I Become the Baby Tiger in a Beast Taming World

I’m dreaming.

I wake up, and my brother is sitting right next to me. Not Lobo, but Damon. Dark hair, lopsided smile, legs that branch out and sprawl in two different directions.

"Damon?"

Not telepathic like the video game speech I use. My real voice, coming out of my tiger’s mouth.

He stares at me, and I glance wildly around, scattershot, to see if Lobo is there. And in a total surreal weird vision, Lobo lies within a few feet of me, ears flicking, dreaming wolf dreams.

I glance back at Damon. "What is this?"

"It’s me trying to rescue you--"

I tense up. "Really?"

I know it’s not allowed. I expect System to sound red alert klaxons and trap me in some kind of game cage, or cause a glitch so that I reset and have to replay the game all over again.

"Really." Damon exhales. "I know you’re still in the coma--"

Wait. Wait. I’m in the coma? I’m not dead? System lied to me and showed me a fake vision? What is this even?

Damon continues. "They’re pressuring Mom and Dad to just let you go, but Mom and Dad won’t. They still think you’re in there. But I know. I know you’re in the game. I’ve known for a while now. The choices you’re making are so you."

My heart stutters.

"Don’t let Mom and Dad give up on me. I’m trying to come back. I don’t know how. They told me I couldn’t."

He doesn’t ask who. My otaku weeb brother knows better.

"Trapped in the matrix," he says knowingly. "It’s not just a movie trilogy, it’s been written about in philosophy for centuries. You are trapped for some strange purpose. Maybe because you needed a wake-up call after scaring all of us to death. Maybe because some strange video game god didn’t like how you played the game."

"Tanglewood is a parallel universe where everything is medieval and magical," I blurt. "Medieval with some steampunk and cyberpunk, although very limited. And magical."

"I believe you."

And if he does? If I can actually go home?

Then it’s the best news and also the worst news ever.

I glance over at Lightning, who’s asleep, and fresh guilt surfaces. She doesn’t know who I am. Not truly. I mated with her because I accepted that this was my life now. Because I didn’t think I could ever return. System kept telling me that.

But who is the System, anyway? And why wouldn’t it want me to return home if I wanted to? There will always be players to play the game.

I growl. "They lied to me. The System. It lied to me."

Damon nods, taking it all in. "That’s why I’m here. I thought for a while that you were just playing this out until you could get home. But then you mated. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a romantic too. But it just means that your ties to this world are stronger. That’s why I had to attack you when we met. I didn’t want you getting comfortable. But then when you were, I made choices in the game that would have the NPCs turn on me, so I could get close to you."

My mind whirls. He wanted to get close to me.

"But you accepted me with Lightning."

He sighs. "Well, I really wrestled with myself on that one. After all, you couldn’t get your romanic life together in the human world, so what was the harm? You should at least have some happiness. But now she’s pregnant, and you’d never abandon your responsibilities. I mean, I know you’d still play the game and be with her in the game if--"

If.

If I can isekai back to the real world. Can I? Do I even want to?

"I miss our parents."

Clumsy, raw, and honest.

He squeezes my hand. "You absolute idiot, why didn’t you take better care of yourself? I know, i know. Mom and Dad bear some of the blame. Maybe I even do--"

"YOU? You’re the baby of the family."

He scoffs. "Don’t. Don’t do that."

"What?"

He stares at me with that very Mom look, universally acknowledged by our family to mean "you’re being stupid right now." Composing himself, he says, "Don’t baby me."

My tiger mouth smacks shut. I still don’t know how human speech is coming out of my mouth, unless this is all a vision. An extended vision.

He continues. "I should have made you take better care of yourself. Told Mom and Dad and you to dial it back."

I offer a little "mrrrp" and massage the soft springy grass with my paws. "You know me. I might not have listened anyway."

The words are bitter nettles in my mouth, but I have to take ownership of my own death. Or near death. As impossible as it may seem, I’m not actually dead. I’m in a video game limbo.

Do I want to leave?

Who wouldn’t? To be a human again, to talk like a human and live like a human. To get a do-over with my parents and Damon...and Amber.

"Damon?"

"Yes?"

I hesitate. "Is Amber okay?"

Damon grins. "Well, well."

"Just answer me."

He gives me an old-fashioned look. "How do you think she’s doing? She’s playing the game to be close to you--"

WHAT?

Don’t look at Lightning. Don’t look at Lightning.

But I do, and I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. Her fur is amber. Her eyes are amber. She’s even as feisty as Amber.

Damon follows my maze. "I told her that she’s not helping. The more you two get involved i the game, the more that she forgets it is actually a game."

Reeling from the bombshell, I slump down.

I am an idiot. Amber has been playing Lightning all this time. And she’s so desperate for me to come back that she’s having my cubs! Well, sort of.

"What do I do? I can’t have her get more involved--she’s having my cubs. And there’s the big tournament. I should drop out."

Damon huffs. "Don’t you dare. It’s your way to win your freedom. You win that tournament, and you’ll be free."

Huh?

What has my brother been smoking? Maybe grief has driven him mad?

"HOW?"

"Ask this System to help you," he encourages. "It’s gone rogue. Every time I make a move to wake you up and bring you back to us, it counteracts it."

I address the System in my own voice.

"SYSTEM. We need to have a chat."

For several moments, the tiger den is a diorama with miniature figures, frozen in time. But then...

"Damon should never have broken through."

It’s a female’s voice, and it does not sound friendly now.

My ears snap back. "Why? Because he’s telling me the truth?"

"Because your life as you know it is over. Your human life. You are needed in the game."

I’ve watched too many science fiction movies and read too many books not to recognize what’s going on. An unearthly intelligence, maybe a blend of AI and fantastical elements, controls this game. The gatekeeper between our two worlds. Why didn’t I see it?

"NO. My parents are grieving and my fiancee is trying to rescue me and getting drawn into the game too." A horrible thought strikes me. "Is that why you encouraged me to mate with Lightning? So that she would become addicted to this virtual tiger family we’ve created? It’s a terrible substitute for a real one."

Damon growls, "We want him to come home."

"NO. He is MINE. Both of you are mine. Amber is mine."

I was so ready to make a life in the game at certain points. For a moment, with Lightning pregnant, I forgot that this is a virtual life. I forgot that I want the real deal. And I certainly don’t want some rogue game AI to be the puppet master of our future!

This feels like Ready Player One meets The Matrix trilogy. And now, I have taken the red pill.

"I am not yours, and I request the right to win my freedom at the Beast Taming Elimination Tournament. Not only that, I want my brother’s freedom and Amber’s. They will no longer be hostage to this game. Amber is forgetting it’s just a game. Damon--"

"I might," he mutters. "I nearly did. But I have to think of Mom and Dad."

Growling, I keep up my offensive. "You want us both to be slaves in your game, and Amber too. I don’t know what you are, and I don’t care. Accept my terms or I will fight you every step of the way. I will make stupid choices. I will run off and live with Kasz and fight the trolls."

System now sounds panicked.

"No. You can’t. Very well, have it your way. But when you lose, you three will join the game forever. You will forget your human lives and I will rule you all."