Minding the Tiger

By Kerry Morgan

Brandon’s life was going downhill fast. First, his helpful magical dreams trap him inside the physical body of his friend The White Tiger. Confused by his human thoughts and animal instincts, his anger builds. To top it off, his friends who always help him in his spirit world, refuse, claiming he has to do it himself. But how? The rage is building within him and it only gets worse when poachers capture him and his very life is threatened. Can you die in your dreams and still actually be alive?

Now he must battle his rival in karate for his best friend’s attention and it’s all too much. How can his karate practice save him this time? He lost the approval of his beloved Sensei due to all that rage, he could not go to him for help now. Trapped and helpless, what could he do to fix it?

Roar? Find out in this epic adventure for all ages!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kerry Morgan
• Release date: Mar 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301171279

Kerry Morgan

Horror, urban fantasy and children's authorkarate SenseiBusiness OwnerMy heart felt goal is to inspire with the books I write for kids, as well as adults. Karate isn't about fighting, it's about learning how to fight, so you never ever have to! My urban fantasy series is pure indulgence for my love of horror and strong women that can do anything they set their minds to!

Book preview

Minding the Tiger

by

Kerry Morgan

Copyright 2013 Kerry Morgan

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed by a newspaper, magazine or journal.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Cover art created by Michelle Marrick Auger.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Chapter 1

His gaze darted to and fro, anticipating the sweet taste of the slippery meal swimming in the river below.

The sparkling claws of the white tiger reflected on the surface, his paw suspended in midair, poised to strike into the sun dappled river. With his mouth salivating his breath came short and quick, yet still he waited. The tiger instinctively knew the time to attack was near.

Half an inch closer and death would sustain life, or at least an empty stomach. Faster than lightning he snatched the unsuspecting fish from the river’s edge. Though the predator was aching with hunger he chose to tease the squirming prey, chasing its tail with his glistening fangs, savoring the cool spray of water from its desperate thrashing.

Impatient, he sunk his teeth into the cold flesh, his meal cherished but ending too soon. He looked back at the flowing rush, anxious to resume the hunt when an unfamiliar scent permeated his nostrils. Turning into the wind the tiger’s nose quivered, scrutinizing the breeze, seeking out the source of invasion.

A shadow passed overhead, blocking the bright glare of the sun just long enough for the tiger to catch sight of the intruder. Crouching low the powerful beast wriggled into position, gripping the soft earth, ready for assault.

Unaware of the danger the fawn rabbit sat up on its haunches, codling its precious find. Turning the walnut over several times it nibbled its meal, curiously watching the blue sky above.

*

Brandon screamed at the top of his lungs when the dragon swooped down toward the ground.

Hang on! Tightly now! shouted Mr. Crane through the wind. Face the fear, look it in the eye, and eyes open would work great for that ya know, not all scrunched up tight like that. Find your confidence, feel your balance. Grip her with your knees, Master Brandon!

Exasperated, Mr. Crane huffed with frustration and tried to remember his own lessons of keeping calm in the face of anger.

His pupil frantically clutched at the dragon’s frame, fumbling for somewhere to grip. He knew Mr. Crane was flying close but he couldn’t keep his eyes open long enough to see just where he was. He tried to follow the instructions but his legs were starting to cramp they squeezed so hard.

Mr. Crane worried Brandon wouldn't learn to fly his spirit dragon at the rate he was going. He also knew the only way he would ever get over his fear of falling was to do exactly that.

The reason anyone fears anything is mostly due to the mystery surrounding it. Once you do something and you know what is going to happen, it doesn’t seem as scary.

Mr. Crane used an ancient form of communication known as telepathy to tell the dragon what his intentions were, unbeknownst to his student. The dragon understood and shot snout first toward the uneven earth.

Brandon wailed his terror, throwing his arms around the dragon’s rough scaled neck. Mr. Crane signaled the flying beast as she twisted to the right in a corkscrew motion.

In peril, Brandon accelerated straight down, thrown off his steed.

Instinctively the fawn rabbit darted as the pale tiger sprang into the air for attack. In midair the falling Brandon and leaping tiger collided, but instead of bouncing off each other, they merged, the boy vanishing within the tiger.

The world morphed into a mixture of fur and hunger, claws and teeth pulling anxiously, gravity racing to greet him. Breath he couldn’t catch, intuition took control.

Brandon pitched his new bulk around, instinctively sinking nails into soft earth. The ground accepted his claws like rain to a desert dune. He reveled in the feel of his powerful weapons scraping beneath him as if nothing could withstand their strength. Gleefully watching his deadly claws he played with the dirt, tensing, releasing, over and over, slashing the ground into clumps and repetitively flicking it off.

He shook his head when his sensitive ears tickled from unfamiliar breezes, the hairs so acute every movement became immediate and alarming. It was painful to listen to air drift by. It felt funny, moving in an alien pattern. He crooked one ear while the other stayed still and could hear rustling in the forest so far off in the distance he wondered if it was real.

Brandon could see Mr. Crane flying above him clapping his beak, talking to his Spirit Dragon as their shapes got smaller and smaller. They left him!

The musky scent of the scampering rabbit hit his senses like the first candy bar hits the tip of your tongue on Halloween. The metallic scent of the rabbit’s coppery blood caused Brandon’s pulse to accelerate. His black nose quivered, nostril’s flaring to chase after that delectable scent. He resisted the urge to chase after it.

There was more than the frisky hare hitting his senses now. He could smell the damp sand beneath him and knew another animal had marked the territory. The trees surrounding the glade exuded an ancient fragrance, foretelling their wisdom and age.

It physically ached when he surveyed the rabbit jumping away, until it was lost in the foliage. Drool began to pool on his pink tongue with the temptation to feed. He wanted that bunny, though it looked different. It was no more than a dark shape disappearing within the darkness of the forest, however the woods shouldn’t have looked like that.

Staring at everything closely, the colors were all gone. Shadows and light filled his vision but with a clarity he never knew as a human. The trees were sharper and more vivid in their detail and patterns. The ground sparkled with minerals and pebbles he’d not noticed, not even once in all the times he traversed the path meandering before him.

Brandon was comfy warm within his white coat striated with cocoa brown stripes. His consciousness burrowed into the feel of muscle and brute force, exploding an epiphany of energy and will he only ever possessed in his dreams.

He remembered wishing he could be just like the tiger before he met his Spirit Dragon. Now he could feel those muscles like a cloak of rogue power instead of merely feeling them under his palm. He stamped around in circles trying to spy what was brushing up against his thighs. His mental giggle exploded as a roar when he realized he was chasing a tail.

But the hunger wasn’t like wanting mom’s cookies after school. He was near to bursting with famished need. Brandon usually wanted to feed rabbits, not rip them to shreds for their meat.

Anger rumbled deep in his throat at the loss of his meal. Growling, he paced back and forth, still refusing to hunt the furry delicacy. He just couldn’t, despite his intense desire to do that very thing.

Where was his body? Why couldn't he see color? Why did he want to eat that adorable little bunny? Everything was topsy turvy and he worried, desperate to understand what was going on.

Did his dream come true? Was he now a real tiger? Yet the question remained and could not be ignored, how long would he remain a powerful feline predator…?

Brandon violently jerked, fighting with his blanket, gasping for air. He was mildly disappointed to wake, finding himself in his room.

He didn’t have the toys of a child scattered around his bedroom like his little brother Jamie did. Once he started karate the organization within his thoughts extended to a neat and tidy room.

His Playstation sat tucked underneath a small television with three gaming videos next to it. It was something he didn’t play much, but it comforted him to see it there.

Wrapped in the shadows of the night he could just make out a large rocking chair in the corner. His mom insisted he