Chapter 189

Chapter 270: Eerie Encounter

Astounded and disabled of every thought, Kushi stared at the sight, their wild snarling and loud wrestle paling her every sense.

It was a dangerous vision and a most horrifying vindication. Paradoxically, a mixture of wonder and fear took hold of her, and she found the enterprise breathtakingly appalling.

Gulping down her panic, Kushi stepped back and her feet snapped a stranded twig in two.

Kushi stilled, her felonious feet held on tip-toe, as she assured herself that the crack of the twig was too feeble to have accorded any sort of attention, especially while winds and heavy rains prevailed their raucous music in the night.

That was when she realized the fight of the beasts had turned suddenly muted.

Slowly, she looked up from the twig and turned her head towards the clearing beside her.

Her world froze and her heart staggered: the wild, fiery eyes of both the beasts were staring right at her.

They had stopped their fight when their senses alerted them to the presence of another.

With their treacherous eyes on her, the tiger snarled and the dragon hissed.

Before Kushi could gather herself and run, the beasts rushed at her, both battling to be the first to corner her.

Screaming, Kushi hastily stepped back, intending to turn around and run, but instead her panic toppled her backwards, her back hitting the ground hard.

The huge beasts, in a leap or two, had undoubtedly reached her spot and she knew she had no escape.

Gasping in a strangled breath, she turned to her side and curled in defence, pressing her face against the wet heartless floor.

She could sense her head swooning, her consciousness slipping, and she was convinced that she had been ripped apart in death, because she couldn't feel her hands and legs anymore.

She had gone numb all over and, as she drowned in the emptiness, her mind reached out from the void one last time.

All at once, she surfaced out into the wet night and the smell of the ground greeted her where her face was pressed to it.

Realization arose: she was still alive, curled up on the forest floor. But what had become of the-?

That was when she heard the sound of snarling animals and her heart froze in fright, apprehending in terror that the horrid sounds were issuing from right above her.

She had begun to calmly assume that she'd seen the beasts in a dream... But hearing them again, put her to doubt.

And curiously, another thought crossed her mind: though it sounded like it was raining, the wet drops seemed to evade her completely. She could only offer one conclusion to it: I must be dreaming...

Her long wet hair, from the frenzy of her fall and the winds, had come to conceal her face and shoulders.

As her trembling fingers pushed the strands of her hair from her face, she wished she hadn't.

Lying there, transfixed, she stared at the sight above her.

It was the underside of a huge tiger, its black stripes wet and glistening darkly in the merciless moonlight.

She was right under it and it hadn't seen her yet.

Its legs were on her either side, and she realized she couldn't even dream of escape.

She was a cornered prey.

Which was when she comprehended another thing: Something was attacking the tiger and the latter was fighting it off.

Cautiously, careful not to alert the tiger to her presence underneath it, Kushi inclined her head sideward from where she could see over the shoulder of the towering tiger.

Her heart almost spiked to her throat.

The massive dragon she'd seen earlier was crashing its wings against the sides of the tiger and digging its talons into the tiger's back.

Remaining rooted where his resilient paws were firmly grounded, the tiger snarled at the dragon and attempted to bite off its wings but only managed to make cuts and not disable it from attacking further.

At that moment, the tiger looked down and its massive head was staring right at Kushi's and she stared back in the dispelling fright of being found.

As the dragon persisted its violence on the tiger's back, the dumbfounded Kushi gaped at the tiger, gathering that she was about to be devoured very soon.

And then, it happened.

The tiger's eyes glistened and a familiar light crept in them.

Kushi gasped.

She couldn't believe it.

Arnavji?

And then the ludicrous truth struck her and her eyes filled with relieved tears.

"Arnavji..." Her trembling lips mouthed the word dear to her heart.

All at once, she understood the tiger wasn't holding her under him as he would a procured prey that he wished not to share: On the contrary, the tiger was protecting her, willing to wounds and not retaliating the dragon's assaults as long as he stood over her and warded off the dragon's attempts to get her.

Then, with an annoyed whoosh of his wings, the dragon withdrew and seemed to have flown off in defeat.

Kushi wondered why the tiger was not stepping aside so she could get up, when, all of a sudden, with a wild growl, the dragon appeared from the side, flying through the trees towards where they were.

Before the tiger could retract or duck, the dragon had crashed into the side of the wild cat, the echo of their forced impact louder than the clap of the angry thunder, as they fell colliding to the wet ground, one over the other.

"NOOO!!!!" Kushi yelled as she sprang up, meeting the hard rain again.

The tiger rolled off and immediately got on his fours, baring his fangs at the dragon who had reared into the air for another fight.

"Stop it, both of you!" Kushi cried angrily, not knowing why she had said it or if the monstrous beasts had the capability of understanding human language.

Her voice shifted the dragon's attention from the tiger to her.

Kushi paled, seeing the hunger blaze in the dragon's wild eyes.

Hurriedly, she tried to retreat as the dragon lifted his mighty wings and swooped down on her, the ominous shadow of his wings obscuring her moonlit face.

Kushi yelped and then got the fright off her life when, just as the dragon descended on her, the tiger rammed into the dragon from the side and they fell plummeting to the hard forest floor with a loud crash.

The dragon thrashed on the ground, flaying its wings and its forked tail, and tried to topple the tiger atop him.

But the huge tiger remained on him, his hard paws pressing down on him and firmly keeping him prisoned to the ground.

Kushi watched in horror as the tiger's huge claws dug into the chest of the dragon, making it growl in agonizing pain.

The tiger roared as an order to silence his enemy and then dipped his head to snap at the dragon's head.

The pain surging in his chest made the dragon act in reflex. With all the remaining strength he could muster, he swung himself sideways and sent the tiger, who was caught unawares, hurtling to the ground.

Fire shot up in his chest, as the dragon tried to breathe, and then, before the tiger could get to his feet and spring for him again, the dragon opened his battered wings wide and lifted off into the stormy air.