Chapter Text
Mike was sitting in the clubhouse. Sunlight was filtering through the gaps in the wall that they called windows. A cicada sang and the wind blew softly. He flipped a page of his book. He was lying on his stomach, his chin resting on one arm and stomach warmed by the wood.
He didn't like to sit against things; it always felt oddly cramped when his tailpone was being smothered.
He hears a noise outside, and the ladder jiggles. Beverly hops in, fingers splayed on the oak as she sits in a feline like position. "Hey Mike!" she says. "Hi!" He says. He notices the thing strapped to her head. "What's that?" He asks. She somehow understands, even though he wasn't specific. "Oh, this?" She pulls it down onto her face and smiles. It's a mask that goes over her eyes and forehead, with large almond shaped eyeholes. Her green eyes glitter. It resembles a deer, with black and white spots decorating the brown felt. "And I also have..." she turns, and he sees a piff of white with a stripe of brown through it attached to her pants. "A tail!" she announces proudly.
Mike gasps. She looks amazing. "Why?" he asks. Bev shrugs. "I like it." She answers. "They make me feel like myself." "Oh!" Mike says.
He feels something behind him. He feels it a lot. It's very similar to a phantom tail. He feels it flick.
"I'm a therian, which means I have an animal soul in a human body." Her voice is smooth and comforting. "There are people who describe it differently, but that's just how I feel." Mike stares at his open book, then closes it.
"For example, a lot of people believe that they had a past life as their theriotype, which is the animal that they are." "That sounds..." he doesn't know how to respond. "Crazy?" "No, no. Wonderful." She smiles at that, and leans on the wall.
"There's a therian thing I do called quadrobics. Can I show you?" Mike nods. He follows her down the ladder and into the forest surrounding the clubhouse.
She climbs onto a laege rock and winks at him. "Watch." She places her hands on the ground, bounds forward, and jumps off the rock. Her red ponytail flies behind her and her arms curl up near her chest, then shoot out as she lands. Mike watches her, amazed. He didn't know people could be so talented.
Mike laughs in amazement. "Holy smokes!" He says. Bev laughs too. "Can you teach me?" He asks. Bev nods excitedly. "Of course, Mikey!"