Flashback Nature's Reach (Min)

[Ka'Rael]

80th of Fall 512AV The underwood of the Bronze Wood rustled very gently as a large felid unfamiliar to the local fauna crept forward. Stealthily. Slowly. Deliberately. Not far away from the predator, a hard working squirrel was collecting the very last additions to its winter supply of nuts. As trusty a laborer as the squirrel was, however, it was also in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ironically, even, the winter supply of this particular squirrel was rather impressive - in fact, far overreaching the necessary, said supply was bordering on the exultant. It might easily have been the size of its supply which the squirrel was contemplating on a tad too much, since the aforementioned rustling of the underwood should have made it scurry towards the nearest tree immediately. At the very moment that the unknowing squirrel reached for the nearest nut, an unfamiliar - yet unmistakeable - swoosh abruptly rang out from near it. As the squirrel turned, it wasn't quite capable of comprehending the creature which it faced - a 500-some pounds tiger - but it instantly realized that a squirrely squeal was in its place. Ka'Rael landed on his feet, his right front paw only barely missing his would-be lunch. Growling loudly in frustration at how his surprise attack, and rather impressive leap, had failed - he simultaneously allowed for his instincts to command his next actions. Instead of letting his cerebral capacity interfere with his hunting, he simply let his natural affinity for the endeavor which he was now undertaking rule his actions. His leap fluidly changed into the intro to a sprint, as he exploded in an impressive sprinting effort. His peripheral vision had caught the flight of the squirrel as it scurried off towards the nearest tree in panic, and so that was the direction in which he swiftly moved his vehicle of predatory might. Meanwhile, the heartbeat of the squirrel could nigh have rivaled the speed of light - adrenaline pumped around in the little body as the chase was set in. Having escaped the death of the predator's claws and fangs was of little comfort to the small scluridae. At the very moment the small claws of the rodent attached themselves forcefully into the bark of the tree, a large paw stroke the squirrel and almost knocked it unconscious due to the strength behind the movement. No blood was spilled, the tiger wasn't attempting to claw the small animal to death - rather it was simply positioning it for the next thing that was to pass. As images of the large supply of nuts it possessed passed in front of the eyes of the squirrel, the jaws and fearsomely jagged teeth closed on its head and neck. To other squirrels, the scene would have looked gruesome as brain matter and blood splashed out to either side - but the swift kill was in fact an almost religious practice of Ka'Rael's, not a gruesome act. It was a gift to innocent creatures, especially the ones who fought valiantly against his hunting skills - a pain that was barely felt. Nevertheless, the Kelvic couldn't help but feel a tad of regret at the food that was wasted. His taste buds was finely attuned to the blood, and what not, of such animals - and brain matter was indeed a delicacy. He'd been uncontrolled, the rush of the hunt had taken over and until he had secured a more firm and unintrusive grip on the now deceased squirrel's body - his senses reeled with the pleasurable knowledge of a successful hunt. Turning himself around, he started off towards where he had left his belongings, cleverly hidden inside a dead tree near the Kabrin Road. He couldn't help but walk almost proudly, a successful hunt warranted pride - that is what he'd been taught, always.

[Min]

This horse was going to be the death of her, Min thought with the greatest of vexation. Or she would end up killing it, she appended, thinking with some amount of pleasure about sticking one of her darts into its neck, or perhaps several, it was such a big animal. That was part of the problem. Sitting perched up on its back, the ground seemed such a long way down. A long painful way down…well, the pain only appeared once she hit the ground, as she had done already several times, in her trip from Riverfall. If she never had to ride again in all her days, she would not complain, not once. Realistically, she knew the chances were very good that she would have to travel by horseback at some point in the future. Slogging along by foot would equate to losing hope of running her quarry to ground. But – she would think of that once she reached Syliras. For now, all she wanted to do was to reach the city, and get off this blasted animal for the last time. She had reined in, finally getting the thing to halt, and was fiddling with trying to get her foot back in the stirrup. Apparently the stirrup leathers were too long – she had tried to adjust them earlier but she must have done it incorrectly. Now they dangled below her feet and every time the horse jostled her, her feet came out of them, and she felt even more helpless and precariously situated on its high, high back. She should have told someone. But her pride – and the fact that her total lack of any type of skill or grace when it came to equines was making her something of a butt of many a joke amongst the caravan crew – induced her to keep her silence. Determined to get the better of this stupid stubborn beast, she slipped off its back and was stood wrangling with the stirrup buckle, as the rest of the party meandered away. If she had realized that she was dead last in the long line of travelers, she probably would not have chosen such a time and place to dismount – especially in light of how difficult she found it to mount up on her own. But her anger was a bit blinding and so she just stood there, still fumbling about, as the last one before her disappeared into the surrounding woods. Finally, hoping that she had got the leathers adjusted to the right lengths, she tried to clamber back up in the saddle. Of course, the horse seemed to sense both her hatred for every fiber of its being and her ineptness, for it sidestepped and pranced about a bit. Min cursed it soundly, only increasing its skittishness. Trying once more to get her foot in the stirrup, suddenly, the horse shied in earnest, its nostrils flaring and its eyes rolling as it snorted and crow hopped sideways, almost twisting Min’s leg in two. Luckily, her boot came free of the stirrup and she fell with a thud on her bottom, as the horse neighed in fright and bolted, no doubt to try to catch up with its fellows on the caravan. Min sat for a moment, staring after it, cursing it the more, when suddenly she noticed – that all about her, the forest had gone completely silent.

[Ka'Rael]

Simultanously with the Myrian's quarrel with her not-so-trusty steed, Ka'Rael was having a disagreement of sorts - of his own. This one was with himself, an internal struggle between a deep seated, instinctual curiosity and healthy caution for large parties traveling on the roads. This part of the Kabrin Road was by far one of the safer places in Mizahar, but burnt child fears the fire. As far as encounters went, the felid Kelvic didn't have particularly fond memories of caravans. And even that was perhaps an understatement. Nevertheless, while his thoughts circled on the topic - his strong legs carried him towards the ridiculous amount of noise generated by the caravan on the road. Having hunted by the method of stalking one's prey since he was less than a year old, Ka'Rael was rather unaccustomed to the noisy ways of many races. Having had the rather rare blessing of a Kelvic mother with the same animal form as himself, his entire existence was deeply rooted in the ways of the Panthera tigris. Whether curiosity or vigilance would have won out in the end, a greater force was to intervene. Hunger. He had, after all, hunted for food and not for the joy of it - and so he shifted his course slightly, now heading towards where he had stashed his belongings. Squirrels were tasty, he knew this for a fact. And although it would only feed him for very long, he wasn't particularly worried about his food situation. He'd often gone days without food, sometimes weeks - and the wild life in this area was plentiful and, moreover, not so accustomed to predators of his caliber. As the Kelvic contemplated on how he should enjoy the squirrel, he caught a scent on the air. Sniffing in, he couldn't help but get a tad suspicious - he had heard the caravan pass by, although it had gone silent by now. But the scent he had caught wasn't the trial of scent left behind by horses - it was a horse which was somewhere up ahead on the road in that instant. It was a strange thing for a horse - and possibly a rider to go along with it - to be left behind just like that. And so, curiosity got the better of the cat. Ka'Rael instantly shifted his pace and posture. Lowering himself towards the ground and treading carefully and lightly, he sneaked towards the road. His paws silently connecting with the ground beneath them and his ears upright, intently listening for signs of both anything of interest and threats. Naturally, as he'd approached - by tiger standards - loudly, birds and other prey animals had noticed him beforehand. Although they did not know what a tiger was, the predatory stance he had assumed was familiar to them - and therefore prey animals in his vicinity immediately scurried away, flew away or went in hiding. Unbeknownst to them, and to the tiger himself, what he was actually stalking was in fact a Myrian who just then was cursing loudly at her horse. At the very moment her steed bolted off, two felid eyes caught her in their sight. Luckily for the big cat, the fall season had saturated the forest around them with colours that suited him well for camouflage. He shot a quick glance at the horse galloping away, before letting his gaze home in on the Myrian. He tilted his head somewhat, surprised perhaps to see something he was unaccustomed to. Meanwhile, the squirrel was still lying dead between his jaws. He looked her over for weapons, and her surroundings for any signs of traps and the like - a tiger never knew what kind of trickery to expect.

[Min]

By Myrian standards, Min was something of a “city girl” – in that she had spent most of her time in Taloba itself, and only had forayed out into the jungles of Falyndar occasionally in order to learn about and search for the naturally occurring items she needed as a healer. Even during her mandatory stint in the military force of her people, her already well developed skills as a healer had allowed her to forego some of the more rigorous martial training in favor of tending to those of her brothers-in-arms who had been injured or wounded or were ill. Though she had some skills in that vein – climbing and the use of a small blow gun, she was, in a word, rather a wimp when it came to combat, fighting, or self defense. If she needed to kill someone, she’d prefer to do it with a subtle poison as opposed to a club or a blade. And overall, she’d rather be left alone to simply heal those in need and not be required to kill anyone in any fashion. But still, she was not so unaccustomed to the wilds of nature to be completely ignorant to the fact that she had put herself – and quite stupidly so - in a very precarious position. It was dawning on her that the caravan had, in fact, gone on without her. And now her horse was gone – and whatever had spooked it was possibly something that bore her no good will. The eerie silence that had fallen about her made the hair on the back of her neck stand up and she felt the prickle of sweat on her back, despite the coolness of the late fall day. They were traveling on a road of some sort, but honestly, in places, it was nothing more than a track through the trees. The caravan guards had assured her they were within ten days or so of Syliras, and thus the threat of slavers and raiders and marauders was much lessened – for those tread very carefully when in the realm of the knights of that city. But that didn’t mean there might not be a rogue band of men of evil intent – or even just one or two petty bandits, following in the wake of the merchant caravan in hopes of picking off some easy target – her, for example. And then there were the glassbeaks. Min felt a shudder run down her spine at the thought of those horrible predators. They had encountered a few in their travels across Cyphrus, and she hoped she would live out the rest of her days without seeing one again. She had stitched up Mal, and Rorin, and she knew that the glassbeaks weren’t the only ferocious predators out there in the sea of grass. Of course, they had left the plains behind them, and once again, the guards had told her they were now too far north for beaks, or grass bears – but there were still other bears, and cougars, and wolves, and …Zith. Min’s hand went to her belt and closed over the blow gun she always stashed there. Nimbly, she rose to her feet and whirled in a circle, searching the trees and undergrowth, but without much luck. The forest on either side of the “road’ was dense, and there could have been a hundred well camouflaged animals within a stone’s throw and she not be able to spot them. Reaching with her other hand, she pulled a knife from her boot, thinking how ridiculous it would be to try to fend off some huge predator armed with a dagger and a blow gun. But they were all she had, now that the safety of the caravan has passed her by. Swallowing hard, she forced herself to walk, and not run, in the direction that her stupid miscreant demon of a horse had taken off in, her ears and eyes straining to catch sound or sight of whatever it was that had blanketed the woods in silence.

[Ka'Rael]

The realization of the fact that the Myrian was a woman only fully dawned upon him as she rose to her feet. At this point, the Talderian had become accustomed to the wide range of different gender identities among the races of Mizahar - and therefore he had learned not to jump to conclusions regarding the sex of those he encountered. Either way, he was quite able to deduct her gender as she did her whirling around. A move that caused him little concern as he lay there in his hiding place. However, what did cause him concern was the weird item she had closed one of her hands over. He only had a short glimpse of the blow gun, and did not have any previous experiences with that sort of weapon - but something nevertheless told him that it was a thing meant to be weary of. Ka'Rael wasn't exactly capable of catching the would-be scent of fear, but he was nonetheless more than able to appraise the situation that the woman was in. So set in his ways as a predator, though, he didn't exactly deduct the same meaning from her situation as she did. The fact that his presence caused fear and flight in prey animals was as self-evident as the fact that he needed to breathe oxygen to live. It was an ever ambiguous factor in his subconsciousness regarding humans; in groups they were dangerous, alone they were prey - and yet, at the same time he was drawn towards them due to the purpose for which he and his race had been bred. Not that he had ever hunted for human flesh, but he did not - in the same way as actual humans - think of them as his own race. He, if one was to disregard the implications of him being Kelvic and not just felid, largely viewed humans as wolves. Wolves with a handicapped sense of hearing, wolves who had no night vision at all and wolves who were basically suffering from anosmia. And so, as the tiger proceeded to stalk the Myrian female, he did not at all percieve it as wrong. She was, technically, prey - and he predator. And so it was, to put it simply, natural. This was his domain, in the wild nature he knew other predators as contenders and threats, indeed, but humans were prey there - he was not. As Min started off in the direction where her horse had gone, he slowly rose up on his legs again - and then swiftly made off in the same direction. Out to her left, the underwood - as a consequence - rustled unmistakably. He surpassed her at a distance of approximately eight meters, intently allowing her to get a glimpse of his large figure among the trees and plants. Once he was sure he had gotten past her, he immediately came to a complete stand still. Subsequently, he reassumed his silent stalking - cleverly approaching the focus of his attention from a new direction. He was intrigued by the colour of her skin, this was his first time he'd seen a Myrian and therefore he was unsure of what she was exactly. In either case, he was quickly learning more about her through her reaction to being caught out here, alone.

[Min]

She walked, and listened, and searched with her eyes, her heart pounding in her chest, and her breath coming much more rapidly than her level of exertion could account for. She walked, for she knew that – if there was some menace out there – running would probably do nothing to aid her and might possibly just draw attention to herself. It wasn’t a matter of more than half a minute before she heard the rustle and caught the first flash of color, off to the side, in the undergrowth. Her first thought was – grass bear! – the type of animal that had almost been the end of Malkaren. Her head snapped to that side but it was already gone, hidden once more in the perfect camouflage. Her heart felt like it was literally in her throat, and a small gasp – almost a whimper, escaped her lips. Min knew her own strengths – and her weaknesses. A plan leapt to her mind, and her eyes tilted upwards, as she slowed her pace. Not seeing what she wanted, she picked up her pace again and once more, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the thing more clearly. This time when she turned to look, she saw a good part of the beast, before it slid once back into the shadows of the undergrowth. It wasn’t a bear! It was…a tiger! She was sure of it. She had grown up around tigers – both the massive ones her people rode upon (those chosen by the mounts – which certainly didn’t include her), and the smaller, more typically sized ones that were kelvics. But she wasn’t an idiot – just because she had been around tigers did not in any way equate to this beast being a friend. Friends did not stalk friends – and this creature was clearly doing just that. Min did come to a halt this time, even though the thing was gone – though she was sure it wasn’t gone very far. A tiger versus a bear did make the Myrian reassess her strategy, but really, she saw no other option. With a dismayed look in the direction of the now gone caravan, she tilted her head back up again. It took her three seconds to select the right one. Unfamiliar with the name of this northern tree, she nonetheless hurried over the thirty feet or so, shoving her weapons in her pack on her back and undoing her belt as she went. Into the pack went her boots too, which she yanked quickly off her bare feet. Reaching the oak, she slung the belt about its trunk, holding each end in her hands. With a scrunching motion, toes digging into the rough bark, she began her ascent, reaching the first limb in the space of three seconds. It stuck out, large and thick, about twelve feet off the ground. Making no mistake that she was safe at this point, she redid her belt and crouched on the limb, then reached upwards for the next rung in this nature made ladder to – hopefully - refuge.

[Ka'Rael]

The felid, who for now remained on the ground, couldn't help but find himself somewhat impressed by the sheer with which the woman ascended the tree of her choosing. As she had come to a halt, he had simply remained in hiding - watching her, waiting for her next move. And then, when she had suddenly hurried off towards the tree - he had, with a mental smile to himself, decided to allow her to get a bit ahead before he gave chase. As Ka'Rael leapt forward to do so, however, he came to realize that something wasn't as it appeared. He registered that his 'target' hurriedly tugged away its footwear and then... she plain took him aback twice. First, when she began her climb. His reaction was to that was to slow himself down to a halt, which was no easy feat since he was nothing if not a fast sprinter. Next, as he - ruled by instinct - intended to follow the Myrian upwards, he was suddenly so far behind that he had to stop and wonder how the creature he faced had done what it had. He had no concept of Myrians and much less their skills at tree climbing, in fact he was unaccustomed to humanoids climbing trees in any way but clumsily. As he hesitated, he nevertheless leapt the first couple of feet upwards and dug his claws securely into the bark of the tree. To the Myrian, it was most likely not the least bit impressive to see a large creature exhibit such a level of grace - but if they had not been alone, it would easily have impressed some onlooker. Ka'Rael did not start a climb upwards and after her, though, instead he stayed in place. The surprise of her agileness had planted a seed of uncertainty in him regarding what he was up against - and furthermore, the scene reminded him far too much of a hunting method sometimes utilized by the Vantha. They would lure animals who were otherwise dangerous to a tree that they would climb, then they would - from a secure distance and a advantageous angle - kill the animal from above. The fact that he was a well versed climber would matter little since he would expose himself to his prey, no matter which way he climbed. Did she possess ranged weaponry? He didn't know. But could he risk it? The answer was the same. Another thought hit him as he hang there, watching her closely and with a predatory gaze. What did he in fact intend to do if he were to catch up with her? The purpose of this little charade was what exactly? He had no answer handy. But he was rather certain of the fact that he had pressed her into a corner and that meant he would still decide the next move. And so he retracted his claws and jumped downwards, landing firmly on all fours. Retaining a watchful gaze upwards, he searched the area beneath the tree and found a fine resting spot for the dead squirrel that had until now remained in his mouth. He wasn't done yet, no, he'd wait and see how the creature would deal with him having cornered her up in that tree.

[Min]

She hadn’t waited to see what was going to happen next. It was quite possible the tiger would just move on – she could only hope that was the case. But she wasn’t about to sit on that lower branch and just let her legs swing over, thinking herself safe and that the tiger would be earthbound. She knew how well they climbed, and the one she had seen – though she had only caught a brief glimpse of part of it – looked quite large. All it need do was stand up on its hind legs and it could easily reach that branch with its paws. So without pause, Min reached for the closest branch that would bear her weight, wrapping both hands about its thickness and again using her toes to grab into the rough surface and thus push and pull herself upwards. This would put her maybe fifteen feet up, and she was just looking even more upwards, to see which limb to grab next, when she heard that sound. Her face tilted downwards and she saw an orange and black and cream blur rushing at the tree. Scrambling, she managed to get her feet on the second branch, so that she hung upside down, her arms and calves hugging the limb for all she was worth. She didn’t bother to scream or yell or curse – she had enough experience with animals to know a monster like this would take no notice of her cries – in fact, they might just excite it the more. And it certainly looked serious enough about eating her already. Inwardly, she felt a strange calm come over her, despite the adrenalin that was causing prickles to run all over her skin. With an effort, she clambered up atop the branch, laying stretched out along it, careful to keep her feet up, ankles locked about its girth. In this position, she had a perfectly clear view of the beast below her, and her eyes widened in further shock. It was enormous! It hung below her, clinging to the tree with its razor sharp claws, a mere foot below the lower branch that she had just left. Huge yellow-orange eyes stared up at her, and she stared back, momentarily transfixed. If the cat had made the effort, it could have clawed its way up to her branch. But it just hung, motionless, watching her in a breathless, eerie moment that seemed to stretch on forever. From its massive jaws hung the remains of some verminous animal, and blood was spattered over the white fur around its mouth. Min felt as if her muscles had frozen in place, with fear, and that in the next seconds it would be her head inside that cavernous maw. Then the survival instinct that her genetics and her training had instilled in her subconscious kicked in and her face turned upwards once more. With the grace of a dancer and the agility of an acrobat – both born of her absolute terror – she pushed herself up off the branch she was clinging to and grabbed for the next one, about four feet above. How she managed to get there, she had no idea. It was all a blank – all she could think of was to get as high as possible – higher than the cat, whose weight would limit which branches would hold it. Without stopping, frantic, she ascended to yet another limb, this one no thicker than four or five inches across. She straddled it and clung to the trunk, daring once more to look down. Again, she gasped, for the hunter was no longer on her heels. The tiger had retreated, to the ground at least, a few feet from the base of the oak. Min was by this time about twenty-five feet up, and she quickly looked up. There was another branch above her that might hold her weight. She looked back down, but the tiger, of course, was standing there, being inscrutable – there was no telling what it was planning. Min waited, but her near panic was just too great. Easing herself upright, hanging onto the trunk of the oak for dear life, she stood on the four inch diameter branch and reached for the next. So far, luck and terror had done their job in seeing to it that she had not come to mischief. But that was all about to change. Her fingers grasped the upper branch and she pulled a bit, testing its weight. But expecting it to hold, she was caught off guard when it just snapped – it was rotten! She should not have let this unbalance her, but in her haste she had already been in the process of letting her grasp of the thinning trunk loosen. Without thinking, as her hand above came away, she fumbled to regain that grip, and in doing so, her body swayed. Her toes clenched and she tried desperately to maintain – but no use! Her one arm windmilled and the other grabbed futilely for purchase. She over compensated and suddenly, she was falling….

[Ka'Rael]

One of the primary reasons that the beast had deducted, from the situational factors involved, that it was best not to pursue her upwards was indeed the fact that the branches would not be able to carry his weight, thereby not allowing him anywhere to gain a footing from where he could attack or... whatever action he was so bound on carrying out. That and that weird trinket she had grasped as if it was a weapon. Although there were many sensible reasons not to pursue her up in the tree, the tiger felt the sting of hurt pride. Hunting was his essentiel, a skill he had proved adept at - even beyond natural affinity. He would not let some random, subpar equestrian escape him this easily - he would be patient if necessary, but more than anything - he would not let her get the best of him again. A plan started to form in his mind, involving trickery and getting her to believe that he had left - it did, however, prove to be unneeded. His auditory perception immediatly drew his attention to the snapping of the rotten branch, as she grabbed it. But it was him visually registering her fall that forced him to act. While Ka'Rael indeed was no mathematician - in fact saying that he knew of math was a stretch - he wasn't the least bit unsure what the result of not acting at all. He would be hard pressed to prove himself an able hunter of this creature, if the creature fell down and broke its neck due to a rotten branch. Furthermore, he had no desire to see the death this stranger - or for that matter a great deal of pain and broken bones should she not be unlucky in her fall. Ka'Rael was sadly lacking in the magic department, and he did not exactly possess any fantastic gadgets to aid his endeavor - and so he did the only thing he possibly could. He leapt forward to put himself and his large body in between her and the ground, attempting to give her as easy a landing as he could conjure. He reacted more than he chose to act, and so he had not factored in what her falling on him might possibly cause him in terms of harm. Nor he he thought of the fact that him getting hit, for an example, in the head by a falling Myrian from twenty-five feet might be more than just unpleasant for him. At least she most likely wouldn't be in a situation to apply whatever weaponry she had after the fall and he would get a chance to study this dark-skinned human creature more closely with no risk of her getting away. He was by all means not well versed in medicine and healing, and so he dearly hoped the creature would not get too injured - he would have to feel responsible since he had stalked her and brought her to fall down. Even if he did not think of the action itself as wrong, the consequences of it could cause it to become so. And so, he braced for the impact and hoped she was worth literally taking the fall for her like this.

[Min]

From a height of about thirty feet, Min fell to the side, and it was not more than seven or eight feet before the first of several rather thick limbs caught her, this first time squarely in the ribs. The pain was intense, but she instinctively grasped, even as she slid downwards still. Her hand briefly skimmed over the limb as gravity continued its natural course, and fingers flexed and contracted convulsively, but to no avail. With rough bark scraping skin off of wrist and palm, her course to the ground was barely slowed. The impact with that first branch had jolted her to the other side and twisting, her body went at an angle so that her head was lower than her upper chest. The next branch that she happened upon in this tortuous fall smacked her right between the shoulders, and she had no chance to grab it, but grab she did anyway, grasping and clutching at tiny twigs and thin branches no bigger around than her fingers and thumb, some of them whipping against her face, leaving scratches and one good laceration on the side of her neck, The tree seemed almost malevolent in its greedy tearing at her, ripping her trousers and the side of her calf, leaving a thin crimson trail five inches long leading up from her bare ankle. The wind had been thoroughly knocked out of her by that second impact and as she continued to fall she struggled to breathe. One more twist and now her head was pointed even more at an angle approaching perpendicular to the ground. If she continued unobstructed, she would quite possibly hit the ground head on, and the result would have almost been a foregone conclusion. She had no time to think, no time to pray, no time to even fear the tiger below. All she could grasp was that she must somehow stop her plummet to the earth. But that ability was no longer in her purview. One last set of limbs protruded into her careening path – and they must have been set there by Myri, or Caiyha, or perhaps Kihala herself. The two branches sprang from one and formed thus a “Y”, and Min fell far enough into the fork that her head did not connect with any hard, unyielding wood – but her lower torso did. Her body practically wrenched in two – or so it felt - but her fear dominated mind took thought completely out of action and her hands and arms instinctively grabbed, as her legs swung around one of the two life saving branches. Min ended up with her waist wedged between the two limbs making up the fork, and both her head, and her feet, dangling down on opposite sides, her arms wrapped tightly about each limb. She was now on the opposite side of the tree from the side where she had first climbed up, and this limb was very like the other, in so far as its placement went. There she hung, bloodied and bruised and possibly with broken bones or damaged organs – and her head and feet perhaps only ten feet from the ground. Winded and in great pain, some part of Min’s brain still fired a message to her stressed systems. What about the tiger?