As soon as the wound on the giant cat closed, I picked up my sword and backed away slowly, the weapon low at my side. The cat lazily licked her chops – gulp – but did not immediately get to her feet. Carter and Andy, who was still in the room, backed away from the predator.

When we were all far enough back, the tiger shifted her weight and slinked onto her massive paws. How something that big managed the grace to slink was beyond me.

I opened the door back into the lobby of the hotel, holding it open for my friends, followed shortly by our furry “friend”. Her head was up high, almost reaching the bottom of my chest, while her shoulders came up to the level of my navel. Her head swung toward the group of people in the corner for a moment, but she seemingly dismissed them, then padded back over to her spot from earlier and resumed her nap, as only a cat can.

“You – uh – adopting a giant cat?” Chavez stammered out.

“Pretty sure she’s adopting us,” I laughed.

“She?” Chavez asked. “It’s way to big to be a female. I’ve been to the zoo loads of times and seen the tigers a lot. Just on the size of the thing, it’s gotta be a male. And a damn big one too.”

“Well, just go stand over there and take a look,” I said, gesturing to a place where he could have a better view.

“Fine, I will,” he snorted. He headed off.

“We just going to let a big cat stay in our party like this?” Andy asked.

“I’ve been doing some thinking about that cat, actually,” I said.

“Was that before or after your mental breakdown?” Andy teased me.

“Both,” I admitted, “but it was what happened when we try to cut her which has me thinking.”

“How so?”

“You know that morning after I ranked up to Citrine and went for a swim in the pool?”

“Sure, you got the water pretty fouled up. None of us could use it after that.”

“Well, when I was getting out of the water, the tiger was there in the grass.”

“Stalking you?” Carter joined the conversation.

“I don’t think so.” I shook my head. “There was a massive cut on its face and a dead scorpion in the grass next to it.”

“You think it’s killing things and bringing them to you, like a regular cat would?” Andy asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “It didn’t have any prey with it this time though, so that’s probably not it. I just feel like there’s something I’m missing.”

“But you haven’t answered my original question,” Andy pressed. “Are we just going to let the giant predator stay around a group of kids?”

“Shit!” Chavez swore when he finally satisfied his curiosity, though he kept a healthy distance from the animal. He wandered back over. “You were right. If that isn’t the biggest damn female tiger in existence, I don’t want to meet the one that is.”

“I think the mana is effecting the animals differently,” I said. “People too, obviously.”

“Obviously,” Carter said. “So, what next?”

“I say we hole up here for a day,” I suggested. “We might not be far enough from our last spot, but the non-combats aren’t going to be able to get up and move after the night they just had, and we could all use some rest.”

“So, we take turns on watch,” Andy said. “I can take first watch.”

“I’ll join you,” Bragg said. “My evening wasn’t as intense as the rest of you. Get some sleep, then you can take over.”

“I’ll be fine after a few hours of shut-eye,” I said. “I’ll relieve you in four.”

“The two of us will take third watch before sunrise,” Carter said, pointing at Chavez. “We’ll see you in eight.”

There was a long, drawn-out moment of silence between us all.

“You all see the problem too?” I asked.

“No one has a working watch any more.” Andy laughed. “I’ve never been so upset to go first before.”

“Why’s that?” Bragg asked.

“Because this means, you wake up the next group when you start to get tired,” I said cheerfully. “Usually middle watch is the worst because I wouldn’t be getting enough sleep. In this case, however, you and Andy will hold out as long as possible, no doubt longer than the agreed-upon four hours.”

“Oh,” Bragg said. “Well, it’s not all that bad, then.”

“I once had a watch die on me on a mission,” I reminisced. “We were in an Eastern European country, getting ready for an extraction. Of course, my watch died, so I had no idea if it was time to wake up the next person. It was raining, so there were no stars or moon to be seen to guess by that either. So, I stayed up all night, waiting. No one got up to relieve me. Hell, no one got up to relieve themselves, so I couldn’t just ask ‘what time is it?’ Worst watch night ever.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Bragg said. “Pulling an all-nighter in college was no problem.”

“Yeah, but I bet after your all-nighter, you didn’t go on a twelve-mile ruck hike in full gear,” Andy said.

“It was fifteen miles,” I said. “After that wrong turn at Albuquerque.”

“Oh yeah.” Andy chuckled. “I forgot about that. You didn’t speak to the sarge for a week after that.”

“It wasn’t that long… Was it? That was my first mission, and I couldn’t imagine things going much more sideways for me.”

“Yeah, but what you didn’t know was that’s what we always did to rookies on their first mission.”

“What?”

“Yeah, we never told you, because we changed it after you came in.”

“Changed what?”

“Well, we would give a new recruit a new watch with an old battery in it, guaranteed to go out a day or two into the mission. Then, we like to see them sweat it out.”

“So, you all knew?”

“Hell yeah,” Andy said, fighting down a laugh at the look on my face. “We each kept an empty water bottle in our bags just in case, so we wouldn’t have to get up to pee in the middle of the night.”

“I’m such a dumbass,” I said, throwing my hands up.

“You were the new guy, you were supposed to be a dumbass.” Everyone, except for me, laughed. “And we changed it after you had such a hard time,” Andy continued. “You didn’t fail out of the group though. You might have been a dumbass, but you were also a hardass, and you were hardest on yourself.”

“I’m going to sleep. See you when you wake me.”

“Good luck, sleeping beauty.”

“Fuck you.”

“Your turn, big guy.” Someone was shaking my shoulder.

I looked up, blinking away the fog, to see Bragg standing over me. The room was dark, obviously with no lights, but my eyes could still pick up movement, even if I wasn’t able to make out colors very well.

I grunted an affirmative, and he left the room. One of the nice things about staying in a hotel was that each of us got to pick our own room, if we wanted. I found a room with two queens in it and I’d fallen asleep almost immediately on it.

Despite my initial grogginess, the fog in my brain cleared, and I quickly stood up. I’d been so tired that I slept in all my clothes. Well, I took my boots off – I wasn’t a complete savage. But, I’d left my bloody clothes on. And the blood had dried to the hotel sheets. Knowing the hotel though, I doubted this was the worst thing that had ever been on these sheets. Where was a black light when you wanted it? I chuckled at my own dark thoughts. I don’t care what my wife says, sometimes I’m just that funny.

I peeled the sheets off me, some of the dried blood falling in flakes to the ground. We would need to hit another clothing store so I could nab some more to wear. Maybe I could use mana to clean my clothing. I would have to talk to Corey about it. That seemed like something useful that magic could do for me.

I left the hotel room and entered back into the lobby. Bragg and Andy sat by the front doors. Their positioning made it easy to see out, but difficult for anyone looking toward the building to spot them. It was professional and simple. Just like Andy.

“Wow, I’m really glad you got some beauty sleep,” Andy said. “I don’t want to imagine how hideous you would look if you hadn’t gotten that much.”

“Ha ha.” I said with every ounce of humor in my body. Which was none. What had I just thought about Andy? Professional and simple? Maybe just simple, then. “Pot, kettle.”

“Real original,” Andy scoffed.

“SITREP?” I asked.

“Situation normal,” Andy answered. “Seen some things going by, but nothing came to check out the hotel.”

“Good. And our furry friend?”

“Nothing,” Andy said, glancing over at the cat, still absurdly large and paying no attention. Just as I would expect from a cat.

“Also good. Civvies?”

“All quiet,” Bragg jumped in. “Everyone found rooms, and anyone who’s awake is prolly afraid of that thing.” He jerked his head at the cat.

“Fair.” I shrugged. “I mean, I’m afraid of her too.”

“Any more thoughts on whether we should keep her around?” Andy asked.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” I said. “If we try to get rid of her, she could just stalk us. And I don’t think we could kill her.”

“I don’t like it,” Andy said.

“Yeah, me either,” I agreed.

“KTF?”

I shook my head. “Too soon.”

“Too late, and we could all be dead.”

“Too soon, and we could all be dead.”

“So, situation normal?”

“Damn straight.”

“Alright, let’s hit the sack.” Andy tapped Bragg on the shoulder.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Bragg asked. I noted that he would not be a good gambler, since his thoughts were all over his face.

“I’ll tell you when you get through basic.” Andy winked at me as they headed off.

I settled into Andy’s spot, since it provided a better view of the immediate entrance. If anyone had spotted our location, then they wouldn’t be able to get too close before I noticed them. The next hour or so passed uneventfully. The sun moved across the sky outside, lighting up the lobby better, though that only enhanced the ambiance of abandonment.

The cat stirred. She lifted her enormous head to look at me. I met her eyes calmly, then deliberately looked away, as if I wasn’t worried about her. She made a soft sound, almost like a cough. I whipped my head around when I heard her get to her feet. She padded over, until she was about three feet from me. Not looking at me, she just sat on her haunches and looked out the front entrance, just like I was. Of course, sitting down, I was now shorter than the tiger.

Several times, we saw movement outside, but the sentinel cat never reacted beyond the slight twitching of her tail, ears, and a low purr, not enough to be seen or heard by whatever was outside. There was still no sign of any men, aside from the rabble that were mana-corrupted. Nothing escaped the tiger’s notice as we kept watch together, the slight movements pointing out movement I would have missed.

After a while, Carter came out into the lobby, blinking at the light streaming into the building. When she saw I was still watch, she grunted a grudging “good morning”, then left the lobby. I laughed as I thought of her going back to sleep while I continued, but she soon returned, a disgruntled Chavez in tow.

“We’ll take our turn now,” she said. “Grab something to eat.”

I hadn’t even thought about food, and my stomach seemed to suddenly remember that as well. I cracked open a cold can of beans, tossed in some dried jerky, and washed it all down with some water. Still better than some MREs. Fifteen minutes later, I was no longer sure of what to do. Carter and Chavez had taken over watch. Andy and Bragg were obviously down for the count. That left me. Without a job to do. I looked over at the cat, which had stared hungrily at my food while I ate.

“You hungry too?” I asked.

She licked her chops, and I got a good view of canines over four inches long.

“Maybe we should let her out to go hunting?” I asked.

“She could draw anything out there back to us,” Carter said.

“You’d rather a hungry tiger stay in here with fresh meat like us?”

“On second thought, maybe she should go hunting,” Carter amended.

“Hey, that’s a good idea!” Chavez chimed in helpfully. “Good job, ma’am, putting that noggin to work.”

“Shut it.”

“Yes, ma’am. Whatever you say, ma’am.”

“I’ll go with her, just to make sure she doesn’t inadvertently bring something down on us.”

“You think that’s a good idea?” Carter asked, looking between me and the tiger. “You out there alone with the thing?”

“I think that we think differently from her. I will probably learn something from her. She will probably learn something from me.”

“Just don’t get killed,” Chavez said. “We’ll be here, taking care of the kids and the house.”

“Good,” I laughed. “And I want a sandwich when I get home.”

“If you bring the ingredients,” Chavez chuckled in reply, “I would even make one for you.”