C2 Such a cute pet

First country.

His royal highness the Emperor had just rounded up a meeting with his royal advisor about the bandit attacks from the second country. He was contemplating the punishment to be administered to these bandits. He ended the meeting to stretch his legs and clear his thoughts.

The distant sound of childlike laughter caught his attention, he dismissed his sentries to have alone time with the innocent child.

"Such a cute pet." The Emperor remarked standing behind Mei Xing his shadow cast upon her petite frame.

"Emperor daddy." She squealed and jumped up to hug him, he crouched down and took her in his arms. The white tiger cub jumped in the air out of excitement.

"I see you love my gift." he firmly said with bright smiles at his beloved jewel. "I love him more than anything." Mei Xing confessed.

The Emperor had noticed how lonely the young princess was after her mothers' unfortunate passing. That was why when his soldiers went on a patrol and found this white tiger cub lying next to its dead mother. He immediately gifted it to Mei Xing to keep her company when he wasn't around.

"More than me? Your Emperor? Your Family?." he teasingly asked, Mei Xing, pouted.

"He is also part of my family now, dear father I cannot choose between you both. I love all my family equally." Mei Xing said.

The Emperor let her down to play with her new pet, He sat beside her and watched how fascinated the little child was with the tiger. She tied her necklace around one of the cub's legs. "You are now a part of my family," she said and hugged the tiger.

'Only a fool would try and separate them both from one another.'

*Night*

"I still haven't been able to find a good name for you yet. What shall I name my new family?." Mei Xing thought?

Mei Jai walked inside Mei Xing's chamber fanning herself unhurriedly minding her porcelain nose. Her sight fixed on the animal, the pest, so she thought.

"Have you forgotten your manner younger sister Xing? You haven't acknowledged my presence in your room." Mei Jak said harshly to the young girl.

Mei Xing bowed her head down and folded her arms greeting her elder sister. "My apologies elder sister Mei Jai, would you like to pet him?." Mei Xing asked, but the young miss was far from interested.

"The other young girls are at the temple, go there now and light candles." Mei Xing said dismissing young Mei Xing.

"Let's go, I haven't shown you the temple yet," Mei Xing said gleefully said scratching the back of the tiger's ear.

"Without the animal." Mei Jai sternly said, a sad Mei Xing reluctantly left her white tiger alone in the chamber with Mei Jai.

Once she left the chamber and war far out of sight, Mei Jia ran to the window and made a bird-like noise. The tiger stood watching her helplessly, in a matter of moments, a man climbed into the bedroom from the window, two others followed.

"You signaled," he said with a broad grin, she smiled deviously staring at the tiger.

"I have never liked cats or Mei Xing so I want that beast tossed out of the ancestral home." Mei Xing said harshly with venom in her words.

The tiger stepped back from them, sensing it was in danger. The men cornered the animal and tried to tie it down, the Tiger resisted when one of them tried to take the gift Mei Xing had placed around its leg.

It clawed at the attacker with its sharp claws and scratched the arm of one of the attackers. "Can you not handle such a small cub?. Do this hastily and do not let anyone see you." Mei Jai said and left the chamber.

The men struggled to get the precious necklace and decided to leave it on the animal. The leader brought out a sedative and administered it to the animal. Almost immediately the vibrant tiger weakened and lost its stamina.

"Good, now let's get rid of this animal before we are caught." The leader hastily said, the reward money on his mind.

The men placed the tiger in a sack and carried it away on their backs, passing through the back entry, away from prying eyes.

The tiger moaned softly in the sack trying to call for help from its new friend, but it was too weak to make a wild sound. The men went outside the premises, passing the sack off as delivery of royal leftovers to the peasants at the second country.

"Do we leave it here?." one out of the three asked, they had been walking for a while now and the night was cold. Not to mention the fear of wild animals that could prey on them.

"I reckon we leave this animal here. We are alone here without any defense. There are wild animals and bandits on this path, let's abandon the animal." another of the men supported.

Their leader didn't contemplate the issue any longer and stopped walking, this war far enough to him as well. They dropped the sack and let the tiger out of it. The weak oxygen-deprived animal staggered, trying to get on all fours but failed at that.

"Such a defenseless thing, why would a princess want to hurt you?." one of them asked taking pity on the tiger cub.

"Do you want to stay here with it and discover?. Let's move before we get hurt." Their leader declared and led them back to the first country.

The tiger pushed itself but ended up falling weakly and rolling down the mountain, its body colliding with rocks and trees as it fell lifelessly.

It growled weakly once it stopped falling and landed hard on its back, the cub looked above at the stars. vulnerable.

Maybe, just maybe the animal thought that the dragons in the sky could send a guardian that would come and save it from its danger and return it to its owner.

*Second Country borders*

"This isn't the way to the first country! You have been sending us in cycles throughout today. What sort of a guide are you?." a man asked.

His family wanted to visit the magnificent first country and maybe settle there. So they hired a guide when they arrived at the second country to lead them safely.

Akihiro was supposed to be their guide to the first country, but he had proved to be quite useless to the family of seven.

"First country?. Uncle, you should have spoken up earlier, I thought you wanted to see the second country. That was why I took your family around, you see, I was bestowing upon you all a tour around the wonderful second country." Hiro shamelessly said.

The man's lips twitched from rage, his wife almost fainted on the spot, hers and her children's feet were sore from walking around all day.

"That misconception will cost you." Hiro said, "cost me?." the uncle yelled out, "for wasting both my time and yours." Hiro said sheepishly.

He did not expect the man to have a sword amongst his luggage. His two sons emerged from the back to brandish their swords around.

"You cannot raise your swords to a little child uncle, it is not righteous." Hiro nervously said backing away from them. But the men charged at him ready to squeeze all of their money of out him.

Hiro ran away, far from them, even if it meant running away from his beloved country into the wild.

Once his legs could no longer carry him he stopped running and climbed a tree to rest on. His pursuers ran ahead further to find him, their steel blades in the air. Their family following behind, weary from the long trek they were recovering from.

Once they had all left, Hiro jumped from branch to branch till he landed on the ground. He washed his face in the river and drank from it.

"I was unlucky today, I lost so much running away from those vicious ruffians. How will I make it all back?." he thought sitting on a rock.

His ears heard the sound of a weak growl, "are there wild animals here?." Hiro asked out loud in fright. " I didn't think that I would die like this. The youngest son of the..." he got cut off by the sound again. This time sounding even fainter, curious he walked towards the source of the noise.

"I hope I don't die such a miserable death," Hiro said advancing closer to the source. Something white caught his eyes, he rushed towards it fascinated.

Hiro gasped in shock when he finally realized what was growling and groaning. He studied it for moments, the animal seemed to have not noticed him and continued moaning in pain.

"Poor animal." Hiro thought to himself and sauntered closer to it, he examined it closely and mustered up the courage to hold its paws. They had blisters and twigs stuck inside, causing pain to the cub.

"It's defenseless," he said under his breath, Hiro bravely pulled out the twigs, causing the animal to flinch out of pain. "There you go." Hiro brightly said to the cub. But the cub still laid on the ground, not motioning to stand up anytime soon.

"You cannot get up?." Hiro asked sympathetically, the tiger groaned signaling a sign to the young boy on how weak it was.

Hiro did the only thing he could do, he placed the tiger in the sack and pulled the tiger back to the second country with him. "Such a cute pet am bringing home, he will surely win over their hard hearts, "Hiro said as he carried away his new pet.