An Eye For An Eye

2nd prize, ESO, IV English Literaty Contest

A long time ago, when the mammoths were still alive, there was a hamlet in one part of the Ural Mountains. In that hamlet, the chief’s eldest son’s name was Yuri.

It was a day like any other, Yuri was waiting for his dad to go and hunt some tigers. When his father was ready, they both went to the forest and there, they followed different paths.

After one hour, Yuri saw his first adult tiger, he took his bow and an arrow, aimed at the tiger’s head and he fired. The tiger was dead. When he went to take the tiger’s dead body, another tiger appeared from the vegetation. The tiger was white, his eyes were like two big rubies and he was twice as large as the dead tiger. Yuri was paralyzed and stunned at the beauty and the terror that this beast provoked in him. The tiger moved to attack Yuri but, his father, Drago, came out from the shrubs and he started to fight to the tiger with an axe. Drago was strong but the tiger was stronger than him. A few of seconds later, Drago let go of the axe that he had in his hand. Drago was dead. The tiger approached Yuri, who couldn’t move, and observed him for one or two minutes. After this, the tiger went near the dead tiger and it lay down as if waiting for the dead tiger to wake up. Yuri took Drago’s dead body and returned to the hamlet.

When Yuri returned to the hamlet with his dad’s body, the people of the hamlet listened to Yuri’s story and the warriors of the hamlet decided to go and kill the white tiger but before setting off they went to ask to the old priestess to receive her advice:

-You mustn’t kill that tiger. It is Byakko, the king of tigers, blessed with the grace of the gods! If you try to kill him, a lot of you will die and if you get to kill him, the gods will punish us.

The words of the priestess didn’t persuade the warriors of the village with the exception of Yuri. He tried to stop the warrior’s objective:

-Warriors, listen to me, you won’t go and kill Byakko. Although I want to kill him, as chief of this hamlet, I decide that the welfare of these people is more important that my vengeance.

-You are not my chief, Yuri, my chief was Drago, and now he is dead by a shitting tiger that will be dead tomorrow! -answered Orloff, one of the warriors and a good friend of the lifeless chief.

-We are with you! -shouted the other warriors, supporting his partner.

During the night, the warriors sacrificed three cows and six pigs, lighted a big bonfire and they carried out rituals near it, seeking that the gods wouldn’t punish them if they killed Byakko.

The next day, when the sun rose in the sky, thirty warriors went to the forest to kill the white tiger. The warriors separated in three groups with ten warriors each. After five days of intensive search, the second group saw Byakko drinking water at a nearby river. The second group of warriors, commanded by Orloff, didn’t wait for the other groups and they took their weapons. Orloff was the first to attack the big white tiger and the animal started to defend from Orloff. The other warriors followed Orloff but the animal was stronger than this group of warriors. The other two groups of warriors heard some cries of terror and battle, so they went to help them. When the two groups arrived, only two warriors and Orloff were still alive and they joined to the battle. In the end, the warriors could kill it. They were happy and upset at the same time because they had avenged Drago but eighteen of their friends had been killed by Byakko. They skinned Byakko and came back home.

The people in the hamlet continued with their lives without changes and they laughed at the priestess but, one year after Byakko’s death, the food and the water became contaminated, so that people started to feel hungry and, two days later, a lot of tigers went to the hamlet searching vengeance.