As far as Jasper was concerned, humans were rather confusing.

Well, that wasn't the right word anyway. It would be more correct to say he thought they were boring, but that wasn't quite right either. They were strange, that's what they were, and that was the truth. It wasn't like he didn't care about them, anyway. That was his job, really. To care about them and their well-being, but it was more like how it was a vet's job to make sure the dog or cat or whatever humans kept as pets was okay. At least that was what he thought vets did. He wasn't too sure on everything they felt either, but it's not like it was his job to know what they felt.

Truth be told Jasper was a sort of sharp fellow, both his mind and tongue pointy enough to open a can, though he was what other Furies would call lazy, but only because he would rather finish up his assignments quickly so he could go back to sleep or do whatever else he wanted to do. He was fast, and one of the best Furies in his part of the world, and for the most part he really didn't care what his coworkers would say. He would simply lash his tail and laugh if they made fun of him and walk away.

"How's your day?" It was Lily, a friend of his. He recognized her voice before he recognized her horns and Jasper laughed shortly.

"Lily, it's good to see you," he smiled, patting her shoulder with a clawed hand. Most Furies insulted each other a lot, it was just the culture that came with the claws, and it wasn't like anybody minded. It was friendly, the way they bonded. Most of them knew the difference between insults with malice and the regular ones anyway. It was quite fitting. Furies were created in the darkest moments of a person's life, and as the prayers for help leave their lips, sometimes a Fury is born. However Lily was different. She was soft and gentle, a stark contrast from the brash shouts of her colleagues. She was quiet, something that fit for her. However, if somebody saw her, they certainly wouldn't think it.

Lily was over six feet tall with red eyes that glowed like coals. Her fangs were so large and sharp that if one ate with her it would be a little intimidating. The parts of her eyes that should have been white were black, and she had a set of sharp horns on her head, one pair on her forehead and another pair on her temples, looking just like a crown. Her claws were several inches long, and her tail had a bony spike at the end. Her skin was a shade of gray and her hair was black, a stark contrast with the color of her white horns. She looked rather pointy, that was the truth, but despite her appearances she was one of the nicest Furies that Jasper knew. She had been born from a different prayer for help, that of a small child asking for someone to protect their mother. It made her powerful, but she chose to be kind anyway.

"What did you do today?" she asked as they walked along the path. Jasper had teleported to the Fury headquarters for his part of the world, but he and Lily still had to walk inside. Some Furies complained, but Jasper didn't mind. And they called him lazy, Jasper thought to himself.

"I got a schoolteacher fired."

"What were they doing?"

"He was bullying his students and just generally being a bad teacher. The head Furies kept getting complaints about him, so they sent me to help. And then I got sent a case about a young woman who had been cheated on by her boyfriend. I tracked the guy down and found he was the serial killer we've been trying to catch, so I called in to HQ and they told me to take care of him. Once he was down I was done for the day, so I came back." Jasper shrugged. "A more exciting day than usual, but still dull. What did you do?"

"I broke up a domestic abuse case."

"Woah, really?" Jasper smiled. "You've been waiting to get assigned to one of those for months!"

"The humans are learning to fear the Furies," Lily said, glancing down at him. He was shorter than her by a long shot. While she was easily six foot seven, he was just barely five foot six, and while she looked like she could throw Jasper across the room(and she could), Jasper had trouble putting any visible muscle on. While he was somewhat strong anyway, (perks of being a Fury) he had the general build of a clothesline, that being skinny and bony. "They've started to either get better at catching people in the act of hurting others or started to fear doing it."

"That's probably right," Jasper shrugged, glancing around at the other Furies passing by. All the Furies were different. Some had horns, some didn't, some had fangs, tails, spikes, claws, scales, or extra limbs. No two were exactly alike, but all of them clearly weren't human. Jasper himself would startle the average human, which wasn't much of an accomplishment when Lily would give most humans a heart attack. He looked relatively human, and with some changes he would look like your average hispanic young man. However, he wasn't human, and that was clear enough. "Soon we'll be out of a job," he joked.

"I'd like to be out of a job, to be honest," Lily sighed. "I could rest, and the humans would be safe and happy."

"But then again, there's always unpunished injustice in the world. Humans are imperfect and so are we."

"Yeah, I know. But, it doesn't stop me from wishing."

Jasper's horns were different from Lily's in many ways. He had black ones instead of white ones, and they were shaped like ram's horns. The tips were softer and the horns had ridges in them, rather than being smooth like Lily's. Either way he loved them, and they were his most prized trait. "Hey, do you know where Xia Yin went? I haven't seen him in a few weeks."

"You didn't hear?" Lily's tail swayed from side to side. "He was one of the ones who was sent to live with the humans last month."

"What?" Jasper grumbled. "Now I have to wait a whole year for him to come back," he complained.

"I know, it really sucks," Lily sighed. "But, he's doing something important."

"I feel bad for him," Jasper said, lashing his tail in frustration. "Living life in a human body looks way too boring for my taste, and they're so fragile!"

"It's not that bad."

"I'm sure it is! They don't even have horns."

"Xia Yin doesn't have horns."

"And I'm sure it's a miserable experience! And they have to eat three times a day and they have to go to work all day and barely get any time to themselves. They only get eighty or ninety years of life and they need to drink a whole bunch of water. The only upside is getting to sleep for eight hours a day and not get called lazy!"

"How would you know?" Lily smiled, tilting her head to the side. "It's not like you've been in one like I have."

"I spend a lot of time around them, you know, and so do you!"

"See, this is why the head Furies started this program, so we could have empathy for the humans we protect and understand them better."

Jasper laughed shortly. "And what did it do for you?"

"I loved the humans. I was given a roommate. She was studying mechanical engineering. And now I do my work so much better."

"Well, that's you. I hope to never get sent to live in a human body for any amount of time, a year or otherwise."

Jasper thought back on this course of events as he sat in the office of the head Fury, contemplating his life choices. How could he have ended up here? What did he do? "Have some candy, Jasper," the head Fury said. She was an intimidating woman, her hands and wrists stained black like they had been dipped in ink. Jasper's hands looked like hers, but the black leeched halfway up his forearm. She was beautiful, with her hair made of white fog falling down her back. Her skin was a dark brown and her eyes were a light blue like her claws. Jasper nodded, taking a candy from the jar on her desk and observing the office. It looked a lot like a human principal's office. He'd been in quite a few over the years, what with his being a vengeful spirit and all that.

"What did I do now?" he asked slowly, popping the hard candy in his mouth. It tasted vaguely like a human candy, but like the kind that were made for kids who wouldn't take their medicine, that being it was sweet, but had the underlying flavor of cough syrup and betrayal. He pushed the hard candy around in his mouth with his tongue, avoiding his fangs.

"Oh. Yes, you didn't do anything."

"Huh?" Jasper raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, Miss?"

She laughed shortly. "Please. Call me Yaffe."

Jasper paused. "Well, what do you mean, Yaffe?"

"I've called you here to offer you an opportunity."

"What kind?"

"I've noticed your hard work and your efficiency in how you deal with your clients. So I'm willing to offer you a promotion to Fury Officer and the raise that comes with it." Yaffe smiled and picked up the glass lid for her candy jar off the table, replacing it on the jar. "You'll get some of the higher priority cases and an extra week of PTO."

"Wait, really?!" Jasper quickly straightened in his chair, almost choking on the candy, but managing to swallow it whole.

"However, there is one caveat."

"Sorry?"

"Officers have to have been in a human body for at least a year."

"What?" Jasper's smile fell.

"The good news is that we can clear that. You've been assigned to the trip to the human world for this month."

"Wait, what?!" Jasper shouted. "I really don't want to go, miss, I'll pass up the promotion if it means I can stay, I really, really can't go, I'll die within the first month! Do you know how fragile they are?"

"Rest assured, if you die it won't be forever."

"That's not assuring."

"It's a year of taking care of a human body. You get time off from work here, and besides, your possible death isn't what you should be worrying about, it's paying rent on time."

"Is there anything I can do to get out of it?"

"Well, as of now, no. You just swallowed the thing that will start the process."

"What?!"

"The candy. It's the stuff that induces the transformation."

"And you just have it lying around?!"

"No, I just bring it out when I'm sending people on the human program. I gave it to you because promotion or not, you've been a Fury for a couple hundred years. Your time in the human world is long overdue. I was going to send you anyway."

Jasper was silent for a moment. "How long do I have?"

"In the human world or until you turn?"

"Until I turn."

"Three days. To pack, say goodbyes, all that. I'll let you have those days off. When you turn, I'll send someone to take you to your apartment we have arranged for you."

"Thank you, Yaffe," Jasper said shortly, nodding. "I'll be taking my leave now."

"Alright. I'll send the information on your stay in the human world to your house." Jasper left the room, trying to hold everything together. Upon reentering the lobby, a voice caught his attention.

"We have a wreck room if you want to use it," the man behind the receptionist's desk said. "Just please don't destroy anything in here, we just got a new table."

"Why would you think I would destroy stuff?"

"Some Furies are what we call volatile. They get really mad about being sent to the human realm, somewhere they find 'beneath' them, you know, and they end up smashing a vase on the floor."

"Do they really?"

"We can't have anything nice." The man shook his head disapprovingly, looking at a blank space on the counter. "An older gentleman broke the last glass vase we had here."

"Ooh, that's rough."

"I really liked that vase too," the man sighed. "My Nana gave it to me. Now all we have is plastic vases and we can't even have that."

"Oh, that's upsetting." Jasper grimaced.

"It's fine. She gives me a new vase every year. But I did like that one."

"Why did you think I was going to break something, though?"

"You had that look on your face. You start to notice it over the years. The beginnings of anger. And you have the traits to cause a lot of damage. I didn't want to risk it."

"What do you mean?"

"Your tail. It has that bony tip on the end and all those spines, and your claws look like they could be hell on my walls."

"I feel bad for you."

"Why?" The man raised an eyebrow.

"The people don't respect the place. Or you, for that matter." Jasper tapped his claws on the desk, spotting old claw marks scored into the wood. "Whose are those?"

"Mine," the man sighed.

"Really?"

The man nodded. "Yeah. It's a long story."

Jasper paused. "Hey, I don't think I caught your name, actually."

"Why do you ask?"

"I mean, that's what you usually do when you're trying to make friends."

The man smiled and nodded. "My name is Bee. Call if you ever need some last minute help."