my scent.” He sighed and squared his shoulders. “All right, let’s move on. Can you travel again?”
“I think so.” Rasc was hungry, but he tried to ignore it and drank more of his water. He pulled an energy bar from where he’d stuck it in his pouch and broke it in half, giving one half to the boy and taking a bite of the other, chewing slowly and carefully. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do for now. He stuck the rest back down for later and took another swig from his water bottle.
After walking for another thirty minutes or so, they thought they could hear the ocean, though it still sounded some distance away. Ryan spotted a stream up ahead. They had been hearing it splashing on the rocks long before they actually got to it. Once there, they crouched down to look carefully around for a few minutes to make sure there was nothing hiding in the shadows, ready to pounce, before they moved cautiously forward. They filled their water bottles, washed the sweat off their bodies, and walked through the stream again, trying to hide their scent.
“You rest here a moment with the child, and I’ll go take another look around. See if I can find any tracks or maybe find a tree I can climb to get a better view. I was thinking, if that was Mikos, maybe he does remember some things. He didn’t attack you, and that in itself is unusual. If I can find him, I can test the theory. Ask him to transform back. We need his strength to get out of this, I’m afraid.”
“He could kill you, Ryan.”
“He could. But I don’t think he will. I guess I’ll be betting my life on it, but we have to do something. I heard voices in the woods when we separated a ways back. I think the general and his men are hunting us now too.”
“God. Okay, go ahead. I-I don’t think I can do this much longer. Maybe you should take the boy and go on without me, and I’ll just let them find me.”
“No fucking way! We’re all in this together.” Ryan squeezed his shoulder. “Rest while you can. If you hear anything, see if the two of you can climb a tree. Tigers can climb, but they don’t usually go too high. And these tigers are so heavy… I won’t go far, so call out for me if you need me.”
****
After walking through the jungle for about half an hour, Ryan had almost given up hope when he came to another small clearing in the forest, apparently where someone had tried to build a road. The jungle had reclaimed it, but there was still a bit of a clearing and Ryan sat down to rest, thinking again of the little boy who was running with them. The boy had been so good the whole time and had managed just fine to keep up with them. Ryan was worried about the no-talking thing, but if they somehow miraculously survived this and got him back home, he thought the boy might be all right with a lot of support. He would do everything in his power to help him.
He’d been there a while and decided he should try to make it back to Rasc and the little boy. As he got up to leave, he heard a growl and turned to face a massive tiger, standing at the edge of the jungle and gazing directly at him.
Ryan backed slowly away, but the beast had begun to run toward him, a snarl transforming its face into a terrible mask. It charged him and almost slowed for a second, looking into Ryan’s panicked face. Ryan’s heart dropped, because he could see in the beast’s eyes that he didn’t recognize him in the least.
Ryan stood still, chest heaving, waiting for the leap he knew was coming and the teeth that would soon fasten around his throat. “Stop!” he cried out as loudly as he could, and the beast, which he knew had to be Mikos’s tiger, simply stopped running toward him and stood dead still on the grass, staring at him.
“Mikos! Mikos, you stop this right now!” he yelled at him. “Why are you still in your tiger? Just because that bastard told you to? Transform right now and help me, damn it! I need you!”
The tiger tilted its head to the side to look at Ryan but didn’t come any closer.