Just another Day
By Tygon Panthera
This story is © 2003 by Marc-Dennis Horn. This story may not be sold or used for commercial profit in any form or fashion. This story may not be modified in any way. This story may not be posted on a mirror site or any other Internet site without the written permission of the author. This story may not be distributed on print, magnetic, electrical, optical or any other mediums.
All characters are © by Marc-Dennis Horn
Note from the Author: My thanks go to Pflarrian, who did an amazing editing job with this story. Thanks, man! I couldn’t have done this without you.
Fagor ducked behind a burning carriage, wincing as the movement ripped the wound in his right thigh open a bit wider. The tiger’s entire body was covered with bruises and small cuts, making every movement painful. The grip around his large battleaxe loosened and the weapon sank to the ground. He breathed hard with exhaustion. It seemed like it had been hours now. Fagor sighed as he sunk to his knees. “The day had begun so nice,” he thought to himself.
Ever since his tribe had left the icy planes of his homeland to settle down in these friendlier lands, the natives had treated then with suspicion and sometimes even open hatred. They respected strength though, and the tigers had some powerful warriors among them. Fagor himself had only been a cub back then, when his father had led the tribe here to this place to settle down. It was also he who stood in the first line of defenders when the surrounding villages sent warriors to chase them away or kill them. The bears and wolves soon learned that the large felines were not easily dealt with.
But that was many years ago. Fagor’s father had died during one of the attacks, leaving the leadership of the tribe to his uncle. The last 12 years had been more or less peaceful ones. Only rarely did somefur dare to attack the tigers’ village. Fagor himself had grown up to become a strong tiger, powerful but still fast and quite skilled with the longsword.
Oh yes, life could have been wonderful... but the gods seemed to think otherwise.
Fagor had been on his way to meet Tofa, a beautiful tigress he had known since he could think. She was tall, almost as tall as he himself was, and while she was not as strong as he was, she was much more limber, which allowed her to outmaneuver him regularly during one of their frequent training fights. It was unusual for a female to become a warrior, but among Fagor’s tribe it was not unheard of. The tiger liked her a lot and it was no secret that his mother hoped he would marry her some day. Fagor usually wasn’t too fond of that thought but in the last months he had discovered a few things about Tofa that made the idea of having her as a wife not so terrible at all. And the tigress seemed to think in a similar way. However, today he wouldn’t see her. At least not as he had planned.
He was halfway through the village when he had heard the shouts.
“They are attacking!”
That had been enough. He spun around and hurried back to his family’s hut where he got his shield and longsword. Then he dashed back out and ran towards the beach, arriving just in time to see hordes of armed wolves emerging from a boat. Now his initial surprise over the attack was gone too, since Fagor didn’t recognize the symbols the wolves had on their shields and armor. There had been an unsteady but lasting peace with the neighboring villages for more than 3 years. An attack from them was very unlikely but these wolves were strangers, probably just traveling through these waters. They most likely spotted the tigers’ village and thought it would be an easy target for a raid.
Fagor growled, his lips pulling back to reveal his fangs. They were in for a nasty surprise. With a roar he threw himself into the battle.
Within the next 30 minutes the battle had moved from the beach into the village. The tigers were obviously stronger but the wolves more numerous and so they had simply pushed the defenders back into the village by sheer weight of numbers. Fagor winced again as he looked around. A few huts were burning. It wasn’t too bad at the moment, if they managed to put the fires out soon, but with the wolves still running around here there wasn’t much chance of doing that.
The cubs and females had hidden in the longhouse, which was defended by Fagor’s uncle and about half of the villages’ warriors. The other half, including Fagor himself, were trying to kill or drive away the wolves who didn’t attack the longhouse to keep them from pillaging and destroying the village.
Not for the first time the tiger wondered why. Why did they keep attacking them? Why couldn’t they leave his tribe in peace? They didn’t do harm to anyfur. They had settled down in a place nobody else wanted and they never attacked their neighbors. They had even aided them when they had been under attack. Was it just because the tigers came from another country? Heck, Fagor himself was too young to remember much about his homelands, except that they had been terribly cold. They could live in peace but no, the natives kept attacking them. Why? Because they were viewed as intruders? Because the natives were afraid that they would eat away their fishes and crops? Or just because they were different? Because they had orange fur with black stripes and not gray or brown fur?
It made Fagor want to cry. Why did the furs have to be like this?
At least for now the young tiger wouldn’t get an answer. The carriage he was hiding behind suddenly moved a bit, warning him of the imminent attack. Fagor grabbed the battleaxe he had gotten from one of the wolves he’d struck down and swung it as he jumped up. It hit the wolf who was standing on the carriage in the side, not only cutting though his flesh but also throwing him off the wreck against the wall of one of the huts. Fagor in the meantime didn’t bother trying to stop his movement. In fact, he put more force behind the swing and after one full turn he released the axe, hurling it at a wolf he had seen from the corner of his eye. The heavy weapon hit the lupine at the chest, throwing him a few meters backwards where he remained lifelessly.
Fagor spun around and dashed between two huts, looking around. His eyes wandered over destroyed homes and gardens as he was looking for two things. One of them was more of the wolves who wanted them all dead but the other, and to him much more important thing, was Tofa. He had only seen her shortly as the attack begun and then not anymore. Fagor knew that he should be fighting the wolves but he couldn’t help himself. Inside he knew that she was alright but he had to see it with his very own eyes.
Just as he left the rather small gap between the two buildings and ran out to a free place he felt a sharp, stinging pain in his left thigh. Then his left leg suddenly declined to move and the tiger stumbled, rolling a few meters over the ground before he came to a halt. As he pushed himself up into a sitting position Fagor could see the handle of a dagger sticking out of his thigh. The blade was almost completely buried in his flesh. The feline gritted his teeth, waves of pain shooting though his body and he pulled the leg closer and reached for the weapon to pull it out as he noticed laughter. His ears flickered and swiveled until he had determined where the sound was coming from. Then he lifted his head and saw two wolves standing only about 5 meters away from him. One was wielding a large mace and the other had a short sword and an axe in his paws. Instinctively he reached for his sword but his fingers couldn’t find it. A moment later he spotted it lying not far from the wolves, well out of his reach. Fagor tried to stand up and face them on one level but again his leg would not follow his orders and responded only with another lance of pain that shot through his body.
The tiger growled at the wolves but the lupines seemed to be only amused by his efforts to scare them away. They were just raising their weapons to attack the almost helpless feline as the door of the hut Fagor was lying in front of suddenly burst open and a wolf came flying out, followed by something orange and black that moved incredibly fast. The two other wolves that were about to attack Fagor stared unbelieving at the mangled body of their companion and didn’t even notice the tigress who was dashing for them. With a quick swing of her sword she decapitated the first of them and then slashed out after the other. However the second wolf had caught himself by now and managed to dodge the blow. Not missing a single second he raised his mace and let it shoot down on the tigress. The feline however was far too quick for the powerful but clumsy weapon and jumped away. The mace hit the ground, throwing up earth and grass. Making use of the opportunity she attacked the wolf again, this time hitting her target. With the lupine momentary disoriented from the powerful but failed attack with his mace, he wasn’t able to dodge or counter the tigress’s attack in any form and the blade of her sword sunk deep into his chest. He looked at her, his dying eyes full of surprise and confusion about a female beating him in fight before he fell to the ground.
Tofa pulled her sword out of the wolf and turned around to check if Fagor was alright just in time to see silver flash past her. As she spun back to see what it was she saw the dagger that had previously been in Fagor’s leg. It had sunk up to the hilt in the chest of the wolf she had beaten to pulp in the hut. He gurgled and then sunk to his knees, coughing up blood before he fell over. His body twitched a few times before he stopped moving.
Fagor pushed himself up, his leg now finally moving again now that he had freed it from the cruel caresses of the dagger’s blade. His first steps were slow and limping, but with every centimeter he moved forward they got firmer and by the time he had reached Tofa he was walking with strong, sure steps as a warrior should.
“Everything alright?” the tigress asked, eying his wounds. Fagor could sense a hint of worry in her voice and he could also see it in her eyes. For a few moments he just stared at her. A mix of feelings went through his mind. He was proud that she had beaten the wolves. He was thankful that she had saved him. But mostly he was happy, incredibly happy that he had finally found her, alive and without serious wounds. Suddenly Fagor reached for Tofa and pulled her into a fierce hug, which she returned with interest. It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds but for the two of them it seemed like they were holding each other tightly for an eternity. Then they released each other, neither of them saying a word. It wasn’t necessary for they knew exactly what the other was thinking.
A loud cry pulled Fagor and Tofa back into harsh, brutal reality. She looked at him and he nodded. A moment later she was dashing off and disappeared between the huts, rejoining the battle against the attackers.
Fagor gave a sigh of resignation as he picked up his longsword, ready to face return into the battle himself. However, a smile crept on his muzzle as he looked up into the sky. Up there, the sun was shining peacefully. He saw seagulls flying and the wind brought the salty scent of the sea with it, making the air taste fresh despite the smell of burning wood and spilled blood around Fagor.
And he smiled because right now he realized that this was just how things were. Because no matter how cruel, how unfair, how wrong life seemed, in the end it was just another day.
The end