It had been well over a year and a half since I'd been reborn, and things had been finally looking up as of late.

The chronic immobility of a newborn had finally gone away, and although I was still quite a few years away from breaking the shackles of childhood, I was now at least able to function as a living, thinking thing.

I was practically brimming with energy, something that mother only seemed too happy about as our 'games' became more and more serious and direct.

It became rather obvious what she was doing after reflecting on it for a bit. She wasn't merely playing with me for the sake of playing, but rather, she was training me.

After all, I seriously doubt any sane adult would have playfought with their child as violently and mercilessly as mom did with me.

Thankfully for me, however, mom was nonetheless incredibly careful. She didn't hold back as much as she should perhaps, as the various bruises and even cuts on my skin can testify, but she never pushed it enough to bring it out of the 'game' area and into outright violence and abuse.

Besides, I enjoyed those games a surprising amount, and the cuddles afterward were the absolute best.

I'd also graduated to full-on fleshy meals now, having long since left behind her milk, thankfully enough.

It still horrified me sometimes, the ripped chunks of meat that constituted my meals, but it was either sucking it up and enjoying the food, or starving. Unfortunately for the poor critters that made up my meals, I had no intention of doing the latter.

Anyways, back to the present. I peeked out of my tent, trying to see if there was a snowstorm raging today. When I saw that there was none, I stumbled my way out, shivering slightly when I felt the cold winds biting into my somewhat covered skin.

Now, normally, I was only happy about staying in the coziness that was my tent, but I had a serious problem on my hands: I was bored. Really bored.

And also a bit hungry, as for some reason, mother hadn't come back to feed me as she always did in the afternoon.

As I walked through the more cleared out 'road', I could see a tribe member sitting cross-legged in the middle of one, skinning some carcasses using his claws, occasionally ripping out small chunks of flesh and throwing them into his teeth-filled mouth.

Since no one else seemed to be around, I approached my fellow fox-kin, careful not to disturb his work as I waited next to him for him to acknowledge me.

And, after a few minutes, he did, turning to face me with a blood-covered grin.

"Aah, Kira. Good to see you, kiddo. Yiera is at the longhouse, if you're looking for her." He said, and despite his vicious visage, his voice was kind and friendly, even going so far as to offer me a small chunk of deer flesh, one which I gratefully wolfed down.

I gave him a small smile at his gift, but I didn't leave, my eyes unconsciously trailing to stare at the large carcasses around him.

When he saw my staring, his grin only widened. "Sorry, kiddo. This is for the feast. I can't share anymore" He said, his tone somewhat apologetic as he kept on working.

"What? What feast?" I asked, confused. Unfortunately for me, however, my fellow fox-man ignored me, waving me off with his tails.

I huffed in annoyance before stomping off, heading off towards where he'd said mom was at.

By the time I arrived at the longhouse, my feet felt as though they were about to fall off. Despite the fact that I had quite a bit of fur on me already, walking shoelessly on frozen snow for more than a few minutes at a time was still quite painful, but thankfully, I was already beginning to adapt to it, my cold resistance seeming to grow ever stronger.

Once I reached the entrance, I poked my head through, and to my surprise, found my mother and another fox woman throwing a large number of different corpses onto the main table, working together with such ease that it was obvious that this was far from the first time they'd done this.

Unsurprisingly, mom heard me immediately. "Kira. Come here." Mother said, giving me a quick glance as she did before continuing on with her work.

Half-curious and half-eager, I obeyed her words and quickly trotted over to her side, taking deep sniffs as I did, enjoying the smell of half-frozen flesh and blood.

Mother's hands were utterly covered with blood and viscera as she carelessly threw the corpses onto the table, but that hardly seemed to bother her as she gave my cheek a quick pat before telling me to go and wait in one of the corners.

Admittedly a bit dejected, I once more did as told and waited for the full five minutes that it took for her and the other woman to finish setting everything up.

Once she did, mom walked over to me and crouched down next to me, reaching out to scratch my ear after giving her hands a thorough licking, something that would've once grossed me out once upon a time.

However, nowadays, that hardly bothered me, and so I leaned into her touch, enjoying her affections.

Still, when I saw that she didn't seem to want to explain to me what was going on, I spoke up.

"Mom... I'm hungry." I whined pitieously. Her lips quirked up, and although it seemed like an innocent expression, I felt a small chill run down my spine anyways.

"I know, love. But, from now on, you'll eat with the adults." She said, giving my ears one last scratch before getting up from her crouch and walking off without any further explanation.

"Can... can I take a bit?" I asked her retreating form, feeling a little ashamed of myself. I hadn't eaten since yesterday's dinner, and the small snack I'd been given beforehand, I was still really hungry.

"No. Hunt for your own food, if you can. You're old enough to catch small prey, now." She said without even turning, causing my mood to plummet.

I'd never before been denied food, so the rejection stung a bit, especially when there was so much standing right next to us. Still, I didn't dare disobey mom's orders, as, despite everything, she was rather... scary, when she wanted to be.

Some months ago, there had been an argument over something I still didn't understand between mom and one of the men. She'd laid ferociously into him with claws and teeth, and the man hadn't even dared fight back.

In a way, the longer I lived in this tribe, the more it became apparent that, rather than people with some animal traits, we were a lot more similar to beasts with human traits.

I fiddled around the hall for a bit longer, but a pointed look from the fox woman leaning by one of the corners had me begrudgingly leaving the longhouse, dragging my feet slightly as I did.

I loved my mom, I really did, and while she could get a bit too physical at times, she really did seem to hold my best interests at heart, or at least I hope she does. It was because of this love that I chose to suck it up and stop acting like a 4-year-old... Ignoring that I wasn't even that old yet.

Once outside, despite the freezing conditions, I passed the time by playing around in the snow, since despite feeling hungry, I was still feeling very energetic, as was common for children.

Nobody was around to play with me, unfortunately, so I made do by running around and playfighting with shadows, pouncing at anything that looked interesting until I was too tired and cold to continue.

At that point, I decided that taking a nap seemed like a good idea. And it really was, but alas, it was cut short when someone shook me gently, waking me up from my little bed of snow.

I cracked open an eye, but before even doing that, I'd already known it was mother. Her smell was one that I would ever forget, and definitely not something my strangely acute nose could ever miss.

"Come on, Kira. It's time for the feast." She spoke, and once I registered what she'd said, I shot to my feet, only to trip and fall on my face at the too-sudden action.

Once I was back on my feet again, I glared at mom with a bright blush on my cheeks. Said blush only intensified when she started giggling.

It didn't last long, however, and once she'd sobered up, she put a hand on my shoulder. "Sorry in advance, Kira, but I promise it's for your good." She said solemnly.

I blinked at her in confusion, but she didn't elaborate on her ominous statement as she got up and walked out, with me quickly scrambling behind her like the good little duckling I was.

We marched all the way back to the hall once more, while I tried to suppress some cold shivers. The sun had gone down sometime during my nap, and without it, the ever-present cold that permeated our home had intensified tenfold.

In a way, I was pretty thankful that mom had woken me up, or I'd have turned into a fox-flavored icicle.

Once inside the longhouse, I saw that all seven other tribe members were already present, looking at both me and mother with impatient eyes as we entered, but they quickly looked down when mother shot them a harsh glare in return.

"Kira is young, but she is strong. She will eat with the tribe from now on. Objections?" She asked as after directing me to take a seat at one of the table's sides, However, her tone made it clear that no such thing would be accepted, and as expected, nobody said anything.

"Good," Mom smirked. "Eat." She proclaimed, and all hell broke loose.

I could only stare wide-eyed as the usually calm and collected, if not a bit brutal, members of my tribe dove into the food like rabid coyotes, literally fighting each other as they ripped apart entire carcasses within seconds.

Mother didn't even look at me as she too dived into the food, snarling and roaring at anyone that dared try and take what she claimed as hers.

I just kind of stood there, looking wildly at the utter chaos and violence taking place, half-mystified and half-terrified at the horror show that this 'feast' had become.

Why had I never seen anything like this? This couldn't have been the first time it'd happened!

... Actually, now that I thought about it, I'd never seen mother eat much when she was around me, and every time I came here to the longhouse, it was usually in the morning or early afternoon.

I tried to reach out and grab a deer leg, only to flinch back as someone else grabbed the entire thing and ripped it apart, wolfing it down in less than a dozen seconds, crunching through flesh and bones with disturbing ease.

I gaped at the sight, flinching once again when the thief then turned her eyes towards me.

They were filled with what I'm pretty sure was utter insanity. The fox-kin woman gave me an evil grin before reaching forward and ripping away an entire leg from some other unrecognizable carcass, ignoring me as she proceeded to dismantle that one too.

I had to really reach forward now, trying to grab something, anything, but I was always forced to let go as someone else harshly grabbed it first, ripping it away from me before I could get a piece.

Within no more than ten minutes, the previously immense amount of meat was gone, not even the bones having been spared, the smaller ones straight-up eaten while the larger ones had been broken and their marrow swallowed.

As for myself? Well... I hadn't been able to get anything.

As the madness of the feast cooled down and everyone started to leave, I huddled in a corner of the longhouse while trying to hold in my tears.

I was really hungry now, much more than I should have been. The lingering smell of flesh and blood tickled my nose, only worsening my pain and taunting me about my failure to grab anything.

When everyone except mother had left, she walked over to where I was, a blank expression on her face. I looked up at her, trying to suppress the waterworks from my eyes.

She shook her head while clicking her tongue. "We eat again in a week. If you want something to eat until then, catch it yourself."

My jaw fell open as I stared at mother. Indignation welled up within me, but I didn't dare say anything, and instead, I just grit my teeth, seething inside.

I wasn't even fucking 2 years old, and while it seemed to me that my body was growing a lot faster than any human, how was I supposed to compete against that insanity? It just seemed unfair.

"I don't... I don't know how to hunt..." I murmured, refusing to look at my mother as she crouched in front of me.

"Then, I will teach you. Come, we sleep. Tomorrow, we begin hunting." Mother stated with a slight smile, but I wasn't in the mood to act cute for her, so I just turned away, ignoring her.

In the end, she carried me back to the tent in her arms as I sobbed silently, trying to get rid of the bitterness in my heart that even my mother's arms couldn't console me from, especially when so much of that bitterness had been caused by the owner of those very arms.