After Sarah finished shifting, her beast growled at Logan. This stopped when he shifted as well. She watched as he transformed into a near-black furred werewolf. She had to say it looked good on him. She liked how he looked more like he came from a romance novel rather than a monster movie. A graceful wolf head over a muscular, if furry and tailed, body. At an intimidating growl from him, her beast flinched, turned and launched into the forest.

  Her claws dug into the dirt and roots as her beast explored their new hunting ground. The more her beast explored the more Sarah relaxed as a passenger. She related it to being in one of those 4D simulation rides at theme parks where it makes you feel like you’re moving while never actually going anywhere. After a few minutes it actually got a little fun.

  It was almost nice not to worry about climbing and struggling for control. Just sitting back and experiencing the whole thing was almost relaxing. She felt how happy her beast was at the freedom it now had. The feeling of the dirt and foliage parting under its claws as its excitement grew. As it continued she almost started feeling like it was her doing the hunt. Instead of climbing the pit of control she let herself lay down at the bottom and sink into the progressively softer dirt.

  She watched and felt like a predator on the hunt. Her eyes looked for the smallest of tracks and scents. A broken twig or an unusual imprint. It took about ten minutes before finding a scent. Neither her nor her beast knew what it was but knew it was a potential meal. Her heart rate skyrocketed in excitement. It could finally do what it truly wanted. Kill and feed.

  She followed the faint scent as it slowly grew in strength. She finally found a footprint of her prey in a puddle of mud. It was a little larger than she expected with two distinct toes. From her passing knowledge of animals she recognized it as deer tracks. Her beast was even more excited as it increased its chase. She didn’t slow until the scent was strong enough and they approached an open clearing.

  Her beast lowered itself until it was silently creeping along the forest floor. There wasn’t much between her and the deer casually feeding on the clearing’s grass. The deer was facing away from her and was down-wind. There wouldn’t have been a better set up for her first hunt. It wasn’t a challenge but would be a good meal.

  As her beast moved forward Sarah’s enjoyment quickly sunk into resignation. She knew her beast was a predator and needed to hunt. She also knew she wasn’t looking forward to washing blood out of her fur. If getting mud out of her hair was anything to go by it was going to be a pain.

  The pitiable animal was only about two dozen feet away when it finally noticed. It instantly began to run, scared for its life. Unfortunately for it, her beast wasn’t just a normal tiger. She instinctively pushed internal energy into her muscles to supercharge them. Sarah was slightly taken aback by the ease her beast had in using the energy. While she struggled with getting barely a wisp in the right place, they moved a thick stream to every muscle. With only a single pounce she soared through the air and latched onto the deer’s back.

  She felt as her extended claws dug into flesh. Her weight made the animal stumble. Her beast capitalized on this weakness by burying her sharpened teeth over its throat. The animal struggled as blood flowed. The iron-lased taste of the blood flooded her mouth. Instead of finding it disgusting, her tastebuds sang. It was proof that her hunt was being successful and that a true meal was around the corner.

  She mentally shuddered as she couldn’t tell if her beast was the one making her feel these things or it was another example of her curse changing her own mentality. Her distracting thoughts quickly passed as her excitement rose. What would it be like with her beast not angry at her? Would she finally be fully in control? Would she finally have a fulfilling meal?

  It wasn’t long until her powerful jaws cut off the deer’s airway and arteries. The proceeding lack of blood and oxygen progressively slowed her prey. No more than a few steps later, it collapsed with barely a few twitches in resistance. Even with it helpless on the ground she kept her grip tight. As a predator, couldn’t afford to get injured if she wanted to eat any time soon. A hoof to the ribs could stop her from moving right. She would probably gain a limp and her paws needed to be quiet to hunt right.

  A passing thought made her wonder why the jungle was so weird? The deer in her jaws wasn’t the usual species either. Sarah returned to her prey by her growling stomach. Finally she would get a proper meal instead of grass. Grass? Why did she eat grass? She was a predator, not prey. Anyone who forced her to eat prey food should pay for the transgression.

  Soon the only sign of the deer’s life was the slowing spurts of rich blood pumping into her mouth. It wasn’t even a minute later when everything stopped as the weak struggles turned into occasional twitches.

  She was finally able to eat. Venison wasn’t her favorite but anything at that point would taste better than the fattest bird. As she was about to begin her feast something grabbed the scruff of her neck and hauled her back and into the air. In let out a surprise yowl she reflexively released her claws and twisted mid-air to land on her feet. Above her rightfully obtained prey was a dog somehow standing on its back paws. As she was going to shred the weird looking animal her mind shook.

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  Sarah pulled herself back from her beast at her fear about to come true. Her mental image panicked and clawed itself from the pit’s dirt that had almost covered her. She didn’t stop until she was finally free from the ground and was back to herself.

  She hyperventilated as she realized how close she was to completely losing herself.

  “Holy shit,” said to the empty pit.

  As she was recovering her beast was still facing off against Logan. She felt how mad her beast was that someone put themselves between her and her well-deserved meal. They stopped growling at him when her stomach started rumbling angrily.

  Her stomach was inflating with something. It was like something was being pumped directly into it. Her beast started to become scared at her growing condition until it let out the worst burp ever. It somehow combined the fuzz of soda and the burning of something spicy. It was like she had guzzled five bottles of habanero beer, if that was even a thing, and let it all out at once.

  Her beast gagged at the horrible sensation. They began recovering until she started re-inflating. Thankfully, the whole thing ended after the second torture-burp. Only then did both Sarah and her beast notice the blood covering her chest began to disappear.

  She watched as the blood slowly turned into a mist and dissipated into the air. Maybe that was what mana looked like. Another advantage of hybrid form, easy magic sight, or would it be mana sight? Truesight? Probably not that one, D&D probably had it trademarked or something.

  Her beast whined as its hunt slowly joined the blood turning into mist. The meal it was looking for was finally in front of her, literally in her jaws. Multiple full stomachs worth of venison, lost.

  “Good hunt,” Logan said, his voice a little lower and rougher. “Unfortunately you got a construct. Most of the animals out here are fake and will turn into mana after being killed. It saves on supplies, maintenance, and clean up. It also stopped the druids and nature spirits from putting in formal complaints on the treatment of nature every other week. You used to be able to tell the difference between them and the real stuff but not anymore. It's a sad necessity.”

  While her beast was calmer, it still wasn’t happy.

  “Don’t worry, we’re not leaving until you get something to eat,” he said motioning to the forest, “now go and try again.”

  Without complaint Sarah’s beast started another hunt. As it searched for a new scent Sarah pondered over the event. This time she made sure to keep herself and her beast separate. She shivered at the thought of what could’ve happened if she lost herself completely.

  As her beast looked for new prey she thought over how much her mentality was being altered. At first she thought all that was being changed mentally was she got an extra dash of courage and backbone. Maybe her beast didn’t only influence her emotions but her base values. She thought back to the deer and found that she didn’t feel bad about what she did. The girl who couldn’t play villain paths in video games because of what her characters did to dumb NPCs felt nothing at all about killing an innocent living thing.

  She compared her current feelings to those of only last week. She could never really bring herself to eat things like lamb or veal. Something about the animals not even living to adulthood always got to her. Now, when she thought about those meats she could only think about how the young ones were usually too easy to hunt and didn’t have enough meat to be truly satisfying. No longer was it a moral issue but one of challenge and volume.

  Only upon Sarah listing her faults did she see how weak she was. Seriously, she couldn’t even eat veal? What kind of wimp was she? Apparently it took her life being shaken up and being turned furry to grow a spine.

  She resolved herself to work to get over these fears and worries. What kind of carnivore worried about what meat they were eating. If it breathed it was food. Okay maybe that was an overgeneralization. Humans were definitely off the table, and maybe cats, and dogs, or anything that was too intelligent…she’d find a middle ground somewhere.

  Her next prey was a rabbit. Unlike before, while her beast became excited, she didn’t join it. She was still coming to terms with her mental changes. Was she even herself if she kept changing like this? Was this how Durga would take over? Was she doing it already? Were these changes good?

  Question after question hit her as her body continued the hunt. She thanked anyone listing that brown ball of meat was real. She pulled away from her body as she felt her beast devour the prey animal. She had to admit that the rabbit already tasted better than the dear.

  As her beast ate the pit’s gravity noticeably lessened. She knew that if she began her ascent she would reach higher than ever. She refused to use this opportunity. The last thing she wanted was to ruin her beast’s good time and piss it off. She pushed herself even further from her connection. She wasn’t an animal. She was a thinking person. She refused to become a mindless creature. She refused to become a puppet of her instincts.

  As her resolve strengthened, her beast finished its meal. While sitting on its haunches it cleaned its paws with a sense of satisfaction. Sarah mentally stumbled when her beast actually retreated into her core. She smoothly shifted back to her human form.

  Apparently her sense of what tasted good changed in different forms. While she was a tiger the rabbit blood almost tasted sweet. Now back in human form, the only thing she tasted was nasty. She somehow preferred the electric grass bar over this. She fell to her hands and knees and started dry-heaving.

  “I’m guessing your food isn’t settling well?” Logan asked from behind.

  She sat back while taking deep breaths. “That was disgusting. How do you do it?”

  “I grew up hunting so it wasn’t a challenge,” he said nonchalantly.

  She glared at him, “good for you then.”

  “More importantly, how’s your beast?”

  Still glaring she checked on her core to get a reading. It radiated a feeling of contentment. “It’s happy,” she said with a sense of relief. For the first time since she was first cursed she didn’t have a single urge to do something violent. No whispers to claw something or someone, no thoughts of running away to go anywhere else, and most of all, no cravings for living meat. Her mouth was still suffering under the proof of that last one.

  “Good. And here I was thinking we’d have to hunt a few more to get it to calm down.”

  She shuddered at the implication and had to stop herself from dry heaving again.

  “I think that’s enough for today,” he said. “I’ll take you back and you can be taken to your other lessons.” He then turned and started through the forest.

  She nodded, stood on shaky legs and followed Logan.