Chapter 21

While the rest of her family is asleep, Lily walks down to the basement with one of the star jars and sits waiting with her back to the door. Eventually, she falls asleep.

Lily wakes to find the tiger inside the trap. She immediately tries to force her captive to heal Halmoni. However, the tiger walks out of the trap with ease and declares that tigers do not give in to demands—they do, however, make deals. She offers once more to Lily her proposal from before. This time, however, the tiger wishes to make Lily listen to all the stories she returns. Lily is fearful, as she knows that stories can be dangerous. Despite this, she ultimately agrees.

Chapter 22

Lily opens the jar in her hands, and colors akin to the Milky Way spill out into the basement. The tiger immediately drinks these colors and then starts telling a story:

When tigers once walked like people, there lived a girl who could secretly shift from human to tiger and tiger to human. This made her life difficult, as humans and tigers lived in strife. When the girl became pregnant, she grew fearful that her daughter would lead the same difficult life as hers. She climbed to the tallest mountain and struck a deal with the sky god—he would take away her daughter’s magic if she came and lived in his castle as a sky princess. On her final day with her baby daughter, the girl cried and cried, until one of her tears transformed into a pearl pendant her daughter would always wear.

The story leaves Lily feeling angry, as she doesn’t understand why the mother had to leave. She also wonders if the pendant Halmoni gave her is the same one from the story. The tiger leaves Lily with a promise that Halmoni will get better once the rest of the stories are returned.