Amber exited the vehicle and waved at her driver. It was dusk, the sun just setting and her driver would be back in the morning to pick her up. She found herself at the edge of a state park a little ways outside the limits of the city. At this time of year there wouldn't be many tourists but there would be larger game; most notably deer or possibly coyotes.

Walking to a small grove just outside of view of the road, Amber felt a thrill of anticipation go through her. She would be hunting this night and, more importantly by far, she wouldn't be hunting alone. Ever since returning from the Brazilian rain forests, she had come to understand that there was a balance she needed to maintain between her human and predator sides and that balance involved, at least occasionally, the experience of hunting. Her deinonychus form, the one she had been trapped in for more than a year and the other form she considered her true form, right along with with 2 legged human form, also involved pack and hunting with others of her kind and that was a much more difficult thing to feed.

Recently, however, Amber had met another who engaged in the hunt. She wasn't quite certain what Regan thought of her, knowing they had some different philosophies, but she had nevertheless agreed to go hunting and for that Amber felt great affection for the cat woman. While still in her weak human form with its dulled human senses, she relied on the assistance of a flashlight to navigate herself to the center of the grove. There she sat awaiting her partner, deciding not to shift until the hunt was to actually begin. After all, speech might be useful and once shifted it would be denied her.

Regan had decided to take a cab out to the woods where she was planning on meeting up with her new friend Amber for a long overdue hunt. The lady at the admonitions desk in the mansion had given her the personal number of a cabby that didn’t mind driving mutants. Still a little paranoid about it, Regan put on her black hoodie and covered her head as much as possible so that the cab driver wouldn’t be too afraid of her. The drive wasn’t too long but it was a little ways and the silence had been rather awkward, so when they arrived at the edge of the woods, Regan gave the cabby an extra ten dollars for his help.

Getting out of the cab, she stretched her arms above her head before leaning back in the door of the cab. “Thanks a lot for the help. I’ll call you if I need a ride back home.” The cabby nodded and gave her a genuine smile. He was a decent guy after all. With that she closed the door and the cab drove off into the night and she took in a deep breath before making her way into the wood, towards the grove where she had agreed to meet up with Amber.

Her eyes adapted quickly to the dark of the woods and she clearly found her way to the grove. She pulled off her hood and smiled as she spotted Amber’s form sitting in the grove waiting. A small flutter wiggled through her stomach. Regan was a little nervous about this. She had never hunted with someone else before and she had no idea how it would go. The saber tooth liked her space and her catches to herself, but maybe this would be good for her. She just hoped that she wouldn’t hurt Amber in the process.

Pushing her fears to the side for now, Regan came forward into the grove. “Hey Amber, glad to see you decided to come.” She smiled softly and moved closer so they weren’t standing at an awkward distance.

Amber sat on the ground, legs crossed and hands folded upon her lap as she waited for Regan to arrive. Mostly she felt anticipation and the joint hunt to come but she couldn't deny the thread of apprehensive that went through her as well. While she greatly looked forward to the experience of hunting with another, as a true pack hunter should be able to experience, it was something new to her and she knew it would change the dynamics of the hunt. There was also the fear that, largely lacking in the instincts of her other form, she might ruin the hunt. Regan was a true feral and she didn't think the other mutant would have the same difficulties. Everything Amber had learned about hunting and surviving in the wild she had learned through hard experience. Why her forms should be so lacking she didn't know, but sometimes she truly felt their lack.

It didn't take long for Regan to arrive and, once in site, Amber rose to her feet. She envied the cat woman in some ways, not only for her hunter's pure instincts but also because she wasn't hampered by weak human senses. The other mutant didn't need a flashlight to make her way through the darkness of the forest, not as Amber herself did. Still, she couldn't feel too sorry for herself. After all, Regan could only be what she was; a feral cat where as Amber had an almost infinite variety of different forms and roles she could take if need be.

"Of course I decided to come," Amber answered with a smile. Smiling as a human wasn't usually taken as threatening. Smiling as a deinonychus, she had learned, often was. "I am likewise glad you decided to make it. I should ask, before we get started, is there anything I should know? About how you might react in the fact of prey and blood?" While she had little experience with feral mutants, she had plenty with true predatory animals and sometimes prey and the scent of blood could trigger things. If such was the same with Regan, she at least wanted to know about it first in order to react accordingly.

Smiling back at Amber with a wide fanged grin, Regan stepped a little closer. The woman was just as glad to see her as she was to see Amber. The smile quickly faded as Amber asked how Regan would react in the presence of prey and blood. She knew she was going to have to tell Amber the truth and all of it before they started their hunt, it was only fair. She considered Amber a new friend so she was going to be honest, even if it was something she feared would ruin their friendship.

Taking in a deep breath she started to speak. “Well as I am now, prey and blood don’t overly faze me, but I won’t be hunting like this. I have another form. I look relatively the same, but I am a saber tooth. I become completely feral and primal in that mindset and I can’t speak to you. At that point prey and blood are the fuel that drives me. I can’t guarantee what will happen when I shift, but if things go badly I give you full permission to kill me Amber. I don’t want to hurt you, but I can’t control the beast. Please save yourself if things go sour.” She looked at Amber with serious eyes. She meant every word, even the words to kill her.

“I would ask if there is anything I need to know, but my saber tooth won’t know it until she experiences it herself. We are like two different creatures in the same body. My senses and abilities are even stronger in that state than they are now. Hopefully we will get along.” She sighed again and wondered if Amber would not want to do this anymore, she would understand if she didn’t. “Well if everything is ok for the hunt, I’ll let you shift first so you can protect yourself when I shift.” It was the least she could do.

Saber tooth was not what Amber expected to hear. "We are both prehistoric creature then," Amber stated with a faint smile and a nod. It was fitting, somehow, that her first hunting partner should be a creature from the past as she was a creature from the past. Of course, saber tooth tigers actually existed millions of years after her own dinosaur forms ruled the earth, but that wasn't important. Both their kinds had been extinct for a very very long time.

Amber listened to the warnings Regan gave to her, a grave expression on her face. "Do you know that I envy you, in some ways? You have true instincts of your predator within where as I mostly have to fake them." Something of a bitter reality, that. "But perhaps in my own self pity I sometimes fail to see that there are disadvantages to connecting to your feral heritage just as there are advantages. I do not believe it shall come to the death of one or the other of us."

Amber wondered just how enhanced Regan's saber tooth form actually was. She knew her own strengths and limitations as a deinonychus very well and, in fact, her stable of other forms as well. She had never truly had a chance to pit herself against another with physical and predatory gifts, however. It was not something to do this night and was probably not something to be done safely with a truly wild saber tooth, but perhaps it was something to be done eventually.

"I shall do my best to read your signals and react accordingly. Would it be safest if I shifted first?"

Regan nodded at Amber’s comment, they were indeed both creatures from the past, though Regan’s saber tooth was still somewhat humanoid looking, but the mind was feral. She hoped that everything would go well for the pair, they seemed to get along well as themselves, but that nervous flutter returned in her stomach as she thought about what might go wrong.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Amber’s words and she couldn’t help but tilt her head to the side with a quizzical look on her feline face. Amber envied her? “You may envy me, but I envy you. I wish I could be of my own mind while I was shifted. Instead I get to sit back and watch a blurred foreign movie with no subtitles and no real understanding of what is going on.” She sighed and put on a half-smile. “Every mutation seems to have a disadvantage of some sort, some worse than others. Losing control of my mind and body is quite the disadvantage for me. My saber tooth doesn’t have a conscious, she does what comes naturally to her and I have to live with the consequences when I shift back.”

Giving Amber another nod to her statement and question, Regan gave a small smile. “I appreciate that, I really don’t want to hurt you. I think it would be safest for you to shift first. My saber tooth would see you as prey as a human, but think twice before attacking another predator right off the get go. It will also give you some protection if she does decide to attack. I’ll turn my back so you can shift, I know how it feels to have people watching you, it can be uncomfortable.” With that said, Regan turned around and waited for the tell-tale sounds of Amber’s shift.

In listening to Regan speak about that loss of control, Amber decided that it all came back to balance, once again. Instincts accompanying her shifts would certainly be welcome but she was pretty sure she didn't want to absolutely lose control. Ideally, she would like a human mind backed up by the keen edge that came with the predator's mind. Perhaps it was useless to think in such ways. They were what they were, she and Regan both and it was futile to try and force that to change.

"I don't know what it must be like to not be in control," Amber answered honestly. "I suppose it must be horrible. Still, perhaps you might one day learn to assume control? I know when I first discovered what I could do, it took time to learn to control it, both to shift and to control the forms I shifted into. It still takes time to learn the ins and outs of a new form, when I find one." It was the only help she knew to offer.

Amber had long ago stopped feeling modest both about her own nudity and about her own horrible imagery when shifting. Both were natural things that she need feel no compunction about. Still, she nodded as Regan turned her back and took off her robes, folding them safely beside her. It took less than a minute to go from a pale little human girl to a sleep and agile Deinonychus. The night time world opened up before her as new senses arose and deadly teeth and sickle claws gleamed in the darkness. She let out a chirp to let Regan know she was ready.

Regan nodded at Amber’s words. She hoped that one day she could control the mind of the beast when she shifted. There had been so many times where she wished she could rein in the saber tooth and have it listen to her, like when she ended up attacking poor Clyde. “Perhaps one day I will be able to control the beast, I can only hope. But until then I take all the precautions I can to ensure everyone’s safety.”

Hearing Amber’s chirp, Regan turned to face the dinosaur that Amber had become. It was the same form she had been when they first met each other in the woods. Regan walked over to where Amber was standing, her robes on the floor next to her. She took off her hoodie and placed it over Amber’s robes. She looked up at Amber to explain why she had done that. “I’m mingling my scent with yours, it might help ease the saber tooth’s mind, so it knows you are not a threat.” The saber tooth used scent a lot to make connections, Regan hoped that the scent mingle would help with the connection that Amber was a friend and not a foe.

Stepping to the other side of the grove to give herself and Amber plenty of room to help ease the tension once she shifted, Regan took a deep breath. “Here we go.” She took off her combat boots and dropped down to all fours to prepare for the shift. She closed her emerald eyes and called forth her saber tooth, which was all too eager to come out and play. A low growl escaped her lips as her bones started to pop and snap, readjusting for her new posture. Her muscles started to bulk up under her fur and she grew slightly in size. Finally she let out a savage and pained roar as her long saber tooth fangs extended from under her upper lip. Her eyes snapped open and the saber tooth looked around trying to focus on the new surroundings, not noticing the predator that was standing on the other side of the grove.

It wasn't an entirely unexpected act when Regan began mingling her sent with Amber's own. As a predator herself, she knew just how heavily she relied on scent to navigate the world. Her deinonychus form had excellent vision being related to birds, of course, but her sense of smell was not exactly lacking either. Smell, sight and sound were her primary senses in that form, among the best of all her forms. It was one of the reasons it had become her second natural form, along with her human body. Superior senses, though not so different from human to be unwieldy, as well as small, sleek and deadly. Eventually, of course, she would gain herself yet more forms but she didn't think any would replace her favoured one. It fit her like a second skin in a way none of her other forms did.

Despite the courtesy Regan had shown her by turning her own back as Amber transformed, she couldn't help but curb her curiostiy and watch Regan's own shift. Not only did she find it irrational to be ashamed of such things, but it wasn't as if she had the opportunity to watch herself transform except through a mirror and even then the pain was usually such that she couldn't easily pay attention to the details. She tried not to be rude about it, looking out of the corner of her eye instead of directly, but couldn't deny her fascination. It was, she surmised, much as she must appear when engaged in her own shift.

Once Regan's shift was complete, Amber fully raised her head to look upon her glorious new partner. Her fangs appeared every bit as deadly and over-sized as Amber's own sickle claws, and she could clearly see the strength in her muscles. While careful not to show any fear in the face of the saber tooth, she was also certain not to attempt a challenge of dominance. She met the eyes of the saber tooth briefly before dropping her gaze, just slightly. Staring was a challenge for dominance and she wasn't at all sure that a battle for who got to be alpha was the best way to start the night. Instead, she chirped inquisitively at the other.

The saber tooth’s eyes finally adjusted to the dark. Her ears flicked forward as a chirping sound came from across the grove. She growled and locked her eyes with the creature across from her. She took a slow step forward and flattened her ears against her red hair. She sniffed the air in-between taking slow steps and growls. She wasn’t sure what this other creature was, but she could pick up her own sent on the other side of the grove, at some point she was over there by that creature.

Being cautious she stopped in the middle of the grove, one of her clawed hands lifted into the air as she sniffed the air more. Her ears flicked forward once again and she let out a slight roar, not overly threatening, but more a curious chortle. Her tail flicked about as she watched the other creature carefully. It looked like a hunter, but she was not sure, and she was not about to let herself get caught off guard by this creature. The saber tooth was hungry and she was in no mood for competition, though so far the creature seemed to be showing some signs of submission. If it did decide to challenge her though, she would not hesitate to stand her ground.

Amber stood very still and let the saber tooth sniff her. She was acutely aware of the precarious situation she found herself in and, if the other predator wasn't making any overtly threatening moves at the moment, one wrong move and that could change in a heartbeat. If it did come to violence, it was impossible to say who would come out on top in that particular challenge. She knew very well her own abilities and how they compared with most natural animals, but that didn't mean much when it came to mutants.

Amber felt her own muffled instincts burble at the back of her mind, just a hint of a need to either flee or challenge. Even for one such as she, standing there and allowing this to happen didn't feel quite right. Regan might have been a mutant with a human mind mostly, but it was clear she was a true feral at just that moment and to suppress that fight or flight instinct was more difficult than she had anticipated. Still, her mind was still her own and she knew how that particular game would play out. Far better to do as she was doing.

Amber answered the giant cat's inquisitive roar with an affirming chirp of her own. Surely that was a good sign. No blood had yet been drawn and, with any luck, no blood would be except for that of their prey.