...Okay, I’mma come right out and say it. I hate dealing with people who speak in “metaphoricals”.

I just looked at her, my head cocked, my brow cocked, I think my ear was cocked too, just...all of it cocked to the side trying to figure out what even she was trying to say. Who the fuck mentioned a tiger? I sputtered for a moment, trying to find a way to answer her smart-ass reply. “Wha--It---but if it ain’t a tiger you can’t just call it a tiger cuz you feel like it!” She kept going on and on about how Mesec attacked her and all of me--my emotional side, my analytical side, hell even my physical ass and chest repelled the idea that Mesec would just...would just up and attack her for no real reason. In a match against bias and hearsay--fine, I guess you can just call me biased in favor of my big Bro, I don’t give a fuck, but that don’t mean I should just take some stranger for their word just cuz they say so.

I stared at her, hard. I wasn’t really looking at her spindly, snow-blue body and whether or not it was beautiful; I was really gnashing my teeth on why she was so insistent on calling Bro a monster like she was. It could’ve been a number of reasons: maybe she was starting drama, maybe Mesec did a thing that she didn’t like and now she was trying to get payback? Maybe she had something against the Moon and was out for her family (and Mesec was the wrong one to go for but I understood the sentiment). I looked at her and a really large piece of me wanted to just write her off as mean and spiteful and disregard everything she was saying as a lie. It would’ve been really easy to do, too. If my body was capable of that sort of thing.

But it wasn’t, so.

There were more possibilities to go in the pot, shit I had to consider if I took it for granted that she was attacked. Which could mean that she had been attacked by him (no no no no no no no no no no--) or something that looked like him. As soon as my brain landed on that idea my gaze changed as I stared at her, my weight shifting between my hooves. Because if something was loose attacking people like she was claiming then that was a thing I had to handle, wasn’t it?

*I don't know why he didn't do anything out there, but can you guarantee that it won't happen tomorrow, or a week from now, or in a year?"*

“Yes,” I said, hard and ready with iron-clad certainty. But I paused. It ain’t like that wolf-thing Mesec could turn into now was especially cuddly to look at; I could see how it could terrify someone who wasn’t ready for it, and give them nightmares. But being butt-ugly wasn’t an excuse to spew hate at a dude. I sighed and some of the tension drained from my shoulders. “Look,” I said, grasping at something like reasonable, “Mesec turned into that...uh, thing and he kept on task. He wasn’t pretty but he wasn’t trying to kill a guy, either.” I knew what that kind of look looked like, and it came in a long-legged womanish form that was a lot prettier and holier than Mesec’s mug. “...thing is, if there’s something out there stalking around, attacking people like you, then I need to know that. It’s my job to fight shit like that and make sure assholes like you don’t get hurt for no reason. The threat ain’t comin from Mesec, though. You can bet.”



"talk"