A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

There, Beam caught sight of a fish. The moonlight shone off its silvery scales, making it appear white as it shone.

There came a caw from beside Beam as he observed the fish, as a gleeful crow hopped and fluttered in the air, until it came just up to Beam's shoulders, before it would allow itself to fall, before leaping up again, in joyful jubilation.

Beam observed it through narrowed eyes, feeling disquieted by its presence, but not attempting to shoo it away. As it cawed and made its racket, Beam once more glanced back to the river to observe the fish.

The fish was no longer alone. Now, it was joined by a dark shadow, of the same size and shape of it. More than likely the same type of fish – only this one's scales shone darkly when the light hit them, revealing its blackness.

The two fish circled each other in a loving dance. Where one went, the other followed, never tiring of their game.

For just the briefest of moments, the two shadows of the two fish overlapped with the reflection of the full moon on the water's surface, and they swam around inside its perimeter.

"Hmm…" Beam tilted his head as he observed it. But the very next moment, the fish had moved on and the illusion was broken.

The crow cawed noisily again, this time from irritation, as it flapped towards the river and pecked at the water with its beak.

"Mm…" Beam murmured again, engaging in just a moment more of contemplation, before he turned on his heel and headed back to the campsite where his master lay in wait.

"There's something in this," Beam whispered to himself as he walked, again more driven by a feeling than solid concrete thoughts. A feeling that urged him to experiment, to explore, to not let this insight go to waste.

Dominus looked up from his spot by the fire as Beam approached, expecting to see the boy's face down trodden and disappointed. Yet it was his own expression that shifted, as it betrayed his own surprise.

Rather than defeat, he found change. Within the boy's aura, he noted just the slightest whiff of something new. Some little ember that longed for growth. From that, before Beam even opened his mouth, Dominus was able to guess what he was about to say.

"I'm ready," Beam said. "Let's go."

…

…

It was the middle of the night when Nila awoke. She lay with her family around the fire in the centre of their round house, all of them covered in furs, breathing softly and regularly in the throes of sleep.

Nila rubbed her eyes, glancing at the fire. It needed some more wood putting on. She figured that she may as well tend to it, now that she was up so suddenly and rubbing her eyes.

She gently peeled away Stephanie's arms from around her waist. Her little sister had snuck into her bed, as she often did, whilst David lay under the furs on the opposite side of the fire with her mother.

Stephanie let out a murmur as Nila freed herself from her, her tiny hands grasping for something to cling on to. But Nila gently slipped some fur within her hands, and the troubled frown on her sister's face soon faded and she once more drifted back into a peaceful sleep. Nila smiled watching her, before glancing over to the opposite wall for more wood to throw on the fire.

There, she only found a single small log, where ordinarily there should have been a pile. Each day, before bed, they made sure that pile was well stacked for when they needed to fuel up the fire during the night.

Nila frowned. Someone must have forgotten that it was their turn to get the wood. Then, after a moment's more thought, she realized that person was her. She'd been so excited as of late, with all that kept happening, that she was finding she was more liable to forget things than she normally might be.

Nila silently apologized to her family for forgetting, before pulling on some thick trousers and slipping a coat over her nightclothes.

As she stepped outside, the bitter night's cold hit her at once. She glanced up into the sky, to see a golden moon shining high above, having reached its zenith. From that, she concluded that it must have been around midnight. She stared at it a moment, appreciating its beauty, before she went round the back of their house and started filling her arms with wood from the small woodshed.

That was where they shifted the wood after leaving it inside to dry for a few days, to get rid of the worst of the moisture from the bark. There wasn't enough room inside to leave all the wood there permanently.

She quietly went back inside, stocking the fire well and high with some thick logs that should keep her family warm for a few hours. She moved to close the door after herself, but paused a moment, as she caught sight of the moon.

She bit her lip and frowned, not quite understanding the impulse. Oddly enough, despite it being the middle of the night, she didn't feel tired in the least. She eyed her bed by the fire with her little sister waiting and the tiredness still didn't feel at all near. Instead, what she felt was a restlessness, an odd impulse to wander, one that she'd never had during the night before.

She shrugged to herself, supposing that it was fine. Even if the woods were dangerous at night, the village and the plains were all relatively safe, and with the light of the moon pouring down on everything, visibility was more than good enough to keep herself safe.

With that in mind, she layered herself up in more clothing and fetched her hunting knife, wearing it at her hip, before she once more exited her home and quietly closed the door behind her.

She felt a rush of excitement as she did that, feeling as though she was going on an adventure. This was the first time she had been out so late, after all, and alone too. There was a rush of freedom with it, an indescribable exhilaration.

She walked down the path in the direction of the woods, with no destination in mind, merely enjoying the walk. She had half expected that to be enough to calm her sudden wanderlust, but once she reached the treeline, she still did not feel like going back.