The Tiger and the Rabbit

     For Adavino the Shadow Kougra, her life was rough; she was in the pound and after many adoptions and abandonings, not to mention her horrible luck with getting bad owners which happened too many times for her to count, she had developed huge trust issues. Specifically her lack thereof, and soon she couldn't even pretend to trust someone.

     Adavino had had enough; she was getting out of here, especially after the fiasco at her last 'home'. She waited until it was feeding time and rushed the Techo handing her her food bowl. He was too stunned to run after her immediately and she was too fast to catch once she got outside. Her escape was successful, but she had nowhere to go. But Adavino did not let that bother her; a hard life on the street was much better that one in a cage.

     She spent most of her childhood as a street urchin and snuck aboard ships to travel, stealing to survive.

     Eventually she ended up on Krawk Island, where she was caught trying to steal from a fearsome pirate captain named Zeke.

     Zeke was a large, not to mention old, Eyrie. He caught the youngster by the scruff of her neck and watched her try to squirm away. Zeke spread his huge wings and looked quite frightening, but Adavino didn't back down. He was secretly impressed.

     "What's your name lass?" the Pirate Eyrie asked gruffly.

     "Non' yer business," she growled. Strangely enough Zeke let out a loud, hearty laugh, charmed by the child's defiance.

     After he had managed to get her to talk, he learned that she was a runaway and Adavino was adopted by Zeke and his crew shortly after. The crew was wary of her at first but soon warmed up to her since Zeke had seemed to have taken the young Kougra in as a surrogate daughter. So Adavino spent her teenage and young adult years at sea. Zeke had been very caring, but she had been hurt too much in her past that by that point she just couldn't bring herself to get close to her new family. She regretted it years later when Zeke had passed, felt even more bitter because she hadn't been able to be as caring to the old man as he was to her.

     Her disposition had gotten much worse after that; it was so bad that even her crew were starting to get wary of her.

     It wasn't until she was pulled off of her ship by a gigantic wave during a storm at sea and was washed up on the shore of Mystery Island that Adavino had her change of heart. Well, not at first.

     In the beginning she was twice as mean. Many Island natives approached her, but they were greeted with nothing but hostility from the Shadow Kougra. She'd snarl and bare her teeth, making sure they got a good look at her razor sharp claws.

     Adavino did not like this. Island life was much too tame for her, so for days she spent her time staring off into the sea, hoping her ship would come sailing in to take her away from this place.

     That was fine with the natives; the more time she spent ship watching, the less she would be running them down for getting too close.

     Then along came Tzoir.

     Tzoir was a beautiful Island Cybunny that, for some reason, did not fear Adavino. Instead of running in fear when Adavino gnashed her teeth at her, she calmly sat next to the wild Kougra and stared off into the water with her. Adavino couldn't believe how brazen this rabbit was; was she blind or something? She glared at the intruder for a few long minutes, noting the serene smile on her face. With a snort, Adavino turned back to watching the sea herself and fully intended on ignoring this crazy rabbit's presence. They stayed like that for almost an hour.

     "What's your name?"

     Adavino blinked. She had almost forgotten about the native sitting next to her, she was so quiet. She silently watched the smaller female out of the corner of her eye. Tzoir peered up at her curiously.

     After a few more seconds of silence, she responded with a gruff, "Adavino."

     Tzoir smiled and introduced herself as well as holding out her paw, which was pointedly ignored by the Kougra. Tzoir reached out and took Adavino's paw in a handshake anyways, grinning at the startled and almost outraged look on her face.

     'Yes, definitely brazen,' Adavino thought to herself, almost chuckling.

     Since that day, Tzoir would follow Adavino wherever she went, no matter how many times she would tell her to get lost. Adavino was secretly glad she couldn't scare Tzoir off; she didn't want her to go away, but wasn't sure how to act like she wanted her around without seeming weak. Tzoir in her usual serene way seemed to know that. She stopped watching the sea and let Tzoir show her the island.

     Adavino had gotten quite a surprise when a very angry Tonu came charging into the village. Adavino had been ready to take this one on her own but found that there was more to the island bunny than what met the eye. She watched wide-eyed as Tzoir quickly beat the Tonu with ease. Adavino gaped at her and demanded to know where all that 'crazy flying ninja stuff', as she liked to call it, came from.

     As it turned out, Tzoir was an instructor at the ninja training school there and Adavino loved sparring with her and eventually began to teach her some of the things she'd learnt watching through the windows of the Little Nippers school on Krawk Island. Strangely enough, at least it was strange to Adavino, she began to relax and became friendlier to the rest of the island natives. She became especially fond of the children and often told them tales from her past at sea; in fact, many Islanders liked to listen to her stories, having never left the island themselves.

     Then one day a young Kacheek came running by as fast as he could yelling about a ship close by. Many children followed him, hoping to catch a look, though to the adults a ship sailing past was nothing to get excited about. Adavino's ears twitched and she took off towards the shoreline, to the confusion of Tzoir, who was in the middle of teaching her the ability 'burrow'.

     It was her ship, Adavino realised, the one she was washed off of during that storm. It was so close that all she had to do was call out and someone onboard would hear her. Yet she didn't.

     "That's your ship, isn't it?" She turned to see Tzoir calmly standing behind her. She nodded.

     They watched the ship sail off into the distance, way out of hearing range. Adavino then turned and started off back to the school. Tzoir stared at her in confusion.

     "I thought you wanted to go home?"

     Adavino smiled at her. "I am home."

     Tzoir laughed and pounced on her with a fierce hug.

     In the distance many of the natives heard joyful laughter of Tzoir and the half hearted protests of Adavino saying that she was 'crushing her spine with her hug'.

     Adavino loved Mystery Island.

The End