Shadows in the Forest

Chapter 1: Tigers

 "I don't know why I'm doing this." Farah huffed, stopping midway down the lane with the cart in front of her.  She tilted her head back and regarded the star speckled sky like she was trying to find answers.  "Stupid.  This is so stupid."

She made as if to turn around before green eyes flashed in her mind and she was flinching, feeling twenty levels of shame and guilt pawing at her insides.

"Stupid." She repeated, but continued onwards towards her original destination anyways.

What if Darrin found out?  Her brother would go absolutely nuts.  She'd seen Darrin angry before, like when he caught Farah and Tommy kissing in the orchard when she was younger, or when Farah had trained her dog Duke to bark at Darrin whenever he spoke, but she couldn't even imagine the level of fury her brother would unleash if he knew where Farah was going now.

And her sister?  Little Rosie would probably ask a question a minute, hardly stopping to breathe, not caring that what Farah was doing was against a thousand different town laws, that she could be outcasted forever, banished even, if she was caught.  Rosie would just want to know why the green eyed monster was in their shed.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid." Farah huffed.  Yet she didn't stop walking.

When the town square came into view, she felt her chest thudding violently.  Besides the empty vendors carts and the fountain that had long since stopped bubbling half way through the drought, were the stands where they hung up the drunks and thieves. 

Yet no man was attached to the bars tonight.  No, in its wake was a black tiger, lean and ferocious chained with iron to a post dug deep in the ground.  It was lying on it's side, labored breaths making its massive side rise and fall. It was a magnificent beast, with pale grey strips running up his sides, his fur glowing under the moonlight in the most unnatural sort of way.  Upon Farah's approach, it lifted its head and forest green eyes met Farah's.

She faltered, then stopped, then dropped the cart at her feet.  This was stupid.  Farah was officially the dumbest person in town.  The tiger tilted it's head, but made no move further, just continued staring at Farah while she stood there in the dark shadows of the night.

The tiger had come from the forest, Farah tried to reason with herself.  She knew what it was, what it was capable of.  She knew the bear and his kind were enemies of her town, that the shadows of the forest were controlled by the likes of him yet . . . yet she found herself picking the cart back up, and wheeling it to just out of reach of the tiger and its iron chains.

"Hello." She said lowly, so her voice wouldn't wake the patrons of the town square.  Green eyes blinked up at her slowly, looking almost creepy in the wide set eyes of his face.  She swallowed, feeling her palms sweating and she wiped them on her pants.  God, the tiger must think she was crazy.  "I'm—well my name—actually, no names.  Let's just do this without names."

Before she could chicken out, she shoved her shaking hand into her pocket and retrieved a set of keys.  The tiger made no move, and Farah couldn't tell if he knew what was happening or not. Although she had to figure inside that animal head were human thoughts, and he must have put two and two together by now.  Was she really going to release him?  She shook her head, like that would give her clarity, but it didn't.  The tiger heaved a wheeze and Farah's eyes were drawn to his gnarled back leg and the sizeable wound against his side.  She winced.

She'd heard that the hunters had thrown the trap into the woods just beyond the shadows and baited it, keeping the chain on our side s as to draw the beast out when it was captured.  She just never thought it would work.  The monsters in the woods were smart, hell they'd been hunting village's like Farah's for decades.  But after hauling the tiger out, with twenty men jeering and shouting so loud Farah could hear it across town and only had to look up at the top of the towns hill to see them, they'd subdued the beast by stabbing him in the side with an arrow.