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Kira sat at a table with her two friends and coworkers, Derrek and Cindy. It was their lunch break, the only time of the day when they could talk. Working at the city zoo was not overly difficult, but it did keep one busy, especially since the zoo had begun to expand most of the exhibits. Of course Kira's section, the jungle cats, had been one of the first to be increased. So now she had to take care of twice as many tigers, panthers, and leopards as before.
"You think you've got a lot of animals to take care of," muttered Derrek between mouthfuls of hamburger. He had only been working at the zoo for a week now, but he seemed a nice enough guy, especially around the tigers. "They just added twenty snakes and four alligators to the reptile exhibit, not to mention the turtles, exotic lizards..."
"How can you eat that stuff?" asked Cindy.
Both Kira and Derrek paused in mid-chew. "Eat what?" asked Kira through a mouth full of chicken.
"Meat. How can you eat the flesh of a dead animal? How can you let someone kill another living thing just so you can fill your stomach? I'm not as fanatical as some people, but I just can't rationalize the killing of something that once breathed and thought and felt pain just like you or me. It's so immoral. It's so... so..."
"Natural?" offered Kira, eyeing Cindy's salad. "Come on, Cindy. It goes on in the wild all the time. Predators feeding on the sick and week. Carnivores feasting on herbivores. The balance of nature. The food chain. Humans and other dominant predators like tigers feed on lower animals. It keeps their numbers down. To do otherwise is to go against every natural instinct there is. What I want to know is how you can eat nothing but green lettuce and... meat substitutes. Yech!
"Whatever." Cindy blew her off. "But when you die at the age of forty from heart disease because of all that red meat, I'll be looking forward to another fifty healthy years of life ahead of me."
"How can you say all that?" asked Derrek. "You work in the predatory bird exhibit. Don't you feed the eagles and condors? They only eat meat, you know."
"Well duh. They're animals, and we're not. Besides, Tony feeds them. I can't stand that place at feeding time."
The argument could have continued from there, but both Kira and Derrek were smart enough not to press the matter. They were good friends, the three of them, but Kira could never figure out how Cindy survived on vegetables alone. But, Kira rationalized, nobody's perfect. And Cindy was her best friend. Kira felt Cindy could believe anything she wanted to.
Whether it was right or not.
Kira got home late that night, tired and hungry. The only reason she didn't go and find another job with better hours and pay was that she loved it. And besides, the zoo could never do to lose her. No one else had the skill and expertise she had with the tigers, besides maybe Derrek. He, like her, understood the tigers for what they really were. Predators.
Kira closed and locked the door to her small apartment. She hated it for being so cramped; but then again she could hardly afford to live any place bigger. And it was adequate. There was a kitchen she rarely used, a bathroom, the main living room, and of course the bedroom. Kira went strait to the bedroom. The lights she left off, though the moonlight provided adequate illumination. The bed was made, the comforter smoothed and unrumpled, as if never taken off - which was the truth, as Kira preferred the round green rug at the foot of the bed for sleeping.
Kira heard the growling of her stomach. How long had it been since she had last eaten? Lunch time? It seemed like days ago. It was probably her just being so tired that exaggerated the emptiness in her stomach. Those tourists and their incessant questions were exhausting. The popularity of the jungle cats was both a curse and a blessing. Kira needed to unwind. And the best way to unwind was to hunt.
Kira opened the window in the far wall, then went and stood in the middle of the room. She relaxed, letting the change come naturally. It had been a few nights since she had last gone out. Her last kill had been discovered soon after she had left, and the police were getting wary. Ah well, she would just have to be a bit more careful this time. Besides, challenge made the hunt all the more exhilarating.
Kira felt her body changing, like a cool breeze on a warm summer afternoon, caressing her skin, penetrating down to the bone, to every pore and crevasse of her soul. Her mouth extended, sharp teeth and fangs protruding from her jaws. Her ears grew, normally inaudible sounds becoming loud and clear. The dark room grew brighter as her eyes changed and adjusted. Her legs shortened as her hands melded into paws. A long, supple tail sprouted from just below the spine. A thick coat of fur covered her body. Claws appeared. Whiskers grew.
Damn, she thought. Forgot to take off my clothes. The remains of a pair of jeans and a tee shirt hung raggedly from her new body. She would have to replace them. But at least she was comfortable. The humans were great and all, but Kira still felt that the ways of the tiger were far better.
Kira crawled out from the tatters of cloth and stretched. It felt good, being feline. Numerous smells and sounds, unnoticeable by human senses, were picked up easily by her superior scent and hearing. Natural instincts met with a human rationale within the confines of her mind, a mind that was neither human nor fully tiger, but something more. The blood of a predator flowed through her veins. The most primal of instincts was calling her. The night was young, and Kira was hungry.
Her paws made no sound as Kira crept across the floor towards the open window. The linoleum was cold, sending shivers down her spine and tail as her padded feet tread across it. A cool autumn breeze wafted from the opening, and Kira inhaled deeply. A familiar scent hung in the air, tantalizing like sweet perfume. The scent of prey.
Kira leapt through the egress and onto the fire escape. From there, she stealthily made her way down the escape to the street below. Keeping to the shadows, Kira paced the darkened alleys of the city. Somewhere, there was food. And as the dominant predator of the region, it was her job to hunt it down. Intelligence was as much an evolutionary trait as her own claws and teeth, and those who failed to exhibit it by wandering the dark alleys in the middle of the night were simply not fit to live.
After an hour or so of wandering, Kira found that which she sought; nourishment in the form of a small man in a gray suit whose car had probably broken down. He had made the mistake of choosing the shrouded maze of alleys over the safer, more illuminated roads.
With her pray located, Kira began the actual hunt. She crept slowly, following him, keeping her distance, staying in the shadows, away from bright lights. The man looked behind him once or twice. He began to feel uneasy, though he did not know why. The prey always subconsciously knew that it was being hunted.
Eventually, however, Kira tired of games. Her hunger was too great for her to spend an hour hunting. She simply positioned herself for the final strike, and leapt. The man hadn't time for anything but a pitiful gurgle that was almost a cry for help. He died swiftly and without pain. All the better.
It had been far too long since Kira had hunted. She had almost forgotten the exhilaration of the final strike, the sweet coppery tang of blood on her tongue, the smooth consistency of flesh in her mouth... and the warm feeling of a full stomach. Kira consumed nearly the whole carcass. She relished every drop of blood, even lapping it up from the pavement. This was due in part to the necessity of hiding the remains of the kill, partly to her ravenous appetite. Within twenty minutes, there wasn't a spot of blood or scrap of blood to be found (unless someone searched a nearby dumpster).
After satiating her hunger, Kira's mind turned to other matters. There was a second scent in the air. A scent that... smelled vaguely familiar, though she was positive she had never smelled it before. It stirred emotions Kira hadn't known she possessed. The scent... with striking realization, Kira realized what it was. It seemed impossible, but Kira smelled a male. Not a male tiger, or even a human, but a male like her.
Though full and lethargic from her meal, Kira immediately set off in search of the male. She had thought that she was the only one of her kind in the area. In all likelihood, a young and ignorant male had just moved in, unaware of her stake. And that was unfortunate, since an invasion of territory, be it conscious or otherwise, meant a territorial fight to the death.
Half the night was spent following the scent. By about four o'clock in the morning, Kira had at last tracked him down. He was finishing up on what might have been a night watchman. He looked up at her as she approached. Yes, he was definitely like her. And not too bad-looking either. A pity.
There was no ritualistic hunt. There was no calculated planning. Kira simply leapt at him, intent at ripping his throat out. Her kind was strictly solitary, and could not tolerate an invasion of territory. In fact, the only time two of her kind could stand being in the same area was -
The male did not leap away, but instead twisted so that Kira's jaws missed. She fell upon him, and found herself embracing him. I know what you are came the voice inside her head. Her kind could communicate via telepathy when within close proximity, but that ability was seldom used. But I do not know who you are. Let us shift to human form so that we may get... better acquainted.
There were only two instances when one of Kira's kind purposefully entered another's territory. One was to expand one's territory. The other... was to mate.
Kira became human again. The feeling was not so exhilarating as changing to tiger form, but she didn't care. She was nude as well, but this didn't bother her either; animals never wore clothing. The male shifted into human form as well, and Kira found herself embracing -
Tony, the man who worked at the zoo with the predatory birds, Cindy's assistant. "You..." she began, the discovery not quite registering.
"Somehow, I'm not surprised that the mysterious female I smelled would turn out to be the best tiger-handler in the state. You seem surprised. Working at the zoo is the perfect job. I worked with predators, and even got to snack on the leftovers. Since Cindy refused to watch or have anything to do with it, I was given free reign. I even took a chance and dined on one of the condors. Blamed it on the birds being so territorial. Didn't happen again, so no questions were asked. But none of that matters. All that matters is that we finally get to meet face-to-face."
"But... why did you never turn tiger?"
"I almost got killed in the last city I hunted in. I got caught. Put me in a zoo for a year, almost went insane. Fact of the matter is, this is the first time I've gone tiger in the longest time. My territory was the city to the east, until I moved here." His tone changed dramatically. "But you know, sometimes I get a little lonely..."
"So now..."
"Yes." And with that, Tony reached up, taking Kira's head sensuously within his hands, and gave a sharp twist to the side. There was a dull pop, and Kira's eyes glazed over, a look of mild surprise on her face. Tony pushed the still-warm corpse from his body and got up.
Now his territory was twice as large, he thought. The female had been a fool, relying on human emotion rather than natural instinct. And she had paid.
Tony shifted to tiger once again. After all, he had to survey his new territory. Dawn wasn't for another two hours, so he had plenty of time. As he began to explore, he thought of a human poem. Humans were notorious for not being able to connect with nature, but once in a while a human would prove to be surprising. The poem was an older one, but he felt it truly captured the glory of his kind, and of the tiger.
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fires of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
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