Snowy half tail in trouble.

June 09

 

 

It seems snowy Half tail did not heed the warning from the boss.  Here’s what happened soon after the end of the last account.

 

Once Tigger had composed himself, Amber and her cubs went back to their place on the quilt.  Snowy Half tail was furious!  She knew both her cubs had been adopted by Tigger, and she hated it.  She didn’t see how the, in her view, stupid idiot of a tiger could have ever charmed her cubs.  That Tigger had won the hearts of the snow leopard cubs, Snowy could understand, for Whitie and blanche were stupid cubs, they knew nothing, and Snowy wondered why she’d not seen them for what they were and let them die, just as Stifftail wanted to.  But oh no, that bimbling bag of fur amber had saved Whitie and blanche, and now the snow leopard cubs had Tigger on their side.  What did Tigger think he was playing at, almost weeping when blanche touched his paw after they’d met?  Was he a tiger or a flea?  Did he subscribe to all that a tiger was, fierce and dominant, or did he just roll over with his paws in the air at the sight of a couple of cubs and let them tickle his paws until he was laughing fit to bust?  Snowy knew the answer to be the latter.  Tigger loved physical contact with blanche and Whitie, and no doubt amber would end up playing with him too, after all, she’d do that kind of thing, so Snowy thought.  Snowy couldn’t bear to look at her cub, snuggled down, deeply asleep beside Tigger.  That dam tiger!  He seemed to have wormed his way into the lives of all the cubs.  it seemed even the polar bear cubs weren’t immune from his pervasive manner.  Snowy watched angrily as Tigger and Arki’s cub played together, Arki’s cub catching hold of one of Tigger’s paws and holding it while the tiger pretended his paw was trapped and tried gently to free it before the cub began tickling his pads.  Snowy watching angrily as Tigger lost his battle with the polar bear cub and she began to tickle his paw, something snowy felt Tigger hadn’t done much to prevent her from doing.  Maybe he didn’t want to free his paw after all the whimpering and supposed desperate struggle to free his supposedly trapped paw.  Snowy would have fought the cub’s efforts to even touch her paw, let alone tickle it.  She hated the thought of anyone touching her paws.  The thought sickened her.  She couldn’t see how Tigger enjoyed all that.

      “go on Tigger, use your claws on her you big wimp!”  snowy yelled,  Stop tugging at your paw like a pansy and kill the cub!”  Tigger stopped worrying at his paw and looked at snowy.

      “that wasn’t a joke was it half tail,”  he said, “you were serious!”

       “I was and am,”  snowy snapped, “and my name’s snowy, not Half tail!”

     “My paw isn’t trapped,”  Tigger said, “it’s a game Arki’s cub and I are playing.  Or hadn’t you noticed that?”  snowy buried her head beneath the quilt, not wanting to take the matter further.

       “I feel sick,”  Tigger said.  Snowy’s entreaties to him to kill Arki’s cub had upset him greatly.

     “come on Tigger!”  the polar bear cub said enthusiastically, “one more go at freeing your paw, or I will tickle it!”  Tigger let his paw lie flaccid on the quilt.  He couldn’t muster the strength to play with the polar bear cub any more, for his mind was full of horrible images.  Images of dead cubs, Images he couldn’t push away to the back of his mind.  The film was running again, finding the cubs dead in the grass, trying to revive them, and then lying down, weeping and hugging the cub’s lifeless bodies to him as he went to peaces.  Tigger began to cry.  Great big tears rolled down the tiger’s face as the polar bear cub watched.  Up until then, Tigger had been staring into space, their game forgotten.

     “What’s the matter Tiggie,”  Arki’s cub asked.  Tigger gulped hard:

     “Tiggie was what my cubs used to call me,”  he thought, the memory tearing him apart.  Tigger buried his face in his paws and cried pitifully.

      “I can’t cope any more!”  he sobbed, “I can’t stand this!  Someone stop it!  Please!”

     “now you’ve upset him!”  snowy snapped, angry at Tigger more than at Arki’s cub, but that didn’t matter, she had someone to vent her spleen at and that was all she needed.

      “What did I say?”  the polar bear cub asked, looking miserably at Tigger.

       “I’m sorry Tigger.  That is if I said something I shouldn’t have.”

        “come here my cub,”  Arki said gently to the female polar bear cub.  She went to her mother.

      “you called him Tiggie.  Now I know you meant no harm by that, it is a pet name for him, but I think his cubs used to call him that.  Maybe his mate did too.  You weren’t to know that, so noone’s blaming you, least of all Tigger himself I think.  That was why he went to peaces.  That and snowy urging him to kill you when you wouldn’t let go of his paw.”

     “But we were playing a game!”  the cub whimpered.

     “I know that, and so does Tigger, but snowy wasn’t playing.  She wanted Tigger to do you serious harm.”

 

Tigger, hot and exhausted from crying, lay with his face buried in his forepaws.

      “Tigger?”  Arki’s cub asked gently, going towards the prostrate tiger.  Tigger raised his head and looked at the polar bear cub.

      “It wasn’t your fault,”  Tigger said, “you weren’t to know that what you called me was what my now dead mate and cubs used to call me.”  Tigger rubbed a damp forepaw over eyes red from weeping, “I won’t talk of what I saw when snowy urged me to kill you little one, for it is not right for me to inflict that on a cub.  That, and your innocent words made me lose it totally.

     “I won’t call you that ever again,”  the polar bear cub replied, “I’m sorry Tigger, I really am, I won’t do it again, I promise.”

      “but, but I want you to, sort of,”  Tigger replied, “for they were my family, and now you are, so, if you want, I’ll be Tiggie once more.”

     “I told you he’d adopt Arki’s cub didn’t I!”  Stifftail yelled, “that dam tiger doesn’t know when he’s had too much of a good thing, he’s stark raving mad!”

      “At least he doesn’t want to murder his own cubs,”  Arki said with distaste.

     “now that’s low!”  Stifftail complained, “I wanted to leave Whitie and Blanche, but that was then, and this is now!”

    “but you’ve advocated that we left my cub to die,”  Arki reminded Stifftail, and that wasn’t too long ago.”

      “I know,”  Stifftail replied, “but I still think Tigger’s mad!”

      “What’s so mad about wanting to look after cubs Stifftail?”  amber asked, “I looked after a cub while I was wandering in search of Whitie and Blanche.  I was as close to her as I am to my own cubs.  She died under the wheels of a lorry wile we were crossing a road in France.  I know what Tigger feels.  I don’t think he’s mad, he’s desperate for a reason to carry on, and so far he’s found four reasons, my two cubs, one of Snowy’s and Arki’s cub.  They are all his cubs too now.  Don’t say any more about this, keep your views to yourself Stifftail.”  Amber rounded savagely on snowy Half tail.

    “As for you!”  she snarled, her fur standing on end, “you deserve nothing!  You took what we gave you, and then you gave nothing back.  Now you urge a tiger to kill a cub.   You violate the rules of this house Half tail!  You incited murder!  And I’ll bet if you had your way every cub in this place would be on your menu!  You disgust me half tail!  I’ve had enough of you and your despicable antics!”  With that Amber shoved snowy hard!  The snow tigress tried to hang on with her forepaws, and the toes of her hind paws, but amber stamped on her paws, finally shoving her off the quilt.  Snowy landed with a thud on the carpet.

       “you deserved all that!”  Amber yelled.  Snowy hissed and spat at Amber.  Turning to Arki’s overgrown furball friend, amber commanded:

     “Drag snowy half tail well away from here.  Put her near to where the boss shreds paper.  There she will be no danger to anyone and he won’t trip over her.  While she’s done immeasurable harm to us, I’m sure the boss doesn’t want to hurt her, no matter what she’s done to us.  he’ll be angry with her, furious in fact, but he won’t hurt her.  He wouldn’t hurt any of us, no matter what we’d done.”

      “I will gladly do as you ask,”  the huge male polar bear replied, leaping down and dragging snowy away.  One of Snowy’s cubs followed his mother, wanting to be with her rather than with Tigger.  Snowy herself made no protest as the huge male polar bear dragged her away.

 

 

 

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Martin Wilsher © 2005

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