Chapter 19
The Tiger's Game
"Well, this is the place," said Oliver. "Anything from the bracelet, Lily?"
Lily glanced down at the bracelet and then shook her head, replying, "No reaction."
It was around Seven at night and Lily and the gang were out near the music building, here to look for the bronze tiger statue that Adwin Jacobs had said was alive and took his singing talent away. At this time, there was scarcely anyone else around because it was dinner time, making now the perfect time for Lady Sapphire to work some magic without being seen.
"I don't see anything out of the ordinary here," said Viv. She and her brother, Eddie, scanned their surroundings with their hands cupped over their eyes.
"Yeah, all's quiet," said Eddie. "Is this really the right place?"
"Well, there's the music building over yonder," Oliver said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder towards the round building behind him. The lights shining at the base of the building exposed its true white color while the top was shrouded in black night. "We should be close. Let's look around a little bit more. If this case is anything like the last two, then there must be a secret magical entrance to some underground chamber. I don't see how else a ten-foot tall metal tiger could just move around unnoticed."
"Speaking of that tiger," Eddie said as the gang slowly strolled further down the road, "it's pretty horrible what that thing did. I couldn't help but feel sorry for Adwin. I can't imagine not being able to do something you love anymore. I know if it had been me and I could not draw anymore, every day would be like a punch in the gut."
"Then don't you think you should hang back this time, Eddie?" said Lily. "If we do run into that tiger Adwin mentioned, you really could end up not being able to draw anymore."
"Oh, I'm not worried," said Eddie. "Even if that does happen, I just know that we'll get it back. After all, we've got the great Lady Sapphire with us!"
"Oh, don't you start with that too!" Lily moaned.
"Come on, Lily," said Oliver. "Are you seriously going to say that there's not one part of you deep down that's enjoying the whole mystery girl hero bit?"
"Not one bit," Lily said. "I'm all for helping people who need it, but it's just . . ."
"Just what?" asked a curious Viv.
"Well . . ." Lily hesitated, struggling to find the right words. "It's just . . . the pressure, you know? From everyone's expectations. Just imagining letting people down can be painful. And all that attention? I just don't do well in the spotlight's all I'm saying. Does that make any sense, guys?"
There was no answer.
"Guys?"
Lily turned around, but there was no one behind her. She turned three-hundred sixty degrees, but didn't find a single soul.
She called out again, "Guys? Where are you? Are you hiding right now? Come on, this isn't funny!"
Still, there was no answer. Not even a peep.
"Just where did everyone go?" Lily wondered aloud. She didn't notice them go anywhere. They all just disappeared.
Or could it be LILY was the one who disappeared?
As she looked around, she noticed something unusual about her surroundings. Everything was faintly blue. The roadway was blue. The buildings were blue. Even the patches of grass illuminated beneath lampposts were blue. And when she took a look at her own hand, she saw that her skin was also covered in a shade of blue.
"Could it be a trick of the lights?" she wondered. She realized that maybe was not the case when she heard a low, beastly growl and turned around to see a tiger slowly creep out from behind a building.
It was exactly how Adwin described it: unnaturally huge and made completely out of dark bronze metal. Earthy orange light shined where its eyes should be. And each time it took a step, each time its muscles rippled at the slightest, there was metallic screeching. The screeching continued until the tiger finally came to a stop right in front of Lily and sat down.
Lily looked up to its eyes and swallowed. The tiger was both taller and thicker than the parrot in its giant form.
"I have been expecting you, Lady Sapphire," the tiger said.
It took a little while before Lily spoke up. "Y-you have?" she said.
The tiger nodded. "Of course. The Schemer predicted you would come for me. I believe you wish to take something form me."
She felt like she had heard the tiger's voice somewhere before, but she couldn't quite place her finger on where. But that wasn't important right now. Nor was it important hearing the tiger mention the Schemer, who Lily knew was behind this, again. What was important was getting back what the tiger had stolen from Adwin.
The look of distress on his face was still fresh in Lily's mind and the memory filled her with determination.
"That's right," she said, giving the tiger a fierce glare. "I'm here to take something from you, something that didn't belong to you in the first place. You stole something very precious from Adwin and I will get it back!"
The bronze tiger laughed. "Ha! Brave words, little girl. Just try and defeat me if you can!"
"Name your game," Lily said.
"The game is two-way tag," the tiger said. "It's simple. Each of us will try to tag the other. First one to get tagged, loses. We can use magic however we like, but projectiles do not count. Shields are okay. If I lose, whatever I have taken will be returned. But if you lose - "
"Let me guess," Lily cut in. "You'll take my shoes?"
"No," said the tiger. "You will pay with your friends talents!"
Flashback to something Eddie said just a few minutes ago: "I know if it had been me and I could not draw anymore, every day would be like a punch in the gut."
Lily's blood ran cold and she yelled, "You leave my friends out of this! If you want to take someone's talent, take mine instead!"
But the tiger refused. "To you, other people are more important than yourself. Because of that, paying with other people's precious talents is way more valuable than paying with your own."
"Then - !"
The tiger cut Lily off and added, "It is too late. I will not negotiate. And if you turn back or refuse to play, I will go after your friends anyway."
"That's not fair!" Lily complained.
"Child, life is not fair. Now what will it be?" asked the tiger. "Will you take my challenge? Or will you forfeit your friends' talents without a fight?"
Lily bit on her lower lip to keep from screaming. Panicked, she thought to herself, What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? If I take the challenge and lose, Eddie and the others will lose their talents! But if I do nothing, they'll lose their talents anyway!
She knew that the only way out was to accept the tiger's challenge and win. But she had no idea if she could actually beat the tiger. Especially now that she was alone, with no backup. In fact, it was only thanks to her friends' help that she foiled the Schemer's other schemes to make trouble.
Getting impatient, the tiger spoke up. "Choose! You have five seconds. Four seconds. Three seconds. Two -!"
Left with no more time to think, Lily shouted, "Okay! Okay! I accept your challenge! Happy?"
A low, rumbling purr escaped the tiger's throat. "Verily."
Lily never heard that word before, but she guessed it meant "Yes".
The tiger crouched down so that its eyes were on level with Lily's. It whipped its tail between them, showing Lily a big, gold coin or medallion balanced precariously at the tip.
"We start when the coin hits the ground," the tiger said.
Lily nodded and grimly replied, "Got it."
"Ready?"
Honestly, no, thought Lily. But she saw little point in telling the tiger that and merely nodded.
The tiger whipped its tail up, tossing the coin in the air. Round and round it spun before finally dropping back down. But Lily didn't pay the coin any attention. Her eyes were locked onto the tiger's. They were both crouched down, ready to spring any second. And then -
Ding!
The coin hit the ground and bounced.
Lily jumped and the tiger pounced.
Lily threw herself to the right to dodge the tiger's attack, hit the ground and rolled. She picked herself up just as the tiger sprung at her again.
Lily ducked down and the tiger flew over her head, landing behind her. She twisted around with a plan to make the bracelet conjure a fishing net to ensnare the metal beast.
"Net!" she shouted.
Light flashed from her bracelet and out flew a square-shaped mesh big enough to blanket a grownup elephant. But before it could be ensnared, the bronze beast let out a mighty roar strong enough to blow the net away, back where it came.
Lily was already running around the tiger before the net hit the ground and she dove to slap the tiger's right side. But in the blink of an eye, the tiger disappeared, only to reappear right behind her. She would have been tagged before she knew what hit her, if the tiger had not roar and alerted her to turn around.
As soon as she saw the giant paw drop down over her head, she jumped back, falling painfully on her behind.
"Ow!"
She bounced back onto her feet and ran, stopping to turn around just as the tiger crouched down to leap.
Again and again, Lily and the tiger leaped and jumped around each other, almost as if they were dancing. For a creature as big as a house and made entirely of heavy metal, the tiger was fast. It always disappeared, only to appear right behind Lily whenever she went on the attack.
It's toying with me, she thought. It was painfully clear to the Lady Sapphire that the tiger could have tagged her anytime it wanted, but chose not to. It was also painfully clear, why.
"Come on, come on! What's the matter, slowpoke?"
The tiger taunted her as it jumped and jumped, and jumped every time Lily swiped and swiped, and swiped.
"Too slow!"
Lily tried binding the creature using chains of blue steel she commanded the bracelet to conjure. The chains tightly wound themselves around the tiger, who sat without resistance. But then -
"Too weak!"
- with a simple flex of its muscles, the tiger shattered the chains and sent the pieces flying. One of those pieces flew straight into Lily's forehead.
"Ow!'
She took a step backwards and slipped over a line of bricks that separated the road and the courtyard that fronted a nearby building, falling onto the grass. And then, as soon as Lily picked herself up, she found her nose just an inch away from the tiger's. Hot air brushed against her cheeks when the tiger snorted.
"Game over," it said.
Lily's heart sunk and she despaired at her failure and the thought of her friends paying the price for it.
The tiger inched its face closer. Lying on the ground, there was no way Lily could retreat. All she could do was watch as her loss became final.
But just before its nose could boop Lily's, the tiger stopped and pulled back.
Lily was relieved that the living, bronze statue wasn't breathing on her face anymore, but she was also confused. Why did the tiger suddenly stop?
Following its gaze to the left, she soon found her answer. Right over the middle of the road, there was a flash of blue light. And then a jagged crack appeared, as if the air itself was made of glass. There was a second flash of light, and the crack got bigger. It was clear that something on the other side of that crack was trying to get in.
The tiger turned its gaze back to Lily and said, "Luck is on your friends' side today. We will call this game a draw. But although your friends have been spared, I will not stop taking other people's talents. Keep your eyes and ears open, Lady Sapphire, and know that the victims of tomorrow are your fault."
Done speaking to Lily, the tiger moved between her and the crack in space. Past the bronze statue's legs, she could see the crack shatter and in burst what looked like an assembly of stone cylinders in the shape of a man.
Named the Stone Man by Lily on the spot, it stood almost as tall as the tiger on all fours. Its shell was dark gray like the pavement it stood on. And from the rectangle opening on its head piece where eyes would be, Lily could see two wispy balls of light.
The Stone Man let out a man-like, but loud, echoing roar. And then it, the bronze tiger and everything else in front of Lily was covered in blinding, white light.
The next thing Lily knew, she was sitting on the grass, the world no longer covered by blue, and her friends came running over from down the left road.
"Oh, thank goodness we found you!" Viv said.
"Where've you been, Lily?" asked Eddie. "You suddenly disappeared. Did something happen?"
"Questions and answers will have to wait," Oliver cut in. "We had a run-in with your uncle earlier while looking for you, Lily. We tried to pretend everything was okay, but I'm sure he must have sensed something amiss. So we need to make ourselves scarce and fast."
Lily said nothing and just stared at the empty space the tiger and the Stone Man had been.
Oliver frowned. "Lily? I say, are you listening?"
He exchanged concerned looks with the twins. And then Viv walked over and crouched down next to her roommate.
"Lily? Is everything okay?"
Finally, Lily turned, looked at her friends and shook her head.
"No, Viv," she said. "Everything is not okay."
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