“Crisis! What did you just do!?”

Beth didn’t want to know. She didn’t want to come to the obvious conclusion. Some irrational part of her felt like if she acknowledged it, that would somehow make it more real.

It was impossible to deny once she heard the muffled screams and cries for help coming from within her closed hand, though.

“Crisis. What is in your hand?”

Crisis made a bashful face, then belched. The smell was one Beth was quickly beginning to associate with this horrible place: rotting corpses.

“Don’t be mad at me-”

“Are you INSANE?” screamed Beth. “How many people did you just…”

“I ate 28 nekos. And they were delicious. I know you don’t like watching me eat, I get that, so I made sure to do it where you couldn’t see-”

“Damn it, Crisis, it doesn’t MATTER that I didn’t see it! That one in your hand is begging you to stop! They all must have! They are suffering and dying because of you! Some of them are probably still alive in there as we speak, being crushed and burned and digested alive!”

Crisis winced as the unwelcome memory of her time in the stomach popped into her head again. She shoved it away. It would be insulting to think that was comparable. She was supposed to be a predator! They were supposed to be prey!

“And you tell me not to be mad. I remember our time together back on Earth! Imagine if you had fucking shot up a school, and then come back to me asking me not to be mad. This place is making you CRAZY!”

“That was Earth. This is Felarya. They’re different.” Crisis sighed.

Beth could see on the naga’s face that she wasn’t reaching her. Defeated, she begged, “Could you at least let that last one go?”

“I don’t like to waste food. Besides, someone else would probably just eat it anyway. Things that small can’t really survive on their own.”

“What is with you? You weren’t wasting food when you coughed me up, were you? Why do you protect me, but think so little of her that you say it would be a ‘waste’ to let her go?”

“Because you’re my friend, Beth. Or at least I’m your friend. I owe that much to you. That neko is just a snack. I owe nothing to it.”

“‘It’!? Crisis, she’s a person! Just like me and you! She can talk! She has family, hopes, dreams, likes, desires! Maybe if you talked to her for a bit you’d find she doesn’t deserve that horrible fate. Maybe you could even be friends with her!”

“Whenever I talk, they just scream and beg, and that just makes them more appetizing.”

Beth sighed, some life seeming to leave her body. “That’s because you’re about to eat them. Look, if you won’t talk to her, can I at least talk to her?”

“Fine. If you say so.” Crisis carefully set Beth on her shoulder. The neko woman flailed around as Crisis moved to set her on the same shoulder. “Hey! Quit it, or you’ll fall and die. I’m not going to eat you right now.”

She looked down to the ground a hundred feet below, yelped, and stiffened up. Crisis set her down. She reached down and held on tightly to the skin of her shoulder as Crisis started moving, her tail sticking straight up, shaking in fear. “Oh Gods… Oh Gods... Oh Gods…” she muttered.

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Beth opened her mouth to say something, but her words died in her throat. How could she say anything? She wasn’t even sure the woman had recovered enough from the shock to understand her words. After a few moments of silence, she said the only thing she knew how to.

“I… I’m so sorry. Please, believe me, there was nothing I could do. I tried so hard…”

There was a lump forming in Beth’s throat. The neko woman didn’t react. She just continued staring vacantly at the ground. A tear rolled down her cheek.

There were several more minutes of silence as the woman’s shaking slowly calmed, as her tail slowly drooped, before she spoke. “Everyone’s… dead…” Her voice was little more than a whisper. “My daughter... Fern… Claw… Night… they’re all gone. It’s just me. And soon…”

She buried her head in her hands. She stayed like that, eerily still, for a long time as they slithered along the riverbank.

Eventually Crisis turned from the river and entered the woods again, as the river veered off course from the great tree. The cat-woman started sobbing… or was she laughing? Beth couldn’t tell.

“Heh, heh, heh, I guess this is just the way of things, huh? I guess I can’t even really blame her… it’s all part of the circle of life, right?”

Beth couldn’t understand. Had she gone insane? The woman’s child had just been taken from her, and now she was justifying it? She got that people needed to attach meaning to deaths in order to make them more bearable, but this was ridiculous! It was like… like a parent whose child had been murdered taking solace in the fact that a depraved serial killer had at least gotten some enjoyment out of it. That couldn’t possibly be healthy, but Beth wouldn’t have the slightest clue how to confront something like that.

“Gods know I’ve eaten plenty of little mouse-people in my time. That’s just the way of this, huh? Everyone ought to accept it.”

Oh. Now Beth could understand. She shuddered in horror. She should have known. There was more than one layer to this madness.

“I can’t accept that.” She wished she didn’t have to argue against everyone, but it seemed this new world was just crazy. Beth really hoped the crazy wasn’t going to start rubbing off on her.

The neko woman raised her head and looked at Beth, seeming a bit puzzled. “You’re going to have a hell of a time, then. Trust me, I know it can be hard to accept, but you’re not going to change it. Nobody is.”

Crisis looked over and smiled at Beth and the woman.

“Seems like we’re having a hell of a time whether we accept it or not! Can’t you see? She’s going to eat you, she already ate your family, your entire tribe, and you’re just sitting here and saying it’s okay, and why? Because ‘that’s the way things are’?”

The woman sighed. “It’s not like it matters. She’s going to do it either way. Honestly, I had a good run, all things considered. Better than some. Everyone knows this is what happens eventually. People don’t die of old age here, you know. They live until they are killed. Most of the time, they get eaten.”

“I can’t believe this! You should speak up for yourself! Weren’t you screaming for help just a few minutes ago? So why are you just giving up now!? Not everyone is as fond of the idea of being digested as you seem to be, so you should at least speak up for them! Did the rest of the people in your family want to die!?”

“YOU DON’T KNOW ME! Don’t pull that card on me. They're already gone. There’s no point arguing about them now. I did what I could to protect them, and it wasn’t enough. We all knew this was a possibility. Besides, what would I even do if she let me go? My tribe is gone. I’d just wander around for a while and get eaten by something else.”

“It looks like you’ve been outvoted by the very one you’re trying to protect,” Crisis commented with a little smile.

“Give me a break. You killed thirty people, and now you’re saying it’s okay because one of them turned out to be fucking suicidal? You and others like you have beaten the will to live out of her, and now you’re saying that justifies your actions?”

“Nobody agrees with you, Beth.” Crisis sighed. “She said it herself, she eats those smaller than herself too. If you don’t want to, that’s fine, but don’t blame me for following my instincts.”

Beth couldn’t take it anymore. She buried her face in her hands and screamed, hating herself even as she did it. She was the only sane one here, and all she was doing by raging like this was making herself look even less credible.

Before either Crisis or the neko woman could respond, however, another voice cut in through the forest.

“Crisis? Is that really you?”