“LET ME GO! I SAID LET ME GO GABRIEL.” A young Gonten is fighting wildly to break free of the man holding on to him.
These two along with a few other members of the were-tiger race desperately ran from their village built over those 7 years. The same years when feeling their first home under attack similarly by the humans.
Gonten awakens halfway through questioning the matter at first what was going on, but soon understands that the group of people he is with are running for their life in a way.
Being there was in the forest and not in the village anymore, the feeling back at the hut when his mother was talking in a way that wasn’t like her character, and with this as well it just makes the feeling even more true.
“Gonten forgive me, but I can't allow that we are to get as far away from the village as possible,” Gabriel says, paining the man to have to run instead of fight.
“No, my mother is back in the village. She has to come with us, we can’t just leave her back in the village. I know something wrong is going on and I won’t run from it like you and the others.”
“This is what she wanted for you and others to flee while she and those of the brave fight head-on with the enemy attacking. I would have been among them as well, but your mother entrusted me with watching and keeping you alive for when the time is right.”
“No! I'm going back and you're not going to keep me from my mother. If that means, I have to bite you then that's just what I’m going to do in getting out.”
Gonten shows no mercy by having those sharp teeth of his bite down hard on Gebriel's arm. Drawing blood from it as some get into the kid's month coming to understand the taste of that iron flavor.
The man cries out from the pain when no longer able to keep a hold of the boy breaking free and running in the direction of the village.
“GONTEN! Stop it, you can’t go back, there isn’t anything you can do against what is already done.” Gabriel tells the boy that this is much of the truth.
He goes after him able to keep up with the younger blood putting the effect in getting more speed into his legs to reach out in grabbing Gonten and then slamming him face forward into the dirt ground while keeping himself on top.
“No! Don’t… stop me… Gabriel… I will seriously hurt you if you don’t get off me right now.” Gonten warns the man that he doesn’t want to hurt unless necessary.
“That is just what you get if you dare to go back to the village and put yourself into the mouth of the beast.”
Gabriel fights to keep the boy done seeking to have him use up all that energy, but it wasn’t going to happen anything soon when Gonten fought back harder than ever.
From such a young cub Gonten is proving himself to be more stubborn than usual when starting to make progress in lifting a bit of his body away from the ground. Gabriel wasn’t at the time using much of his strength to go easy on the kid because of how much loss this boy's life had suffered.
Yet if he has to be this boy's enemy tonight then so be it as Gabriel will take the hatred head-on to keep Gonten. Even if that is to mean the blame for stopping the boy from saving his mother will always be upon him for it.
“Boy you got a lot to learn about strength, we were-tigers know when to use it well and to go all out with it this is where you come to learn what a full power strength of a were-tiger is.” Gabriel tells Gonten.
His muscle vines appear showing how Gabriel was seriously putting more pressure on keeping him pinned down to the ground.
“Stop it! You're going to hurt him.” One female were-tiger kid says speaking out to defend someone she cares about.
Two other male were-tiger kids share the same feeling being the three of them are Gonten friends whenever free they would play together. They look to be ready to jump in to help their friend out, but the much older were-tiger adults get in the way to keep them from doing the same to what must go on between them alone.
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“Better for him to hurt and feel pain than dead and feel nothing at all. Do you hear me? You have to be alive instead of throwing your life away by going back.” Gabriel says.
“You are the one to feel pain here, not me.”
Gonten was able to do it, pushing back to send Gabriel off of him, something catching this man off guard with little impression in making it happen.
Soon afterwards Gonten didn't hold back to send a kick right into Gabriel's guts. He endured the pain and responded with a non-hold-back punch straight striking right into the face.
Sending the poor boy flying a bit backward into the ground, taking a moment there before Gonten got up slowly feeling that his nose at the time was broken given how much blood was coming out. Yet the boy didn’t care rage was filling him and the pain with the blood didn’t matter at that moment.
“You want to get back to the village that badly then come on and take me on cause it's going to have to be the only way, you got that,” Gabriel tells him, making it clear what has to be done at this point.
“FINE! THEN I JUST DO IT DON’T BLAME ME FOR MESSING YOU UP BADLY.”
“Don’t worry kid, myself isn’t going to be concerned about that, I much rather care about your well-being when this is over.”
Gonten roars like the wild beast he is and charges toward Gabriel to go over to meet him halfway. Being the first one to make another hit easy because of how angry Gonten was at the time to allow this when the fist slid against his face.
“This is another lesson, you will have to teach young Gonten that anger can be a power, but it can also blind one's focus when facing the enemy. Let their enemy have the chance to end their life.” Gabriel says.
Then came a knee to the guts at the next second showing those around watching that man planning to give this kid everything like when facing up against an enemy to the death.
Gonten fell to the ground in front of Gabriel looking down to see how pathetic he was making the fight be.
“Come on, shaming your mother with all that training you did was something you didn’t take to heart.”
“SHUT UP!” Gonten takes the turn in attacking using his claws to draw blood when close to have them scratch at the right thigh.
Yet in return received a foot to the face, but during the moment used his right-hand claws to dig and slide down along the leg. Gabriel felt his left leg skin get broken spilling some blood, he took a step or two back to take the time for a few seconds of a pause looking at the boy's face and what the man had done to it so far.
The expression Gonten was making on that same face was now one who was working fast to control their anger in a fight. Now it seems the words about holding the leash on one anger were being put to the test.
Then he charges at the man again repeating the same outcome to happen this way as a punch was thrown to meet a face but doesn’t happen. Gonten had made sure this time, he wasn’t going to get hit like the last time reaching a close enough personal space in performing an uppercut on Gabriel.
Gonten thought for a single second of a small victory for him when paying this man back for hurting his face with one punch and the other a kick.
It soon cut short when his forehead was met by another when Gabriel made that attack taking the boy off guard by it. Luckily, he didn’t fall to the ground once more, only went backwards a few steps needing to collect himself to get back to focusing on what was going on.
“Are you kidding, you underestimate me Gonten, I had better opponents throw at me far better striking punches than yours, including your father, I can tell you are yet to be at his level and that is why, I will give another chance to end it as it is and let us move on before this situation and place we are at becomes dangers to stay in.” Gabriel is trying to seek a peaceful end to their fight having a feeling further on going and the boy is just going to keep on getting hurt till the whole body is damaged.
“No… I’m not…. Going to stop now…. I have to get back to the village…. Have to save my mother.”
“Gonten, I pain myself to keep on telling you this, but going back is not possible, there is nothing to be done. If you don’t believe it, then look back and see what is in the night sky.”
Gonten does look back to see what it could be knowing well that he isn’t trying a cheap trick, it isn't the were-tiger way. When looking up at the sky there is a black smoke flowing upwards in the distance from the current location the group is in and everyone there has no hard time understanding what it means to them.
“No, it can’t be the Village, the village is burning.” One random were-tiger person says this among the group.
That is when they began to let out their emotions of sadness knowing that their home was gone and destroyed like the last.
Gonten was silent, but not his eyes when they started to leak their tears coming down his cheeks and his hands bawl up tightly enough to bleed red as small drips fell to the ground drop by drop.
“Understand this Gonten, you weren't born until the aftermath of when our home in those eastern lands was attacked just like tonight. We had that same rage you are feeling right at this moment.” Gabriel talks to the kid.
“Gabriel… please there might be a chance…. To save those back at the village…. My mother m she got to ....”
“GONTEN ENOUGH! I can understand wanting to save those back in the village, but there is no reason to do that seeing the smoke in the air. It is gone, the humans are burning everything to the ground. If that is happening, then the ones who stood back aren't alive anymore. Yet you want to keep ignoring my words of warning then go ahead make your way to the village and let their sacrifice be put to waste in saving us a good time to get as far away from the village.”
After saying that to him, he awaits to see if Gonten is going to run back to the village. A minute goes by, and he and everyone see the boy fall to his knees going into a full state of breaking down crying with the loudest volume of his despair to be hard around.
Knowing Gabriel to be right is what further fills the anger while at the moment hitting his fists to the ground caring not if they get hard. He was about to slam it down again, but it was grabbed and kept from hitting the ground by Gabriel.
“Stop it, save that energy for the journey ahead for us as we must now keep on moving further. Seek out a new place to settle for a time till the day comes when we can push back by making them pay.” Gabriel says to him.
“Why… Gabriel is this happening to us, what could have been done to lose our home again.”
“Nothing is what we did kid, but it is more like what we are and how humans see us as threats and monstrous beasts to not live in the same world as them.”
Gonten works to get himself off the ground when taking his arm back from the man looking forward to where the smoke is coming from. Moving one step forward to stand an inch in front of Gabriel as he gets a good look at the boy's back.
“Then we have to do the same to show the humans what happens when they attack a beast. Especially when taking away a tiger home it is just going to give the beast to take theirs and much more that they hold to value. So, humans would feel great despair at what this feeling that we were-tiger are forced upon to feel in our hearts.”