The little hope I had from hearing from Cora vanished after the tiger returned. I shivered, anticipation biting at me.
“Hello,” the tiger said with an unpleasant smile.
“H-hey,” I managed.
“Were you not taught manners? You don’t say ‘hey’ to somebody who is colossally huge and centuries older than you, child.” It chided.
“Wow,” I said, my sarcasm taking the better of me. “Shouldn’t you be in, like, a senior home? Old people don’t exactly go around making people’s best friends into hostages, do they?”
It snarled, and suddenly it’s face was inches away from mine. “You...pathetic...little...human...child.” It spat out each word menacingly, and I felt something hit me across my face.
“That’s nothing,” I snapped, “compared to all the other insults and pains you’ve thrown at me.”
“You are so utterly dimwitted, Felix Willow. You beg your friend not to save you, and now you are attempting to tell her where you are? Why? If you didn’t try to tell her, she wouldn’t find out.”
“Are you kidding? For a century-old tiger, you sure aren’t very wise. Of course she’s going to decipher that stupid riddle and find out where I am. She’s a genius. This is, like, a brain teaser for her.” Right after I said the words, I felt awful. Yeah, she was definitely going to figure out the riddle, but saying that traveling halfway across the world without a vehicle was a brain teaser?
The tiger smiled cruelly when I bit my bloody lip nervously. “She is a human, Felix Willow. Humans are not generally considered very smart.”
“You call Cora not smart, and you’re going down the wrong path, you evil cat.” I growled.
“I am going down the wrong path? You are more clueless than I thought, child.”
I did my best to sneer at the tiger, but I felt so tired.
“I see you are very weak,” the tiger mused. “Perhaps you wish to obey me so that I will not harm you?”
“That’s it? I have to ‘obey’ you and help you kill Cora?” I spat bitterly.
“No…but there is another service that you may be able to help me with, human or not.” It said, baring its fangs at me.
“And what, exactly, is this ‘service?’”
The tiger’s next words leave my ears ringing.
“Well?” It demands impatiently.
I stare at the tiger for a full minute before replying.
“Y-yes. I’ll do it.”
A wicked grin instantly spreads on its face, and it waves its paw to heal all my pains- except my leg and the ache in my heart for betraying Cora like this.
“Then let us go, Felix Willow.”