Content
HNTBL: Other Tails
(a “How Not To Become Lunch” spinoff)
Chapter 8:
Foxy Friends
Ender walked up the front steps of the school, his grey hoodie pulled up. His backpack hung off one shoulder. He listened to his classmates talking happily and making their way towards class, still working on his thoughts of something nice for Slee.
Slee was nowhere to be seen, though she probably was in the middle of the mass of students somewhere. So many species, so many heads moving through the halls, and so many empty, hungry bellies that would probably be filled by the end of the day. School in this town was dangerous.
Waiting around a corner was the mage from earlier that morning, her wand at hand just in case any of the preds got ideas. When she spotted Ender, somehow recognising him despite the hoodie, she took a step closer and put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey.”
Ender’s memories of the last mage who’d put hands on him, caused him to move slowly and deliberately as he took his hoodie down, which also shrugged her hand off his shoulder. “Oh, hey,” he said politely, “I didn’t catch your name this morning, I’m Ender, and uh, thanks a lot for that.” He didn’t want to be unfriendly, he just didn’t know her, and after fully sinking into Courtney’s greedy belly he didn’t want to trust anyone easily.
“Right, I would have told you but you know, that snake threatened me.” She narrowed her eyes slightly. “I’m Olive, though I’ve always been nicknamed Olly.” She shifted a little as she stood there, eyeing the surrounding students, scanning for hungry-looking preds before focusing on Ender again. “Ah, I’ve heard some things about a certain ‘Ender’. Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad, just uh-- How do you even manage to befriend predators?” She played with her wand, letting it slide and twirl between her hands to scare off a wimpy neko who had looked at her too long.
Ender watched the wand; you watched predators’ mouths, you watched mages’ wands. “I met Slee at the park a couple weeks ago, she just… didn’t eat me, even though she wanted to. She also saved me at the mall. She’s just a very cool girl who is also a naga.” Ender did not mention his last memories of his conniving sister slipping into Slee’s throat.
“I don’t know, I don’t ‘manage’.” He made air quotes. “She’s actually genuinely fun to hangout with.” Ender looked warily at a passing toad. Most predators ate breakfast and weren’t super hungry before morning classes… but you could be wrong about these things.
“I see. Well I guess that explains why she protected you,” Olly responded, her expression softening ever so slightly. “I just hope she won’t try to catch me again. Could you let her know that we’re friends now? I mean-- I know we actually aren’t yet, but you know, I’d rather tell a lie than die.” Her gaze went to a clock on the wall. She gasped; it was very close to class time. “On that note, we should probably start heading to class. I don’t know where you’re supposed to go, but I guess we can meet again for lunch?”
Ender looked at her seriously. “Lie to Slee?” Olly had saved him, and she had said ‘yet’, so she wanted to be friends. “I’ll let Slee know we spoke,” Ender said. “I suppose we could meet for lunch. Slee doesn’t usually sit with me for lunch of course.” “Unless I have made an ass hat out of myself trying to stand up for her,” he remembered grimly. “See you at lunch then… Olly.” Ender turned to go to class.
“Yeah, okay.” She waved at Ender and turned around, making her way down the hall.
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Ender made his way from math class to the lunchroom. He was good enough at math, quite intuitive at it, but showing his work was always a problem as he usually knew the answer, wrote it down and worked backwards. This had resulted in some very serious talks with the pred math teacher.
He walked to the back, and sat amongst the other humans, but still apparently separated. Murmurs of “Surely a pred will eat him soon” and “There’s that guy who hangs out with that naga” reached his ears. None of the students actually wanted a confrontation, he knew. They wanted him to rise to their bait and stand out for lunchroom predation. He silently set down his disgusting protein shake, and commenced devouring his chicken and rice like a machine.
Olly noticed no one sat with Ender. Did he even realize how odd he looked? He was a pariah. “Oh well,” thought Olly. “Here goes nothing.”
She plopped down across from Ender at his table, interrupting his baleful stare at the wall and not caring how he might have felt about it. “Hey there, how’s your day going?” She asked, resting her chin on her clenched fists, her blue eyes penetrating.
Ender looked up, swallowing his chicken and rice. “We’re still here.” Ender actually smiled at Olly. In the distance a male student pushed and struggled against a female dragon’s maw, his slow descent marked by wet gulps, and “Mmm”s from the dragoness.
“We’re both still here, yeah, unlike that guy,” she thought to herself, before responding,
“It’s been okay, thanks for asking.” Her eyes scanned around, trying to avoid staring at the predators in the middle of the eating-a-human-whole process, only to land on Slee. She gave a glance at the naga, before gazing at Ender again. “So, why don’t you sit with her during lunch? Wouldn’t that make it much, much safer for you?”
Ender thought about it, he might get away with it, given how the birthday party had gone. But there were norms. He didn’t want to intrude on Slee’s social life at all angles; he liked staying the night, and playing video games, and their one sided wrestles. “Slee has her own life, she makes time for me. Her friends are pretty cool as well, if you can… you know, ignore the…” There was a loud final GULP! from the dragoness, to cheers of her friends. “…eating.”
Ender finished and met Olly’s eyes. “Why is she so interested in me?” he wondered.
“…I see.” She ate some of her food, though it was a little hard to bring herself to do it considering what she had just heard and nearly seen. Why did preds have to be so obnoxiously loud about it? “Well, having a pred friend does seem pretty cool, it’s just-- Could you help me talk to one of them?” she finally admitted, her hands trembling slightly. “I’ve been trying to build the courage, and I know I’m a skilled mage but… If it goes south, I could end up as belly fat.”
Ender looked at her, surprised. “Yeah, sure. Who would you like to talk to? How do you think I can help?” He looked at the malevolent protein shake, picked it up and started shaking it to mix up the vile powder his father had assured him would keep him from being too sore to run every day. This had not gone how he thought it would at all. “Pardon me, I hate this stuff.” He gulped the shake down as quickly as possible, then reached into his pocket for a breath mint. “Want one?” he asked, popping two into his mouth.
In the background, the dragoness was being commended by her friends. “You throated that little snack!!!” “Look at him, he’s struggling.”
“Uhm… I’d rather talk about that part later, i-if it’s okay. I just don’t think now would be an… appropriate time for this.” She tried to recompose herself, clearing her throat. “Sure, I’d appreciate that.” She opened her palm to receive a mint. She kept trying to ignore the now-kind-of-full dragoness in the background.
“Okay, did you want my socials so we can arrange this meeting?” Ender stood up from the table, expecting Olly would do the same, and held his phone ready. He had only done this once before. He stole a glance at Slee’s table to see if she noticed him. “I have to explain this to her at some point.”
Olly nodded and gave him the info he needed, standing up next to him. “Sure thing… Also, is there a chance I could properly introduce myself to your friend?” She eyed Slee’s table again, the naga didn’t seem to notice or care.
“Ah… sure, but whatever happens do not attack any of them.” Ender looked at Gwen, Kelly, and Trina sitting with Slee. They probably wouldn’t eat him, but if he brought along an unknown human…
“Let’s be smart for a change, hey Ender?” he thought.
He texted Slee [[Hey that mage from this morning is named Olly, she’d like to meet you in a more friendly way… Also did you see that dragoness? …If I ever get eaten, I hope I don’t have to listen to people make fun of me while I… never mind, hope to hear from you soon]] Ender hit send then looking at Olly, “I’ll let you know, good luck out there.”
Slee was talking with her friends, though of course Ender was constantly buzzing around in the back of her mind. When she received a text, she immediately checked it, hoping Ender hadn’t gotten eaten again. She turned around and made eye contact with him as he sat with Olly, the girl from that morning.
The naga excused herself and rose up, slithering towards the two humans. “Oh, hey Endy, sorry for not passing by to say hi earlier. And hello to you, Olly.”
The girl nodded. “Nice to meet you, Slee.” Something passed between the girls that Ender didn’t understand. The moment stretched and became awkward. “Ahh… so Olly just wanted me to let you know she wasn’t a mage pred, and she’d like to be friends with me.”
Slee nodded mutely, so of course Ender talked nervously. “She kind of wants our help with something. If that would be okay, we can… talk about the details later though?” Slee looked from Ender to Olly, a serpentine eyebrow quirked.
“Well, okay,” Slee said slowly. “But it better not be something dumb.” She gave Ender a significant look.
Ender decided that look meant “I can only protect you and will only protect you.”
Slee nodded at Ender, who seemed to understand her without speaking to him. “I’m going to go, see you guys later.” She slithered away.
“Well,” Ender said to Olly, “that went better than I thought.’’ He turned to walk again. “So which predator are you trying to… meet with?” Why did this sound crazy to him? He met with Slee all the time. Looking over at Olly he waited for an answer.
“He’s a fox,” Olly started explaining, slightly trembling again. “Light orange fur, small snout. He’s kinda short but I’ve seen him devour tall and athletic humans before… He does seem pretty nice though, with his fellow predators… I would like a chance to speak with him?” She scanned the lunchroom with her eyes again. “Oh, there he is!!” She pointed with her hand, hoping that he wouldn’t notice. The fox boy was walking around with a few other pred students, sporting a big, wriggling gut.
Ender stopped. “Now or later, he’s at least full now,” he asked Olly. “And I’d like to get this over with,” Ender thought darkly. He had not seen any other predator/human encounters go as well as his with Slee and Ethan.
“Uh… later would be best,” she stated, still looking and sounding flustered, though she quickly recomposed herself when the fox disappeared from her field of sight.
“Ah, this is why we need Slee, for backup in case this all goes to hell,” he thought, looking at Olly- exactly the type of tall, athletic girl she said the fox preferred. “I don’t think Slee would really stop him though.”
“He might be full now but a human approaching a pred in a place this public was not normal” Olly thought.
“Thanks for offering to help, I appreciate it, really.” She was about to say ‘I owe you a favor’, but then again, she had saved his life earlier. So technically, this was him repaying her for that. “I’ll see you after class then? I should probably start getting there actually, I don’t wanna show up late, especially with pred teachers.”
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[[Ender, hey, it’s me. I don’t want to come off as impatient, but I’d like to meet up pretty soon at that park. Are you busy?]] Olly sent a text to Ender, already making her way to the park. She assumed he had nothing important to do anyways. She was paying attention to her phone, yes, but she occasionally glanced around just in case. Her wand was stored inside a pocket.
Ender’s phone buzzed. He read over Olly’s message and looked at his homework. [[Not super busy, no. At the park sounds fine]] Ender went back to his homework. Thinking of Olly, why did she want to meet this fox? More importantly, he missed Slee already.
He texted his friend, the naga. [[Hey Slee, Olly wants to meet a fox boy at the park near our houses, I was hoping you could… hang around?]]
[[The park would be great, see you there.]] Then Olly put her phone away, she needed to focus on her surroundings to survive in the first place.
Slee saw the message almost immediately and happily accepted, even if just to see Ender again. [[Sounds good Endy see you]] followed by a little nom emoji. The meet-up was happening.
“Oh good,” Ender thought, “I might be able to wreck a garden after five minutes of concentration, but a hungry fox boy is another thing altogether.” [[Thanks Slee, you’re a lifesaver, meet you at yours.]] he replied. Ender hoped Olly knew what she was doing. He left his hoodie at home, it was a warmer than normal day, and he ran to Slee’s house to meet her so they could wait together for Olly at the park.
“Can I come? Can I come? Can I--” Ethan was excitedly asking.
“Ethan, no. Not today, at least.”
The young naga could be heard huffing and muttering before giving up. Slee slithered out the door only to be met by Ender, already standing there.
“Oh, hey--” she smiled, somewhat nervously. “So uh, time to go I guess?” she wasn’t really too enthusiastic about this meeting, but Ender seemed to care kinda, so she’d give it a try. Olive might already be at the park by now.
Ender waved at the disappointed Ethan, then walked with Slee to the park to meet Olly.
“I have no idea why she wants to do this,” he said by way of excuse to Slee, as he walked with her large, slithering form, sparing a glance up at her. He tried to make her day a little better; he handed her the box from Anthrozon. “Your Birthday gift came,” he said, offering the box up to her.
“Was that Olly?” he thought, as a familiar figure waiting in the park caught his eye.
Slee’s eyes lit up with joy. She snatched the box from his hands and basically tore it open. “It’s adorable! One sec--” she brought the tip of her tail up to her arms and put the red bow on it. Silly, yes, but charming. “Thank you!” She then proceeded to squeeze the boy with her now-kind-of-stylish tail, until her eyes gazed upon the park and the somewhat recognisable girl. “Shoot, she’s uh, already there. Let’s catch up before a predator does-” brief pause “-I mean, before another one does.”
“Yeah.” He smiled, feeling closer to Slee. Ender walked to Olly. “Heya Olly, how long will he be?” Ender looked around the park, wary for the little wolf cub who’d nearly gotten him. “Is Olly nervous?” he wondered. “What are you going to say to him?” he asked, trying to help her plan and calm down.
“I haven’t really thought about it, honestly…” she admitted, sighing. She glanced at Slee and just idly waved. So did the naga in return. “I managed to get in contact with him, he read my text, but… who knows. He might not even show up. I’m sorry for wasting your time if he doesn’t.” That last part was mostly addressed to Slee since, you know, a pissed pred is way more deadly than a human.
Ender was glad she’d offered some deference to Slee.
“At least Olly knows Slee is not just some body guard for humans.” He waited in the uncomfortable silence, and to pass the time, asked, “So Slee, how’d Mrs. Thering take the garden thing? Did Ethan really have to clean up?” Meanwhile he still watched the tall, thin mage who’d saved his life, hoping this turned out okay. He hoped everything would go well, but who could say?
“Oh? Yeah, he actually had to… Poor Ethan,” Slee chuckled. “Now I feel bad. Maybe you can hang out with him later? That would cheer him up!”
Olly watched Slee, listening with mild interest, until she received a text. [[I’m here.]] It was him! She contained her nervous excitement and looked at Ender. “Hey, the fox just got here. Wanna help me find him?”
“I’m happy to come over and hang with you and Ethan again, whenever.” He told Slee then bumped a shoulder into her affectionately. “You guys are my best friends.”
Then focusing on the task at hand, “Where would he be?” Ender wondered aloud. He moved to follow Olly. If this went bad he’d be alone with a powerful mage and a hungry fox. He hoped Slee was coming.
“Probably somewhere around here,” Olly replied. Very helpful.
Slee used her tongue and nose to pick up scents. She could actually recognise the smell of different species fairly well. Humans could too to some extent, but of course she was far better at it. “There should be a fox over there.” She pointed the tip of her newly adorned tail in a specific direction.
“Nice bow,” Ollie commented.
The naga could be seen blushing very slightly for a moment before she added, “I’ll come with you, I’m not letting Ender get near another predator alone.”
Olly nodded and got ready to walk. Ender’s heart cheered, twice. He saw Slee’s tiny blush.
“I didn’t even know naga could blush, and it’s cute as hell,” he observed.
He walked beside Slee, Olly began walking beside them. He glanced at Olly, wondering what she was thinking… but, maybe, he did have an Idea. He couldn’t have felt more at home walking beside Slee, on the way to possibly risk his life to find out what exactly Olly wanted with this young fox. Maybe she just wanted to feel the same way he did with Slee?
He nodded at Olly. “I really hope this works out for you.”
“It has worked out amazingly well for me.” He considered walking closer to Slee and pulling her arm around his shoulder. “I’m not a romantic am I? All this fighting and death, and what gets to me are happy moments, because they are so rare.” He smiled. Maybe he was.
Slee glanced at Ender and smiled somewhat awkwardly, slithering along. The shoulder bump was kind of appreciated. Meanwhile, Olly kept walking. She seemed a little nervous. Slee could definitely smell her anxiousness, though it had taken a while for Ender to notice.
And there he was, sitting on a bench. The fox boy’s gaze slowly moved upwards to meet Olly’s. “Oh, hey.”
“Hi,” she replied, waving softly. Thankfully he still seemed quite full. “At least I won’t have to worry about that,” she thought nervously.
“Oh, feel free to sit here with me,” he added, patting the spot next to him with his paw, completely ignoring Ender and Slee. He knew about them though, like most predators.
Olly happily took up the kind offer, and the two began chatting very awkwardly. The fox kept sounding uninterested all the way through. If he didn’t care, why did he show up anyways? He already had a full gut, too.
Ender and Slee moved a distance away, and she coiled him up, his head emerging next to hers in the loose coils. She liked this, and began basking in the sun, quietly relaxing.
Ender typed on his phone so the fox couldn’t hear and showed it to Slee. [[Can you hear what they are talking about? He doesn’t look like he cares at all.]]
He watched the two awkwardly sitting together. Had he ever felt like that with Slee? Maybe Slee had but, but he’d always just been… sure he was about to die, or happy to see her.
[[Yeah. It’s just small talk about life and school. I don’t know, he does seem pretty bored, but maybe it’s just my impression.]]
Until the fox raised his voice a little. “You know, I usually don’t hang out with humans, not like this at least.” Olly nodded. “Well, you really should consider yourself lucky, you’ll survive an encounter with me, but… Maybe not the next.”
“Wait, wha--”
CHOMP
Olly didn’t even have the time to react. Surely not enough time to get her wand. She just looked in horror as the fox’s upper jaw came down to her arm and took a deep bite. Olly screamed as the sharp teeth sank into her skin, while the fox’s soft tongue lapped at the blood hungrily. When he let go, she held her bleeding limb against her chest. She was sniffling and trembling as the realization sank in.
“I’m no buddy for humans, I eat humans. And very soon I’ll be eating you.” He had marked her. He could have simply ignored her texts, but he showed up, he gave her the illusion that this might actually work, only to sentence her to an inevitable, perhaps imminent death with the mark. More than a warning, that felt like a way to save food for later.
Ender looked on in horror. “MARKED!” The hair stood up on the back of his neck; this was the existential fear humans lived with: if they got marked, they were usually not long for the world.
“Holy shit…” he said far more calmly than he felt. “How fast do marks take effect? What can I do?” He was stunned at the sudden change in circumstances.
The fox left, giving a quick glance at Ender and Slee, which resulted in quiet hissing from the naga. Olly limply walked up to Ender, blood dripping from her arm wound occasionally. “I… I should have seen this coming. I should go home now, before anyone tries to get me.”
“Slee, is Olly okay to walk with us or… is the mark going to be a problem?” Ender’s mind worked overtime. He resolved to help Olly if he could, but how?
Slee nodded. “We can escort you, safer that way.” She now felt like she had some sort of responsibility for the girl. She had suspected something like this might happen, but she’d hoped it wouldn’t, and the fox had positioned himself so no one could stop him before it was too late. Now she could at least try to help Olly a little bit, even if that only meant keeping an eye on her. “Ready to go, Endy?”
Ender marveled at Slee’s control. He didn’t know how marks precisely worked but he knew his friend was doing everything she could to hold back. He pulled off his hoodie and wrapped it around her bitten arm. “Apply pressure to stop the bleeding, and uh… throw this out when you’re done with it.” The last thing he needed was to smell like marked blood around Slee, who was already resisting her instincts to consume him constantly. “Yeah Slee, let’s go.”
Olly nodded slowly and wrapped his hoodie around her wounded, marked arm. “Thanks.” She originally wasn’t truly planning to befriend Ender properly, she just wanted to ask him a favor, but since that didn’t work and considering how nice he really seemed to be, she was rapidly reassessing the possibility of his friendship.
Slee started slithering along, a little impatient. She couldn’t hold herself off forever, and if she didn’t get away from Olive soon enough, she might be tempted to- “Eat the tasty marked girl,” her stomach already seemed to say. “Where exactly do you live?” Slee asked, all business on the outside, inside a war for control of her appetite was being fought.
“Ugh-- It’s not far…” She raised her wounded arm, holding the wrapped hoodie tight with her other hand, and pointed at a house down the road. Convenient how Ender, Olly and Slee all lived relatively close to each other.
Ender kept himself between Olly and Slee. “If Slee is within 25 meters or so of you, you’re lunch meat,” he thought, realistically, “but it might help both of them feel a little better.” It was like a safety blanket: a small reassurance to a huge problem.
“Olly, what are you going to do? Why did you want to meet with him? What’s his name?” Ender asked, then began to think rapid fire inquisition was not actually that helpful. He looked back at Slee, making sure she was doing okay. He checked the hoodie to see how bad the bleeding was. Olly kept pressure on the ragged bite wound. If it was still bleeding badly in five minutes there would be a bigger problem. It was in a fox’s nature to be tricky, but he felt a churning anger rising in his chest.
But. What. Could. He. Do?
“I-- I just thought… He seemed nice and I uh, I’ve really been struggling with making friends at school, so maybe having a pred on my side could…” She sighed and kept walking along, holding her arm tighter. “Whatever. I hardly even know who he is. I think his name is Kyle, but even then, I’m not sure.” She thought she really had planned this through, but as she described it she realized she hadn’t. Maybe she underestimated predators in a sense? She nonchalantly dealt with the pup that tried to devour Ender and could often escape from hungry problems with her wand; she never spent more than a few seconds thinking about how predators acted and scheme ahead. That fox must have already had his eyes set on her and she somehow didn’t see it coming.
Slee shot a glance towards Olive. “Hey, is it okay if you two keep going alone? I just… Uh, I don’t want to be tempted, you know?”
“Is the mark already working?!” The mage girl was disheartened even more, maybe she really was doomed now. “Sure thing.” Then, both of them looked at Ender.
“Yeah okay, thanks Slee. I’ll text you when I’m home,” he said, watching Slee closely, seeing a combination of hunger and worry in her green and blue flecked eyes. His serious face said to her “We will definitely talk later.”
Slee nodded, seeming to understand and slithered away, heading back to her own home.
Ender listened to Olly and realized just how blind her own power had made her. You could be the best mage in the school, but aggression and offensive skill was really a great way to falsely boost your confidence. Still he wondered if he’d be seeing “Kyle” again. His jaw tensed. Ender was frustrated that everything his dad made him go through was basically useless- except the ability to think and stay calm.
He thought seriously for a moment about Slee attacking him.
“If I can’t trust Slee this is basically pointless. And she has had every opportunity. No.” In Ender’s mind Slee was beyond question, she had actually swallowed him and then beyond all logic let him out, and he’d involved her in more than a few situations that had to be awkward for her. Maybe she and her friends would have some kind of answer.
Olly felt how stupid it was of her to drop her guard around anyone, even humans. “I’m really sorry, Ender. I didn’t mean to involve you with this, and I understand if you-- if you don’t want to be anywhere near me again. I… I guess I can stand up for myself if I need to, I’m pretty good at magic after all…” At the very least, the bleeding seemed to be over now, her arm still hurt quite a bit but she’d likely be able to use it just fine soon enough.
Olly and Ender made it to the front of the mage girl’s house. She stood there, most of her confident attitude that she proudly showed off at school and the park earlier that morning were pretty much gone. “Thanks for walking with me.”
“Yeah that was intense, I’m happy to help you, no need to apologize.” Ender looked at this girl who’s fate had been decided by her one act of kindness. “I will help you as much as I can. I’m no good at magic though. Well… I did blow up a garden a few days ago, but that doesn’t count.” He shook his head. “Anyway, if you see me or need me, let me know.”
Ender frowned. How the hell had he gone from the angry, quiet guy that no one talked to, to this? He wasn’t some kind of hero. He put on a smile at Olly as she went inside, then looked up at the sky. “Why me?”
It was starting to get dark and cold. Ender ran home as fast as he could, watching very carefully for any other predators.