     Estelle stared at herself in the mirror, her green eyes piercing their own reflection as her loose 
brown hair dangled before them. She breathed deliberately slowly, trying to calm herself down. Her 
last appointment had turned into a more intense session than she'd expected. Though she had kept 
her composure, her mind had been fighting a losing battle in terms of keeping her impulses under 
control. 
     The door opened behind her and her receptionist stepped inside. 'Estelle? Are you alright?' 
     'Yea...' Estelle panted, bringing herself back to focus She parted her hair and put it back into place 
as the lioness stepped over, her face joining Estelle's in the mirror as she crouched down with a 
concerned expression. 'Just a little bit of tension near the end of the session there. Was he alright?' 
     Aure's amber eyes raised from concern to amusement at the lynx's question. 'Oh, Del was fine. I 
don't think he even noticed at all. Pretty high spirits actually considering what he was here for.' 
     'Just another reason we should have rescheduled.' Estelle sighed. 'Even if I helped, I know I could 
have done better if I wasn't distracted. This was just a bad time for that topic.' 
     'I know, but it was your call.' Aure shrugged. 'And besides, that's what these half hour cooldowns 
are for between patients. Now you can stop thinking about a rabbit here for grief counselling after 
his fianc was eaten alive in front of him, yea?' 
     'Well, I was about to.' The lynx narrowed her eyes and turned to stare at Aure in mock anger. 
     'I was wondering if that was the same rabbit that Miss Vidalia mentioned.' Aure remarked as she 
headed back towards the door. 
     Estelle shrugged as she straightened her suit back out. 'I don't think so. Del mentioned it was a 
leopard, not a cheetah. It's not that hard to tell the difference, surely.' 

     'Your last appointment is a felid, so you can relax.' Aure placed the file on the desk in front of 
Estelle as the lynx stirred her coffee. 'Name is Mikaela Eller, says she feels guilty about consuming a 
partner and doesn't know how to deal with it.' 
     'I see.' Estelle flicked though the file, seeing the wildcat's basic medical records and noting that 
there was no history of any illnesses, only minor injuries and no prior psychological issues. Anything 
further would require more specialised credentials on Estelle's part, but for now it seemed like this 
would be a clear cut grief counsel. She nodded as Aure returned to the office door. 
     Aure beckoned to someone on the other side, and a few moments later Estelle saw the small felid 
step into the room before Aure stepped out and closed the door. She had brilliant fluffy ginger fur 
with a stripe pattern, striking yellow eyes and frizzy mid brown hair. She wore a simple maroon shirt 
and blue jeans, and as Estelle stood to greet her, their eyes met. 
     Estelle could see straight away there was fear in that gaze. Fear of something that couldn't be 
explained with just words, it was something that would be harder to understand. She stood and 
made her way out from behind her desk.
     'Doctor Jargal?' Mikaela asked. Her breathing was visibly shallow, 
     'Yes.' Estelle nodded, holding out a reassuring hand as she approached the young woman. 'You 
can call me Estelle. We don't need to be formal in here. Just relax, and tell me what's bothering you. 
Would you like to sit down? Lie down? Can I get you a drink of coffee or tea?' 
     'Uhh, sure.' Mikaela looked around at the three different couches in the room, slowly moving 
towards the middle sized one. 'M-maybe a tea? Do you have mint?' 
     'Of course.' Estelle stepped over to her kitchenette and began boiling the water as Mikaela 
climbed onto the couch. 'While we wait for this, have you been to a therapist before?' 
     'No.' Mikaela shook her head, sitting upright and tense on the edge of the sofa cushion. 'I don't 
know how this works, what I'm supposed to do. But I'm falling apart, I haven't seen my best friend in 
almost a year now and I don't have anyone else I'm comfortable sharing these feelings with.' 
     'That's alright.' Estelle called, seeing the tears beginning to form at the corner of Mikaela's eyes. 
     'Although...' Mikaela briefly smiled before squeezing her eyes shut. 'She never would have helped 
me with this anyway.' 
     Estelle stepped back over with a cup of mint tea in hand and held it out for Mikaela to take. As the 
ginger cat took it with a nod of thanks and brought it close to her face, the lynx noted thankfully that 
this at least seemed to calm her a bit. She waited patiently as Mikaela took a few slow sniffs of the 
brew, then blew softly and took her first careful sip. 
     'So...' Estelle began slowly, weighing her words as she always did with a new patient to try and 
ease them into the topic without being too direct. 'You're here because you heard I was a grief 
counsellor, right? But by the sounds of it, it's more complicated than that. Would you like to tell me 
what happened?' 
     Mikaela looked up from her tea and met Estelle's gaze, eyes still glistening and on the verge of 
tears and lips still quivering as she tried to form the first words. 'Y-yea. It was an accident. I never 
meant for it to happen, but... I-I fell asleep.' 
     'You... fell asleep?' Estelle asked. 'I don't understand.' 
     Mikaela placed one hand on her belly and looked back at Estelle, taking a deep breath before she 
continued. 'She was in here. With a... a string, that I was gonna use to pull her back out.' 
     Estelle nodded slowly as she began to understood. 'But you fell asleep... I see.' 
     'I didn't mean for it to happen.' Mikaela repeated as she lowered her gaze back to the tea, 
gripping the cup in both hands once again. 'I always told her it was a bad idea, but she was... she was 
into it. I thought it was weird but it was still, sort of fun I guess? Like a game.' 
     'This isn't unusual.' Estelle replied reassuringly. 'Some of the smaller folks do find themselves 
attracted to carnivores, even being somewhat intrigued at the idea of being... well, prey. Tell me 
about her. What was her name? How did you meet?' 
     There was a short minute of silence as Mikaela gathered her thoughts. Estelle waited patiently, 
slowly beginning to grapple with her own at the same time. This was meant to be an easy session, 
but once again the topic of prey had risen and once again she was reminded that her own last few 
hunting forays had turned up empty and leaving her still craving a living meal. At least she wouldn't 
be faced with the temptation of eating her patient, but the topic at hand was still going to be 
somewhat challenging for both of them it seemed. 
     When at last Mikaela was ready to talk again, after a few more deep breaths and tentative sips of 
her tea, she met Estelle's own gaze and nodded slowly. 'Her name was Alison. She was a mouse. 
Worked in accounts and advice at my bank and helped me with the loan I needed to buy my first car.' 
     'Right.' Estelle nodded, noting that Mikaela was seeming to struggle with reliving these memories. 
The lynx slowly sat down on the same couch as Mikaela, keeping close but also allowing a respectful 
gap between them. 'Take your time, dear. We can stretch the hour a bit of we need to.' 
     Mikaela nodded again and took a deep breath. 'She was so... forward about it. We ended up 
getting lunch. Talking about... well, the usual cat and mouse dynamic I guess? She wasn't shy. I didn't 
think I would ever be in a relationship with another woman. But I have to admit I never really 
thought about it either. When the topic came up, I couldn't think of a reason to say no.' 
     'But could you think of a reason to say yes?' Estelle raised an eyebrow. Maybe the relationship had 
been doomed from the start anyway, and if not for this accident it would have simply been 
something else. Still, they weren't the first predator prey couple since Equality and likely wouldn't be 
the last. The lynx had an open mind about these things, but reality wasn't always as kind as idealism. 
     'Yes.' Mikaela replied without missing a beat. 'She was so sweet and honest, and she made me 
feel like I could be too. There was obviously no risk of accidental pregnancy, and the physical 
intimacy was... well, it was new to me but I liked it a lot. We moved in together pretty fast. And one 
of her favourite games was to play in my mouth. That was as far as it went for a long time.' 
     'How did your... hunting, urges impact this relationship?' Estelle asked. 
     'Mostly they didn't.' Mikaela continued. 'Not at first anyway. She told me she was fine with me 
eating other mice. So I kept doing it. But I think she was lying. After a while I noticed she was getting 
less comfortable about it. It was about that time we tried extending her game to take her... deeper. 
With the string so I could pull her back up. But... I...' 
     'There's something else?' Estelle pressed, not insistently but gently. The words needed to come 
freely for this to truly matter. 
     'I stopped hunting for a while.' Mikaela admitted. 'Nearly three months. I thought that the games 
with Alison would be enough to keep me satisfied. Keep my instinct down. And it did seem to be 
working.' 
     Estelle bit her tongue for the moment. That sort of thing never worked, and sooner or later a 
carnivore's mind would stop being fooled by psychological tricks. There was simply too much overlap 
between the conscious mind and the subconscious instinct, a fact that had been reinforced many 
times when crafting the city's hunting laws. 
     'It didn't work.' Mikaela sighed. 'Things got tense between us, but eventually she apologised for 
how it was making me feel. Said she never meant to make me feel guilty, and that I should keep 
hunting. So I did. Vigorously. Almost like I was trying to make up for time, you know?' 
     'Right.' Estelle nodded, trying to ignore that it was almost exactly how she felt in that moment. 
     'It was not long after that... the accident happened. I was tired. Thought it would all be fine. We 
played around a bit... Then I swallowed her with her safety string... And... fell asleep before I pulled 
her back out.' 
     'I see.' Estelle nodded, holding her next words as Mikaela lost another round of tears and spent 
the next few moments sobbing quietly. 'It's alright. Let it out.' 
     Mikaela shuffled on the couch and leaned heavily into Estelle. The lynx was surprised by this and 
raised her arms momentarily. It was unprofessional to have undue physical contact with a patient, 
but this still did happen from time to time. She took a slow breath and rested an arm around Mikaela 
slowly and carefully, ready to withdraw if the smaller cat showed any discomfort. But Mikaela only 
shuffled closer, wrapping one arm tightly around Estelle's waist while the other rested on her thigh, 
still clutching the teacup that was thankfully almost empty. 'I-I'm sorry.' 
     'That's alright.' Estelle replied, remembering the lack of close friends the cat had mentioned. It 
may have been quite some time since she had physical reassurance like this. Estelle felt herself 
feeling a tad nostalgic as hugging the smaller cat reminded her of her own daughter when she had 
been years younger. She tried to suppress the maternal feeling immediately. It was not good to let 
oneself get this close to patients. 
     Mikaela let go after a few more seconds had passed, seeming embarrassed at the sudden burst of 
emotion and taking a few more moments to compose herself. 
     'Are you alright?' Estelle asked. 'Do you feel ready to continue?' 
     Mikaela turned back to face Estelle slowly, trying to form words but only managed a few empty 
mouths of silence. 
     Estelle decided it might be easier to prompt a question that Mikaela could answer rather than 
trying to have her elaborate without a direction. 'Do you feel like maybe she blamed you in her last 
moments? Does it trouble you to think how angry or scared she might have been? Or do you think 
she might have felt betrayed?' 
     'No!' Mikaela replied suddenly, almost shouting the reply and catching Estelle by surprise. 'That's 
the worst part. She had her phone with her. Said she wanted to record it for... later. But after I fell 
asleep, she tried to call me a few times and then... she left a message instead.' 
     'Oh...' Estelle wasn't ready for this. Still, it was her job to try and help Mikaela through these 
issues, and so she was obligated to know as much as she could. 'What did she say?' 
     Mikaela hesitated for a few moments before she slipped her phone from her pocket. She brought 
up a screen and handed it to Estelle, then stood from the couch and stepped away. 
     Estelle kept her gaze on Mikaela for a few moments before looking down at the cat's phone. The 
sight was not something she was mentally prepared to see. On the screen was the face and chest of 
a young mouse woman from the camera of her own phone held up before her. She was completely 
coated in a layer of clear slime, her fur and hair matted to her body and glistening in her phone's dim 
light. Behind her, the undulating flesh of a stomach's interior wall also glistened periodically and the 
rippling of a greenish tinted fluid could be glimpsed around the murid woman's naked waist. 
     Estelle's breath caught. She hadn't made it through medical school or university without seeing a 
few internal shots of living bodies, but this was the first time she'd seen live prey inside a predator's 
stomach. And to think, this scene had taken place inside the young woman standing just a few 
metres away. Her own impulses threatened to overwhelm her senses and she felt her own mouth 
salivating at the thought that this is what her own prey experienced. Thousands of murids and other 
small folk over the course of her life had experienced this, and who knew how many more were 
destined to face this inside her again before her own life was over? 
     No, no, NO! Estelle took a deep breath and shook her head. She had to focus. She brought her 
mind back to the matter at hand and started trying her best to focus on the mouse, not her situation. 
And that was when the lynx noticed that the mouse was smiling. 
     Smiling. Despite clearly showing physical signs of digestion and a lack of breathable air making 
fatigue apparent with her body language and drooping eyes, the mouse was smiling. Alison made 
sure to reassure Mikaela, saying she didn't blame her for this and that she had always known and 
accepted the risk of their games and intimacy. She promised to transfer her money to Mikaela to 
help with rent until she found a new housemate. And she professed her love despite how her life was 
about to end. The smile made more sense by the end of the video. The mouse was not just trying to 
reassure her partner. She was... enjoying herself. 
     The message ended, and Estelle understood. Mikaela wasn't struggling with any unknowns at all, 
she was dealing with grief and an inability to accept that her partner made peace with her fate. 
Estelle realised that as much as Alison meant well, her calm acceptance probably only made Mikaela 
feel worse. Mikaela may have misinterpreted something here and Estelle needed to figure that part 
out. She thought for a few seconds, trying to formulate the best approach, then realised there was a 
simple question that needed answering first. 
     'When did this happen?' Estelle asked. 'How long have you been trying to cope with this?' 
     'About a month ago.' Mikaela answered. 'My manager at work said I could take some time, and my 
university professor gave me an extension on my current project. But I still feel like I'm getting 
nowhere.' 
     Estelle nodded, taking a deep breath before the next question and beckoning for Mikaela to rejoin 
her on the couch. 'Okay. Now I need to ask this of all carnivores... Has this event affected your 
hunting at all?' 
     Mikaela sat down meekly beside her and took a few short breaths before eventually nodding 
slowly. 'I haven't hunted or taken any live prey since it happened. I want to. I think? But there's this 
voice in my head that says I can't. I shouldn't.' 
     Estelle hid her concern and carried on with the conversation. 'Why do you think that is? Why 
would part of you not want to hunt?' 
     'Because... she died. She died because I ate her and it felt so horrible to lose her that way.' 
Mikaela's head bowed and she fell to the verge of tears once again. 'Anyone else I eat would be the 
same. Not for me, but for someone! How could I put this kind of pain on anyone else?' 
     Estelle wrapped an arm around Mikaela as the young felid once again leaned into her. She felt 
tears landing in her lap and squeezed a bit tighter. 
     'I never even met any of her family.' Mikaela sobbed. 'Or her other friends. But how would I ever 
face them now? I don't know who they are. They could be any other mouse I meet out there.'
     'You never used to feel this way, did you? Estelle asked. 
     'No...' Mikaela shook her head, slowly sitting back up. 
     'What about all the mice you've eaten in the past?' Estelle continued. 'Do you feel bad for them? 
Or their families?' 
     '...I don't know. Maybe?' Mikaela shrugged. 'Sometimes I just ate whole families so there was 
nobody left to be sad. Kids and all... Is that a bad thing? It never felt like a bad thing...' 
     'It's normal to feel empathy for someone you've become close to.' Estelle said reassuringly. 'Even 
if they were someone you'd eat under other circumstances. There must be some you can think of 
that you could have been friends with if you hadn't decided to eat them instead. Right?' 
     Mikaela thought for a few moments. 'I found a rabbit not long after Equality began. She was a 
mother. Had kids that'll never see her again.' 
     'Didn't bother you though, did it?' Estelle asked with a small smile. 'Any more than those mouse 
families?' 
     'No, not really...' Mikaela confessed, slowly giving a small smile of her own. 'She was so good. The 
way she struggled and squirmed inside. Mice never felt that good. And she... she probably felt so 
terrified.' 
     'Mhm.' Estelle nodded, patting Mikaela's shoulder. 'You know, I've had a few nights of bad luck in 
my own hunting recently. And I gotta say, snaring myself a helpless little rabbit sounds pretty good. 
Doesn't it?' While that was true of course, Estelle told herself that the real motivation behind sharing 
this was to try and draw out Mikaela's own vulnerability and honesty. 
     Mikaela let out a brief hum of amusement. 'Like that guy that was here before me?' 
     Estelle grinned, but narrowed her gaze and looked back at Mikaela with a slow shake of her head. 
'Now I'm glad you're feeling better, Mikaela. But I'm not allowed to talk with you about my other 
patients.' 
     'Sorry.' Mikaela smiled but it was brief. As the sadness returned to her eyes and the smile faded, 
she looked back at Estelle with a questioning, almost desperate stare. She still didn't have the answer 
she needed. 'How can I feel so bad about what happened to Alison, yet so good about doing the 
same thing to a complete stranger who probably had so much more to live for?' 
     'We already talked about that, remember?' Estelle replied. 'You felt empathy because you grew 
attached to Alison. You won't feel that for anonymous prey you find on the street.'
     'But I still feel so bad about this.' Mikaela shook her head hopelessly. 
     Estelle lifted Mikaela's phone back into her hand, beginning to fidget with the video as she replied 
in as gentle and calm a voice as she could manage. 'You know, Mikaela. In the psychology field, we've 
seen a lot of mixed race couples since Equality began. A lot of them are pretty straightforward. A 
squirrel and a cat, or a weasel with a leopard... But there are always obvious power imbalances in 
these couples. And it's usually the less powerful of the pair that instigates the relationship.' 
     'What do you mean?' Mikaela asked as Estelle lifted her own phone up to her. She had taken the 
video of Alison's message back to a particular point. 
     'How often have you watched this?' The lynx asked. 
     'Almost every day.' Mikaela sighed. 
     'I think you missed something important.' Estelle said, resting a hand comfortingly on the smaller 
cat's shoulder. 'As I was saying, in many of these relationships it's the smaller partner who instigates. 
Usually it's a submissive personality, but not always. The point is, on some level they feel a deep 
carnal desire to experience being prey. We don't fully understand it ourselves yet, but it's not all that 
uncommon, we've found. The smaller partner, sooner or later, wants to be consumed by the larger 
one.' 
     'You think Alison wanted this?' Mikaela asked, almost looking like the idea was absurd. 'It was a 
game, she was just... s-she was just fascinated by the idea of... she couldn't have actually wanted...?' 
     'Look.' Estelle held up the paused image. 'What do you see on her face?' 
     Mikaela looked at the frozen image of Alison's last minutes. She recognised where the lynx had 
paused the video. It was the part just after Alison had remarked on the risk, expressing gratitude that 
it had been Mikaela that eventually consumed her and not some other predator. Her expression 
was... 
     'You see it don't you?' Estelle said. 'That's the face of adoration. No panic, no fear or regret. Just 
love. Maybe this isn't exactly when Alison had planned to go, but I can all but promise you it was 
definitely how.' 
     'So your... studies and statistics...' Mikaela looked up at Estelle, still not looking fully convinced. 
'You think Alison was planning to let me eat her at some point? Like, for real?' 
     'I do.' Estelle nodded. 'When these kinds of urges arise, the person in question knows it can only 
happen once. So they want it to be special. Alison's love for you was real. But this is where she 
wanted it to lead. She just... probably didn't get a chance to bring it up with you before this accident 
happened. But even so, I can tell from the look on her face, her words. This is definitely how she 
wanted to go. She was more sad that you weren't ready for this than for her own life. Watch the 
video again and tell me if you think I'm wrong.' 
     'I've watched it plenty...' Mikaela took a deep breath. 'And... I think you're right. I just wish she had 
told me. I mean, she did. I always just thought she was joking.' 
     'You missed the chance to prepare yourself.' Estelle nodded. 'And the chance to properly say 
goodbye. These things can hurt, regrets and missed opportunities are some of the hardest parts 
about life. But you have to stop letting them control you. Knowing what you know now, how much 
she loved you and how much she was ready to give herself to you completely, do you really think 
she'd want you to be this sad?' 
     'I know... but...' Mikaela came close to tears again, losing the rest of her sentence to indecision 
and shallow sobs. 
     'The hardest part about this is going to be forgiving yourself.' Estelle explained softly. 'But 
whenever you're ready, just remember that Alison forgave you as well. And of course, you definitely 
need to go back to hunting. I can tell you that nothing good will come from trying to give that up. If 
anything it's probably a part of what's making you feel worse than you should.' 
     'What do you mean?' Mikaela asked. 'I know we get taught that we shouldn't go without hunting 
for too long, but is it really that bad?' 
     'Oh yes.' Estelle nodded, replying with a warning tone to emphasise how serious the matter really 
was. 'All Vernite carnivores, whether canid, felid, mustelid, it doesn't really matter. All of us have the 
instinct to hunt and consume prey. The easiest way to satisfy this instinct for an extended period is to 
swallow prey alive. It grants the most visceral sensation, satisfies the instinct in the most carnal way 
possible. There's no doubt about the cruelty aspect of it of course, but even that contributes to 
keeping the urge down for longer.' The lynx was almost salivating as she explained this, sincerely 
hoping the smaller cat didn't notice. 
     'Right...' Mikaela nodded, past experience all confirming the fact easily enough. Estelle was 
relieved that she wasn't paying too close attention to her lapse in composure. 
     'Try to suppress it the way you are, and it can lead to all sorts of unhealthy coping mechanisms 
that then lead to other complications.' Estelle continued. 'I've seen one case where a person tried 
subconsciously to bury themselves in their job, working hard to feign the excuse of having no time to 
hunt. They exhausted themselves to breaking point. Another stopped hunting for the sake of their 
partner. Eventually they reached a breaking point, and... well, that relationship ended in a different 
kind of tragedy.' 
     Mikaela nodded slowly. 'I think I get it.' 
     'In your case Mikaela...' Estelle began, hesitating briefly as she weighed the cat's ability to handle 
the information. But really, the truth was the best way forward at this point. 'I think it's causing 
depression. You've stopped hunting because of your guilt, and your body's withdrawal is affecting 
your mind. This is making your grief far more potent than it should be and so you sink deeper into 
this feeling that you shouldn't be hunting at all. You validate it by imagining your own grief in the 
minds of your potential prey and their loved ones, but really you're projecting an illusion. That's why 
your guilt doesn't exist when you think of prey you've already consumed.' 
     Mikaela stared blankly for a few moments as she processed the therapist's words. 'So basically... if 
I start hunting again, I'll start to feel better?' 
     'I'm sure of it.' Estelle nodded. 'I think the core of this is that your grief pushed you to some 
unhealthy coping mechanisms, and they inflated the problem by causing complications you couldn't 
see or prepare for. I myself have gone just over two weeks without a successful hunt, and trust me I 
am feeling it.' 
     Mikaela smiled again, a sight Estelle had quickly grown fond of. 'So that last session really was a 
challenge for you, wasn't it?' 
     Estelle sighed. 'Let's just say, I think the both of us would benefit from a successful hunt, and the 
sooner it happens for both of us the better.' 
     Mikaela looked down sheepishly for a moment before her next question. 'That... that's not an 
invitation, is it? To go hunting together I mean?' 
     'W-what?' Estelle was taken off guard. Of course that was never the sort of thing she would do, 
she always valued keeping things confidential and private within these sessions. 
     'I'm sorry!' Mikaela lifted her hands suddenly. 'I shouldn't have suggested that.' 
     'Why did you?' Estelle asked reflexively. 'I mean, not to be rude but most people aren't too keen 
to see me outside this room. Confidentiality, awkwardness and so on...' 
     'Or the fact that you might eat them, if they're a rabbit.' Mikaela joked, trying hard to break the 
tension she'd caused. 
     'Seriously though...' Estelle asked more calmly this time. 'Why did you ask?' 
     'Because...' Mikaela hesitated. 'The one person I used to hunt with is out of contact with me and I 
don't know how to track her down. I guess I just miss hunting with a partner. And I kind of feel like I 
could use the moral support. Maybe just this once. While I get back into the swing of it, you know?' 
     Estelle felt her heart give a strong pang of sympathy, another thing she usually tried hard to avoid 
during these sessions. Understanding was one thing, but she had to keep her own emotions clear. 
Still, she was allowed to have friends wasn't she? Mikaela was noticeably younger than her, but it 
wasn't like either of them had much of a social life. Whoever Mikaela had lost touch with didn't 
seem like they were coming back, and Estelle wasn't exactly a socialite on her own time. Aure and 
Linda were probably the closest she could call friends, and they were work colleagues more than 
anything else. 
     'It's alright.' Mikaela said, interrupting the lynx's thoughts. 'I'll make do. I'll make another 
appointment with the lioness and see you another time, right?' 
     'Of course... although...' Estelle said thoughtfully. 'The murids have been clever lately about 
catching earlier trains to avoid delays on the later ones. I was planning to prowl the second district 
residential zone and see if I could snare a rabbit or squirrel instead. I thought I'd mention it. Just in 
case you were open to the advice of a more seasoned hunter.' 
     'Well...' Mikaela shrugged. 'I guess I could consider it.'  

