     Firros yawned and relaxed. Now that his friends had headed home, the cheetah 
could finally stretch his long legs under the table. He decided to order one final drink before he too 
would head back to the large cat residential district. It wouldn't be much longer before the only ones 
outside at all would be the carnivores out to hunt, and the smaller citizens unfortunate enough not 
to have made it indoors yet. 
     'Another one, Sir?' A waitress caught his attention, snapping him from his daze. He turned to 
meet the green eyes of the tan lynx woman and nodded. 
     'One more sounds good, thanks.' He reached for his phone to use the pay-all app, but she shook 
her head and smiled. 
     'The girl at the bar has this one covered.' The lynx explained. 'I think she's into you. But I also 
think she's a little bit crazy.' 
     'What makes you say that?' Firros smirked. 'You don't think someone like me might earn a drink 
for his looks now and then?' He laughed, the collective weight of his previous five ales beginning to 
weigh on him. This would definitely be his last or he might not keep his feet together on the way 
home. 
     'I'm sure you'll figure it out.' The lynx responded with a playfully mocking tone. 'I might let her 
bring the drink to you herself, but I think she'd struggle.' 
     'Hmm?' Now Firros was intrigued, the woman's words were hardly subtle at this point and the 
cheetah wondered if some smaller breed of cat was buying him drinks to flirt with him. He had no 
bias towards race in general, but the obvious size differences in some relationships he had seen 
raised even more obvious mechanical questions. 
     As he turned to face the bar, his curiosity giving him little choice, he raised an enquiring eyebrow 
and scanned the bar for his potential admirer. The bar was sparse with customers, much like the rest 
of the pub. A handful of felids were along its length, but none were paying him any heed. The only 
individual looking his way was a youngish looking rabbit woman, dressed as though she was ready 
for the night life. 
     She met his gaze with her own and nodded, her smile curling a bit more as she slid off her 
barstool and dropped to the ground. The stool itself was almost taller than her, making him smile in 
amusement. His smile grew as she approached his table, jumping onto the chair opposite him and 
leaning onto the tabletop. She had to stand, and even then only her chest and above were visible. 
     'You must be crazy.' Firros remarked, nodding a quick thank you to the lynx as she dropped his 
drink off and continued past, before returning his gaze to the bunny. 
     'I've been known to do crazy things.' She replied, looking back at him with a strangely eager 
expression that bordered on lust, but was still more curiosity than anything else. Her eyes were an 
intense shade of blue, and her tight buttoned vest top seemed chosen to match. Her fur was mostly 
almost white, with a patch of brown that lead into her shoulder length hair. Her hair itself seemed to 
follow an inverted colour pattern, mostly brown but with streaks of the same creamy white that 
covered the rest of her. 
     'Well, despite my brags to the waitress, it has been a while since a girl bought me a drink.' Firros 
remarked. 'So, what prompted this... unusually targeted flirt?' 
     'Maybe I'm insane?' The girl grinned. 'Or maybe I thought you looked lonely after your friends 
left. Either way, we have a bit of time to talk. My name's Renee. What's yours?' 
     'Firros.' The cheetah replied. 'So, Renee. Are you one who prefers to date carnivores? Because I'll 
be fair to you, I haven't had that kind of relationship that lasted very long. And on another note, you 
uh, happen to be my favourite food.' 
     'Really?' Renee raised an eyebrow, if anything seeming even more intrigued. 'That'll make things 
spicy won't it. Hmm, what can a poor defenceless bunny like me do to keep herself out of the big 
hungry cat's belly?' 
     Firros leaned in closer. 'You almost sound like you want it?' 
     'Ohh, no noo...' Renee shook her head. 'I'm a bit of a thrill seeker sure, but I have no intention of 
ending up as cat food.' 
     Firros glanced at the clock hanging above the bar. It read a little after half past seven. 'Well, if you 
push your luck too much longer, that choice might be out of your hands.' He took a swig of his drink 
and leaned a little closer to Renee's own enticed face. 
     The rabbit was smaller than the cheetah by a lot, not quite to the same extent as a rat or a 
mouse, but certainly small enough to find herself in the cheetah's stomach intact should he decide 
not to bite her in half. The look she saw in his amber coloured eyes conveyed that his earlier words 
had been true, that rabbits were indeed his favourite food and she was likely whetting his appetite 
that very second. 
     'You seem unconcerned?' Firros raised an eyebrow. 'Got someone picking you up?' 
     '...No...' Renee replied. 'I just... I was hoping for some more time with you. Would it be too 
forward to ask for your number?' 
     'Not at all.' Firros shrugged. 'But I will warn you I haven't found much success with relationships 
like this. They either end up as food, or I scare them off.' 
     'I'll take my chances.' Renee grinned. Once phone numbers were exchanged, she hopped down 
from the table and headed for the exit. She gave him one final glance before her fluffy short tail was 
out the door. 

     It had been nearly two hours now since Firros had left the pub, and as he glanced out the window 
of his living room into the dark streets outside, wondering if it would be worthwhile trying a hunt at 
this hour. He had food in the fridge of course, but it had been a few days since he'd enjoyed living 
prey. Part of him regretted not making an attempt to lure Renee back to his home, but he'd always 
been the sort to give his prey a sporting chance. Not that many could outrun him, but a slim chance 
was still a chance. Trickery was not how he preferred to hunt. 
     As he pondered the decision to head out, a familiar tone began to play from behind him. He 
turned and looked towards his couch, where his phone sat on one of the cushions. He sat himself 
back down on the maroon coloured cushions and picked the device up, blinking in surprise as he saw 
the name Renee appear on the screen. Why would she be calling? 
     He tapped to answer and lifted the phone to his head. 'Renee? That you?' 
     'Yes...' Renee answered, her voice low and somewhat ragged, as though she was out of breath 
from running. 'H-hey, I know we only met for a few minutes, but c-can I ask you for a favour?' 
     'What's wrong?' Firros asked. Despite his thoughts of eating the girl just moments ago, he did feel 
a tinge of concern all of a sudden for the rabbit's wellbeing. 
     'Can you tell me where you live?' She asked, once more unable to hide the fear in her voice. 
'Look, I wasn't planning to intrude on you like this, but things... well, they went bad. We're stuck in 
the big cat district and there's a pair of leopards prowling near the terminal.' 
     'Why are you anywhere near this place?' Firros asked in bewilderment. 'Your zone is nowhere 
near this one.' 
     'I... I can explain everything, but please just help us! We're on Dewclaw Avenue, where are you?' 
     Firros thought for a moment before he replied. 'Savannah Road. Follow Dewclaw all the way 
north and turn left. Second street on your right is Savannah.' He hesitated before the next part, 
sighing deeply before he continued. 'I'll leave the front light on and the door just open. You have ten 
minutes before I close it again.' 
     'Thank you!' Renee replied in the same panicky voice before the call ended. As his phone returned 
to its default home screen of a cloudy sky, the cheetah began wondering what he was going to do. 
He was still hungry of course, but it sounded like Renee was not alone. He was also unable to shake 
the guilt of potentially consuming someone who had come to him for help. But then again, helping 
prey was hardly his obligation. 
     He was no closer to a decision when the sound of a couple of small pairs of feet sounded faintly 
from outside. He looked to his front door moments later to see two rabbits dart inside. One he 
recognized as Renee, still wearing her blue outfit that she'd had on at the pub. Her friend, half a 
second through the door behind her, was a rabbit of dark grey fur wearing a similarly plain coloured 
outfit of green. 
     He was at the door half a second later, towering over both of them as he pushed the door shut 
with a click. 'What are you doing here?' 
     Renee and her friend both looked up at Firros with a mix of gratitude and fear. Both pairs of blue 
eyes were too filled with dread to look away, and it was only after a few more seconds of deep 
breathing and shaking that Renee was able to stand up and answer. 'I-I ran into Angie outside. She 
got a call from another her brother just after I left the... the pub. H-he was...' She trailed off as her 
eyes sank to the floor. 
     'He was what?' Firros demanded, gesturing to the two of them to sit on the sofa. They moved 
slowly at first, but quicker once the cheetah narrowed his eyes. 
     'He was with someone.' Renee continued once she had climbed onto the cushion Firros had been 
sitting on a few minutes ago. 'H-his college lab partner, and they were working on an assignment, 
but he was so... he didn't keep track of time...' 
     'Right.' Firros nodded slowly. 'And this lab partner of his?' 
     'She's a leopard.' Renee sighed. 'I thought we'd be able to distract her and help him out. But s-she 
had a friend too. Now they're keeping the train terminal in their sight and there are just... so many 
other cats out there.' 
     'It's a miracle you made it here.' Firros almost laughed. 'Though I don't know why you thought it 
was a good idea. I was a minute or two from heading out there myself.' 
     The fear in both rabbits' eyes was much more palpable now, and he could smell the change in the 
air. Trusting a predator during active hunting hours was the sort of thing you did with a long-
standing friend, not someone you met at a bar that same afternoon. Still, he couldn't deny that he 
was at least partially intrigued by Renee's interest in him. Angie on the other hand... 
     'There's a bathroom down the end of the hall on the left.' The cheetah told them. 'You can clean 
yourselves up while I decide what I'm going to do.' 
     'T-thank you!' Angie responded first, her first words since arriving. She slid off the sofa and was 
out of the living room in seconds, leaving Renee alone in the room with Firros. 
     The cheetah stood by the door a moment longer, then slowly approached the sofa and took a 
seat beside the small rabbit. 'So, how do you feel?' 
     Renee looked back up at him and swallowed nervously. 'I'm terrified, but... calm, I guess?' She 
held still despite her instincts screaming at her to run when the large cat reached across and rested 
his hand on her head. 
     It would be so easy for him to lift her up and slide her feet first into his mouth. He'd never had a 
meal come so willingly to his own house before, so this was a rare and appealing opportunity. And 
yet? 
     'A-are you going to...?' The rabbit began to nervously enquire as to her own fate, but fell silent 
when Firros looked her in the eye. 
     'No.' He replied. 'Tonight, you're the luckiest little bunny in this whole city. Your friend on the 
other hand... Angie was it?' 
     'Y-you're gonna-!' 
     'Yes.' Firros interrupted Renee's protest and ran his hand down her back. He pulled her 
momentarily closer and leaned his face up to hers, illustrating the clear alternative should she 
succeed in persuading him to spare her friend. 
     She kept silent, huddled on his sofa as he slunk out of the room into the hallway. His feet were as 
silent as those of any cat on the prowl, but she still let her ears lower, putting her hands tightly over 
them to try and cover the sounds that she knew would be coming from down the hallway in 
moments... 
     Firros got down on all fours, slowly approaching the bathroom door with silent feline grace. He 
pushed the door open, the silent motion revealing the naked form of Angie having climbed up into 
the basin where she could examine herself in the mirror. Though he was behind her, his reflection in 
the doorway alerted her to the immediate danger she was in. 
     'What are you...?' She spun to face him, reflexively covering herself with her hands. 'Ohh no, 
please don't do this...' She looked to her clothes on the floor beneath the basin, where her phone 
was located, so close yet too far to be of any help. 
     'It's you or Renee.' Firros said softly, standing up and taking the last few steps up to his basin. 
'And you just ran out of luck.' His hands clamped onto her from either side and he lifted the 
squirming girl out of the basin. Her fur was damp, soft and exuded the odour of a bath that had not 
yet been completed. Even so, the allure of her flavour, her body's texture and her feeble resistance 
made his mouth water in anticipation. 
     He grasped her by the scruff with his left hand, his claws digging into her skin and bound her legs 
together with his right. Rabbits, much like his own kind, had been strong runners in the wild days 
and their descendants both still bore the traits inherited from those times. Angie's legs would be 
powerful for her size, capable of knocking a tooth loose if she could line up a solid kick. But they 
would be useless once pinned together by his jaws and gullet. 
     His jaws parted, his arms lifting the squirming and whimpering bunny to his mouth. As her feet 
and ankles rested on his tongue, he began to purr softly in enjoyment. Rabbits had become his 
favourite prey due to the flavour they exuded, especially when they were afraid. It wasn't their fault 
of course, but no predator ever let such compassion override such a base instinct as hunger. 
     His lips closed around her waist, leaving her toes already pressing into the back of his throat. He 
swallowed loudly, slurping her torso in between his pointed fangs. Her hands grasped at his eyes, 
quickly stopped by his own as he pressed her arms between his teeth. His tongue curled up over her 
shoulders and pulled her in deeper. 
     With her lower half now enveloped by the large cat's throat, Angie finally screamed. Her final cry 
was cut short as the cheetah's jaws engulfed her, muffling the sound of his voice with one final solid 
swallow. In his mirror, Firros watched his neck expand with the rabbit's squirming body, slowly 
shrinking down to its usual slender shape as his dinner made her way to his stomach. 

     Angie was trying to squirm, trying to stop her descent down the cheetah's impossibly tight gullet, 
to do anything she possibly could to prolong her life. The wet heat of her surroundings was 
accompanied by a horrid stench as she sank deeper into the tall cat's body. She felt the pressure 
lessen on her ankles and shins just moments after his final swallow and realized with abject horror 
that she was already dropping into his stomach. 
     Her final struggles were as useless as her first, the powerful musculature of Firros' digestive tract 
paying no heed to the desperate desire she had to squirm her way free, to escape this horrendous 
fate and live another day. The heat, the humidity and the smell were tenfold worse instantly as her 
head was pressed through the upper sphincter, sealing tight around her ears until they too were 
squeezed into this deadly churning pit. 
     The stomach walls were slimy and compressing, giving her no purchase to make any attempt to 
struggle further. They pressed in on her naked vulnerable body with rhythmic pulses in time with the 
booming heartbeat from above. She wanted to scream again, but with the humid air already 
beginning to sting her lungs, she couldn't. The skin around her buttocks and feet where her fur was 
thinner was already beginning to feel the slight tingle as the pulsating flesh began to secrete gastric 
acid. She didn't have much time left... 

     Firros sat himself back down on the sofa beside Renee. She looked back at him for a few 
moments, meeting his gaze at first but it didn't take long for her eyes to lower to his abdomen. He 
didn't say anything, but as he watched her, she slowly found the courage to shuffle a little closer to 
him. Her eyes were wide, but with the cheetah's hunger sated, her fear seemed to have somewhat 
lessened. 
     'She's... in there?' She said softly, as though in disbelief. 
     'Yes.' Firros nodded. 'Still trying to squirm around. But they don't usually last long. Rats and mice 
do. Only because they use up their air slower.' 
     'What does it... feel like?' She asked hm. 
     'You never had a belly full of food?' Firros smirked in response. 
     'Not alive and squirming like that...' She remarked nervously. 'Not... another living person. I was 
just thinking how strange it must feel, knowing that another person is going to die inside you and 
become part of you.' 
     'Not strange at all.' Firros shrugged. 'It's just natural. The way things are.' 
     Renee trembled, but again inched closer to him. She turned to face him on the sofa, leaning her 
face in close to the slightly distended skin of his belly. She gasped when she felt his hand on her 
back, pressing her against himself. Her hands and cheeks came to rest on his gut, and she felt the 
faint twitches and heard the faint rumbling of the terrifying things happening inside. One of her 
friends was being turned into rabbit soup inches from her head, and were it not for all but a coin 
toss decision, that fate would have been hers. 
     'I think I'm gonna head up to bed.' Firros said after a few more minutes. 'I don't have a spare bed, 
but the couch seems big enough for-' 
     'Is there room in your bed?' Renee asked suddenly. 
     'I... guess so?' The cheetah replied. 'You wouldn't feel weird or scared?' 
     'You're... full, right?' She asked nervously. 
     'For now.' Firros grinned. 'But there's always breakfast time if I wake up early enough.' He 
wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a close hug. 'Do you still feel lucky?' 
     'I suppose we'll find out.' Renee replied. 'So...?' 
 
     Firros' bed was giant, even for someone his height. It would easily fit two cheetahs his side, even 
a leopard could share the mattress with him comfortably. While the cheetah was sprawled on his 
back, leaving his belly to its work, Renee curled up on the pillow beside him. 
     The air was cold, but the cat had no covers for her. While she didn't envy the warmth Angie would 
undoubtedly feel in the last moments of her life, she did look at the sleeping cheetah's body with a 
sense of unusual longing. With slow and silent movements to avoid waking the sleeping predator, 
she crawled across the bed and pressed herself into his side. 
     Once more she felt his breaths, the soft rumbling of his stomach turning Angie into a dissolved 
mush, and the soft thumping of his heartbeat. But it was far warmer here than across the bed on her 
own and she'd be safe so long as he was sated. She rested a hand on his belly briefly, silently saying 
a goodbye to her friend. Angie would be missed, but Renee would survive one more night at least. 
One thing was for certain, she'd be far more careful going forward... 
     
