Dedicated to lindajonesAuthor for being the best children fiction writer.

I wake up to find myself in a small cage. It is daylight and a little black head with curious, big eyes is staring at me.

I curl into a ball, hiding my eyes with my paws, tiny tears forming in my eyes.

“Papa, is this a kitty?” the little human asks.

“He’s a tiger. Get away from him,” the father drags the girl away.

“But papa, why do you have the tiger here?”

“We will give him to the zoo and we will get money. Papa will buy you candies.”

Ugh! Liar! Monster!

I bet the girl never told him to keep me in a cage or take me to a zoo.

I look around and find myself in a clearing. There are huge conical structures surrounding a big pit where the wood has been burned black.

I know wood burns because once we had a forest fire and we had to abandon out homes. I could only understand one thing from the elders.

The humans had thrown a fire at a tree and left, but the dried tree had spread the fire, destroying half of the forest. The humans don’t care about us. They are all so selfish.

Suddenly I see the eyes again.

They are staring at me with a whole pool of questions.

“Are you real?”

What else do you expect!

“Are you lonely? Where is you Momma?”

You darling ‘Papa’ just took me further away from my ‘Mummy’. And yes I’m lonely. What’s it to you. You humans can never hear what the forest speaks.

“Do you want to go home?”

Of course you fool.

“Your eyes look so sad. I can open the cage for you and you can go out,” she smiles, showing a row of perfectly white teeth.

“Wait what? You can free me?”
“You can talk? How?”

“You can hear me? Humans don’t hear us.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Animals don’t talk.”

“Of course we do talk,” I say indignantly. “You are all too selfish to hear us."

“We aren’t selfish. We’re good,” she defends.

“No you aren’t. Your Papa put me in a sack and dragged me here. They will take me to a zoo where they will keep me in a cage,” I retort.

“But it’s nice. You get to watch people, eat food and you don’t have to work and hunt,” she says.

“How would you feel if your Papa locks you in a room with lots of food and toys and doesn’t let you go out to play?"

“I would be sad.”

“It’s the same for us. Every animal is happy at his home. We all need freedom to live,” I sigh.

“I want you to be happy,” she says, smiling again.

“Then let me go.”

She slides the metal bar locking the door and I get out swiftly.

She moves back two steps, “You aren’t going to eat me, are you?”

Certainly not!

“Because I heard stories of man-eaters in the forest.”

“We don’t eat humans. I don’t eat meat even. I only drink milk," it is my turn to defend.

Why is it so complicated? We think bad things about them and they think things about is. Who are the monsters then? My little brain finds no explanation so I don’t bother much as she comes and strokes my fur.

" You’re soft, like my toy kitty,” she hugs me, almost cutting off my air.

“Let me go,” I choke.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she giggles, putting me down and then whispers in my ears. “Go, before papa finds out.”

“Laura,” the father calls.

I slink away and run towards the forest as fast as my legs can carry me.

I can hear voices and shouts in the distance. I run on, out of breath.

629 words...
To be continued...

A/N Can the poor tiger cub escape? Who do you think are the real monsters. Tigers or humans?