C3 Find The Rogue Or Die!

The second Kingdom...

The bright sky weakened the little strength left in Akihiro, he had summed up his energy towards rescuing the defenseless creature. To topple the situation, he journeyed through a longer route. He didn't want anyone finding the little thing he discovered and taking it away from him.

'You weigh a tonne! What must you have been eating in the wild?. My shoulders are on the verge of breaking from just carrying you.' Hiro thought to himself.

His stomach yelled for sustenance, he stopped pulling the sack and opened it to take a look at his friend. The white fur had gotten mixed with brown dirt and green leaves.

"Sorry little friend, you must not have been able to breathe properly all this while. Can you walk around now?." Hiro asked pulling the sack off completely.

The tiger attempted to take a step but fell back down, it groaned loudly on the dirt. Its loud groan startled Hiro, he jumped in fright at the animal, taking some steps back.

"Again! Again!." Hiro chanted, coming closer to the animal, the animal tilted its head to the side in confusion staring at the boy with a different scent.

The tiger growled, humoring the young guardian who had saved its life. Hiro's fascination with the new friend made him get on its back.

In the tiger's mind, it could be in the first country soaked in a milk bath, or a milk river as it thought. While maids would feed it, and groom it to its taste. Then Mei Xing would come and take it out to play with her, the tiger's heart yearned out to its owner.

But then again was this strange boy with the unique scent, the tiger shook off the boy from its back. Hiro landed hard on the dirt, "hey,! You could have wounded me!." Hiro whined.

The tiger sniffed him thoroughly, from his hair to his neck to his armpits, everywhere it could think of.

"What is this? Am not food!." Hiro said trying to mask his fright, the animal licked his face, trying to wash off his different scent, but it was still on him.

"Are you bathing me?. What do you want?." Hiro asked half laughing at the creature, a lightbulb sparked on in his mind. "Do you want this?." he asked pulling out a long red stick like a thing from his shirt.

"You can have it, it's my specialty for traveling, the dried meat of all types, half beef, half chicken, half turkey. All in one." Hiro said brightly holding it up in the air smiling toothlessly.

The tiger ate it at once, nibbling on it, Hiro's eyes almost fell out of the socket. "I usually take up to three days to finish one of those. At this rate, you'll be eating my whole inventory before lunchtime." Hiro lamented.

'But he will fetch me a good price. ' Hiro thought to himself, but after taking a glance at the dirty and unkempt animal he thought otherwise.

"I'll have to take you somewhere first before we get to the market," Hiro said gesturing for the animal to get in the sack.

'He fed me and has protected me in this carrying bag, I must stay with him now for some time. Later on, I will show him my royal home and be reunited with my true friend.' The tiger thought and staggered to the sack.

Hiro covered the tiger back and continued to pull the tiger till he was out of the streets on his way to his next destination.

**********

First Country.

Mei Xing was expecting her new friend to lick her face clean, and wake her up. She laid on her bed for a while, not wanting to ruin their special waking-up ritual. Once her patience had expired, the young Miss sprung out of bed to discern what had gone wrong.

"Little friend!." Mei Xing called out, but the little tiger was nowhere to be seen in her chamber.

"He must have tried to climb a tree in the court." Mei Xing said, relaxing her tensed mind. "That means he's probably hungry now, am sure head mother will help me feed him." Mei Xing cheerfully thought running out of the room.

The Emperor was strolling with the head mother, discussing the engagement of the eldest Miss, Mei Xinjiang. Her suitor from a faraway country was soon arriving to start the rites and rituals.

"Have the maids adorn her and take her to the ancient temple." The Emperor instructed, "Emperor, I've arranged everything that is needed to be done, except for..." head mother Li Na was interrupted by Mei Xing who ran up to her, hugging her legs.

"Good Morning head mother, good morning Emperor Daddy." Mei Xing announced to them both.

"You must take a bow young Miss before you say good morning to us, we are older than you. My apologies Emperor." Li Na said feeling embarrassed.

Mei Xing bowed swiftly and repeated the greeting, "I want to feed my friend now. Please help me head mother." Mei Xing said pulling the woman by her white Hanfu.

"Come Mei Xing, let your Emperor feed your new friend, Li Na is a very busy woman." The Emperor said, grinning from ear to ear.

Mei Xing let go of Li Na and faced her attention to the Emperor. The Emperor led her towards the court to pluck a basket of apples, three maids following closely.

"I hope that the love the Emperor has for this young princess never fades." Li Na said before walking away to the women's quarters.

The duo reached the courtyard to fetch the tiger, Mei Xing ran ahead to get her friend to have breakfast. The maids ran along trying to catch up to the princess, but she proved to be faster than them.

She scurried to its favorite tree, the tallest tree in the court, but the tiger was nowhere to be seen!. Mei Xing searched around the court in earnest calling out to the tiger to come to her. But the more she called out the more she cried, the Emperor who had waited for his Princess decided to join the search.

"Emperor Daddy!." Mei Xing screamed, her shriek was so loud that half of the house heard it. The young princess ran past the Emperor, to go find her friend inside all of the chambers.

"Why has the smile of the young princess faded?." The Emperor asked, the maids stood tongue-tied, glancing at one another. "Emperor," they said bowing at him not daring to meet his eyes.

"The princess has lost her new pet and cannot find it." One of the maids said with a croak in her voice.

Rage overwhelmed the Emperor, his face contorted into a frown at hearing the news. "Someone dares to steal from me? Anyone who steals from my family has tainted our good name and will be punished!." The Emperor spat out with venom in his words. "Get me, my commander!." He roared at the petrified maids, they dispersed immediately to summon the commander of the armed forces, before the wrath of the Emperor would be unleashed upon them.

√√√√√√√

"You summoned me." The Commander said bowing down to the Emperor in his court. "Tell me just how incompetent you are! You have failed as a protector and I will punish you for your mistake." The Emperor roared.

"Emperor, I have remained loyal and dedicated to your reign, and I took an oath to protect you." The commander said still looking down.

"Look at me when I speak to you!." The Emperor commanded, all the guards were startled at how loud and angry the Emperor seemed.

"You broke your meaningless oath, someone has penetrated the walls and stolen from me. And I will not condone it! That is the limit of all insults!." The Emperor roared.

"What has been stolen Emperor and I swear on my life to retrieve it." The commander said, "I don't only want you to retrieve It, I want you to capture the rogue and bring him here to my court. He must learn his lesson the hard way." The Emperor said.

"Yes, Emperor." The commander said and took a bow, "go find the tiger of my beloved Mei Xing, or I will execute you and your next three generations!." The Emperor threatened to throw the whole court in disarray.

* the Second Kingdom*

Hiro stopped walking and looked above him at the Minka in front of him. His heart sunk to see himself back here again, he gulped hard.

"Wait here," he said as he let go of the sack, he walked to the sliding door and knocked on it three times. A head peered out to inspect the August visitor. The door slid open fully, Hiro quickly ran back to the sack and pulled it with him into the Minka before anyone could recognize him.

Right from the tatami flooring, the wooden veranda circling the Minka. The Uchi was all so familiar to him, he knew where his legs had dragged him to, all the way to his family house, the one place he couldn't stand to live in.