Read Tiger's Voyage for Free Online

Kishan.”
    “We don’t need to sleep next to you, Kells. It’s hot. We’ll just make you miserable.”
    “I don’t mind it, really.”
    Kishan wet a cloth and touched it to my face.
    “That feels good,” I said gratefully.
    “You’re overheated. I shouldn’t have made you walk so far in one day.”
    “I’ll be fine. Maybe I should make up a magic milk bath with the Golden Fruit, huh?” I laughed.
    Kishan considered and grinned. “A giant bowlful of milk with you in the middle might be a little too much for us cats to resist.”
    I smiled but was too exhausted to come up with a flip response.
    “I want you to relax now, Kelsey. Take a nap.”
    “Okay.” I went into my tent to bathe my arms and the back of my neck with the wet cloth. The tent was so stifling, I was soon back outside. The two tigers—one black and one white—were resting in the shade of a tree nearby. I heard the soft gurgle of a stream. The heat was definitely making me drowsy.
    I sat down between the tigers with my back to the tree. After my head dropped for the third time, I cushioned it on Kishan’s soft back and fell asleep.

    Fur tickled my nose. I mumbled and turned my head. I heard the call of a bird, blinked open my eyes, and saw Kishan sitting with his back against the tree, watching me quietly. He was barefoot and wearing the black clothes that appeared every time he changed back from a tiger.
    “Kishan?” I lifted my head, confused, knowing I had fallen asleep on his soft, sable fur. My hand was pressed against Ren’s white shoulder. “Ren?” I quickly scooted back next to Kishan, who put his arm around my shoulders. “Ren? I’m sorry! Did I hurt you?”
    I watched as Ren’s tiger body morphed into his human frame. He pushed up from all fours into a crouch. The late afternoon sun glinted off his white shirt while he considered me musingly. “It didn’t hurt.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Yes. You moved in your sleep. It didn’t burn or cause me any pain at all.”
    “How long?”
    “A little over two hours.”
    “You didn’t feel the need to escape? To get away from me?”
    “No. It felt … good. Maybe I need to be a tiger around you more often.”
    He smiled, switched back into a tiger, walked up to me, and stuck his nose in my face. I laughed and awkwardly reached up behind his ear and scratched. He made a rumbling sound in his chest and collapsed at my side, twisting his neck so I could reach the other ear.
    Kishan cleared his throat, stood, and stretched. “Since the two of you are … getting reacquainted, I’m going to stretch my legs a little, maybe do a little stalking just for fun.
    I stood up and put my palm on his cheek. “Don’t get caught in a trap.”
    Kishan lifted his hand, placed it on top of mine, and smiled. “I’ll be fine. I’ll be back in an hour or two around sundown. You can practice tracking me on the new cell phones if you want.”
    Kishan morphed into the black tiger. I stroked his head briefly before he ran into the jungle.
    I settled down next to Ren with the cell phone tracker. It took me the better part of an hour to figure out how it worked. The screen looked like a Google map. I was the dot marked
Ke
. Ren was
R
. Kishan was the
Ki
dot, and I could see his blip move around the screen. He was about two miles away, quickly moving east.
    Widening the map, I figured out how to zoom in on Mr. Kadam and Nilima’s location. If I clicked on one of their dots, a small window popped up telling me the exact latitude and longitude, as well as their vital signs.
Pretty cool little device.
    I petted Ren’s fur absently and explained how everything worked. His ears flicked back and forth attentively. Then suddenly he sprang to his feet and stared at the darkening jungle.
    “What? What is it?”
    Ren changed to a man. “Go inside the tent and zip it up.”
    “It doesn’t have zippers. The Scarf can’t make them. What’s out there?”
    “A cobra. Hopefully it will move on and leave