Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Prestige Exterminator, current predator.

Date [standardised human time]: December 6, 2136

I wasn’t sure why I was still coming to these meetings.

Three attempts, three failures. Each time the human seemingly did everything else but devour me: Deciding to spend the time talking instead. How much “preparation” did one prey need? I was already sitting within his reach each time, completely “trusting”, yet somehow the predator just consistently continued with their charisma-based hunt.

I half wonder how this species didn’t starve to death if this was the effort placed into every meal.

This time the human had beaten me to the meeting spot, although strangely there were none of the normal primal shouts that we had both taken to doing. It took me a moment to realise what I was seeing: The human was hunting.

Joseph was sitting in a crouched position, looking steadily at his slowly approaching prey: a bright Red Flowerbird. He was luring it closer by tossing small morsels of food that the unwitting avian was greedily eating up.

Flowerbirds were not known to be the smartest creatures, the generally safe predator-free environment of the inhabited band of Venlil Prime meant that the little red birds were entirely trusting. They were well known to simply walk up to where food was stored, and it wasn’t that uncommon to see one having walked to its own death, having been crushed by machinery as they discarded any stimuli that weren’t directly linked to eating.

I felt myself tense up as the poor creature got closer and closer to the predator. Part of me wanted to shout out, to scare the dumb thing away, but I knew that while not enough evidence on its own, the footage of seeing a human hunt for the first time would be insightful and useful.

The human had stopped tossing food at this point, much to the bird's annoyance, holding out a meaty palm full of seeds, as I could hear Joseph whispering softly under his breath.

“Come on… I got some nice food.”

With a flutter it hopped up to its doom, landing right in the predator's grasp, unknowing of the danger as it continued to contentedly eat. I could see the human’s teeth on full display, mouth open the widest I’d ever seen it. Seconds turned to minutes as I held my breath, waiting for the human to make the next move.

I hardly spotted it at first, his right hand slowly and stealthily moving closer to the unknowing red bird, the movements precise and deadly. I saw the fingers get closer as I tensed in anticipation…

As they gently touched the Bird, running a single finger softly along the top of its head. The Flower Bird stopped for a moment before deciding that if the action wasn’t stopping it from eating, it was cool with it.

Why would he do that…

I let out a breath I didn’t realise I’d been holding in, a loud snapping sound of a twig echoing through the trees as I temporarily lost my balance. Joseph spun around to lock his eyes on me, causing the bird and the food to be dumped onto the ground, the former of which gave an angry chip before resuming its ever-important task of eating.

I expected the Human to be angry with me for disrupting his hunt, but instead, he gave me a large beaming smile.

“Hey Estala! Come over here, I got you something!”

I slowly hopped over to the predator. I had long resigned myself to the plan of just going along with whatever the human wanted. Clearly, I wasn’t able to predict what made the predator hunt, so just following ‘trustingly’ with whatever idea Joseph had was probably my fastest and best choice.

“What were you doing human?”

“Never mind that! I had an idea for something interesting. There’s this Venlil food stall thing next to the Library, and I finally got the courage to pick up some of these things.”

The human reached into his backpack and pulled out a bag of prepared Yatcha root; the dried then baked slices were a popular Venlil snack.

“Which officially blew my mind by the way. So crispy and tangy. I really hope whatever these things are, that they aren’t bad for me.”

Now that was interesting to hear, the predator positively talking about non-meat-based food. I could feel my interest peaking as he continued to pull containers and other packaging out of his backpack.

“So then I thought about Mrs Birdie, and whether you’d like to try some human food.”

Was the human insane? Actually, scratch that, was the human more insane than normal? Eating predator food would be a death sentence due to the cure.

“You do realise I can’t eat meat right? Fruit only.” I responded suspiciously. I guess being fed something by the predator that would kill me mostly fulfilled the criteria of what I wanted from these meetings, but…

“That’s fine, I only brought fruit and seeds, and I kinda fed the seeds I brought to that adorably tame little red bird.”

Almost in response, the Red Flower Bird gave a small chirp, before going back to the far more pressing issue of eating as many human seeds as possible.

“In addition, I’ve got an EpiPen, just in case you’re allergic to anything. The UN handed a bunch of these out after that guy almost died walking through a field.”

Joseph turned to look at me, that snarl I had come to understand as a smile plastered across his face.

“What do you say?”

It was hard to turn the human down, his excitement was infectious and made me curious about the fruits he had brought from his strange home world. Part of me wondered if the predator was just trying to fatten me up, but I had heard good things about human food from the Venlil, in particular apples.

“I guess I could try some.”

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Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The food was a mixed bag.

Some of it literally hurt, a food in particular called “pineapple” felt like drinking cleaning fluid, having to spit out the fruit and wash my mouth out with water as Joseph desperately apologised.

Others were disappointing. “Apples” and “Bananas” were ok, but hard to eat, not suited to the softer fruit part of a Krakotl’s normal diet. The predator laughed at me when I ate the Bananas for some reason.

The berries of various bright colours were all fantastic, making it hard to believe that such a delicious variety of foods could be found on a predator planet. I would have been more than happy to snack on those alone.

But then the human gave me a “Mango”.

He held it out like the others as if he wasn’t offering me the food of the gods and after the first bite: The absolute divine taste hit my brain. It wasn’t one of the best things I’d eaten, it was the best thing I’d eaten by far. Nothing in federation space compared to the sweet complex flavours and refreshment that hit my tongue. It was as if Inatala herself had swooped down and deposited this gift from the heavens.

I practically attacked it, Joseph pulling his hands back quickly as I gave no thought to manners as I devoured the fruit, ending with a beak covered in sticky fruit juice and eyes wide open with enjoyment.

“More”

This caused the human to laugh at me, my feather bristling as my sudden complete lack of decorum caught up with me.

“I only brought one I’m afraid, I’ll bring a lot more next time. Space birds like mangos, noted. Also, you got a bit of mango on your…”

The human made a waving motion towards his everywhere before breaking into laughter again.

“It’s not like it matters” I retorted, feeling the embarrassment start to take hold. “We’re all alone out here, nobody can see us.”

This for some reason this causes Joseph to stop laughing, the human staring at me thoughtfully for a moment.

“Why do you keep mentioning that we’re all alone? It’s weird.”

I froze, my brain screeching to a halt. How did the predator notice that? Was it really that obvious? I thought I was being quite coy in reminding the predator that there would be nobody else watching us.

Come on brain, speak some words, what would a completely trusting prey say?

“I don’t want you to act differently than how you normally would, it’s not fair to have to hide yourself.”

I almost looked shocked at my own answer as I waited to see if this was an acceptable response. Where did a lie like that come from?

The best lies are ones based mostly in truth.

“Oh. I was worried it was something else. I’ve seen some federation websites… now that I notice them, there are way too many Venlil wearing rainbow socks…” Joseph gave a small smile as he trailed off for some unknown reason. “That’s actually very sweet though. Not that there’s anything I want to do… well… except one thing.”

“What is it?”

It was now the human's turn to act nervous and embarrassed as he started to fidget, tapping his fingers together nervously and starting to speak in a less assured way.

“Look, practically every federation species triggers a nurturing response in humans because you’re all adorable. The Venlil are basically sheep, the Gojid giant pangolins, Dossur precious little hamsters. Even you are basically a toucan but poofier“

I didn’t know what many of those words were, but I could get the gist from context. I had read many humans claiming a similar protective and nurturing instinct: I had assumed those to be predatory lies in order to get the federation members to let their guard down.

But…

The way Joseph spoke, it was hard to imagine this being a lie. The way he spoke with pure enthusiastic candour… made it hard not to trust him

Not even a predator could lie that well.

“Logically I know you're a person” The human continued, pausing a moment as Joseph seemed to struggle to find his words. “You’re a sapient being deserving of respect and all that… but… a not insignificant part of my brain wants to… you know… pet you because you’re adorable.”

I just stared at the human for a moment. Why? What? I could have understood if Joseph had said he wanted to eat me or hurt me, or any other logical thing a predator would wish to do. But this made no sense. The idea of letting a predator willingly touch me made no sense.

One of the few complaints that had been widely talked about was the tendency for humans to touch the fleece of Venlil unprovoked. It had to be a predator trick, there had to be some reason for doing this.

Maybe the reason is as simple as the human states it is.

“Just forget it.” Joseph seemed to take my silence as a negative response, scrambling to backtrack his statement. “It’s dumb I know, it’s stupid and weird. We’ll talk about something else and-”

“Sure”.

Wasn’t my entire goal here to trigger the predator's trap? To show the universe the true face of humanity? What better way to do that than to literally place myself in the grasp of a predator?

"Wait, really?" Joseph looked legitimately surprised at my positive assent. "You don't have to. I know you're scared of me."

I just gave a nod of confirmation, causing the human to break out into a smile. I could feel my heart beat faster as the predator reached towards me, much like he had done for the Flowerbird.

Everything in my body told me to run, to flee to-

By Inatala’s Talon’s…

I had expected it to hurt, for the human’s fingers to be scratchy, rough, painful. For there to be a lack of empathy and care. I had half expected the predator to finally use this opportunity to strike. But instead…

I had once paid for a full professional groom when I originally got the job on Venlil Prime. It had cost a significant portion of my paycheck, but I had considered it one of the most relaxing and enjoyable experiences I’d ever had.

This blew that away like a leaf in a storm.

The human’s digits seemed to know exactly where to go, magically ripping the stress right out of my body, as if scratching an itch that I didn’t know existed, like stretching your wings first thing in the morning. For the first time in a while, everything just seemed like it was going to be ok.

I closed my eyes and pressed my head into the feeling, causing Joseph to give a small giggle of innocent glee and continue stroking my head with more enthusiasm. The exterminator part of my brain suggested that might be the “tenderization” that I had read about on the human internet, but I pushed that thought away, too relaxed and happy to care.

The universe had become a far darker place over the last six months, predators were everywhere and with the gains they were making there was a very good chance every noble herbivore would end up devoured by them. Frankly, if the human’s hunting methods involved feeding us “Mangos” and applying “Pets”, compared with the Axrur there were far worse ways to go.

I felt drops of liquid hit my chest, causing me to snap out of my relaxed haze and jump back, confusedly looking around for the source. It didn’t take me long to see that it was coming from the human, tears streaming from Joseph's face as he started to sob.

“Why can’t it always be like this? It’s not fair!” Joseph looked despondent, tears continuing to drip from those terrifying forward-facing eyes. “Why do I have to be worried about people hurting themselves because they’re scared of me? Why do I keep having to hear the stuff people say when they think I can’t hear? Why do I have to spend every night looking through new lists of the confirmed dead every week to see if my family's names are on there? Why can’t it just be this!”

I didn’t know what to do. I just wanted the human to stop crying, in that brief moment he wasn’t a predator, he was just any other social herbivore being rejected from the herd. I did the only thing I could think of and sat down again next to him, pushing myself into his side.

This seemed to work, as the human broke into a small sniffle-filled laughter, resuming scratching the back of my neck.

“It’s funny, out of all the people on this planet it’s a Krakotl who made an effort to get to know me” Joseph gave a confused shake of his head, before focusing entirely on me. “Thank you.”

The pang of sudden guilt hurt more than if the predator had ripped me limb from limb with its teeth, as my mind wandered back to the recording device safely hidden among the trees and the real reason I was here.

Out of the both of us, why did I feel like the predatory one?