The First Tiger (Countryhumans Fanfic)

Chapter 1

Thailand had been cleaning up his old things with help from Indonesia and Philippines. He picked a box of some old pictures and filtered through its contents. There some good ones that he decided to keep and unfortunately, regrettable ones as well. He picked up a picture of himself with his father, Siam and Japanese Empire. It was taken on the day they made that stupid agreement. He regretted having allowed the Japanese troops to invade Malaya at the time. It almost drove the invaded country to insanity. He stuffed the framed picture back into the box and carried it out of his room.

" Hey, Thai." Indo called over as he emerged from one of the guest rooms with a dusty old book. " I found this under the floorboards."

" It's probably my Dad's." He said, taking the book from his friend's hands. " Wait, did you ruin my floorboards?" Indo only kept silent with an apologetic smile. Indo took the book back and flipped through it. " Hey, give it back. It's not like you can read it." He warned and Indo paused at one of the pages.

" Whatcha guys looking at?" Phil said as he came over with a broom. He probably just finished cleaning the kitchen. He leaned to Indo to peak on the book. " Isn't that a Malayan Tiger?" He stated, pulling Thailand's attention to the worn book.

" That's what I thought." Indo replied. These two happen to be close friends with Malaysia, enough to even recognize the national animal. " Why would your Dad make a sketch about the Malayan Tiger?" Thailand took the book from them as soon as he put down the box he held.

" Most of the pages are ruined." He stated. " 'It's a wonder how he lived so long,' " Thailand read from one of the more legible pages. " ' As it seems, his vicious behavior hasn't changed since my grandfather, Sukhothai, captured him all those centuries ago. Although he seems to have grown increasingly weaker because of his age and amount of time within the cell, it's still rather difficult to even get close to his cage. Any amount of humanity he had seems to have faded day by day. His eyes are no longer that of a person, he's already an animal.' " Thailand paused as the two countries before him waited for him to continue. " That's about all it says for now. The rest of the pages are just gone."

" You guys had a centuries old tiger?" Indo asked him but the Siamese nation just shrugged.

" Never heard of it." Thailand told them. " My Dad never mentioned anything about it. He just goes out every night and comes back drunk."

" Weird." Phil said to him. " Do you know where he might be keeping this tiger? Where does he go every night?"

" I'm not sure." Thailand tried to remember any clues his father might have left. " The old house. Dad said something one time about going to that old house to do something when he came back drunk."

" Where is it? Let's go check it out." Indo suggested with a serious look.

" Indo, you wanna go find that tiger? It could be dead for all we know, it's been decades." Phil said to him.

" Come on, this is the oldest Malayan Tiger that has ever lived. Be it dead or alive, it's right here on Siam's notes that it lived for centuries. This could be the greatest discovery of the century." Indo said as he waved his arms in excitement. " Thai, what do you say?" Both turned to the country with curious looks.

" We should probably call Mal to come over. It's a Malayan Tiger, right? So, he should get to see it too." Thai suggested.

" Then we should check it out first. That way, we can tell him if it's big or small. What if it's alive and needs medication? He would definitely want to be ready for that." Thai and Phil raised their brows at the Indonesian. Clearly he just wants to show off to Malaysia later and rub it in his face.

" It's going to be night soon." Phil told him. " We can go tomorrow with Mal here." Indonesia groaned.

" Come on, guys. Don't tell me you're scared of the dark. It'll be fine. It's just an old house." In the end they gave in and took an hour drive to Thailand's old home.

The house itself was covered in numerous vines and greenery. The grass had grown tall around it and the garden was practically a jungle at this point. A couple jungle fowls sat on the roof and eyed the trio as they opened the door to the old house.

" Well, this is creepy." Indo said as he was the first to step inside.

" Should we look around or...?" Phil asked as he took a couple nervous steps closer to Thai as a bat flew past him.

" No need, the notes said that it's in the basement. Behind the door with the bars." He pointed with his flashlight at an old decayed door with rusted metal bars down the hall.