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The Tiger and The River
- dcdizano
- Oct 18
- 3 min read
In the emerald depths of the Sundara Forest lived a tiger named Kai, son of Raza, the mighty king of the jungle.
They used to say no tiger could match Raza - the biggest and strongest of them all. His fur burned orange like the evening sun, cut with deep black stripes, dark and cool as night. His roar was so deep it could shake the ground for miles.
Raza’s shadow stretched long - even the wind seemed to move for him. Kai wanted nothing more than to be just like his father.
“Strength,” he once said, “is the crown you forge with your own claws. Strength is what makes a tiger worthy of the crown. A true tiger pushes forward, no matter what. The forest bows to those who never stop moving.”
Kai carried those words like claws in his chest. Every morning, he chased the dawn through the forest, determined to be faster, fiercer, greater than the day before. When he stopped by the River Anara, he would gaze into the water and see a reflection that looked more and more like his father’s - sharp eyes, steady shoulders, a king in the making.
But one monsoon season, the rains came heavy. The river swelled until its calm song turned into a roar louder than any tiger’s. Its calm skin was gone, replaced by a restless pulse. When he looked down, the tiger he’d always seen was nowhere. Only dark water twisting, swallowing itself.
“Where have you gone?” he asked the current. But the river only carried his question away.
He tried again and again, searching different pools, quieter places - but everywhere, the water was moving too fast to show him anything. Without that reflection, Kai felt like a stranger in his own skin. His claws felt dull. His steps uncertain. The forest that once echoed his power now just echoed his doubt.
Then one evening, he met an old heron fishing among the reeds.
“You look troubled, tiger,” said the heron.
“I’ve lost my reflection,” Kai said. “Without it, I don’t know who I am.”
The heron glanced at the storm-fed river. “Maybe it isn’t the water that must still, but the one who watches it.”
Kai bristled. “What is that supposed to mean?”
But before the heron could reply, thunder cracked overhead. Rain began to fall in heavy sheets, and within moments the river came alive again - angry, rising, spilling over its banks.
Kai tried to back away but it was too late. The water took him. The forest vanished in a blur of motion and sound.
He fought - claws, teeth, power - but the more he struggled, the deeper he sank. The flood didn’t care for strength.
And in that chaos, his father’s voice thundered: Never stop, Kai. Never surrender.
But then, faint beneath it, the heron’s voice: Be still.
Kai stopped struggling. For the first time in his life, he surrendered to his circumstances.
In return, the current eased. The water held him, not as an enemy, but as something ancient and alive. He floated, breathing with the rhythm of the river, until the storm passed.
When the dawn came, the forest shimmered with silver mist. The flood had quieted. Kai climbed to the bank, drenched, trembling.
He took a moment to steady himself, shaking off the excess water and grooming until his coat lay smooth again.
Before leaving to search for his father, Kai leaned over the water once more.
There he was - not as he remembered himself, not as his father’s shadow, but something new. A tiger touched by the river.
Whether he found himself again or became someone else, he couldn’t tell. But for the first time, that uncertainty didn’t frighten him.
The forest around him stirred - alive, reflective. And Kai walked on, the river’s message still echoing quietly inside him.
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About the Art
Original Name: [Untitled](2019)
Artist: Celeste
Medium: Acrylic on 12x12 canvas
Description: In the original painting, a tiger is stopping to have a drink after a storm. The patterned water does not reflect an image of the tiger.
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