The child seemed to be surrounded by fireflies.
Was this real?
Watching the fireflies dart away as soon as his fingertips drew near,
he thought, This is all real.
Though the fireflies resisted his touch, they didn't fly far away.
They continued to flutter around him.
He looked around.
His expression was dazed and delighted.
For some reason, he felt as though things had taken an unexpected turn for the better.
He had really found the fireflies.
No...
The child shook his head.
He hadn't found them.
He looked down at the tiger beneath him.
The tiger had brought him here.
For the first time, the child looked at the tiger without fear.
"You..."
The child pressed his lips together. "Did you bring me here especially to see the fireflies?"
The tiger turned its head and glanced at him.
It didn't make a sound.
But the child took that as an affirmative.
He was a little at a loss for words.
He'd been worried all along that the tiger would eat him.
But now that he thought about it, the tiger had been helping him the whole time.
When he sprained his ankle, the tiger had let him ride on its back.
And it had brought him to see the fireflies.
Wait.
Could it be...
The child froze.
Had the tiger come to him in the first place because it had seen him fall?
"...Thank you,"
the child said softly.
"Thank you for bringing me to see the fireflies."
"Do you know?"
"The reason I came into the woods tonight was to look for fireflies."
The child smiled. "I couldn't find any on my own, and I got lost and fell, too."
"And..."
The child hesitated for a moment, then said quietly, "I even ran into you."
"I thought