Tiger, Tiger

          How old are the stories of werewolves? Did the start in the dark ages in Europe, fueled by superstition and fear? Were they close to the truth, but about the wrong animal? I can tell you one thing, there are were-creatures, but they aren’t wolves.
          I am a tiger, a loner like all the others of my kind. My name is Ebony. Have you seen me? I walk down the streets at night, my eyes reflecting in the pale moonlight. I’m told they look of amber. Look behind you, I always attack from behind.
          I don’t change once a month at the full moon, and rage like a lunatic in a cage, no, I change when I want.
          Even tigers can get lonely; so tonight I tell you my story. dPlease, do not be frightened, I’ve already fed and I don’t eat your kind anymore. You're safe here, just sit and listen. Maybe you’ll learn something about my race.

* * *

          What can I say about my life? I was born, I grew up with two brothers and a sister, I left, and never looked back.
          I went far away to find a territory of my own. Tigers are few and far between; territory is easy to come by, though duels still go on for the best of it.
          The city I picked was big enough for people not to notice me, but small enough not to be prime. That way larger, more dominant tigers would not want to try to move in. I took up residence in the outskirts, leaving home often enough for a romp in the country.
          Shortly after my twenty-first birthday someone came upon my territory. He smelled of dense brush and fresh meat, and his scent was everywhere. This is where my story truly starts.

          I hunt by night, sometimes in one form, sometimes in the other. That night I was angered terribly by the foreign tiger's scent in my nostrils and showed it in my stride.
          Now my kind isn’t like the tigers of Asia, the ones that have only one form. Our scents are more easily spread, just by walking down a street it can be spread all over. It’s more like a human’s perfume.
          I followed the scent with vigor, ignoring the humans on the streets. It had been a dreary day, but no rain had fallen yet. This was the only thing that made me happy. I would find this intruder.
          I followed the scent across town and into a small bar. The kind that the same drunk could enter night after night and no one would think twice about puking on the floor. It was a downright wretched place, not even worthy for the hunt.
          An electric sign hung on the glass door, stating that it was open, even though two of the four letters had been burned out. I pushed the door open and was hit by a wave of disgusting scents -urine, puke, and smoke - not to mention the other scents mixed in with those.
          Entering this disgusting place made my stomach turn. I was glad that I hadn’t hunted yet that night.
          He turned towards me as I walked in, holding a glass of wine in his hand and saluting me with it. How he had gotten wine in such a place I don’t know, but it infuriated me. The foreign tiger had black hair, striped by a dark shade of brown. He hid his eyes from me behind a pair of sunglasses.
          “Get out of here.” I said as I approached him.
          He smiled at me mockingly, bringing his tiger teeth into his human form. This made him look as if he had monstrous fangs. “Such a beauty with such a bite!” he mocked, cupping my chin in his hand. He couldn’t have been much older than I.
          I, in response to his teeth, brought my claws into my human form. From a distance any human would have thought them to be nails, but I let him see perfectly the sharpness of my claws, as I ripped his hand away from my face. “I have much more than a bite." I snarled, "Get out.”
          His smile “It’s a male’s world, and this is no longer your territory, its mine. I'm claiming as my own,” he said as he smashed his wineglass against the dirty floor. “What are you going to do about it?”
          I slashed my claws across his face, leaving four wonderfully deep cuts. “Claim all you want, but my scent already covers this city.”
          He let out a growl; the blood was dripping down his face. “Not if I fight you for it, girl. My name is Wilder and this territory WILL be mine.” He began a total shift into his Tiger form and I followed close behind.
          Not in here, we will fight in the open. I said to him and made for the door. Humans were screaming, hopefully they were all drunk, but I doubted it.
You're a coward! Fearing little humans, like they possibbly will believe what they're seeing! Fight me now, bitch! Wilder said.
          I turned to look at him. "That would be a dog."
         He was bigger than I was and I knew that the fight would be close. He took advantage of my pause and went straight for my neck. I blocked the shot and pounded him with a clawed paw. A paw that would have killed any human in its path.
          He recuperated from the blow quickly and again went for my neck. I barely dodged him this time around and ran for the door. My body went through the glass, shards imbedding themselves into my flesh.
          Maybe I won’t need to fight you. You seem to be doing a good job of it yourself. Wilder mocked as he stepped through the broken door.
          A tiger can take a lot of pain and I was in much at the time, but I attacked again. My teeth went in at the base of his neck and I held on tightly as he tried to shake me off.
          The flesh ripped between my teeth across his flank, before he could throw me off. The blood covered his coat and the stripes weren’t visible under the gore.
          I could feel my blood seeping from a dozen different places. That’s when the rain started to fall around me. Humans still screamed in the background and my vision was beginning to dim.
          Wilder reached with his claws for my head again, but overshot, hitting my flank on either side; slashing them badly.
          I let out a howl of pain, followed by a roar.
          He let me go, cocking his head to one side. I should have attacked, but I was getting weaker.
          I'll have to finish this later, he laughed, turning and sprinting into the dark alley beside the bar. That’s when I heard it. It was the distinct wail of sirens.
          I should have ran, but I had collapsed from the loss of blood. A new pain filled me from the glass shards being embedded deeper into my side. With all of my strength, I tried to changed back to my human form, lying in the street and bleeding to death. The rain pounding my body.
          Things were getting dimmer and I thought of my mother for the first time since I had left her den. Would she know her cub was dead?
         The sirens wailed deafenly in my ears. A man in blue appeared in my vision. Then it all dimmed into darkness.

* * *

          I awoke to find myself lying in a bed, my wounds dressed. A needle had been stuck into my wrist and was putting some foreign liquid into my body.
          I wasn’t sure where I was and a curtain separated me from the rest of the room. “Hello?” I said weakly.
          A hand appeared and pushed the curtain back, revealing sunshine from a large window. Then a woman came into my view. “You’re awake already, Honey? They brought you in last night. Can you tell me your name?”
          She had swept down, almost like a bird, into a chair beside my bed and her slipped hand into mine. “Honey, please, we need to know. Can you remember your name for me, please?”
          I looked at her. She looked to be such a gentle woman. Her brunette hair was tied into a tight bun and her skin was fair. I noticed laugh lines around her eyes and the starts of wrinkles at the corners of her mouth. She wore a completely white dress and a little pin that read, “Nurse Karen Fair.”
          “Let me see my cuts,” I said.
          “Honey,” the nurse said firmly, “you were mauled by some kind of creature last night. I don’t think you should...”
          Before she finished I had ripped open the paper-like clothing they had me wearing.
          One thing you must understand is that are injuries are transferred from one body to the other. All the wounds Wilder had given me were smaller, proportioned to this body, but they still were enough to kill any normal human. From my hips to my armpits were four stitched up cuts on both my left and right side. Smaller cuts ranging from the size of my thumbnail to the size of about three inches long I guess were from the glass.
          The human doctors had stitched me up and I was stiff in so many places.
          “Honey, please, can you tell me your name?” Karen looked at me gently; never had I seen a human in this view before. Humans can’t be like this. They’re slow, stupid...primitive. Humans were prey; humans were food. This human acted as sweet as a mother; as if I were her cub.
          I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying to rid these thoughts from my mind. This “Karen Fair” was nothing more than a meal.
          “Honey,” she said again, “are you all right? Maybe I should get Doctor Michaels.” She stood up quickly.
          “No, no I’m fine. My name is Ebony.” I said, reaching for her arm.
          “Can you tell me your last name?” She asked simply, beaming down a smile at me.
          “Ebony Stripes.” I said quickly; I truly didn’t have a last name, but Stripes was the first thing that came to mind.
          Karen smiled, turned, and left me; pulling the curtain back into place. I listened to her footsteps and waited until they grew faint.
          When silence filled the room I tried to sit up. A pain hit my wrist and I let out a yelp of surprise. The needle was still dripping that liquid into my body and connecting me to a bag that hung from a hook.
          Pulling the needle out, I let out a hiss. Again, I scanned my body up and down, surely they thought that liquid would help me, but I was healing much slower than normal, by now I should have nothing but the deepest cuts left to heal. What was in the liquid? I made a mental note to do more research on human anatomy and how mine differed from it.
          I found my clothes folded up on a nightstand, beside a lamp, they weren’t ripped, in perfect condition, because I wasn’t wearing them when I was injured. I wondered what the humans thought of that.
          I found the window unable to be opened enough for me to escape out of it. Breaking it wouldn’t be a problem, but the noise would be.
          I didn't want to injure myself further, so I used the lamp sitting on the nightstand. The crashing was loud to my delicate hearing, and I knew someone would be coming quickly.
          Karen appeared in the door and saw me; I could see the fear rush into her face. “Shhh...” I said to her simply, placing my finger upon my lips in a simple gesture. I let my eyes become that of a cat for a second, letting her see them. Stripes ran along my body as I let them show, then they were gone, as if they were never there.
          Her face showed confusion and I didn’t explain. A second later I was jumping two stories, landing with catlike precision. Cats always land on their feet, even if they’re in human form.
          Karen’s head popped out of the shattered window, again I let my tiger eyes show, and I ran.

* * *

          My scent had been washed away by the rain last night. It angered me; I fought for it. It’s mine, but now that both Wilder and I were injured, it was up for grabs.
          I went home. I know it sounds foolish. I should have been looking for Wilder, attacking him while he was weak, but the truth was that I was likely to be weaker. I didn’t exactly come out on top in the last fight.
          His scent was in the air around my territory, but it was weak. He hadn’t been anywhere long, he wasn’t claiming yet. I was surprised; the place should have been rank with his scent. Maybe I hurt him more than I thought.
          My home was covered in my scent, but I smelled something distinctly odd within the familiarity. Wine, a simple glass of wine, and a black rose. I kept on waiting for him to come around the corner of a hallway or walk in to a room, but I knew he wasn’t here. He hadn’t even left his scent.
          Picking up the rose, I notice a note pinned to it. In handwriting that was almost impossible to read, it said: “We finish tonight, by the fountain in the park.”
          I knew the symbol of the wine. It was the challenge, like last night in the bar, how he had mocked me with the glass.
          The rose, however, I didn’t understand. The simplicity of it made me want to smile. It was a long stem, black rose. The thorns were sharp and wary. Why had he left this here?
          “To make you wonder, nothing else,” I said to myself simply and set the rose back on the counter. I thought about drinking the wine, but for all I knew he had laced it with poison.
          A sting hit my belly and I brought my shirt up. The cuts the doctors had sewn up had healed completely. I snipped the threads away absentmindedly with my claws, flinching a little bit as I pulled them from my flesh.
          Tonight I had to hold my own. My wounds had healed quickly, whether from my own healing powers or that of the human doctors, I didn't know. I knew from the challenge that he was well enough or he wouldn’t have challenged me.
          Closing my eyes I took in the scents of my home. If I lost tonight I would either leave or die. Probably die, because in my right mind I wouldn’t leave this place. For three years I had lived here, hunted here, and slept here. It wouldn’t be the same anywhere else. It wouldn’t be mine.
          Night came quickly enough and the wind began to howl outside. The park was on the bad side of town, close to my favorite haunts and hunting spots. I arrived first, sitting on the edge of the fountain. Water hadn’t run through it in years, but last night’s rainwater let the leaves float by each other as I placed my finger in it halfheartedly.
          A man on a horse was the centerpiece, though the head of the man had long since been broken off and the rest painted in graffiti. Words had been written on the edge of the sword that the statue held. It read: “Do not go gently into that good night.”
          It made me smirk; it almost seemed that someone had written it there for me to see.
          “I have a gift for you,” said a voice behind me. I spun around to see Wilder holding a woman with his claw pressed against her throat. Her white dress had been ripped in places and her hair that had one time been in a bun was now hanging askew.
          I did a double take, it was Karen! The woman who I had shown myself to, the woman who had been so kind.
          “A last meal?” Wilder mocked, pushing Karen to the ground at my feet.
          She looked up at me and her eyes went wide. Karen didn’t attempt to get up, she just simply looked up at me and I couldn’t break my gaze with her.
          “Eat the thing,” he smiled growing his fangs out. I noticed the four cuts on his face were gone.
          I finally was able to break my gaze with the woman. “If you think I’m going to bare the back of my neck to you, sorry. I'm not that stupid. Besides, I’m not hungry.”
          His eyes fired up and he bared his fangs.
          “Eat it!” He shouted and pointed at Karen.
          “Ebony...?” Karen whispered, “what is this man talking about?”
          “You can’t make me do anything, Wilder,” I stated. “Leave this prey alone and fight me.” I began to slowly shift, which allowed him to see it in detail. My claws stretched out of my fingers as they shrunk into a paw. My arms and legs shortened slightly, but bulked up incredibly to accommodate my feline muscles.
          My eyes shifted from mostly human to fully dark, making the night brighter than day. My ears perked and I could now easily hear Wilder’s and Karen’s breathing. A few more transformations and I was fully tiger.
          Karen screamed and finally got up from off the ground, but she did not run, no, she backed away from Wilder and me, but she didn’t run. If I had had lips, I would have smiled.
          “You don't understand, do you?” He said simply. "The wine, the rose, the mating meal? Fine, female, I do not wish for you either! I'll simply take this nice territory." He transformed quickly. Wilder wasn’t interested in showing off. He just wanted me.
          I went straight for the neck, for the kill. He blocked me easily, slashing at my face.
          I backed up several steps and gained ground. You will die, Ebony, this is now my territory. I should have finished you off last night.
          My muscles tensed at his mockery and I charged back at him. My body went on top of his head, hitting it against the hard cement. I slashed my claws once, twice, three times against his flank before he was able to rise.
          He came back at me, almost wild. The slashing and biting and roaring had thrown him into a frenzy. His claws whipped across my flank countless times when I was unable to block. I responded with my own tearing and ripping of the flesh, but he had come out better.
          Wilder withdrew for a moment and so did I. I was badly favoring my left back leg, the muscle had been torn badly, or so it felt.
          There was blood all over the pavement and most of it was mine. The old fountain’s dirty water was tinged with the color. I stared at him and he gazed back at me. We were both panting, our breath showing in the chilly air.
          Again, he charged at me, but I was unready. He knocked me down with a full body slam. I struggled to get back up, but my leg gave out under me. I fell back down to the cold ground.
Wilder stood over me. Die honorably, female. I will not kill you while you lie on the ground.
          He towered over me and I merely glared at him. {i/}Get up! He growled, running his claws against my flank. My blood continued to gush onto the earth underneath me.
          I wanted to get up, not to obey him, but to slit his throat. He stood over me, looking down at me with those cold, feline eyes. I brought my own eyes level to his, bringing my body up from the ground.
          For an eternal moment we stared into each other’s eyes. I awaited the final blow.
          He backed up a step and came at me at a run. I was weak and the world was getting dim. I couldn’t even try to block his blow. He leaped!
          Then a sound like thunder rang through my ears and Wilder fell before me. His breathing I could no longer hear, his heart was still.
          I collapsed on the cold cement; a heavy weight seemed to come off me. I had won. I slowing shifted back to my human form.
          “Ebony? Please, wake up!” Said someone. Who? Oh, yes, that nurse. What was her name? Karla? Kandy? Karen? Oh yes, it was Karen.
          “I shot him, Ebony. I shot him!” She shook me. It hurt.
          Where did she get a gun? I looked up at her, then back to the body of my adversary.
          My body was beginning to slowly heal. I closed my eyes. “Where did you get a gun?” I struggled to get the words out.
          “When you live in the bad part of town. It seems kind of smart.” She sounded almost cheerful. “I couldn’t shoot a person, but an animal...” Her voice trailed off.
          I was getting stronger, but I knew I had a long way to go. “You’re right, I’m an animal, but you..” I smiled weakly, showing her my tiger fangs. “You are no longer prey...Never again. Humans are now off limits.”
          “You eat....”
          “So did he, but never again. Sounds like I’ll begin to eat deer again.”
          The woman smiled. “I’m glad, you might be an animal, but you’re human too.”
          And for the first time, it was a compliment, not an insult.