Tiger's Lullaby

Prologue

"Are you alright, bilauta? You're looking pale." Kishan had said to me while beginning to break camp. I bit my lips together as I considered my options on what to say to him. I could lie and say I am feeling perfectly fine or I could be honest and say that I feel the need to throw up. Yet I knew that if I told the truth about how I felt Ren and Kishan both would recommend we stay put so that I can rest a bit before we do anything. But then what? If we began to make little to no progress Lokesh would find us again and then we'd all be held prisoner and both of my tigers would die or... be forever tortured.

    "I'm fine," I said to Kishan. "Just feeling a little sick is all." I finished and suddenly both brothers froze what they were doing. Ren was in the middle of stomping out the tiny flecks of fire that remained from last night but now stopped with his foot standing in the middle of the ashes. Kishan was knelt down by the backpack and holding the Golden Fruit, about to wrap it in the Scarf and place it in the bag. Yet now he and his brother looked at each other with a silent, unspoken conversation going around me. "What?" I questioned, not knowing why they suddenly got so silent.

    Ren had sighed and walked across the ashes and over to me. He gave a quick peck to my cheek, ignoring the glare from Kishan, and whispered something, "It's nothing to worry about now, iadala. At least not when it could still be something so small." And with that said, he walked off to retrieve the motorcycles. Being slightly confused still, I looked over to Kishan.

    "You would tell me if I should be worried, right?" I asked him. Kishan had sighed and finished wrapping up the Fruit, placing it in the bag which he then zipped closed and walked over to me. Kishan walked up behind me, placing the bag on my back and adjusting the straps.

    "Kelsey, you know I would tell you if there was anything you should be concerned about. But for now, I'm taking Ren's side. It's nothing for you to worry about now. Really, none of us should be so worried." He then kissed the top of my head and walked to my side, taking my hand. "C'mon, Ren's waiting for us. We'll be home in just a few hours."

    Well, I knew both of my tigers were rather protective and despite how much I wanted to know what was making them suddenly so tense and secretive, I reluctantly nodded in an okay to Kishan and trusted him—and Ren—to tell me when the time for me to know comes, if it ever does. "Okay," I said to my boyfriend and walked along beside him to Ren who waited patiently beside the motorcycles, a look of concentration on his face as if he were in deep thought.