Deraku

## Deraku The White & Red Furred Tiger

**The story is told from Fenrissa Sharpeye point of view!**

Deraku The White & Red Furred Tiger.

After Anderaku flew away I swiftly went back to my shack to prepare myself to leave. First of I took the rusty metal hatched I have found long time ago and sharpened it a bit. Chopping trees or branches with this was far from nice, but still better than using arrows for that. After sharpening the hatched on the nearest stone I left the shack and went to finally gather wood for fathers graves to somehow shetler tehm and make sure no wild animal would dig in search of their corpses. Anna followed me the whole time and paid full attention to the surrounding as the recent drake attack had her scared, I could feel that.

The hours passed and I've gathered not so small amount of wood, but I had to stop for now. The sun was slowly setting off and I wasn't close to my shack. I quickly placed the smaller wood pieces and branches onto the big branches which I grabbed into my paws and dragged them on the ground. Luckily for me Anna haven't spotted any danger and I slowly approached my shack. I placed the gathered wood far from the fireplace and took a sip of a water from the bucket, which helped Anderaku with the burns he has received. The water was kind of salty and stated like charcoal, but still better than risking with going to the lake as moon raised. I took one of the straight and solid branches, and started carving "My beloved F" I stopped there as I heard yelp of pain. I lived in this forest for my whole life, but it was far different from anything I have heard.  I grabbed the bow and the quiver and slowly ventured into the dark forest. Anna was covering me from above with her watchful eyes. She lived in darkness all her life as me, but her eyes probably saw a lot more than mine. The forest was unnaturally silent today and only the strengthened roars of pain would be heard. I wasn't sure if it was a dream or not as it resembled the day of my father's death. My movements quickened and so have the partner's.

Soon I saw the source of the pained voice, which was one the road to Darkshire. It was a big feline creature with red stripes. The feline seemed to be a tiger, a grand one at that. The cat was placed in metal cage and only covered by two bulky human males which were torturing the animal with their sharp, long weapons. My rage raised but I stayed quiet and climbed onto the tree to have a better sight at these monsters. They mentioned something about selling the cat to some... "Collector". I took two arrows from my quiver and slowly pulled the bowstring to carefully take an aim at them, killing two beasts at once isn't an easy task. Anna stayed on the other tree near me and still paid full attention to the terrain. These... humans stopped their torturing as trickles of blood slowly started to pain the cage and they slowly started to move on. Maybe I evaluate people too quickly but without a glimpse of remorse I let the strained string go and push the arrows with big speed. In matter of seconds both of the man laid on the ground, shaking violently from having their throats pierced. The tortured feline looked at them in awe as they danced on the ground struggling for few more seconds of life, fruitlessly. Soon their bodies stopped moving and I waited few more minutes on the tree in case of any witness. Luckily no one seemed to be around and I gently jumped off the tree to approach the cage and bodies to withdraw my arrows. The cat barely stood on its paws as the fur was slowly getting soaked in its fresh blood. I withdrew the arrows swiftly. One of them quickly came back to its proper place while the second one was in my paw in case the tiger would attack. Anna quickly fetched the key from dead man's belt and gave it to me. The ferocious, tortured cat stood in the back of its prison and stared at me, slowly raising its eyes towards mine. I looked back and felt pain, fear and pinch of relief, probably from seeing the oppressors dead. It took me a moment to figure out the lock but I did it. It fell onto the ground, crushing itself and making the escape of the captured one possible. "Go ahead. You are free." I said soothingly and opened the door widely. The cat stared blankly as I backed off to the forest. I haven't wanted to try to help him or her, because I'm not able to. I live poorly, don't have the means to aid to even slightest cut. I haven't wanted to feel powerless again. I sighed deeply with Anna on my shoulder as I ventured back into my home.

The forest was even more silent than before after I helped the cat. Soon I approached the shack and hide inside. Slowly I started taking off my helmet and epaulets. After doing this I was about to lay off the dwarf's bow to the side but something big moved behind the wall as breaking of the branches was hearable. Quickly I rushed out of the home with two arrows already tensed on a bowstring  and aimed at the source of mentioned voice. However quickly I hid the arrows back into the quiver as I saw the bleeding cat laying between the branches. It was the same red-stripped cat which I rescued before. I approached the tiger quickly as it was very wounded and not in a form to make a single resistance. While approaching the stripped creature I picked up the half-filled bucket with Anderaku's water from the ground. I placed it underneath the maw, giving a good access to the water as I started inspecting the wounds. Luckily for the tiger the wounds were shallow and his crotch was fine as well and in that moment I realized it was a male! The beast hissed a bit but let me continue. After some time I was done with tending the wounds and the beast seemed already asleep. I ordered Anna to watch out for him as I covered him with leafs and branches to decrease the chance of finding the weakened beast. I also threw the leather scrap far from the shack to mislead wild animals. After assuring myself I did the best I could I went back into the shack and continued carving into the branch. I was far from done and Anderaku couldn't take me yet. Some things need to be done first and I can go for days without rest if it's needed. Also I'll call him "Deraku" nearly the same as my dragon's friend name.