And is poor Tiger laid at last so low?
O day of sorrow! -Day of dismal woe!
Bloodhounds, or spaniels, lap-dogs, 'tis all one,
When Death once whistles -snap! -away they're gone.
See how she lies, and hangs her lifeless ears,
Bathed in her mournful lady's tears!
Dumb is her throat, and wagless is her tail,
Doomed to the grave, to Death's eternal jail!
In a few days this lovely creature must
First turn to clay, and then be changed to dust.
That mouth which used its lady's mouth to lick
Must yield its jaw-bones to the worms to pick.
That mouth which used the partridge-wing to eat
Must give its palate to the worms to eat.
--excerpt from "Elegy Upon Tiger", Jonathan Swift
It was getting dark now, and the two cubs had been waiting patiently all day for their mother to return. A short while after she had left to investigate the noises, several loud CRACKing sounds were heard in the forest. The two cubs were smart enough not to go trotting off to find out what they were, so they sat, waiting and listening. Soon all the sounds had died off and the forest was eerily quiet. Hesitantly, the boy tiger cub opened his mouth to emit a quiet mewl, hoping that perhaps their mother was nearby and would come home soon.
There was no response. Quietly, they lay down and licked their fur clean, as they had done every day. Perhaps if they continued their daily routine things would be back to normal soon, and mother would come back to the den, their next meal clutched in her jaws. But she would never come, for she had been brought down by a different kind of hunter, a more dangerous kind of hunter, the kind that would never go away and would not care if they hunted down every last animal in the forest.
Night passed slowly for the two cubs, huddled close together in the den for warmth. It was completely unlike their mother to be gone this long, so maybe something serious had happened. The two tried to pass the time by playing with each other but there was no intensity without mother nearby. As dawn began to break and the sky changed from the darkest night to light greys and yellows, the boy cub got up and started pacing around the area. Where was mother? The sister remained laying, watching the nervous consternation of her brother. When the rays of the sun began glowing upon the canopy of the forest, the brother finally decided that he had enough waiting and turned to go out to look for their mother. The young female tiger did not want to stay there alone, so when she noticed her brother skulking off into the woods she leaped up and trotted up alongside him.
The pair walked slowly into the woods, sniffing at the brush, trying to follow their mother's scent that marked her passing half a day ago. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, a new scent crossed their noses. It smelled remarkably familiar, but the closest thing to what it came to was their dinner after it had been sitting out for a few hours. There was something else in the air as well, but the two tiger cubs couldn't quite identify it. With all the curiosity of felines, they continued quietly stalking through the wood, looking for signs of... anything.
Coming through a break in the brush, they came upon a small clearing. Then they saw it... the remnants of their mother, scattered across the forest floor where she once had been. Quietly, the brother walked up to their mother's body, tugging gently to try to get her to respond. She lay lifeless. The small tiger cub let out a soft bellow of grief. The female cub came up and sat next to him, poking at her mother with a paw, trying to get her to wake up. Maybe she was just asleep. But she was wrong. She sat staring at the body, trying to make sense of things while her brother continued to wail a heartfelt cry of distress. As a single tear began to seep out of her eye, she joined her brother's mournful cries.