A Tiger's Tale

Chapter 11

1 YEAR LATER

Syeed and I finally got back to the Indian village. As we entered the village we got strange looks from everyone. People seemed confused. I stared back at them.

"Don't stare, It's rude," Syeed grabbed my cheeks and turned my head forward. I walked up to one of the elderly villagers and politely asked, "What year, day and month is this?" When I got my reply I could barely believe it.

"It is 2017. The 11th July," The elderly villager looked at me surprised I didn't know the date.

"Thank you," I smiled. "Syeed get over here!"

"What?" He looked at me quite plainly.

"It's the year 2017, the 11th July!" Syeed's jaw dropped and his eyes widened with the element of surprise.

"You're kidding!" Syeed didn't seem like he was believing me.

"No, do I look like I'm kidding?"

"Well..." I interrupted Syeed.

"It was a rhetorical question, Dummy". I lightly pushed him. I could feel eyes watching us, this was embarresing. We went to find the Cheif of the village. It took a while but we found him eventually.

"I can't believe it," He shakily walked up to us leaning on his walking stick and touched our faces as if he was blind. "You actually made it. We thought you guys had died out there, how was your research?" He seemed very intrigued to know why we had been gone for so long.

"We filled up a whole book, used all my camera's memory and the rest is stored in our mind," He began to smile, his toothless grin getting bigger and then he jumped about like an eight year old cheering!.

"I can't believe it! You actually survived for five years out in the wild! You men might as well be tigers! Tell me, I want to know everything. How did you bond with the tigers? How did you eat?" He calmed down and sat back on his wicker chair, still grinning at us toothlessly. He was constently asking questions, he was like a never ending broken record!.

We sat with him and filled our mouths up to the brim with food and water and told him about our journey, every single detail, we didn't miss out one piece of information. There was so much to tell we didn't know how we could remember it all. Five years of of research just pouring out our mouths, like we were a waterfall.

I stayed there with the indians for a week and then I waved goodbye to everyone and gave Syeed a friendly hug, then I was off, to see my family and tell them about mine, Syeed, Kharn, Broken Ear and Shikharna's adventure together. I bet half of them wouldn't even believe it! Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Who knows, maybe I'll come back to India and see how Kharn and Broken Ear have been. Also, I must visit Syeed and the Chief sometime.