Stop, Natra! Stop!

A risky game between a bold lynx and a fiery goddess, a night full of adventure and magic.

Having finished his daytime hunt, Lynx lay down to rest in the tall green grass. He was peacefully dozing, dreaming, when Natra blazed past him like a fiery arrow, searing him with the heat of her body. Waking, Lynx saw her streak through the grove like a flash of orange, casting a mysterious, ghostly glow around her, before vanishing into the twilight forest. At that moment, a wild, almost delirious thought came to him, and before his reason could object to this suicidal idea, he rushed to act on it: “Stop, Natra! Stop!” he called after the fleeing cat.
It took some nerve to dare stop Natra — the fiery tigress, goddess and progenitor of all feline kind — and on top of that, to suggest running with her through the midnight forest thickets. Yes, such an idea reeked of serious trouble — like any cat, Natra’s mood could shift in an instant, and if she was in ill humor, she could incinerate anyone who dared approach her in the blink of an eye. Still, Lynx would have risked his life without hesitation just to spend even a single night with the flame-furred goddess, and so even the awareness of the looming danger did not stop him. Like a prayer, like some ancient and mighty incantation, he repeated with trembling voice and reverence:
“Natra — my Muse, my Guardian Angel — halt your run, grant me, the one so presumptuous, at least a moment of that eternity which has been bestowed upon you. Burn, scorch, destroy me with your fiery gaze, or grant me the joy of being with you and feeling the breath of your Power — I will humbly accept it all.”
Lynx stood, peering intently into the black wall of the forest, when suddenly a voice came from behind:
“At it again, are you! How many times must I tell you that this little ritual of yours has long since tired me out… Although, I’ll admit — you fooled me. If there’s one thing your kind can’t be denied, it’s cunning and the talent for playing the fool.”
In a sudden leap, Lynx spun around and saw her. Natra lay on her back, hind legs spread out, and with an innocent look she combed through the thick, snow-white fur on her belly with her forepaws. The tension was rising — he had to keep the conversation going somehow, but nothing came to mind, and so he hesitated. Then he remembered something he’d once heard: that the fiery tigress liked it when someone played along with her. Mustering his courage, he told himself: “If we’re playing — then let’s play!”
This was, of course, a game not for life but for death, and as he began it, Lynx understood perfectly well — any mistake would come at a very high price. It was too late to back down, and Lynx resolved to see the game through to the end — a night with the goddess was worth it.
“Hello, Natra,” he greeted her quietly. “So, will you let me run with you tonight, or will you sulk all night over my joke?”
“I am a goddess, and my name is Natrafrorra Tanura O’Ollit!” the cat said sternly, staring Lynx straight in the eyes.
He endured it for almost a minute, but when he felt a sharp pain in his chest, he finally turned away — no one could withstand her gaze for long. Her eyes burned through him like fire, penetrating into the most remote corners of his mind. An unbearable heat engulfed his body and mind, and Lynx almost thought his end had come.
“However,” she averted her gaze and her voice softened, “on this night, I permit you to call me Natra.”
Feeling the heat gradually subside, and realizing that death in the goddess’s fiery embrace did not threaten him, Lynx grew bolder. The tigress walked toward him with measured steps, and he felt her warmth again — but this time it was not scorching, rather pleasant, almost caressing.
“My, you lynxes are so sly…” Natra said in a playful voice, softly, as if rolling the words on her tongue. “Give you free rein, and you’d be chasing after me every single night.”
Lynx didn’t want to get into trouble, but he also wasn’t about to let the goddess have the last word. After thinking for a moment, he said the first thing that came to mind:
“Natra, when you were born of fire, coal, and ash... you inherited a truly searing manner of speaking along with your incinerating appearance.”
The tigress wasn’t about to be outdone and kept up the game:
“What shameless flattery,” she growled threateningly, “pure, barefaced, shameless flattery! Mind you, you’re playing with fire — and fire is no joke…”
“Oh, I’m sooo scared…” Lynx purred, stretching the words out in playful parody. “Oh-oh-oh, how scared I am…” Then, collapsing to the ground, whining and rolling in the grass, he began to wail, “Sorry, I’ll never do it again… really, really… by the honor of my tufts!”
“Well, all right. Just for tonight I’ll allow you to be with me, but promise you won’t come tomorrow… I have things to do too. Deal?”
The tigress, as if afraid to burn him, looked at Lynx with a slightly dimmed gaze. Hoping to bargain for one more night, he tried to endure and stall for time, but in the end, he couldn't hold out and agreed. At that very instant, Natra, tearing from her spot with a lunge, rushed toward the forest. Quickly coming to his senses, Lynx, gaining speed, followed her and soon caught up with the cat.
“And here I am!” he shouted to the tigress. “Didn’t expect me to be so swift, did you?”
“Quiet! Don't chatter idly, run silently and listen to the Power of the forest... Oh, what am I saying — you can't listen to the Power...”
“You know it yourself — lynxes are chatty and terribly muddleheaded animals...”
Natra slowed her run, but Lynx, carried away, didn't notice and surged ahead. Only when the tigress, now behind him, managed to nip his tail did he realize his mistake. The chase, of course, wasn't serious, and Natra bit him gently, playfully. If it had been for real, Lynx would have been left without his tail, and maybe everything else, too.
“Of course, darling,” came the voice of the cat, breathless with laughter, from behind. “And they're also silly, cheeky, and clingy.”
Running up a high hill, they chased each other for a long time, rolled in the grass, and with loud whoops, tumbled head over heels down the sandy slope — competing to see who would roll to the bottom fastest. Chasing Lynx once more, Natra overtook him in two jumps, dove to the side, and disappeared into a dense bush. Startled, Lynx stopped abruptly and began to listen. Silence: not a rustle, not the sound of a snapping twig — he still heard nothing that could give away the tigress's location.
“Natra, you didn’t really run off and leave me here alone, did you?”
“How could you think such a thing?!” the familiar voice said sternly from somewhere above. “That’s simply impossible!” Looking around, Lynx couldn’t figure out where the voice was coming from for a long time, but then, as if an insight struck him, he saw her almost right under his nose. The tigress was sitting under a huge sprawling tree at the very top of the hill, and with a carefree look she was cleaning her claws on the bark. Every time she ran her paw down the trunk, there was a sharp, piercing, ear-splitting sound.
“And how could I not have noticed this before — I don’t understand!” Lynx huffed indignantly to himself. “Though, what's there to think about — it's always like this with goddesses: one moment they appear out of nowhere, the next they vanish as if dissolved into thin air, and sometimes they’ll conjure up something so bizarre that not everyone could dream it.”
“My, you lynxes are so slow,” Natra said in a sing-song voice, drawing unimaginable sounds from the wood. “You all brag and boast that you’re skillful hunters, but you can’t catch the Fiery One…” Embarrassing Lynx, Natra stopped her "music" and, arching her body gracefully, leaped onto the fork of the thickest branch. She lay there, and with her paws dangling down, stretched out to her full length. Comfortably settled on the branch, she began to entice him upward by gently swaying the tip of her tail:
“My, you lynxes are so clumsy,” the tigress began her song once more. “You can't even climb a tree... Hey there, down below — climb up here, or you'll miss the sunrise. I think from this tree we’ll be able to see the sunrise. It's been so long since I watched the sun... I’ve always thought that nothing is more beautiful than the dawn that follows the night.”
Lynx scrambled up the trunk and settled down beside her.
“The sunrise?” he asked, surprised. “I thought the night was just beginning… Is this one of your jokes, Natra? You want to get rid of me quickly, don't you?”
“What kind of thoughts are those?!” the tigress huffed indignantly. “Or do you not believe a goddess, or perhaps you dare to doubt that I always keep my word?”
“Oh no, my goddess… of course not,” Lynx stammered.
“My, you lynxes are so suspicious…” Natra began, but suddenly, cutting herself off mid-sentence, she raised her head and began to look into the distance.
As Lynx looked in the direction of the tigress's gaze, the horizon parted before him, and he saw the day's luminary rise heavily above the treetops like a shining orb. The light of the rising Sun struck the tigress's fur and seemed to set it ablaze. Scarlet flashes of divine fire pierced his eyes like shining blades. For a moment, Lynx was blind, and when he grew used to the bright light and could see again, Natra was no longer there. Having kept her promise, she seemed to have dissolved into thin air, leaving Lynx with only a slight, warm feeling somewhere in the depths of his fathomless lynx soul.
“Thank you, Natrafrorra Tanura O'Ollit!” he cried out to the entire forest. Catching his cry, a light breeze carried it over the treetops. Lynx listened to the silence of the morning forest, and for a moment it seemed to him that somewhere far, far away, Natra had heard his call and responded with her own: “My, you lynxes are so loud...”

16.05.04