Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Author:Jodi Lynn Anderson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harper Collins, Inc.
Published: 2012-07-02T22:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-ONE

If I’d never really known Tiger Lily was an animal, I knew it now. Tiger Lily was a beast, and the boys were too, and they were beasts together.

She resisted, at first, giving in to all the things the lost boys gave in to. The way they lay on the leaves for hours while the villagers would have been hard at work cultivating their crops, making improvements on their homes, and squirreling away food for the rainy season. The way they covered themselves in mud when they got hot, while the Sky Eaters liked to clean and groom themselves three or four times a day. How they pushed each other out of the way when they wanted to get somewhere and how they sometimes grunted instead of spoke. But it all worked on her, and slowly she let herself get dirty and unruly too.

It was easiest to slip away right after dinner, when villagers were busy catching up with each other and broken into their separate, small groups. So, though from time to time she was able to get away for an afternoon, evening was burrow time. She could stay away till long after the Sky Eaters were asleep, and those who noticed she was gone, like Pine Sap, or Tik Tok, would assume she was avoiding Giant.

I fell into the habit of looking after the boys. What else could I do? Curly had long since lost interest in smushing me, so I got bored of simply flicking my earwax into his food or hiding briars near the groin of his leggings. I started to clean up after them as much as I could. I moved the little knickknacks they left lying around to places where they’d be easiest to find and use. I joined in when they chased each other, though no one ever noticed when I caught them, landing on their shoulders. Still, it was intoxicating to imagine being a part of their lives, even if they didn’t think of me that way.

I watched Tiger Lily eat with the boys, sloppy and greedy, until they all had stomachaches. It wasn’t unheard of for Tootles to eat until he vomited. She covered herself in leaves like they did to take after-dinner naps, emerging with a muddy, dirty smell that she always had to wash off at the seaside before she went home. One evening I heard a foreign sound, like a boar choking, and discovered it was the sound of Tiger Lily’s laugh. From then on, Tootles made her laugh often, breathlessly, something I had never seen in all my years of watching her. Nibs, inquisitive but never pushy, could make her soften and almost open up about herself. She told him about Tik Tok, and together they wondered about what had ever happened to her parents. With the boys, she liked to sit with her legs splayed boy-style as they did while they ate or lounged, and no one seemed to notice or care. I suspected she was an inch away from running around with her shirt off too.

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