White Tiger

Sunshine peeking through the treetops, it hit Bai Shuixian's body. Feeling the heat from the sun, her eyes slowly fluttered open like a butterfly's wings. Her hands went over her eyes and blocked the light from continuing to disturb her sleep.

Despite feeling regaining the darkness again though, her body felt hot and sweaty. Only a little time had passed since she put her hands on her head, but she was starting to feel the arid humidity already.

Though not fully awake, she cursed, "Why the hell is the sun so hot today?"

Twisting and turning her body, she was unable to rid the feeling of the hot sun. With a sigh, she gave up on sleeping and squinted her eyes as she woke up. The first sight that she saw being the sunlight that was not fully exposed but still managed to glare due to the holes in the treetops.

Her body seemed to have recovered much more energy for she was able to move a bit easier now. However, trying to open her eyes she struggled a bit. Maybe it was because every time she was conscious, the sun was never up and only the hidden moon remained.

At the same time, it made her wonder how there could be visibility in the forest at night when she looked at the tree tops. Since she only saw darkness when she stared up, she did not know if it was there was no moon or if the sun was hidden. In fact, she could not tell if it was daytime or nighttime.

This was the first sunlight she saw for a while. For how long, she did not know. She only knew that it had been a while since she last saw the sun or moon.

After acclimating to the light, she finally removed her hand and looked around the area. Though there was a high visibility at night, the sunlight still brought more dimension and light for the forest. Many of the things that she missed when examining the area the previous night, she could see in detail now.

She even saw the randomly scattered sticks that looked uniformed at the same time. Although wanting to think deeper on the sticks, she decided to suppress the intrigue and balanced herself while trying to stand up. A little woozy at first, she was able to stand straight with the help of the tree she was leaning on.

Once again analyzing the area, she saw that there was little vegetation. Brightly colored leaves covered the dry ground and only in a few spots could you see a small bush. Despite not having a lot of vegetation, there were more weeds on the ground that grew to huge sizes.

She wondered if the ground had a special soil that caused the weeds to grow so huge next to each other. Of course, she could infer that the most outgrown weeds were not edible. It was for no other reason than the fact that the ones next to her were edible, but the rest was not picked.

That was not the only explanation of why she knew the other weeds were not edible. She was unable to have a clear visible view of the weeds in her unconscious period, but she could hear well. In fact, it was much better than when she was talking with her grandma.

Thinking of her grandma made her sad, so she vanquished her current emotions. Since she woke up, she felt uncomfortable from the soreness of her body and her clothes sticking to her skin. Not only that, she did not even need to smell herself to know that she stunk.

Sighing, she stiffly walked around and tried to find more of the same plant she had eaten the previous night. She was hungry despite having stuffed herself full yesterday. Then again, it could be caused by the fact that she had no rice.

Even if she was not pampered, she has been eating side dishes with rice for years. How could her diet suddenly change? She was even afraid that her stomach might overreact because of the pure vegetable food she had been eating.

Distracted from searching for food, she did not know that there was something stalking her. In the shadows, camouflaged by the birch trees the animal slowly and quietly trailed up to her. At the final moment when it was about to strike, she finally felt the danger alert.

Despite not knowing which direction the lurker came from, she automatically dodged to the left. In a split second, she was able to see a white tiger with black stripes attack her from the right. Though the tiger missed her, it had managed to swipe its claws at the back of her right shoulder.

Breathing heavily, she stared at the tiger and walked back slowly but at a fast pace. The white tiger continued to follow albeit a bit warily. At this moment, she felt that though she could feel and experience everything, she was not the one moving her body.

As though another person was behind her controlling her body, she moved stealthily like an assassin. Having backed up for a while now, she was now trapped with a tree behind her and the tiger in front of her. Seeing her situation, the tiger seemed to understand that she was trapped and he could now pounce on her.

Her breath hiccuping from fear, her hands tightened and her face turned to the side with closed eyes. She did not want to see the next scene. Anxious, she waited for her incoming death that she knew would not come fast.

The tiger pounced, excited that he would get a prey today. As he leaped, his body extended and his claws reached out for the little girl that was shaking in fear. Just when he thought that his prey was caught, he crashed into the tree with a harsh pang.

The tiger's previous glory form, now crouching in pain from the impact and growling out loud.