Halloween had been fun, and for Danya it had generally provided her with some much needed closure. She remembered everything that Hector had done to her and how weak she had been after that. It was something that had served to attract her to Animalia in many ways. She hadn't followed it too closely before, largely because she'd felt she'd been doing fairly fine. But then she'd gotten beaten up by Hector and left for dead. He was caught and arrested and found guilty, but the courts determined that despite the damage he'd done to Danya that his actions were more from an uncontrolled temper and not some true desire to approve women. To a degree, Danya had felt that intent didn't really matter given the damage done, but she couldn't argue with the law and then noted that that had also seen Hector turned over to Animalia's unique way of "criminal rehabilitation."
That however got Danya interested in Animalia and ultimately in what she would convert to, the Dire Wolf. She'd been cruising channels while in the recovery room in the hospital that she'd been taken to and caught a documentary on Pleistocene wildlife and that included all its great predators, the Giant Short Faced Bear, Smilodon, the American Lion, and the Dire Wolf. The animations weren't great, but the information was enough to leave Danya curious, particularly as thoughts on Animalia began to cross her mind. Which brought her to where she was now, living in Animalia as a Dire Wolf Animalian and having proven that her choice was not about revenge against Hector. She was for the moment quietly washing her dishes while listening to a news report on one of the networks. It seemed to relate to some things that Animalia Ambassadoria had reported on before Halloween regarding wild turkeys in Texas.
"So this plan isn't actually to hunt and kill problem turkeys?" an anchor was asked.
"No," the field reporter answered, "according to the Texas agencies that handle their hunting and animal regulations, this isn't like what various ranchers have arranged with Dino City's theropod residents. Those deals are more with regard to Wild Boar, a species marked as an invasive nuisance animal and thus can be taken at any time of the year, provided one can simply attain a basic hunting license. The Wild Turkey, however, is a game animal that provided one hunts them IN their stated hunting season and with the proper tags and licenses, and thus the present deal is not between Dino City residents and individuals to kill Wild Turkeys."
"So what is the nature of the deal?" the anchor asked.
"From what the Texas game officials have stated, it's more a deal to deputize some of the newer Dinotopians," the field reporter answered, "as in some areas, these flocks of turkeys have moved into residential areas and have become a bit of a nuisance in those areas. The officers are presently understaffed and are fearful that the flocks would be too big to move by other means and they don't want to risk hurting someone with a wild shot, even from their own officers. They feel that the Dinotopians might be able to help them drive these problem birds OUT into the more rural areas where they wouldn't be messing with Human lawns and gardens as much. Particularly when one of these problem turkeys pecked at a Chihuahua. It wouldn't violate Texas hunting law and would have the officers as the coordinators of the action to make sure that none of these turkeys are killed. Merely driven out of where they've moved into."
Danya only chuckled to herself at that, "If I knew more about hunting or anything like that... that might sound like a good job. Play "predator" just to chase stuff away. Might be fun..." Her mind soon began to wander back to her own conversion after that.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"The psych reports you've had are quite astounding," Doctor Stein commented as he walked with Danya from one of the waiting rooms to one of the conversion rooms.
"To a degree... I'm still a bit surprised as to why it was asked and why it was legal to have it shared," Danya said slowly.
"That was a concern after you sent in your request after it was reported that your abuser was admitted into Animalia's rehabilitation plans and that you would be looking at one of the apex predators of the last ice age," Doctor Stein answered.
"So... you feared I would want to maul Hector?" Danya asked.
"That was part of the concern that came up," Doctor Stein commented, "as an ancient wild dog that preyed on large megafauna of the day... and Hector becoming a Domestic Sheep... there is then the concerns over wolves' relations to sheep."
"According to some of the stuff I had to read... it would appear that the Dire Wolf wasn't actually a wolf," Danya commented as they reached the door to the conversion room, "or at least not as closely related as would have been thought a few years ago."
Doctor Stein nodded and smiled, "Yes, it's amazing on what a lot of genetic research is able to uncover. It'll have a lot of paleontologists, particularly of the Cenozoic Era even more interested in you and Animalia's other Dire Wolf to see on where the exact differences between you and the Gray Wolf Animalians are besides just size."
That peaked some of Danya's curiosity regarding the ancient animal she was to become. The documentaries she saw in the hospital treated the Dire Wolf as though it was a close relative of the modern Gray Wolf, though they were older than some of the studied that Horizon had assigned as part of the preparation for conversion to become a Dire Wolf Animalian.
"Would I be paired with one?" Danya asked slowly.
"That would depend on if one comes and is interested," Doctor Stein commented, "I'm sure you've heard a lot about Rex Ramos's courting of Tyra Wrex in a paleontologist who focused on Tyrannosaurs falling for an outgoing and "adventurous" Syntixisaurus Dinotopian... but a lot of that happened on its own. We didn't do anything to set them up. Some paleontologists that have worked with the fossils of the animal may want to come and talk with you... as a woman, I believe her name is Quetzal, has had some contact with another paleontologist that has looked at Pterosaurs and the giant Azhdarchids specifically... but from what Jeremy tells me, I really can't be sure if the relationship is personal or professional there. If that's what you want... that's up to you. And given how your psych evaluations came out... you'd be fine. It's something where many would have expected you to want something as a result of what happened to you."
"You know what they say..." Danya commented slowly, "an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."
Doctor Stein nodded at that. Horizon had been concerned over Danya's mental state, largely in relation to what had happened with Heather years before. While Human to Animalian conversions didn't have too many real dangers, there was always the risk or issues that related to the base animal's instincts rising in the new Animalian. It was something that popped up here and there as it was found that at times former Humans tended, especially at first, to do some things that fit in with their new species natural instincts. Such as some of the herbivorous Animalians being nervous around the carnivorous Animalians, regardless of Animalia's edicts, and that sort of thing had largely been a big part of what had kept Hector in check thus far. That as a Sheep Animalian, while there were times where he could be stubborn he tended to shy away from major confrontations with the predatory Animalians, particularly Wolf Animalians in pairs or any of the big cat or bear Animalians as individuals.
However, there were times when that sort of thing could be dangerous and problematic, particularly when the person wasn't prepared for the new instincts. Which is what happened to Heather Wilcox. Angry at one scheme being foiled, she'd somehow taken a dose of the Animalia Virus exposed to the bones she had stolen in the past and became the first Syntixisaurus Dinotopian and was then overwhelmed by the predatory instincts that came with it, leading to the confrontation outside of Lyre High and Heather's eventual arrest by the Rhino Guard. Eventually Heather had managed to get a hold of herself and work through those instincts and setting aside her anger, but that still took time and represented the potential problems that were there, and why regulations on how the Animalia Virus could be obtained were tightened and why Animalians had to be vaccinated to keep the Animalia Virus in their system from being infectious were passed at the time. Thus Danya's request to become a major predator set off those worries. Thankfully, it seemed that she had no great grudge against Hector and was actually quite forgiving and seemed to know a bit about the Dire Wolf even when making the request to become that prehistoric mammal.
Danya quietly followed Doctor Stein into the room and sat down on the bed and rolled up the sleeve on her arm while Doctor Stein went about preparing the needles. She readied herself while slipping off her shoes and socks. It wasn't long before Doctor Stein then delivered the shot with the custom "welcome to Animalia" and left Danya to transform. She ultimately marveled a bit at it as she felt herself grow warm and as fur began to cover her body. In many ways it wasn't too different in coloration from the other Wolf Animalians, which to a small degree was a bit of a surprise for Danya. Given some of the reading material it would appear that the Dire Wolf and the Grey Wolf weren't closely related and their last common ancestor was around roughly 5.7 million years before either the Dire Wolf or Grey Wolf appeared. If so, Danya figured there would be some rather obvious differences besides just Dire Wolves being larger than Grey Wolves.
"It'd probably make a lot of "prehistoric biologists" interested in me," Danya mused as she watched her claws stretch out from her furred finger tips and feeling her feet lengthen into a digitigrade stance, "finding I may look a lot like the Grey Wolf Animalians and yet genetically being an animal that wasn't that closely related to them..."
Danya got to her feet and managed to slowly make her way from the bed to the mirror in the room. The bed, she figured was more for romantic couples, which she wasn't there with. The mirror, however, was far more interesting as it let her get a full look on the new her that was emerging or appearing out of her changing body. Her clothes felt a bit tight, and as she reached the mirror she could see that her bust and hips had grown and that there was already a bit of pressure at the base of her spine. Her fur was also coming in a lot thicker, though she figured that this could just be that somehow her body was responding to the Animalia Virus and knowing the time of year and thus telling her new Animalian form to grow its winter coat in. It actually lead to the fur poofing a bit at the collar of her shirt.
She also watched as her face pushed forward into a strong wolven muzzle, though obviously bigger than the other Wolf Animalians, and as her ears moved up to the top of her head and grew into pointed triangular ears there. In some ways it was amazing all on its own, but then another wave of growth hit her. She pulled the back of her pants down a bit to give room for her growing tail just as her muscle mass began to enlarge even more. She also gained a few more inches in height as all this happened. Though through all of these changes, one thing didn't change and that was Danya's eyes. As she went from a Human woman to a female Dire Wolf Animalian, in clothing that hugged her muscular and curvy body a bit tighter than she expected, her eyes remained the same color they'd always been, though, Danya ultimately closed her eyes and raised her head to give out a joyous howl to complete the transformation.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"But no..." Danya then said as she came back to the present after remembering her conversion. Her mind returning to the news report on some of the Dinotopians being hired to essentially chase some problem turkeys out of suburban areas and toward the areas where they could be hunted during Texas' turkey season, "chasing things... that'd be a bit to... aggressive for me."
In this, Danya remained pretty close to where she'd been before her conversion. She admitted that the hunting instinct was there, but that really was never something she wanted to indulge in. Chasing Hector around and being the "werewolf" as part of Spookyville was fun, but all of that was with a rather set purpose and with no intention of anyone being harmed. She really didn't want to harm anyone or anything. She chose the Dire Wolf out of a base curiosity and interest that grew while in recovery, not simply because it was a predator. It left her with some questions on what to do...
Though there were some possible options. Horizon was apparently involved in some large project with various other genetics companies that was looking to buy up lands in Canada along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains there as part of an idea to restore the actual Wooly Mammoth to life. If the project worked, they'd ultimately need those that could work to help herd things and Danya had heard that some of the other Animalians who'd become Cenozoic Mammals had at least been given offers for positions to help protect the project, though that was probably going to take time and would only move into its next phase if they could successfully get the clone Mammoth. The other related to some of the other scientists that wanted comparisons between her as a Dire Wolf Animalian and the Gray Wolf Animalians to see just where the differences between them were.