Tigers at Twilight - Mary Pope Osborne [3]
Jack noticed long, deep gashes in a tree as they walked by. He stopped.
“What happened there?” he said.
Annie shrugged and kept walking.
Jack pulled the book out of his pack. There was a picture of a tree with gashes.
He read aloud:
Tigers sharpen their claws on tree trunks. They leave big gashes in the bark.
“What?” said Annie. She stopped and looked back at the tree.
“See what I mean?” said Jack. “Tigers live here. And one of them just came this way.”
“Tigers?” said Annie. “Cool.”
Jack read more:
A wild tiger eats almost 5,000 pounds of fresh raw meat a year.
“Oh, not so cool,” said Annie. Jack went on:
Tigers usually leave elephants alone. And like many smaller cats, tigers often avoid wild dogs.
Teddy growled.
“Wild dogs, not a shrimp like you,” Jack said to Teddy. “A tiger would eat you in a minute.”
Teddy growled again.
Just then, Kah and Ko began hooting. Koo-koo-koo!
The peacocks cried Kok! Kok!
The small deer made short barking sounds and stamped their hooves.
“What’s going on?” said Annie.
“We better put Teddy in my pack,” said Jack, “to keep him safe.”
Jack slipped the dog into his pack. Teddy’s head poked out the top.
“All set?” Jack asked the little dog.
Teddy growled again.
This time, a deep, fierce growl answered back. It seemed to surround them.
Jack’s hair stood on end.
“Yikes!” said Annie.
“A tiger!” said Jack.
Arf! Arf! Teddy barked.
Kah and Ko screeched at Jack and Annie from their tree.
“They want us to join them!” said Annie. “Come on!” She grabbed a branch and climbed up.
Jack’s hands were shaking as he put his backpack on. He grabbed a branch and pushed off the ground. He pulled himself into the tree.
Another growl shook the forest.
“Oh, man,” said Jack.
Koo-koo-koo! The langurs climbed higher up the tree.
Jack and Annie followed them, climbing from branch to branch.
The sky above was no longer glowing. The bright orange had faded to a twilight gray.
Jack looked down. He couldn’t see the ground at all.
He listened for another scary roar.
Only the cries of frightened forest creatures filled the air.
“Maybe the tiger’s gone,” said Annie.
Jack glanced at Kah and Ko. The langurs cuddled together. Their dark faces looked worried.
“And maybe not,” said Jack.
“How can we get through the forest without running into him?” said Annie.
“That’s a problem,” said Jack. “And it’s getting dark. Soon we won’t be able to see anything.”
Kah and Ko hooted again. They pointed down the tree trunk.
Arf! Arf! Teddy barked from Jack’s pack.
“Do they see the tiger?” Jack asked, his heart thumping again. He couldn’t see anything but leaves and branches.
Then, far below, he saw the tree trunk move!
“A snake!” said Annie.
The snake was slithering around the trunk. It had black-and-tan markings. The snake’s body was as thick as the tree trunk!
“A python,” breathed Jack.
The python kept curling up the tree trunk.
“Is it poisonous?” asked Annie.
Jack pulled out their book. By the last light of day, he found a picture of a python. He read aloud:
The python is not a poisonous snake.
“Whew,” said Annie.
“Not so fast,” said Jack. He read more:
To kill its prey, the python squeezes it to death, then swallows it whole. A python can swallow an animal the size of a full-grown deer.
“Oh, yuck!” said Annie.
“This is more than just yuck, Annie,” said Jack. “This is life or death,”
Kah and Ko chattered at Jack and Annie.
“Not now,” said Jack. “We have to think.”
The langurs grabbed thick vines. They leaned back. Then they jumped out of the tree!
The langurs swung through the air like trapeze artists. They swung over bushes and tall grass and landed in another tree.
They screeched at Jack and Annie and waved their arms.
“I know what they’re saying,” said Annie. “They want us to copy them!”
Annie grabbed a vine.
Jack looked back at the python. The giant snake was still winding its way up the tree. It had almost reached their branch.
Jack took a deep breath. Then he grabbed a vine, too.
“Lean back, like Kah and Ko