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How Not To Become Lunch: 3 - Watch What You Say
“Wait, for how long!?” Fiona asked.
“Five months,”
“Your mom kept you inside for five months!?”
“Yeah, she was really freaked out. I didn’t even see another pred for almost a year.”
“But I thought your aunt’s spell canceled out the mark?”
“It did, but my mom was still really protective. I mean- it’s not like humans who aren’t marked don’t get eaten anyway.” Jack gestured at one of the students passing by, their belly wriggling quite lively.
“Wow, that must have been awful…”
“Kinda,” Jack agreed. He glanced over the other kids sitting around them. A majority of the closest chairs had been abandoned when Fiona sat down with him, and the kids that had remained kept a close eye on her.
“Are you sure sitting with the other humans was a good idea? They seem a bit… uncomfortable,” Jack pointed out.
“Well, it’s not like I could take you over to the pred tables with me…” she replied. There was a pause in the conversation. She glanced away and ran a clawed hand over her furry ear.
“I’m really sorry…” she said softly.
“About scaring the other human kids?”
“No! About your messed-up life! I was the dumb pup that bit you. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have had to spend all that time stuck in your aunt’s house.”
“Are you kidding? Don’t you remember? The whole thing was my idea! Besides, I didn’t really care about having to stay inside anyway.”
“But you just said it was ‘kinda awful’.”
“Yeah, cause all I wanted to do was go hang out with you again. My parents didn’t actually explain what had happened for like months; I spent that whole time thinking I had gotten you in huge trouble and that I couldn’t come visit because you were grounded the whole time. I felt so guilty.”
Fiona giggled in response.
“Well, you weren’t totally wrong. I was grounded for a while.”
“I bet.”
“Well, I sort of deserved it.”
“Come on, Fi, let it go. We were kids, we made a stupid mistake.”
“Yeah, you’re right…”
“Oh, great, here comes another pred,” one of the nearby kids said.
Fiona heard this and looked around. She quickly spotted a girl approaching, about their age, elegantly dressed, with two noticeable fangs protruding from behind her upper lip.
“Why, hello there Fiona,” said the girl, stopping next to them.
The other humans around continued to mutter quietly amongst themselves, apparently unaware of just how good the hearing of most preds were.
“Are you sure that’s a pred?”
“Yeah, that’s Sara.”
“The name is Sarabeth!” she barked at the murmuring kids. “Sarabeth Antoinette Beatricia!” She took a short moment to recompose herself before turning back to Fiona.
“I couldn’t help but notice you luring in this delectable little meal here,” she said, gesturing toward Jack. “You did a fine job and all but you seem to have already had your lunch.” She glanced briefly at the rather large bulge in the werewolf’s shirt, which still wriggled every now and then. “It would be a real shame to let a perfect morsel like this one go to waste, so I was thinking I could just take him off your hands.” She ran her tongue visibly across one of her fangs.
“Whoa, slow down there Sarabeth,” Fiona replied strongly, sticking a furry arm in front of her friend. “Jack’s not a meal, he’s a friend of mine.”
She seemed visibly startled by this, a bit more so than one might expect.
“Are you sure she’s a pred? What kind is she?” one of the kids whispered again- apparently not taking the hint.
“She’s a blood sucker,” another whispered back.
An already irritated Sarabeth snapped and turned to face them again.
“I am a vampire!” she said angrily, “And we do not suck blood! Honestly, I don’t understand how you humans ever got such a silly idea! Seeing as you obviously haven’t learned anything in class, I’m going to have to teach you myself!”
She walked angrily up to the closest of the two kids who had been talking, a skinny boy with glasses.
“You don’t seem quite as appetizing as ‘Jack’, but I think you’ll suffice for a demonstration.”
“No- wait- AAAHHH!”
Within a second, Sarabeth had bared her fangs and sunk them firmly into the boy’s shoulder. The other kids around quickly picked up their treys and fled, but the vampire managed to grab hold of the next-closest kid, the one her new prey had been talking to.
“Let me go!” he yelled, trying to pull away, but the predator’s grip was tight. She reached out with her other hand and turned his head, forcing him to look at his friend. If her mouth hadn’t been full, she surely would have said something to the effect of ‘watch closely’.
“Wh- what’s going on?” the first boy squealed, looking over his body frantically. “I’m- I’m shrinking!”
He was indeed. Slowly at first, but quickly picking up speed as the vampire continued to press her fangs into him. Within thirty seconds he was reduced to the size of a doll, cowering feebly in the vampire’s pale palm. Sarabeth turned to the second kid.
“Vampires drain size, not blood,” she spat. “Remember that next time.” He released the other boy, who quickly sprinted away, tripping over himself as he went. Then she turned her attention back to the morsel in her hand. Sarabeth wasted no time. She picked the shrunken boy up with two fingers and dangled him above her lips, parting her jaws.
“Wait- stop!” came his tiny squeaks.
The vampire paid no mind. Slipping him cleanly between her fangs, she closed her mouth, pulled out her fingers and gave a curt little gulp. Sarabeth took a moment to appreciate the sensation of the tiny boy sliding into her belly, before finally turning her attention back to Fiona.
“Humans are such pesky little things,” she muttered. “Is this one really a friend of yours?”
“Yes, Sarabeth, he is,” she said sternly.
“Ugh, well fine then. I suppose it would be terribly rude to interrupt you two any longer, and I’ve already found myself some lunch anyway.” She turned away, still a bit flustered, and walked off.
“…That was a bit… intense,” Jack muttered.
“Yeah, but she’s not so bad once you get to know her- on second thought, that might not really work with you.”
“Yeah… Hey, how do vampires ever get enough to eat if they go around shrinking all their prey?”
“Oh, the shrinking doesn’t last too long; they grow back after a few minutes. She’ll have a belly like mine by the time classes start.”
“Huh, interesting… So, what was it like for you that one winter where the big blizzard came?”
…
“I gotta say, after the day I’ve been having, it’s kind of a relief that we’ll be together in the next class,” Jack said as they walked down the halls.
“Same here, it’s hard trying to pay attention when I’m worried the next time I see you will be inside someone’s belly.”
“Tell me about it. So next is history, right? What’s the teacher’s name?”
“Ms. Dracoria,” Fiona replied, “It’s this door right here.” She reached out and opened it, revealing the classroom beyond.
A number of students were already inside, chatting at their desks, and at the front of the room stood a young woman, radiant, yet intimidating, with an elegant snout and sleek, overlapping scales running down the visible parts of her arms and legs. She glanced at them as they entered, and Jack was slightly taken aback by her reptilian eyes. Fiona, however, didn’t seem to have any such problem. She walked right up to the woman, with Jack following somewhat meekly behind.
“Excuse me, Ms. Dracoria? Jack here is new, and I was wondering if I could move seats to sit next to him.”
The woman eyed them for a moment. Jack saw her nostrils twitch and her eyes widened slightly. She stared at him intently for a second or two before looking back to her canine pupil.
“Fiona, you know there’s no eating other students during my class. It’s disruptive.”
“Huh? Oh- no, Jack and I are friends,” she explained awkwardly. She had to admit, it was pretty easy to mistake her request as an attempt to get closer to an afternoon snack. Ms. Dracoria raised an eyebrow and shot her a skeptical gaze, but seeing as she had already given her warning, she saw no point in pressing things any further.
“Whatever you say, darling. You have my permission to move seats.”
“Thank you, miss.” Fiona turned and walked off toward a pair of seats she knew to be available. Jack followed very close behind.
“Ms. Dracoria, huh?” he asked quietly. “That’s sort of on the nose for a dragon woman isn’t it?”
“What do you mean?” Fiona pulled out her own chair and indicated for him the one next to it.
“It’s just, I would want to name my kid something more original, or unique, or something.”
“Well, first of all, it’s a surname. But besides that, when she was a kid, that name was original.”
“Huh?”
“She’s hundreds of years old,” Fiona revealed. Jack frowned in disbelief and looked at their teacher again. He was far from the best at judging pred faces, but even he could see…
“Are you joking? She looks like she’s in her twenties!?” he exclaimed, though he did it in a whisper to avoid drawing too much attention.
“I know, right? She makes all the other teachers jealous.”
“Alright, everyone, that’s enough,” called the dragoness in a stern yet controlled tone.
Jack, suddenly remembering the earlier incident from the lunchroom, wondered if she had overheard their conversation and if she had been offended by it. He quickly turned his attention to her, along with the rest of the class, as the room quieted down. If she had heard, she gave no sign of anger from behind her enigmatic eyes.
“Today, we’re going to start class with a lecture on The Great Hunt.”
A quiet grown escaped one of the students toward the back of the class. Jack couldn’t see them, but he did see Ms. Dracoria’s gaze sharpen to a dagger’s point and flash harshly in the direction of the sound. The room went deathly silent. The teacher looked away and continued.
“The Great Hunt, of course, was the war between the various predatory species of the world and the human race. All of you now are growing up in a society, however long it may last, where we all live together. But, only a few centuries ago, the children of both humans and predators were living very different, very separate lives.
“Since even before my time, predators have been seen to be naturally attracted to humans. Securing a human as prey provides a predator with an ample meal, but more than that, humans are clever and so present a unique challenge when it comes to the hunt. The humans present in the class might find the way I’m talking to be somewhat unsettling, but I am a predator myself after all, and the terms in which the predators of the time were thinking were far less, well, humane.”
Jack didn’t like the sound of that. He glanced around the room. There were various expressions being shown in response: some did seem unsettled (mostly the humans), many were just bored, and yet some wore devilish smirks.
“Which brings us to the start of the war. You see it was this natural inclination of predators to hunt humans that drove them to defend themselves; it drove them to learn, to invent, to cultivate their skills- specifically, their natural aptitude for magic. While predators were still hunting through the woodlands and the mountains, living in villages, humans began building towns, cities, with solid walls, guarded by magi- wizards and witches. They shut themselves off from the threat of predators and fought back ferociously against any intrusion.
“Unfortunately for them, this only served to emphasize the challenge of the hunt. Word began to spread amongst predators of the great skill required to consume a human and live to tell the tale; they became prized catches. And the growing number of deaths from failed attempts began to spark flames of revenge. Just as humans had united against the threat of predators, so predators began to band together in retaliation. The Great Hunt.”
Jack glanced toward Fiona, who sat observing the teacher with vague interest. He had known her practically his whole life; it was strange to think of her ancestors as being bent upon breaking into towns and devouring humans.
“In the years that followed, predators assaulted human settlements in greater and greater numbers, slipping through their defenses and gorging themselves to their limits. A well- trained wizard is a very difficult quarry, but it takes years of training and practice for humans to master magic, whereas even very young predators are capable of making a kill. Before long, nearly all human refuges had been overrun by hungry preds.”
“Wait, that can’t be right,” Jack whispered, glancing at Fiona again.
“Excuse me?” came the firm voice of Ms. Dracoria. A jolt ran up his spine as he looked back to see the teacher staring at him pointedly. He took a sharp breath and quickly tried to say something back, but the words got lost somewhere in his throat. Fiona shot him a worried glance. Then, suddenly, the woman’s cold gaze softened just a bit.
“If you have a question, you can ask me. You don’t have to be afraid,” she told him. Jack swallowed and steadied himself.
“It’s just- predators storming through the streets and eating all the humans…” he tried to push past his own feelings and make a logical statement, “…I know not all preds are like that- I mean, how would there be any of us left?”
Ms. Dracoria considered his statement for a moment as his heart pounded.
“You’re right,” she said flatly. “Not all predators are on the hunt for humans, especially in these times. You are certainly living proof of that. But that change came slowly- and it’s still coming. Of course, there definitely were very skilled wizards who protected themselves and many of their fellows, which is a good part of the reason humans are still around today, but it’s not the only reason.”
She shifted her attention so she was addressing the entire class again as opposed to just him, much to his relief.
“As the most aggressive predators claimed more human settlements, the slightly more passive ones began to follow. They came to live in the ravaged towns and cities, they saw the things the humans had made, and most importantly, they met the survivors. You see, while a vast majority of a settlement’s population would end up as prey, a number of them were kept around to keep up the infrastructure they had created.
“Remember, at this time predators had no concept of most basic amenities, running water for example. It was the humans with their ingenuity who invented and developed the means to live a better life. Predators began to realize that, by letting the more intelligent humans live, they could share in that life- or take advantage of it.
“This is how the first humans and predators began to live together- at least in this age- and it was from these early- admittedly forced- cohabitations, that friendships began to form. Over time, a few humans and a few predators began to grow fond enough of each other that they started to protect each other. And when they had families, they taught their children to do the same.
“I’ve seen these alliances grow much more common in the past few generations. And indeed, it’s upon these bonds that our current society is built. No predator in this class should forget that. We live the life we have now because of the gentle balance between the predators that swallow humans without a second thought, and the ones who help keep them alive.
Jack looked over at Fiona again, she glanced back briefly and shot him a smile.
Yeah, that sounds about right, he thought.
“Now, I might speculate as to how long a balance like this might last, but I’m a history teacher, not a soothsayer. And the answer to that question is up to all of you.”
…
Jack followed Fiona down the road as the sun continued to droop. He took a deep breath of the fresh afternoon air. After everything he’d been through that day, he considered it a miracle that he had made it out alive.
“Man, when Ms. Dracoria called me out, I thought I was a goner,” he said.
“Yeah, I bet half the preds in class could smell how scared you were,” Fiona replied.
“Come on, stop telling me how I smell! It’s weird!”
“It’s not weird just because I have a better nose than you,” she insisted.
“Oh yeah? Well according to Ms. Dracoria I’m smarter than you, cause I’m a human,” he joked back.
“Well that wasn’t a very smart thing to say. You’d better not start another ‘Great Hunt’ between me and you, because the last one didn’t work out so well for the humans involved…”
Fiona smirked as she awaited his reply. A few seconds of silence passed.
“…Jack?” she called, realizing she could no longer hear his footsteps. She turned around.
“Jack!”
A short distance behind her stood another girl from school, a neko, with a very conspicuous pair of legs protruding from her mouth.
“Hey! Where did you come from!? Spit him out!”
The cat girl flinched in surprise, withdrawing a bit from fear, but also scrunched up her face in angry defiance around her meal, as if she were trying to hiss and swallow at the same time.
“I said spit him out, you freaky feline! He’s not a snack!” She took a step closer and began to growl, baring her teeth and claws.
The neko cowered a bit more, but stubbornly refused to part with her tasty treat.
“Let! Hrim! Gro! *RUFF*! *RUFF*! *RUFF*!” she shouted, her words devolving into barks as her werewolf instincts kicked in. With every threatening sound, she took an equally threatening step closer.
The neko took a few fearful glances around, but quickly realized she had no place she could go with Jack still dangling between her lips. So she reluctantly constricted her chest and in one large movement sent the boy down into the dirt along with a drizzling of saliva. As soon as he was out she wasted no time, turning tail and dashing off in the opposite direction as fast as her feline legs could carry her.
Fiona threw in a few more barks for good measure before rushing over to Jack and composing herself.
“*Ptooey*! Aw! Come on! Again!?” Jack spat out the cat drool as best he could and wiped his arms over his face.
“Stupid silent cats,” Fiona growled, still looking off in the direction the neko had gone while offering Jack a hand.
“At least you managed to scare that one off instead of body checking them while I’m still inside,” he said as he got back to his feet. “Thanks. Again.”
“Oh, just keeping the balance of society or whatever,” she replied smugly.
“Well you definitely sounded a lot more threatening than when you used to ‘yip’ as a kid,” he said with a chuckle.
“Hey!”