Fuzzy and Sasha - Sunday August 12th, 2074 - Morning - Ares Macrotechnology Arcology, Hunting grounds

Fuzzy weighed the options. There were her friend's pleas, the suffering of the animal and her own instincts to end that suffering. If she hadn't bonded with Sasha she might've been mad at having her time wasted. After all this was the moment. This was what Fuzzy and by extension Sasha was here for: To hunt, to stalk, to kill, to skin, to clean, to cook, to take their share and to bring the rest home. Even though Fuzzy would be learning that later, hunting, stalking and killing was what they were here to do. Fuzzy had been clear about what she wanted and she thought that Sasha knew what she wanted too.

Hunting and killing so she and others may eat was her way of life. Fuzzy was a huntress down to her very core. It was her identity. Saving an animal that would feed her was against her instincts, but...

But...

She had done it before. In the ash. A tiny little puppy. One that stayed in her cabin, that she took for walks, that she carried when he got too tired and snuggled with her and licked her face. Ultimately, he'd been the reason why Rat Man had noticed her magic. Her connection to animals was her first magic. Not a strong magic at all, but he'd noticed it all the same. She'd spared an animal before. She had a choice.

Sasha's begging not only made her think back to that moment, but it was so full of innocent hurt that it cut her heart. Fuzzy was pragmatic though. She wouldn't be lured with the draw of doing magic. Magic would come when it came and not before.

Ironically she was leaning towards what Sasha wanted her to do right now. To learn how to use the heal spell. But no, what made her change her mind was that she personally didn't need this meat. Yes, she could send it home, but she'd had real problems getting a single bullet home. How would she get an entire deer carcass home? She had no idea. Those barrens instincts kicked in and she found the idea of wasting a kill repulsive. The Puyallup barrens was fragile ecosystem and few could actually live there, animals included. Taking thoughtlessly from the land meant there would be less later. Only taking came with a price and so one had to think when taking. Perhaps that price was not one to be paid today and perhaps she would not be the one to pay it, but there was always a price when one took from the land.

Of course she could try to sell the meat anyway. Kenji's cousin, Clever, had said that he'd buy any meat from her when they met. However, Fuzzy thought Sasha would never forgive her for callously selling the flesh of an animal that she begged to spare. After all, while Sasha had been poor once, Fuzzy truly doubted that Sasha knew what it was like to starve like Fuzzy did some winters, or watch those around her who depended on her starve. But now was not one of those times. This kill was needless.

A heartbeat before Fuzzy put the knife away, Sasha breathed a sigh of relief. Fuzzy's killing intent had vanished and Sasha had read it early.

"Go get ready,” said Fuzzy, “I'll have to pull out the broadheads beforehand. If they heal with them in there it'll just bleed out again when it runs away. This might kill it anyway. You understand?”

Sasha nodded once and looked sick. Fuzzy noticed this and lifted her chin towards a few trees.

"You should go throw up before we do this," said Fuzzy, coolly, "I don’t think you’ll like looking at its pain either. Do what you need to prepare. Distractions harm spellcasting.”

Those were Mother Bear's words from her magical safety class. She’d learned her lessons well over the last two weeks. One definitely had a harm time casting spells while distracted.

Fuzzy knelt down by the deer in its blood among the grass, the dirt and the leaves while Sasha fled behind a tree to be noisily sick. Fuzzy ignored her friend throwing up a few feet away, inspected the wounds and the deer struggled weakly at her touch. She didn't know where the organs were off hand save for the heart and brain. Sasha's and Fuzzy's arrow both looked of a similar depth. She could attempt to yank them clean out and hope that was enough. However if they got stuck on bone she'd need to cut them out. She wasn't sure if the deer would survive even if she tried that.

Now done throwing up Sasha came back and knelt beside her. She looked grey, grim but still hopeful in a way that Fuzzy didn't feel.

"It's going to take a little time," said Sasha, 'We're going to have to hold it down so it doesn't struggle. The spell only works by touch."

"How long?" asked Fuzzy.

Sasha paused, thought about and gulped.

"Nine seconds tops,” she said, quietly, “Probably not more than six though. I'm not very powerful. The more powerful the spell the longer it takes for a healing spell to work. It doesn't all happen at once."

"You expect us to hold down a struggling deer while we're casting?" balked Fuzzy.

"Maybe we could knock it out?" asked Sasha.

"And probably kill it,” said Fuzzy, dismissively, “No.Tell me what to do to help you. Make it fast. It's almost dead."

Sasha nodded and began to explain. She would cast and use Fuzzy's casting like a water skin. Fuzzy would pour out her power and Sasha would use the raw magic and give it a three-dimensional form which Sasha would fill. Fuzzy did know how to move energy. That was in the lessons from Mother Bear. However, the beast had stopped struggling as its breathing was so very shallow now.

"I’m going to yank them out," said Fuzzy, seriously, "It’s going to get really messy. Get ready."

Sasha nodded. Fuzzy yanked and the first one came free with a sick, squelching noise and a rush of blood. The beast groaned and struggled weakly. It hadn’t been too deep.

"There's so much blood," whispered Sasha.

The other was embedded in bone. Fuzzy yanked but it didn't budge.

"Help me," Fuzzy ordered Sasha.

With the help of Sasha they pulled together. There was a telltale celery snap of bone that signified a break. The beast mewled weakly and didn't even struggle this time. Both bloody arrows were thrown away and the girls began to cast together. This time, Sasha took the lead and Fuzzy followed her directions. She moved the energy to where her friend directed. Formless, shapeless, she could only feel and not see it. Sasha poured in her own magic as she thought of the formula for the healing spell and pushed both Fuzzy’s and her own magic through it, creating a shape that started in the astral but then slowly took form in the real world. She strained, bit her lip and her eyes rolled back in her head before she closed them. They both held their breath as the spell began to take effect.

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There was that celery snapping sound again. She looked into the wound and saw the bone snap back into place and knit together before her eyes. Skin sealed and deer stirred. It struggled, first weakly and then more strongly, but before they were done. It still had another very large and open wound from the other arrow that hadn't healed yet.

On a whim, Fuzzy did not pile on it with all of her strength, but stroked its head. The deer’s eyes, which had been full of fear as strength returned to it, became calm as Fuzzy worked her own magic over animals on the deer. The single eye looked up at Fuzzy as she stroked it and the remaining wounds knit together. The sounds of its flesh sounded like wet paper being stitched and slapped. There was blood everywhere and when Sasha was done she backed away.

However Fuzzy continued to stroke the deer's fur. Even though Sasha did the healing she gaped at Fuzzy's power over animals. After all, that's why she was allowed to keep Puppy. This was her power at play. She didn't speak to it, but made cooing noises to it. The deer closed its eyes and allowed itself to be stroked. Then Fuzzy was done. She rose to her feet and so did the deer. She patted it on its flank and stepped away before it bounded off into a stand of trees without looking back.

The hands of the two girls were covered in blood and their clothes were stained as well from close contact in the still warm pool of it at their feet. It was a quiet moment. For the second time in Fuzzy’s life, she’d decided to spare an animal. Only Puppy had received such kindness from her, though this time she’d stayed her hand at the request of another. The two girls stood together and looked at the mess they’d made of themselves. Then Sasha broke into a big smile.

"We did it!" yelled Sasha.

Fuzzy couldn't help herself. She laughed. The experience had been exhilarating. She'd done real magic, not just in aiding Sasha with her spell, but by calming the deer so Sasha could finish.

"We did!" shouted Fuzzy.

Sasha hopped around like a little kid. Fuzzy raised her arms and danced like a goof. The girls hugged one another hard and smeared the blood of a still living creature all over one another that they’d attempted to kill and then saved.

In her excitement, Sasha cupped Fuzzy’s cheeks with her bloody hands and kissed Fuzzy full on the mouth. Suddenly wildly confused, Fuzzy found herself kissing Sasha back for just a second before she froze. Sasha looked back at her friend as she broke the kiss. Her smile fell. She'd been too eager. The moment had been too happy and pure. She expressed her joy as she wanted to, unrestrained and had potentially screwed up her friendship with Fuzzy in the process.

"Oh...Uh..." began Sasha, nervously.

Sasha released Fuzzy’s face and saw the handprints she left on her cheeks. Fuzzy looked down, unsure of how to feel. Sasha looked away lest she see Fuzzy's reaction in her aura. She chided herself silently. Though she desperately wanted to know what Fuzzy was feeling, she felt that she shouldn't invade Fuzzy's privacy more than she already had. After all, she'd demanded much, but stolen that kiss and in doing so, declared her feelings without even asking.

She didn't even know if Fuzzy was gay or not.

"We should get back," said Sasha, “You’re…We’re covered in…”

"Yeah," said Fuzzy, quietly, "We should..."

And it was with a horrified realization that Sasha remembered that she'd vomited and then kissed Fuzzy. It was the worst. Mortifying in the extreme. She'd stolen a kiss from her friend after barfing.

An awkward two hours later the girls had cleaned off all of that deer blood, dirt and sweat, and Sasha had furiously brushed her teeth. They sat quietly in the living room and did not acknowledge the kiss. Until they did, Sasha felt like her room was strictly off limits so they both stayed in her parents' living room at sat on the same couch together, though obviously not next to each other.

Fuzzy had no idea how what she was feeling. Her emotional and physical vocabulary was not big enough. So all of those confusing emotions simply swirled around inside of her, too knew and too scary to understand. The barrens hadn't been a place for romance, or at least not for her. She hadn't even known that girls would want to kiss other girls until just a few days ago when Kenji told her what a lesbian was. The fact that Sasha was a lesbian and that she wanted to kiss Fuzzy made Fuzzy so very, very confused.

"Hey..." started Sasha.

Fuzzy looked up and then away, and a blush tinged her pale cheeks.

"I have a present for you. I was going to...Give it to you before we left," said Sasha, awkwardly and haltingly.

"Okay," said Fuzzy, quietly.

"Right. I'll just...I'll go get it," whispered Sasha.

She stood up and disappeared into her room. Minutes later she came back with a wrapped box. It was red and white with a pink bow. Fuzzy looked at it curiously.

"It's a present," said Sasha, "Just um...Open it, I guess."

Fuzzy looked at the box for a time trying to figure out how to open it. In her opinion the wrapping paper was too pretty to destroy and so she just didn't think about doing that like almost anyone else would. She treated the materials reverently as she felt like she might have occasion to use them for herself. So she carefully undid the knot of the ribbon, took off the bow, carefully pulled apart the tape that held the paper together and then opened the box. Inside was a rectangular thing. It had words on it.

"Is this a book?" asked Fuzzy.

"Yeah. I bought it for you before I knew you were…Um…Couldn’t read. Sorry," said Sasha, apologetically.

"It's okay. Thank you. What is the book?" she asked.

"It's a book about magic. Books are kind of rare," said Sasha, "People mostly use electronic documents these days, not paper. What's important is what's inside. I know I gave it to you, but I want you to keep it a secret, okay?"

"I can do that," said Fuzzy, who smiled shyly, "I promise to keep it a secret. Can I keep the pretty paper?"

Sasha blinked a few times as she realized that Fuzzy was asking about the wrapping paper. And she was too nervous to tell her that no one did that.

"Sure," said Sasha, awkwardly.

Fuzzy smiled and Sasha rocked back and forward a few times with nervous anticipation.

"Most of it is just a how to book for magical safety, but if you use a special bookmark there's the spell formula for a stun bolt in there," said Sasha, seriously, "I know you like your arrows, but I think you'd like to be able to make a choice in the future about if you want to kill or not...Like today."

"Stun...Bolt?" asked Fuzzy.

“Yeah, it basically puts living creatures to sleep. We're technically not supposed to have it, but half the sophomore class already knows it," said Sasha, "The teachers look the other way at non-lethal spells so long as you don't use them in front of them or in a dangerous way. I got it my freshman year from dad. He didn't want to teach me anything lethal, but he did want me to be able to defend myself. It can put anything living to sleep if you hit your target enough times. Even spirits can be put to sleep, but not machines...You know, since they don't sleep."

Fuzzy carefully folded the pretty wrapping paper and her bow and put them into her pocket. Then she looked into Sasha’s eyes, though Sasha immediately looked away.

"I didn't expect what happened to happen today," murmured Fuzzy.

"I...I..." stammered Sasha, "It was...I thought you were."

"Are you a lesbian?" asked Fuzzy.

Sasha grit her teeth hard.

"Oh fuck, are you not?" she asked, horrified, "I could've sworn you were. I mean, I wasn't supposed to, but I was reading your astral signature and...I thought you liked me as more than a friend, maybe? And I was just so in the moment. You're...Oh fuck. You're not gay?"

"Uh...Is being gay the same as being a lesbian?" asked Fuzzy, awkwardly.

There was a pause.

"Yeah," said Sasha, her tone brittle, "That's right. And you're...Not?"

Fuzzy shrugged helplessly.

"I have no idea," said Fuzzy, honestly.

Sasha buried her head in her hands.

"Shit," she said, her voice muffled, and then she kept repeating it, "Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit. Shiiiiiiiiit."

Fuzzy wanted to comfort her friend, but she had no idea how to. In fact, trying to comfort Sasha might make this worse.

"I'm so...So sorry," whispered Sasha, "I was caught up in the moment. It just happened. I...I thought I...I mean...Can you forgive me?"