Chapter 4: A Deal With the Beast

"Oh my God!" Seraya yelled at the top of her lungs, hitting the dirt on her backside in fright.

Her first, entirely rational instinct was to scramble to her feet and run as far as her legs could carry her.

Yet after a few yards, she realized she couldn't hear any pursuit, charge, or roar of an enraged beast behind her.

She hesitated. Catching her breath, she stopped, dropped to all fours, and carefully crept back toward the edge, peering through the ferns to get a better look at what was happening.

When she finally grasped what she was looking at, relief and triumph surged through her.

A sheer abyss fell away beneath the cliff - pale clouds and damp mist swirled below, concealing the floor of the rocky gorge.

The only thing keeping the saber-toothed cat from plunging to its death was a single, gnarled branch of a stunted tree jutting horizontally from a cleft in the stone wall.

The beast shivered, front claws digging into the cracked bark. Its hind paws scratched frantically at the vertical rock face, searching in vain for purchase.

To make matters worse, the dry wood creaked under eight hundred pounds of live weight, bowing at an unnatural angle.

The oversized cat could plunge into the void at any second.

At that sight, Seraya laughed aloud in satisfaction.

She straightened up and pointed a finger at the beast:

"Serves you right! Go on, drop and smash your ugly head! Wanted to mess with me? Look where it got you!"

The tigress whined. No snarl came from its throat, only a low, pitiful whimper. Its golden-yellow eyes held an eerily human plea for help.

Seraya sat right at the edge of the drop. Dangling her legs over the side, she held the toe of her shoe over the cat's snout with a taunting smirk:

"Go on, take a nip, dumb kitty! Where did all those fangs go, huh?!"

The cat didn't snap. It only whimpered, glancing between the creaking branch and Seraya, ignoring the taunts.

After a moment of teasing, Seraya grew bored. She pushed to her feet and brushed off her backside.

"Stay here by yourself, then. I'm not keeping you company. Farewell!"

Turning back toward the clearing, she noticed the petite tribal girl had come to. She sat in the grass with her legs still bound, watching Seraya with wide, amber eyes full of disbelief.

"Look at that - and you were playing dead so convincingly a minute ago!" Seraya scoffed, shaking her head.

In a foul mood after one brush with death after another, she had no interest in socializing. She just wanted to get out of this cursed forest, find a dry cave, and rest.

She was about to leave the girl behind and set off on her own when a faint, high-pitched whimper carried from a thick clump of ferns. It sounded almost identical to the mewling of newborn puppies.

Seraya froze mid-stride. Frowning, she glanced toward the grass, picked up a branch, and cautiously parted the foliage.

What she saw made her jaw drop.

Rolling in the soft moss was a fuzzy, reddish-gold creature the size of a rabbit, batting the air with clumsily oversized paws.

"Is that... is that the tiger's cub?!" Seraya gasped.

She nudged the little thing gently with the tip of her stick. The cub immediately let out a shrill, pitiful squeak.

At that exact moment, an anguished roar rolled out from the cliff!

The trapped tigress had heard her baby cry!

Seraya looked at the defenseless creature, then back toward the ledge.

She smacked her palm against her forehead. "Of course... the beast has a cub!"

The puzzle pieces fell into place. A mother protecting her young is the most dangerous creature in nature.

The cat hadn't been hunting for food - it had seen tall Seraya as a rival predator and a lethal threat to its nest!

That was why it had ignored the small, unconscious girl, going after the larger target first.

Only now did Seraya understand the desperate look in the mother's eyes as she hung over the drop. She was terrified for her orphaned cub.

"All right, but you weigh several hundred pounds! Where am I supposed to find the strength to haul you up?! Besides, what if you climb up and eat me as a thank you?" Seraya muttered, deciding to let nature take its course.

She took a few paces away. But the cub's squeaks behind her and the pained whimpers from the cliff made her legs stop of their own accord.

She halted in her tracks.

"Damn it all... They say animals know how to show gratitude. Whoever came up with that better not have been full of shit," she cursed under her breath.

She turned back to the drop. The branch was bending to its limit, the bark splintering with soft cracks.

"What am I supposed to do with you, kitty? Save you or not?" Seraya sighed.

As if sensing her inner struggle, the tigress gave two soft whimpers, fixing her with wide, wet eyes.

"One of these days this soft heart of mine is going to kill me, I swear," Seraya grumbled. She squatted by the edge, pointing a finger down at the beast like she was laying down terms in a business negotiation:

"Let's get one thing straight, sister: I didn't wander in here on purpose, and I'm not going to hurt your kid. I'll pull you up, but if you try to bite my head off in return, I will haunt you from the afterlife! Understand? If you get it, nod."

No sooner had the words left her mouth than she chided herself:

I'm an idiot... As if a wild tiger understands human speech.

Right then, the saber-toothed cat slowly, distinctly dipped its massive head up and down.

Seraya froze. "Holy shit... You actually understand?!"

The cat whined twice.

"Aren't you a clever girl," Seraya muttered in surprise, springing into action.

She hurried to fetch the discarded rattan vines that had bound her earlier. She tied them into a loop, and realizing the length was too short, dashed over to the rabbit girl and untied the bindings on her ankles.

She knotted all the lengths together into a sturdy makeshift harness.

Testing the knots with a hard tug, she returned to the edge:

"Remember our deal? I save you, you don't turn me into lunch!"

The branch cracked louder, and the terrified tigress let out a sharper whine.

Seraya wrapped the middle of the rattan line around the trunk of a sturdy tree nearby to serve as a makeshift pulley, holding the looped end in her hands. Leaning over the drop, she took aim and yelled:

"Catch, kitty!"

The loop dropped, settling squarely around the predator's thick neck.

Before the beast could thrash, Seraya backed up, gripped the free end anchored around the trunk, and dug her heels into the damp dirt.

"Here goes nothing!" she yelled, hauling with everything she had.

The vine cinched around the cat's throat. Startled, the animal gave a choked yowl and clawed at the air, fighting for breath.

"Stop thrashing, dammit, you'll choke yourself!" Seraya shouted.

Her enhanced muscles banded tight like cables. Her damp shirt stretched across her chest, outlining the heavy bounce of her breasts. Each time she dug her heels in and heaved, the fabric strained against her nipples, and sweat trickled down her neck. Every heave from her hips ground the tight waistband against her groin with a throb of heat, but right now, only raw muscle mattered.

Thanks to the trunk acting as a leverage point and the dense power in Seraya's frame, the line moved inch by inch. The cat scraped along the granite ledges until its front paws finally caught the rim of the cliff.

It sank its claws deep into the dirt. Seraya let go of the line, and the coughing tigress dragged itself onto firm ground, panting with its tongue hanging out.

Spent, Seraya dropped onto her back on the moss, sprawling like a starfish.

Her chest heaved as she fought to catch her breath.

"Jesus... that almost killed me... Sister, you seriously need to go keto, or I'm going to have a stroke!"

The tigress lay fifteen feet away, catching its breath as well. It licked at its scraped flanks with quiet grunts, its coat smeared with dirt and streaks of blood.

In the distance, the freed rabbit girl huddled beneath a tree, shivering. She couldn't fathom why the tall woman with the red claw mark had willingly hauled up the monster that had tried to tear them apart moments before.

Suddenly, the cub tumbled from the grass. Squeaking happily, it darted to its mother's flank, nuzzling its snout under her paw.

Seraya backed away a couple inches, watching warily.

The tigress licked the cub clean, then pushed up onto its feet. It held Seraya's gaze, dipped its head, and turned, slipping into the trees without a trace of hostility.

Seraya let out a long breath.

"Phew... It's finally over."

She picked up the stick nearby, leaning on it as a cane to steady her trembling legs.

She straightened her shirt and was about to move on when a familiar rustle came from the brush.

She raised the stick like a spear, dropping into a guard.

The ferns parted, and the saber-toothed cat padded back out. This time, clamped in its jaws was a fresh, bloody haunch from some forest animal.

Waddling right behind came the cub, dragging a thick branch laden with plump, purple fruit in its teeth.

Mother and cub halted six feet away, set their offerings down on the moss, stepped back, and lay on their bellies. The tigress nudged the meat with her nose, glancing up expectantly.

Seraya lowered her stick, staring as if they had lost their minds:

"Sister... I told you, I was just passing through. What do you want now?"

The tigress gave a soft whimper, miming plucking fruit with a toss of her head, then looked back at Seraya.

When Seraya remained frozen in place, the cat grew impatient. She scratched at the dirt with a paw and made exaggerated, almost comical chewing and swallowing motions.

Seraya blinked. She pointed to the fruit and raw haunch, then to her mouth:

"Wait... I'm supposed to eat this? You brought this for me?"

The tigress gave an emphatic nod.

Seraya sighed, her lips twitching in amusement:

"Well, look at that... you really do know gratitude! Fine, I'll take the fruit because I'm starving, but keep the raw meat. I'm no savage eating raw flesh off the ground!"

She stepped forward and picked up the fruiting bough. But the cat wrinkled her nose, gave a warning growl, and nudged the bloody haunch with her paw, insisting she take the rest.

Seraya rolled her eyes:

"All right, all right, don't get your fur ruffled! I'll take the meat too, just stop growling at me!"

She took the animal leg by the bone.

Seeing the gift accepted, the tigress rumbled with quiet satisfaction, laying her heavy head flat against the earth right at Seraya's feet, closing her eyes in peaceful submission.

Seraya stood there, fruit in one hand and a bloody haunch in the other, thoroughly baffled.

"I took your ransom, kitty... So what the hell else do you want from me?!"