The Moth Tents

The Lion's Keeper

There's a blood red cloth tent, with elegant gold lettering sewn on the front. Beware of Beast! it reads.

Hay peeks out from under the cloth. This is it. The dreaded den.

Penny can barely contain her excitement, hopping on the tip of her toes and playing eagerly at the edges of her hand-me-down dress.

But I can barely contain the looming cloud of fear hovering over me.

I take Penny's twitching hand and squeeze it, more for my comfort than hers, as Jack sighs behind us.

I hear him mutter something under his breath; it sounds like a prayer.

Penny darts inside, and I chase after her out of reflex. The den was dark. Pitch black.

I can barely see where I'm going.

Fear rapidly courses through me, overwhelming my senses. The hay that serves as a floor pricks and scrapes at my ankles.

I don't lift my feet, instead dragging them across so I know where I'm going. I crinkle my nose at the stench.

It reminded me of one boiling summer back in Texas when the air conditioning had stopped working, and the stink of booze and tangy must had been stuffed into every room.

I stretch out my arms, feeling for some clue. "Penny?" I call out in a quiet hiss. "Penny, where are you?"

A low growl interrupts the dead silence. I know instantly it isn't human. I bite back a fearful whimper and squeeze my eyes tight.

I stay quiet, paralyzed by panic.

I hear a giggle that can only be Penny, and I become an emotional mixing pot as my growing dread swirls together with relief.

I let out a slow breathe that I forgot I was holding in. A ball of fire rips through the darkness, and then two.

Soon, the room is filled with firelight, and I can see.

I'm standing a few steps from a metal cage, bigger than my room. I stare in awe at the beast inside.

It has its sights set on me, glaring with a fierce pair of glowing yellow eyes that cut through the air.

The cage door is open. Penny is inside. She stands there, knees locked, mouth gaping and eyes wide.

"Penny, get out of there!" I scuffle across, and grab her arm, pulling her away from the animal.

I slam the cage door before it has the chance to move. "Don't know why you're backing away."

An unfamiliar voice thunders in the corner, and I can't help but jump. The silly thought pops into my head that maybe it is the tiger that speaks.

In one corner of the room, there's a young man holding a wooden torch beside him.

It casts an orange glow across his gnarled face. 3 pale ragged lines run sideways from his left eye to his chin, twisting his lips into a permanent lopsided scowl.

It could be the firelight, but his eyes seem especially intense.

They are narrow and gleam gold; I can feel his gaze like a temperature.

He blows the torch out, leaving a twisting trail of smoke in its wake.

It was relief to my nose, chasing out the previous stink with the aroma of burning leaves.

I always liked that smell.

He looks at us like we're something to eat; I feel like I'm inside the cage's bars, staring down the animal resting within, instead of outside with its caretaker.

"He's harmless."
I scoff and raise a doubtful eyebrow.

"Well...sort of," he says lazily.

"So pretty...", Penny whispers in awe beside me. I let go of her arm once I realize I'm gripping with my life.

She still hasn't taken her eyes off of it. Despite the fear it instilled in me, I had to admit, the creature was beautiful.

Its eyes still haunted me, still burned like a brand in my memory. It had silky white fur, with black slashes running through the white like ink thrown viciously against snow.

"It's rare for tigers to be that color, you know. Its a flaw in their genetic code. Especially with golden eyes," he says.

"You sound like you know what you're talking about."

"I raised him. Had to read quite a few books on tigers." I can hear the fondness in his voice.

I wonder where he's from, and how he got those scars. His skin is golden brown, and his black hair is cut short with curls sticking out here and there.

He has the tinges of an accent I don't recognize. Penny wanders close to the cage, as if the tiger was calling her name.

"Anyway, you two must be the new girls I've been hearing so much about. I'm Akeel."

He slinks forward and leans, eyes still fixed in a predatory gaze on me.

"We're supposed to clean..", I say, letting the statement linger as I look around.

The floor is concrete, entirely covered in hay. How do you clean a place like this?

He doesn't reply, but grabs an old rake leaning against one of the wooden beams that support the inside of the tent and shoves it into my hand.

"All the old hay goes in there," he says, pointing to a red wheelbarrow in the corner.

"Then you dump it into the woods and leave it to rot. After that, get the new hay from over there and put it down. That includes the inside of the cage, by the way."

I feel a chill run down my spine like a current. There's just no way.... "Sounds like a lot of work."

"Don't worry. You only have to do it once a week."

"And will you help us with the inside of the cage?"

"I'll do it for you."

I snatch Penny away from the cage once I notice she's a little too close for comfort, and she whines in protest.

"You two should get to work."