Nadirah replied in kind before chuckling.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“My grandmother wants to know who stole your clothes.”
“Oh.” He glanced down at his bare chest and feet before sheepishly rolling his shoulders. “Guess since I came here to hear her stories, you might as well tell her the truth.”
Nadirah pinched her lips. “It’s going to sound crazy.”
“But you know it’s true.”
“I do,” she uttered on a sigh. She faced her grandmother and began gesturing. The more Nadirah spoke, the more the old lady’s eyes widened. By the time Nadirah finished, the grandmother eyed Phoenix up and down with curiosity. When Nadirah finished, the old woman muttered, “Harimau akuan.”
“What did she say?”
“She simply called you a tiger shifter.”
“Does she know where I can find them?”
“No find easy.” The grandmother spoke in broken English. “Hide. Jungle. Not safe.”
“Do you know where in the jungle?” he asked.
Grandmother shook her head. “You no find. They find you.”
Not exactly helpful. “What can you tell me about the harimau?” He used their term.
The old lady launched into a speech in her mother tongue, which had Nadirah tilting her head. When her grandmother finished, she glanced at Phoenix. “She says there are manylegends. Some claim tiger shifters are sorcerers who change shape with magic. Others are born that way and control the beast through fasting.”
“I can assure you, I’m not a sorcerer, and I certainly wasn’t born this way. She mentioned they live in the jungle.”
“So the legends claim.”
He paused before saying, “I saw a video before my voyage that appeared to show a man shifting into a tiger after an accident.”
“I’m familiar with it. It caused quite a stir until the person who filmed it admitted it was a prank created with AI.”
He had his doubts about that. “There must be a way to find the guy.”
“They find you,” the grandmother stated, having listened to them.
Phoenix rubbed his face. “And if they can, so can my enemies, which means I should get going before they follow me here.”
“You’re leaving already?” Nadirah sounded surprised.
“I’ve put you in enough danger.”
“Where will you go?”
“Dunno. Probably make my way to the jungle.”
“One does not just walk into the jungle,” Nadirah admonished. “Not to mention, which one? We have many.”
“Guess I’ll have to look at a map and see which one looks most interesting. Don’t see what other choice I have.”
“You can’t leave. You have nothing, not even shoes,” she pointed out.
“Maybe I’ll get lucky and someone will hurt me enough I’ll be back in paws.”
