When Sam saw Hannah silently hit tail it out of the clearing, effectively leaving the judge’s box empty, he felt glade that she wouldn’t be around the bucks when the tournament came to its conclusions. Sam included himself among those bucks. While Sam had free will, and no pheromones were effecting his thinking, he just didn’t want to be terribly close to Hannah when the pecking order was set. He had entered this competition for the sole reason of becoming the winner so the winner wouldn’t be someone who’d force himself on Hannah. But the more Sam fought, the more Sam wanted to win to prove himself, to set himself up, to fight at his absolute best to show these rival bucks that he was one of them, and deserved their recognition and respect.
Sam had NOT changed his mind of becoming a woman again after his vacation was over, nor had he decided to cheat on ‘her’ husband back in the outside world, weather he found out or not, Sam would know, and that was enough.
What Sam did feel, was a sweet sense of satisfaction as the bucks looked up to him the more fights he won, and a pang of disappointment he couldn’t fight off that none of the does were here now to observe his wins.
And these wins were proving hard earned, having gone from having two weak spots on her chest, to a weak spot between his legs, Sam didn’t know weather or not he’d make to the final round or not. Sam had never been into brawling as a woman, and had taken only some very basic self-defense classes once in his life.
Sam felt strangely calm about the truth he knew that he’d see whoever beat him as the person he’d answer to, someone who words he’d listen to, and someone he would not hesitate to go to if he was struck by indecision. Sam wondered if the other bucks had realized the deeper truth of what this united attempt to win Hannah had brought about.
This was now more than just a way to kill a boring day or trying to impress the uninterested Hannah. This was transforming the various groups of unconnected bucks from collections of different businessmen and frat boys, and into a singular unified herd. Until each of them ultimately left the park, they would be a part of this herd.
He saw a businessman and a frat who hadn’t even looked at each other until today casually talking to each other having both lost in the first round. And he felt, connected to them. Sam realized much like others in the park were realizing, that while the instincts that would make them hump each other like mindless animals had been carefully and utterly removed by the park’s geneticists, many other instincts of the forms they had now had calmly and perfectly slipped into place along side their human ones to create something else. And like the others, Sam realized he couldn’t bring himself to concerned about it greatly. But what Sam was concerned about wasn’t just getting as far along to the top of the herd as he could. He kept the image of his husband in his mind, and he had no attraction for him right now both as a species and a gender, but he still loved him, still wanted to spend the rest of his life with him.
He wasn’t lying to Hannah when he said he knew the park was using them as a test group (more than he knew). And it was the fact he didn’t care about his new instincts, that made him worried.
He just wish he knew for certain Hannah was making the right decision deciding to stay half-human on the other side.
+++++++
On the opposite side of the clearing on –another- high spot looking down on the bucks, the three foxes had too herd of and decided to observe the tournament of the bucks. Laurie of course had suggested it to try and bound with both Jasmine and Mike. It truly felt like she was getting to know an adopted daughter rather than her husband.
Laurie –knew- she was going to need this time, there was no doubt about it, not just to solidify her relationship with Jasmine as she had told her, but to also let go of Jason, which she –knew- she had to do, if she wanted to get on with her life. As for Mike… he only had about one million questions about him on the other side she intended to ask.
And Mike, for the first time in a long time, felt excitement at watching some guys smack each other around, and almost felt like joining in just for the fun of it. Only held back by the invisible ‘Stags Only!’ sign. While not crippled, his deformities never allowed him to build up his body before. And while he figured it had to be just the teenage hormones, he felt like he could anything! And it felt good! Before it had been just a fantasy, but with Jasmine, maybe it could become his truth.
+++++++
A very odd thought struck Hannah. What if the winner of the tournament, (assuming they even REMEMEBERED why they had set up the fight fest in the first place) declared in a big loud voice “Hannah shall be mine, FOREVER!” True, Hannah knew it was just a fantasy, but she couldn’t help but enjoy the image of a big strong stag standing on a rock proudly declaring that she was his forever. Assuming of course they were sincere of course. Lateisha’s warning about the bucks wanting to pull something evil on her and the does hadn’t slipped Hannah’s mind. And she made it a point to sober herself with that warning.