Free Tiger by Jeff Stone Page B

anything quite like it. He closed his eyes, trying to make sense of it. An image of the tiger cub suddenly popped into his mind. A memory. The tiger cub stood on wobbly legs next to the pool, then it followed him unsteadily for a short while until Fu finally lost sight of it. Had something happened to the cub? Fu decided to go back and take a look.
    Fu only had to backtrack a little ways before he found the cub collapsed on the forest floor. It was panting heavily, its eyes rolled back in its head. Fu approached cautiously, but it became obvious almost immediately that caution wasn't necessary. The cub didn't seem to notice he was there.
    Fu realized he was still holding the herb pouch. He untied the cord that kept it closed and dumped the contents onto a bed of damp leaves next to the cub's head. Fu didn't recognize all of the items, but there was one thing he noticed immediately: bloodmoss. He had no idea if it would work on a tiger, but he figured it couldn't hurt to try.
    Fu quickly searched the ground and found two rocks that would serve his purpose. As fast as he could manage, he pounded, lubricated, and applied the healing paste. To his surprise, the cub's panting slowed after he plugged the first wound. The bloodmoss seemed to work for the cub, just like it worked for him. After he patched up the secondwound, the cub's eyes rolled back to their normal position, and the cub stared at him as if trying to tell him something. Fu leaned his face in close to the cub's face, their noses nearly touching. The cub's raspy tongue rolled slowly out of its mouth, and Fu saw a thin line of blood lazily run out of a small cut near the tongue's tip. Fu did his best not to flinch as the rough tongue slid up the side of his right cheek, tearing open a small section of the long cut from Ying's chain whip. Fu knew in his heart that the cub's grateful thank-you had just made them blood brothers. The cub seemed to know it, too. It blinked three times in quick succession, then closed its eyes and drifted off to sleep.
    Now what?
Fu thought. He couldn't just leave the cub there in the middle of the forest. But at the same time, he couldn't stay there himself with no food and no shelter. He decided to take the cub with him in search of the hunters' camp. He figured the cub could use some nourishment, too. Fu reached down and grabbed both of the cub's front paws with one hand. The cub didn't wake, so he took its back paws in his other hand, squatted down, and hoisted the sleeping cub across his shoulders. Then he stood.
    The cub was larger up close than it appeared from a distance, but it was lighter than Fu thought it would be. He had no trouble carrying it to the clearing with the pit. Once there, he walked in concentric circles looking for the hunters' tracks, eventually finding two sets: an older set leading to the clearing and a fresher set leading away. Fu chose the older set and startedtracing the hunters' steps backward. After some time, they came upon the hunters' abandoned camp in a grassy area. It seemed the hunters had left the pit and headed directly back to their village without returning to the camp. Still, they hadn't left much at the camp. In fact, the only thing they'd left was a smoldering fire.
    But the glowing embers gave Fu an idea. He laid the sleeping cub down on a soft patch of grass near the fire pit and searched around until he'd collected enough dry wood to rekindle the flames. He and the cub might not be able to eat right now, but at least he could get dry, and they both could get a little rest. After building up the fire, Fu removed his dripping robe and pants and hung them across several forked branches near the fire. Then he sat down next to the cub and unrolled the wet scrolls to dry them out. He laid them upside down, partially to keep them from rolling back up and partially to keep himself from reviewing them. He was anxious to take a look at them, but he knew he really needed some rest. He would have time to