Predator and Prey

4 minutes

Sunlight gleamed into the damp, cool cave. A gentle grunt. Some rolling and stretching. A new day had begun. A new game awaited.

Excitement, prodigious skill and hunger all rolled into one – a formidable combination.

It was ready to start. To hunt. The tiger was after all, an expert.

The cave was a cut out formed in a mountain of rocks, with a rocky pool that lay beneath it. The tiger lithely jumped out of the cave’s entrance and with barely a splash, entered the pool. Water in the pool was crystal clear – typical of any rainforest. The beast cleaned itself, getting rid of all the pests and ticks from the previous day and drank up some water. It felt clean and fresh. Its senses were sharp and heightened. It was ready to hunt.

It climbed out of the pool, shaking the water out of its fur. Its coat was beautiful, black stripes on golden-orange skin. The eyes were hazel. The perfect picture of majesty.

The tiger did not notice the rustling of leaves above it.

It walked forward for a while, past large mahogany trees, ebonies and a few ancient banyan trees that seemed unaffected by time. Its stomach was growling and food was getting increasingly hard to find. The tiger knew something was off. It should have caught prey by now. It resisted the temptation to roar, for that might scare away potential food. But no creature came in sight for a long, long time.

Until it reached a clearing.

Perfect silence hung in the air, like a balloon waiting to burst. Someone just had to touch it with a pin.

The tiger stepped on a twig.

And that’s when it noticed the white spots on the brown skin, behind some trees a few meters away. The twig cracked, and the deer heard it. Hunger was gnawing at the tiger, and it was not in its best form. The deer looked up from behind the trees. Its eyes met the tiger’s. It saw unconquerable strength, skill and deadliness. It was staring at the face of death itself.

It ran for its life.

The tiger was quick to react, following suit. The deer had speed, nothing else. Mere momentum was not enough to escape death. The leaves rustled from above again, but the tiger was too focused to care. The two of them ran, tiger behind deer. The distance between them was closing. The beast felt a rush of adrenaline – the familiar feeling of victory was coming. The deer’s death was certain.

They ran, until the deer’s legs buckled down.

The tiger swiftly pounced on it. It gave up. Odd. It held the deer’s head on its thighs and twisted the head using the antlers. The deer shuddered. Its eyes, now facing away from the tiger – which had been filled with fear moments ago, now simply had a cold, blank stare. Lifeless. The tiger was ready to feed. Where was the rest of the herd? Why had this deer been alone? The predator was curious, but the immediate urge to feed overcame its thoughts and it began to tear apart the meat.  

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The game was over.

Or was it?

The leaves rustled above once more. The tiger’s ears swiveled. It heard something jump down from the trees. It looked up from its meal, onto the trees behind it, mouth and paws covered in blood.

And it registered the familiar horrible sensation of seeing a threat. A threat to which it had no defense against.

Two legs, two hands, a gun in one.

Man.

The deer had been a mere ploy to draw out the tiger.

It had seen how so many other animals in the forest had been shot with the gun. No time to think, defend or run. A direct path to a painful death.

Who was the prey now?

The trigger was pressed. The bullet entered the flesh. Agony, unbearable agony. Its legs buckled. A net was thrown on it. It roared and growled in pain, thrashing around wildly. Its vision was becoming blurry. The eyeballs rolled in the sockets. The beautiful hazel eyes disappeared forever.

One more terrible shot.

The tiger greeted death, unwillingly.

Its body shuddered and became still, as the poachers lifted it into a box and took it away.