Lynne Banks - Tiger, Tiger

Aurelia stood up. ‘Oh, let me! Only I don’t want him to growl at me.’

‘He won’t. Here, take over from me. He’ll soon learn to accept you.’

The cub’s warm fur was a delight – so soft, so silky-soft, such beautiful colours, rich gold and deep, dark black. After a tentative moment, she sank her fingers into it luxuriantly and was overjoyed when the cub continued to purr like the great cat that he was. She was soon using both hands to pet and please him. Better than stroking a fish!

The keeper-boy was talking.

‘He’s a present from your father. There were two of them, twin brothers. One, the bigger and stronger of the two, has been taken to the Colosseum to be raised for the circus. This one was chosen as a special pet for you by the Emperor.’

Aurelia withdrew her hands and stood staring down at the baby tiger, who followed her now with his yellow eyes.

‘Do I have to keep him always in a cage? Because if so, I don’t want him.’

‘Well, I can take him out now, if you like. We’ll see if he behaves himself, but I don’t think he will try any tricks while I’m here.’

When she nodded breathlessly, he reached down and lifted the cub out of the cage, talking to him in a clucking, rumbling tone. He held him, positively cuddling him. Aurelia’s arms ached to hold the furry adorable thing.

‘Good boy. You’re a lucky cub. Look at your mistress! Wasn’t that worth a little pain? You’re better off than your brother!’ And he lowered him on to his big, padded feet on the marble floor, where he stood, his tail twitching from side to side.

‘Does he understand what you say to him?’

‘No. But it soothes him. You must talk to him a lot. And you must learn his language.’

‘Does he talk ?’ she asked naively.

He smiled. ‘Yes, in his own way. Look at his tail, now. If it were lashing from side to side, you’d need to be careful, because that means, I am angry! I may pounce! But that twitching is just uncertainty – curiosity.’

‘No, no! Tell me exactly what he’s saying!’

‘He’s saying, I don’t know where I am or what’s happening. Reassure me. Be kind to me. Tell me I’m safe .’

‘Oh! Yes, I see!’ Aurelia, enchanted, fell on her knees and put out both her arms to the cub. ‘Come here to me! I won’t hurt you. I love you already. Come and be stroked!’ But the cub stood still and didn’t come. She looked up beseechingly at the young keeper. ‘What can I say to him to make him come?’

‘Nothing. You must offer him a gift.’

‘What? What?’

The keeper opened a basket he had on his back and took from it a small piece of raw meat.

‘Are you afraid to get your hands soiled?’

She hesitated, but only for a moment. ‘No! Give it to me!’

He handed her the meat. Before she fully had hold of it, the cub leapt forward and snatched it from her grasp, startling her so much she cried out and fell over backwards. In a moment, the young man had his hand fastened on the scruff of the cub’s neck and it shrank down. But Aurelia sat up at once and said, ‘No, he didn’t mean to frighten me. Leave him.’

The keeper obeyed. The cub lay down and began chewing on the meat. Every now and then he shook his head.

‘Why does he do that?’

‘He can’t understand why he can’t eat quite as he used to. And it may still hurt a little.’

Aurelia crept towards him.

‘No, my lady,’ warned the keeper. ‘Don’t try to touch him while he’s eating. He’ll think—’ He corrected himself. ‘Look, he’s put his ears back. He’s saying, Don’t try to take my food! When he’s satisfied his hunger he’ll remember that you gave him the meat. He may sniff the blood on your hand, and come to lick it off. Then he’ll begin to recognise you. That’s how cats are. They like you for what you give them.’

‘I want him to love me for myself.’

‘Better not to hope for that. He’ll be your companion, but never will he love you. Cats can’t love, except perhaps each other. But be kind to him and learn his language and you can be friends, in a way.’

Aurelia sat on the floor with her diaphanous robes spread about her, and watched the cub eat. She didn’t move a muscle till he had finished. Then, as he was licking his whiskers, she said, ‘Can I keep him with me all the time? Can he sleep in my bed?’

The youth shook his head.

‘I am to stay with you while you get acquainted. Then he must go back in his cage and I will take him back to the menagerie for the night. You have other things to do. But he’ll look forward to coming to see you, to leaving his cage, to eating from your hand, to being petted, to being free. In that way he’ll become yours.’

‘Has he a name?’

‘I call him Tigris.’

‘But that’s just what he is! That’s a boring name.’

‘Then think of a better one, Princess.’

She looked at the cub a long time. He stared at her, but he did not come to lick her hand. She wiped it on the floor.

‘I’ll spend the night thinking,’ she said.

The young man bent and picked the cub up. ‘I must take him now.’

‘Can I kiss him?’

He smiled secretly, thinking: Fortunate creature. ‘Yes. Why not?’

Aurelia came close and kissed the cub on the head and touched his hurt face tenderly. ‘Goodbye, little one. When you come back to me tomorrow, I will have a name for you.’

She watched as he was put back in his cage and wheeled away. The young man looked back once, irresistibly, but she didn’t notice. Her mind was following the tiger – her tiger – and was busy with the delightful task of naming him.

‘What’s your name?’ she called after the youth.

‘Julius.’

‘Come early, Julius!’

‘Willingly!’ he said, and added, in his head, If only your eagerness were for me!

The younger and smaller cub, still lacking a name, spent the night alone in his cage, in the city menagerie where he was to live.

His brain was full of new things, new bewilderments. Having his fangs drawn had been terrible, but the pain was fading and with it the memory of his terror and agony. He thought about the male two-legs that had comforted him, making soft sounds to him and giving him milk to suck, reminding him dimly of his lost Big One. Not all two-legs were either things to fear or things he might like to eat. They were certainly meat, but they were more. They were powerful and puzzling and even fearsome, but also they could do pleasing things. He thought of the female two-legs with the eyes that had looked into his. He had wanted to creep to her and lick the blood off her hand after she had provided him with food, encourage that hand to scratch and stroke him again. He sensed no threat, but he was uncertain. He hadn’t seen anything like her before.

Where was his brother?

That was the most important thing.

They had been a pair, and now that had ended and he was alone. In the darkness there was no warm, friendly other to curl up against. No familiar smell and no one to communicate with.

He slept at last, miserable, aching and lonely.

But in the morning things were better. The male two-legs came and made sounds to him and petted him. There were others with him, but the cub only noticed the one he knew.

‘Today would have been a bad day for you, Tigris, but you’re lucky again. She’s forbidden it. So I’ve got something for you instead, so that you won’t forget yourself and do her a mischief!’ He reached down into the cage and began to rub the cub’s belly. Instinctively he rolled over and stuck his big feet in the air. Before he understood what was happening, something was slipped over each of them, something that muffled his claws.