Jon arrived back in the classroom after a fairly short lunch. It was pretty quiet, as most of the other students were still eating, but Michael the raptor-girl was there. Jon realized she hadn't talked much with her since she'd helped them camp out during Zoe's fruiting. She slid over towards her.
The raptor-girl turned to look at Jon; though she was sitting down, she was about at eye-level with the slug-girl. She smiled. "I had a pretty sizeable breakfast," she said, glancing down at her blood-stained top. "Wasn't too hungry for lunch."
Jon regarded her curiously. "Seems like you hunt quite a bit. Why's that?"
Michael shrugged. "I dunno, it just kind of comes naturally. I mean, I am a hunter. Don't you have any instincts like that?"
Jon thought for a moment. Did she? She hadn't noticed any. What would they even be, urges to ravage someone's garden? ...well, she had been eating more in the way of greens and vegetables lately, but not by much - and anyway, it was more because they tasted good than anything behavioral.
"Uh, I don't think so," she said. "These instincts, do you have a lot of them?"
Michael frowned. "I dunno," she said. "What's 'a lot' here? I hunt when I'm hungry, I run when I'm energetic, I sleep when I'm tired, and I-" She stopped abruptly.
"You what?"
"Um, nothing." She couldn't stop herself from blushing. "Point is, it's all pretty natural stuff, responding to different needs. I kinda figured other transformees had the same thing..."
Jon frowned; she could make a guess what the blush was about. "I suppose it is natural," she said. "But you do have control over it, right? I mean, even ordinary human instincts can get you into trouble sometimes if you don't keep them in check."
Michael nodded. "Yeah, I guess I have control; nothing's taking over my body or anything. I just kinda don't bother fighting it if I don't need to; it's less hassle, and..." Her eyes lit up and she leaned forward. "...it feels pretty good, to stalk and kill my own prey, to take off running when I have the energy, to go all untamed animal on-" She stopped again, her face reddening.
Jon nodded. That...was a bit too much information. She was kind of curious to hear the rest of the sentence, but she knew better than to think she wouldn't regret asking. "So," she said. "Uh, how's life been for you otherwise?"
The raptor-girl smiled. "Not too bad, I guess. I don't see my mom that much, but she's doing okay - she's kind of worried about me, though. I kinda wind up staying out late and sleeping in the woods a lot, and I think she's afraid I won't come back or something."
Jon frowned. "But you wouldn't go that far, right?"
She shook her head. "Oh, no. Home's still home, and mom is..." She hesitated for a moment, then seemed to accept what she was about to say. "Mom's one of-uh, Mom's the honorary other member of my pack," she said. "Even though she's human."
Jon stifled a chuckle. "Yeah, I know," Michael said. "Crazy, isn't it?"
The slug-girl shrugged. "It's not the strangest thing I've heard by a long shot," she said. "I'm not sure 'crazy' even applies anymore."
David sat at the lunch table, pondering what had happened earlier in the day, as Adora continued to hover just on the edge of her personal space. She felt sure that Tiffany wasn't going to just let this drop; it seemed that in addition to having been dropped unwillingly into the female social game, David had been shoved into some conflict that got an even stronger reaction out of Tiffany.
On the other hand, she probably couldn't take a direct approach quite yet, not after all that had happened this week. And it did seem like she found even dealing with the angel-girls to be inherently unpleasant; maybe she'd limit herself to just being a jerk verbally, at least for a while.
This whole thing was unfair; David had never asked to get caught up in anything like this! She wasn't at all a fighter; maybe the slug-girl was right that letting Tiffany pick on her would only encourage further bullying, but she still didn't like the idea of fighting back. And anyway, then she'd be transmitting pain to her sisters...
Why did her life have to get so complicated all of a sudden?
