Fredcat (panthera_uncia) wrote in regulation, @ 2008-05-21 00:15:00 |
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Entry tags: | finn mcgill, ford williams, fred holden, trent smith |
Who: Fred Holden, Finn McGill, Trent Smith, Ford Williams
What: Wolfgirl meets Catgirl (And catboys)
Where: Epping Forest
When: Full Moon, early hours of Wednesday, 21st May until just after dawn
Rating: PG
Status: Closed; Complete
Fred both loved and loathed the actual night of the full moon. She loved it because nothing else was so beautiful as a full moon and it was the symbol of the freedom and form she loved. She loathed it, however, because it marked the month's decline. It was much like being Wednesday, the beginning of the end but she didn't have a weekend to find her at the end. She had another twenty three days locked solely in a human form that greeted her with its macabre grin, mocking her by stealing her fur. It made her sad to think of so she forced the thoughts from her mind as she stalked thought the forest.
She could hear where Ford and Trent were off to the east of her. Fred had, very typically, gotten distracted by the scent of a deer faint and passing on the breeze. She'd tried to follow it but there wasn't any deer in sight, or in hearing range. She was about to turn and trot back to her brothers when she caught a different scent. The snow leopard froze in the middle of the wood, body flattening as it crouched down and its ears moving to listen. It smelled wrong. Wolf, but not just wolf. Werewolf but not sick. Werewolves always smelt sick, there hadn't ever been an exception. Not with the ones she'd come across professionally or casually. Every single one of them was a slave to the animal inside of them and had never learnt to live in harmony with it as she and her family did. Fred had always assumed it was just something with the wolf strand of lycanthopy. They were tainted or cursed, somehow they were unfit for the freedom of the animal form and were instead trapped within it. But what she smelled now was the scent of wolf and human, but healthy. Fred began to creep along silently in pursuit of the odd scent's owner.
Epping Forest had been a good choice, Finn told herself again as she caught scent of a rabbit. She liked chasing them, but she liked catching them even more. And it was always a little odd to her to see them in pet shops or hutches. She always wanted to do something like go 'boo!' at them. She glanced up at the moon, tongue lolling a little as she grinned up at it, suppressing the urge to howl lest she scare away her prey.
She trotted along until she spotted the rabbit. She crouched down and crept closer, then pounced at it to send it running. The rabbit sped off and Finn followed, revelling in the chase. She caught it and killed it after a good run, and was about to trot back to her encampment, as it were, when she noticed something she hadn't smelled before. Cat. Only...not cat like a house cat. And not just cat. Cat and human. How could...? That was impossible, wasn't it? Lycanthropes could only be wolves, right? This bore investigating, but she was not doing that without her rabbit, so she carried it with her as she crept toward the scent.
The scent was getting closer, but it was getting close too quickly. She was moving quickly but she wasn't running. There was no way she should have been gaining on it so rapidly if it was staying in one place. That meant this strange werewolf breed was coming toward her. Fred halted for a moment and looked up. She didn't like the thought of this thing tracking her scent too. Fred scrambled up a tree knowing that no dog would be able to follow her up it. She stretched down the length of a branch and waited for the wolf to come to her. Her night vision was sharp, better than her vision in daylight, and she kept her eyes peeled for the intruder in her woods.
Finn's hair rose a little as the scent grew closer, but she continued until she came to a tree. She sniffed at the trunk. The cat had definitely been there. And the scent was fresh. Very fresh. She sniffed around the tree, dropping the rabbit for a moment as her curiosity grew. Nothing was fresher than the trunk, which meant... She picked up the rabbit carcass and backed away from the tree, tilting her head to the side as she gazed up into the branches. Something was up there all right. Something big.
Fred watched the wolf curiously. It looked like any other wolf in the woods, but it smelt of human. It didn't smell sick and it seemed to know what was going on. When it picked its kill up and backed away so it could look up into the tree Fred knew that the human mind was in there and it was in control just as hers was. There was an intelligence in the eyes that the sick ones didn't have. It was the same way her brothers eyes looked to her when they were in what she considered their natural form. Fred started to growl as she looked at the newcomer, unsure if its potential was more friend or foe.
In one graceful motion she leapt from the branch she'd been balancing on and landed in front of the wolf. Automatically she crouched down to the ground, eyes fixed on the canine pair before them as the growling continued. It was a warning that the wolf would recognise even if the human mind did not. Fred didn't understand how there was a werewolf who wasn't sick. She wasn't sure if wolf and human minds could work together like the cat and human minds she and her family all had. If it was the same then the human would understand two things because of the wolf's presence in her mind. First she'd understand the warning wasn't hazardous to her health yet. Second she'd understand that if she ran it would be.
Finn crouched as the cat jumped, not sure if she was about to be pounced or not. She felt extremely relieved when it didn't - it would have her beaten for strength, from the looks of it, and for flexibility. Cats were rather more slinky-like than canines. More bendy. Ears flattened back, Finn stood her ground. This was bizarre. She laid the rabbit down slowly and licking her chops; she really wanted to keep the rabbit, but it might make a good peace offering. Even if the cat - leopard of some kind? - seemed as surprised to see her somehow as she was to see it. Big cats didn't just live wild in England, and they certainly didn't smell human.
Fred looked at the rabbit on the ground and then looked back up at the wolf. While the rabbit smelled good and she liked rabbit she wasn't after the wolf's kill. Her growling backed off slowly until it was gone. Only after that did her posture relax incrementally. She stayed low to the ground and ready to spring on the wolf but she also crept closer so that she could attempt to examine her, and by examine she of course meant sniff. Fred moved slowly, unsure if the canine would allow herself to be inspected.
After the cat stopped growling, Finn's posture relaxed a little as well. She still wasn't quite sure about all of this, but at least this...strange new creature seemed more curious than confrontational. It moved closer to her, but she stood her ground. If it came closer on it's own, she could sniff it better, and at the moment it seemed best to let the cat make the first moves.
Fred circled the wolf slowly. There was a look of curiosity in her eyes that had everything to do with the human mind in the leopard's body and nothing at all to do with the feline instincts. When she came around to the front again Fred carefully stepped over the rabbit as to not mar a good kill. She sniffed experimentally at the wolf's neck to verify that it really was a werewolf, a healthy one. And it was, oddly enough. And it was a she, Fred was sure of that now as well. Once her sniffing was satisfied she sat down and just peered at the wolf. Her head tilted to the side in inquiry though the question wasn't clear. Mostly Fred was just confused how this wolf girl existed.
Finn sniffed at the cat, staying perfectly still otherwise while the other lycanthrope - could one call what apparently was a wereleopard a lycanthrope? - sized her up and sniffed her. Once it sat down, Finn sat as well, head tilting for a moment. Then she glanced down at the rabbit, then up at the cat as if to say 'I'm going to eat this now, if you don't mind.' The carcass was cooling, after all, and Finn liked her kills a little warm still, so she began to eat.
Fred raised a paw and gestured between the wolf and the rabbit as if to say it was fine. She was intensely curious about that wolf so she laid down, paws on top of one another for her to lay her chin on them. It would be rather rude in an almost unforgivable way for Fred to let the wolf's kill go cold. So she just laid there and watched her. It was strange to find this creature in her forest. Fred wondered if she was a nomad, a lot of lycanthropes were. There wasn't any other reason why she'd never come across it before. The wizarding world was small. Or...what if she wasn't a witch? Suddenly she was watching the wolf much more closely, but still just as unobtrusively. It was rare, she knew that, but most of her family were muggles so she knew it was definitely possible.
It was a nice rabbit. Plump and juicy, even if it was a tiny bit stringy in one or two places. On the whole it was an excellent catch. She ate her fill and licked as much as she could off her muzzle and then moved the remains to one side so it wouldn't be in the way. She took a cautious step forward and sniffed the cat. Probably magical. What were the odds of a non-wolf, non-magic lycanthrope, exactly? She might not have found another wolf like herself, but she'd found something more like herself than the old pack had been. They'd smelled...wrong. Off. Sickly. Other than smelling like cat, this one smelled perfectly fine. Amazing, really. She sat back on her haunches and gave the cat a tentative wolfy smile.
Fred was a good kitty and laid there to let the wolf sniff at her. It was only fair after she'd gotten to sniff the wolf until she was satisfied. From the wolf's eyes she seemed just as surprised at Fred as Fred seemed at her. Nomads ran into each other often enough that she'd never found one genuinely surprised to meet her. Then again, when all you've ever heard of lycanthrope legends were werewolves and then you turned into a king cobra a lot of the shock of a wereleopard was probably worn off. When the wolf was done and sat down Fred sat up. She crept a little closer to the wolf who was...was that a sort of smile? Fred raised a paw and gently patted the wolf on the head, which really was just to amuse the hell out of herself. The roar of a leopard could be heard in the distance and Fred's head snapped to the direction immediately.
Finn would have chuckled at the head patting if she'd been able to. It was good, being completely sure the wereleopard meant her no harm. Then the roar came. Finn turned toward the direction of the sound as well. There was more than one of these? She wasn't sure exactly how she felt about that, but if they were...whatever the equivalent of pack was, maybe things would work out fine if she ran into the other one.
Fred's eyes lit up at the sound when it echoed again. It was Ford, she could tell. He was looking for her, worried she'd gotten herself into trouble. Internally she smiled but no expression came to her feline features. Fred had been a cat for so long she never thought to translate human emotions into her form. She'd always been around other cats and they could read each other. She answered him back so he'd know where she was and that she hadn't been killed by a hunter. That was always the concern, that hunters would come and find them during the moon. Anything else the trio was sure they could deal with. Fred's focus was split between the wolf and the direction in which she'd find her brothers. She wasn't sure if the wolf would be okay with more cats around or if she should just leave her and go to her brothers. Fred was reluctant to give up this new discovery in case she never met the wolf again, but then she didn't want to scare her off. Her head tilted and then nodded in the direction of the roar, asking if she wanted to come.
The cats definitely knew each other. At least they had someone like themselves to spend the moon with - that was good. The leopard seemed to want to introduce her to the other cat. That would probably be better than just accidentally running into the other cat later, so Finn stood and shook herself off before tilting her head as if to say 'lead on.' This should be interesting, at the very least. And she hadn't been around other lycanthropes for awhile; it was different from being with other wolves, but there was more of an understanding: they both still had human minds in control.
Fred wiggled with a happy impatience when the wolf stood and agreed to come. Fred took off at once. She didn't run at full speed because she knew wolves weren't quite as fast as leopards, but she did know the wolf should have the stamina to keep up. Ford and Trent weren't exactly too close by. Running was one of those things that made Fred feel truly free. Her legs ate up to ground as she dodged trees and leapt over branches. When she found her brothers she immediately pounced on top of the black panther while the only normal leopard among them peered at her curiously. From the top of Trent's head she looked to the wolf and then to Ford and gave him a nod to tell him she was okay and that Fred had brought her intentionally. Trent, on the other hand, was a bit too preoccupied with the prospect of wrestling Fred to care much. He smelt the wolf coming just as Ford had, but if Fred wasn't worried then why should he be? It was Ford who stepped up to the wolf with curiosity. The other two rolled around behind him.
Finn was in pretty good form that night, as far as energy went. She'd had decent sized raw steak just before sundown, and the rabbit had given her an extra boost. She enjoyed the run; keeping up was good exercise. When they made it to the other cat - or cats, plural, rather - Finn paused, head tilted as she watched the leopard pounce one of her companions. The new leopard moved toward her and she took a step forward as well to sniff him. He smelled like the other cat did, healthy. And he obviously had his human mind as well. Finn was more than a little amazed at meeting more than one of such a lycanthrope in one night.
Ford's surprise wasn't half as pronounced as Fred's over the werewolf not being sickly. He didn't run into lycanthropes as much as Fred did and he wasn't a wizard so he'd never heard the tales from anyone but Fred and Trent who had both marvelled at the wizarding world's take on lycanthropes. He trusted Fred and the wolf didn't smell angry or scared so he figured she was probably alright. Furthermore, he knew if anyone threatened his siblings that his teeth and claws were both exceptionally sharp. He nodded toward the wrestling cats, inviting the wolf to stay with them. Fred, meanwhile, had Trent's ear trapped between her teeth while he had a mouthful of her leg.
Finn ducked her head in a sort of nod at the invitation. Company would be nice, especially since the cats all had their minds. It had been frustrating being surrounded by wolves who lacked theirs when she'd been with the pack. It was foreign and it had been lonely when it shouldn't have been. She trotted closer to the wrestling cats and sat down, watching them. They were obviously close.
The panther rolled over and pinned the snow leopard on the ground beneath him after he tugged his ear free. Only then did he really look over at the wolf sitting with them. In a gesture completely devoid of any apparent concern that Ford or Fred had shown, Trent raised a black paw and gave her a sort of wave just before he was thrown over onto his side by the escaping snow leopard. Ford's head shook from side to side before he flopped down on his side and watched his younger siblings. Sunrise would come and then they'd actually manage to meet their new find unless she took off before then.
Finn would have laughed at the wave if she could. This was nice, if strange, and she looked forward to meeting the human faces of these cats when the sun rose. She lay down, resting her head on her paws as she watched and waited for sunrise.
As sunrise crept closer Ford herded the younger cats who were still running around wildly. They'd managed to invite their newly acquired wolf to follow them as they trotted off back toward their cottage. It wasn't enough just to head home though, no. Trent dragged them all into a game of tag on the way. Fred, of course, preferred to tag the others by pouncing on them while Ford kept swatting at people to tag them. Trent managed to never get caught, though it had more to do with him being the most agile and best at dodging than being the fastest which was a title that belonged to the eldest brother. They'd even dragged their new wolf into the foray.
By time they all reached the house the sun was rising and furred bodies were disappearing, morphing into human forms. The three siblings collapsed on top of each other on the lawn in a heap of limbs, completely comfortable with their nudity even in the stranger's presence. Fred was whimpering but it had nothing to do with the actual pain of the transition. She was used to the pain, it was the fact she was in a human body again that pained her most. The two men panted and a hand thwapped Fred over the head to get her to stop her whimpering. "Ow!"
Trent whispered to his siblings, "You reckon she's muggle? Never seen her before."
Ford just gave him an exasperated look and Fred pointed out, "Genius, she can hear you."
"Oh, right." Trent had the sense to look shamed before looking at the woman he didn't recognise. Suddenly he was all teeth as he grinned. "Hi! So, who're you? I'm Trent, that's Ford," he pointed to his brother who was using their sister's back as a pillow, "and this is Fred," who waved at her from her comfortable position in Trent's lap.
Finn had greatly enjoyed the impromptu game of tag. It had been years since she'd played with other lycanthropes, and this was better than any game with the old pack. She'd gone back and forth between jumping on and head butting as her method of tagging. Which she expected would make her neck sore later, but she didn't really care.
Finn flopped out on her back once she was human again. Her neck felt a little bit tense, but the rest of the pain of shifting was familiar. She took a deep breath and rolled over onto her belly to look at the human versions of the cats, grinning to see them all in a pile. She chuckled and crawled a little closer to them.
"I'm Finn. And yeah, I'm a Muggle," she said, rubbing her scarred left arm a bit. It always ached more than the other one when she shift back to being human again. "Nice to meet you all."
The siblings exchanged a look at the information before they all looked back at her in unison. The scars on her arm weren't lost on anyone and no one needed to ask to recognise them for what they were. It was Fred who spoke, mostly to herself. "Muggle, werewolf and...normal, which isn't normal for a werewolf at all." She shook her head before focusing back on Finn. "You're the only one we've ever met. I mean, muggle notwithstanding. I've never come across a werewolf who wasn't...sick, uncontrolled. I've had to put down a number of lycanthropes," she purposely borrowed the phrase instead of saying she executed them. She didn't know the woman so she didn't know how she'd take the use of the word. "The whole family's run into werewolves, but never any who were...alright."
While Fred thought about that, Ford explained Fred's last statement. "We were adopted. Us and three others all by this one couple. And we're all like this. Well, Suzie turns into a tiger come sunset but we're all cats and we're all in control after we shift. There's not a lot of people who aren't magical who survive attack, apparently."
"Most die, the rest end up immune," Fred offered. "I actually suspect more survive and adapt than we know, but because no one is looking out for muggle lycanthropes and it's all myth to them it doesn't get reported. I suspect a lot of those who do survive kill themselves after the first night. They get freaked out, they go through all this pain, they possibly kill people, sometimes even ones they love. Not many people are willing to change a second night after that."
Both of the men nodded. Ford continued once Fred fell silent again. "It's not unheard of, obviously. But we didn't know how rare it was until Fred turned out to be a witch."
"Only she and I are magical," Trent interjected. "We didn't even know about the sick ones until we went to school for that."
Finn nodded slowly. She couldn't say she was surprised at other wolves being put down. She'd seen how they were, after all. She was living proof of that. "You three are the only ones I've met who had their minds." She tucked her hair behind her ears.
"I heard a little about that. I got bitten just a little before sunrise. Damned surreal when you watch the wolf that just ripped into you turn into a naked woman. Passed out and woke up in hospital. Got out, left Glasgow with her. There was a group of wolves she ran with and we joined up with them. I just...didn't see a point in fighting the change." Finn shrugged and rolled back onto her back for a moment, gazing up at the sky. "They were all...wild. After awhile I figured out I wasn't like them. It was...like being in a crowd but being alone. I tried to explain it to Marjory once, but she couldn't understand."
The three cats listened with rapt attention. Fred tried to imagine being attacked. She tried to imagine being human, and then not being human anymore. It would out of her experience to be able to even begin to grasp that. To her thinking being attacked would be worth it for the five nights she got to run free. It was something she'd thought about a lot since studying werewolves at Hogwarts. She couldn't understand the appeal of just being human if she was really honest with herself. "I don't know if I was ever human. And neither of them remember being human either," she finally told Finn. It was a strange contrast to the story of most lycanthropes, she knew that. Sometimes Fred had figured that's why they kept their minds when others didn't, they were born lycanthropes maybe or were bitten when they were too young to remember it. Finn was the only evidence that shot holes in her theory. "What's it like? I mean, not being human, but having been human and then not being it anymore?" They'd met people who had been attacked, sure, but they were usually the sick ones and Fred could hardly get an adequate answer from one of them.
"I was twenty-four," Finn said. "I had a job - police constable. I'd been doing that since I was eighteen and suddenly I couldn't anymore. That was hard, and I haven't had a 'real' job sinse then - too hard to explain the five day absences in every month. Knowing I couldn't explain any of it to my family was harder. I'm the oldest of eight and I had to leave that behind." She rubbed the back of her neck for a moment and then chuckled slightly. "You have to learn to remember to check the calendar more often, too. And I learned how to eat differently. That was another thing the others didn't do - some of them ate bleeding salads and bagels. I wanted meat, so I ate meat."
Finn paused for a moment, thinking. Maybe that was another part of why the other wolves weren't quite right. They didn't eat like carnivores. "I thought I was going to die when I was attacked. Woke up in hospital and there was the woman the wolf had turned into sitting in a chair not far away, looking like she was going to be sick. Got a crash course in what I'd become, and in magic. Funny thing, I believed the werewolf part easier than the magic. I'd...sort of always liked werewolf movies, even if they've all got it all wrong." She shrugged. "I didn't see a point in fighting something I couldn't control. Marjory - she's the one that bit me - couldn't understand how I could accept it. I felt sorry for her. Guess that's why I loved her, odd as it might be."
"My theory," Fred started but was quickly cut off by Trent.
"She has a lot of theories," he pointed out. Fred glared at him without malice.
Ford cleared his throat and decided he had to play grown up. "Fred's studied every lycanthrope legend she can get her hands on. Because she's a witch and where she works she has access to more than us normal types ever would. So yeah, she's got a fair few theories, but she's probably better informed than anyone else you'll meet, at least in this country."
"Thank you, Ford," she said with a smile while she thwapped Trent at the same time. She picked up seamlessly, ignoring her brother's "Ow" as he rubbed his head. "Most people don't want to be werewolves, especially wizards. They're seen as the sort of dregs of society, endured only because it's illegal to kill them on the basis of existence. Well, these days it is anyway. If you grow up with wizards this sort of disdain for the base creatures that are werewolves is bred into you. I reckon they all eat like bleeding vegetarians even after they become lycanthropes as a way of trying to repress what they are. If you can't see it then it doesn't exist kind of thing, yeah? So I figure it's their way of clinging to their humanity and it's likely fed by a paranoia over being found out sometimes. It's no wonder they're always weak. They've got to be starving themselves to death. I think that might be why they're so crazed when the moon comes, too. A wolf has a survival instinct it will cave to long before a human will. They go crazy and are entirely uncontrolled during the moon because they don't get enough protein and the one thing that keeps them alive is the wolf taking over and feeding itself as much meat as it can, no matter what the source. Obviously not a proven hypothesis by any means but," Fred shrugged. It made sense to her anyway.
Finn listened thoughtfully to Fred's theory. It made a lot of sense, really. Grow up knowing that the boogeyman is real and naturally a person wouldn't want to become one. She hadn't had that problem at all - werewolves had always just been stories, legends until then.
"I think you've got a lot of good points there. I'm always chewing on bits of beef jerky myself, since it's easy to keep a lot of on hand. Usually manage a steak or two around the moon so I'll have it in between changes. Or at least something that's raw."
All three heads nodded knowingly at the same time. "We've got the jerky at work thing down pat," Trent told her. "But, well, it's easier since we manage jobs, so we pretty much live off meat anyway." The job situation wasn't as easy for Trent as it had been for Fred. He had found somewhere that he could keep very specific hours that wouldn't interfere with the moon and even then he got to rearrange his schedule himself anyway. Ford had much the same kind of set up. It wasn't easy, but it worked for them. If all else failed there was self-employment, which both of the boys had plans for should they ever need it.
Finn grinned. She was glad they managed to keep jobs - had to be tricky, but she was happy for them. "I mainly hustle pool. Do a bit a carving, too, which sells pretty well. Animal figures. Half the sales are some kid begging mum to get one." She laughed and shook her head. "I move around a lot, though I've been sticking closer to the London area recently. I've been looking for lycanthropes more like me, and I guess I finally found some, even if you aren't wolves."
"You may never find wolves if you're looking for someone who keeps their mind during a moon," Fred told her seriously.
The boys nodded in agreement and Ford offered up, "The rest of the family is slightly north. And sometimes a couple of the hyenas and cobras come through in the summer. We ran into them at various points and they come to visit some years."
"You know," Trent picked up immediately, "if you ever need somewhere to crash for a while or you just want somewhere to hide out during moon," he nodded back behind him toward the house. "We've got the space." Mostly they had the space because the three of them slept in a tangled heap together every night so on any given night there were empty beds unless there was a freak occurrence and one of them was actually dating someone who was staying over. Even then the remaining two were always together.
Trent hadn't needed to check with the older siblings before making the offer. If she'd been lying or intending them harm so far they'd have smelt it on her. Any one of the three was likely to make her the same offer, Trent just said it first.
Finn nodded, adding, "I expect finding another Muggle wolf is almost as likely. And it's...rather amazing, the varieties of lycanthropes that exist. I certainly never would have expected a cobra. Other mammals, maybe, but not the snake."
"That'd be nice," she said, smiling at Trent. "Wouldn't have to worry about what to do with my bike, then. Sort of hard to hide a thing like that in the woods, after all." And it would be nice to have somewhere other than the woods to go when the sun came up. "I think I'll definitely take you up on that."
Fred nodded and recounted, "We've met wolves, hyenas, and cobras. Obviously we're varieties of leopard and our older sister's a tiger. We know of rats as well, but we've never met any. Heard they're not exactly the sort of people you want to run into anyway. About as nice as most people would figure on their animal halves being. Only since real rats are tiny things the weres aren't exact copies like the rest of us tend to be. They're bigger." She shuddered. Fred had no problem with rats themselves, but the stories they'd gotten from those passing through who had met the rats was cause enough.
"Score, another for the puppy pile," Trent said with a grin. Ford furrowed his eyebrows and Trent corrected, "or, you know, a bed or a couch or something less strange and creepy. Is it strange and creepy?" It's not like he knew this woman and while she seemed nice and like one of them they'd met lycanthropes before who kept their minds who did fight that impulse for casual, physical contact.
Finn made a face. "Can't say I like the idea of a giant rat, myself." Laughing, she shook her head. "I don't think it's creepy. I like contact. I just have to be a little careful around non-weres as some of them take it the wrong way - it either bugs them or they think I'm hitting on them. Which is the case sometimes, but not as often as they think it is. But since I have an invite this time..."
She crawled the rest of the way over to the pile and plopped herself in with the others. She tapped Fred on the tip of the nose with an index finger. "You know, I half thought you'd be bigger than me as a human."
"It wouldn't be so bad if they were just giant rats I don't think. It's more the personality thing." Fred wrinkled her nose as she said it. "We take on personality aspects of our animals, at least healthy lycanthropes do, and well, rat personalities? Hyenas are opportunists too but they aren't half as low as rats it seems."
The cats all welcomed Finn into the pile without hesitation. None of them were bothered by it at all and even seemed more relaxed when she joined the pile of limbs than they had been when she was separate. They weren't very trusting of a were who kept themselves separate, at least not if they were a healthy one. "It's all personality," Fred told Finn with a toothy grin. "I have the personality of a six-foot Amazon! But I'm pretty much the same size and weight human as I am cat."
Finn thought about that for a moment. "Mm. Yeah...don't think I'd want to run into one of those at all..." She scratched her neck as she tried to image that. "Aye. Don't really want to meet one of those."
She felt more at ease in the pile as well. It was cozy, and she hadn't had this much ease in satisfying her need for contact in a good while. She grinned back at Fred, then sighed contentedly. "'S a good thing, really. More fun for you to surprise the unsuspecting that way."
"I've an ace idea," Ford said. "It involves passing out because I know I'm not the only one exhausted. It also involves going inside so the postman doesn't find us all out here like this, yeah?" Trent and Fred both murmured agreement. Sleep was really something that should be had right after shifting back to two legged form, but they'd been too curious about Finn, their new acquisition.
Finn nodded. She expected that the postman would not take the sight of a pile of naked people very well and would likely get the wrong idea about it. "Sounds good to me..." She yawned right after she said it and nodded. "Definitely a good idea."
The group had to first disentangle themselves from one another. Only then could they sleepily trudge up the stairs and through the door so the lot of them could then re-collapse on the duvets and pillows that were stretched over most of the floorspace of their living room. They were no less tangled than they'd been outside, but the lycanthropes quickly fell asleep together there comfortably.