To Take a Stand

(a.k.a. Shasari’s Dream #3)

Begin Date: 23-Sept-03 (onboard USS IWO JIMA on her maiden deployment)

Finish Date: 03-Oct-03 (onboard USS IWO JIMA)

Author’s Comments Original Description

Chapters:

Chapter One - Getting There Chapter Two - Help From a Friend

Chapter Three - Meeting Dono Chapter Four - Dono’s Friend

Chapter Five - Of Loss and Conviction Chapter Six - Just Getting Away for a While

Chapter Seven - The Emperor’s Forest

Author’s Comments:

This is yet another dream that my friend Shasari shared with me. It’s only a single scene, much like the other stories, but has that same depth of feeling and meaning that goes much beyond what I think that single scene could portray. Hence, this story turned into a few more pages that he might’ve expected.

I’ve admittedly taken a lot of liberties with this story. It goes into far greater detail than the original description had. In most cases, the scenes and chapters that led up to the last are based on real info about real people that I know. Dr Yevgeni and Dono Wykov are real people, that had their own passions about tigers and trying to save them. I still email from time to time with Dono, as he is back in Russia now. I have never been there, but maybe someday I’ll go, as Dono has invited me out for a visit. I guess it would only be fair, as he spent a lot of time under my roof while he was in the US getting his degree.

I think that very few people might know what its like to feel so deeply passionate for something that they’d put their own life on the line for it. I know that feeling well. So does Dono and Dr Yevgeni, which is why I’ve called them by name here. I supposed that those feeling, overall, are just a very small part of the cause that we’ve all taken up for the plight of endangered species.

What’s it like, you might ask, to be able to stand next to a real, live tiger, and have them chuff at you? I can’t begin to describe it. It’s no different to reach down and pat the shoulder of a cougar, and to have them look at you, and head rub your face, and be purring at you the whole time. It’s all the same: the total feelings of contentment and peace, the total inability to be able to describe it to someone that’s never experienced it.

That’s what Shasari, in my best guess, is feeling in this dream. It starts with a deep admiration for a particular animal. Then, you build on that, by putting yourself wherever they are. And then you bump it up to the next level, by taking on the commitment to work towards their salvation, even though there might not be any hope of it in the long run. People will always be stupid. They’ll always throw away the precious resources and treasures of this planet, and then, when they’re gone, wonder what happened.

Is there still time to save the tigers? Is there still time to save whatever endangered creature that’s near and dear to your heart? Well...that’s entirely up to you. How much of your own soul will you put on the line to save it? How much of your own life? What price are you willing to pay?

Do those seem like difficult questions? They’re not really. But of course, maybe you’ve never heard a tiger chuff either. Maybe this story will help you in your plight.

Original Description:

I was in a forest clearing, setting up a small campsite for myself. I was hiking solo in the forests of Siberia. I'd set up my tent and campsite, but the whole while I sensed something watching me, I didn't dismiss the feeling but kept on with my work.

Got the camp set up and I was inside writing in my journal by the light of a kerosene lamp, when I heard a noise outside. I rushed outside with my lantern and saw that a tiger was approaching fast, with a couple poachers nipping at his heels. I didn't hesitate and put myself between the tiger and the poachers and stood my ground, warding them back ... in the dream one of them shot me and then the two bailed out.

So I'm lying there in the snow right, and the tiger pads over to me, and then next thing I know I'm standing next to him, he says 'come with me, brother, it's time I took you home' and we walked off and out of the camp, I turned to see the tigers body laying right next to mine, covering me with his warmth, then looked at myself, and the tiger I was walking next to, a very huge tiger, and we walked off and out of the light of the campsite into the forest, which had strangely turned from the dead of winter into a beautiful spring in an idyllic setting.

To Take a Stand

Chapter One - Getting There

My friends all thought I was crazy. I guess they might’ve even had some good reason for it.

“What do you know about Siberia? It’s like thirty below on a good day!”

I didn’t even comment to that. There was no point.

“Just because you’ve lived in the snow up here all your life doesn’t magically prepare you for that!”

That too was true. I didn’t argue it.

The winters of New England were certainly something to behold. But how could you compare that to anything like Russia? Especially Siberia. At least it wasn’t the Ukraine.

“Yer friggin’ nuts, man! You know that?”

I’d been called worse. I finally responded.

“Haven’t you ever cared about anything? Something you were willing to take a risk for?”

He just stood there looking at me for a second.

“Yeah. Sure. But you’re not taking a ‘risk’. You’re gambling with your life. And besides the fact that you’re gonna freeze your gonads off out there, what the heck do you think you’ll be able to do about anything? They’re poachers! They have guns! What can you possibly do against them? Wave a peace symbol at them and make them vanish?!”

For a second, I was just pissed off. It settled to simple frustration quickly. I’d known him for the better part of my life. He’d always been stubborn - not that I wasn’t - but he also had never understood my passion for big cats, tigers specifically, let alone anything else that mattered to me.

“Listen!” I finally said, “I’m going! This is important to me, and I don’t really care if you understand that or not. I’m going! So just deal with it!”

For just a moment, he opened his mouth to say something, and then didn’t. He’d used those words on me more times than I could count. Now he was getting them thrown back in his face.

I just kept packing the last of the things into my back pack, and then started pulling the covers over and tying the small ropes off.

“You at least have contacts and all that for over there? You’re not just going to be on your own and roaming the countryside?”

I nodded.

I’d been emailing back and forth with a guy - his name was Dono Wykov - that was supposedly a research assistant to one of the local biologists. He said he was only a college student, but he was very knowledgeable about tiger behaviors and territories. He seemed very smart, even though I had a hard time sometimes understanding his English. Of course, I was just glad that he emailed me in English, as I couldn’t speak a word of Russian.

So I’d be flying into Vladivostok, and then taking a bus ride all the way up to Ternay. It was a twenty seven hour flight, with a transfer in Atlanta, then another in Frankfurt Germany, and another twelve more hours on the bus. Dono had handled virtually all of the arrangements for the trip, and I was actually looking forward to meeting him in person.

He and I had been emailing for months and months. I’m not even sure how I met him. But he had many of the same passions that I did for saving the tigers. Probably more so, being that the Siberian Tigers were a Russian treasure. So for him, it was very personal. He’d said exactly that many times.

“I sent it all to you by email a month ago, remember?”

He obviously didn’t remember. I didn’t really care about that either. I wasn’t sure that he could figure out how to dial an international phone number anyway.

“Are you gonna take me to the airport,” I said, sternly, “or do I need to call a cab?”

He looked like he was about to say something, but then didn’t.

“Yeah. I’ll give you a ride.”

“Thanks.”

I picked up my pack and headed for the door. I’d already turned everything off in the house.

“How long are you gonna be gone?”

I shrugged.

“My will is in the top drawer of the desk,” I said. “Right there in the center.”

He nodded, even though he obviously didn’t want to think about that. He was my executor. I damn near had to break his arm to accept that and sign the will in the first place.

“How long will you be gone?” he asked again.

I shrugged again.

“I’ve got supplies for three months already paid for. So at least that long.”

“Three months?!”

I just gave him a sideways glance. He didn’t like that at all, but nor was I about to stand there and listen to any more argument from him either.

“Let’s go,” I prompted.

I locked up the deadbolt to the front door of my house and then handed him the keys. He took them reluctantly.

I dropped my suitcase and pack into the back of my truck, and we got in, him in the driver’s seat. We proceeded on in silence. It was going to be a long drive. I just had the feeling.

• • • • •

I was sitting at the gate, waiting for the last leg of the flight. I was tired, but I couldn’t seem to fall asleep either. I hated waiting, but it’d be another two hours before the flight would be on the way. On the flip side, I was still just so excited about almost being there. This was a dream of a lifetime, and I was finally living it.

I sat back. The only thing I could do was wait.

Chapter Two - Help From a Friend

“Sir?”

I looked up at the young kid standing before me. He didn’t look even fifteen.

“I friend of Dono. I give you help get through entry visa and custom.”

“Oh. Okay. Thanks.”

The kid was just then taking my suitcase from me.

“You need passport,” he said.

I reached into my pocket and pulled that oh-so-important document back out for the hundredth time for the trip.

We stepped up to an armed set of guards not far from the baggage claim area.

The kid reached out for my passport and I hesitated before giving it to him. He just walked right up to the guards and started into a conversation with them. There was some finger pointing at me and then the kid waved me forward. The guards just looked at me for a second and then the guard that held my passport handed it back to me.

“You go need visa.”

I nodded to the man, even though I wasn’t sure what he meant.

The kid took me by the shoulder and led me forward. There were a few booths ahead but I didn’t have a prayer at reading the Russian script above them.

“This where get visa. Give again?”

I handed my passport to him again.

He pulled me up behind him in the line and the guard in the booth waved him forward.

I stayed right there at the head of the line as the guy and the guard dialoged. He handed the guard my passport, followed by money. I wasn’t expecting the guy to be paying the fees for me.

The guard waved me forward and I stepped up to the booth.

“Why come here, sir?” the guard asked me.

“Research, sir. The tiger project.”

The guard nodded.

“How long you stay?”

I wasn’t sure what to tell him. The plan had been for three months, but maybe it would be longer.

“Three months. Maybe longer.”

The guard looked to the guy and asked him a few questions. They did some dialog.

“Six month,” the guard said. “If need longer, you need come back, get new visa.”

I nodded.

The guard proceeded to stamp my passport with all the entry stuff. Then he handed it all back to me including some other papers.

The kid took my suitcase again. I grabbed my pack again and followed him onwards. I didn’t like that the kid was so quiet, but I was also very glad that he was here. This was the first time that I’d ever flown international, so I’d never been through the visa stuff or customs or anything like that before.

“Where to?” I asked.

“We need go custom now.”

The kid did all the talking for me and I only gave a shake of my head when the kid asked if I had anything to declare. Then, we were free of the hustle and bustle of the fairly large airport, and were headed outside.

The kid flagged down a cab and spoke with the driver for a moment before opening the door and motioning me inside. He put my suitcase into the trunk, followed by my backpack, and then got in on the other side.

“We go bus now.”

I gave the kid a nod, thankful for his help in everything.

“Thanks,” I told him.

The kid glanced at me, at first seemingly unsure why I’d say something like that.

He gave me a small grin.

“You worry?”

I shrugged and then nodded.

“No worry. I friend of Dono,” he said. “No worry.”

I gave him a nod.

He got me to the bus and I tried to pay him for everything but he wouldn’t take anything. I wasn’t sure if I would be offensive to just force a $20 bill on him, but I had to at least try.

“No. No,” he kept saying. “No worry.”

“I want you to have it,” I returned. “I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”

Finally, he nodded, and I held out the bill for him. Even so, it took him a while before he grasp it.

“I have more,” I said.

He shook his head.

“No. No. You keep. You need.”

I guess that was true. I still didn’t know what I’d face over the next however many months.

I reached out my hand to him.

“Thank you,” I said, earnestly. “For everything.”

The kid gave me a very warm smile as he grasp my had.

“You no worry,” he said. “You meet Dono soon. He want meet.”

I nodded. I was looking forward to meeting him too.

“You go now,” he said, motioning to the bus door.

The kid had already made sure all my stuff was stowed on the bus.

“Thanks,” I said again.

“I find you when time for you go,” he said.

“I’d like that,” I told him.

He gave me another smile, and then waited for me to get on the bus. He walked backwards as I moved back to my seat. I was next to the window.

He smiled at me again and then waved. For just a second, I had to wonder where I was. He looked like any kid, in any city, anywhere I’d ever been. It was hard to believe I was on the other side of the world now.

I gave the kid a wave. He smiled again, waved a second time, and then vanished into the crowd.

I just sat there, thinking about the long journey so far, and wanting the last leg to go quickly as well.

It was only a few more minuted before the bus got moving.

Chapter Three - Meeting Dono

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but Dono Wykov wasn’t it. He looked to be barely older than the kid I’d met in Vladivostok.

He was a tall, slender, sort of guy, dirty brown (almost blond) hair, that was just taller than I was.

“You have fine trip, yes?”

I nodded and smiled as his hand came out and grasp mine, almost taking it before I reached out with it. His Russian accent was very thick and his grip was quite a bit more than what I was expecting.

“I was guess you want get start very quick, yes?”

I gave him another nod. I was tired from all the long hours of travel, but now that I was finally here, there’s was nothing I’d rather do.

“Very tired you look,” he said, picking up my suitcase and then my backpack.

I thought about that and then nodded. Yeah. I guess I was.

“Come,” he said, started forward. “Maybe you sleep for while first.”

I was about to protest, but then common sense prevailed. He was right. I’d be better of to get some sleep first.

“Dono, thanks for setting everything up. I really appreciate it.”

He glanced back at me.

“Was happy help you,” he said. “I have been think you more crazy than me, come here from you home.”

“This is important to me,” I protested.

He gave me a warm and knowing smile.

“Is know,” he said. “I feel same way. Is why I help you.”

In all the emails for the past however many months, I’d learn that about Dono. He was very passionate about what he did. The tigers meant a lot to him. I guess that’s probably the biggest reason I’d talked with him so often.

He led me outside the small bus terminal, and walked us to a small car. I had no idea what the make was. Something that I’d never seen before. He put my suitcase and backpack into the back seat, and then waited for me to get into the front before he shut the door. He got into the driver seat, and started us out of the small town and into the countryside.

He’d said he lived in a small village. I’d just never realized how small until he parked at his house. The village was just a small gathering of houses, a small store with a single fuel pump, amidst acres and acres of farmlands. Or what would probably be farmland, were it not currently covered in snow.

I tried to pick up my backpack, but Dono literally took it from me.

“I get,” was all he said.

He led me up the short walkway into the small, cinder-block house. He put down my suitcase, opened the door, and seized the suitcase again before I could get a hand on it.

He led me inside.

“This is Mother,” he said.

I barely got turned towards the quite large woman before she reached out and seized me into a warm and friendly hug. She almost lifted me off the ground before releasing me, and then almost burst into speech. Of course, it was all in Russian, so I didn’t understand a word of it. That didn’t daunt her spirits at all.

“She not speak English,” Dono said.

I gave him a grin. I’d figured that one out on my own. Or was he meaning that she couldn’t speak English? Yeah. That was probably it.

She put her huge arm across my shoulder, continuing on in the endless, ninety-mile-per-hour babble. She pushed me before her and we marched into a hallway, and then into a bedroom. I don’t think she’d stopped or hardly taken a breath the whole time.

Don had set my things down and had tried to speak a few times, but couldn’t get a word in edgewise. Finally, he just let off with a quick stream of Russian of his own. I didn’t know what he said, but his mom was suddenly quiet. She didn’t look upset or anything, just quiet.

“You hungry?” Dono asked.

I thought about it, but even though I couldn’t remember the last time I ate, I think the lack of sleep was weighing more heavily on me.

“Is okay say no,” he said with a genuine smile. “Is think you need sleep, yes?”

I gave him a nod.

His mother reached out again and took me into her smothering embrace once again. Then, she literally unzipped my heavy coat and started to help me take it off. I didn’t offer much resistance.

Then, she took the jacket from me and shoved me back and onto the bed. I didn’t have much choice but to sit down.

Dono’s mother literally took him by the shoulder and pulled him towards the door to the small but comfortably warm room.

“You sleep. Plenty time later for explore.”

He gave me a warm smile.

“Is have friend you want meet. You like.”

I could only take his word for it. Maybe it was the biologist that I’d be working with.

He pulled on the door.

“See you morrow,” he said, then vanished as the door close completely.

I couldn’t help but yawn. I couldn’t even remember what a bed felt like. And this one was oh so soft!

I took my clothes off, not bothering to do much more than drape them over my suitcase. Then, I pulled back the thick blanket and two sheets and climbed into the tall, soft, and spacious bed.

I laid my head on the pillow and closed my eyes. I don’t remember anything after that.

Chapter Four - Dono’s Friend

If I had ever doubted Dono’s age or strength or fitness when I first met him, I certainly didn’t now!

I didn’t even know how long I slept, but it was a while. He was waiting for me when I finally got up. I took a quick shower and then got dressed into my more rugged and durable clothes, and then he handed me what looked like a day pack.

“Is food,” was all he said.

He was wearing an identical pack and dressed rather casually comparing to my dressed-for-a- blizzard attire. Of course, I had to think that he was probably used to Russian winters. I certainly wasn’t.

After making sure I was good to go, he set us off on a trek right out his back door, through the small village, and right out into the thin forest of trees. As we got further away, the trees got larger, and the forest more dense. We traveled for the better part of two hours, I think. Dono set an impressive pace. It was all I could do to just keep up.

It took me a long time to really notice what he was doing; he was tracking something. He noticed all the subtle things that I entirely missed. There were scratches on the trees. There were subtle odors that he could smell from a ways off that I couldn’t at all. He’d finally clued in to my curiosity and started pointing stuff out to me. Still, I couldn’t smell anything unless I put my nose right into the trees or bushes: scent marks. Rank, but definitely tiger. I knew that much from my own experience with captive animals.

“We’re looking for a tiger?”

It was strange to hear my voice in the foot-deep snow and semi-open again forest. Neither of us had spoken for a long, long time.

He gave me a glance and then pointed to a log of a fallen tree that I honestly hadn’t seen until he pointed to it. I guess that meant it was break time. I could use one.

I’d certainly done my share of backpacking and hiking and keeping in shape, but I was definitely tired. Dono wasn’t even breathing hard.

“Sha-rah,” he said as we sat down. “He is my friend.”

Dono had me take off my pack - identical to the one he was wearing; it looked like an old Army pack or something - and he opened it and pulled out a pair of sandwiches. He handed me one as he reached back in and took out the bottle of water. He held it out to me too. I drank about a quarter of the bottle before handing it back to him. He drank very little before putting it back into the pack. He started into the sandwich.

Over the past two hours, I realized that Dono didn’t talk much. I really didn’t mind it. I really was learning a lot from him just by watching. He wasn’t unlike a feral beast himself. He saw everything: bird’s flying or nesting, small animal burrows and dens, squirrels in the trees. He missed nothing! I was amazed. I don’t know how to describe it short of to say, he was very tuned into his environment. Maybe it was even more than that. Maybe it was just that he was a part of it. I took a second to realize I truly envied him that.

“You stare at me,” he said, with me just then realizing he was right.

“I’m sorry,” I said, turning away to stare at my sandwich.

He reached out a hand to touch my knee. He had a small grin on his boyish face.

“You have fun, yes?”

I nodded.

“You’re really amazing,” I said. “I envy how tuned in you are to everything.”

He shrugged, pulling his hand back and taking a bite out of his sandwich.

“You learn,” he said a moment later. “Is matter of just listen what forest speak. Is speak loud, if know what listen for.”

I thought about that. I’d never thought of things that way. I wondered how much of life was exactly the same as that.

We ate our sandwiches in silence, and then had another round of water. We finished off that bottle. We had three others, and six more sandwiches. As I dug through the pack, there was a bunch of energy bars in the bottom, as well as a first aid kit and an emergency blanket. One of those foil ones.

Dono pointed to the pack that he was still wearing.

“Flare and fire,” he said.

I nodded. At least it was good to know he came prepared.

“Come,” Dono said, standing up again. “He not far now.”

I was going to ask something stupid like if we were in his territory already, but I think that much was obvious already. Dono hadn’t pointed out a scent-mark for quite a while, so we were probably neck deep in the tiger’s domain already.

I just followed as Dono set out on an equally quick pace once again.

• • • • •

It was a subtle change. It wasn’t so much physical and something that you just...felt. It wasn’t a change in the air or temperature. It wasn’t that there had been a whisper of sound. It was just that I suddenly knew we weren’t alone anymore.

Dono had stopped in front of me, just about at the top of a small rise. His hand made a motion: stop. Then: come here. I did both.

As I stepped up next to him, I think it was truly the most magnificent scene that I’d ever seen.

Trees lined the entire clearing. The sun was just slightly behind us overhead. The white of the snow was almost blinding. But there he stood in the center of it all, broadside to us. He was just as magnificent as the scene.

The huge tiger was staring at us. His ears were up. His light, faded orange fur seemed to stand out against the bright white of the snow. Yet I knew that in the sparse forest, he would all but vanish.

Dono called out something in Russian to the huge cat.

Amazingly, the tiger turned towards us and started walking. Not rushed. Just an easy pace. Like nothing was out of the ordinary in his domain. Like we were welcome guests rather than rivals within his domain.

I was so stunned that I was frozen in place.

“Do not run,” Dono said to me when the tiger was no more than a hundred feet away.

The huge tiger’s pace hadn’t changed at all. In fact, calling him huge was almost an understatement. I had seen a few Siberian males in captivity. None were as big as this wild one.

“Tovaritch Sha-rah,” he said, not much more than a whisper.

The huge tiger stopped. First, his great head raised just a little as if to orient on the airwaves a little better. Then I could see the clouds of vapor from his nose as he took in our scents over and over.

“Do not run,” Dono said again.

I was about to ask what he meant, but then it was all clear.

The tiger’s head lowered again, down to that entirely predatory height and his ears perked entirely forward. Even from the distance, I could see that the great cat’s whiskers had jutted completely forward as well.

Even at the distance, there was a very primal fear that seemed to just reach out and grasp my heart. The tiger was absolutely gorgeous. But it was clear that he was readying for a charge, and my mind was in turmoil over that fact. Was I about to die? I just didn’t know. I rather felt like it.

Even when the tiger bunched his muscles and bolted forward at a sprint, I was still just frozen in place. Dono had said not to run, but he needn’t have bothered. I couldn’t’ve moved even if I wanted to. I was totally and completely paralyzed. Admittedly, it wasn’t entirely from fear. There was a very definitive sense of genuinely awesome wonder as well.

There was an almost dream-like quality to the scene as I watched the tiger on a bee-line for us. I was completely mesmerized: the perfect flowing of the tiger’s muscles, the bounding grace, the snow flying up behind him as he paws came up through it, and his tail streaming out behind him like a pennant waving in the wind that wasn’t there.

The huge tiger didn’t slow at all as he came up the small rise to where we were. He hit Dono head on. The only sound was the impact and then both the tiger and Dono hitting the snow some ten feet from where they’d left the ground. Then, the tiger was just all over him. Amazingly, short of them thrashing around, all was still quiet. I didn’t know if the tiger was attacking him or not.

I really have no idea how long I just stood there staring at the tiger on top of the younger man. But I do know I felt a profound sense shock and then fear as the huge tiger’s head went sideways and then downwards for the soul purpose of taking Dono’s neck into his massive jaws. Then, as Dono stopped moving completely, instantly, there was just hopelessness. Still, I just stared.

“Come,” came the voice.

I snapped out of my daze.

“Dono?”

“Come,” he said again.

I truly thought he was dead. Now, even with his neck still in the jaws of the huge tiger, he was looking to me and smiling.

“Is game we play,” he said, as if it were the more normal thing in the universe for a man to be laying on his back in the snow with a tiger standing over him, with his neck in that same tiger’s mouth.

“Dangerous game,” I mumbled to myself.

I couldn’t remember how many times one of the compound directors I’d worked for for several years had said that very thing. As he always said, “There are things that you do with big cats, and there are things that you don’t.” I had to think that what Dono was doing now was very definitely a don’t.

“Come,” he said again.

Somehow, I found that my boots weren’t so firmly frozen in the snow as I thought. I started taking the few, measured, extremely slow steps towards the pair.

Dono still didn’t move, his fragile neck still in the jaws of the massive tiger.

Even watching the tiger come at us, and having thought it all before, it was more massive than I had even thought at the small distance. Now that he was right there, not more than a few feet from me, I was just realizing how big - huge! - he really was. Gigantic, was probably closer to the truth of it. Even semi-crouched, still holding the young man to the ground, he was every bit of four feet tall at the shoulder.

Dono’s smile was completely genuine as he watched me. He was not panicked. He didn’t have even a thread of fear on his face. I had to take a guess that he was just in Heaven, even thought the gigantic tiger could just twist his head ever so slightly, and the man would know nothing more. He’d just be dead, instantly.

His arms came up and reached up, first touching onto the tiger’s massively muscled shoulders, and then right on upwards to his neck and then behind his ears where and started scratching. With that, the tiger’s jaws abruptly opened, as if to spit the man’s neck right out. The tiger’s head raised just slightly, and then he chuffed, pretty much right into Dono’s face. Dono chuffed right back in an amazingly good imitation. The tiger chuffed at him again. Then, it leaned back down enough to lick him, that huge sandpaper, washcloth-sized tongue just wiping across his entire face. Dono laughed, saying something to the tiger in Russian.

“Come,” Dono said again, after I don’t know how long.

I had stopped moving again, maybe five feet away from them.

“You meet, Sha-rah. He tovaritch. Comrade. He friend. You like.”

One of the tiger’s ears was still forward, listening to him speak even while the hand scratched gently behind it. The other ear had rotated all the way around to orient on me like a radar dish.

Dono said something else to the tiger, still in Russian. The tiger turned, not so much quickly as unexpectedly, and aimed right for me. Once again, I couldn’t have done anything, even if I’d wanted
to. I just had to watched as the tiger turned directly towards me, took the short step to intercept, reared up enough to put both those huge, front, dinner-plate-sized paws onto my shoulders, and then gave me enough of a shove that I was going right over backwards.

The tiger rode me down, right to impact, his weight driving me into the snow more than a little. Then, his head twisted sideways, and those jaws opened wide, and I could see those huge spikes of fangs that were each the size of my thumb! Not an instant later, those massive jaws had closed onto my fragile neck. I could feel all four of those huge canines touching the back of my neck. I had never known fear before this. As cliche’ish as it might sound, my blood did, in every sense of the phrase, turn to ice at that moment. I knew that with just the slightest tightening of the tiger’s jaws, I would simply be dead. I had to wonder if I’d even feel anything. Somehow, I didn’t think so.

It felt like an eternity before I noticed the voice. It was Russian, whispering quietly to the huge beast. Dono had come over and knelt next to me, or the tiger rather. He was talking to it. Even from where I was still pinned with my neck in the tiger’s jaws, I watched as he had one hand scratching the cat’s shoulder while the other was behind an ear, scratching.

“Is game he play,” Dono said, now looking at me and smiling.

I couldn’t even speak. I think I was still frightened to the point of being paralyzed. At least my eyes could move.

Dono let out his amazing chuffing sound, and the tiger let loose of me and raised his head, apparently just so he could chuff back. Dono chuffed again, which the tiger returned.

The tiger turned towards him and lowered his head down enough to head-butt Dono in the center of the chest. Dono went right over backwards. The tiger just stepped forward right over him and literally laid down on him. Dono let out an grunt from being shoved down into the snow.

I took the moment to realize that I wasn’t frozen any more, but that the snow was very cold after having my neck in the hot mouth of the tiger. I managed to sit up. I still star