While there was a minor incident at the Airport when Liao tried to bring her urumi whip onto the plane, all the tigers from Heiya Island were able to get to Lyre relatively easily, mainly because the plane they took had a special tiger stripe paint job to show that they were headed to the Lunar New Year Celebrations.
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With a brief stopover at Mieni for refueling, the participants were able to learn about Animalia's newest trend. While tigers weren't an immediate conversion choice for the overweight people coming to Animalia and its colonies, tiger sharks, and its newly discovered subspecies the dwarf tiger shark, were enough. Fortunately, Ran and Gaz were able to keep the new tiger sharks in line without too much trouble, though there was still some disappointment that real tiger sharks weren't orange with black stripes.
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But before too long they were traveling to Lyre and arrived shortly afterward. There was a tour guide waiting for them at the Airport to show them around and give them a sneak peek into what the Lunar New Year Celebrations would be about. While most were already expected, somewhat, it was the final challenge that surprised everyone.
"We're going to have to climb a mountain?!" half-shouted/half-complained one of the competitors.
"But I thought...," said another, more confused since what happened last year didn't involve a mountain.
"Oxen aren't really known for climbing, so we had to do the challenge a little differently." explained the tour guide. "When the year of the Horse rolls around, they'll be doing something similar.
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"... and here is where the Year of the Tiger "cat-fights" will be taking place." said the Tour guide, wrapping up the tour with a showing of Claw Coliseum's Octagon, which was done up in a jungle theme, much to everyone's awe and surprise. "Now let me just remind you. While those who complete the Mountain of the Zodiac in the shortest time gets first place points, the actual winner is the one who has the highest overall total. Now get some rest, everyone."
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Liao later was unpacking her suitcase with her mind still reeling from what she learned. While being crowned Miss Year of the Tiger was going to be more difficult than she anticipated, she wasn't going to back out of it.