New Friend

Grrrrr.

Elias froze up. The moment he heard the growl, cold sweat instantly covered his back.

*Damn! What did I do to deserve this?*

His head buzzed like a disturbed beehive. He was trying his best to come up with anything that can help him, but he really was at the end of a line. He was exhausted, and out of all the weapons he brought with him here, only a small herb knife was left. And even this knife wasn't really reliable when it comes to beasts, because it was just a piece of ceramic with a sharp edge. Any beast that lives here would possess a thick and sturdy skin, so there was no hope doing any significant damage with it.

Elias instinctively tried to gulp his saliva down, but instead, he felt annoying pain in his throat that was so dry, that it seemed like it was made out of sandpaper.

Elias slowly moved his hand and clutched the herb knife in his hand. Even though he knew his weapon was useless, just having one in his hand calmed him a little. Slowly, he turned his head.

There was nothing there.

*What? I did hear growling!*

Grrrrr.

This time, growling came from below. Elias looked down and saw a small angry tiger's cub. The little fella looked back and growled once again.

"Haaaaaaa. I almost shat my pants."

Elias crouched down and grabbed the little tiger by the scruff of his neck. He raised the would-be scary predator to the level of his head and took a good look at him. Little tiger had white fur instead of the usual orange-gold shade and clear blue eyes. The moment Elias picked him up his demeanor instantly changed from "fear me" to "please let me go".

Elias stared into the cub's eyes for some time and then placed him back on the ground with a sigh. The fact that the little tiger's mother did not appear yet was strange. With all the commotion and shouting that took place, there was no way the big tiger wouldn't notice. As well as the fact that tiger mothers are supposed to be very protective of their cubs.

While Elias was thinking, the newly free little tiger decided that it is time for retreating. It cautiously walked backwards keeping it's gaze on Elias, then let out a rather high pitch growl, turned around, and ran.

Elias followed the little one with his eyes when he noticed something strange. The cub suddenly disappeared!

Driven by curiosity, he couldn't stop himself from following the little tiger. Elias started to walk towards the direction of the place where the little tiger disappeared, and as he walked closer, his now adapted to low light eyes started to make out details of the cavern. He spotted how the rocky surface was changing strangely, and when he was close enough, he realized that there was a big rock in front of him, and behind that rock, was another passage. Unless one knew where to look, they would likely overlook this passage. Combination of it's positioning behind a wide rock and low light environment made it hard to spot. Elias steeled himself and stepped inside.

The first thing he felt was the overbearingly strong smell of urine. It was present outside of this chamber, but the existence of a hole in the ceiling created a natural ventilation current. Here however, it was strong enough to make you want to retch. Elias suppressed this impulse and started to look around. The reflected light was barely enough for him to make out the details of what was here. In the middle of the chamber a tiger was lying. The tiger was very big, bigger than any tiger on Earth. Tigers on Earth generally never exceeded the height of barely over three feet(91cm), but by the looks of it, this one was at least four feet(121cm) tall, if not more. In fact, Elias wasn't sure if these creatures were tigers per se, it was just the closest thing he knew. Both were big predatory cats with stripes on their fur, so "tiger" was quite appropriate in his mind.

When the big tiger spotted Elias, it raised its head weakly. It looked at Elias with it's piercingly blue eyes. It's look contained unwillingness and pleading. Elias wasn't sure whether it was pleading for itself or the little cub, but when he came closer, he saw why the tiger was weakened. Judging by the picture, this tiger was first wounded, and then it had to give birth to the little one. By themselves these events weren't necessarily lethal, but in combination, they took a big toll on vitality.

Most interestingly, the tiger seemed to be intelligent. It nudged the little cub with its head towards Elias, clearly hoping that Elias would adopt it as his pet. Maybe this tiger was someone's pet in the past? Elias picked up the little furry horror and held it in his hands. The little tiger let out a sound between a roar, growl and squeal as it tried to free itself, but it was simply too weak to do so. Big tiger closed its eyes for a moment. It looked as if it was praying. Slowly, it got up. It was obvious that it was no easy task for it. Only when the big tiger finally stood up, did Elias realize just how big it was. When standing up, it was almost as tall as Elias himself.

The big tiger slowly walked towards the entrance of the cavern. After walking some distance, it stopped and looked towards Elias. It wanted him to follow. The big tiger led Elias all the way to the cave entrance. It stopped there, and took a long look into Elias's eyes. Then it nuzzled it's head against the small cub in Elias's hands. It looked into Elias's head once again and let out a quiet growl. It wasn't a threatening one, more like a warning one. Big tiger started to walk away. When it reached the small trees, it stopped for one last time and looked back. It still had a hint of unwillingness in it's gaze.

ROAR!

Big tiger looked towards Elias and the little cub one last time and left. Elias stood there, following it with his eyes until it's snow white fur disappeared in the sea of green. Even in its death, the mother tiger still tried to teach one last lesson to her child.

Elias stood there, thinking. He wasn't focused on one particular topic, but rather, he was thinking about life. About the bizarre experience he just had. About how strange this new world was. How humans were behaving as beasts, and beasts were behaving as humans. He stood there half in trance, half in deep thought. He only knew one thing. In this cruel world, he could trust a beast more than he could trust a human. Once again he realized that he must become stronger. Only strength would let him live peacefully.

He looked at the little tiger in his hands.

"Now, how do I name you? Rajah? Garfield? Tony? Nah, these names are lame…"

Growwwl.

Little tiger growled in response as if saying "You are lame. Your whole family is lame."

"Let's leave the name for later. Now I need to figure out what to do next."

Elias returned to the cavern. The feeling of giddiness caused by adrenaline and the events of the last few hours gave way to the incredibly strong feeling of thirst. He felt as if he did not have even a drop of water since yesterday, so he went straight for the small lake inside the spacious cavern. He dropped to his knees and started to greedily drink the fresh mountain spring water. When he finally quenched his thirst, his gaze fell upon the small island right in the middle of the lake. The way the light fell gave off a saintly feeling as if heavens themselves were pointing at this spot.

*Since I'm here, I might as well try breaking through. I guess this place is as good as it can get.*

He placed the little tiger back on the ground.

"Wait here, don't go anywhere."

Rawwwr.

His new little furry friend let out a cute roar and looked at him with a look full of confusion. Elias patted his pockets and pulled out a bit of food he had with him. There was a little bit of dried meat, which he gave to the little murderkitten. It sniffed the meat and gobbled it up the next moment.

"Don't go anywhere far."

Elias reminded his little furry friend and went into the water. It was shallow at first, but approximately two meters further, the depth sharply increased. Thankfully, the water was crystal clear, and even seemed to have a current. Elias braced himself for the cold that was about to hit the entirety of his body and jumped in.

Roar!

The little tiger was shocked! It started to call out again when Elias's head appeared over the surface of the water.

"I'm fine, just stay there!"

Elias swam quickly towards the small island. When he finally got to it, he saw that it was the top of an enormous stone pillar that extended far underwater, farther than he could see. On the top of this pillar a flower was growing. Elias instantly recognized this flower because it was the same one he saw on his first day in this world!