Path of the Tiger, стр. 466

He was also surprised at how sharp his vision was; despite the eagle’s distance, he could make out the individual feathers on its body, rushing and rippling with the currents of wind upon which it rode. With a rush of awe he perceived the gleam of fiery life reflected in the eagle’s eye as its head turned briefly toward the conflagration in the distance: the red flames of the setting sun, crowning with beautiful fire the thorny peaks of stone that divided earth and sky on the distant horizon.

‘It is quite a spectacular sunset, is it not?’ the man remarked as he stared out the window. The inferno on the horizon anointed his bushy mane and beard with a halo of golden light, and for a moment he looked like some arcane deity, descended temporarily to this plane from a higher realm.

‘Roar.’

William gasped. Something was definitely not right about this.

‘Now there is something you must know, cub. You are going to look down – no, not yet, don’t look there, do as I say and keep your eyes on me – and you are going to be shocked at what you see, I guarantee you this. However, let me assure you that despite how things may look to your unaccustomed eyes, this is not a nightmare. This is not hell. This is reality. This is your new reality. And while it may seem like something horrifying to you right now, I promise you that it is something you will begin to appreciate, and indeed revel in. Are you ready to see the new you, the fresh body into which you have been born? Are you? Hahaha, no, I don’t think you are, not quite yet … but look you must! So go on, look at yourself!’

With a furiously mounting sense of trepidation, William peered down at his naked body – and immediately he reeled with shock. He scrambled back in a tangle and howled with fear, but the sound that escaped his lips was a roaring growl, a snarl that shook the wooden walls of this eyrie with its savagery. He fell over himself in a tumble of limbs – limbs that were thick with orange and white fur, banded with jagged black stripes.

‘Look at me, look into my eyes, cub,’ the man instructed. ‘You’re panicking, and that is understandable, but it is also unnecessary. Be still, listen to my voice, look into my eyes … Yes, that’s it, be still … Relax … Breathe in a deep, deep breath of this wondrous mountain air. You see why I did not shut your window? Such wonderful air this is! It must be allowed to flow through this room and invigorate us with its crisp freshness. Yes, that’s it, that’s it …  Hold it in your lungs now, calm yourself. You are calmer now? Yes, yes you are, I can see it in your eyes. And by the Great Mother, what glorious eyes they are! You are magnificence taken physical form, a god of the forest made flesh incarnate! If you could only see yourself through my eyes, cub, you would be revelling in the wonder that is your new body! By all the energies of the universe, every one of these rebirths that I witness remains as awe-inspiring and miraculous as ever! I must bow down and thank the Great Mother for bringing you to us!’

The man got down on his knees, closed his eyes and whispered what sounded like some sort of incantation in a strange, unintelligible language. He then got up and walked over to William, keeping his movements slow and deliberate as he did.

‘Now you must listen to me, tiger. There is much for you to learn, very much. The first thing that I will tell you – which may seem like an obvious thing, but one of which you must be reminded nonetheless – is that you are, in this form, very, very powerful, and very dangerous, both to yourself and to others. Hold up your paw, or your hand, if you prefer me to refer to it as such.’

William, whose mind was aflutter with a riotous madness of confusion, had no other option but to do what this man said, so with a trembling arm he complied and lifted up his massive right paw.

‘Bare your claws. Don’t think about how to do it, just do it. Your subconscious mind will know.’

Somehow William managed to bare his claws instantly, noticing at once that each one was the size of a large man’s finger, and as sharp as any dagger.

‘Those blades of yours will cut deep as any knife, and with one swipe you could tear a man’s face off of his skull,’ the man said gravely. ‘Make no mistake cub, those are deadly weapons attached to your hands. Even deadlier though, are your teeth. You now possess in your neck and jaw muscles capable of crushing a buffalo’s spine, and combining that bite strength with those enormous canine teeth in your mouth, you could end a man’s life in seconds. Even the strongest men will seem like mere children in comparison to your physical prowess. But this is what I must explain to you: you must use this power wisely. This gift has not been bestowed on you in order that you may fight, oppress and dominate. Nay, my cub, nay! We have been given these powers in order to reconnect to a time that was lost when humankind first divorced themselves from the natural world. We have been given a key, my boy, a key! A key to the doorway that will lead our mortal brethren off of the destructive and ruinous path onto which their civilisations have caused them to stray. And stray so far they have, so very far from their beautiful and humble roots, which were as custodians of the natural world, not as its exploiters and slave masters, which sadly is the manner in which they currently