Page 14 of Tiger's Voyage

Kishan cleared his throat, stood, and stretched. “Since the two of you are … getting reacquainted, I’m going to stretch my legs a little, maybe do a little stalking just for fun.

I stood up and put my palm on his cheek. “Don’t get caught in a trap.”

Kishan lifted his hand, placed it on top of mine, and smiled. “I’ll be fine. I’ll be back in an hour or two around sundown. You can practice tracking me on the new cell phones if you want.”

Kishan morphed into the black tiger. I stroked his head briefly before he ran into the jungle.

I settled down next to Ren with the cell phone tracker. It took me the better part of an hour to figure out how it worked. The screen looked like a Google map. I was the dot markedKe. Ren wasR. Kishan was theKidot, and I could see his blip move around the screen. He was about two miles away, quickly moving east.

Widening the map, I figured out how to zoom in on Mr. Kadam and Nilima’s location. If I clicked on one of their dots, a small window popped up telling me the exact latitude and longitude, as well as their vital signs.Pretty cool little device.

I petted Ren’s fur absently and explained how everything worked. His ears flicked back and forth attentively. Then suddenly he sprang to his feet and stared at the darkening jungle.

“What? What is it?”

Ren changed to a man. “Go inside the tent and zip it up.”

“It doesn’t have zippers. The Scarf can’t make them. What’s out there?”

“A cobra. Hopefully it will move on and leave us alone.”

I went into the tent while he switched back to the tiger.

Ren padded in front of the tent and waited. I peeked out and saw a giant black-and-olive green snake slither out of the jungle. Its head was disproportionately bigger than its body. When it saw Ren, it stopped to taste the air. Ren growled softly, and the snake’s head shot up, which showed the pale yellow skin of its belly. As its hood opened and it hissed a warning, I realized I was looking at a king cobra.

Ren didn’t stir. The snake would likely move on if we were quiet. It slowly lowered its head and slithered forward a few more inches, but then I saw Ren shake his head just before a loud tiger sneeze tore through his body. The snake lifted its upper body again and spat twin jets of poison from its fangs about nine feet. The stream didn’t hit Ren’s eyes, fortunately, or it probably would have blinded him. The cobra moved a bit closer and tried again.

“Ren! Move back! It’s aiming for your eyes!”

Something moved in my bag. It was another snake! A golden head slipped through the tiny gap in my backpack and shot out of the tent.

Fanindra?

Ren backed up, and I untied a couple of knots so he could come into the tent with me. We watched from inside.

Fanindra wound her way right up to the king cobra, raised her head, and opened her hood. Her jeweled emerald eyes twinkled despite the diminishing sunlight. The king cobra swayed back and forth, tasted the air, and then lowered his head under hers. She slowly dropped her head to rest it on top of the cobra’s, which ran its head down the length of her body, turned, and slid off quickly through the jungle. Fanindra returned to the tent, wound her body into a coil, tucked in her head, and became inanimate.

Ren changed to a man. “We got lucky. That was an angry snake with an attitude.”

“She calmed him down pretty quickly.”

The tent had become dark. Ren’s blue eyes and smile flashed in the dimness. I felt a light touch on my jaw. “Pretty women have that effect on men.”

He changed back into a white tiger and sat at my feet.

Kishan soon returned and made a throaty, rattling sound as he entered the camp. After changing from a tiger to a man, he ducked his head into the tent. “Why are you guys hiding?”

I stepped outside and told him about the snake. “What was that noise you just made?” I asked as I started to prepare dinner.

Ren switched to a man and sat across from me. I handed him a plate as he answered for Kishan. “It’s called chuffing. It’s a tiger hello.”

I blinked and looked at Ren. “You never did that.”

He shrugged. “Never wanted to, I guess.”

Kishan grunted. “Is that what it’s called?” He elbowed Ren. “Now I guess I know what all those lady tigers were saying. Where did you learn that?”

“The zoo.”