Chapter 21

The following new characters appear in this chapter:

Venerable Anutin

Monk, 5’-4’’ tall, 120 pounds, 36 years old, shaved head, brown eyes, old brown robe

CPL Marshall Hunter

Corporal, Space Marines, 5’-10’’ tall, 165 pounds, 25 years old, Dark brown hair, gray eyes

“Kits!” both Susie and Clare sent to Natalie and me at nearly the same time, before they moved into a structure against the back wall of the Wat.

The rest of us were a short distance behind the Partners, and we could see that there were four of what appeared to be storage structures along this portion of the wall around the Wat. The structures were about three meters square (10 feet) and open on three sides. The only wall was the wall of the Wat that was behind them. Basically, they were nothing more than four posts holding up a roof and appeared to be very flimsy. There was a space of about four feet (one meter) between each storage space.

The Partners had made a beeline for the end storage space. As we approached it, we could see a number of small cages stacked inside it. Some of them appeared to be empty. Susie and Clare were in front of the cages, but neither Partner was happy.

“Kits hungry, why man no feed?” Susie sent to me in an unhappy tone of voice.

“Where female Tiger? Why no here?” Clare sent to us also in a very unhappy tone of voice.

Before I could answer them, we were approached by an older Monk in a worn brown robe. He greeted us and then turned to Sompung and spoke to him ... Sompung frowned before turning to us.

“This is Venerable Anutin. He cares for the young Tigers. He says that the Monks don’t eat meat. They have been feeding them rice, but they need more than that. Some villagers bring meat for them, but it is never enough,” Sompung told us.

“Where are their mothers? They should be here taking care of them,” Natalie asked and Sompung translated.

“Monk say, mothers abandoned the cubs when they were weaned. They don’t like the cubs and won’t care for them or feed them,” Sompung translated for the Monk. Susie interrupted us then. She had been very close to the cages and checking the Kits in them.

“Cleve, Kits need eat. Need meat for Kits,” she sent to me.

“I guess we can provide some meat for them,” I sent to Susie and Clare. “But it will only be a temporary solution,” I added.

“I’ll get some meat from the vehicles,” Natalie volunteered.

“Bring back a knife also,” I told her, as we would need to cut up the meat in portions small enough for the Kits to eat. “And be careful,” I added, “those other Tigers may want the meat also.”

“I’ll go with her. They won’t be able to get through one of my wards,” Lucy volunteered.

They had only left when Susie informed me of something else.

“Cleve, Kits talk like we. No loud like we, quiet,” she sent to me. I stared at her in surprise on hearing this.

“You’re sure of this?” I sent to her.

“Sure. Need close to hear,” she sent. I moved over near her and needed to strain to hear anything but when close to the cage, I could hear the Kits complaining about being hungry and also wanting to get out of the cages. This shocked me more than anything had in some time.

“She’s right!” I said in surprise, rising and turning to the Colonel.

“I could hear them talking to Susie. They aren’t very powerful presently, but they are at least minimally enhanced,” I told her to a surprised look from Trish.

“How can they be enhanced – here?” she asked looking around at the Wat.

“I don’t know, but we need to do something. We would need to see if the strength of their ability to speak increases as they get older. The only way to do that would be to take them with us,” I told her intrigued by the possibilities. Trish turned to Sompung and the Monk.

“Ask Venerable Anutin if this has happened before and what became of the others,” she told him.

“This has happened before,” he told her after conversing with the Monk. “The young didn’t survive. The other Tigers here killed them. That is why these are in cages. It is to prevent them from also being killed by the other Tigers,” he finished.

“Does he know why this happened?” the Colonel asked.

“The Monks have no idea why it happens. There are other young that have no problems. The mothers care for them. Some of course die from various causes, but they are not attacked by the other Tigers or abandoned by their mothers,” the Monk told us through Sompung.

Natalie and Lucy soon returned with the meat. They had been followed by several of the Tigers here at the Wat. By now, even Bob had been checking out the Kits, and he turned when he sensed the other Tigers approaching. Again, he roared to assert his dominance of the situation, and the other Tigers quickly departed, not caring to challenge him.

Natalie had returned with a chunk of meat that was about 10 pounds. She had also brought a large chef’s knife to cut it up with. The Monk produced a board on seeing the meat, and I was ready to start cutting small pieces off of it when Lucy interrupted me.

“Let me heat that up some, Cleve,” she asked and cast a spell to heat the entire piece of meat. On kneeling, I found it to be pleasantly warm and began slicing off small pieces. On finishing cutting it up into small chunks, I was ready to toss them into the cages but was interrupted by Susie.

“Kits need outside. Need PT. No good stay in home,” she sent to me.

“How do we keep them from getting away?” I sent to her.

“Clare, me watch. Is okay,” she sent to me. The others had also heard this, and Lucy cast a large ward around the area to keep the Kits in and the other Tigers out. The Monk started opening the cages closest to the ground then. Three kits emerged from the first one, a male and two females. Susie greeted them and washed each one with her tongue. The second cage produced two Kits, a male and a female. Clare washed each of them. I had deposited some of the still warm meat on the ground for each group, and they quickly attacked it. The Kits in the first group were eleven or twelve months old. Those in the second group were nine or ten months old.

There were three Kits in the next group released, and they were even younger being some seven or eight months old. They also got washed. The last group had four Kits and they were younger still at maybe four or five months old and were just barely old enough to be eating meat. All of them got washed, but I needed to reduce the size of the pieces of meat they received even more.

One of the older male Kits had taken more than his share and was ready to run off to devour it in hiding, but Bob, who was paying a lot more attention now, stopped him with one of his large paws. He didn’t step on the Kit. He just used the paw to hold it in place. I could just hear him sending something to the Kit.

On being released, the male Kit returned to his sisters and dropped the piece of meat, having only taken a small bite of it. The two females split the remainder fairly evenly. All three moved over to Susie on finishing. She was lying down and they curled up against her and went to sleep. The other older pair went over to Clare on finishing and went to sleep against her.

Bob was also lying down, and the remaining young Kits all moved over to him when they finished eating to sleep against him. The Monk was staring at this in shocked amazement.

The Kits had all been sleeping for a number of minutes when the Monk in a saffron robe who had greeted us in the parking lot arrived. Lucy canceled her ward as he approached, and Sompung moved to speak to him, but it wasn’t necessary.

“Abbot Phry Sampanno will see you now, Colonel,” he told us in very good Standard. “But only you,” he added.

“Very well,” Trish agreed before turning to me.

“Cleve, take care of the Partners and the Kits. I’m not sure how long I’ll be,” she told me before leaving with the Monk. Sompung looked disappointed.

A short time later, Susie had a question for me.

“We go, Kits no have meat?” she sent to me.

“Yes, I’m afraid that’s true,” I sent to her.

A few minutes later, Susie rose and pushed the three Kits that she had been watching over to me. At the same time, Clare was pushing her two Kits over to Natalie. Both female Tigers then looked at Bob, and a few minutes later, Bob rose and carefully moved over to Lucy and pushed her over to the very young Kits that he had been watching, much to Lucy’s surprise.

Right after that, both Susie and Clare ran toward the back wall of the Wat and jumped. They sailed over the two meter (6.5 feet) high wall as if it weren’t there. Even Bob had no trouble jumping over the wall and disappearing into the trees behind the Wat.

“What was that all about?” Natalie asked when they were all gone.

“I don’t know, but I am beginning to suspect that our Partners have communication channels that we Humans aren’t able to listen in on,” I told her to a surprised looks from both her and Lucy.

In the meantime, I had three Kits, that were a year-old or so, now curled up against me, and they had gone back to sleep. Natalie had nearly the same problem. Lucy was even more befuddled, as she had all of the youngest Kits that were also asleep.

“They certainly are cute when they are small,” she said a short time later as she picked up one of the younger Kits.

“Ouch!” she exclaimed a short time later, as she moved the Kit to a different position. “They have very sharp claws even at this age,” she said following that, as she checked her finger.

We sat there for the next three hours before the Colonel returned. We also took a short nap while waiting. Trish looked worn out as she approached us.

“Stay seated,” she said before I could call attention, and came over to sit on the ground beside me. One of the female Kits moved over to her.

“How did it go?” I asked once she was settled.

“That old man is a hard bargainer,” she whispered so that only I could hear her.

“When we got up to the Abbot’s office, he had a video monitor on and in the middle of the large screen, I could see the three of you sitting out here less the Partners. There were also smaller pictures around the center image. They showed our trucks and the guards as well as the Marines at the various buildings and talking to some of the students. They have cameras all over the Wat and probably mikes as well. In fact, they may be listening to our conversation right now.

“Abbot Sampanno speaks very good Standard. He was already aware of the governments’ latest decisions and what they meant. Eventually, I convinced him to change his position on removal of all of the Chinese merchants now that the Woos had been removed from the scene. He took a lot of convincing, and I needed to bring up the facts about the virus and the pandemic. I also needed to point out the effect that the virus and the quarantine would have on the economic situation of the planet. He has a good grasp of economics.

“The final item of discussion was the Kits. He wanted us to take all of them with us now. I finally managed to agree to take the five oldest ones with us now and to return to get the others, if they prove to be enhanced also,” she told me. “I finally managed to convince him that they are just too young presently to be able to tell if they are enhanced,” she added.

“How are they going to feed the remaining Kits?” I asked.

“He said that the younger ones would be able to survive on the gifts of meat that the villagers bring to make merit,” she told me. This was when she looked around and noticed that our Partners were still missing.

“When will Bob, Susie, and Clare be back?” she asked.

“Shortly after you left, they jumped over the wall and disappeared into the trees. They haven’t returned yet. Even Bob was able to sail over that two-meter-high wall,” I told her.

“Any idea of what they are up to?” she asked.

“No, they arranged it between themselves and didn’t say anything to us. I suspect that they are hunting. I also suspect that they have communication channels that we don’t,” I told her. We sat there minding the Kits for another hour. All they did was sleep. Our Partners arrived after an hour or so by coming over the wall just as they had left. Well, not quite as they had left, as each Partner had in their jaws the body of a creature they had taken on their hunt.

Susie and Clare each had a small deer, but Bob had brought back a whole wild boar with 2.5-inch (64 mm) tusks. Well, it had been a whole boar before he had a meal from it. It still looked like it weighed about 450 pounds or so. The Monk, Anutin who had remained with us looked at the deer and said something to Sompung.

“Monk say one deer is Sambar Deer and other is a Barking Deer. The Monks know all of the animals by sight from their wandering,” Sompung told us.

“Meat for Kits,” Susie sent to me after dropping the deer carcass.