Nature Of The Beast

[qhostqrowls]

The cabin Charlotte had been given directions to was in the heart of the forest, down a long dirt track lined with old-growth pines, looming dark and ominous in the shadow of the mountain. The entrance to the track was overgrown, nothing more than a deer trail at first. But for all his misspellings, the wendigo had been clear with his instructions, and it eventually opened into a small clearing.

The log cabin was ancient - an abandoned off-grid place that had been patched up here and there. A new section of the roof. A repaired door. A smashed window that had been boarded up. There was a tanning rack with a deerskin stretched across it out front, and slouched on the couch inside there was a familiar lean figure.

“She ain’t really human anymore, but you still gotta be gentle.” He said to the manticore, legs crossed over the arm of the sofa. “No claws for now, yeah?”

[beastly]

The manticore cub had grown rapidly in the past few months, now when she stood on her hind legs she could put her paws on Kail's shoulders. Still, she behaved like she hadn't grown at all, having precariously perched herself on the back of the sofa like she was a house cat. She looked at Kail with skeptical blue eyes.

"She is weak?"

Hunt groaned, rolling dangerously onto her back, kicking out her legs.

"Not fun."


Charlotte trudged through the forest, leftovers for Kail carried in a grocery bag and a backpack slung over her shoulder. Kail had been distant lately. He hadn't been texting her, hadn't visited, and whenever she tried to get a hold of him he gave her the run around. She was excited to see Kail, she wanted to show him. She also wanted to kick him.

She stomped up to the cabin, and knocked on the door.

"Kail. I'm here."

[qhostqrowls]

“Dunno yet. You can play with her and see, kitty-cat.”

Kail ruffled the manticores hair, shaking her head side to side playfully. She was growing fast, into quite the apex predator. More than capable of fending for herself. But he liked her company, and he’d been elated she’d decided to hang around.

He pushed off the sofa at the knock, stalking over to open the thick wooden door. His smile was toothy and wide when their eyes met, and he swung a hand back for a slap of a handshake.

“Sup’, Char?” He drawled, as casual as always. Like he hadn’t been ignoring her texts and avoiding meeting up.

[beastly]

"Oh, we're doing this."

Charlotte gave Kail a neutral look as she pointedly watched him raise his hand. And didn't move to meet it in any way. Her hand not carrying the bag of pot roast remains made it to her hip, and her eyes narrowed.

"'Sup'? Not 'long time no see'? 'Sorry I've been ignoring you'?"

Irritation was clear in her voice, and her eye twitched just slightly.

"I had to get cursed for you to give me the time of day, you jerk!"


Hunt made a groaning noise as she moved from her comfortable spot on the couch, leaping down with a thunk to peer through the side of the door. Her tail flicked with curiosity, and she sniffed the air.

"Hello, Charlotte. Cursed is strong?"


Charlotte's eyes darted down to Hunt, and her expression brightened momentarily.

"Hunt! You're so big, yes," She smiled, and then glared at Kail, "It's amazing how much you've grown in the past MONTHS."

[qhostqrowls]

Kail sheepishly let his hand drop, his grin fading from excited to awkward.

“Aw c’mon, don’t be like that.” He glanced back at Hunt so he wouldn’t have to meet the woman’s unimpressed stare. Some part of him had hoped she’d ignore the way he’d distanced himself, but it was Charlotte. Of course she wouldn’t.

“My bad, I’ve been busy. And time passes different for me.” The excuse was a pathetic one, and he winced a little even as he spoke. “Uh, anyway. Come on in.” He stepped to the side, gesturing grandly for her to enter.

The living room was a mess. The couch looked like it had been mauled, and the mounted elk head on the far wall had an arrow sticking out of its forehead. There were two tables - one he’d obviously moved everything off of in a half-hearted attempt to clean up. The one in the kitchen had a suspicious amount of wallets on it, and an even more concerning amount of knives.

[beastly]

"Time passing at a different rate doesn't prevent your phone from buzzing," Charlotte scowled, and punched him on the shoulder as she walked in, "I don't like to be ignored. We're friends."

She looked at the destroyed room, frowning at the state of disrepair. It was exactly where Kail looked like he should live. Entirely his style. She went to the only clean surface and unwrapped the pot roast. It was a good chunk of meat, and Charlotte suspected it was less 'left overs' than her mother would've liked her to believe. For some reason her mom liked Kail. She thought he was a polite young man, and liked that she was friends with her very odd daughter.

Whatever.

"What were you doing that was so important?"

She gave Hunt a pat as the big cat rubbed against her, getting her scent on the visitor. Hunt liked Charlotte, even if she had to be gentle.

[qhostqrowls]

“Ow. Fair enough.”

Kail accepted the punch, trailing after Charlotte. He leant against the armrest of the sofa, faintly proud of himself for having cleaned up this corner of the cabin. The kitchen was a mess, but the human remains were all in the cold-room anyway.

“There’s this group of hunters me and a few friends have been tryna’ track down.” Kail said, his ears pricking at the scent of pot-roast. “Me and Hunt are gonna clean them right up, ain’t we?”

His eyes narrowed affectionately when he looked at the manticore, the way she wound around Charlottes legs.

“Anyway - tell me all about this cursed ring shit. How the hell did that happen?”

He dragged his gaze away from the leftovers, pushing off the couch to inspect the magical item. The lanky super was practically radiating excitement, and his grin was genuine and very toothy when he glanced up to her face.

[beastly]

Charlotte folded her arms with a frown. She'd heard Kail talk about hunters a bit before, and Grace had been scared to be found out because of the potential of them. It was murder- but hunters were murderers. They would hurt her friends, and her now, if given the chance. She nodded, and gave Hunt a concerned look. Hunt was young. A baby. A big baby, that wanted to eat people, but still a kid.

"Well. Don't die."

Charlotte couldn't feel too mad at Kail when he looked genuinely happy. Ugh. She held out her hand to Kail to see her hand, as if showing off an engagement ring. There on her pointer finger sat a rosegold ring, a hyena grabbing its tail with a little ruby for an eye. Charlotte tilted her hand, allowing the ruby to catch the light slightly.

"My friend Grim and the wrestler, Shah, we took a job tracking down this ring for some old rich jerk. Turns out it was all a set up to get Shah's blood, she also turns into a hyena, to power the ring. When we got the ring the rich guy and some assholes came and attacked us, and I put the ring on and fought the bad guys. Annnd... Now it won't come off."

Charlotte demonstrated by gripping the ring hard and trying to rip it off. The hyena didn't budge.


Hunt stood up on her hind paws, balancing against Kail to get a look at Charlotte's hand. Her blue eyes narrowed.

"Could bite it off. Eat it and You will not have the Curse. Like it though."

[qhostqrowls]

Kail carefully took Charlottes hand, his skin as cold as a corpses. Pale eyes tracked over the ring, curious and analytical.

“Huh. Nice.”

It was like nothing he’d seen before. He let Charlottes hand drop, just as Hunt leant her weight on him. She was getting heavy, and he almost stumbled as her paws met his shoulder.

“No finger eating.” He chided the manticore, but even as he shoved at her the motion was more playful than scolding. His eyes flicked to Charlottes face. “I like ya better when ya ain’t a weak boring human anyway.”

He wrinkled his nose, still smiling.

“How’s the control over the shifts? Ya said ya had to keep leaving the house.”

[beastly]

"You haven't even seen the hyena, you can't know what you like better." Charlotte scoffed. "I'm working on it, it's kind of been the opposite. My mom has been really weird about me leaving 'cause sometimes it just. Happens."

Hunt licked Kail behind the ear before dropping back down to all fours to sniff at Charlotte.

"Show us."

Charlotte eyed Kail, then Hunt.

"I can show you... BUT... You gotta promise to keep in touch," Charlotte scowled and pointed at Kail, "I don't want to be ignored, and now, now I can help if you find things out about hunters. I'm strong."

The manticore cub made a dissatisfied noise.

"Kail promises."

[qhostqrowls]

Kail echoed the maticores disgruntled noise, crossing his arms across his chest.

“Yeah, yeah, I promise.” He said, eyes narrowing in a smile. He clapped a hand on her shoulder, gently pushing her towards the door.

“Shifts are always hard at the start. You’ll get the hang of it soon enough. Let’s go try it out!”

[beastly]

Charlotte rolled her eyes. It was good enough.

"Okay. I'm not great at doing when I want, but if I kind of..."

The skinny young woman took a step back and kicked off her shoes. She frowned, looking at the floor of Kail's dirty little cabin and shaking out her arms as if she was about to do something athletic. He'd make fun of her if she couldn't do it. She wasn't boring anymore. She focused on a feeling- maybe a thought- sort of like water running down her face and over her body. She let it cover her entirely.

Kail watched as his conspiracy hungry friend's form grew larger, muscle appearing where none clearly had not been before. It tested the limits of her baggy clothing, although the hoodie and sweatpants held. The hyena's fur grew in, orange and spotty, and her face changed to have a powerful muzzle. Charlotte had closed her eyes at some point and only opened them when the shift was complete. It really only took a few seconds. She turned over her clawed hands, then looked up at Kail with a hand on her hip.

"So that's how that goes-"

Hunt had crouched as Charlotte changed, looking like she was about to pounce. And then she did. Over a hundred pounds of manticore launched herself at the newly Charlotte transformed, who made a squawk of surprise and put out her arms to try and catch the big cat. Hunt laughed as she sat on Charlotte's chest.

"You could be dead."

[qhostqrowls]

Kail whistled appreciatively as the change took place, taking a step backwards to get a proper look at the new and improved version of Charlotte. Gone was the thin human girl, and here was something strong and most importantly, potentially predatory.

Already, the hunger - always at the forefront of his mind around any human - had faded. Didn’t have to be stamped down every second like it usually did.

He laughed, raspy and loud, at the manticores pounce. His gaunt face popped into Charlottes field of vision as he stood over her, reaching a hand out to ruffle Hunt’s mane.

“Very impressive, Char! Very impressive indeed.”

He held out a hand to help pull her up from the floor, eyeing her claws.

“You tested the limits of this form? Looks real strong. How fast is it? Any regen? Do ya feel different in the head - ya know, the classic were-whatever anger issues? Hunger?”

The questions came fast, and it looked like he had more to ask judging by the excited gleam in his eyes.

[beastly]

"It's cool."

Charlotte thought for a moment, taking Kail's hand and sliding the giggling manticore off of her.

She dusted off her hoodie, and looked over at Kail, thinking over his questions.

"I haven't tested them very much yet. Maneater Amazonia showed me some stuff. I'm stronger, faster... And I'm really hungry and really want to eat people. ...You, right now."

She looked at Kail, and couldn't help the smirk on her lips.

"Which is pretty funny."

[qhostqrowls]

“YES!!!” Kail yelled, completely elated by the reveal. Finally. He was yet to find a proper man-eater in Wathais, and here Charlotte was in all her newly-turned glory.

“That is what I wanna hear!” He said, completely seriously. “This is perfect. We can kill Hunters and there won’t even be any bones left to find.”

“And before you start with all the ‘but I don’t wanna eat people’”-“ Kail mimicked Charlottes voice perfectly, making it extra whiny to drive the point across. “Hunters will track ya down and kill your entire family even if you’re well behaved. They’d kill you, and that null baby, and Hunt and me and your mom and ya get the idea.”

He gestured as he spoke, incredibly enthusiastically, as only Kail could be when discussing murder.