"I don't see how that's possible."
"They're not lying. I can smell… It's a tigress." Zara beamed happily. "She's with child," Saber added and Jamie hummed.
"A pregnant… Oh! That must be Sierra. She's a new student, but she and Max have become – no! Sierra is not a tigress. She's human… Right?"
They all rushed to the living-room just as the doorknob started to turn. Saber took a couple of steps back while Zara and Hailey stepped forward.
The door swung open and the blond boy walked in, a concerned look in his clear blue eyes. "Jamie love, something's wrong with Sie – oh hello! I didn't know we had visitors."
The moment Sierra spotted the tigresses, she snarled and jumped at Hailey, her claws extended. She swiped at the tigress, but Hailey was already expecting that and quickly dodged the attack as she shoved Sierra off of her.
"We don't want to hurt you or your baby." Hailey pointed at the barely visibly baby bump the new tigress was sporting. "Sierra!" Max shouted and grabbed hold of the tigress who was about to attack again. "This isn't how we greet guests!"
Sierra growled and Max gasped at her obvious claws. "What in the what!"
He immediately let go of Sierra and took a couple of steps back.
At that moment, Sierra seemed to notice Saber and she became even more frightened.
"I won't let you hurt my baby!" She screamed and cradled her bump. Jamie was already tired of the show, so they stepped between the fight.
"Sierra, these are my friends, and they are not going to hurt you nor your baby. I promise."
"Yah! I'm Zara, by the way. And how come your eyes are brown? Tigers don't have brown eyes." Zara frowned in confusion which caused Fauna to pass her an incredulous stare.
Was that seriously her concern now?
"Tigers?" Max screamed but Jamie quickly pulled him in and slammed the door shut, wanting to keep their conversation away from the listening ears of those outside.
"Retract your claws, Sierra. There will be no fighting in my house. I just bought these couches and that vase; I will not have you all ruin it."
Sierra looked at Jamie, then at Max, then back at the tigers. Reluctantly, she retracted her claws. However, Fauna could tell she was still on edge so she created a small bubble of calmness and projected it to Sierra.
"What is happening to me? I'm… I feel good?"
"Oh, that's just Fauna trying to make sure your jumpy self won't attack us. She's a Shapeshifter," Zara explained. Zara seemed way too excited to meet Sierra.
"Shapeshifter? Tigers? What is going on here?" Max demanded an explanation and Jamie gestured towards the couch.
They all took sat down – except Zara who went into the kitchen to make popcorn – and Jamie explained everything to their boyfriend who just stared with wide eyes. Fauna watched him the whole time. She noticed that he made wide gestures when he spoke and he was significantly louder than Jamie. He didn't dress in dark colours either. He and Jamie were almost opposites, yet she could feel some sort of connection between them. An emotion she had never felt before.
"And that about explains everything I know. Now, Sierra." Jamie turned to their friend who sighed deeply before looking at Saber.
"Is your clan really safe for us?" She questioned and Saber nodded. She reached into her eyes with her thumbs and much to Fauna's surprise, she pulled out something from them and when she looked at them again, her eyes were a bright shade of purple.
"This is… I can't believe I –" Max stopped talking. He didn't seem to know what to say.
"Where is the father of your cub?" Saber questioned and Sierra shrugged.
"He died. He got into a fight with the lions. He was outnumbered. I fled from the forest. Those lions are ruthless to other werecats. I came here to find shelter and decided to adapt to the human life. Then, I found out I'm with child…"
"Indeed. It would be dangerous to birth here. Even if you succeed, once your cub hits three and starts to morph, hiding it would be impossible," Saber noted and Sierra nodded.
"I can take you home with us," Hailey offered. "We have Helpers that take care of the cubs, and the lions won't be able to touch you while you're with us. There's a lot of us."
"So, you'll have to leave?" Max frowned at Sierra who smiled sadly at him. "My cub has to be in the wild, and they're offering me safety –"
"And food!" Zara chimed from behind them, a bowl in her hand. "There's lot of food in our territory, and Lord Bruce is considering expanding as the Scouts keep bringing in more tigers."
"Yes. Anyway, we have more important things to discuss. Like why did you tear out pages from my book?" Jamie turned to Max, a brow quirked up in questioning and Max let out a sheepish laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"You were still reading that?" His laughter dragged on and Fauna could sense his growing discomfort. "I'm sorry, okay?"
Jamie blew out deeply through their mouth then turned to Zara and shrugged.
"I apologize. The good news is we can head to the library tomorrow. I don't really have classes anyway." "Weren't you planning on going job hunting tomorrow?" Sierra frowned.
"What's job hunting?" Fauna asked. She did have a lot of questions. The way of the humans was just so different from theirs. Their gestures, the way they communicated and their general lifestyle. Yes, humans were generally messier than other species, but she still found them quite amusing.
She thought of Alegra and the cubs and she started to miss them again. She decided she was going to absorb as much knowledge as she could so as to relive the experience to her friend.
"I need to find a job. You know, to make money."
"What is money? And why do you need to search for a job? In my clan, we are divided into categories so everyone has their tasks. They don't have to search for it," Fauna explained and Max seemed to find that amusing because he laughed.
"If only the human world worked that way. Here, we don't have a community mentality. You only look after yourself or your loved ones. So, we work in exchange for money that we use to exchange for food, housing, clothes, education and practically everything," Max told them and Saber scoffed as he shook his head.
"Humans are indeed stupid. Having a selfish mindset is why the lions have always thrived more than us tigers. However, since we banded together, our numbers have been slowly increasing. Perhaps in a couple hundred years, we may outnumber the lions." Saber smiled smugly. He loved his clan and he took pride in being the son of the leader.
He took pride in the fact that he was one of the people who made it possible for the tigers to have a better and easier lifestyle. One where they didn't have to hide from anything.
One where they could find safety in numbers and they could use the spare time they had to think progressive thoughts rather than harbour negative emotions.
Zara hummed as she continued to eat her popcorn. The exchange was going to lot better than she had anticipated. She was half-expecting a fight to break out between Sierra and Saber, but Sierra looked like she was slowly warming up to them.
Perhaps it was because she was desperate for protection.
"This is definitely not a discussion I thought I was ever going to have, so if you excuse me, I'll go fix up dinner." Max stood up and Sierra offered to follow him to the kitchen. Zara looked around, then decided being around food was a lot better, so, she followed the duo.
Soon enough, they were all seated in the living room, watching a movie out of the television. Fauna had a lot of questions to ask about a lot of things and Jamie was patient as always, answering her questions with a smile on their face. Soon enough, they all fell asleep.
That night, Fauna had a dream. In her dream, she was stuck underwater, but she wasn't scared. She swam in place as she watched all the fish swim around.
When she felt a funny feeling, she looked down and she saw she had a tail. A beautiful white tail. She looked at her body and she saw she had some white scales littered around her arms and she had gills. That was new!
Confused, she swam to the surface. The moon shone overhead and everywhere was quiet. The night was cold. Colder than she was used to, but she didn't mind it. She sat at the bank of the water and was staring at her tail when she heard movement in the water.
She turned her attention to it, her heart stomping as she anticipated danger. However, a boy rose out of the water. A boy with wet blond hair that clung to his smooth, almost ethereal looking face. What held her attention though was his eyes. They were so golden, so sincere and filled with affection and sadness as they stared at her like she was the most beautiful thing in the world.
His thin lips parted and he spoke. His voice was low and gentle; soothing to the ears. His tone however carried deep and intense sadness; it caused her eyes to water.
"Where are you, Snow?"