//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Why Me!? // Story: The Rainbow and The Tiger // by PantheraMan //------------------------------// In his tiger form, Baagh Raaja slept under a tree close to the waterhole. The sunlight began blanketing him, making his fur shine brightly. Once the light reached his eyelids, he slowly opened them. He lifted his head, stared into the morning sky, and stretched out while yawning. He got up and walked to the waterhole and looked across the water’s surface,  spotting his rival from the previous night.  Baagh Raaja growled, and the crocodile hissed and swam in the opposite direction. He looked down at his reflection for a moment before lapping up water with his tongue. He then walked away from the water and towards the forest. Passing a flock of jungle fowl and an argus pheasant, he found the group waking up and stretching. Looking ahead, he spotted Rainbow Dash stretching her arms out and yawning. He walked into the group and when Rainbow Dash noticed him, she lowered her brows, crossed her arms and looked away from him.   “Uuuhh...good morning?” he softly chuckled. Rainbow Dash still didn’t look at him. Wildfire yawned and saw them in front of her. “Look, I’m sorry about what I said last night. Sometimes I just...get cranky.” he said. “Cranky?” Rainbow Dash turned her head.  “About what?”  Baagh Raaja rubbed his paw in the dirt and folded his ears. “About...having to get saved after getting wounded,” he said, slightly raising his foot. “Baagh Raaja you liar!” he thought.  Wildfire shot up from the ground and trotted right to him. “Well excuse me for giving a crap about your well being.” She growled with her pupils narrowed.  Baagh Raaja unfolded his ears and put his foot down. “It’s not that I’m ungrateful, it’s just that was the first time I’ve ever been wounded by a buffalo,” he said. “If that isn’t the biggest lie you've ever told I don’t know what is.,” he thought, mentally slapping himself. He shook his head. “But anyway, am I back on your good side Rainbow?” he asked.  Rainbow Dash stood still for a moment with a brow raised and then shrugged. “Sure,” she said before walking ahead of him.  Wildfire walked past him as well, and he trotted next to her. “Hey Wildfire.”  “Yeah?” she asked, turning her head. He looked around before giving her his attention. “Is it normal for Amber Eye to walk by herself at night?”  Wildfire smiled. “First off, yes it is, and second, isn’t that nosey?”  she asked. Baagh Raaja rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes. Don’t rub it in,” he said as Wildfire walked further ahead. “On the bright side, that’s normal for her,.” he thought as he walked, trying to spot Rainbow Dash.  “Hey tough guy?” a voice said from behind him.  “Huh?”  he thought before turning his head to see a catgirl with brown eyes, white fur with a black stripe down her back, and a tail with black hair long enough to touch her shoulders.  Baagh Raaja raised an eyebrow. “Are you talking to me?” he asked. She walked much closer to him. “Of course, who else would I be talking to?” she asked. Baagh Raaja shrugged. “I dunno, one of the other guys?” he said before looking around for other males. The girl appeared as though she were unfazed. “I could, but their scars aren’t as impressive.” she replied. “You...think so?” he asked. She got even closer to him. “Sure. And I saw the way you fought that crocodile,” the girl said as she stared into his eyes. Baagh Raaja started to blush. “So you saw that huh?” he asked while trying to avoid eye contact as much as possible. “She SAW that!? Great! I just wanted to go back to my normal life after this. Now that she saw me defeat a huge crocodile, I’ll never be able to get rid of her.”  He frowned mentally, but kept looking straight ahead. “What do you say big guy? Mind if I stroll with you?” she asked as she got even closer to him. Once again, Baagh Raaja rolled his eyes. “Alright fine.”  “Thanks” she replied before rubbing on his side.  Baagh Raaja just kept walking with a frown. “Well, at least it can’t get any worse.”  He looked ahead and folded his ears, lowering his head. “Then again, judging from the death glare Rainbow’s giving that girl, it probably can.”  A sounder of wild boars rooted through the soil with their piglets. One of the sows pricked her ears up; there were sounds coming towards them. She squealed and bolted deeper into the jungle, followed by the rest of the sounder. Bladed Claw swatted foliage out of his way with his claws while a few men behind him chopped plants down with machetes. Twilight and Spike sat in their cage as four men carried it with two large branches. Bladed Claw stopped and twitched one of his ears.  “Stop,” he ordered, and his men froze in their tracks. Spike got up and Twilight looked into the jungle. From the forest came small, deep rumbles and the sounds of crashing foliage. A herd of elephants emerged from the forest and walked in front of the poachers. Bladed Claw looked on with a small grin and Twilight’s jaw dropped, her eyes were as big as watermelons.  These elephants had the small ears of asian elephants, yet they were only as tall as a grown man, and their tusks were long with small curves at the end. In some of them the tusks grew close enough together that their trunks were held sideways of the tusks.  Bloody Knife looked on as the herd walked past them. “Whoa, after we’re done at the stone, we’ll have to come back to get some ivory,” he said with a smile. Bladed Claw nodded. “In this region, there’s plenty of ivory to go around,” he said before walking again. “Prehistoric...animals!?” Twilight asked. Bladed Claw turned his head towards her. “Yeah…” he said. Twilight’s hair began to frizzle. “There are….prehistoric...animals here...and I’m stuck in a cage!!” she said as her eyes began to gain a wild look. Spike covered his eyes with his ears and Bloody Knife turned his attention to her.  Twilight’s teeth grated and she started giggling. “Must. Break. FRREE!!! Must study animals. Must be famous!!. Must see prehistoric animals!!” she said while kicking her legs and chuckling as if she were an evil witch. She bounced up and down and banged against the bars.  Bloody Knife stared at her blankly. “Uuuhhh...is she gonna be okay?” he asked. “Honestly, I have no idea. But we’re poachers, not therapists. Now let’s keep moving,” he ordered and the group walked on as Twilight acted as though she was losing her marbles.  As the group continued to walk, some of them began noticing more sunlight was hitting them. Looking up, they noticed the tree cover. “Everyone, we’re here!” Sulu shouted. The group rushed up next to him and they saw a large river flowing in front of them. Beyond was a large mosaic of savanna, marshes, and woodlands. It was teeming with herds of cape buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, thomson’s gazelles, and waterbucks running through the shallower waters. A pod of hippos almost completely submerged in the water and crocodiles basked along the shores, while a herd of Deinotherium walked across the plains and a pair of Pachycrocuta hyenas lay under a tree.  “Whoa,” Night Sky said. Konda stared blankly at the sight before him. “Wow” Partak said.  “Look at all those zebras and wildebeests!!” Rainbow Dash said, pointing at the herds. Talamba smiled. “Okay it’s settled. I like this savanna better than the last one,” he said to the lionesses who nodded in agreement. “Me too!” Pinkie Pie yelled, bouncing up and down.  Applejack scratched her head. “You know, this place reminds me of that one region in Africa. The...uuhh..Olasavo?...or is it Okavana?” she asked. Pinkie Pie placed a hand on her shoulder. “I think you mean Okavango.”  “Yeah that’s it!” Applejack exclaimed, snapping her fingers. Sulu nodded. “It is beautiful. And this is the region the Mookarina Stone is in, so we must keep moving on,” he said before entering the river. Rainbow Dash looked at Baagh Raaja and noticed as he looked at the landscape, a tear formed in the corner of his eye. “Are you okay Baagh Raaja?” she asked.  Baagh Raaja shook his head. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said before jumping into the water.  Rainbow Dash and Wildfire followed suit, diving into the water and swimming to the shore. When Rainbow Dash was close to the shore, Wildfire held out her tail, letting her grab it so she could pull her onto the bank. They continued forward, the herd of zebras and wildebeests looking at them and keeping their eyes on them. Wildfire looked at the ground and screamed, startling the others and she jumped into a tree and shook. Baagh Raaja trotted under the tree. “Yeesh, what’s your problem?” he asked. “SNAKE!!” she yelled, scaring the herd and sending them into a stampede. The blue aura formed around Baagh Raaja and his human features started to reappear. Rainbow Dash placed her hand on her hip. “What are you-”  “I handle snakes better like this,” Baagh Raaja said when his transformation was complete. He went into the grass, moving it aside and peered into it. He saw a serpentine tail moving into the grass and slowly went around it and waited for a moment. Suddenly he grabbed it behind the head and lifted it to take a closer look. “Wildfire, it’s an Egg-Eating Snake.”  “So?” she asked. “It’s a baby,” he said, walking closer to her. “So?”  “It isn’t venomous,” he assured her. “So?”  Baagh Raaja saw its mouth open.  “It doesn’t even have teeth.”  “I don’t care! Just get that slimy thing away from me!!” Wildfire yelled, pointing in the direction he got the snake from. “Snakes aren’t slimy,” he said. “NNOOOWWW!!” she screamed, echoing through the savanna and causing birds to fly out of the trees. Baagh Raaja sighed and walked away from Wildfire and released the snake. The blue aura returned and his tiger features began to come back. “The next time you see a snake, I won’t move it away.” he said. Wildfire leaped down from the tree and saw Rainbow Dash looking at the catgirl who walked with Baagh Raaja earlier getting close to him again. “Hey Rainbow, how come you’ve been giving her dirty looks?” she asked. Rainbow lowered her head and crossed her arms. “I...I don’t know.”  Wildfire raised a brow. “What do you mean you don’t know?” she replied, sitting down. “It’s just that whenever I see other girls act that way around him, I feel something go off inside of me that makes me want to fight them, but I don’t see any reason to. And we’re on the same side, so it’d be stupid,.” Rainbow Dash replied before walking ahead of her. Wildfire chuckled before looking at her again. “I thought you said you didn’t love Baagh Raaja.”  Rainbow Dash crossed her arms again. “And I was honest when I said so.”  Wildfire smirked. “Really? That’s not what your instincts are telling you.” She giggled. “I mean it!” Rainbow Dash said, slightly blushing. “It’s okay, it’s totally normal for you to feel that way. You have cat-like instincts, so it’s normal to have a territorial instinct.,” Wildfire responded.  Rainbow Dash growled. “Can you please stop, I’m not in love with him!” she said, blushing even more.  Talamba placed himself next to her. “But where’s the fun in that?” he asked.