I awoke from the sun shining into my face, and I grumbled to myself that I should have covered that window, or that windows in general might have been a stupid idea from the start. I let out a jaw-breaking yawn before I threw off my sleeping furs. I stumbled around in my little house before I went to the sorry excuse for a dresser to find my clothes. I let out a deep sigh at the sight of my dresser and thought to myself for the hundredth time this year that I needed to do something about the poor craftsmanship of that dresser. I sucked at carving wood, I had tried using a knife, but the blade was getting blunt from overuse, and my claws worked much better, but carving furniture with claws wasn't really that effective.

  I looked down at myself and felt my breasts staring back at me, their presence taunting me. It felt wrong to have them. They didn't belong on my body, and I wanted them gone. I felt my anger rise, and my claws extended in answer. I took a hold of my breast, and my sharp claws dug into my skin, and I wanted nothing but to tear that lump of fat away from my body. I stopped myself when I remembered how painful it was the last time I had cut them off with brute force. The damn things had regrown back in three days making the entire effort pointless, and on top of that I had to suffer through another scolding from Mother. I thought she wasn't supposed to scold me since I wasn't a pup anymore, but that had apparently not helped me from hearing her go on and on about how stupid I had been. She might have been right, but she couldn't possibly understand my disgust over having them in the first place.

  I groaned and let the thing go. Opened my dresser and covered myself in my usual tattered clothes. I had become increasingly angry the last couple of years, not at anyone in particular, just angry in general and at my own existence. I had turned 18 years old last winter, and instead of celebrating and going to the pub, we hunted. Day in and day out, we were out hunting. I was so incredibly sick of the entire thing. I had even started to doubt that I had ever lived a different life. my old memories felt so distant, like it was some story I had once heard as a pup, and that I had somehow fabricated a past life in my head. Everything I could remember felt like fiction, the concept of flying machines and how we kept staring at a box that kept showing moving images. How can such things even exist? Everything about that past life I once thought of as truth felt like fiction, something that only existed in my head.

  On the edge of crying, I opened the lowest drawer in my dresser and took out a wooden plate. On the plate, I had engraved a name with my blood, a name I believed had been mine once upon a time. I read the red letters one by one. Alexander, had that really been my name? And had I actually been human once? I knew they existed, but I hadn't seen any.

  I let out a deep breath and put the wooden plate back before I stretched and exited my little house. Outside, I turned to admire, or disapprove of my little house, I couldn't make up my mind about my exact thoughts on it. I had managed through great lengths to construct myself a house, or rather a hut made out of mud, clay, dried grass, and sticks. The entire thing wasn't exactly pretty to look at, but it felt like home and had been standing for several years already without falling apart, so I had to have done something right. I had even managed to construct a chimney, but using it just made my little house too warm to be comfortable.

  About 30 feet from my so-called house stood my tent. After I had returned from my little solo adventure with my two tails, my status instantly advanced to being an adult. After being confined to Mother's tent for 8 days as a punishment, the entire tribe had gathered to raise a tent for me. But it didn't take me long before I started planning to make myself a house instead.

  Life had drastically changed after gaining my second tail, I was now responsible for contributing prey for the communal meals. That was fine and all that, but it meant that whenever we were out on hunting expeditions, we had to actively restrain ourselves when eating so we could bring back something. That proved to be more difficult than I had thought it would be. It wasn't easy to pull back after the eating frenzy kicked in, and my hunting companions had pulled me off my prey more than once so far. But that was completely normal, everyone lost themselves in their feeding from time to time.

  I had also tried to practice magic after reaching adulthood, and to my great frustration, that had proved to be much harder than expected. Mother had assured me that it would be easier with practice, and my magic would get stronger for every tail I grew. But all I could do at this point was to add a inch of ice on a single claw, I could also freeze corpses but if I did it alone I could spend up to half an hour on a single wolf, it was a boring and lengthy process that just assured me that magic didn't live up to my expectations.

  The most exciting thing that had happened since I reached adulthood was that Mother had finally decided to share a bit more with me. I knew she was holding back, but she had finally told me that the tribe hadn't always been living in this forest, that we had belonged to a great empire once, that she had been the daughter of the great empress, and that I should be proud of my name and bloodline. At one point, there had been a coup by the other three races, and they had laid siege to the capital, and eventually the city fell. Only a pawful of foxes had managed to escape the siege, including Mother, who had only been a young pup at the time.

  Among the few things the survivors had managed to bring with them as they escaped the siege were two of my grandmother’s journals. When Mother opened up and started telling me things, she showed me the journals and started to teach me how to read. I could in theory write too, but the lack of paper or anything to write with made the knowledge theoretical at best. Mother took great pride in teaching me our written language since no one bothered learning it anymore. According to her, there were only four foxes left, including me, that knew our language. Besides Mother, there were only two foxes left living in the tribe that were old enough to have experienced the time before the empire had fallen.

  Lost in my own thoughts, I had arrived at the longhouse. I felt my stomach growl at me, and I was relieved that it was a communal meal today. I would get to eat without having to catch it first. I entered the longhouse and instantly saw Arissa sitting on one of the benches, inpatient and drooling as usual. I took a seat next to her and said, “ Good morning. You seem eager as usual.”

  Arissa wiped her mouth and replied,” Yeah, aren't you? Don't you remember I told you about those big hairy things we caught a few days ago? They were delicious, and I can't wait to eat more of them.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I remember. I was among those who had to come and help you carry those big meat sacks. Getting those things back to the village was an awful task.” I answered in annoyance, remembering the backbreaking walk home.

  As we chatted, the longhouse gradually filled up until Mother entered, and everyone went silent. She took her usual spot at the matriarch's table, and at her signal, the designated foxes went to bring in our food.

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  A few minutes later, there were two massive creatures resembling naked bison and a large wolf-like thing lying on our table. As always, they had been skinned, and their hideless carcasses were a sight for hungry eyes. The smell of their flesh hit my nose, and my hunger instincts kicked in. My mouth watered, and mental pictures of me sinking my teeth into them replayed in my head. But I had to be patient, Mother had to give the signal before anyone was allowed to eat. I heard several stomachs rumble around the table, and everyone's eyes were fixated on our meal.

  Finally, after what felt like forever, Mother stood up from her seat, held her paws up, and started her speech. “Here we are yet again for another communal meal. Our hunters have done what they do best, and we are all here to share their bounty. Let's devour the weak. let their flesh become our strength for tomorrow.

  As soon as the words had left her mouth, I grabbed the side of the bison-like creature, ripped a large piece of meat off, and pushed it into my mouth. I swallowed instantly and felt the power spread through my body. With no time to enjoy the feeling, I thrust my paw back into the carcass for more. I kept on stuffing my mouth as fast as I could until the piece of flesh in my paw was dragged into another direction. Arissa had her paw on my meat and was trying to pull it in her direction. I snarled loudly to her, showing my teeth in warning, and pulled hard on my piece. She held on and pulled back. Angry about having my piece of meat contested, I swiped my other claw at her wrist. She winced in pain and lost her hold of my piece of meat. I quickly threw it into my mouth, swallowed, and resumed stuffing my endless maw.

  When there was nothing but piles of bones left on the table, the hostility in the air quieted down. I felt the fog of the feeding frenzy ease up, and my head cleared. I was still hungry, but my stomach had at least settled a little.

  Mother stood up from the matriarch’s table and addressed the crowd. “That was a fine meal, and we thank our hunters for their effort to put meat on our tables, but our hunt is never over. The next two teams heading out will be Marissa, Ghaalak, and Darine, with Verroz in charge of team one. Team two will be Nalcor, Arissa, and Lunaria, with Naleighya in charge. May your hunts be bountiful.

  With that, I rose with the other seven foxes, and we left the gathering. Outside, we gathered in our group of four to discuss where we would go for our hunt. I looked around at our group of hunters and realized that I had never been put into a group with Nalcor before. He was a fairly young two-tailed fox, still under a century old. His mother, Naleighya, on the other hand, was an impressive four tails and over five centuries old.

  As our leader, Naleighya spoke first. “Looks like it is us four for this one. If no one objects, I have a good feeling about heading south. Knowing that Verroz is leading the other party, they are definitely going west.”

  “How can you just know where Verroz is leading their group?” Nalcor asked in a curious tone.

  “That guy always gone west whenever he leads a group. he has done it for hundreds of years, and will keep doing it for hundreds of years.” Naleighya stated.

  “So he is predictable then? Or just a simple-minded guy? I asked, hiding a small chuckle under my breath.

  Arissa let out a giggle and said loudly,” He is as predictable as you, Lunaria. Whenever mating season is right around the corner, we can count on you running away.”

  “Hey! What was that for?” I angrily asked.

  Arissa gave me an evil smirk and held up her wrist, showing me two deep cuts that hadn't stopped bleeding yet.

  “Is that why I could never find you during the mating season?” Nalcor asked, seeming a bit offended.

  I took a few steps back, feeling nervous from being confronted. I scratched the back of my head and tried to explain it away. “Ehm. You see, I've been out hunting during mating seasons. Someone has to bring in some prey to the tribe during those times. Everyone seems rather busy with the entire mating thing, so I'm just doing my part for the tribe.”

  Naleighya raised an eyebrow at me, her amusement clear in her face. She cleared her throat and turned to her son, rubbed him between his ears, and said. “You might have to impress certain bitches before you gain their attention, or use your strength and challenge her the next mating season,” She looked at me and winked at me when she said that last part.

  I felt my anger boil into an inferno. In outrage, I pointed at Naleighya and shouted. “ Are you really encouraging your son to fight me, so he can rape me if he wins? Do you have any idea how sick that is?”

  Naleighya just laughed at my outburst. And replied in an amused tone. “Oh my. Luna wasn't wrong, You are a little spitfire.”

  Nalcor had a confused expression and asked with uncertainty in his voice.” What is rape?”

  I was breathing heavily, all my fury and anger boiling within me. I looked at him with a hateful glare before I angrily answered between my teeth. “ It’s when you forcefully mate with someone unwilling.”

  Nalcor kept looking confused at my words but had picked up on my temper. He carefully said.” But if you lose the challenge, that only means that you were too weak to get your way. The spoils go to the strong after all.”

  I was outraged at his words. I knew he was right from a celestial snow fox viewpoint, but the idea that something like that could happen to me and that everyone would expect me to simply get over it afterward was something I had feared for years. It was my biggest nightmare, and here Nalcor was, discussing it like it was no big deal at all.

  Barely able to contain my anger, I pointed towards this flaccid manhood and shouted at him. “If you ever dare to challenge me, know that if I win, I will tear off your manhood so you won't be able to threaten me with it again! “

  Nalcor paled a bit with my words and replied. “Why would you do something like that? That would hurt like hell, but it would still grow back.”

  I facepalmed myself at the realization. That wouldn't be a true threat here, of course it would grow back, the regeneration of celestial snow foxes was incredible, as long as we survived we would regrow any lost body part, so castrating any potential rapists wouldn't serve any real purpose.

  Still angry, I answered in a grumble. “Well, if you lost the challenge, you would deserve that pain. But if you did challenge me to such a duel, mark my words. I would never forgive you for such an act. I would hate you to my dying breath.”

  Naleighya made a knife motion with her paw to cut us off and said in her best authoritarian tone,” Can you both stop with the hostilities? Nalcor, you should be careful not to anger Lunaria any more than necessary. And Lunaria, you need to do your best to let some of that anger go. I don't get why you are so angry. Who knows, you might even enjoy having a male assert some dominance over you. You wouldn't be the first.”

  I had to do my best to breathe to try to calm myself. I knew she didn't mean anything cruel with her words. But I couldn't stand the idea of having a male over me in such a way, I would rather die a slow and painful death than having to experience that. But there wouldn't be anyone in this tribe that could understand where my feelings came from. Trying my best to swallow my anger, I answered in a grumbling tone.” I would rather try to avoid it, but enough about this. Shouldn't we get going? We have a hunt to get to after all.”

  Naleighya smiled and nodded at me before saying. “ You are right, we should get going. Are you all ready? “

  No one objected, and we all went down on all fours and ran southwards.