[Anthony Durrant]

Author's note: this is the story of Tygra of the Flame People, a character who first appeared in the Better/Nedor/Standard comic STARTLING COMICS #45.  The art was unsigned, so the writer and artist(s) on the story are unknown.

                          TGYRA OF THE FLAME PEOPLE

                                          retold by Anthony Durrant,
                                          and based on a story by an
                                          unknown writer

Dr. Lynn Thomas and her father, Professor Alistair Thomas – the famous jungle doctor – were treating two members of the Hoshone tribe, with whom they lived.
The tribespeople were suffering from a new and dangerous plague that was now spreading throughout the area where the Hoshone people lived.

"We just can't stand around and watch as these people die, Father!"  Lynn told her father in a soft and gentle voice.  "We've got to do something."

"I understand that Professor Terry Wilton has developed a new synthetic vitamin called autorene, which could cure these people of the plague," he told her, "but he lives all the way in London, so one of us would have to fly there!"

I'll do it, then!"  said Lynn.  "I can have our plane fuelled up and ready to go in the space of a few minutes."

"Go ahead, then, darling," Professor Thomas said, "and may God bring you luck."

And so Lynn went off to their airstrip to refuel the Thomas's plane.

"I hope she brings luck back to our tribe, White Master!"  Chief Tufutu of the Hoshone told Professor Thomas.

"I hope she brings back the Autorene in time," the Professor said, "and if it is Lynn's destiny to help other people she finds, she will!"

                                                          * * *

After a long flight over the African coast and across the Atlantic Ocean, Lynn Thomas landed her plane at the London airport and called ahead to Terry's home from the airport to be sure he knew she was coming.  After arriving at his flat, she knocked on the door, and Terry himself answered her knock.

"You're Lynn thomas?"  he asked.  "But the last time I saw you, you were just a skinny little girl in bobby socks and pigtails!"

"People change!"  said Lynn, who then asked, "Terry, would it be all right if I take some of your Autorene back to our tribe?  They need it desperately."

"Of course, I will!"  he said, then went to his lab at the back of the sitting room and filled a small specimen jar with the stuff, then came back to her and added:

"You'll have to give a few drops to each person – it's very potent.  Now, would you like to go out for supper, Lynn?  I'll even pay the bill!"

"Oh, Terry – I'd love to go out for dinner with you!"

                                                          * * *

After their dinner together was over, Terry himself drove Lynn out to the airport, and waved goodbye to her as she got back into her plane.

"Remember," he shouted, "just give a few drops to each person!"

"I'll remember!"  Lynn shouted back.  "Goodbye, Terry!  See you again someday!"

She steered the plane down the runway and took off for the long journey home.  Just as she crossed the African coastline again, she ran into a big thunder storm.
Lynn expertly held the plane steady as she flew through the storm to the Shoshone people's village, even though she could see the lightning all around her.

"How will I ever see the ground through all that soup?"  she wondered.

And then a huge lightning bolt came and struck the engine of her plane!  She was able to keep the plane's nose up as it fell from the sky and was able to land on the ground in the jungle below.  Forcing the plane's door open, Lynn escaped just as the plane exploded into a ball of flame and then ran through the jungle, tearing her clothes on the thorn bushes all around her as she ran.  Finally, exhausted from her long run, she collapsed under a tree in a small glade.

"This liquid beef will give me the extra energy I need to get out of here!"  Lynn thought as she pulled a small jar from her pocket and drank its contents.

She was about to lie down with her back against the tree when she suddenly heard the sound of people screaming.  Leaping to her feet, she ran up a small hill near the tree, where she saw a group of men struggling with a huge lion, which they had lassoed with long vines.  One of the men shouted:

"The Tawny One is testing us!  Has he not come down from the sky to lead us to our ancestral home?  Keep pulling, men – keep pulling!"

But just then one of the vines broke and the lion turned on the youngest of the men, roaring with anger at having been so entrapped, and he screamed.

"I could never ignore the cry of a human being in distress!"  Lynn cried as she rushed to the assistance of the man.

Lynn leaped in front of the man, pushing him forcefully away.  The lion turned on her – but was this Lynn Thomas or another person entirely?  She drew her knife, but when the lion pounced, it knocked the knife out of her hand.  Lynn grabbed the lion, lifted him over her head, and threw him across the valley.

"I . . . I couldn't have . . ." she said to herself.  "I couldn't have handled that lion like it was a little kitten!"

As she watched the lion get up and run away, Lynn reached into her pocket and pulled out the small jar from her pocket and read the label.

"My God!"  she cried.  "I drank the whole bottle of Autorene!"

She crunched the bottle in her fist, and then she saw that the mysterious warriors were coming right toward her.  Lifting her head proudly, she cried:

"Whatever warriors you are – stand back!  I am not one to cower or die!"

"It is the Demon Queen!"  their leader cried.  "Get her!  Get her!"

His men raced toward Lynn, but she ran forward and knocked one of them off his feet with a mighty slap.

"You fools!"  she cried.  "Must I prove my new power to you?"

But they kept on coming, and Lynn had to slap or punch them to get them out of her way, and then their leader shouted:

"It is wisely written in our sacred texts that the demon queen must die!  Kill her!"

"Now I shall show you what I can really do with my new power!"  Lynn cried as she grabbed a nearby palm tree and pulled it up by the roots, then hefted it over her head even as she knocked down another of the strange warriors with a kick.

"And now -"  she cried.

"Wait!" cried the leader of the warriors.  "Do we have eyes and yet not see?  She has stopped our advance – she has defeated us with the ease of a god.  Men – SHE IS THE TAWNY ONE!"

Stunned, Lynn dropped the palm tree as the native knelt before her.

"Our cheiftain has died, and our oracle has told us that his successor will be the Tawny One – the great leader who will lead us back to our ancestral home.  You are that great leader . . . Tygra!"  The warriors' leader shouted.

I can't leave these people, Lynn thought, I need them to get back to my father and to the Shoshone tribe.

"Then I shall do whatever is in my power to help you!"  she told him proudly.

                                                                * * *

Lynn had learned that these people were the Flame People and that in their dialect, Tygra was a phrase meaning "Wise One."  She changed into a costume made of lion skin painted with red stripes and then had to sit for several hours as Memwawet – the leader of the warriors she'd met in the forest – carved the tattooes of a full chieftain into each of her shoulders.  Then he took her by the hand and led her out of her hut to meet the other Flame People

"People of the Flame,"  he shouted, "I bring you our new Queen.  I bring you – Tygra the Tawny One – new Queen and Chieftain of our people!"

But then Tygra – she was no longer just plain Dr. Lynn Thomas, she thought – ran toward the fire and leaped over it, landing in front of the Flame People.

"If I must rule," she said, "it must be as one of you!  Do not bow to me – ever!"

And then, as Memwawet led her back into her hut, Tygra clasped her hands together and prayed:

"Oh, Terry!  Please do what is in your power – and come to me!"

END OF PART ONE

 
                                         

[Anthony Durrant]

                            TYGRA OF THE FLAME PEOPLE

                                                  Retold by Anthony Durrant,
                                                  based on a story by an
                                                  unknown writer and artist.

Shortly after Lynn Thomas had departed on her flight, Terry Wilton picked up a copy of the London Times and read that newspaper's account of how she had disappeared whilst flying over the African coastline

"I've got to find her!"  he shouted.  "I can't bear to think what will happen to me if I find out she is dead in the jungle in her plane!"

Putting on his coat and hat, Terry called ahead to the London Airport and asked them to fill the tank of his own plane, then he rushed out the door of his flat.  When he arrived at the airport, he rushed to the berth where his plane was standing.  He was so anxious to find Lynn that he refused to wait for clearance to take off and ran his plane down the runway and off the ground within a few minutes.  Once in the air, he followed the course taken by Lynn on her last flight.  Soon he was passing over the African coastline, where Lynn had run into the storm in which her own plane had crashed.  Looking down from above, Terry saw Lynn's fallen plane lying on the ground below him, and so he circled down toward the ground for a closer look.  Unfortunately, being a less experienced pilot than Lynn was, he soon caught the wings of his plane between two trees, and they broke off and he flew toward the ground.  Terry was forced to land his plane on its belly very close to the crash site, and when he got out of the plane, he went directly to the crash site and found the charred remains of Lynn's plane, with its propelller torn off and broken.  He also found a slim skull peeking out of the cargo compartment.  Upon opening the compartment, he found the remains of a woman inside.

"She must have died at the time of the crash," he whispered, "but she was brave enough to have stowed away aboard Lynn's plane before it crashed."

Terry removed the woman's remains from the cargo compartment and buried her in the jungle alongside the wreckage of Lynn's plane.  Under the body he found a hatbox.  When Terry opened the hatbox, he found diamonds inside! Putting the lid back on the hatbox, he took it with him as he went into the jungle.  Eventually, Terry stumbled across a bleached skull mounted on a wooden spear whose point had been plunged into the soil.  He looked at the skull and thought, I wonder who that was?  Whom did that skull belong to in life?

As he passed the skull, Terry was grabbed from behind by a pair of strong arms.

"You are in the territory of the Kabbichuk people!"  a man's voice shouted.  "And since you meant to trespass in this area, that means you must die!"

The warrior who had seized Terry dragged him forceably to the village of the Kabbichuk tribe.  Once they had arrived in the village, Terry saw that it was laid out around a large temple with a large statue of a goddess kneeling in front of it.  At the front of this statue stood a tall man with a mask on, his body concealed by a cloak and hood fashioned from the hide of a leopard. 

"He is carrying the sacred offering!"  the man said, bowing his head for a minute before shouting, "Take it from him and bring it here to Neferturi's lap!"

Another warrior snatched the hatbox out of Terry's hands and brought it to the masked man, who then opened the hatbox and poured the diamonds into the goddess's – Neferturi's? – open hands.  The hands of Neferturi lifted up and then pushed the diamonds into the goddess's mouth. 

"Neferturi has accepted the offering of jewels!"  the masked man shouted.

"The goddess is good!"  the men and women of the Kabbichuk tribe cried as one person.  "Our hunts for food will be far more successful this year!"

Then he turned his masked face in Terry's direction and shouted:

"And you, trespasser – you will be executed for daring to intrude on our tribe!"

He gestured to his warriors to take Terry away and they brought him to a small hut where another native warrior had been taken prisoner, and tied him to a short post alongside that warrior.  Terry turned to this individual and asked.

"What's your name, sir?"

"I am Scranobo," said the warrior, "and I have come from the village of the Flame People, where our new Queen Tygra now rules!"

"Tygra . . . hmmm . . . " said Terry.  "If I help you to escape, would you warn your queen, Tygra, that I am being held captive in the Kabbichuk people's village?"

"I will most certainly do that, white man!"  said Scranobo.

"Then take the knife from my boot and use your feet to cut yourself free!"  Terry told Scranobo.  "Only then may you escape from this hellish place!"

Scranobo took the knife from Terry's boot with his foot, and then used it to cut the ropes binding him to his post.  As soon as he was free, Scranobo smashed through the back wall of the hut and hurried back to his own village as fast as he possibly could, leaving Terry alone in the hut, still tied to his post.

                                                              * * *

The next morning, Terry was brought out of the hut by the masked man and led out to the middle of the village.  The executioner awaited him by the chopping block, holding his deadly curved sword.  He tied a robe around Terry's neck, and
then tied the other end tightly to a tree so that the rope went taut  Terry realized that, once the executioner cut the rope, his head would literally be torn from his body and land on or near the block of stone right in front of him.  But just as the executioner raised his sword to cut the rope, a dagger buried itself in the small of his back, and then he fell to the ground – dead!  Six Flame People warriors rushed up, and threw themselves into battle with the masked man and his warriors, while Terry used the dagger buried in the executioner's back to cut the ropes binding his wrists, and then removed the rope from around his neck.

"I've got to get that masked man!"  Terry shouted as he rose to his feet and ran after the masked man, who tripped him as he ran into Neferturi's temple.

Terry looked up from where he'd fallen and gasped in horror as the masked man drew a dagger from his belt and raised it above his head – at which point a slim figure jumped on the man, forcing him to the ground, and then buried a spear in the nape of his neck, just under the man's dark hair – he was dead instantly.

"Thus die all who kidnap the people of Tygra, Queen of the Flame People!"  he heard a woman's voice cry – Lynn's voice!  But how could that be?

Terry looked up and saw Lynn standing above him, clad in a lion-skin costume that had been painted with red stripes.  There was a lion's head tattoo on both of her shoulders, just above the tattoo of a blazing torch.

"Oh, Lynn, you're alive!"  Terry cried.

"Oh, Terry!"  cried Lynn.  "So you have come to me, after all!"

And then she lifted Terry off of his feet and carried him to the temple, where she laid him on the open hands of the goddess and fed him some water from a gourd she was carrying with her.  She smiled at him and he smiled at her.

"Who was that masked man?"  Terry asked Lynn softly.

"How should I know?"  Lynn asked him.

"Well, why not unmask him and find out?"  Terry suggested helpfully.

Terry went over to the dead man and pulled the mask off his face.  Under it, she saw the scarred face and wild brown eyes of a man who had craved action above all else whilst he was still alive.  Lynn looked up and Terry and asked:

"Who was this masked man?"

"That's Lucas 'Careless' Crait, the diamond smuggler!"  said Terry.  "I understand he had fled Capetown after one of his diamond deals went bad.  He must have come here and set up a new operation using the goddess Neferturi as cover."

Lynn walked over to the executioner's body and reclaimed the dagger, which she put in a sheath attached to a belt that she wore around her waist.  Meanwhile, Terry rose to his feet again and searched Careless Crait's body.  In a satchel on a belt around his waist, he found a remote control.  When he moved the joystick on the remote control, Terry found he could move Neferturi's arms up and down.

"So that's how it was done, eh?"  he asked Lynn gently.  "I'm glad Mrs. Crait – for I'm pretty sure it was she who died when your plane crashed here in the jungle – didn't live to see you kill her husband, Lynn.  Thank you."

"You're welcome," said Lynn, "but I'm not Dr. Lynn Thomas anymore.  I'm Tygra, the new Queen of the Flame People!"

"You're Tygra, the Flame People's queen?"  Terry asked her, shocked.

"Yes," said Tygra as she scooped him up in her arms again, "and now that you're here, now that I've found you, I am going to take you back to the Flame People's village and claim you as my mate!"

And that's precisely what she did – Tygra did indeed take Terry as her mate.

THE END

 

[Anthony Durrant]

You must think that the Better/Nedor/Standard Tygra is the same character as the Marvel Comics Tigra – she isn't.  In fact, Tygra of the Flame People has been in the Public Domain for years, as Better/Nedor/Standard ceased publication years ago.

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