CAUTION: This story contains implied sexual activity between minors, violence, and profanity. Reader discretion is advised.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, events and incidents in this book are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Assam Chai
by IndigoNeko
Chapter 16
Thursday, July 14th, 2016
Alex hefted the gun cases and piled them into the back of hir mom’s SUV, then turned to wave at Ginnie as the thrush climbed into her dad’s car. “Later, Ginnie!” shi called as hir mom tossed the others into the back and shut the trunk.
Together the two tigers walked over to the Owens’ cabin to pick up the twins, who had grown fond of playing with Sarah and Dafydd’s daughter Anna... fond enough to throw tantrums when they had to leave. The three-year-old lynx wasn’t quite so enthralled with Nick and Kate as they were with her, but that was probably to be expected.
They didn’t wait long after knocking on the front door before Sarah answered it, pulling the door open. “Well that was a short session,” the older lynx said.
Alex snorted. “Mom only gave us a hundred rounds each this time,” shi said, stepping inside.
“Only a hundred rounds?” Sarah asked, closing the door behind Raenne as the older tigress stepped inside as well. “So what did you do if you couldn’t turn targets into confetti?”
“Ginnie and I had a contest. Thirty rounds per target,” Alex said irritably, walking back through the cabin living room towards the kid’s room.
“Shi’s upset that Ginnie won,” hir mom whispered.
Alex flicked an ear at that. “Not by much,” shi retorted.
“Ooops. Sorry,” Raenne apologized. “You weren’t supposed to hear that, kiddo.”
Alex snorted, pushing the kid’s room open. The scene was absolute chaos, with colored blocks all over the floor. Anna was chasing Kate and screaming “Give it back!” while Kate was bounding around on all fours with some kind of blue cloth in her mouth. A moment later Kate crashed into the pile of blocks in front of Nick, scattering even more of them across the room.
“I can’t leave them alone even ten seconds,” Sarah muttered, standing in the doorway. She took three quick steps and grabbed Kate by the sides, picking her up. The little tiger cub glared defiantly, growling and shaking her head as ferociously as a six-month-old kitten could manage.
“Mama, mama! Katy took my ribbon!” Anna yelled, running up to grab Sarah’s leg.
Meanwhile Alex padded over to hir baby brother and knelt in front of him. He’d started wailing at the top of his lungs. Shi gently tapped the top of his head with a fingerpad, trying to keep a slow, steady rhythm. After about five seconds he stopped screaming and opened his eyes, staring at hir. Shi held out one of the blocks he’d been playing with. He looked down at it, and after a moment picked it up. “Hey, Mom?” shi called over hir shoulder. “It worked.”
“How’d you do that?” Sarah asked. “He had a screaming fit on Tuesday and all I could do was wait it out.”
“We think he might be slightly autistic, somewhere on the high end of the spectrum,” Raenne said, prying the ribbon out of Kate’s mouth and giving it back to Anna. “I was looking it up on the computer this morning. The best thing for them is to reduce the amount of sensory stimulus and to use non-verbal or physical cues. The screaming is an involuntary stress response, not actual misbehavior, so scolding them has no effect. You’ve just gotta distract them or just let them be until they calm down.”
Alex held out another block for Nick as he started stacking them again, then turned to face them. “Yep. The website said that sometimes touch and rhythm can work as a distraction, so I tried tapping his head. It worked, so...”
“...so he’s probably on the spectrum,” Raenne finished with a sigh. “Guess we’ll have to bring it up with their pediatrician. And we won’t know just how bad it is until he’s older.”
“I’m sorry,” Sarah said, frowning down at the now completely calm tiger cub. “That’s gonna be hard.”
“Eh, I’m not too worried,” Raenne said with a shrug. “The bad cases are usually non-verbal, and Nick started speaking weeks before Kate did. He’s just got some quirks. That might change as he gets older though. We’ll see.”
“Mrs. Owen? Do you know what Mr. Owen is building over by the range?” Alex asked.
“Hmm... You could go ask him. He’s out in the barn right now,” Sarah suggested.
“Not right now, Alex,” Raenne replied. “We’ve gotta get to the house; the ArmorCore panels came in and I’ve gotta make sure that the construction crew knows how to install them correctly.”
“ArmorCore?” Sarah asked, raising both eyebrows while handing Kate over to the tigress.
“Antiballistic wall panels,” Raenne explained, carefully accepting the kitten, who was in a particularly bitey mode at the moment. “They have to be installed between the frame and the drywall, because they’re not fire resistant and rather difficult to paint.”
“Uhh... Bulletproof walls? Seriously?” the lynx asked, patting her daughter’s head now that the toddler had calmed down.
“Yep,” Raenne said, trying to keep Kate still. “It was hir idea,” she said, glancing over at Alex, who was helping Nick rebuild his pile of blocks.
“Aren’t those expensive?” Sarah asked, gently rubbing her daughter’s head-fur.
“Very. But my brother’s the one who’s paying for ‘em,” the tigress said, smiling happily. “Alex, can you bring Nick?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Alex said, waiting until Nick placed the block he was holding. Shi tapped his shoulder to get his attention, then picked him up and followed hir mom back out into the living room. Both of the twins started crying the moment they realized they were leaving.
Back in the play room, Sarah knelt and hugged her adopted daughter, who was sniffling sadly. “Don’t worry, Anna. They’ll be back again next week,” she said, comforting the toddler. The older lynx narrowed her eyes as she watched Raenne and Alex carry Nick and Kate back through the cabin. Sarah wondered exactly what the tigress had meant, saying that her brother was paying for ‘em. Making a dead man pay for something was one heck of a trick.
__________________________________________________
Friday, July 15th, 2016
Kayson hefted his duffel bag out of the trunk of Mrs. Munsee’s sedan and shut the lid before following the two coal skinks up the stairs to their apartment. After shutting the front door and locking it, he knelt to take off his cleats just as Jared was doing. He looked up as Mrs. Munsee cleared her throat.
Miriam had stopped in the middle of the living room and was looking down at the two of them. “I’d forgotten to ask... did you ever decide to tell your parents?”
“Tell them what?” Kayson asked, blinking up at her.
“You know... that you’re, uh, gay,” the older skink said.
“Oh. Yeah,” Kayson said, nodding slightly before looking back down at his cleats, using his claws to loosen the laces. Even though the shoes were designed for lizards with wide feet, they weren’t as comfortable as going barefoot, and he very much wanted to be out of them. “I told Dad a few weeks ago. Apparently he already knew, but he told me not to tell Mom; to keep it a secret. After Dad’s out of the cast, he said he’d teach me a few things to hide it so that I don’t get bullied at school.”
“Huh. I never thought about that,” Miriam said. “Jared, do you get bullied at school?”
The coal skink pulled off his second cleat and looked up. “Me? No. But nobody at school knows I’m gay besides Kayson and CJ.”
“Hmm. Try to keep it that way,” the older skink said, then turned back to Kayson. “How’s your father doing, by the way?”
“Better,” Kayson replied, taking off one of his cleats. “He doesn’t need the neck brace now and they removed the plates from his collarbone and jaw on Wednesday. They’ll have him in the, uh, ‘hip spica’ cast and arm sling for another two weeks. He’ll still need to use crutches for another two months after they remove the cast though,” he explained before taking off his second shoe.
“How’s your mom handling it? It’s a lot of work to take care of someone with a broken leg like that,” Miriam asked.
“Uh, fine, I guess?” Kayson said, moving his dusty cleats next to Jared’s and standing up. “We’ve got a nurse who comes in a few times a day to help. He’s a great big alligator or crocodile or something. He can literally carry Dad’s wheelchair up and down the stairs while Dad’s sitting in it. But, yeah... umm... Mom’s doing okay, I think. She’s been acting kinda funny the past week, though.”
“How so?” the older coal skink asked, sitting down on her teal-colored sofa.
“She’s been kinda... distracted, I guess?” Kayson said, trying to explain how his mom had been acting. “Like, she’s been sitting around staring into space. Sometimes at the computer, or in the living room.”
“Sounds like she’s got a lot on her mind,” Jared said, hefting his duffel bag.
“Yeah. Maybe I should give her a call,” Miriam said. “You two go take a shower before you get dust all over the house, and leave your uniforms in the bathroom so I can run ‘em through the wash.”
“A shower sounds good. Want to take a shower with me?” Jared said, turning to Kayson with a smirk. “Bow chika wow wow—”
“Jared!” Miriam shouted, covering her eyes.
__________________________________________________
On Friday evening, Raenne ended the karate class slightly early to give Ravi and Ginnie their belt tests. Both of them passed with flying colors, correctly performing all the various kihon and kumite moves that were part of the tests to earn their 9th and 8th Kyu ranks (yellow and orange belts, respectively). Ginnie successfully performed the Heian Shodan kata and Ravi went through the Heian Nidan kata at nearly full speed.
After giving a short ceremony for Ginnie and Ravi, giving the young thrush and tiger their new belts, Raenne dismissed them... but called her daughter over. “Ravi was pretty close to being ready for eighth kyu already, but Ginnie wasn’t even close to being ready for ninth kyu on Monday,” she whispered, standing up and walking with Alex to the edge of the mat. They both turned and bowed towards the front of the dojo before stepping off the mat. “I actually didn’t expect Ginnie to pass. So... Good job, kiddo. You’ve got potential as an instructor.”
“Thanks, Mom,” the young tigress said, hir ears flushing.
“You can’t teach students on your own until you’ve gone through the ISKF instructor trainee program, and that requires you to be twenty-two and be at least third dan rank. But I can have you help students while I’m supervising,” the older tigress said as they walked down the stairs to the lounge. “So I’d like to offer you a job as an assistant instructor.”
“Shouldn’t Dad be doing that?” Alex asked as they reached the lounge.
“He’s not interested in it, to be honest, and someone needs to watch over the twins twenty-four-seven now. They’ve outgrown the play pen. I caught Kate climbing out of it the other day. That’s why your dad wasn’t in class today.”
“Oooh, so that’s why the twins were under the coffee table,” Alex exclaimed.
“When was this?” Raenne asked as they headed for the locker room.
“When I got home last Sunday, after going to Ginnie’s,” shi replied. “You and Dad were, uh, taking a shower.”
“Can’t leave ‘em alone even ten seconds,” Raenne said, echoing what Sarah had said the day before. “Anyway, if you’re willing to help, I desperately need an assistant. Dafydd’s going to earn seventh kyu soon. So once you earn your brown belt, I’d like you to take over teaching the beginner students while I’m teaching the intermediate students,” she said, pushing open the locker room door.
“What about Saturdays?” Alex said, frowning, while following Raenne into the locker room.
“I’ll still take Saturdays. No worries, kiddo,” Raenne replied. “Ravi might get upset with me if I made you work weekends,” she said. The boy in question finished putting on his t-shirt and tilted his head at them. She flashed a smile at him.
“Hmm. Okay. I can do that,” Alex replied, to Raenne’s relief.
“What’s this?” Ravi asked.
“Mom wants me to start teaching the beginner classes,” Alex explained.
“Oooh,” Ravi said, nodding. “I think you could do that. You were pretty good at teaching me and Ginnie.”
“Yeah, you were great,” Ginnie chimed in.
Alex’s ears went flat and shi looked down at the floor, embarrassed. “Thanks,” shi muttered.
“Oh, did you get your cheerleading packet?” Ravi asked, taking out his bike helmet and shutting his locker.
“Yeah, it was in the mailbox when we checked the house this morning,” Alex replied, heading over to hir own locker. “I got all the paperwork filled out already.”
“Good,” Ravi said, nodding with satisfaction.
“You’re doing cheerleading?” Ginnie asked, turning to look at Alex.
“Yeah,” Alex confirmed as shi started taking off hir uniform, clearly not body-shy in the slightest. To be fair, the black Under Armour sports bra and briefs shi was wearing under the gi were less revealing than hir swimsuit.
Raenne turned to her own locker to get dressed while the kids talked. She was glad that Ginnie had come around, becoming friends with Alex. One could never have too many friends.
__________________________________________________
Saturday, July 16th, 2016
After tossing his duffel bag in his bedroom, Kayson stepped back out into the upstairs hallway, walking down towards his parents’ bedroom. He knocked on the door casing, though it was probably unnecessary as his dad had already turned to look at him.
“Come on in,” his dad said, reaching over to pick up the remote from his nightstand and using it to turn off the TV above the dresser. “How’d the game go? Did you have fun at Jared’s afterwards?”
“The game was good, but we lost by three points,” Kayson said, stepping into the room.
“How can it be good if you lost the game?” Heinrich asked, a hint of a smile on his muzzle.
“Cause it was fun,” he replied with a smile, his tail twitching excitedly. “We got three home runs.” Then he frowned. “But the other team did better overall. They did a lot of bunting.”
“I mean, if you can’t make a solid hit, bunting is a good way to ensure that your other team-mates can still run bases,” Heinrich pointed out. “Remember, it’s a team sport. You only win if your team wins, so making sacrifices to help them out can be a good thing. It sounds like that’s a lesson that the other team took to heart.”
“Yeah,” Kayson said, looking down at the polished wood floor. Then he raised his head again. “Anyway, I had fun at Jared’s house. We played a bunch of video games and watched a lot of, uh, Star Wars Rebels.”
Heinrich tilted his head slightly. “I didn’t know you liked Star Wars. I loved the original trilogy when I was a kid.”
Kayson shrugged. “I’ve never watched it before. Jared likes it a lot, though. I was kinda confused at first what was going on, but I figured it out eventually. It’s really complicated.”
“Hmm. It might have helped if you’d watched the original trilogy first,” Heinrich said. “Why don’t we do that? It’s not like we’ve got anything else to do.”
Kayson nodded. “Okay,” he said, walking around to his mom’s side of the bed and climbing up on it. He piled the pillows against the headboard and leaned back against it while his dad messed with the remote. “By the way, do you know why Mom’s been acting weird? She’s been spacing out a lot lately.”
“She has, huh?” his dad said, glancing back at him. “That might be my fault, actually. She found out you’re gay last week and was having a fit over it—”
“Wait,” Kayson interrupted, turning to stare at his dad. “Mom knows?”
Heinrich sighed, turning his head to look Kayson dead in the eyes. “Yes. You weren’t exactly being discreet last Friday night. You could have at least kept your voices down,” he said, irritably, then turned back to the television. “Anyway, your mom was having a fit because she thought Jared had turned you gay. After I told her you were always gay, she started going religious and I straight up told her that I didn’t care what the Bible said about being gay. She got real quiet after that. She might be having a crisis of faith.”
“Is she going to be okay?” Kayson asked, worried.
“Well, I didn’t know she was having one, so we should probably find out,” he said, cupping one hand near his mouth. “Isabel!” he bellowed. “When you’ve got a minute or two free, can you come up here?”
The movie had just started playing when Kayson’s mom finally showed up in the doorway. Heinrich paused the movie.
“I was putting away the dishes,” Isabel said, stepping inside. She glanced at her son with a curious expression and then back at her husband. “What is it?”
“Please, sit down a moment, honey,” Heinrich said, gesturing to the foot of the bed. “Kayson mentioned you’d seemed a bit distracted lately and he was worried about you. I just wanted to know if you’re okay.”
“I’m fine,” she said tersely, remaining standing at the foot of the bed.
“Which means you’re not fine, but you don’t want to talk about it,” Heinrich said, “presumably because Kayson is here.”
Isabel narrowed her eyes, glaring at her husband, but remained silent.
“Is it because he’s gay?” Heinrich asked. “Because if it is, I think this is a conversation he should probably be present for.”
“No,” she spat out, suddenly furious. “It’s because you had the audacity to imply that the Holy Bible itself was full of lies, that the very cornerstone of my faith is a falsehood.” The monitor lizard raised a hand, angrily pointing a claw at her husband. “That Moses only claimed that God had spoken to him, out of expediency. And now those heretical, vile thoughts are the only things that I can think of when I go to church, when I try to pray, and when I lay in bed at night! How am I to know right from wrong without the word of God!?”
Kayson glanced at his father, shaken. He’d never seen his mother so angry before. His father looked just as shocked as he felt. The room was silent as his father’s mouth moved, trying to speak, but unable to. Eventually the older lizard managed to find the words that had eluded him.
“Honey, I’m sorry. I truly didn’t mean to denigrate your faith or to shake your religious beliefs. But... I’m a lawyer. Before I switched to estate planning, I saw some of the worst people that our society can produce. If there’s any one lesson I’ve learned, it’s that people lie, whether through spoken verse or the written word. I wish I wasn’t so jaded...” Heinrich’s voice trailed off for a moment, glancing away, then he looked back up at Isabel.
“But, Honey, you don’t need the Bible to know right from wrong. You’re one of the most virtuous, altruistic, and conscientious people that I know. More so than any pastor, any priest, or any saint that I know of. Somehow you’ve glimpsed the Light of God through a window stained by two thousand years of religious dogma. You already know what’s right and what’s wrong! You need to stop focusing on what’s written in the Bible or prescribed by your pastor and start listening to what God tells you in your heart!”
This time Isabel was speechless, her mouth hanging open as she tried to form a coherent response. Kayson had never seen his mother so quickly mollified after losing her temper either. She looked down at the floor for several seconds, then swallowed and looked back up at them.
“I’m sorry,” Isabel apologized. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper. I just...”
“You don’t need to apologize, my love,” Heinrich said, trying to comfort her. “I’ve given you a crisis of faith. Some anger is fully justified.”
Isabel shook her head. “No. You were right to do what you did. I was so focused on what the Bible said about homosexuality that I wasn’t even thinking about right or wrong... about Good and Evil. Loving someone isn’t evil,” she said, sitting on the foot of the bed and turning to Kayson. “Even if they’re the same sex. You’re a good kid, Kayson. You always have been,” she said, reaching out to rest her hand on his leg. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Mom,” Kayson said, pushing himself up and climbing across the bed. He wrapped his arms around, knowing she needed a hug. She held him tight against her chest, quietly shaking.
__________________________________________________
It was just past noon when Alex walked hir bike up onto the Bassi family’s front porch, parking it next to Ravi’s. Shi took off hir helmet and knocked on the door, then turned to look around the neighborhood while shi waited. The houses all looked the same except for having different color schemes and landscaping. It had the same sort of feel as the neighborhood where Jason lived in the south end of Aspen Glen, only the houses were bigger and newer.
Alex turned back around as the lock turned and the door opened. “Hey Ravi,” shi said, following him inside as he stepped back.
“Hey Alex,” Ravi said, turning to walk back through the living room. “We were just finishing lunch.”
“Hey Alex!” Aruna called from the dining room, waving at hir.
“Hey Aruna,” Alex called back, bending to take off hir shoes. “I’m gonna drop my backpack off in Ravi’s room, then be back down.”
“Okay!”
“Did you already have lunch, dear?” Sevita asked, standing in the archway between the living room and dining room.
“Yes, ma’am,” Alex replied, standing back up.
“Okay,” Sevita said, returning to the kitchen table.
Alex quickly jogged up the stairs, cautious of the uneven heights on the first few steps, and went into Ravi’s bedroom while taking off hir backpack. Shi set it by the door before returning back downstairs and joining the Bassi family in the dining room. “Hello Mr. Bassi. Hello Lanka-ji,” shi said, nodding to Atman and then giving a short bow to Ravi’s grandmother.
“Hello Alex,” the heavyset orange tiger said, nodding back at hir before raising his fork again.
“नमस्ते बेटा,” the elderly white tigress said, smiling at Alex.
“Come, sit,” Sevita said, gesturing to the empty seat next to her. “So why are you here so early today?”
“Oh, ummm, Ravi was going to teach me some first aid stuff,” Alex said, walking over and sitting down at the table. “And then I was going to help him put together his spear, since I already did mine with Owen-sensei’s help.”
“It still makes me nervous, thinking about the two of you working with real spears,” Sevita said.
“We haven’t stabbed each other yet,” Alex said with a shrug. “Actually, that’s why I wanted to learn first aid. But also because of Aruna.”
“What about me?” the youngest tigress said, looking up from her bowl of biryani.
“I wanted to make sure I can help if you hurt yourself,” Alex explained. “Like when we were on the beach, remember?”
“Oh, right,” Aruna said, frowning.
“What, did you forget you needed stitches for that already?” Alex asked.
“Maaaybe,” the youngest tigress said, looking back down at her bowl of rice. She took another spoonful of rice and stuffed it in her mouth. Ravi glanced at his sister and sighed.
“Hmm. Well, if you two are done with that by dinner time, do you think you and Aruna could help me make dinner?” Sevita asked. “I was planning on paneer butter masala, chicken korma, rice and naan.”
Alex nodded. “Of course. But I’ve never fixed, uh, paneer butter masala before.”
Atman swallowed his mouthful of food. “It’s basically butter chicken, but with cheese cubes instead of chicken,” he explained. “It’s very popular in India, especially for vegetarians. It was always in the top five most popular dishes at the restaurant that I ran.”
“Oooh, okay,” Alex said. “Is paneer good for protein then? Dad’s always telling me to eat more protein.”
“Oh, yes,” Sevita said. “It’s roughly two-thirds the amount of protein as chicken, by weight. It’s higher in fat, though.”
Five minutes later, Ravi led Alex and Aruna upstairs, heading into his bedroom. Aruna followed them both into Ravi’s bedroom, presumably out of boredom. Ravi had a full-sized bed that occupied half the room, but the other half was open space with three bean bags in front of his entertainment center and computer desk. Alex flopped down on one of his bean bags and Aruna did the same.
“Okay... so there’s a ton of stuff to know about first aid. But the most important part is the very first thing on the scene of an accident,” he said, sitting down on his bed. “Namely making sure that you don’t wind up injured too. For example, when I saw Aruna was bleeding, I started looking for sharp objects that might have been hidden in the sand. It’s called ‘Scene Safety’. You can’t help someone else if you get injured too.
“The second thing you need to remember are the Three C’s: Check, Call, and Care. You check the person to determine what’s wrong, call nine-one-one, and then care for the person. At the beach, I checked Aruna, then determined we didn’t need to call nine-one-one, since Azalea could call her mom for a ride. Then I started caring for Aruna by wrapping up her foot.”
Alex made a mental note of the Three C’s, trying to commit them to memory.
“After that, first aid comes down to identifying what type of problem someone could be experiencing and treating them, from cuts or bruises to broken bones, insect bites or stings, burns, hyperthermia and hypothermia, choking, other cardiopulmonary problems, cardiac arrest, seizures, low blood sugar... There’s an enormous list.
“Seeing as Aruna’s most likely to have cuts, scrapes, bruises, or broken bones, you should start with learning how to identify and treat those,” the teenaged tiger said, walking over to his desk and grabbing a green satchel with a white cross on it.
__________________________________________________
Alex sighed and dropped hir controller as Kirby punted Link off the platform, hitting the edge of the screen with a flash of light and an explosion of stars. The tigress leaned back into the bean bag chair to wait as Ravi and Aruna finished the match. It was barely another twenty seconds before Ravi leaned back as well, dropping the controller into his lap as Marth got tossed off the screen as well.
“Ha!” Aruna triumphantly exclaimed. “I win!”
“Again,” Ravi muttered. Both he and Alex had been losing to Aruna fairly regularly over the past couple of weeks. The young tigress had grown surprisingly skilled at video games since they’d started playing together. Then again, Aruna spent far more time playing video games than either Ravi or Alex now, since they had Karate and Kenjutsu classes three times a week. Alex also had another two classes every week, plus having to take care of the twins and weight training or yoga with hir parents, so hir gaming time was even more limited than Ravi’s.
The only games Alex still had any chance at winning now were racing sims, like Forza and Gran Turismo. Shi didn’t even stand a chance against Aruna in Mario Kart. After the last three back-to-back losses, Alex was growing bored. Something Ravi had mentioned the other day suddenly resurfaced in hir thoughts as shi stared at the ceiling in Aruna’s bedroom.
“Ravi?” Alex asked, raising hir head to look at the older of the two Bassi siblings. “You said something about Indian legends the other day.”
“What?” he asked, turning away from the TV screen. The white tiger tilted his head, staring at hir with a puzzled expression.
“After karate the other day, I told you about going to the Lughnasadh festival and you said you didn’t know anything about religion except for some Indian legends,” Alex reminded him.
Aruna turned around at that. “You mean like the Ramayana?” she asked.
Alex shrugged, but Ravi nodded. “And the Mahabharata,” he confirmed.
Alex blinked. “I have no idea what either of those are.”
“The Ramayana is about Prince Rama as he battles the demon Ravana to rescue his wife, Sita,” Ravi explained. “The Mahabharata is about the war between the five Pandavas brothers and the hundred evil Kauravas. Millions of people die in the story.”
“Is that the one with Durga and the tiger?” Aruna asked.
“No, that’s the Devi Mahatmya,” Ravi said, shaking his head. “That’s another good one. Have you heard that one, Alex?” he asked, turning back to hir.
Shi shook hir head. “I haven’t heard any of these.”
“Ahh. It’s too long to tell the whole story, but you need to know the first part, at least,” Ravi said, while Aruna nodded in agreement. “It’s about the buffalo-demon Mahishasura, who conquers heaven and kicks the gods out. The gods merge their energies to create the many-armed goddess Durga. Himavat, the king of the Himalayas, gives Durga a golden feline, a four-legger named Dauon. Durga blesses Dauon with unquenchable fury and rides Dauon into battle against the demon's armies. Together they slaughter millions of demons, staining Dauon’s fur crimson with demon blood. In the end, Durga decapitates Mahishasura, restoring balance to the universe. I’ve got the book in my room, if you want to read it.”
Alex stared at Ravi for several seconds. “What happened to Dauon afterwards?”
“He accompanies Durga through other adventures, fighting other demons. Afterwards he becomes the ancestor of all tigers, who inherit his blood-stained fur.”
“That’s why you have red fur,” Aruna said, glancing at Alex.
Alex glanced down at hir arm. “It’s more orange than red,” shi said, looking back up at Ravi and Aruna. “But you two don’t have orange fur,” shi pointed out.
“Yep. We don’t have the Ancestral Fury either,” Aruna agreed.
“What’s that?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.
“The Ancestral Fury? It’s Durga’s blessing. Well, it’s more like a curse, actually,” Ravi said, prompting Alex to look back at him. “It’s your affinity for violence. Like when you lost your temper and tried to kill Heath at the Arcade.”
Aruna turned to stare at Alex with wide green eyes. “You tried to kill someone?” she whispered.
Alex’s ears went flat against hir head and shi looked down at the floor. Shi had nearly forgotten that. “Yeah,” shi whispered.
“Alex was dating Azalea at the time and Heath kissed Azalea in the photo booth at the Arcade,” Ravi explained. “I had to hold Alex down. Shi was going to kill him with hir bare claws.”
Aruna looked at her brother. “Does that mean our cubs will have the curse too?” she asked.
“Have you even asked Alex if shi’s willing to give you cubs?” Ravi asked. “It’s kinda rude to presume that sort of thing,” he pointed out.
“I don’t need to; I know shi’ll give me cubs,” Aruna said smugly. “Shi wants to have yours too. Don’t you, Alex?” she teased.
Ravi glanced at Alex. Shi licked hir lips and looked down at the floor. Hir ears were flushing brilliant red in embarrassment. He turned back to his sister. “You’re both ten years too young to be thinking about cubs, sis.” Ravi pointed out.
Aruna set her jaw, stubbornly. “I still want to know.”
Ravi frowned, thinking about it. “White fur is autosomal recessive, so both sets of your genes need to have the white fur gene in order to have white fur. Katherine has white fur, which means Raenne is a white fur carrier and so is Alex. So it’s fifty-fifty that our cubs will be white-furred, depending on which half of Alex’s genes they inherit.”
Alex frowned, looking at him. “I have four sets of DNA, though.”
Ravi shook his head. “People only have two sets of DNA. One from your mom and one from your dad. Twenty-three chromosomes each, a total of forty-six.”
Alex slowly shook hir head back at him. “I’ve got four sets,” shi repeated. “I’m a tetragametic chimera; male and female fraternal twins that fused together.”
Ravi stared at hir like shi had grown an extra head. “Uhhh... I’ll be right back. I’ve gotta talk to mom,” he said, rolling off the bean bag and darting out the room.
“What was that about?” Alex asked, turning to Aruna.
“I dunno,” she said with a shrug. “But Mom probably does. She knows a lot about genetics. Since Ravi’s not here, would you mind painting my claws?”
Alex glanced over at the door again, wondering what Ravi had been so agitated about. “Hmm. Okay,” shi said, rolling off the beanbag chair and walking over to Aruna’s dresser to get the basket of nail painting supplies. “What color do you want?”
“Pink!”
Alex sighed, wondering why shi had even bothered asking.
__________________________________________________
Ravi found his mom sitting on the sofa in the living room while Atman watched television, and jogged down the stairs and around his dad’s recliner. He sat down on the loveseat adjacent to Sevita. “Hey Mom?”
“Yes?” she asked, focusing intently on her embroidery.
“What’s a tetragametic chimera?” he asked.
“Tetra means four. A gamete is the haploid reproductive cell of a creature, containing half the genetic code of a standard diploid cell. So a tetragametic creature has four haploid sets of DNA, or two distinct diploid sets of DNA. The chimera of Greek mythology was a lion with two heads, one of which was a goat, and had a snake for a tail. In genetics, a chimera is a creature that has multiple sources of DNA,” the white tigress explained, not looking up from the embroidery ring in her hands.
Ravi was silent for a moment. That wasn’t exactly what he wanted to know, but at least it confirmed what Alex had claimed. “What are the implications for me and Aruna when we have kids with Alex, if shi’s a tetragametic chimera?” he asked.
At that, Sevita paused and looked up from the fabric in her hands. “That is a good question,” she said, blinking at him. “Katherine has white fur, which means Raenne’s a white carrier. If Alex is tetragametic and shi has orange fur, we know at least one of hir sets of DNA is only a white carrier...”
“I know that. What about the other set?”
“The other set could be either carrier white or it could be paired white,” Sevita said, looking at him with a strangely intent expression. “Fifty-fifty chance.”
“Is there any way to tell?” Ravi asked.
“With a DNA test. But only if we can separately test the specific parts of hir that we know are exclusively one or the other. Blood won’t work because it circulates; it’s mixed DNA,” Sevita answered, her gaze so intent that Ravi felt like she was glaring at him. “Do you happen to know if any part of hir is exclusively, uhhh...” she paused, unable to think of an easy way to describe it.
“Shi’s a hermaphrodite. Male and female twins that fused,” he explained. “I assume that—”
Sevita suddenly sighed, looking up at the ceiling. “तेरी तो! I’m an idiot. Of course shi’s a tetragametic chimera; all true hermaphrodites are. Children shi sires inherit from one set of hir DNA and children shi bears will inherit from the other. And yes, we can easily check each set to see if it’s only carrier white or paired white.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Ravi said, standing up from the loveseat and jogging towards the stairs. He stopped at the foot and turned back. “Can I tell them about the plan?”
Sevita looked up, and this time Atman turned to him as well, finally distracted from his television program. “Do you think Alex will be willing to bear or sire cubs?” his mom asked in response.
Ravi snorted. “Both. If not for their IUDs, Alex and Aruna would both be pregnant already.”
Atman choked at that, but Sevita smirked. “Hmm. Not yet, I think,” she said after a moment while her husband was still sputtering. “But you can tell them about us being endangered. Let them draw their own conclusions about saving our species.”
“Okay,” he said, turning and heading back upstairs towards Aruna’s room. Alex was kneeling on the floor, painting Aruna’s claws when he stepped inside.
“You’re right; Mom confirmed it,” Ravi said, sitting back down on his beanbag chair. “Any kids you bear will use one set of your DNA and any kids you sire will use the other.”
Alex looked up from Aruna’s paws and stared at him for a few seconds, thinking about that. “Huh. Neat,” shi said, before looking back down.
Ravi waited a few seconds in silence before broaching the next topic he wanted to talk about. “So I was talking with Mom the other day. Bengal tigers are pretty close to being endangered. There’s only five thousand of us. Right now we’re only ‘vulnerable’, but at the current rate we’ll be endangered in a few decades. Eventually we’ll go extinct.”
An expression of sorrow flickered across Alex’s face, and shi looked down at the floor.
“Like the feral tigers at the zoo?” Aruna asked, looking over at him.
He nodded. “Exactly like the feral tigers in the zoo.”
“Why are we going to go extinct?” Aruna asked.
Ravi frowned at his sister. “As a species, we’re dying faster than we can reproduce. Some people think it’s the Ancestral Fury... That tigers with blood-stained fur are cursed to live short, violent lives.”
At that, Alex looked up at him, eyes wide open and hir fur standing on end.
Ravi turned to look at hir. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“It’s true,” shi whispered.
Aruna turned to look at Alex. “What?”
“It’s true,” Alex said, a little louder. “It explains everything! Grandmother and Grandmother... Uncle Ivan... Mom...” the young tigress murmured, looking back down at the floor. “I got beat up in Byrom so bad I nearly died. Got attacked by a feral a month after moving out here... then I nearly killed Heath. And I did kill Henry.” Alex looked back up at them, tears forming in hir eyes. “It’s true. We’re cursed,” shi whispered.
Ravi swallowed, looking at hir. He hadn’t known that shi had actually killed someone. He rolled off the bean bag and scooted over to Alex as shi leaned back on hir haunches, dropping the bottle of pink nail polish shi was holding, and started crying. Ravi righted the bottle before it could spill more than a few drops, then wrapped Alex in a hug as shi continued to sob, shaking in his arms. Aruna joined the hug a moment later.
Sevita strode into the room less than half a minute later. “What happened?” she asked.
“I told hir about the curse. Shi thinks it’s real,” Ravi explained.
Alex looked up at Sevita with tears streaming down hir muzzle. “I know it’s real. I’ve seen nothing but violence and death my whole life,” shi cried, sniffling loudly. “What do I do?”
Sevita walked across the room and knelt next to Alex and her children. “Alex? Alex! Look at me,” she said, reaching out and squeezing the young tiger’s paw. “The curse isn’t real, not the way you think it is. Look at me,” she repeated firmly, waiting until Alex’s gaze finally met hers, the child blinking through hir tears.
“You know about DNA and genes right? DNA is the genetic code that you inherit from your parents. The genes in your DNA make you who you are, from the color of your eyes and fur to the shape of your muzzle. Right?”
Alex nodded, focusing on Sevita’s explanation while fighting back tears.
“The gene that gives you orange fur is also linked to another gene that causes you to have an over-active adrenal response when stressed, producing higher levels of norepinephrine than it should... which in turn makes you much more prone to aggressive behavior, especially during fight or flight situations. You’re not cursed! But you are much more likely to get angry when you’re stressed, or to become violent when you’re frightened. Okay?”
By the time Sevita finished her explanation, Alex had completely stopped sniffling.
“That tendency towards anger and violence is what we believe has caused our species to die faster than we can reproduce. There’s less than five thousand Bengal tigers, and fewer every year. I don’t know how many Amur tigers there are, but I know there are even fewer—”
“Four hundred,” Alex whimpered.
“What?” Sevita asked, unable to believe what she was hearing.
Alex sniffled again, and swallowed. “There’s only four hundred Siberian tigers,” the young tigress whispered, “mostly living in Russia and Ukraine. Most of us were killed while defending Kievan Rus when the Mongols invaded in the thirteenth century.”
“I thought there were more than that...” Sevita said, looking horrified at the thought.
Alex shook hir head, staring down at the floor again. “That’s according to the IUCN census last year.”
Ravi turned to look at his mother, who looked sad. She took a deep breath, and slowly let it out before speaking. “Alex... Bengal and Amur tigers are technically the same species. So you, Ravi, and Aruna can have fertile children. And because your father is a white tiger, if you have children with Ravi and Aruna it’s a fifty-fifty chance, or better, that they won’t have the adrenal-response gene. You could save your species. Our species.”
“What? Really?” Alex asked, looking hopeful for the first time Ravi could remember. He’d seen hir excited, sometimes even happy, but there’d always been a hint of sadness lurking in hir eyes, even at hir brightest.
“Yes, really! You might have the ‘curse’,” she said, putting up air quotes, “but there’s a good chance that any children you have with Ravi and Aruna won’t. If the three of you have enough children, you could save our species,” Sevita reiterated. “You just need to keep your temper in check. You can’t have children if you’re in prison... or dead.”
“Okay,” Alex agreed, nodding. If anything, now shi looked determined, and looked back and forth at Ravi and his sister. “Ravi? Aruna? When we’re old enough, can we have kids?”
“As many as you want,” Ravi said, squeezing Alex tight.
“Yes!” Aruna said excitedly, hugging Alex as well. “I want lots of kittens!”
Sevita smiled and stood up. “Are you all good, now?”
“Yes, momma,” Aruna said.
“Yes, ma’am,” Alex said at the same time.
“Good. I’ll head back downstairs then. Yell if you need me, okay?”
“Okay, mom. Thank you,” Ravi said, letting go of Alex and sitting back. “Oh, by the way, I think you spilled some nail polish,” he added, pointing at the small puddle that had been smeared around somehow.
Aruna sat back and frowned. “Shoot. Where’s the acetone?”
“Over there,” Alex said, pointing at the basket nearby.
Ravi smiled and stood up. “Since you’re doing your nails, I’m going to go take a shower, okay?”
“Okay, Ravi,” both of the two cubs said, getting out the cotton balls and acetone to clean up the mess.
As Aruna got out the bottle of acetone, Alex flashed him a smile. He returned it, then turned to leave the room, heading to his bedroom for a change of clothes.
