It had been two days since Mewl had left her village to head to her new “life” with the humans.
She hated every second of it.
While it was part of the deal to give Mewl half a day to grab what possessions she could carry and say her goodbyes, but as soon as they gotten out of sight of the village Charles and his pet humans -they hadn’t even bothered to tell her their names- had forced her to throw away her bag containing her possessions, as well as completely strip out of the ceremonial leathers she still wore. While she normally didn’t mind going without them, in fact she preferred it, Mewl hated the looks she got from the humans after, hated the unfamiliar hunger in their gaze.
The only thing that she didn’t let them take away from her was her teeth necklace, though it took threatening to cut one of the humans eyes out before they left it alone.
Charles seemed oddly amused by that when it happened.
The humans maintained a glacial pace for her standards, and paid next to no attention to their surroundings, loudly joking among themselves in that horrible, grating language of theirs. Mewl was sure she could run away from them, yet she didn’t have anywhere to go. She couldn’t return to her village, they would just throw her right back to the humans. She could live in the wild with her hunting skills, but she didn’t know how to build shelters, and even if she did, the loneliness would surely drive her mad.
So she walked along with the humans, trying to ignore the glances they occasionally threw her way while she cursed her luck for having gotten Charles’ attention.
It wasn’t until today that something changed however.
After waking up -hurnys they even woke up slowly- the humans start an argument among themselves.
“God, eye cud kill fo sum fres meet” the one that tried to take her collar away says
“Aymen” the one with the most fur on his face responds, which got them all laughing. Except Charles.
“Wat if wee told it to runt fo us?” He says, staring at Mewl.
The other humans all shut up at that, but soon all started talking over each other in an even higher volume than before.
“Are yo serio—”
“Cir, are yo cra—”
“Dun be a dumb—”
“Tat’s idi—”
“NOUH!” Charles roars, shushing every other human. Mewl’s ears had flattened themselves against her skull at the cacophony, her body cringing against the overload of sound against her sensitive hearing. “eyem de leader rere, and eye wan sum fres meet!” Turning towards Mewl, he says in the common tongue, “Melaine, me and the boys want some fresh meat for today. Could you hunt something for us?” Charles asks, eliciting more complaining from the other humans, which he ignores.
Mewl thinks about it for a moment. This feels like a test of some kind, but she can’t figure out what’s the correct move. Ultimately, though, it’s an opportunity to stretch her legs instead of following the human’s glacial pace through the forest, so she says “How long?”
“What do you mean?” Charles says, his voice wavering a bit.
“How long do I have to bring the prey back.” Charles bares his teeth in response. “Till midday, how about that? Then we can all have some meat for lunch.” He says.
Mewl nods, getting up to her full height and doing her stretches, an act that is followed by the eyes of every single human. “Oh one more thing,” Charles says, making Mewl freeze mid stretch, “if you don’t return, I will have your pathetic little village razed to the ground.” he continues, his voice utterly devoid of emotion.
A shiver courses through Mewl’s body, and for all that she might try to deny it to herself, she knows that that isn’t an idle threat. Standing straight, Mewl hisses loudly before jumping into the trees and darting off, earning herself shouts of alarm as she does so.
Once she is far enough away that she can search without having the human’s smell and sounds stop pushing away prey, Mewl closes her eyes and focuses on the smell and sounds of the forest around her. She needs a prey that is easy enough to catch so that she can bring it back to the humans by midday, but is also enough food for 6. Maybe less, since she doesn’t know if the humans eat less than the average pantherus.
Slowly, Mewl uncovers the familiar smells and sounds around her. A dreadmaw and her pups playing in a stream nearby, while tasty, would take too long to kill. The singers all around her would be easy enough to take down, but they wouldn’t be nearly enough food for all 6 of them. Hmmm, is that…? A boarspine, perfect. On the edge of the territory she would be comfortable covering, but Mewl was never one to shrink a challenge.
Snapping her eyes open, Mewl dashes forwards across the treetops, jumping from tree branch to tree branch with almost unparalleled agility, her padded paws making near to no sound as she nears her prey. Boarspines are strong, but slow and stupid, so she as long as she could get the drop on it she shouldn’t have too much of hassle taking it down.
Mewl slows her movement as she gets close to the boarspine, taking extra care to not make any sound as she stalks it from the tree tops. The boarspine is an adult, easily 5 feet from snout to tail, the bone protrusions that lined its back and are its species namesake each about two feet in length.
It walks low to the ground, its short legs barely enough to get it a few inches of leeway between its fat belly and the earth, as its trunk searches the undergrowth for mushrooms, its main source of nutrients.
Mewl patiently waits along the treetops for it to find some, before dropping from the trees straight on its back, right between the two biggest spikes, turning herself into a four hundred pound missile headed straight into the poor animal’s spine, which immediately squeals in pain as its bones are broken. It tries to turn, to shake her off of it, impale her on his spikes, anything, but the fight is already over. Mewl casually jumps from its back to a safe distance away to wait out its flailing. After it tires itself out, it is a simple matter of piercing its heart with her claws, ending its suffering
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Mewl quickly does a prayer of thanks to the boarspine’s spirit, then settles it on her shoulders as she leaps back onto the tree branches, moving slower on her way back to account for the extra weight and the lack of her forelimbs, which were busy holding the boarspine in place since the humans had made her throw away her rope.
As she heads back, Mewl takes the time to enjoy the wind rushing through her fur, the freedom that moving through the trees brings her, and how much she enjoys pushing every muscle in her body to its limits. Maybe if the humans allow me to hunt every day this wouldn't be so bad, she thinks.
It was a shame then, when she found the human’s smell again. They had somehow moved even slower than the previous two days' pace, yet they weren’t making any less sound as they moved across the forest grounds. In a split second decision, Mewl decided to make herself some amusement at their expense, moving silently so that she was directly in front of them before dropping heavily on the ground, right in their view.
All of them, with the exception of Charles, scream as she suddenly appears in front of them.
Charles just shows his teeth to her again, before turning towards his underlings and saying “Cee? Completly dosile.”
He then turns towards Mewl, “Congratulations on your hunt, Melaine. What did you get us?” Dropping the boarspine at her feet, Mewl responds, “boarspine, adult. Should be enough to feed us for today.” Charles shows more teeth in response, before turning back to his men and shouting orders at them.
Soon they have a spit roast ready, the boarspine slowly turning over the fire as the men take turns between congratulating Mewl and salivating at the boar. Mewl impatiently looks around, annoyed that they are losing the entire day to eat the boarspine, yet every time she complained to Charles about wasting time, he told her they had to do this “right”, whatever that meant.
While the furred one and Charles argue over the spit roast, the scarred one comes up to Mewl, two of the boarspines teeth in his hand. “Thought you would want these,” he says, offering them to the pantherus. Mewl only shakes her head, adding, “Not my first boarspine kill. Only record the first.” Scarred one nods his head, and Mewl goes back to impatiently waiting on the boarspine to be ready.
However, when they finally, finally start serving the pieces of the boarspine, all her misgivings were quickly forgotten. It tastes divine, and she soon found herself asking for seconds, then thirds. By the time they were finished with the boarspine the sun was setting, and Mewl felt fuller than she had ever felt before, curled onto herself, purring happily.
“Look at er, looks like a bi ol kiten like dat, doesn xe?” one of the humans says. Mewl slits open an eye to see who is talking.
“Xe?” Charles asks, looking towards the human with the most fur.
“Eye meen, rave u seen er frot? It’s clealy a xe, cir.” the one with the scars responded.
“It’s not abou its sex, its abou de mening. Callin it a xe puts it on de saem level as us.” Charles responded, raising his voice, “If eye rear u callin it a xe agai, eye wil rave u fired!” He finished, before setting his bedroll and sliding into it, with his back towards the rest of the humans. Silence fell over the campsite.
Mewl didn’t even notice when she fell asleep, one moment she was struggling to keep her eyes open, and in the next the early morning sounds of the forest awoke her. Sighing, she stretches, finding that the humans were thankfully still asleep, so she had the opportunity to quickly relieve herself.
She returns to the campsite just in time to see Charles waking up. An idea settles on her mind. Carefully to not wake any of the others, she moves up to Charles and sits by him as he wakes up.
“Good morning Melaine,” Charles says, rubbing his eyes, “do you want something?”
“I was wondering if I could hunt again today.” Mewl responds.
Charles doesn’t say anything for a moment or two, his face muscles doing all sorts of things Mewl was sure would mean something for another human but conveyed nothing to her, before finally saying “No.”
Mewl couldn’t help but to be taken aback by the denial, “Bu—”
Charles interrupts her by slapping her. It doesn’t even hurt, but the sheer gall of the action momentarily stuns Mewl. Before she’s even fully aware of what she’s doing she pounces Charles, snarling angrily, knocking the human to the ground flat on his back.
Only to feel the cold press of metal against her head.
She looks around, and sees the remaining humans all awake with guns pointing at her. The one with the fur on his face is the one closest to her, with his gun pressed directly against her forehead. Below her, Charles is showing her his teeth again.
“Move away from the boss.” Furred one says, his tone as cold as the barrel of his gun. With a last snarl of anger, Mewl gets up and backs away from Charles, her fur bristling in anger. Charles slowly gets up from the ground, still showing his teeth. He makes a show of dusting himself, then turns towards his bag and grabs something from it.
Turning back towards Mewl, he throws the object at her paws. “Put that on against your snout, then press the button in the middle.” Charles says, still showing his teeth. Mewl takes a look at the object, just a metal circle with a red, smaller circle in the middle. She looks at the humans, all still pointing their guns at her, and obeys, pressing the cold metal against her sensitive snout and pressing the red circle. As soon as she does, metal strands extend from it, going around her skull and meeting in a collar around her neck, not allowing her to open her jaws.
Worse yet, the cold metal pressed uncomfortably against her snout, making it harder for her to smell the woods around her. Mewl immediately tries to scratch it off, only for pain to course from the collar, forcing her to drop to her knees as her muscles spasm.
Charles crouches in front of her, a gray box in his hands. “This is the new terms of our arrangement, kitten.” He says, showing even more of his teeth. “You will do exactly as I say, when I say it, and if you don’t, shock. If you try to take off the muzzle, shock. If you try to attack me or my men, shock.” He punctuates his statements by pressing something on the gray box again, sending waves of pain through Mewl’s body. “If you do, I might consider giving you something to eat by nightfall. Nod if you understand.”
With anger coursing through every pore in her body, Mewl nods. Charles shows more of his teeth, then gets up, “good, now get up. We already lost enough time with that stunt you pulled yesterday.”
Slowly, to account for her aching muscles, Mewl gets up, taking the time to look at the other four humans. All of them meet her gaze, unflinchingly. Somehow, that hurts Mewl more than the electric shocks.
They don’t stop moving again until nightfall, the humans talking among themselves with the same energized tones as before, as if nothing had changed at all about their situation, Mewl stewing in her anger the whole time. How dare these humans offer her just a taste of the freedom she so desperately needed, just to take it away as soon as she felt like she could maybe enjoy this new life of hers? So distracted she was by her own thoughts that she almost missed an unusual sound in the forest.
Was that… slithering?
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Ss’Vesh’s team is composed of four other pythoniades, Sj’Orus; their long distance support, St’Eris; their stealth expert, and the twins, Sd’Aira and Sd’Dera; their tracking and scouting experts. They had all met in the academy and were, by most accounts, loners and weirdos in their own right.
Ss’Vesh couldn’t think of anyone else she would rather fight beside.
They make quick work of the jungle, reaching the border of their village’s territory in just two days, where Sd’Aira is able to find remnants of a camp, about four days old. What little tracks they were able to uncover pointed towards them moving deeper into the forest.
“This clearly means that they are going to come back through here eventually.” Sj’Orus says, “Humans always tread on their same paths.”
“How come no one noticed them before then?” St’Eris counters, their voice barely audible, “this isn’t a well trodden path, it’s new. We have no guarantee they are going to come anywhere near here again.”
“What do you think, Sd’Dera, Sd’Aira? You two are the experts.” Ss’Vesh asks, looking towards the twins.
“We don’t think the humans are going to come through here again,” Sd’Dera says, “but they will probably be close.” After Ss’Vesh geticulates for she to continue, Sd’Dera adds, “Their path is too straight. They aren’t following another path, they are following a specific direction, and going through anything that gets in their way. So, we find it very unlikely that they will come exactly through here again.” Sd’Aira nods in agreement to her sister’s words.
“Alright, let’s explore the surrounding area. Maybe we can find some traces of the humans. We will stay around here for 3 more days, then head back to the village. Everyone cool with that?” After everyone confirms, they all spread out.
Unsurprisingly, it was Sd’Aira that found the humans first, at the end of the first day of searching. It took until midday on the following day for the team to regroup, and by then Sd’Aira was very agitated by what she found.
“They have a pantherus. Captive, it seems.” Sd’Dera translates, “what should we do captain? Our mission objective was to just scout them out, not to engage.”
Ss’Vesh looks to each member of her team in turn, even though she already knows what she will see. Not a single one of them is willing to leave an otherkin in the human’s grasp. “We’re taking them down.” She says, “let’s wait until they set up their camp before we move in. Me and Sd’Dera will take point, Sj’Orus and Sd’Aira, you two cover and support us, and if you see an opportunity to work your magic, don’t hesitate St’Eris.” After getting their confirmations, all of them spread out again, trusting each other to be where they would be most useful.
As soon as the humans get comfortable, Ss’Vesh strikes.
Slithering into the campsite in a flash, Ss’Vesh barrels over one of the humans and coils herself tight around him. Too tight. She barely had time to hear his screams as his bones broke before she was already on the move again, darting towards a human that was trying to line up a shot towards Sd’Dera, who was busy engaging one human with a surprising amount of fur on his face. She quickly bit into the exposed flesh of his neck, pumping his blood full of her paralyzing poison. Quickly Ss’Vesh looks around, assessing the battlefield for her next target, only to land her gaze on the pantherus, who was snout deep into the entrails of some poor human.
Their eyes met, and the world froze.