Flash of the Tiger Beneath the Twinkling Tree

Evening purrs, my holiday twinkling Big Felines, it’s been a odd day for the Kougaress... meow-course, that’s not saying a whole lot, given the fact that ‘the times, they are a-changing’, more and more each and every day. There’s an appearance of what has been considered normalcy all around us. Beneath that surface of ‘life goes on’ there are great undercurrents of change taking place. These changes will arrive like tidal waves, even tsunamis... suddenly making themselves visible... it’s sorta like stardom... the celebrity that is considered an overnight success. That’s rarely the case. Usually, the person has worked hard for years.
Consider this, too. There’s always this prevailing idea from Big Government... oh, don’t panic the people... they’ll panic if they know there’s not only life on Mars, but life on our Moon.
Wowsa... okay, which one would you panic more over? The sudden ‘real’ pandemic of an ebola like virus as opposed to the fake induced panic of swine flu, or knowing we might have actual solar system neighbors? Yeah, neighbors, not just microbes.
But yowls, enough of that!
~~~
Flash Fiction Sunday at the Liquid Silver SEx blog ~ Flash back by Hortense Powdermaker ~ “Revealing backstory is tricky.”

Nope, moi has never specifically written a flashie on the theme of a character’s flash back... so ~

Tiger Beneath the Twinkling Tree

1
They lazed on their bed, lovingly tangled together. Senshia slid her forefinger on his chest, sensually tracing one of his skin stripes, a darker pigment that contrasted with the pale bronze of his body.
“Mmmm... you are certainly the tiger between my thighs.” Lowering her head with a delicacy of movement he’d come to adore, she trailed kisses up the center of his chest, ending at the juncture of his neck and shoulder.
His eyes had fallen closed and now Durrhan moaned with the sweet pleasure of what she did to him. With the sweet and terrible pleasure of her.

11
“My Senshia.” Like a predator, he swiped his hand beneath her head, and swiftly slid his fingers deep within the wealth of her hair. He gripped the glimmering coppery strands hard, tugging so that her face was all his to view as pleased him.
As he always did, he indulged in the fairy fragility of her features, in the golden sprinkling of freckles gracing her cheeks. She gazed at him, passion glowing in her iris colored eyes. Her eyes filled with stars of sapphire, silver and aquamarine.
“Sleep,” he ordered. “I have enjoyed myself too much with you, my mate.”

111
She protested with a sinuous caress of her body against his, and a naughty nymph smile. Durrhan frowned. There was no way he would compromise her well-being, his otherworld woman. Not only had she saved him from a fate worse than death, she was his heart now, and his life. As he had become her life, as he now lived within the flaming flower of her heart.
“If you insist.”
Her voice twined around him, sultry and inviting, yet also softly resigned to his will for her. She’d learned his care for her was real. He would demand her obedience.

IV
She snuggled the side of her face on top of his chest, and settled herself toward slumber as her race knew it. Durrhan feathered his fingers over her slightly pointed ear, brushing away tendrils of her hair. Her ears always enchanted him, then turned him wild with desire, unless he’d taken her. Before letting himself drop into sleep, Durrhan would make certain she obeyed him . He’d spent most of the winter’s day patrolling their small mountain valley as his human self and also allowing his beast to run free, to plow through the deep snow and protect the wilder areas.

V
The memory trapped him, the moment darkness overtook him. Saliva dribbled in pools from his jaws. His swollen bleeding paws twitched uncontrollably for long minutes as he barely held onto consciousness. He’d escaped those who had done this to him, the evil wizard scientists as he thought of them, and their military masters, the ones with the stone-cold gray faces and the eyes that reminded him of a non-stop blizzard. They’d thought he was close to death and were transporting him to an autopsy facility. His body had only been resurrecting. He’d been genetically morphing into what he was now.

VI
Tiger and man. A man able to shift into a full tiger. Not just a tiger and not just a man. No, as a man he possessed super strength and many of his tiger’s superior abilities, like the sense of smell. As a tiger he was a primal beast, a killer by nature, yet he retained his human mind. Even his breed of tiger was one that had been lost to current-day Earth, though his appearance remained typical of a zoo tiger. He’d been designed to operate inside the human population. To gather intelligence where ordered, to assassinate without thought.

VII
The steel door to his transport crate swung open. The bitter cold of an Idaho winter hit his tiger face. Durrhan sprang upwards from his side. Twisting his muscle-heavy, yet lean body, he charged outward. He raced like the devil, hearing the shouts of shock and warning follow his bid for freedom. Running past the outside pen they planned to put his body in before they brought out the scalpels, Durrhan scanned for his best escape option. Hearing the start-up roar of snowmobiles, he angled toward the sparse forest of bare-limbed trees. Durrhan sprinted for his life, for his freedom.

VIII
His paws crashed through a half-foot of icy snow. Where he could, he leapt the distance he would have run. His only chance was to evade the helicopters and the drone aircraft they’d send after him. To finally convince them of his death after he rubbed the tracking fiber from his shoulder. Far enough ahead of the snowmobiles, Durrhan looked for a tree with the roughest bark. Slamming his shoulder against the largest tree, he scraped away his fur, then his skin. The instant the frequency hum left his body, he jumped into a lope, sniffing for the nearest stream.

VIX
With his blood staining the snow, Durrhan followed the dictates of his nose. Weaving through a denser forest, he found what he wanted, water, semi-frozen in places. He gathered his body, then stretched into a long jump. As he landed on the large stream, his paws slid. Scrambling, he lumbered forward until he broke through the ice. He rolled, drenching himself, and fast-freezing his wounded shoulder. Crawling onto a solid surface, he intentionally dragged his body as if he was near death. The machine growl of helicopters caused him to search for a hiding place. Durrhan climbed the rocky bank.

X
Before him was the V entrance of a small cave. From the air’s smell there was an exit. Durrhan squeezed himself inside and forced his way through. Exhausted, yet knowing he’d won victory, he staggered toward what he thought was either a hallucination or what he’d been taught was an outdoor Christmas tree. Collapsing beneath the twinkling limbs, Durrhan realized he could no longer move.
Incredibly soft hands stroked his fur. “Don’t worry, I’ll heal you.” The woman’s voice was as soft as her strokes. “Don’t worry, Tiger Man, I’m not a human. I’m from another world. A far-away world.”
~~~~~~

The Kougar discovered this on the chat loops ~ Angels ~

Their faces were living flame; their wings were gold; and for the rest their
white was so intense, no snow can match the white they showed from rank to
rank, they shared that peace and ardor which they gained, with wings that
fanned their sides.- Dante Alighieri, "Paradiso"
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Now ~ FIRST! just for the big cool cats ~

Happy Courtship on another Earth

X-Serial Flash in Two Hundred ~ Sylva and Zeke’s story continues...

Part 351 ~

Sylva floated above her mangled bloody body. She decided there was no two ways about it. Okay, so she’d died, or was she supposed to hang around and go back inside that mess of broken flesh. The SUV driver who’d struck spoke frantically on his cell phone. People were stopping in their cars and others gathered. All the while, the sensation of floating free, unencumbered by a body, felt more and more wonderful. Sylva spun around looking for the light. It’s not like her life was really worth all that much, especially since she’d lost her job, and was alone.

Zeke gently held his tossing writhing woman, so caught inside her dream, she acted as if she was somewhere else entirely. Concerned, he watched her face rapidly change expressions, from a look of utter shock to one of beatific hope. “I want to go home,” she murmured, then repeated the words over and over. Home? Did she mean back to her Earth? The very thought devastated Zeke. He wondered if he should awaken her, convince her this was home. Yet, something inside him demanded he wait, that he allow her this dreaming experience. Zeke eased her closer, his soul disquieted.
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TO BE CONTINUED...
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Part 1 - 15 ~ see blog ~ January 15th Cometh, then Part 15... and before...
Part 16 ~ 350 ~ see the Kougar’s prior bloggies... or the Passionate Ink forum, the FREE READS page ~ http://passionateink.org/forum ~ OR! Now available on The Romance Studio Forum, January through October 2009 flashes ~ http://theromancestudio.com ~ Click on the FORUMS
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HAPPILY EVER AFTER blog ~ HOLIDAY BLOGS ARE COMING!
Friday ~ the Kougar blogs ~ Romancing Those Holiday Hotties & Wolf Shifters Celebrate, Too
Wednesday ~ My Characters run the show ~ “I know that for most authors who I have talked with it seems characters take on a life of their own.”
Friday ~ Bekki blogs ~ Are You Wallowing in Promo Hell? ~ “It’s never ending, isn’t it? Like you don’t have enough to do, right?”
Wednesday ~ the Kougar blogs ~ Christmas Romancing the Marble
Monday ~ Francesca Prescott ~ A Bold and Beautiful Confession ~ “I have a confession to make. It’s a little embarrassing, although it shouldn’t be, because clearly I’m not the only one on the planet to look forward to my daily dose of cheese.”
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THE PINK BLOG ~
Thursday ~ Chelle blogs ~ Happy Holidays to all & to all a good night! CHANUKAH: BEHIND THE TRADITIONS… ~ A wonderful and enlightening blog.
Tuesday ~ Cheryl blogs ~ CANDY CANE CHRISTMAS MAGIC ~ “Have you ever made candy cane reindeer?”
Sunday ~ Linda Acaster blogs ~ On the Road to... a Celtic past
Saturday ~ the Kougar blogs ~ Volcano’s Angelic Forecast for Christmas 2009
Thursday ~ Christmas Magic ~ “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every person on the planet got the one thing they wished for most under the Christmas tree?”
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SHAPESHIFTER SEDUCTIONS blog ~
Friday ~ Serena blogs ~ An Unusal Christmas Gift Request From My Jaguars... ~ “Picture it, Tuesday morning, one darling diva, two cute little dachshund pups, five shapeshifting cats and I piled into the authormobile for a field trip.”
Wednesday ~ Crystal blogs ~ Christmas is a'comin! ~ “As we get closer to the holidays, I start thinking about Christmas shopping, and how I hate it because I never know what to get anyone.”
Tuesday ~ the Kougar blogs ~ The Wolf Shifters are Howling for the Holidays
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For the next part of the Never-Ending Story ~The Dance by Pixie ~ “Kallyn stared at Odric's outstretched hand, unsure of how to proceed.”~ RomanticSynonymous ~
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Volcano’s Angelic Forecast for this week ~ Siren-BookStrand blog ~

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No! Internet Two... Resistance is victory...
~~~

Have a Splendid Holiday Season...
May your most romantic dreams come true...

Twinkling tree kisses from the Kougar...