The White Tiger Yields
The Caliph family's great library truly lacked for nothing. There was a kind of madness in the collection, a fierce resolve never to be called fools by the bird-brains, and thanks to that Bariya found the very book she wanted.
"A Pronunciation Storybook for Children?"
"I ain't talked proper in years, so my pr'nunciation—pro! nun! ciation!—keeps gettin' worse. I'm gonna start fixin' it with this."
No matter how important learning might be, correcting her pronunciation came first. She wasn't some three-year-old. She was ten, and speaking like this stung her pride.
"Please don't misunderstand. I talk real clear, normally. It's jus' been so long since I had a proper conversation with anybody that I'm like this. For real."
Ordinary beastkin could not hold an animal form for more than half a day at the very longest, but she had no such limit. She had lived as an animal for three whole years, aside from the rare exception, and no matter how she tried, her pronunciation refused to come back. Unwilling to reveal that unusual constitution, she explained it as obliquely as she could.
I really am good at talking. This is so unfair!
If she worked hard at the correction, she would surely get her original pronunciation back.
"Ah. Pronunciation."
Baden, as if only now understanding, gave a light nod.
"I never particularly thought it was strange. These things happen."
Bariya's eyes went wide, and Baden carefully stroked her head.
"Unless you're doing something wrong, nothing you do is strange. You don't have to watch yourself."
He told her he would fetch the book and that she should wait a moment, then left.
Left alone, Bariya smoothed her hair with an awkward look. So whatever she did was simply natural, was it? In the hyena family she had not been allowed to do anything, yet here nothing she did was strange, and Baden, the family head himself, was even bringing her the book with his own hands.
He was the largest beastkin she had ever seen, and far from being rough with her, he fretted constantly that she might get hurt. Her own father, Darius, had always treated her cruelly.
"A rotten bastard, worse than any tiger."
Anger at her father surged up, and Bariya grumbled for no good reason at all, even as she kept smoothing the hair where Baden's warmth still lingered.
"Mmmbuh-buh-buh-buh."
"......"
"Brrrrrr."
"......"
On the sofa set in the center of the great library, Baden had started reading alongside Bariya, but he could not concentrate at all.
"Trrrrrr."
It was Bariya, seated across from him in perfect posture, working her mouth with a solemn face. She was doing exactly what the book told her to.
"Hororororo."
Watching the child flutter her lips with that earnest expression, he kept wanting to laugh. If he burst out, though, she would glare at him. You're laughing? So Baden pretended, as best he could, not to notice, so she could practice at ease without minding him.
"Blyoorung. Agh, that's not it. Brrrrrr."
When something close to a baby's babble burst out of her, he had to bite his lip hard. It was a mercy the skin did not split and bleed.
"Your throat will dry out. Have some water as you go."
"Oh, fank you. No—thank! you."
Bariya bobbed her head and gulped the water down, then began to read the book, sounding out every word.
"Let's go catch the badd—no, the bad hyena!"
So it was a storybook with a hyena for a villain. At a passion fierce enough to set both her eyes ablaze, Baden clicked his tongue.
He could tell at a glance. The child hungered for knowledge, and she was far smarter than others her age, and yet those hyena whelps had not taught her a single thing. They had clearly meant to lock her away and raise her into a simpleton who knew nothing of the world.
Later, when he brought the hyenas down, matters would go far more smoothly if the child stood as a victim and gave witness...
It would be terribly hard on the little one.
Clever as she was, she was still a young child with too little experience of the world. He would have to prepare to topple the Mariner family on the assumption that she would not take the stand.
...But what if the little one steps forward first?
Baden stole a glance at Bariya.
"Overfrow! No—overthrow! O! Ver! Throw! Stamp! Out! Hyena! Stamp! Out!"
"......"
The way she picked out only words like those and shouted them told him everything about her character. It was fine if she did not stand as a witness, and fine if she did. He would simply leave it to whatever Bariya wanted.
"Hyena! Crush!"
Listening to Bariya's cries, each one a vow of revenge, Baden returned to his book. Hearing those vicious declarations dressed up as pronunciation practice, he found the pages somehow easier to read than usual.
"Little one, it's time for dinner. You can finish the book later. For today, let's go eat."
Deep in her pronunciation practice, Bariya closed the book at once.
"Let's go."
When she climbed down from the sofa, Baden sighed.
"Thank goodness. Honestly, I was worried you'd say you weren't eating and would only read."
"I'd never. Starvin's the worst thing in the whole world."
She had not been able to eat enough at Mariner, and wasn't that why her body was this small? Bariya did not want to go hungry anymore.
Whelps not worth so much as speaking to.
At the sight of her, Baden clenched his fist. The more he learned, the deeper his loathing for Mariner grew.
"...Right. They'll have prepared something delicious again today. Let's go."
"Yes!"
Bariya marched ahead with splendid confidence despite not knowing the way, and before long she came face to face with someone she had never expected.
"Oh."
"Grrn."
White, the white tiger Sabrina cherished. It was the first time Bariya had met the white tiger since being dragged back to this place.
"......"
Baden, following behind her, glanced at the child who had stopped. White had permission to roam the mansion freely, but he had not expected her to run into Bariya like this. If the girl showed even a little fear, he had meant to set her on his shoulders at once...
"You're that white kitty I saw th' other day, right?"
Far from frightened, Bariya tipped her chin high and pointed a finger at White. She even planted one hand on her hip. She looked like someone who had caught an uninvited guest wandering through her own house, and Baden let out a hollow laugh.
"Not a cat. She's the white tiger Sabrina treasures. Her name is White."
"Tiger, kitty—same thing."
Tigers were felines too, of course, but hearing a cat beastkin say it, he hardly knew whether to call it cute.
Then again, Bariya's courage is a match for any tiger beastkin.
Baden looked at her with quiet pleasure, never dreaming that this Bariya was no cat at all, but a wildcat, a kind infamous for its foul temper.
Bariya reached a hand toward White.
"Psst, psst. Why-too—damn it. Figures it wouldn't fix itself all at once. Kitty, c'mere."
She crooked her small hand, and White came ambling over. Unlike little Bariya, White had basked in so much of Sabrina's affection that she now boasted a frame far larger than any ordinary white tiger. Even so, there was not a trace of fear on Bariya's face.
"You're the reason I got dragged back here. I was gonna give you a real thrashin' next time we met."
"Grrn."
"Well, it all worked out in the end, so I'll letcha off just this once."
Baden was floored by Bariya's bluster. What floored him more was White's attitude.
"Nyeh."
Nyeh?
White, so high-nosed from Sabrina's favoritism that nothing in the world was worth her notice, whimpering in front of a child this small?
"But get in my way one more time, an' I really won't let it go. Y'hear?"
"Nyeeeh."
At Bariya's scolding, the whimpering White flattened herself to the floor, as if she were truly sorry and repenting.
"Good. Keep it jus' like this. I'll be watchin'."
In that moment, Bariya, who had been cheerfully dressing White down, hopped lightly onto the prostrate tiger's back.
"Little one...!"
Startled, Baden reached out, then stopped.
"Rrrnn, rrrnn."
As Bariya stroked her head from where she sat, White chuffed and narrowed her eyes. Anyone could see she was thoroughly pleased. Bariya ran her hand through the tiger's glossy fur and laughed with magnificent pride.
Of course a great wildcat beastkin ought to tame a beast or two!
"All right. Now lead the way to the dining hall."
"Grrn."
White headed straight for the dining hall. The ride swayed more than Baden's shoulders had, but Bariya could feel how carefully the tiger placed every step.
Later, racing across the plains on White will be even better. Of course, the moment she left the mansion the hyenas would come after her, so not now.
Those hyenas. No help at all, as usual.
Today, too, Bariya ground her teeth at them.
"Hah..."
Left behind on his own, Baden broke into a hollow laugh. The sight of White walking away with Bariya astride her, tail swaying gently, was absurd beyond words. To think that little cat beastkin had claimed the back only Sabrina had ever been allowed to ride. You really did have to live a long time to see a thing like that.