A Tale of Jaguars

Settling and Reflexions

As predicted, Lion-O was not happy with the news that his brother was to share a room with Jareid. Xilara explained to him that in this way his brother would be more protected from people that wished him harm. The lion understood the reasoning, but was still unsatisfied, especially because Jareid would not let him see his brother. The jaguar prince was adamant that no one but Bengali was allowed inside his private sanctuary. Tygra's leg needed time to heal, so he wasn't going anywhere outside the room anytime soon. Both brothers were getting desperate.

Finally, after three days of tension and general unhappiness, Tygra had to beg Jareid to let Lion-O visit. He also got to continue his lessons. Jareid's study was connected to an ample sitting room, where Tygra's tutor and his brother were allowed to visit. The Thunderian princes were miffed at the restrictions, but there was nothing they could do about them. Tygra didn't know why the king was humouring his son's paranoia, but he kept his mouth shut, though he grew concerned about Lion-O's safety. He talked about it with Jareid, and Baal had the lion moved to the Royal apartments, so he could be closer to his brother.

It was a tough week for Tygra, but he survived Jareid's bout of over-protectiveness and moved on.

By the time his birthday arrived, his leg was practically recovered and he could get out to the gardens to walk and exercise the muscles a bit. Lion-O went with him, and they had a quiet lunch under a lemon tree.

Tygra had a hard time sitting and standing. His right leg had taken a great amount of damage and was still very tender. He disliked that he still needed the crutches to help support himself, especially at the end of the day.

Bengali had instructed him to not overtax his leg, but he was desperate to heal and restart his regular routine. So, he suffered from cramps from time to time. Like the one Lion-O was helping him with, just as they were sitting for lunch.

"Agh! Whiskers! This is never going to heal properly!"

"It's your own fault! Bengali said to not overdo the exercise, you dummy! You're lucky it's healing at all, your muscles were completely shredded, even the bone took some damage."

"I know! I'm lucky they could do the reconstructive surgery almost immediately. And I'm even more lucky that Jareid didn't manage to ruin it, taking me out of the clinic as he did."

Lion-O chuckled. Though at the moment he had been very scared, in retrospective it seemed funny the way the jaguar prince had carried his anguished brother, bride style, to his rooms. Tygra huffed in annoyance, and Lion-O turned serious.

"Is he treating you well Tygra?"

The tiger almost spluttered, and he scowled at his brother.

"Wha…? Lion-O, that's a question you ask to a sister!"

"It's not! It's a question you ask when you're concerned!"

Lion-O crossed his arms, clearly affronted. Tygra rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Well?"

"What?"

"Is he treating you well or not?"

Tygra went several shades of pink and grumbled under his breath.

"He's been nice enough."

Lion-O considered the answer, and nodded.

"Good. I'd have to talk to him if he wasn't."

Tygra chuckled and punched his brother playfully on the arm.

"Auch!"

"You, brat, aren't supposed to be worrying about me. I'm the big brother. I'll do the worrying."