Crisis sat under a tree, tears rolling down her face. She sensed nekos nearby, but she felt she wasn’t really that hungry yet. She felt so torn. One part of her was excited at the prospect of chasing them down, eating them, it would be so easy, she’d feel better afterward, but… she still felt sick to her stomach. She thought she could feel the bones of the previous meal sloshing about inside of her. That wasn’t exactly an appetizing thought.
Who could she talk to? Who would listen? She didn't want to face Beth. She didn’t think they could forgive each other so soon, and she didn’t want to deal with… all that. Milly? Crisis knew she meant well, but… she didn’t really understand. None of her friends really did. She’d just repeated the same things that Crisis used to believe wholeheartedly, but now… it wasn’t convincing enough for her anymore, and Milly couldn’t understand why, so how could she help her work through this? Anna? She was fun to be around sometimes, but Crisis felt if she opened up to her, she’d just give some snarky comment like “I told you so” or something.
She’d never felt so alone. But then she remembered someone. Not a friend, exactly… more like an old acquaintance she’d talked to once. At the time, she’d thought the conversation was bizarre and a little childish, and had simply excused herself after a few words.
She had told Crisis she shouldn’t eat humans. That was all she remembered. She didn’t remember what the arguments were, but she remembered thinking they were kind of dumb.
“Maybe this hesitiation is just stupid!” thought Crisis. “Maybe if I talk to her, see how naive she is, I’ll realize that!” Crisis began slithering towards that neck of the woods she’d avoided ever since that conversation, a bit of confidence restored.
A bit of fear rose up inside her as she neared her destination. She had avoided this place like the plague for so long… what if there was a reason for it? What if… she was right, and Crisis knew all along… no, that was ridiculous. She just hadn’t wanted to bother arguing then. It was just that now, she was in a more argumentative mood!
“Crisis?” A voice vang out from the forest. “Wow! I haven’t seen you for a long time! It’s so nice to see you again!”
Crisis slithered over to the source of the sound. She saw the tree-woman, the dryad rooted to the same spot she had always been. She sighed. “Here goes nothing,” she thought.
“Hi, Shelny.”
“Welcome!” she replied. “What brings you here?”
So Crisis told her about the insane day she’d had. She could hardly believe she had been on Earth, unaware of this entire world, just 24 hours ago.
“So anyway, I hate what Beth did, but I also don’t like the thought of Léa or Beth, or even anyone else melting in some stomach. But I’m a predator! This is what I know! I can’t just stop!”
“Why not?”
“I-I’d go hungry! I’d miss eating them a lot! Everyone would think I’m weird! I’d lose friends!”
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Shelny sighed. “Crisis, you said you’ve been to Earth. What was it like there?”
“It was okay, I guess.” she said. It seemed so long ago now. “I didn’t really feel like I belonged. But… at least there, I never felt like this. There was never anything there that seemed this… horrible.”
A grave expression crossed Shelny’s face. “You know… I may be stuck in this spot, but I know a lot of things about other places. Things other dryads in the network have told me, or adventurers looking for a safe haven. And I’ve heard a fair bit about Earth. Many people say that Earth is better than Felarya because nobody gets eaten, but… it’s not quite that simple.”
“What do you mean?”
“Crisis… on Earth… they forcibly breed animals, keep them locked up, crammed into filthy cages where they can’t even turn around for their entire life, take everything they can produce by force, and once their production slows down, they kill them, years before they would die naturally.”
Crisis gaped. She had never heard about this. “That’s awful!” she cried. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know!”
Shelny smiled a bit. “That’s okay. Most people from Earth don’t know. But if you did know how bad it was, would you have stopped eating them?”
“Of course I would’ve-” Crisis began, but cut herself off, thinking for a while. “I know where you’re going with this, Shelny, but it’s not really a good analogy. Animals shouldn’t be locked up for their entire lives, but we don’t do that in Felarya! Even Milly only keeps them for a few days, and she treats them as well as she can. But just because some predators abuse their power to be cruel, doesn’t mean predators shouldn’t ever eat their natural prey! Nature couldn’t work without that happening sometimes!”
Shelny responded. “Of course it’s not exactly the same. In many ways, Felarya is less cruel than Earth, but in both cases, it’s one species putting their own pleasure over the lives of another, so it makes sense to compare the two. And I know you don’t believe that the natural order is always right, Crisis, because you just told me one of the final straws for you was Léa being eaten, and that was perfectly natural! Sure, some predation is needed, but that doesn’t mean it’s something to be celebrated. It’s sad every time it happens!”
Crisis flinched as Léa was mentioned. She didn’t know why she was still talking about nature, when she had just argued against Milly a few minutes ago, when she had said the exact same thing.
Shelny continued. “But that’s besides the point. I think you’d agree that humans on Earth should stop doing that. Do you know what they say when you ask them to stop, though?”
“What?” asked Crisis, genuinely curious.
“They say the same things you just did. ‘I’d go hungry. I’d miss it. I’d be weird. I’d lose friends.’ And the thing is, if they ever do stop, those things generally don’t happen, or aren’t as bad as they thought. They mostly just wanted a reason not to change, when they were doing something they already knew was wrong. But once they really understand that that horror isn’t worth their convenience, those obstacles don’t seem like such a problem anymore.”
“I don’t know, Shelny. This isn’t Earth. I don’t know if I can change that much.”
Crisis didn’t feel satisfied. She’d thought Shelny would just go on some stupid tirade, but it wasn’t so obvious that she was wrong. Regardless, actually never eating nekos or humans again? It still seemed… sad to her. Like she’d be missing out on a central part of her life.
“Crisis, I’ll tell you what. Next time you catch someone, talk to them. I mean, really talk, and listen to what they say. See if you still want to eat them then. I think you already know it’s wrong, and I think there’s no way for you to be at peace anymore until you stop. And you know I’ll always be here if you ever want to talk.”
“Okay, I guess I can try that,” Crisis said sadly. She fled the scene, disappointed in herself. Why had she thought this was going to be an easy conversation?