"When you go outside to hunt, we call the prey, animals."

A small chubby hand goes up in the air. "Suki? What..? Why are you raising your hand?"

Ack, I forgot that they don't do that here.

"Papa Chris, it's so that you can see me better." Really? Really?! I'm now quoting the red riding hood.. Suddenly my brother, Cruz's body, begins to shake. He then follows it up by letting out a snort and says, "you're so weird Suki, papa's not blind".

A long tannish white tail coming from the grown male softly taps on the female cub's head, "and you're right in front of me, so I don't think that's it." Looking at his raised eyebrow, I give him a sheepish smile, "you're right papa Chris." Placing both of my hands on my round ears, I then ask, "but I was wondering, aren't we animals?". Now, instead of trembling, Cruz and the rest of my brothers are full out laughing.

When Suki's ears flop down and a small frown is seen in her chubby face, Chris gives out a low pressure aura to the young male cubs. "One thing is to make fun of the other males, but don't ever make our females feel any less," he lowly growls a warning. The triplets stop and see that their father's hazel eyes look angry. The three glance toward their sister and see her frowning. They immediately lower their heads and say at the same time, "sorry Suki, please forgive us".

This aura is scary but I don't wanna let him know he scares me. Oh right, right, right, I need to tell them "It's okay, I forgive you guys". Sigh, the priviledge of a female far exceeds that of a male in this world.

"Cough, where was I? Oh yes. Suki, you're not entirely wrong. We are in a sense animals, but unlike them, we are able to think above the call of instincts." His hand goes up to his chin and scratches it. "Umm for example, an animal doesn't think about the various different materials outside their environment that need to go into their house. And nor can they follow our tribe rules. It doesn't make sense to them. Apart from that, they can't morph into what you see now, my two feet male form. That's why they're called prey."

My eyes widen, "so what about when you and the papas are in their animal form?"

Chris smiles and looks toward Casper. Casper nods, gets up and then hearing bones cracking I see that he has morph into his leopard form. "Look at Casper's eyes Suki," commands Chris. I lean toward my right and begin to stare at his light blue eyes that are slightly similar to mama's. Casper gently walks toward me and leans his head toward my face. Placing both of my hands on Casper's head, I slowly glide my chubby fingers around his eyes. Casper purrs. Through his eyes I feel as if he's he's smiling mischieviously without actually curving his mouth.

"He's smiling." Casper then gives me a soft head bump. With that small push I lean back onto Cruz's chest and face papa Chris.

"What you see is the difference. Our animal forms are called beasts. The beast's eyes can show an intellect that is superior to an animals. Besides that, we give out a different smell and are usually bigger than the prey, with the exception of the collosals."

Cruz's arms suddenly yanks me closer to his chest and to my right I see that Casper's ears prick up. "But that's a lesson for another day," comments Chris. "As for what we are in total, we are called beastmen. As beastmen, we live in tribes. Where we live now, we are part of the Clear Lake Tribe." So, there's a lake nearby. What a convenient name... but what happens if another tribe has a lake. Will they call it Blue Lake tribe, LOL. "Now there are other tribes, but most are peaceful... What we need to be preventive of are strays or ferals as they are sometimes called."

The young males begin to give a low growl. Looking at my arm, I can see that Cruze's nails are beginning to morph into claws. "Careful Cruz," mutters Bruce on my left. Bruce's tail touches his brother's hands and gets in between Cruze's hands and my body. Cruze lets out a long breath and slowly relaxes his arms. What happened here?

Chris looks at his cubs, then a Suki's questioning look. With a complicated expression he says, "strays are beastmen but are not tied to tribe laws. Most, if not all, have gone so far into their beast that they no longer care about another. For example, females are not treated warmly by them and that says a lot since females are few."

He sighs, "about half a year ago we were attacked by these ferals. Our tribe was able to kill most of them, however there were some deaths." Looking at my surprised eyes, he follows "your mother had 8 males". Eight males!! ◉_◉ What?! How?! "Three perished defending your mother and brothers." Woah, that's sad and kind of terrifying, but I'm still stuck on eight!

The adult male straightens his back, slants his eyes, and gruffly recommends, "that's why, one day, you, Suki, should have many males in your own den". Do what now? He then looks at the eyes of each of the male cubs, "and you should not stop your own female from having more males." He pauses in thought, "unless those males are cowardly, or have an unsightly idea to come and disturb the family structure," growls Chris. "When that happens, the female is no longer safe. She needs either strong males and or many males to be able to defend their den, their tribe, so that the strays won't even be able to get close."

After his warning, Chris closes his eyes, breaths slowly, and says with a gentle smile, "cubs, the upcoming hunting trip is to prove that you're ready to begin your training". I feel my brother shudder.

Last edited on February 24, 2022