The Tiger

The Tiger

         Four months the beast stalked him, stealing his meager supplies, harassing him at every turn. What chain of events had made them both castaways upon this small isolated island? He could sense the tiger in the brush beneath the island canopy. “No more.” he thought. Today would be the day he would overcome or die.
         Four months the tiger kept him from the small and only fresh water spring for days, not until he'd killed some small game and baited the tiger would it leave the precious spring. A scrap of iron barrel, the resulting crude sword he fashioned kept him alive if not thriving. His snares and dead falls were efficient enough to keep him fed if he could get to them first.
         On more than one occasion, he tossed his prize down from his treetop perch for the tiger to relinquish it's pursuit. But no more, today he would end this competition.
         It took two months to come up with the plan, the traps, and weapons needed to defeat such a formidable adversary. The plan centered upon the Mylar sheet he found washed up one morning. Using the sheeting as a mirror he might just have a chance, a slim chance, but better than none at all. Over hunting and gorging his nemesis had been his escape of the tigers watchful eye. Now was the time to do the one thing he knew never to do, run.
         The tiger instantly bounded after him. Just two more seconds is all he needed. He leaped around the bend just as the tiger sprang. The tiger instantly motionless, snarling at the tiger snarling back. The man cut the vine, a wall of dead fall spears pinned a now lifeless tiger to the ground.

Word Count: 299 with Title