could take on a fight and come out on top. Two tigers came out of the woods. Watching them, she figured out who they were by just the way they walked. It’s your dad and Thatcher, isn’t it?
“Yes. Dad saw you leap. He wanted to tell you how much he enjoyed that.” They rubbed heads with her. Beck told her they were marking her as their own so that other tigers in the area would know she was a Robinson. “I’m going to shut the door here, and I’ll join you.”
He leaped over the railing as well. Beck was smooth about it. He also didn’t show off. While he was with his dad and brother, Allie explored the new world she’d been given.
What surprised her the most was how much better she could see. It wasn’t in color like she’d thought, but in hues. Like red, when it was a living thing. Blues for the trees. It took her a moment to realize that the red thing she was seeing in the wooded area behind the house was a person. Human. Turning back to the men, she backed to them rather than showing her rear to whoever was out there.
There’s someone out there. Thatcher told her it was just the wolves that ran the woods. No. It’s a human. I can see the outline of the person. They’re nearing the house that’s right along the path you came from. I can see the wolves too, but they’re not red like the man, I think it is. But they’re golden, like you three are.
Thatcher stood on one side of her, Beck the other. It took what she considered too long to make them believe she was seeing what she was. Finally, aggravated that she had to convince them she was right, she took off at a run toward the person and ran him out of the woods into the yard they were in.
See? Human. The man laid down, curling into the fetal position. The entire time he was there, he was saying he’d not meant to trespass, that he’d only been looking around. It wasn’t until she moved closer to him that she was able to see the man was armed. He has a gun, guys. I’ll get it before he figures out a gun is faster than we are.
Holding it in her teeth, she put it on the deck. Both Thatcher and Beck were staring at her while their dad was laughing. It was an odd sound to hear a tiger laughing, and she went to stand over the man in the event that he got something stupid in his head.
She got the two of you there. Nudging the man on the ground, she asked Thatch if he was able to help her. I surely can. But I think you can do whatever you set your head to. Leaping over railings like you’ve been doing it forever. Finding humans that have no business on our land. Not to mention him being here with a gun. I will help you, darling, but I tell you, you’ve made this old man feel so good. Thatch went from animal to man in seconds, picking up the gun she’d gotten and pointing it at the person still on the ground. “Now, how about you telling us what you’re doing snooping around with a gun in your hands.”
Thatcher shifted too and spoke to the man while his dad held the gun on him. Beck came to stand by her, and she wondered if she was going to be in trouble. It was foolhardy of her to run after the man. He could well have shot her, and that would have been the end of her happiness.
How did you see him? I don’t mean how, but what made it so you could see him? Even with knowing where to look, neither of us saw him until he started running. She said that he was red, brighter than the things around him. You saw his body heat then. Not the man himself.
I guess not, now that you say it like that. He was glowing hot, I think is what you mean. Beck nodded and said that he couldn’t do that. Do you see in color then? I mean, the green of the grass and the tree trunk brown?
Yes. I’m assuming you don’t. You see things by their heat signature or outline. She nodded at him, then said yes. I don’t think any of us can do that.