Notes

okay so native son au

lion o and Tygra are scouting ahead and discover the tiger clan as per usual, except this time Javan doesn't just advise that they leave, he straight up kicks them out, pointing them toward a cave not too far away and telling them to come back in the morning bc of secret tiger things idk. except Tygra sneaks back to the main cave that night and lion o follows him, and they discover the cursed tiger creatures. they escape, and in the morning they go back to demand answers. Tygra spends a lot of time exploring the village that day, especially after lion o expresses suspicion about the tigers, and Javan tells lion o the truth and tells him to take Tygra and leave. he doesn't want to tell Tygra for fear of Tygra hating him, especially because Tygra opposes the same dark spirits that the tigers invoked 20 years ago in the first place.

so that night Tygra wants to stay in the village but Javan kicks him out (though lion o doesn't know this) and then he gets in an argument with lion o and goes back to the tiger village (though Javan doesn't know this). and it's Caspan (idk his name) who finds Tygra and sneaks him back into the village. that night, Tygra sees the tigers transform into the creatures. he is almost killed, but manages to survive the night. early morning, he goes to find Caspian, who tells him that the secret to breaking the curse is on the top of the highest peak, but that Javan was unable to do it, and that if Tygra managed it, he'd earn Javan's respect. so Tygra sneaks out with Caspian and the rest of the court.

of course, Javan notices his court missing sooner rather than later. lion o comes looking for Tygra and they soon put it together. the two of them go to the highest peak just in time to save Tygra from being killed at sunset by Caspian, except now they're transforming outside the bounds of the cave, which means they're free. so lion o and Tygra run, but they have the disadvantage in the snow, and it isn't long before Javan catches Tygra. Tygra, who finally knows the truth, knows his father loves him, etc etc, forgives Javan, breaking the curse (loopholes anyone?) and they all return to the caves. they have a few hours before sunrise at that point, so with the traitors detained and the curse broken, Tygra spends some time with his people. he hears their stories, learns their legends, is taught about his stripes and their significance and tiger culture. they sing songs and teach Tygra how to dance like a tiger. they tell him about his mother, a rare white tiger (though white tigers dont occur naturally in the wild and have a lot of problems that wouldn't have allowed them to survive). actually lets say the same is true about white tigers here. she had vision problems and a smaller range of movement than other tigers. but she could sing like an angel and skin an animal in ten minutes flat, and her senses of hearing and smell, as well as her wisdom and ability to work through logic problems, were legendary. Tygra, aside from his coloring, looks an awful lot like her.

and then as the sun rises the tigers reveal one last secret. that they're technically dead. they fade away, though Javan leaves behind his whip for Tygra. they need to rest before heading out again, but Tygra refuses to stay in the ghost town and asks to leave early. so they do.