“Of course it doesn’t make me feel better. Why would it?” She couldn’t stop a second laugh from escaping her though, and mumbled to herself. “I hope that groping my breasts made you feel better at least.”

Despite what Claire had done to Kate when she was under the assumption that she was part of the nightmare, her friend comforted her when she was faced with her own fear. Claire felt grateful that she had someone like Kate in her life, and she had felt like that more times than she could remember.

“Thanks, Kate, I appreciate it.” 

Kate summoned blades out of thin air. She threw them at Elijah and missed him as she had intended to do. Claire wondered if it was truly that easy to defeat his fear. He was afraid of getting hit, not letting Kate throw blades at him, right? It seemed to work and make him more at ease though. Claire would have hit him and healed his wound if she had been in Kate’s shoes, to show him that getting hit wasn’t the end of the world.

Claire had her own fear to deal with. She had to disregard her two friends and focus on the wild Solomon that was coming closer. Why were there two of them? She understood that it made sense for a number of her fears to be symbolized by Solomon, but why not just one white tiger?

Solomon kept circling her, growling and whining at her. He never came up to her though. Claire had to think about which one of her fears she was actually facing here. It occurred to her that it might have something to do with what would have happened to Solomon if they had never met. His life had been made better because she had adopted him, but what if she had never been able to do that or inadvertently hurt him in some way by bringing him up? 

There were times when she had doubted her skills as a lion tamer, and thought about what harm she could have caused to her kittens if she had been careless. She had never wanted to hurt an animal in her life, but were they really better off living in a circus than living in the wild? She doubted they could be returned to the wild once tamed, but still, it was a disconcerting idea.

Claire closed her eyes like Kate had done, and thought about her whip. She could feel it in her hand before she opened her eyes again. If she were to face her fear, she had to deliberately hurt Solomon. The thought alone made her feel to her very soul. 

The white tiger dropped his younger self on the ground, bared his teeth and inched closer to her. She used the whip on the ground next to and in front of him, but he didn’t react at all. He grabbed Claire’s clothes in his mouth and growled at her. She couldn’t get herself to do it anyway. Solomon bit her leg and drew blood, but while she screamed and felt the pain she figured she could endure it. It wasn’t until she heard the crunching of her bone that she closed her eyes hard and used the whip on the face of the tiger. 

He released his grip on her leg, and Claire opened her eyes. She saw the mark of the whip across his face, but he looked tame, like his usual self and somewhat sad about having hurt his master. He tried to lick her wound clean before he bothered acknowledging his own. She bent down and hugged him, crying against his fur.

“I’m sorry.”

She felt him fade in her arms, and the only proof left that there had been a feral Solomon in the first place was the cub he’d left behind. Although baby Solomon wasn’t whining anymore, he was running around her and playing with her clothes, as energetic as ever. 

She breathed a sigh of relief, and wiped the tears from her eyes. The only one who hadn’t faced their fear yet of the three of them was Kate. Claire looked at her, trying to contain her smile and laughter. It actually was funny to her now though, because Elijah and herself had fears she could understand. Kate’s was a bit silly in comparison.

“How do you want to face your fear then, Kate? Do you want to start where you left off?” Claire giggled, but put her hand over her mouth.