I was born deep in the jungles long ago. My family lived in a city of ancient ruins erected in honor of my ancestors. The people that lived in the village below our ruins worshiped my people because they knew of our powers. They knew we were demigods, so they stayed away out of fear. That always troubled our people, but we thought if we let humans into our world everything as we knew it would be destroyed. However, the village fascinated me and I was determined from an early age to change the way the villagers looked at my people. I wanted us to be friends.
Being the only cub of the King and Queen of Tigers, I had a wonderfully spoiled lifestyle. My mother and father gave me everything, and still today I want it all. I grew up in a very loving environment and as soon as I was old enough I would often journey into the village just below the ruins where we lived. The villagers knew me and began to call me Mirri, which they said meant 'Mirror of Affection'. They told me that my name was a special blessing, and that I would always by nature reflect the affecdtion an individual showed me whether it be good or bad. This sort of made me a living, breathing version of 'treat others as you would expect to be treated'. They told me the legends and lore of their people, and I would shift into my human form and tell them about mine. My father saw what I was trying to do and hesitantly approved saying he was proud I was helping to strengthen the relationship between the villagers and my people. He also told me to be careful because he worried about me when I made my trips into the village.
I met a mage in the village and we quickly became friends. He often told me I was different from the rest of my kind. He and his wife taught me many things and helped me to perfect my human side as well as my magical self. I spent years under his supervision, growing into a wonderful mage myself and bringing his teachings to my fellow tigers in the ruins. He even taught me the wonderful blessing of immortality and performed it on me. Life was wonderful for me and my people and it looked as if things would only get better. That is, until one fateful night...
I was startled awake one night by a bright, orangish light. I looked around and after my eyes had a chance to adjust I realized the ruins my people called home were on fire, along with the jungles surrounding them. I jumped up and ran through the ruins, looking for my mother and father, but they were no where to be found. I saw no one, and I was so scared that everyone had died. Quickly I ran through the fires, yelping in pain as my fur was singed by the leaping flames. I ran toward the village, the only place of refuge I knew of, as fast as my four little paws could carry me. I was still fairly young for a tiger at that time, so that was not very fast. When I got there, I saw the village had been burned out as well leaveing many dead. My mage friend saw me and came to my aid, sweeping me into his arms and teleporting me to a second world it seemed. I stayed there in his magical castle where he tended to my wounds and kept me until I was able to be alone again. He did not tell me much about that night that I lost my home and my entire family except that we were the sole survivors and that strangers had come into the village and started the fire which spread to the jungle and eventually to the ruins. He told me that he had feared that all my kind were dead, and that he was overjoyed to find out that I had made it out alive.
I have roamed the jungles ever since he allowed me to leave his castle, searching. I do not really know what I am looking for, I just know it is out there somewhere. Sometimes I find stones in the bottom of pools of water. Stones colored tranucent ice blue, just like my eyes. When I hold them, I am reminded of my family in some way. I think that if I gather enough of these stones I will be able to be at peace with my painful past and stop my endless searching. I still have nightmares of that night. Nightmares so realistic that I feel I am back in the jungles running for my life. Then I awaken and realize it was only a nightmare and that I am lucky to have escaped, even if it was only because of the immortality blessing.
I would like to know why those strangers came into my home, and why they started that fire. I would also like to know if my mother and father blame me because I got the human involved in our lives. I guess I will never be at peace with it all, but I try so hard. I still visit my mage friend and train with him, and the only remnant I have of my family is a jeweled katana that has been in my family for ages and was rescued from the burnt out ruins unscathed.
this page last updated May 15, 2003.