Tiger's Beginning

Chapter 21: Risks

After Kamala had ushered me into the room, I closed the door and just stared at Raj. I couldn’t believe that he had finally shifted.

“What do you think triggered the change?”

Kamala glanced down at him curled by her feet.

“When you and Anik were distracting the prince and his men, Raj and I were searching for the onyx stone. We didn’t tell you just in case we were caught and you would be a culprit.”

“So, did you find it?”

“Yes…but with some…complications.”

“You mean Raj turning into a tiger?”

“Well, that, and its heavily guarded by magic. I couldn’t decipher what kind, but it looks to be some type of woodland magic due to the stone being hidden in the trunk of a tree.”

Raj began to stir at Kamala’s feet, and let a toothy yawn escape his enormous mouth. While he was investigating his surroundings, he knocked over a few vases scattered about the room.

“You need to get Damien to show you the stone in person, and maybe get out of him how to access the it. Do you think you can do that?”

Sighing, I nodded my head.

“As long as you put me in another one of those skimpy dresses I should be able to.”

Raj of course whipped his whole body around, causing a great commotion, and promptly turned back into a human. He was dressed in white clothing, and was barefoot. He looked at his hands carefully before saying with a slight smile,

“Well, it seems we know the trigger to my change: anger.”

Damien announced that the ball would take place the following week, so I had plenty of time to plan out how exactly I would make away with the jewel.

Thankfully, the Prince didn’t bother me much leading up to the ball, saying that he was ‘waiting for his promised dance.’

Anik recovered quickly of course, and was constantly creating plans of escape. He managed to swipe a few maps from the armory, and as far as we could tell Damien’s domain extended to the sea on the west side, a mountain range to the north, a desert to the east, and nothing was drawn in the south.

The kingdom was quite vast, and we were able to see where we landed in the Forest.

We didn’t know if we would have to venture into these lands, but we each agreed to make inquires of the servants and guards about what lies beyond the borders.

One afternoon Kamala and I were wandering through the halls when we heard a conversation coming from a closed door to our left. We could barely make out what was being said; it was obvious that the people speaking did not want to be caught. It sounded like two women.