Hour of the Tiger

The scream that the beast let out was full of agony, completely inhuman.

Ian thought it had died, and it did fall down, its last dying cries stifled by the smoke rising from its maw.

Then the entire lump of fur and flesh caught fire. The flames were spreading rapidly, catching a hold of the curtains and the couch.

Ian remembered that his insurance was dubious at best when it came to fires and he had no automated fire extinguisher system. In fact, his sister currently had the main extinguisher due to some renovation work in her student apartment.

All kinds of practical stuff had to be thought of in advance. Ian had done none of it due to his illusion of being immortal.

"WE'RE GOING OUT NOW!" he yelled and ran to grab Lilac, who had stopped screaming when she had seen the flames eat up the tiny house and smelled the disgustingly thick smoke.

When they had ran to the end of the road, Ian finally stopped to breathe and called the fire department.

[ARRIVAL OF AID: 10 MINUTES]

"Why does it have to take so LONG?!"

Ian cursed and kicked a rock, expecting to hurt his foot badly in the process.

Instead, the rock split in half, revealing just how tough the cybernetic boot was.

"No…don't be like that. You can come live with me. Or your family. You saved me."

Then, something extraordinary, something beautiful happened.

Lilac kissed his cheek lightly, with such grace that it was hardly even a kiss. It felt like being touched by an angel in a tiny bodysuit.

Ian was flabbergasted.

He had been kissed by a woman. Actually kissed, not just a good night kiss, but something that actually meant something. He was almost a man now. He felt so strong, so heroic, after all, he had saved Lilac from both a beast and a fire, both of which could well have been lethal.

He was her hero.

"Come, I don't want to be dealing with this right now. Come with me," he pleaded with her.

"Shouldn't we be available when the fire department arrives?"

"No…I hate insurance stuff…I hate my life…"

Lilac's pretty face got all stormy, she frowned and looked at him with dark clouds in her eyes.

"You dare say that?!" she snapped at him. "You have so many things any man could kill for, and you hate your life? You're just plain stupid."

"Look, show me some damn empathy, my house just got absolutely obliterated and the insurance –"

Lilac slapped him on the same cheek she had kissed him on.

The slap packed quite a nasty sting. Lilac had the strong arms of a nurse.

"You will shut up about the bloody insurance! You will give me access to your financial records, your insurance stuff, everything, I can deal with this if you can't! I will wait for them and you will go clear your stupid head, come back in a few hours and then see if you can have some gratitude."

Ian was, once again, absolutely flabbergasted. He didn't know what to say.

Apparently this was a big favor and he had to thank her.

"Thank you, Lilac. System, grant Lilac access to Finances and Insurance."

Ian had never been happier about the dull parts of his system.

[ACCESS GRANTED TO: LILAC]

[ACCESSED AREA: FINANCES, INSURANCE}

"Shoo," Lilac said, her usual gentle demeanor returning.

Ian turned and ran.

He didn't know where he was running, but somehow he managed to navigate towards the jungle. Filtigers were on the move by now. A rational person would have been afraid of them, and the cobras, too, but Ian felt like he was too far away from everything that he had once called normal.

"It takes only five of them for me to level up," he said to himself, and that was when he saw the stripes.

Much like the tigers he had seen in zoos, filtigers had nasty teeth and stripes, but their heads were more reptilian than anything, and they had hooves, too, catching the prey solely with their maws. One was stalking him right now.

Apparently, the filtiger in question had something wrong with it. Normally they were not seen until it was too late.

This one had to be a bit slow in the head department.

Ian had plenty of time to react with his mind and to imagine the filtiger dying in an inner fire.

The sound of flames shooting up came, but it came from the wrong direction. Next to the other filtiger, it had been hiding in plain sight, but apparently it had been a more suitable target.

There had been another one, even closer to Ian than the one he had aimed for, and the burning beast was now roaring in pain, convulsing on the ground as straight up pillars of fire shot up from its orifices.

Ian turned back towards the other filtiger, the one he had seen in time, but it was no longer there, the high grass still swaying from the explosive force of its departure.

[FILTIGERS SLAIN: 1/5]

[QUEST PROGRESS: 20%]

"Yes, thank you, jungle," Ian thought. It had been an easy target, willfully placing itself in harm's way.

By the time he had collected all the valuable hooves, Ian was in the mood to hunt some more, but even he knew that it was dangerous to be in the jungle at this time of the day.

Using his tracker that was way better than whatever consumer-grade stuff the newcomers were being given by the military, he headed back towards the illusion of safety provided by 13.

At the edge of the jungle, he met Kortock.

"As your mentor, I must command you to go back. Don't waste your momentum."

"I'm very sorry, but my house just burned down." Ian sighed. "Besides, you don't want the Starfire boy to get killed. This is the hour of the tiger. This isn't a walk in –"

"You will be fine. Besides, who the hell did you leave in charge of the insurance procedures?" Kortock said, frowning ominously.

Ian decided to dodge his responsibilities. He ran back into the jungle.