Alternia Comics

Chapter 2

A few days passed, and each day when his chores were done, young Dahnni went into the forest to look for his friend the tiger. Each day he came home sadly to dinner, not having found the beautiful hunting cat.

One day, his mother asked him, as he came in the door, "Dahnni, the last few days you have come home sad and gloomy. What is wrong, little one?"

"Oh, mother," said Dahnni, "a tiger talked with me a few days ago, and said we would meet again. But I have gone out every day to find him, and he is not there."

"How do you know he is not there, Dahnni?" asked the mother. "Tigers are hunters, and not prey. If he does not wish to be seen, then you will not find him." She saw how sad he looked, then said, "But tigers are honest creatures, Dahnni. If one said you will meet each other again, then you will." "But when, mother?" he asked impatiently.

His mother laughed. "When he wishes to see you, it will happen."

Another week passed, and at the end of the week, Dahnni went outside from his chores to see the tiger standing at the edge of the clearing. "Striped Fire!" he shouted as he ran to the tiger. "I have missed you!" The boy embraced the tiger around the furry neck.

"I was protecting your home," said the tiger. "Keeping the beetles at bay. But now, I am back. And, if you are done with your chores, I would like to play with you."

"Oh," said Dahnni. "I am not done with chores yet. But I am almost through."

"Then go and do them," said the tiger. "The hunter is patient. I will wait here."

Dahnni hurried inside to do his chores, and came back out a few minutes later. "I have finished!" he told the tiger.

"You were very fast," said the tiger, who was lying in the yard speaking with Dahnni's father. "Did you do your work well?" Dahnni looked down. He could not lie to the tiger, and he had hurried through the work so he could play with the tiger. "Go and do it right, Dahnni. A hunter must kill the prey completely, for if it is wounded and left to go, the hunter goes without food, and it is a disgrace to the prey."

Dahnni turned around and went back inside. When he came out the sun was low, but he had done his chores well.

Again the tiger asked, "Have you done your work well, Dahnni?"

"Yes, tiger," answered the boy. "But it is nearly dark, and I must have dinner and go to bed now."

"Had you done your work right the first time, we might have played a bit." The tiger saw the downcast face of the boy. "But worry not. There is tomorrow, and I will come again."

The tiger slipped off silently into the forest, but he did return the next day, and when Dahnni was finished at work, the two played in the forest. The played at catch, and at hide and go seek (which the tiger always won), and at make-believe. The tiger let Dahnni on his back, and they rode around, pretending they were warriors on a great quest.

Again and again the tiger came, and Dahnni, after playing so long with one so strong and fast, became stronger and faster himself. He also learned to be a better hunter and hider, and at times even won at hide and go seek. Then one day, the tiger came and said, "I must go away for a while, Dahnni. The beetles and the skeletons are getting ready once again, and I must repel them."

Dahnni was sad to see his friend go, but he nodded. For he knew that if he did not go, the great jungle would fall.

For nearly a year this went on. The tiger would come and go, playing with Dahnni for a week or so, then leaving for a while to fight off the monsters of the desert. Once, at dinner, the younger of Dahnni's two older brothers, whose name was Sammen, spoke.

"Why does the tiger play with you, Dahnni? You are the youngest. I am far stronger and faster than you. I would make a much better challenge."

Then the eldest of the three brothers, whose name was Kreedek, spoke. "Yes, and by that same token, why does he not play with me? I, too, am stronger and faster than you are. Why are you so special, Dahnni?" Dahnni, who did not know, stayed silent, but his father spoke.

"Shame on you two. Why be jealous of your brother's good fortune? Be glad of it. Be happy that your little brother is so lucky as to have a tiger for a playmate."

"But father," they said, "why does it happen to him and not us?"

"Do not question such things. Your brother is not your enemy, and neither is the tiger. Both are on your side, Sammen and Kreedek. You, therefore, are lucky as well."

The brothers fell silent, but they still resented Dahnni's good luck.

The next day, the tiger returned and said, "Dahnni, I must go now, but I will return as usual."

The two said goodbye, and the tiger left. But he did not return in a week. Or two weeks. Or a month. Or two months. Then one day, as Dahnni sat forlornly outside the house, he heard a rustling in the bushes. Thinking it was the tiger, he jumped up and ran to it, jumping for joy.

But when he reached then edge of the clearing, a giant beetle leapt from the bushes, trying to grab hold of Dahnni. Even though he was scared, Dahnni had spent a year with the tiger, and was now much too fast for them.

"Father! Brothers!" he shouted. "A giant beetle is attacking. Come quick!" Dahnni picked up a piece of split wood as the beetle charged, sticking it between its mandibles when it tried to bite him. It chewed into the wood as Dahnni ran, finally crushing it with its powerful jaws.

Just then, Dahnni's father and brothers came around the house with their axes. They saw the beetle and charged it, hacking with the axes from all sides. Sammen was knocked over, but just as it would have killed him, Kreedek's axe sank deeply into the beetle's back. He and the woodcutter lifted the dead monster off of Sammen, who said to Dahnni, "Where is your tiger, now?"

"I do not understand," said Dahnni. "Something must have happened, but they could not have killed him." He remembered how easily the tiger had dispatched the other giant beetle. "Maybe he was captured!"

"In any case," said the father, "we must find what happened to him. Kreedek, Sammen, go into the village and try to find a warrior. Tell him what has happened, and see if he will help you. If not, we must go ourselves into the desert."

"No, father," said the sons. "Someone must stay and help mother and Dahnni to escape. If there are no warriors, we go into the desert."

The woodcutter was about to object, when his wife came out of the house. "They are right, husband. You will need to stay to help us."

The woodcutter could not argue with his wife, and so it was agreed. Kreedek and Sammen went into the village. That night, they returned with bronze swords and armor of toughened hide. "There were no warriors in the village who would help," they said. "So we bought these things for our journey."

The next day, the two brothers went off into the desert with their swords and their armor. The woodcutter held his wife close, and Dahnni stood near to his side. But Dahnni was more worried than were his parents. All his brothers had taken were their weapons, water, and some food. Who knew what they would need in the desert?

A week passed, then two, then three. Still, the brothers did not return. Their mothers cried for them in her sleep, and the woodcutter went about his work slowly and sadly. Finally, Dahnni stood up and said, "I must go after them. They are my brothers, and the tiger is my friend!"

But his mother said, "You cannot go, Dahnni, you are too young, and we haven't the money for more weapons." So Dahnni waited. Another week went by, and then he could wait no longer. One night, Dahnni took a sack, and in it put some rice, a knife, some rope, flint and steel, and a small axe. Taking these things and the bow and arrows his father had made for him, Dahnni left in the night and went to the border of the desert.