A record of beasts and mortality: Kevin Wang (Honourable Mention

written by Kevin Wang, Year 8

Soul of Tiger Died 220 AD, China

1. A spiritual recount

In the Autumn of 184 AD, man had once again decided to wage wars over the distribution of lands within my kingdom. In my raging fury, I hunted the inferiors that dared to go against my rule, as the humans fled in droves trampling upon each other to scramble for safety; only one man stood his ground. In the years to come, I would acknowledge the man as a companion and a brother despite our difference in species and natural prowess. I would also stumble upon the realisation that my previous self had been trapped in a delusion of unmatched ferocity, though a born ruler over the beasts that roamed the earth, I did not understand that there were varying interpretations of power.

2. A fall into a ditch makes you wiser

On that fateful day, the creatures who had always gazed upon me with frenetic worship had turned upon me, wielding oddly shaped sticks they called swords and prodding at me. No longer could I disregard their transgressions as my vampiric fangs sank into flesh and I relished in their fear as the light bled out of their eyes.

In my feral and implacable state only one man deigned to reach into the ocean of blood and filth, Liu Bei, the man I would come to share mutual admiration with and follow in his conquest of the boundless forests. This king’s majestic image scorched itself into his consciousness as my incandescent amber eyes glowed with a blinding exquisiteness as narrow, razor-sharp stripes cloaked my muscular frame like bold calligraphy strokes on sheepskin and marred my lustrous orange coat of fur. I took pride in my position as a symbol of pure, unadulterated fear and carried myself as one would expect of the earthen King of Beasts.

In my curiosity I did not strike down the fool who chose to linger in my presence and prowled with an uncanny balletic grace unsuited for my hulking frame, weaving between the malady-brown trees of the forest and bounding across sooty coppices in search of human prey.

As he gazed upon my monstrous form, he was instantly entranced by my visage, the crown of my convex head as the four stripes marking my forehead coalesced to form the character “王 [King]”, symbolising my status as ruler of the mortal animals.

The man stood awestruck and his gaze prompted my hubris as I recklessly chased after my prey, only to fall for one of their dastardly contraptions, reversing our roles and subjecting me to their whims.

He began rushing towards me as he slashed with two swords, one in each hand, shredding the chains restraining me as the moonlight shone upon us, enveloped our figures in a hazy white aura. An unearthly howl came from my jaw as my amber eyes filled with a ghastly incandescence; I was enraged and ashamed at being captured and subsequently saved by a species I had despised, but respect coursed within my veins towards the man who had saved me, pledging to return this favour.

3. Favour must be returned with grace

History repeated itself sixteen years after meeting my master, as I was captured by my master’s enemy, though he admired my martial might and hence ordered his men to treat me with courtesy. Notwithstanding my commitment to my master, before I returned to my lord’s side, I had decided to reciprocate the favour I had received, to kill a commander called Shen Dong.

For even if he was my master’s enemy, tigers are unlike dogs in that they do not bite the hand that feeds them and hence I set out to kill his rival. With a single bound, I had crossed a thousand Li, none of the subordinates under my mark could stall me for more than a split second as I arrived before my prey. A single swipe and his head flew, silence ruled over the battlefield in that moment, as the man’s wide-eyed stare greeted me.

It was only later that I was informed that my actions had caused my master to be spurned by Shen Dong as his animosity grew towards my lord upon hearing that I had assisted their enemy.

Even as I was returning to my master, his enemy seemed to bestow his grace upon me once again as he ordered his men not to chase me, stating; “each for his own master; hence do not give chase”.

4. Even a dragon struggles to control a snake in its native haunt 208 AD. A heavy smell of blood and iron filled the air as I raced across the muddy forest grounds. Through the shrubbery and thickets, I emerged and was greeted by an uncommon sight in the forest, devoid of trees and littered with the corpses of tribal men. As I bounded across the mountain of knives and sea of fire that had formed from the fighting, my claws swiped and thrusted until I had arrived beside my master. Heaven’s providence fell upon me, its touch invigorating me but burdening my enemies as they sank into the mire.

Try as I may, our enemies held a significant numerical advantage with my master’s allies only amounting to a mere dozen fighters, while the opposition had upwards of a few hundred under their command. So, I slashed and slashed, the faces of my enemies blurred and superimposed upon each other.

With the rise and fall of the sun, my bite had become loose, my limbs heavy with fatigue as lassitude began to come over me. However, the deep, resounding sound of a zhangu rang across the battlefield conveying that my master and I had won!

Jubilation and gratification filled me as dazzling moonlight from the west shone upon my master and I, as if affirming our victory, bestowing upon me a translucent white cloak and bestowing upon my master Heaven’s mandate.

In the wake of our victory, my master established his own tribe, in reverence of my power and courage, the tribe was named Hu Di. His ally formed the Nan Tai tribe, while our enemy declared himself ruler of his own tribe.

At that time, it confounded me how Heaven could be frivolous enough to bestow the right to rule over others to more than one being; however, despite all this Liu Bei continued to treat me as his brother.

In the coming years of following my master, our bond deepened and I could feel myself connecting with him in a mystical sense. My sense of acknowledgement had been provoked by accompanying him as I felt myself become nothing less than his spiritual companion.

5. A ruler’s wisdom

As I followed my master, he would often tell me tales, even though I could not respond. The meanings conveyed by his stories were often too profound for me to understand, however, one story in particular illuminated certain concepts to me:

What good does bloodshed achieve The corpses pile high

As the shadows of the forest blend

The sound of weeping a forlorn conclusion, Yet man strikes fear into the hearts of others More than beast ever could

Although my master would not be necessarily renowned for his martial might in generations to come, however, his power stemmed from a different source in that his wisdom was far beyond the reaches obtainable to common men.

Owing to my position from birth as an apex predator, I had unknowingly been placed into a solitude, the kind of isolation that arose from my physical superiority to other creatures that roamed the earth.

As such my previous narcissistic character stemmed from my limited worldview and I came to the realisation that not all animals are equal, at least not to humans, not even some humans are equal to others of their ilk.

6. Fall from heaven

In the summer of 219 AD, I set out to further spread the glory of my master, Liu Bei. Rain once again fell, blessing me with the strength to fight against the many. Initially, the forces of Nature seemed to conjoin with my efforts as the tide of the battle shifted in favour of me, the August rainfall flooding the nearby river that ran through the forest, engulfing my enemies.

As I moved, so did the tide, the river emulated my fluid movements and allowed me to inch closer and closer until I had almost captured the enemy outpost.

However, as if mocking my efforts, word had spread that the Nan Tai tribe had betrayed my master and, in my desperation, I fled to protect my lord, only to be led out of my mountain and into a series of defeats in my irrational state of mind.

The lack of caution caused me to receive a near-fatal wound to the shoulder as a poisonous arrow firmly lodged itself and forced me to recuperate; to ‘lick my wounds’ so to speak.

With only darkness as my company and the occasional echo reverberating off the inner wall of the cave at which I rested, I was left alone with my thoughts and despairing imagination of the tragedies befalling my master as I was forced to recover and stave off the wretched poison.

To my luck, one day light flooded into the cave as a wizened old man entered the cave and extended an outstretched hand to placate me of my worries and ‘administer treatment’, a term the humans had coined.

As I began to drop my guard, the sagacious man began to cut into my flesh using a miniature sword-like tool, thunderous roars came out of my jaw and yet he continued to meticulously scrape, and scrape, and scrape, until my body grew sluggish and the pain dulled.

Black blood flowed, vitality was restored as my eyelids drooped to a close and I was allowed a brief reprieve from the worries of mortality as I slept with the comfort that my body had been cleansed of outside substances.

When I later awoke, the man was gone, the only evidence that he had ever used such unique medical treatments to extract poison; could be found on my body.

However, time waits for no tiger and so I traversed over the marshlands, through the bogs that littered the forest landscape only to chance upon my pursuers.

My body filled with lethargy stood no chance against the seas of humans and soon I was caught.

In my last moments, my jaw warped into a self-deprecatory smile as I made a last-ditch effort to maintain a dauntless and courageous front, extending an outstretched paw towards the sky as light glinted off my razor claws; as if vowing to obliterate the clouds in the sky, to eradicate this disgrace.

The ever-expanding blue of the sky warped into blackness, as only darkness and I remained, sealed inside a nephrite cocoon to be admired by humans forevermore, my valiant image chained to the warriors of man and immortalised to safeguard man.

As my consciousness faded, a last thought came to me; I had now truly been trapped in solitude as only the darkness and I remained inside the cocoon, until ‘I’ faded away and only darkness remained, the lustre from my smouldering, chatoyant eyes finally losing their glisten. Birds die in pursuit of food, Humans die in pursuit of wealth I have died for loyalty, For His vision