Chapter 79: Chapter 77: Rest and Peace

It’s been such a long day, and Kaline’s bed feels like heaven. Normally, Demos and the others would be with us, sprawled on the bed, but Vedette and Minette and Niall just want one on one time with the others in my beast family. We all ate, but I don’t even remember it. I’m that tired.

Still drowsy, but awake, Kaline sits up with me stretched out across her lap, stroking my fur as only she can.

“I don’t usually get you all to myself like this,” she says, as only a preteen would. “I love everyone, Demos, Gussie, Lobo, but you belong to ME. You’re my beast.”

Awwww.

I have been so busy doing these quests and leveling up and helping out everyone that I forgot to take time for this. A lesson I need to re-learn as often as possible.

I rub up against her arm. [I know. I get so excited solving riddles and going on quests with you and everyone.]

She kisses the top of my head. She smells sweet and feels even better. [And training for the tournament too.]

[YES. I want to do well.]

She sounds all bossy, which I love. [You better!]

Awww, I feel that in my bones. I don’t think that anyone can explain the depth of the beast and tamer bond unless you’ve experienced it. It’s like a Vulcan mind meld. Or when Jake Sully tames the flying creature in Avatar.

[I will, but we need to rest.]

She snuggles with me, already half asleep. A tiny sound like a yawn signals that she is fighting a losing battle. Within seconds, she’s asleep, and my mind is still racing.

We need down time, but she doesn’t know what that is, at least not the words. The programmers have kept the world very medieval and not tried to cutesy it up with modern slang, and the actual world of Tanglewood reflects that. Which came first, the chicken or the egg, I am not equipped to answer.

Hey, System?

[Be quiet and get your cuddles.]

I have a question.

[Just one.]

Did the programmers create the game Tanglewood from visions of the actual place that already existed? Or did this entire world come into being when someone created it? God working through human imagination.

[Ah, now, that’s a question for the ages. What came first? But let me ask you: Does it matter?]

I pause, quiet in Kaline’s arms as she sleeps.

Maybe it doesn’t matter, after all. Maybe both possibilities can be true at the same time. It’s not an either-or.

[Exactly. What matters is that this is a different dimension than you are used to. A dimension of sight, of sound, of mind, of things and ideas.]

I’ve crossed over into The Twilight Zone.

[Exactly. Except that your afterlife is much better than some of the possibilities in that show.]

I shudder, thinking about the various fates for the characters who didn’t learn the lessons that the Twilight Zone taught. At least I got reincarnated as something positive.

I never thought that coming back as an animal would be so perfect.

System just has to weigh in.

[Ha. I know you. When you were little…well, let me show you.]

* * * * *

TWENTY-PLUS YEARS AGO–W CITY

Someone gave me the best present ever. A tiger onesie. I will never take it off. Mama tries to get me to take it off so she can wash it.

“NO.”

I won’t take it off. It is part of me.

Mama smiles at me. “It will get dirty. It already is.”

“Tigers don’t get dirty!”

I can tell that she is trying not to laugh, and I just give her my Serious Face.

“They don’t,” I insist.

Mama says, “They wash themselves. You see them wading in the river.”

“Cats hate water,” I scoff, pointing at our Bengal cat. “We can’t bathe ours.”

“Oh, house cats are different,” Mama replies. “In the wild, cats wash themselves. They are very, very clean.” She sniffs my onesie. “And if you are going to be a tiger, you should be clean, too.”

“When I grow up, I want to be a tiger,” I declare. “Raar!”

Now Mama is laughing at me, and it’s not funny. I growl even louder and start prowling. My little brother makes a noise like a T-Rex. He loves dinosaurs more than anything.

“Mama, I’m serious,” I growl.

“Oh, I know,” she replies with that Mom face. “You want to be a tiger, do you?”

“Yes!” I roar. “I will be a tiger.”

Dad snorts. “Don’t encourage him. And you should get that thing washed before it’s filthy.”

Mama shoots him a look. “What do you think my late nights are for?”

Sighing, Dad clearly isn’t happy. “You spoil him.”

“He’s only little once,” Mama answers.

Little? I’ll show her little! I am going to be the best tiger in the world!

Later that night when I change into my new superhero pjs, I make Mama promise that I can wear my tiger onesie tomorrow. She kisses my forehead. “I love you, little cub.”

* * * * *

PRESENT–TANGLEWOOD

I’m stunned, lying cuddled with Kalines. Am I trapped in this game because of a silly, stubborn whim that I had as a child?

[It wasn’t a whim. And you aren’t trapped.]

Suddenly, despite the new family around me, I feel all alone. I shut my eyes, because I just don’t want anyone to bother me. Even Kaline. It’s not her fault. I know that none of this is her fault. Not my heart attack, not my stubbornness, and not my ending up here.

System, I can never see my family again.

[That happens to everyone. It’s part of life.]

But this soon? I barely got a chance to make them proud. My parents and Damon didn’t get to be proud of me.

[They were and are proud. Just as your father couldn’t give in when you wanted to be a tiger, he couldn’t show you that he loved you. He did dad things like providing for all of you and showing you how to do things. But you saw him crying at your bedside in the hospital.]

I think back. My dad rarely cried when I was alive, but he wept when I was dying. I’m sorry that I hurt them by leaving them. I know they have Damon, but still, they shouldn’t have buried me.

[Yes. They have Damon. He has always been able to get along with them easier than you, but it was because he was the baby of the family.]

I hated that. But now, I’m grateful. Whatever makes this horrible time easier.

[You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. You were figuring life out. And your parents did the best that they could. Now, will you go to sleep? Kaline needs you.]

She needs me. Babygirl needs me. I don’t know why I call her that, when I’m the baby.

[Because compared to you, she is. At least compared to your old soul.]

I’m not that old! I’m a tiger cub.

[Your soul is old. You are Kaline’s big brother in a way. And at the same time, she is your older sister. Do you see now?]

My head hurts.

[That’s because you are tired, as I keep telling you.]

System is right. I close my eyes, drifting toward the bliss of temporary oblivion. Tomorrow, our training will continue. Tomorrow, we will work on finding out who sent that jaguar-scorpion. How it got into the secret room. And what else is in that secret room, a room no one in the family knew about. There must be clues in that room.

And above all else, I will make more time to be with Kaline, just the two of us. I promised to do that, but then I got distracted by everything. Just like my life in the human world, I swear.

Burrowing into Kaline’s warmth, I can’t help feeling a huge sense of accomplishment. We secured Peridot for Niall and conquered a beast more powerful than all of us pot together. But all of us together proved to be the answer. Also, we got the antidote for Lamant, and neutralized a threat that has probably stalked these halls for a long time.

That big bad bug acted like he owned this mansion.

I’m not sorry he’s dead. He is the first creature I’ve killed here. The first living thing in my entire life. Make that in my two lives. Killing something should horrify me. However, the protective feelings, the primal, possessive feelings inside me override any moral qualms. The jaguar-scorpion had to die. I vow to protect my home. My family. My human sister Kaline.

If any more jaguar-scorpions should come knocking, they don’t stand a chance. Goblins, either. Beast thieves? I’ll chew them up and spit them out.

Hmmm. All that protectiveness has made me tired now. And Kaline’s arms are warm and soft as a cloud. I’m going to sleep now, and wake up fiercer in the morning.

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