• I was in a forest. It was like the ones you see in Lord of the Rings or something. You know tall redwoods, maples and other trees. The forest was green all over. The flowers were all shades of red, orange, blue and all the other colors on the spectrum. It was too beautiful though. I couldn’t explain it. It just was. I bent down to pick a flower. A blur of fire whizzed overhead, and hit the ground next to me. The ground shook. I turned to see what it was. I gasped. It was a tiger, a full blooded tiger. You could tell because its pelt was like fire against stripes that looked like black scars. The trees made his pelt stick out. The tiger snarled and started to speak. The tiger’s voice was clear and strong. The tiger said

    “Time will become and begin again,
    But nothing starts without an end,
    And if the end comes quite to soon,
    The sun will stop, and so the moon,
    Terror will reign unexpected,
    Four lives, so plain, intersected,
    Will stop the terror running free,
    And break the chains of humanity.”


    I stared. The tiger stared back with burning eyes. The eyes showed all the wild and free spirit inside him. The forest spirit and rage still lingered on the dark eyes. The tiger’s eyes were holding me in his gaze, literally. I tried to avert my eyes. They wouldn’t budge. I couldn’t move. My arms and legs were stuck together. The tiger slinked closer. I struggled against his gaze. I wanted to run, to leave, and to wake up. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to be eaten. The tiger slinked closer and started to talk, again. The voice over took me. Its strength washed me over like a mother washing her kit. It said

    “Of one I give my special gift,
    To help it close the evil rift,
    To understand feline tongues,
    And do what cats have always done.”


    The tiger was so close I could feel his breath. It too sang of the forest and all that is wild. The tiger carefully unsheathed a claw. I stared. What would he do to me? I struggled one more time against his eyes. The tiger lifted his claws above my chest. It slowly cut a shape under the neckline on my shirt. The shape was that of a cat’s eye. The tiger dropped his gaze and said slowly “We are waiting.” I remember anything else as I blacked out.


    I sat bolt upright in bed. Sweat poured off my forehead. The dream…. It had been so real. I pictured the tiger’s eyes in my mind but the rest was slipping from my consciousness. The words the tiger had spoken were still ringing in my mind. I also remembered the cut under my neckline. I scrambled to look for the tiger’s cut. There right beneath the neck line, was a pencil thin scar of a cat’s eye. I freaked out. The words echoed again through my head.

    “Time will become and begin again,
    But nothing starts without and end,
    And if the end comes quite to soon,
    The sun will stop, and so the moon,
    Terror will reign unexpected,
    Four lives, so plain, intersected
    Will stop the terror running free,
    And break the chains of humanity.”



    I had a dreaded feeling that I would never forget them.