising wall, grabbing the other statue to hold herself steady as the earth continues to quake.

Her face gleams with pure thrill. The yellow beams of sunlight shining out from her chest deepen to gold.

“Not bad, Lover Boy!” she shouts.

After a minute, the rumbling stops. Where the wall of rock once stood, an open cavern beckons. The pale sunlight filtering through the clearing falls in a slant beam just inside the entrance.

Beyond, inside the mouth of the cave, darkness swirls.

Jin and I trade a glance.

Somehow, irrationally, I’m not afraid. I take a step forward, Jin following beside me…

As we enter the cave, the pale light from the woods weakens behind us. It only takes a few steps before we’re submerged in darkness.

I hear a sound—

Rrr…

The hairs rise on my neck—

And as my eyes adjust to the darkness, I suddenly see it—

At the end of the tunnel, where the cave ends, the tiger is curled up, its head wrapped close to its hind legs, fast asleep. Its tail twitches in front of its nose, tapping the ground. Its rib cage gradually expands and contracts as it breathes in and out.

I stop dead in my tracks.

The tiger twitches in front of us, shifting with discomfort, as if troubled by a nightmare. Its lips pull back, just barely revealing long white fangs as it shifts and the sound escapes again…

Rrrrr…

Jin hasn’t seen it yet. She takes one more step forward—

The tiger’s eyes shoot open.

Suddenly the temperature in the cave shifts abruptly. The already cool air chills. A rumbling sound erupts behind us—

I turn around, just in time to see the mouth of the cave falling shut—

Utter darkness settles around us.

For a moment, we’re alone, blind. Then the walls of the cavern begin to glow a bright emerald color. The pale gray rock around us turns luminescent, glowing. The brilliant sheen illuminates the cave.

In front of us, the tiger is standing on its feet now, facing us, its tail twitching. I take a step back—

As the crystal walls GLOW —

There’s a FLASH of light—

When it recedes, the tiger is gone. Standing in its place is a woman of indeterminate age, wearing an exquisite robe. Her dress is white and black in stripes, and ripples despite the still air of the cave just like grass rustling on a mountainside.

She could be forty years old, or four thousand—it’s impossible to tell.

“Hello, Seung,” the woman—or whatever she is—says. “And Jin. I’m so glad to see you; I almost feared you wouldn’t make it.”

The woman’s voice, packed with urgency, is unlike any I’ve heard before: like several dozen people speaking all at once, male and female and neither and both.

She smiles, revealing a mouth full of pointed teeth.

Teeth as sharp as a tiger’s.

Somehow I realize instantly who she is.

Beside me, Jin drops to her knees; I follow suit.

“Great Tiger spirit,” Jin cries passionately, “I am the leader of a small but fierce resistance—”

“I know very well who you are, Jin.” The Tiger spirit curls her fingers, and a gust of air lifts the two of us to our feet. “And there’s no time to waste. Our country’s future is at stake. Seung—how has your progress been? You must have learned of our powers by now.”

Jin turns to stare at me, her jaw slacking.

“My…powers,” I echo.

A fierce, wild look shines in the Tiger spirit’s eyes.

“You gave me Tiger ki,” I say, the words nearly catching in my throat.

“Yes. Dragon ki manifests in the flesh. It is the power of strength. Serpent ki manifests in the brain and gives power to control. But Tiger ki manifests in the heart. It is the power…of emotion.”

“Those colors I’ve been seeing…they aren’t just a trick of the light,” I murmur. She nods.

I…can’t believe it.

As a child, I traced pictures in the sand of a future Seung with Dragon ki.

As time passed, jealousy came to burn in me every day as I passed the soldiers in the street.

Every year, I watched a new set of yangban students return from Adachi, high with confidence in their newfound abilities.

And every night, I lay awake, staring up at the shadows on the ceiling, dreaming that that could be my life. Fearing that it never would.

How many candles did I burn through, how many hours did I toil on the brink of tears over a textbook, studying to pass the Exam…not knowing that Tiger ki was growing within me already?

I almost don’t trust the hope blooming in my chest now.

The power of emotion ? What does that mean?

What might this mean for me and my family?

“Emotion.” I chew over the word, uncertain.

“Human emotion is one of the most powerful forces in the world, Seung.”

“But how can we fight back with emotion ?” I pause. “How do I wield that against the Dragon soldiers?”

“Not directly,” she says. “Tiger ki may not be able to move boulders…but it can move people . Harnessed correctly, it can move a crowd. It can awaken a people out of slumber, awaken them to their own destiny, and through them, shake the world…”

It takes me a second to process that.

Not directly.

That’s a bitter pill to swallow. For someone who has been beaten to a pulp as many times as I have.

To learn that I finally have ki, but I’ll still never be able to defend myself or my loved ones—

“Seung, Jin, I know what you have been through. I’ve been watching over you,” the Tiger spirit continues. “You are searching for a way out, and you don’t know where to find it. You are struggling to understand to what end you are suffering.

“But you are not alone. I promise you that. The Tiger people themselves are crying out to be free. Our country has been colonized by Dragon forces for forty years.

“There is still a way to freedom,” the spirit says. “Not only for you two, but for our people. However, it is closing rapidly.”

The Tiger spirit waves her arm.

A mist appears in the air, illuminated from within—a vision of a far-off place. The mist swirls, forming the image of a heavily forested mountain peak. It rises straight from the center of a bustling metropolis.

“In the midst of Hannam City, there lies a sacred mountain: Mount Tangun. On the top of this mountain is a sacred spirit cave. You must bring me there as soon as possible.”

The mist swirls, changing.

I see a stone gate at the city’s edge, flanked by Haechi statues, guarding the entrance to Mount Tangun.

I see a forest meadow inside the gate, glinting with golden leaves.

I see the peak of Mount Tangun. There is a dark, ancient-looking cave there. Inside the cave sits a stone well with a faded wooden bucket.

“Atop Mount Tangun lies a spirit well from which a mortal with Tiger ki must drink. It can endow an ancient, dangerous power—one with the potential to destroy its possessor. But which, wielded by the right hands, can set our people free.”

Jin leans forward eagerly.

“We’re ready,” she says immediately. “We’ll do anything.”

Wait a minute— the potential to destroy its beholder ?

“Hold on,” I say as Jin shoots me a look. “How exactly does this mountain drink work?”

The spirit pauses.

“The well contains a certain magic. Beyond that, I hesitate to explain the full scope to you yet,” she says finally.

“I know you are still finding your way, Seung. Like all power, this one can be wielded in many ways. You may be tempted to use it for harm. Others have used it this way. I need to know that you will be ready to use it for good.”

I grimace, nodding. The spirit waves her arm again.

Behind her, a golden outline appears on the wall of the cave.

I peer closely at it—I see city buildings, forests, valleys, and mountains. It’s some kind of image of the Tiger Colonies, seen from above—

A map.

A glowing, golden line begins to appear from one end, snaking its way across the landscape, beginning in the woods around Kidoh and traversing the map, all the way to the capital, Hannam City, and the mountain at its center.

“From Kidoh to Mount Tangun is a three-day journey by foot.

“Seung has yet to master his abilities. Jin, it is your duty to ensure that we make it there alive. And there will be danger present at every step.”

The mist changes, showing a battalion of soldiers from the Dragon Army.

They’re marching…

Through the village of Kidoh.

“The Dragon Empire has learned that there is a young man who possesses the forbidden ki powers. You are being hunted down as we speak.

“Seung and Jin, you must be extraordinarily careful not to be seen.”

Smoke rises into the sky. I see households burning as soldiers march through the streets.

I see my house.

Mom holds a shaking Hoyoung tightly, crouched in the corner. Outside, troops march back and forth, looking in the door, moving down the path to the neighbors’ houses. Hoyoung whimpers as Mom shields my little brother’s eyes.

“No,” I whisper, trying to reach for them.

“No, Seung—you cannot return home now. If you do, the Dragon Empire will find you at once, and they will kill you and everyone you hold dear. The empire still does not know your identity. You cannot return, for your family’s safety, until your mission is complete.”

The mist fades, the village disappearing with it.

“Mom—Hoyoung—” I cry, but my words only ring out within the walls of the cave.

“And the Dragon Army is not the only danger.”

The vision shifts.

This time I see a bridge over a clear, flowing river, somewhere in the countryside.

Above the bridge, a portal opens in the sky.

Bizarre creatures begin falling out—strange, doglike monsters with nine tails and purple goblins with teeth like ragged daggers…They howl and shriek, dashing madly away from the portal and over the land…

“Without the guardianship of the tigers, the bridge between the spirit realm and your own has begun to collapse. You may encounter monsters on the path—driven to madness by the collapse of balance in the Tiger Kingdom. They, too, may be out to hurt you.”

The vision finally fades away, leaving us alone in the cave. Behind the Tiger spirit, the golden map glows on the wall.

“Seung, Jin,” the spirit woman says. “I am the last tiger. The Dragon Army has hunted down and slayed the rest of my kind.

“You still have a chance to free our people. But if the empire finds and kills me, too, all hope will be lost. Tiger ki as you know it will cease to exist. Seung, you will lose your powers. The land will fall irreparably into chaos.

“Once we leave this cave, I will lose the ability to communicate with you in human form. But I will remember who you are. And I will know the way from here to Mount Tangun.

“Above all, you must not be found by the Dragon Empire. You two must restore balance to the Tiger Kingdom. Seung, Jin, I am relying on you.”

The Tiger spirit places her hands gently on our shoulders.

Jin turns slowly, looking at me as if for the first time.

“Why him…?” she mutters. “Out of everyone you could have given Tiger ki.”

Actually, I’d like to know the answer to that too. I’ve been wondering.

“The truth is, I don’t truly know whether I made the right choice.” The Tiger spirit’s laughter rings out like wind chimes. “My options were slim. I could tell you that I saw Seung’s humility. His empathy and his bravery—a deep potential for goodness in him. And none of that would be wrong.

“But the truth is that I chose you, Seung…because you have suffered.”

The emerald light fades from the walls of the cave, plunging us once more into darkness.

There’s a rumbling sound as the wall covering the cave mouth opens once again, allowing a thin, wan light to enter.

Standing in front of Jin and me, its tail swishing back and forth, is nothing more, and nothing less, than a tiger.

It opens its mouth—and roars.