The Mosquito and the Lion

sixteen

This was not part of the plan.

He had expected her to surrender. He had expected Nandini to cave immediately and pressure Alia to accept his truce.

Arjun had certainly not expected to engage in a mad chase through the forest. And he did not expect to encounter a tiger.

Though calling the animal a tiger was a bit of an understatement.

With black fur that melted into the night sky, gleaming silver beneath the moonlight, and bright pink eyes, the monster was twice the height of a normal tiger. Two large canines extended from its upper teeth and past its jaw. It could crush human skulls in its maw with ease. Of that, Arjun had no doubt.

He clamped his hand over Alia's mouth, his other hand holding a dagger to her throat. She was a bleeding mess, red ink trailing down her fingertips and dripping onto the cold earth below. He could see it staining his dhoti.

It must smell the blood.

"Don't move," he whispered into her ear. "I'm going to lower my dagger now."

She swallowed, probably calculating the odds of running away with her life. Rationality won out, and she offered a tight nod of her head.

He dropped his knife and removed his hand from her soft lips. A ripple of self-directed anger at his own weakness cascaded through him. After everything she had done, after everything he knew she was, he could not eliminate all remaining vestiges of attraction.

Arjun buried the unwelcome thoughts, bringing his attention to the far more important matter at hand. A giant creature, mythical in its size and being, stood mere meters away.

It stared at them, its glowing pink eyes piercing, but it made no move in their direction. Frantic, Arjun tried to recall everything he knew about tigers.

"Can you climb?" he asked, remembering that tigers usually could not reach the uppermost branches of trees.

"How would that help?" she hissed. Arjun could not help but be impressed by her unshaken demeanor.

"Tigers can't climb."

"Tigers don't look like that either!"

"Would you rather sit here and wait for it to kill us?" Gods, she was frustrating. Arjun yearned for the time when he only had to bear Rahul and Vidya's bickering. At least they didn't question him at every turn.

"Well, it's not killing us right now," she muttered, cocking her head to the side and analyzing the creature. "If we move, we could scare it."

"To be clear, we are not the scary ones here." She was mad, absolutely mad, and she would get them both killed.

She rolled her eyes, pressing her palm into the base of her neck to stop the bleeding. "Typical Yadavan, assuming intentions."

He did not have a chance to retort. The creature was moving closer now, baring its teeth and growling, a low rumble that Arjun was not ashamed to admit sent tremors up and down his spine.

"Still wanna argue, Maurani?" he snarled, grabbing her by the waist and hoisting her up the nearest tree. He had learned yet another lesson about the Mauryan girl. Don't give her room to argue.

Arjun did not know how she was managing it, with her shoulder bleeding so heavily, but she scampered up the tree like it was nothing. Like the bark drawing scratches into your hands was no bitter ordeal.

The tiger charged at the tree, ramming its head into the trunk. It shook with the impact, and Arjun had to drive his fingers deeper into the bark to maintain his grip. Only a few more meters, and he would be safe.