Slowly approaching the human woman, I studied the way she glared at me.

She didn’t seem hurt. She had blood on her right arm, but it didn’t seem to be hers. It had been the same arm she had used to hold the knife. And the blood was splattered where it would have upon stabbing someone with said knife.

There was a new knife in her hands, but this one was much smaller than the one she had used against her own people earlier. It looked a little silly being pointed at me. It was just a tad bit longer than my nails.

“Why’d you attack your own man?” I asked her.

I knew I shouldn’t be talking to them… but I couldn’t resist. I needed to know.

Had it just been simple desperation and fear? Or had there been more at play.

The woman perked up, and I found it a little humorous. She didn’t have ears, or her tail visible, but all the same I noticed the familiar reaction. She had heard something shocking, and her eyes had gone wide. She had stopped breathing for a moment, and her mouth had opened a little as if about to say something.

These humans really did look like us. To a point it was almost scary. Though I saw no fur anywhere…

But I didn’t have fur either. At least, not on my face or body. There was a little around my tail, and on my head where my ears were, but that was it.

Though that was the very reason I was called ugly by my family. Because I was lacking in so many ways.

I frowned as I stopped approaching the woman. I was close enough I could leap forward and reach her quickly, but not so close I needed to be so on guard with her.

Was this woman ugly…?

She was bigger than me. But some of that size looked to be because of her clothes and the stuff she carried. She had little bags and stuff all over. On her waist, and even one wrapped around her right thigh. How had she made that? Wouldn’t the strap slide off? How hadn’t it while she was running?

Though her face was clear of fur, and she didn’t have the big pointy teeth that most of my family had… I still couldn’t find myself calling her ugly.

She looked strained. Terrified. Worried. She had tear stains on her cheeks and a small stain of blood on her forehead but…

No. Not ugly. Not hideous to look at.

Yet I knew my brothers would have seen her as something ugly. If they’d even see her in such a way. They might even just see her as they would any other animal. Just something to kill and eat.

Yet...

Was I?

Did I?

I blinked as the woman's eyes shook. She had started to tremble. Not in anger, but...

Fear...

No. I didn't see a deer. Or food.

I wasn't sure what I saw, since she wasn't family. She wasn't one of us. But...

“Do you understand me?” I asked her. Her fellow had seemingly, before he died…

Her eyes narrowed, and she shifted a little. I half expected her to turn and run, but instead she looked around. As if unsure all of a sudden.

Before I could pose another question she said something. One in her weird language. She shook her head as she spoke, but didn’t step away. She kept that little blade pointed at me, though.

“You do, don’t you?” I asked, amazed.

She focused on me and her gaze hardened. “Demon,” she said.

Demon. I’d heard that before. From grandmother. During one of her stories of our ancestors.

Had they not been the things we had hunted? For our gods?

Was she calling me a demon, or was she declaring herself one? Was this why we hunted them? Was this why my family deemed them prey?

Was I currently participating in a game started long ago, and something never to end…?

“Demon…” I whispered the word, and tried to wrap my head around this.

I had killed those men before. To keep myself alive.

I had to. My family would kill me if they thought I’d not participate in what they deemed a necessity. What they considered to be a normal part of life.

But…

She screamed at me, and once again the only word I barely understood was the one she had said earlier.

Was she even saying it? That time it had sounded a little odd. Maybe I had misheard. Maybe I had misunderstood…

“Who are you people…?” I asked softly as I stepped forward.

I knew father was still watching. Hopefully he wasn’t close enough to hear what was being said, but it didn’t matter. Even if he couldn’t hear he could see just fine.

I needed to kill her.

If I didn’t then a worse fate for me was waiting.

But… before I did…

My tail twitched and curled as I studied the way she stared at me. With a look of pure fear.

I knew fear. But I’d never seen it so blatant on someone else before.

Was this what I looked like…? Before my family?

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Maybe this was why the hated me so much. Maybe this is why they called me ugly and weak.

Although it did make her seem weak and… a little strange looking… it honestly made me feel bad for her more than anything.

It reminded me of my younger sister. When she got hurt or scared. It made me want to help her. To spare her.

Which was probably why she was looking at me like that. As to try and stay my hand.

I blinked at the weird realization that she might not be actually terrified, but only looking so. On purpose.

Such a thought…

But before I took her life… Maybe I should try one more time.

“Do you have a name?” I asked her a question with a little more meaning.

Her eyes although still full of fright… noticeably narrowed.

She had understood. Or at least, she had recognized that I had asked a question.

Waiting a moment, I hesitated and glanced around. For any signs of my father.

I knew there’d be no way I’d see him. He was a real predator. A true hunter. Not like me.

I’d never be able to find him when he’s hiding. Ever. But…

Doing my best to remain calm, I returned my attention to the human before me.

Just a little more. I could risk it.

I had killed the others. I hadn’t killed the third man, since she had done so… but…

“My name is Rennalee,” I raised a hand with an open palm and posed the question. One I shouldn’t have.

It had cost me her life.

And maybe even my own.

Father fell behind her. Falling from somewhere up in the tree. I startled at the sudden burst of movement, and stepped back a few steps.

By the time I had retreated a little, he had finished killing her.

My eyes went wide, and my whole mind went blank as I watched my father crush the woman’s neck even more. He stomped on it with a heavy foot. I tried to ignore the weird sound of flesh and bone being broken and squished. It sounded wrong, in more ways than one.

“Foolish kitten,” Father said.

With a dry mouth I stood up straighter. My tail went still. My numb mind began to creak as it came back to life.

I needed to run.

But how.

To where.

“Father…” I whispered as I started to take quick short breaths.

“I waited. To see if maybe you had some weird plan or ploy. Maybe to play with them. But make friends? With humans?” Father spoke, and although about me… I knew better than to respond. I knew better than to answer, or try to excuse myself.

This wasn’t good.

At all.

Would it end at just a beating…?

Gulping a dry mouth, I shivered as I glanced down to his foot. He had lifted it and…

I flinched as he brought it back down onto the woman’s head. For a tiny moment the whole forest reverberated with the odd sound of something popping. Something wet.

Gross.

“Stupid daughter. Maybe your weakness is more than just your strength,” he said.

Clenching my jaw, I shifted. He wasn’t looking at me yet. He was staring down at his feet. To the woman he had just killed.

“Father…” I gathered the courage to speak. I knew it was pointless… but I had to at least try.

What could I say though? What could I do?

He snarled at me, finally looking at me, and shook his head. “I sometimes wonder if I am,” he said.

That hurt, but not as bad as what I knew he was about to do to me.

I’d long since grown used to what they said. I no longer was bothered with their comments, or the looks.

But right now…

“I was going to kill her,” I said carefully.

“The fact that’s what you think is all you did wrong is more than enough for me,” Father said.

My shoulders slumped at his tone.

“This isn’t the first time you’ve failed,” he then said.

“I had her father,” I said stiffly.

He waved a hand through the air, lightly. As if swatting a fly. “They’re humans. Of course you had them. Without their weapons or numbers, they’re nothing.”

I gulped and wondered how to take that.

Granted I had felt it was a little… oddly easy to kill those men, but…

But that doesn’t mean it had been flawless, or without strain. If all of them had been on guard for me from the beginning who knows how it could have gone. I had only succeeded thanks to my ambush, likely.

Plus that woman had killed one for me…

Had father even noticed? Or seen…?

“Brother plays with his food sometimes. Before finishing them,” I tried to defend myself.

“Your brothers know better than to do that in front of me. And especially so during a crucible,” he said.

Crucible…?

I held back my tongue as I tried to comprehend what he had said. What was that? What was a crucible? Why hadn’t anyone told me that this was that important?

Father sighed as he looked down at the dead woman. “Funny. These humans are so weak. So disgusting… but even she would have been a better daughter than you,” he said.

What little of my heart that still hoped for my father’s love died as my eyes started to water.

“She tried to sacrifice that other one. To keep you away. A very… interesting plan. Had we been other creatures such a thing might have worked. Interesting,” he said with a frown.

Oh…?

“You understand them…?” I whispered my question.

“The fact you don’t tells me your mother also needs a beating. Her lack of educating you is partly her fault,” Father said with a scoff.

I flinched. Great. Just wonderful.

Not only was I going to be beaten, now so too was mother.

Great. She’d not talk to me for years now. I’ll not be able to sit with her or talk to her…

Would this beating be the one to finally make her hate me too?

I blinked my watery eyes and did my best to not start crying. Especially since all tears would do right now was hasten my beating.

Father sighed and scraped his foot against some grass. To clean it of the blood and gunk from the woman’s head. “They don’t even taste good,” he complained.

Taste…

I glanced at the woman and wondered if that was what they planned to do with them.

I mean… yes… that was the main reason we hunted. Either to eat, or protect our territory.

But…

They looked so much like us…

Father then sighed and nodded. As if he had just made a decision.

Then he looked at me.

I stood up straighter, and…

Somehow. I knew. Instinctively.

“Always the daughters,” he whispered. Then my father met my eyes.

He stepped forward, and I noticed it.

His eyes narrowed. His dark pupils became thin. Elongating as he focused. His teeth actually became more hidden, even though he was still snarling at me.

I noticed the way his tail went still. Even though he was moving. I noticed how his ears were turned just a tiny bit away from me. To my left.

I noticed how his hands were slightly curled. Not fists, but not relaxed. I noticed the way his toes sunk into the ground. Soaked by blood.

Then… before my heart even really realized what was happening…

I turned and ran.

Darting away, I ran straight for the nearest trees. To run between them, and use them as cover.

Without a thought in my head… without any real clue as to how I was going to escape a man far beyond me in terms of strength and skill…

I ran from my father.

Who had just decided to kill me.