The interactions between the two tigers seemed, to Fire at least, to be that of affection and care.    It was easy to see that this kind of closeness between predatory animals is most likely because of the feelings they had for one another, not because of any 'simple' things such as physique.  From what Fire had watched of other creatures in the past, predators tended towards the loner side, and only found mates for the sole purpose of breeding, not for companionship or protection.  Of course there were exceptions, such as wolves and harris hawks, but the exceptions were far outweighed by the loner stereotype.<br/>All this went through the gryphons head as he finished cleaning off his gryphonic cutlery.  He nodded along to Bitsa's explanation, listening carefully.  This really pointed out why the giant tiger would see something normally viewed as dangerous, or at least threatening, as food.   Size.   ANd other factors, of course, like mobility and age and fitness.  And maybe a little of the friendship between Fire and his lord.   But this information would prove to be invaluable later on, he suspected, when the black featherhead was out and about in tiger territory.<br/>"So like many wild creatures, then, tigers would not hunt something that appears to be too great a risk to themselves?   If so, that means that if I am to be inside tiger territory and come upon a wild one, I should make myself appear as big and fierce as possible, an attempt to display that I am not worth the effort of tangling with."