Brother Tiger says "Hello, little Ash."

"Greetings, Brother Tiger."

Lizzy says "Um, are we fighting?"

"No, hopefully not!"

Ekard says "Mama, scared?"

Windy says "I certainly am!"

"Not scared, just cautious."

Brother Tiger says "What brings you back to my forest?"

"Great Mother Wolf requested that I go around making new sacred beasts. According to the map she gave me there should be a beast in your forest that is ready to evolve."

Brother Tiger says "Ah, you must mean the snake."

"Since it is your forest I figured it would be polite to talk to you about it first. After all, it will mean sharing your forest with another sacred beast."

Brother Tiger says "Not really, it would take hundreds of years for a new sacred beast to reach my level. Besides, I happen to agree with Great Mother Wolf, we need more sacred beasts."

"Alright, do you know where I can find this snake?"

Brother Tiger says "Yes, she is in the southern part of the forest. Just look for the snake with two heads."

"A two headed snake? That should be hard to miss!"

Brother Tiger says "True, she is easy to find. However, there is another matter I could use your help with."

"Oh, what's going on?"

Brother Tiger says "Recently, a group of bandits has been using my forest to hide from the human authorities. Normally, I would just wipe them out, but somehow they know when I am coming and flee the forest."

"So, they have something that can either detect you specifically or sacred creatures in general?"

Brother Tiger says "Basically, if they flee from you then I will know it is sacred creatures. If they don't flee from you then it is me specifically."

"If they don't flee from me, what do you want me to do?"

Brother Tiger says "Kill them all."

"Alright, are they in the forest right now?"

Brother Tiger says "No, they left a few days ago. So they should be returning soon. I have my children watching every inch of the forest's edge. As soon as they return we will know."

"Okay, we will take care of them for you."

We follow Brother Tiger to the middle of the forest and then wait for news of the bandits. For them to dare to use the forest like this, they are either very brave or amazingly stupid. We have only been waiting a few hours when Brother Tiger informs us the bandits are back.

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After getting the location Lizzy and I head out, leaving Ekard with Windy. When we get close to the area we are stopped by one of the normal tigers. It can't communicate but it shows us where the bandit's camp is.

"Okay, Lizzy, circle around to the outside of the forest, I will drive them to you."

Lizzy says "Alright, we are killing everyone?"

"All the bandits, if they have prisoners we will rescue them."

Lizzy says "Alright. Give me a few minutes to circle them."

"Okay, I will move in five minutes."

Once Lizzy moves off I count out five minutes and then move towards the bandit camp. I move slowly and carefully, expecting them to have sentries out at least. Yet I don't find any, it seems all they have is patrols, which is fairly sloppy.

Bandit1 says "This forest gives me the creeps!"

Bandit2 says "Relax, as long as the beast stays quiet we are safe."

Bandit1 says "That thing can really sense the lord of the forest?"

Bandit2 says "Sure can! How do you think we have survived so long?"

'So, that's what it is, they have a beast that can sense Brother Tiger!'

Bandit1 says "When do we get a turn with the captives?"

"Never!"

Bandit2 says "What? AHHH!!"

Bandit1 says "Attack! We are under att...erk!"

After cutting down the two bandits I slowly walk further into the camp. The cowards among the bandits immediately start running to get out of the forest, but the cocky ones come at me. I stand and wait, letting them surround me, then as they attack I use whirlwind and kill them all.

Soon I can hear screams coming from the edge of the forest, looks like the cowards found Lizzy. With her speed, no matter how they run, they are done for, she won't let any escape. So I focus on finishing off the ones still in the camp, and that's when I find the prisoners.

Over a dozen young women, and they have already been treated brutally. So I release them and heal them as best I can, unfortunately healing doesn't help emotionally. Other than that I really don't know what I can do for them, so I go back to killing bandits.

Luckily, the women help each other, which leaves me free to head over to the cage. My curiosity has been eating at me ever since the bandits mentioned the beast. The cage isn't very big, the beast can't be all that big either, so I don't hesitate to open the cage.

INside the cage is a cub, a lion cub from the look of it, or at least something like a lion. He is tiny and must still be pretty much a baby, but he is really cute, like a kitten. I just can't help myself, so I lift him out of the cage and start petting him.

Instantly I have to fight the urge to hold him up and name him Simba, but I still end up with the song in my head. At first he seems scared of me, but he quickly calms down under the petting. Soon he is cuddling against my hand and I can feel his body vibrate as he purrs.

Then suddenly the purring stops and he tries to bury himself in my arms as if he is scared. Looking around I can see Brother Tiger approaching, somehow he fits through the trees. The fact that he doesn't knock any trees down must be one of those cat things.

Brother Tiger says "Relax, little one, I won't hurt you."

"He is how they knew when you were coming. Although, I have no idea how they got him!"

Brother Tiger says "Neither do I, I don't recognize his breed. He must have come from a long way away from here."

"He is still really scared of you, so I'm guessing leaving him here won't work."

Brother Tiger says "No, different breeds of cats don't always get along. He would probably not do very well here."

"I guess I will have to take him with me then."

Lizzy says "Take who with us?"

"This little guy."

Lizzy says "He is adorable! But what is with you and adopting cute things?"

"I don't know, but I can't help it! I can't just leave the little guy all alone."

Lizzy says "Well, I certainly hope that this little guy and Ekard get along. Otherwise this trip is going to get really noisy!"

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that!"

Lizzy says "I guess we will find out soon enough. What are we going to do with the humans?"

Brother Tiger says "Let them go, they are not enemies of the forest."

"We will send them back to their village, with whatever else the bandits stole."