Paranimal

Chapter 2

The sky has turned to a shade of blushing apricot and warm rosy pink as I sit with my arms wrapped around my knees upon the roof top, staring out to the vast mountains and snowy peaks, the summit reaching up into the air, shrouded by clouds whipped into swirling strands, gently cloaking the delicious sun as it makes its descent towards earth, between the crevices of the hills and tors.

I can't think of a better place to be and just wish I could sit up here all night, waiting for each twinkling star to shine, to spot all the constellations I know; the Big Dipper, Little Bear, Orion the Hunter and many others. I remember when I first started secondary school, I'd been put into Ursa house when I had so wanted to be in Orion because i loved it's starry formation so much, I'd even gone to the extent of weeping childish tears infront of half my bewildered class! Embarrassing...

"Don't you ever worry that you'll fall?" a silky voice glides across the rooftop from behind me.

I turn round slowly, perplexed that Tiger should interrupt my happy silence.

"Go away, Tiger."

He prowls across the roof tiles in the form of a cheetah, mocking me, creeping right to the edge as if to leap off. I try not to feel frightened for him, not to give him the satisfaction of freaking out. He leers, lifting one paw right over the edge, ready to jump. Or fall. He's just mucking about but it scares me. Not heights. No not that, I love heights. No i'm scared of death.

He's just kidding I think to myself. He curls his tail playfully round my neck before raising both front limbs over the edge of the rooftop.

"TIGER! Don't be an idiot!" I scream at last, worried, grabbing clumsily at his tail tip to stop him jumping. He always does that. Purposefully scaring me. I promise myself rigidly every time not to chicken out but it gets to me every time. He's overly cocky.

"Ha! Chicken!" he laughs ruefully, transforming rapidly in a human and wrapping me in a massive bear hug. I try fo scramble away, chuckling but he grips my back legs and swings me over his shoulder as effortlessly as if i were a sack of potatoes.

"Let me go, get off!" I scream, laughing as he tickles me, kicking and flailing my arms and legs.

"Ok then!" he replies, enthusiastically and pretends to hurl me over the edge of the roof. He dangles me upside down there by my feet and I can see down down down to the forest floor. I can feel the blood rushing rapidly to my brain and my face flushes red as I begin to loose breath. A hundred swear words are racing through my mind.

"Tiger, stop it, put me back on the roof! Stop being a jerk, I'm going to be sick!" I screech, trying to grab his legs as he shakes me gently, chuckling with a hint of a low growl in his voice.

I can feel my brown leather ankle boots slowly inching away from my feet and panic begins to set in.

"Seriously, I'm not kidding, Tiger, you've only got hold of my boots, you're not even gripping my feet any more! Tiger? TIGER!" I'm almost in tears as I shake and struggle to try and get upright and haul myself back to the safety of the roof.

"Okay, okay, I get it, I get it." Tiger pulls me up in his big broad arms and sets me on the roof tiles, laughing, a broad grin on his handsome dark face.

I glower at him, my own face like a bombsite, my eyes glaring and angry.

"You scared the life out of me, you idiot!" I cry, climbing back up on my feet. "You're such a jerk. Am I laughing? No, no I'm not! You could have got me killed, you freak!"

"Okay, chill, dude! It was just a joke!"

"Well, it's not a joke to me; you'll pay!"

"Yeah, like what you gonna do, huh? Tell Mom I tried to kill you? Nice try, pipsqueak, but I don't think so!" he mocks, turning swiftly on his feet and darting through the trapdoor, back inside the house.