Chapter 1
OK, this might sound a little odd but have you ever, in your entire life, wondered what it's like to be dumped in the middle of the desert? I never did. Too bad it happened to me. Yeah, no fun right? To make matters worse I passed out! I think that was from heat exhaustion though… Anyway when I woke up I was not lying face down in the desert sand but in a grassy field. Sitting up I shifted my long trench coat out of the way I stood up slowly. Brushing myself off I looked around the clearing. To say what I saw was not what I was expecting was a massive understatement; I was standing in the middle of a huge oasis. Well, shit! Today was not my day...
Perhaps I should explain a few things to you, starting with who I am. My name is Amsel Sapphiregem and my life went from ordinary to flat out weird in only a minute. All I really remember is passing out in the desert after I was dropped there by some strange men who really didn't seem to care about me at all. Believe it or not the man who hired them was my father, and he hated me from the moment I was born. All because I wasn't the "perfect" son he wanted.
Shaking my head I looked around. Spotting an old leather bag I stepped over to it, my thigh high black combat boots heavily crushing the grass in front of me. Setting my jaw and forcing my eyes to go blank I opened the bag. Inside were about four energy bars, one bottle of water, and a dirty looking rag. Sitting back I suppressing a sigh. Yep, there you have it folks, my father the jackass left me here to die.
Sighing softly to myself I pulled out one of the energy bars and the shouldered the bag. Looking around I decided to try finding some kind of shelter. Rolling my shoulders I started off into the trees. My father had made his point more than clear. I mean, come on! What husband storms out of the room upon finding out your wife is having a girl instead of a boy? That's where things went downhill. Being unable to disown an unborn child he took to drinking. Unfortunately for me it didn't kill him. He's still amassing his fortune and keeping track of his company.
For the rest of my life, until now that is, he made it perfectly clear that I wasn't wanted. By the time I turned 18, which was yesterday by the way, he had done everything in his power (that was legal mind you, can't have his "good name" disgraced) to hurt me. I may not look it but I actually created an apathetic mask to hide my emotions. In all honesty it was the only way for me to keep from lashing out and making things worse. There was a strong probability that I could hold my own, what with my mastery of most of the different forms of martial arts, but I couldn't risk it. Anyway, after I perfected my mask I discovered that no one wanted to be around the apathetic rich girl. Go figure.
A soft rustling in the bushed dragged me back to reality. By this point I had been walking for a while and had finally found a place to camp for the night. Tightening the metaphorical grip on my mask I turned my head toward the sound. A low growl had me stopping in my tracks; that was the growl of a tiger (I spent a lot of time alone as a child, remember). Standing slowly I waited for the large cat to get closer. To the casual observer I was totally calm and collected but internally I was freaking out.
"This is bad! I don't have anything to give to a hungry 800lb cat! Maybe I should just…" I thought furiously, cutting off my thoughts before they got too dark.
Thankfully I didn't have too much time to get back to my internal rant because at that moment a large, white and black head peered out of the bushes. My eyes widened marginally and I had to force myself not to back up. The animal looked like a ghost! Suddenly it turned and looked right at me and I mentally slapped myself. This was no ghost it was a white Siberian Tiger (the brilliant blue eyes tipped me off). We looked at each other for several moments, each of us trying to find some weakness in the other. The cat sat down after a few moments. Its vibrant blue eyes never strayed from mine nor did I think the animal even blinked.
"What the hell is going on here? Last I checked unless a big animal like this was hungry there is no way that it would actually come this close to a human being. It doesn't look hungry, considering it just sat its fluffy butt down to keep staring at me," I thought, my grip on my backpack straps tightening to an almost white knuckled grip. "Besides what exactly can I do if it does decide it wants teenage girl for lunch? Not much really. I mean my martial arts skills would keep my alive if I was facing a human but a cat like this? No way in hell! What…!"
My internal rant was cut short when the large cat stood and finally started to walk away. I felt my shoulders sag slightly with relief when it did. To be honest I had expected the cat to lunge at me for such a direct challenge. Narrowing my eyes slightly I tried to back away slowly but the tiger's head snapped back to me with surprising speed and I froze again. Apparently we were on the same page; I won't attack you but I want to make sure you won't attack me.
Taking a deep breath and a huge gamble I reached into my back pack and fumbled for some of the beef jerky my dad's men left for me. Straightening up I stepped closer to the cat, the jerky clearly visible. It watched me for a few seconds before turning tail and disappearing into the bushes. Once it was gone my mask cracked slightly and I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. Stepping back my legs shook slightly, forcing me to sit down.
"That was a close one. I really thought I was going to be tiger chow…" I thought putting the jerky back into my back pack and laying back to relax, my eyes sliding closed after a few seconds.
When I opened my eyes again the first thing I noticed was how bright the stars were. They lit up the whole clearing. Then again, I think the absolutely massive full moon hanging directly above me had something to do with that.
"Wait… stars? Wasn't it day light when I first met the tiger?" I thought feeling very confused.
After a few seconds I gave up thinking about it. My head felt like a brick of lead and all I really wanted was a good night's sleep. Pulling my trench coat tighter around me I curled up. Sleep claimed me moments later and, believe me when I tell you, nothing in the world could have woken me up in that moment. I was dead to the world.
