Brave As Wheat: Omar's Tiger Rescue Adventure

Omar watched the tigers. They paced at the edge of their pen, looking up warily at the guards who kept watch. Omar wanted to help them, but he didn't know how. He wasn't brave like his older brothers. He hadn't joined the army like they had. He'd been afraid he might get killed out there. So he'd stayed behind and tended to his father's market stall instead.

Father had died last winter, leaving Omar with a small inheritance. He'd used his money to open a small restaurant on one of the side streets off of the main avenue. It wasn't a very good location, but it was all he could afford at the time. The business did well enough and Omar had saved enough from his earnings to look for more property, but then everything had gone wrong. A few weeks ago, word had spread that the big Lord Ajax had recently lost three tigers in a fire at his estate. He was offering a substantial reward for their return, so now every guard and soldier in town was patrolling the streets looking for any stray tigers they could find.

Omar had nearly been caught himself last week when some soldiers stopped by his restaurant looking for food and drink after an exhausting day of patrolling the city. Omar didn't know what they were after - they hadn't said - but their eyes were hard when they looked at him, so he served them reluctantly, hoping they would leave quickly so he could close up shop and go home before anything bad happened to him or his business.

"Good evening," one of them greeted him as he stepped through the door into the dimly lit room. His smile seemed genuine enough, but there was something about him that made Omar nervous all the same. He had dark skin and dark eyes that peered out from under his helmet and across the table at Omar with a kind of intense focus that made Omar's heart beat faster and sweat trickle down his back under his apron as he set down their plates of meat and bread and poured them each a cup of wine from an earthenware pitcher on the table near them.

"What brings you gentlemen here?" he asked nervously as he poured wine for himself, trying to appear nonchalant even though he felt anything but safe in this situation. But it was late and he was tired and wanted nothing more than to go home to bed where he could pretend everything was alright until morning came again and maybe things would be better than they were today.

"We're after three escaped tigers," one of the soldiers replied casually as if that wasn't something anyone would think twice about doing in their spare time along with stopping by a local tavern for food and drink, "but we don't have much hope of catching them." He shrugged as if it didn't matter much to him either way whether or not they caught any tigers tonight, but Omar knew better than to believe that; men who hunted escaped animals usually only did so because they enjoyed it or because it paid well, which meant these men were probably pretty good at what they did - too good for someone like Omar who just wanted to live out his days minding his own business without having to worry about getting chased off someday by angry men carrying swords or spears or bows and arrows if someone found out about this little side project he'd started over on one of those side streets in town where no one ever bothered to walk around anyway because no one lived there except for maybe an old woman on her deathbed who lived alone in her crumbling house without any children or friends left to visit her anymore because everyone was dead or gone away somewhere else long ago when she went blind and couldn't see why she should keep living anymore or make any new friends in town since no one ever visited her anymore anyway so she just sat alone in her room all day staring out the window waiting patiently for death to come calling on her while Omar did what little work she needed done around her house whenever she needed something picked up or moved around or fixed so that way she wouldn't have to ask her neighbors who never bothered showing up anyway because they were too busy neglecting their own elderly parents who didn't want anything from anybody anyway because they were too old already anyway so why should anybody bother visiting them? No point in keeping up appearances now when people can tell how sickly your health is just by looking at you anyways.)

The soldier drained his glass of wine before continuing: "But we heard you've got some wild monkeys running around your place stealing vegetables from your garden like some sort of trained circus act," another soldier added with an evil grin as Omar looked back over at him with wide eyes filled with fear, "so we thought maybe you'd seen these tigers roaming around here today!" The soldier laughed uproariously while shaking his head from side to side as if this joke were even funnier than what he'd just said before sliding over two gold coins across the table into front of Omar where they clinked together loudly against each other before falling onto the table making even more noise that caused all three soldiers' faces to light up even more than before when Omar jumped back away from them in surprise as if suddenly remembering something important that needed doing elsewhere immediately! Oh my goodness! I forgot! I'm supposed to be closing up shop right now! I've got customers waiting outside! I need to get going! Goodbye! Good night! See ya next time! Don't let me keep you long!" And with that, Omar slipped away quickly out the doorway while bowing politely before disappearing into the night.