Bilabo didn’t regret leaving the village. Even when he was little, the village had felt too small for him. He’d quickly grown tired of the tiny village and the little fields and seeing the same people day after day after day. At first, he had tried to ignore the feeling of restlessness, but the older he got, the more keenly he felt it. By the time he came of age, he was eager to leave the little village behind forever. The only thing he missed from the village was Abema. But as much as he missed her, he didn’t regret leaving her behind. Because he was sure Abema was better off without him. She wanted to work as a pot-maker in the village, living in a little hut near the clay fields with a bonded partner and a few children. And that just wasn’t a life that Bilabo could provide for her. And it wasn’t just because of how he chafed at the smallness of the village. Before he left, he told Abema that he loved her more than he had ever loved anyone else. And it was true. When he was with Abema, he felt warm and comforted in a way that he never felt with anyone else. But he didn’t burn for her. As they grew older and awakened to desire, he never felt even the slightest hint of desire for the person he loved more than anyone. No, Bilabo only ever burned for hunters. It didn’t matter if it was a man or a woman, any hunter would stoke the fires in Bilabo’s heart. Not that he’d ever made anything of those desires. The village hunters were a pretty insular bunch, and Bilabo wasn’t really hunter material himself. Sometimes he wondered if he would ever find anyone who made him warm like Abema did and hot like the hunters did, but he honestly doubted it. Quite frankly, he had given up on romance almost entirely. But he’d never given up on travelling the world. Far more than romance, the vast openness of the world beyond the village called to him. He had been travelling for more than half a year now, and it had been the best half a year of his entire life. He had seen so many new things, met so many new people. It felt like he had lived more in this past half a year than in the nineteen years before it. The only thing he regretted about his travels was the fact that he’d probably be dead in just a few moments. Intellectually, he had known that the great forests had very different predators than the plains back home. But he was still used to a world where predators and prey alike shied away from people. Even the mighty lions considered people to be more trouble than they were worth unless they greatly outnumbered them. He wasn’t used to predators that hunted people. And certainly not to great big stripy cats that leapt at you from the trees! His horse, bless her, had managed to leap out of the way of the beast’s initial lunge, and had only received a shallow slash across one of her flanks. But she had reacted to this, rather sensibly, by bolting in terror towards the edge of the woods. And unfortunately, Bilabo had not managed to hold on as she did so. This left him all alone on the ground without any spears, since those were tied to the horse’s saddle. As the tiger prepared to pounce, Bilabo raised his knife and wondered what getting mauled by a tiger would feel like. That was when a heavy spear thunked into the tiger’s left shoulder, the fire-hardened wood sinking almost a full hand deep into the bulging muscle of the big cat. With a pained yowl, the creature cast it’s head about to find its attacker. Shortly thereafter, another heavy spear came sailing through the air, though the tiger managed to mostly move out of the way, getting away with just a small graze along its side. Bilabo’s jaw dropped as he saw Abema emerge from the brush, carrying a third spear and glaring at the wounded tiger with undisguised hostility. “What do you think you’re doing to my Billy, you stripy bastard?” The tiger lunged at her, but Abema leapt for its left side, where the injury kept it from moving its front leg well. Avoiding the stiffly moving claws, Abema braced her spear against the ground so that the leaping tiger’s entire weight slammed against its tip, sending the spear deep into the tiger’s belly. As the big cat thrashed and yowled in pain, Abema pulled out a knife and plunged it into the beast’s throat. By the time the beast’s thrashing stilled, Abema was drenched in dark, red blood and grinning like a demon… And Bilabo felt a flame ignite within him. “Abema! How? What are you doing here?” “I’m following you, obviously. Go see the world if you must, but you better damn well take me with you!” The force in Abema’s voice sent a pleasant shiver down Bilabo’s spine, but his mind was still trying to catch up with what was even happening. “But what about the village?” “My place was never in the village, Billy Blue. It’s next to you, wherever that might be. Just like your place is next to me!” Bilabo still had about a dozen question, but after struggling to ask any one of them, the one that finally emerged from his mouth was simply: “Can I kiss you?” Abema laughed out loud. “Of course you can, you idiot! Just let me wash my face first.” Bilabo looked her over once again. Her face and her entire front was covered in blood. It made her look wild. Dangerous. “Must you?” Abema shot him a strange look. “I don’t know what sort of blood diseases a tiger can have, but I know I don’t want to find out. If you want your first kiss to taste of blood that badly, I’ll just have to bite your lip while I do it.” Bilabo’s heart lurched, and he let out an awkward little squeak as the flames rose within him like never before.