Catching up to the tiger would have been impossible if the tiger had not allowed it. The tiger led Leonidas on, leading him past the mountains they climbed together to a different mountain range… a more remote mountain range.

Leonidas stopped to drink water.

The tiger stopped to look at him.

“I can’t imagine what you think of me,” Leonidas said to the tiger as he took another sip of water.

“I think you’re an idiot,” a voice said.

Leonidas spat out the water. He whipped his head toward the beast and asked hotly, “Did you just talk?”

“Don’t talk to me if you’re going to say stupid things like, ‘Did you just talk?’ I get bored easily, and if I get bored with you, you’ll be walking home without finishing your repentance.” The tiger had not opened his mouth, but he had spoken as clearly as any person spoke.

Leonidas heard it in his head, a voice unlike anything he’d ever heard before because they were words that could not normally be heard.

“I need to repent?” Leonidas asked, looking at the tiger and speaking to him the only way he knew how—with his mouth.

“You know you do.” The tiger yawned. “You wouldn’t have followed me if you didn’t. I’m your last chance.”

“I feel that,” Leonidas agreed, “but I don’t know how following you can help me.”

“You need to begin by showing your faith and a willingness to suffer,” the tiger explained.

“That sounds unpleasant,” Leonidas said reactively.

“You can go home anytime you like,” the tiger continued. “It’s nothing to me if you quit, but if you do, you should know that you will never see Samara again. If you want to speak to her, you have to follow me to the end. Even then, there is no guarantee that you will be able to take her as your wife.”

Leonidas felt sick. “That voice, that divine light, belonged to her god?”

The tiger confirmed that was the case.

“His disapproval is what is making me feel this way?” Leonidas asked, gingerly touching his stomach and wondering if he would vomit on the spot.

The tiger circled him. “I’ll give you a few minutes to decide if you want to leave your breakfast on the ground before following me, but I can’t wait around endlessly while you dwell on your wretchedness.”

“Thank you,” Leonidas said, moving his hand to his throat. “I know I’m wrong.  I know that, but I don’t understand why my feelings for her were so off if we were matched together by a god.  Samara did not feel like my destined partner.”

“What kind of feeling were you looking for?” the tiger asked, getting antsy. “When I need to eat, I feel hungry. When I need to drink, I feel thirsty. When I need to mate… I feel like doing it.”

“I am a man, not a beast,” Leonidas said, taking one last sip from his water skin before storing it away with the other provisions his mother had packed.

“La tee da,” the tiger mocked. “You’re a mortal, not a god. You were drawn to her. What sort of transcendent experience were you looking for? Nevermind. Don’t answer that. I was there. You had plenty of transcendent experiences on the mountainside that night with her.  You just didn’t want it to be true.  Your little boy ideas had already created a woman in your head. Samara did not match your daydreams. I know what you wanted. You wanted someone quiet, someone who was unsure of themselves, someone who needed you as a guide. Samara was none of those things. You even wanted to break in your own little virgin. Forget a woman who had already had those first experiences… and with that loathsome King of all people! Your aversion there makes sense to me. I knew the King. He was the one who ordered the creation of the tiger pit.”

“So you were also disgusted by him?” Leonidas cried triumphantly.

The tiger did an approximation of rolling his eyes. “But that had nothing to do with Samara.  He had nothing to do with Samara. You were making her his slave in ways that she was not with your unjust judgment. Now move!”

The tiger put his giant paws to the ground and put distance between them, and Leonidas had to work himself raw to keep up with the tiger when he was not feeling well. He still felt like he needed to vomit. He also needed to stop and think, but the tiger ran on. Leonidas couldn’t lose sight of him.

“Where are you leading me?” he called after the tiger.

“We’re taking God’s path,” the voice replied.

Leonidas huffed and put his hands on his knees. “I take it you can’t command me the way Samara did that night.”

The tiger turned and licked his chops. “I cannot.”

“This is how I will suffer?” Leonidas questioned, already knowing the answer.

“One of the ways,” the tiger confirmed.

Slowly, Leonidas picked up his feet and pursued the tiger further up the mountain. God’s path was a hard path to follow, but there was no other path for him. If God said, ‘move,’ he had to do as he was commanded, even though he did not understand how the lines he had never crossed had become the fissures that broke his heart.