Lema: Tale of a Tigress

[smedz]

Chapter 1  

        
"Kill it! Kill it!" 

A tribe of hunters was running through the forest one night. Some carrying spears, some carrying bows and arrows, and some carrying their most deadly weapon: fire. At the same time, a 10 year old girl was running as fast as she could.....on all fours. The hunters lowered their torches, the fire quickly covering the forest. as the girl was running, she could smell the scent of smoke, and soon...saw huge flames engulfing the forest. From the direction of the flames came a moose, a ground sloth, and a herd of bull bison's. She quickly began running in the opposite direction. Now, the fires were growing, by instinct all the animals were heading for the river. However, for the girl and the others, a tree covered in fire from the bottom on up fell over. The animals ran another direction, but the girl froze in her tracks.

"There it is! kill it!" 

She turned around, only to see the hunters walking up to her. 

"We got you now you little beast." 

"No, please!" the girl pleaded as she was backing up 

One of the hunters threw his spear at her, the point hitting her across part of her arm. 

"Ow!" the girl screamed as she fell to her knees 

The chief walked up to her, carrying his spear. The girl closed her eyes, waiting for him to jab the weapon into her heart. As the chief raised his spear, the sound of trumpeting filled the air. The sound turned out to be coming from a bull Mastodon, which was on the run, and nothing was getting in his way as it tossed the chief to the side with it's trunk. The girl quickly ran with the mastodon, with the hunters in hot pursuit. However, the great mammal was having none of it, as it turned and threw many into the air with it's great tusks. the pair made it to the river, and crossed without hesitation. 

Once on the other side, the mastodon chased the girl off, as she was an enemy in his eyes whether she liked it or not. she looked across the river, seeing the forest that was now covered in fire, with smoke rising from the trees. She ran off further into the woods, as in case her pursuers came after her again, she'd have a head start. The girl then just walked for a long distance, keeping her wits about her, as she wasn't in the village anymore. She heard a twig snap, turned her head. 

"-W-what's following me?" 

She then saw a pair of eyes watching her, in front of her was a Kaua. A huge cat with brown fur, round ears, a long tail, and long fangs. the animal gave chase, once again, she was on the run. The Kaua was hot on her trail, almost sinking it's claws into her. She found a tree and climbed up it. She took deep breaths and looked down, the Kaua reared up on it's hind legs, growling, she wasn't coming down. But the big cat waited, at least until it caught the scent of other prey and moved on. The girl waited for a while, until she felt it was safe to head to the ground. 

A while later, she found a thicket next to a stream. She took a drink, and looked down at her reflection. She had the body, brown eyes, and long black hair like a normal girl, but she wasn't any normal human. For she also had the ears, claws, fangs, fur, and tail of a tiger. She smacked the water's surface. Now tears were coming out of her eyes, her arms wrapped around her, and was sitting on her knees. 

"Why? Why am I like this!!!??"

She went into the thicket, licked her wound and closed her eyes. With two more tears running down her cheeks.

[smedz]

Chapter 2  

    Sunrise, as the light of the sun covered the forest, the night animals took shelter. The daylight animals began to wake up and begin foraging. In the thicket, the girl woke up to a huge bellowing sound. She lifted her head up, and got on her feet and walked out of the thicket and went straight for the source of the sound. Along the way, she constantly kept her guard up after her narrow escape last night. She found herself at the edge of a meadow, the source of the sound turned out to be a red deer stag bellowing and watching the harem of females close by. 

"-So that's where that sound was coming from." She thought to herself 

Her stomach began to growl, she placed her hands on her stomach. 

"-Maybe I can catch a small one." 

She scanned the herd, but saw no calves, only adults. All were healthy. 

"-Darn it!" she thought before walking back into the forest 

She looked around for any signs of prey, but the calls of birds gave her away. 

"Ugh! I hate you birds!!" she shouted while throwing a stone at one 

She kept walking, then found some luck. A small group of Fallow Deer was drinking at a river, she lowered herself to the ground, and walked silently towards them. She took a look, no pesky birds in sight, and there was a wounded doe in the group. A perfect target. 

"-Luck better be on my side." 

When she took one step closer, a sharp pain came to her leg. 

"OW!" she screamed, scaring the deer away 

She found herself on the ground, looking behind her, it turned out she had stepped in a metal bear tooth trap, and blood came out of her ankle. She desperately tried to pull them open, but to no avail, and she was in a clear spot with no sticks big enough laying on the ground for her to pry it open. 

"It's over.....it's hopeless." She said as more tears came down her cheeks. 

But then, she heard growls, but these weren't cat growls or bear growls. From the thick cover, a pack of Gongers, the regions wild dog, approached her. They were the size of painted dogs, with thick fur, white underbellies, long legs, bushy tails, pointy ears, orange on top with black stripes running down their backs. 

Her eyes narrowed, ears flattened, she once again tried to free herself, bu again failed. The Gongers closed in, baring their teeth. She bared her teeth back, but being trapped, she failed to scare the thirty canines surrounding her. But before they could sink their teeth into her flesh, one of them whistled, and the Gongers sprinted of of there. Something else had found her, she turned around, and saw a white dog that looked similar to the gongers, but bigger, around wolf sized, and fully white. Right behind it however came the forest's top predator, a male Giant Tiger. This cat was huge, his paws at least as wide or if not wider than the chest of a human, and tall enough to stare a man in the eye, maybe even down at him, and his forelimbs were heavily muscled, enough to make a liger seem weak. 

"AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!" 

"No no no it's okay it's okay! We're not going to hurt you." The tiger said as he moved towards her. 

"Yeah don't worry, we're here to save you." The hunting dog said 

"You-you can talk?" 

"Yep, you're part tiger, so you can understand us." The dog replied 

"Kuta, get something to pry the trap apart, I'll dig out the rest." 

"You got it Tomba." 

While Kuta was getting a large branch, and Tomba began digging, the girl just looked on in amazement. 

"Y-you don't want me dead?" 

"No, we were tracking down a moose and we caught the scent of gongers so we followed the trail and found you. Though to be honest, I wasn't expecting to see a tiger-human mix, but while we were shocked, we couldn't just leave you for dead so we saved you." 

Tomba got done digging, and Kuta came back with a branch, and pried the trap open. The girl limped when she started walking, so Tomba lowered himself to let her climb on his back. From there he carried her away from the area. She hugged his back. 

"T-thank you." 

"No problem kid."


 

[smedz]

Chapter 3 

    "Here we are." Said Tuka 


    They arrived at a cave, wide enough to make the biggest bull auroch seem thin. They walked into the cave, with Tomba lowering himself down once more, letting the girl get off his back, albeit limping. With Tuka's help she was able to sit down on the cave floor. 

"I'll get something for you to eat." Tuka said before trotting off into the forest. 

Tomba layed down next to her, and licked her wounds with his tongue. 

Meanwhile, Tuka had his nose to the ground, on the trail of a roe deer. As he followed the trail, he heard rustling in the bushes. He quickly turned and sniffed the air, and then calmed down afterwards. 

"Phew, it's just you Bundo." 

Bundo, the male short-faced bear made his way towards Tuka. He was light brown in color, was as tall as a man, and in his mouth was a large net full of salmon. 

"The one and only." He said after dropping the net. 

"I see you got lucky." 

"No kidding, but where's Tomba? He knows your're at risk when alone right?" 

"Yes, he's at the cave. We found a human cub in the forest that walked into a toothy man trap." 

"A human cub!? " Bundo's eye's widened 

"Yup, he's guarding her while I'm trying to get some food for her. I know for a fact she's hungry." 

"Well shoot, I got all this salmon, I was about to make my way to you guys before I bumped into you. She can have some salmon." 

"Hello boys." Said a female voice 

The two looked up into the trees, and saw Matikom, the female leopard living in Tomba's territory.  

"What do you want Matikom?" asked Tuka 

"Well Tuka darling, I just bumped into you while patrolling my hunting grounds and decided to catch up." 

"Well apparently he and Tomba found a human girl." 

"They what!?" 

"Yes, and we'd better get going Bundo." 

"I'll come with you. I for one would like to meet this human you two found." 

"Okay fine." 

The trio followed Tuka back to the cave where Tomba was still with the girl. When they got there, Bundo and Matkiom's eyes widened and jaws dropped. The girl folded back her ears and her pupils shrank. 

"It's okay, they won't hurt you." 

"A...am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?" asked Matikom 

"Eeeyup" answered Bundo 

"Exactly what I thought when I first saw her." Said Tuka 

"Well anyhoo, I found all this salmon on a human boat that crashed. Figured ya'll could eat some. Her especially." 

The girl's stomach growled, louder than a growling grizzly. 

"Wait, I just remembered. Humans always put meat in fire, so she's probably not used to eating raw meat." Tomba said 

"Actually, I never had cooked meat." 

"Really?" asked Matikom 

Bundo gave her the first salmon, and she ate it like a wolf, every bit of it, even the skull. Everyone else dug in, eating as much as their stomachs would allow them to. 

"Soooooo.....what's your name?" 

The girl paused for a moment, and stared at Tomba. 

"I.......I don't have a name." 

"What?" asked Tuka 

"How could you not have a name darling?" 

"Say, what was your life like before we found you?" asked Tomba 

"Well..........when I was born, my mom told me the village was scared when they saw me. When I grew up, they would just avoid me, afraid I would attack them. My mom would always tell me I was a monster, and that my only purpose was to become a rug for the chief, who......was my dad. They didn't want me, and he would always say that they never wanted me, and that I nothing but a horrible mistake. As I got older, people would throw things at me, and even have their dogs attack me. I was never allowed to eat cooked meat since they thought I wasn't human enough to. So I had to eat raw meat from anything I could find. Which was just mice or anything I could steal. Since I'm part tiger, I can't eat fruits or anything like that so I didn't have a choice. My dad whenever he even saw me just once, he....he....he...would do this." 

She moved her hair, only to reveal a scar behind her ear. 

"You poor thing!" Matikom said while the others gasped 

"He...he struck me with a knife when I was eight. Because he hated having me for a daughter. All because of my looks. And then last night when a man attacked me with a knife for being near him, I bit him. Making my dad decided to kill me, because he thought I had turned man-killer. So I ran away, they came after me and even sat the forest on fire to catch me. I was able to escape thanks to a big tusker." 

"So you don't have a name, and you've been hated your whole life because of how you look?" asked Tomba 

"Mhm. I don't know why I look like this. But I wish I didn't." 

"Wow.....I can't believe humans are that stupid." Said Bundo 

"Exactly, those brutes." Said Matikom 

"I have an idea for a name." 

"You do Tuka? Let's hear it." 

"Lema" 

"Lema, I think that sounds lovely darling." 

"Lema, I like it." the girl said 

"Then Lema it is. I promise, if those humans come near you, we'll kill them." 

"Heck yeah brother!" 

Lema hugged Tomba, and began weeping in his chest, with the tiger wrapping his massive paw around her.

[smedz]

Chapter 4 

    On the other side of the river, the tribe was back in the village. More precisely, in the big hut in the middle of the village. The whole tribe was in the hut, standing around a big table. 

"What will we do about the girl?" asked a man 

"Nothing, she won't last long out there by herself." Answered a woman 

"True, I bet she's dead meat by now." Responded another man 

"No!" 

Everyone looked to the right, a man with short black hair, deer-skin pants, and five hawk feathers on his head was sitting in a large chair. He stood up. Next to him was a woman with moose skin for clothing, long brown hair, and green eyes. 

"We will search for her, and take her life." The chief said 

"Sir, we chased her out of this part of the land, she has no survival skills so what are the odds she's not starving to death?" 

"If that's the case, then GOOD! That means she's suffering, just what she deserves for being part tiger." The chief's wife said 

"When we find her regardless if she's dead already, we'll burn her remains." Responded the chief 

"Why?" 

The chief's wife stood up, and spoke. 

"It's quite simple, when you make a mistake, you fix it. Bringing this monstrous girl into the world was the biggest mistake my husband and I have ever made. By killing her, or at the very least burning her remains alone. We'd be fixing our mistake as we'd never have to see her in the flesh again."  

"Get your weapons, we leave at dawn." 

Back in the forest, Lema and her new guardians were laying in the cave. However, there was something on Lema's mind that kept bugging her.

"Ummmm Tomba?" 

"Yeah what's up?" 

"Can I ask you something?" 

"Lema you can ask me anything. What do you want to know?" 

"Where do babies come from?" 

Tomba's eyes widened. 

"That's a GREAT question TUKA will answer." 

"Wait what!?" 

"That's right Tuka, tell her the answer." 

"Why do I have to!?" 

"Because I REALLY don't want to go through this." 

"Ugh, okay fine." 

One explanation later 

Lema's jaw dropped, and her eye was twitching. 

"Ya happy now Tomba?" 

"Yep, just glad it was you and not me."  

"Of course you are." 

A crow was flying rapidly past the trees, making a warning. 

"Man! man is on the hunt!" 

"Humans?" asked Tuka 

Lema instantly ran further into the cave. 

"They must be after her. Lema, stay in the cave, we'll go see where they're heading." Tomba ordered

[OldGreenGrolar]

forums.spacebattles.com/

A good place to post your story. You get plenty of feedback if you can capture the attention of audience. Some of the feedback has helped me improved my story writing.

[brobear]

Lioness; Queen of the Beasts.

[OldGreenGrolar]

Sept 1, 2020 2:55:46 GMT -5 brobear said:

Lioness; Queen of the Beasts.

Good story topic, suggestion. However, the topic of this story is about a half girl half tigress.