Tiger Tiger

“The signal is still terrible,” complained Teal.

“Pretty logical since Beacon tower’s down and Menagerie doesn’t have its own one,” remarked Bodhi, sitting under a large tree, stroking his short, black beard.

Teal had been fiddling with the scroll for a while now, having figured out how to recharge it and use it decently. Now at whatever free time he just played on his scroll.

“You’ve become quite addicted,” Bodhi stated.

“Well it’s fun!”

“Hmmm… Young people these days…” said Bodhi, remembering back when he was young.

Oh… Back when he was young.

“Bodhi?” asked Teal, looking up from his scroll.

“Mm?”

“What were you like when you were young?”

“Oh, when I was young…” replied Bodhi with a reminiscent tone, “I was a hero, along with my five friends. We were unstoppable, travelling the world, fighting monsters and such…”

“Sounds nice.”

“Yes… I suppose it does-”

Bodhi’s sentence was cut off by the sound of footsteps nearby. Both he and Teal turned to see a man in his sixties dressed in a black and gold trench coat walking steadily towards them.

“Hello Bodhi,” the man greeted in a low but cheerful voice, beaming.

Bodhi nodded, looking away at the man.

“Aww, don’t be like this old friend,” the man said, “I thought that we would have a talk like the old times!”

“We have nothing to talk about Besart,” Bodhi replied, closing his eyes.

“The Exodus Turn is already complete; we’ll have infinite power once the last phase is-”

“We’ve discussed this. I will have the same answer as I did forty years ago,” Bodhi stood up and slowly walked away from Besart.

“If you don’t want to, then give me the Ignis!”

Bodhi paused, “Go back to the house Teal. Me and my old ‘friend’ here is going to have a long discussion.”

Teal, still confused, only obeyed. When Bodhi saw that Teal was away, he finally spoke.

“I can’t. I made an oath, we all did.”

“Please, Bodhi,” Besart pleaded, “let me have it, for old time’s sake!”

At this Bodhi lunged and shoved Besart against a tree, showing his sharp fangs, hissing, “Don’t you dare even bring that up again!”

“Why not?” Besart shrugged, “Those were good times, fun times! We’ve fought in the floating islands, the whirlpool sea, and the deserts of Vacuo. We’ve destroyed countless criminal bases, slain countless grimm, helped countless people-”

“Shut the hell up!”

“We’ve even saved the world once, Bodhi,” Besart continued, despite Bodhi’s threatening snarl, “so come on, just let me borrow the Ignis.”

Bodhi yelled and punched Besart with his free hand, growling as he grunted, “You are a traitor, a coward, a criminal and a villain. Do not expect me to help you!”

Bodhi pulled Besart back and hurled him onto the floor, “So for the old time’s sake, I give you the choice to leave, before I kill you.”

Besart slowly scrambled up and gently nodded, “I have guessed as much. So I will just take it from you.”

He reached behind his trench coat and drew out a Frisbee-sized disk, which immediately extended to make a heavy, metal chakram, as large as a hula-hoop. Besart pointed his weapon at Bodhi, “For old time’s sake, I’m making you an offer. Join me to the glorious future, or die by my hand.”

Bodhi grunted, extending his sharp claws out of his fingers and swiped them in front of him, creating multiple wind slashes.

Besart spun his weapon with a yell, twisting it around him as the slashes were blocked. He charged forward at his opponent, blade in hand, and swung it for a slice.

Bodhi dodged, kicking the chakram aside, he delivered a slash from his claw, ripping Besart’s shirt.

“There’s still some fight in you old man!” Besart snickered, “Just tell me where the Ignis is, and this could all be over.”

“As long as I live, you wouldn’t ever lay your hands on it!”

Besart smirked as he twisted and twirled his weapon around him, blocking all the attempted attacks from Bodhi. They danced around the clearing, creating small craters as they fight.

Teal watched from the window in amazement as the two men fought; he could barely track their movements.

A minute passed and Bodhi still wasn’t able to gain the upper hand, and he already seemed to be moving slower. Seeing the fatigue, Besart fought even harder, his slashes more rapid and his strikes more powerful; Bodhi knew that he could not last for much longer, so with a yell, he leaped away from Besart onto a tree.

“Fleeing now are we?” Besart sneered, “You can’t run from fate!”

Bodhi remained silent, plucking out a handful of leaves from the branches.

The tree shook. Bodhi immediately jumped onto another tree as the old one fell. Looking down, he saw Besart repeatedly slashing his weapon at the trunk.

Feeling another jolt under him, he grabbed another handful of leaves while leaping down as the tree fell.

While in the air, he opened his palm, releasing the leaves from his hands. Hardening the leaves using his semblance, he then flung them at Besart.

Besart twisted his blade and blocked the leaves with ease, before being met with Bodhi’s claws scratching on his chest. Bleeding, he pulled his chakram up, slashing Bodhi on the wrist.

With a yell of pain, Bodhi fell back.

“One last chance,” said Besart, pointing his blade at his opponent on the floor, “give me the Ignis.”

“Here it is…” said Bodhi, lashing out what looked like a glowing red dust crystal shard, shattered at the top, in front of him. Immediately, gigantic flames shot out at Besart. Screaming in agony, Besart ran back, rolling on the floor, putting out the flames.

“You idiot-” he began, picking up his weapon, leaning on a tree for support, “so this is the power of the Ignis huh? You-”

Suddenly, an energy slash came whistling at him. Dodging the attack, Besart turned to see Teal dashing at him, fan in hand, ready for another attack.

Deciding that it is not worth fighting for the Ignis in his current condition, he ran in the direction of the city.

Seeing that Besart had escaped, Teal rushed beside his master, who was still on the floor.

“Teal, I’m poisoned,” Bodhi coughed, “Besart’s blade has poison on it.”

“Poison?” gasped Teal in surprise, helping Bodhi up, carrying him to the house.

“It’s probably a type of Batrachotoxin, He’s into this kind of stuff,” said Bodhi, grunting as he took a step, “I’ll probably be dead in a few minutes, so I need to tell you something quickly.”

Teal nodded, not wanting to waste time. He laid his master down by the garden fence.

“Remember the glowing dust crystal I just used to fend off Besart?” Bodhi asked, before coughing violently, dark red blood bled out of his mouth.

Teal, alarmed, rushed up to get some water, but was stopped by Bodhi.

Bodhi held out the shard of glowing red dust crystal from his pocket, and placed it in Teal’s hands, “This is the Ignis, fire shard of the Tear. The Tear is a super-condensed duct crystal supposedly formed at the beginning of creation, shattered into five pieces of different attributes: Aquarius, Silva, Adamas, Terra and Ignis. Long story short, me and four others managed to gather the pieces and did some experiments; the Tear is incredibly powerful…”

“How powerful?” Teal asked, kneeling beside Bodhi, nervously casting concerned looks at him.

“Incredibly powerful. Unlike normal dust, the Tear doesn’t get used up, it could be recharged by the sun, and it creates powerful attacks. They say-” Bodhi trailed off, coughing again, blood spluttering on the floor. He produced a letter from his pocket, handing it to Teal, “I’m not going to last much longer, I have always feared this day coming. Take this letter, go to Mistral, find a village called Neozane, look for an old man called Armand Sky. He was my old friend, give him the letter and he’ll explain everything. Now-”

Bodhi coughed, choking. Teal rushed to move Bodhi into a more comfortable position as his master struggled to speak, “My boy… One last thing… Never be cruel, never be vengeful… and never be cowardly…”

With a final breath, Bodhi’s arm fell limp on the blood stained earth. His eyes unmoving, fixed on the clouds dimming the sun.

Everything was still and silent. Teal did not care about the streams of tears rolling down like rain in a storm; Teal did not care about his yells of frustration even if there were nobody to hear it; Teal did not care about the anger blazing inside him.

Teal gently closed the eyes of his master. He began to dig a hole beside the old pine tree Bodhi loved.

Teal knocked.

It was late at night, the streets were deserted, only occasional pedestrians passed by.

“Yes?” the door creaked open.

“Hi ma’am,” Teal said to the woman; he felt the need to say goodbye to the one other person he ever knew.

The woman invited Teal in and sat him down on a chair, asking him what’s wrong.

“I’m leaving tonight for Mistral,” Teal explained, “just wanted to say goodbye.”

“Leaving?” the woman asked, puzzled, “Why?”

“My master’s dead ma’am,” replied Teal, holding back tears, “he is dead…”

The woman froze for a second, before placing her hand on Teal’s shoulder, “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be, it’s not your fault.”

The air turned still and dense; not a single word was spoken.

“Why are you so kind, ma’am?” Teal asked.

“You saved my life,” the woman replied, “that alone proves your own kindness.”

“Thanks,” Teal said, standing up from his chair and walking towards the door, “I think that I need to leave now if I want to catch my ride, goodbye ma’am. I wish you the best.”

The woman nodded, handing Teal a pack of coins, “Take this, you’ll always need some extra money.”

“I could not thank you enough,” said Teal as he accepted the money and walked out of the door, “goodbye ma’am.”

“Goodbye,” the woman waved, “good luck.”

