A Tiger's Pounce

 We were on a trip 

The destination look beautifully mesmerizing

I was walking with a girl, who looked quite close to me and seems to be like my best friend

There are rails throughout the border of the sea, yet build in a height that even a big fish could pop above it easily.

My dad called out to warn me not to look over the rail into the sea and stay away from the rails. 

He was walking back to the team and told us to hurry back soon.

I replied okay and thought of staying for quite longer to absorb all this beauty in.

I said to her lets walk till the end and we will return 

She is quite like-minded like me and agreed instantly

As she was walking forward looking at the sea and similarly enjoying to the fullest

I looked over the rails, ignoring the warning from dad as usual.

I saw a movement in water that looked like moving towards the shore

The creature became more visible as it moved 

I was watching in awe thinking of seeing something unique in this trip

My visions were pointing it to be crocodile since I could see a grey shaded long tail of the creature

But I guessed it wrong as the tail of the creature turned out to be a trunk of an elephant.

My awe became shocked as the trunk was quite long and wondered how big of body it might have. 

I screamed out for my friend to watch what I'm seeing 

As the elephant started approaching towards the rail, we both ran for the museum building close to the sea. It was made of brick with brown shaded interior which had less of hiding space.

We both hold on tight and stayed together in our so called hiding spot

The creature jumped out of sea and ran towards the museum.

We were shivering with fear

As we were watching the creatures body became quite clear.

It was indeed a peculiar body.

A trunk and tail that's quite long for a tiny body. 

It can be called an elephant but had a disproportionate body.

We looked to each other and wondered what kind of a creature it was and whether it was harmful

As we were hiding, the creature was also making a peculiar noise and sounded like it was being playful

It jumped around in the museum and ran towards the sea again.

This happened back and forth the sea for quite a while. 

We were still hiding wondering is it safe or harmful and decided to cross-over once the creature jumps back into the sea.

As we were waiting it to jump into the sea. Something even worse happened.

All we noticed out of fear is that it was a white tiger

The roar was insanely loud that we almost had our hearts drop to the ground.

We peeped out in fear to see what was happening as we could not hear the elephant's noise. 

After few moment we heard few small roars and saw the tiger cubs running all around the museum and the huge mother tiger trying to get a hold of these cubs.

Our fear heightened thinking that cubs might run into our hiding spot any moment now.

And it happened at that instant, our thoughts turned to reality.

Followed by the cubs came in the huge tiger.

The cubs took a right turn and we both ran towards the left turn 

As the mother tiger turned, it mistook my black and white stripped dress to be its cubs

My friend's outfit camouflaged with the building and ran behind the cubs unnoticed by the mother tiger.

My eyes were welling up as I could not find a way to escape. 

I suddenly hit on one of the protruding wall and fall back on the floor. 

I tried to quickly sprang up to escape even though it would be utter failure.

Next moment the tiger had pounced on me and I realized my end was near as the weight of the animal on my body weakened my lower part.

All I could hold was its front paws with my two hands.

I got few scratches on my neck and hand as it pounced.

Still managed to hold on to my life till my last breath.

My hands were giving in with the struggle. 

I could see the claws and fangs clearly waiting to take away my life in a snap.

As I started losing the hope to battle this huge creature still on my body, I started thinking about my family and the good moments were popping in front of my eyes.

At that moment, which almost felt like eternity, heard the scowls of the tiger cubs.

The mother tiger pounced out of my body and ran towards the sound.

I had just the energy to close my eyes as it was strained of keeping it wide open out of fear.

I just want to lie there trying to grasp my breath and scenes still popping in my head.

The way it pounced on me. The fangs. The claws. Fear of losing my parents. Fear of losing my life any moment.

I could hear a hush voice calling out my name in concern

I opened my eyes and my vision was blurred but was relieved of thinking that my friend was safe too.

I hugged her and cried.

She held on to me as I stood up from where I was lying.

I couldn't walk as my lower body felt numb. 

I dragged myself to escape with her thinking that the tiger might return again.

That thought itself bought me shivers. 

She understood my fear and made certain that the tiger and her cubs had returned to the sea.

I felt relieved and started walking slowly without her support. 

As we came out of the museum, the police and security teams were holding on to the crowd and our team that had come for this trip

All I could see was my mother and ran towards her and cried out my fear, before waking up from my sleep.

It was another dream.

The fear and pain felt so real.

I looked for my mom and felt relieved.

I narrated my dream and she consoled me.

I feel exhausted and rewriting the dream again bought tears to my eyes and I could hear my heart pounding in my ears.

I don't want to put any meaning to my dreams yet why would I dream of a tiger and elephant-like creature out of no where.

I have been working on my thesis for quite a few days and have been quite stressed with the deadlines. 

I watch Korean dramas mostly of romantic genre to relax my nerves.

Well truly human body is quite a peculiar thing.