"Whao. Did you see Sam go?" Jacqueline declared looking down at the first semi-final.
"No but I saw that smaller guy go down." Replied Keith, "Weird, I was told to always bet on
the little guy."
Jacqueline shook her head, "That's never -underestimate- the little guy, and Sam is the
little guy down there. It's safe to assume that he's the only former female in that group of
bucks!"
"Or any -other- former females in that group have totally changed colors and gone over to
the other side." Keith suggested, having done so himself, he didn't think it impossible for
others to have.
"I'd say that's a scary thought from how those bucks in general act, but I'd be guilty of
hypocrisy."
"Well, that shorter guy seems to have changed attitude fast."
"That all have. In case you were too busy watching the fights to notice. This isn't just good
sportsmanship, this is a complete revision to their pecking order!"
"So the bucks are acting like-"
"Bucks. It's a little, creepy."
"More creepy than you and me going around on all fours opening up the wind pipes of
random non-sentient animals?" Keith pointed out leaning back.
Jacqueline thought about it for a minute, "Granted."
Keith meanwhile felt his adrenaline building up again, the next fight. Though he really
didn't want to be that young guy right now. Panthers were predators and deer were prey,
but Keith -still- would prefer to steer clear of that eight pointed scarred buck.
++++++++++
"Interesting." Su Yin said vaguely getting the other does' attention.
"What?" Hannah asked.
"While the park's geneticists were quite thorough in removing all heat cycles, and any
pheromones that would effect our libido or dull our reason. It appears that at least some
sociological instincts were either looked over or intentionally left intact. The fact Leticia
would gain a unconditional desire for a partner while watching the bucks establish their
pecking order is direct proof of that."
"Or she just wants some." Jenny giggled.
"Jenny!" Hannah reprimanded.
"Sorry."
Said Leticia meanwhile was feeling uncomfortable being the topic of discussion. But as
long as things didn't turn out any more intimate, she'd be okay. The reminder of the anti-
pregnancy did sober her, but only a tiny bit. If the temporary female got pregnant on this
vacation, her girlfriend in the outside world would -never- let her live it down, ever.
"I wonder," Thought Su Yin, "was it a miscalculation on the park's part, or was it
intentional to see if we could still act civilized with such instincts subconsciously effecting
our Super Egos."
Sam's words came back to haunted Hannah again, 'We're all one big group of beta-
testers.'
'And you can help open the door for us Hannah--you can be the one.' As did Juanita's.
And Hannah realized that it was indeed logical, that Juanita, and the people behind the
scenes like her, wanting bodies they felt they had a justification for, would want to see
many instincts they could have along for the ride, which were a PART of those desired
bodies, before rational thought got lost in the mix.
Juanita seemed honest enough, but that didn't mean the human wasn't looking out for her
own self interests.
It took Hannah a few seconds to realize what she had just thought 'the human.'
"What's happening to us?"
"That's is a good question," Su Yin responded. Hannah hadn't realized she had spoken out
loud. "But I seriously doubt even the park's top brass know what the answer is."
++++
"Yahoo wee!" Mike jumped up a bit and kicked his heels together. "Did you see that? That
was a fantastic move by that taller buck! He had the disadvantaged with the higher center
of gravity and -still- pulled it off!"
Jasmine nodded, "Yes, I suppose it was clever." She was doing her best to remind herself
what she had loved about physical contact sports.
Mike wasn't acting so hyperactive just because he found the event exciting, in fact, he was
doing it BECAUSE he could. His deformities had never left him in much shape for sports,
most equipment couldn't fit him, limiting sports to purely interactions with his family. Ever
since coming here, he felt like he was living a dream, but after meeting Jasmine, he felt
like he was actually ALIVE! His family had loved him and he had made it through life, but
he felt like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders! "Too bad my gang isn't
here." He said, reminding the two fox ladies he was the leader of some of the park's foxes.
"They'd love this show! Too bad we showed up as late as we did. I could have gone back
and gotten them."
"How, nice." Laurie consciously reminded herself that Mike's gang was not a -real- gang in
the common sense of the word, it was a word used in this case just to make things sound
more macho. Laurie almost asked why none of the does were participating, but them
lacking antlers, she was pretty sure she could understand why. Thankfully the people who
were into foxes had a much wider variety of people than the people who chose to became
bucks, the foxes seemed to come from nearly all walks of life. Though there were a few
former males who kept asking if there was a way to have their fur genetically altered to be
blue. Regardless of gender, they were still video game fanboys at heart! (She had been
given an in-depth explanation of the game Star Fox by one of her nephews before coming
to the park.)
Mike was VERY tempted to just whistle and hoped his group heard him, but he knew that it
might distract the bucks, and second he had found that trying to whistle with a muzzle
and all canines could result in some nasty tongue injuries.
Laurie herself felt like she was shadowing over her daughter and daughter's boyfriend at
their first football game. But her curiosity got the better of her, and she -still- wanted to
make sure Mike and Jasmine didn't do anything stupid. True, she knew technically they
were adults, but animal heat cycled removed or not, they were still a pair of hormone filled
teenagers.
++++
One of the news hounds, this one ironically a half-human lynx, had been given the task of
sweeping the perimeter of the buck's tournament and getting reactions and different
points of view from the various other watchers. Sadly, this also meant getting a point of
view from Monty Mongoose and his motley crew.
"So you see honorary member of the news hound tribe." The lynx was silent but internally
moaned. Only Monty's crew used the term 'tribe' and it was painful to everyone else's ears.
"This is the second stage of The Government's evil plan to turn us all into slaves and
soldiers as our military loses too many troops in Iraq to oppress the people's will."
The lynx just hoped to memorize the uper complex yet contrived conspiracy theory
quickly and move onto the does, foxes, or the panthers that had also gathered for the
tournament.
++++
Spike was large, and a series of eight pointed antlers to boot! Jeremy recognized this fact
even before they faced each other. Spike was fast in spite of his size, and efficient.
However, Jeremy didn't even quiver. After finally closing Lance's mouth, Jeremy had
climbed his way through the ranks, and now just two more fights and he.... what? Proved
he was the most worthy of beauty queen Hannah? That he was alpha buck or whatever you
called it with deer? He knew that they had started this whole thing just to show off to
beauty queen Hannah. But it honestly felt like to Jeremy that it had grown beyond that.
True, there was a sense of dissatisfaction without the does watching, but the fact they had
continued when they had left for some reason or another, and no one had suggested
stopping the tournament, suggested there was more to this than just a typical frat macho
contest. The way he look at Lance now, seeing a subordinate, and the way Lance acted
towards him, seeing only a superior, while the same time their rational minds (it didn't feel
right calling it the 'human' part of them) knew about their actual ranking in frat, was proof
of that.
Jeremy had always been considered the runt of the litter, someone for the senior members
of the frat, in particular Lance, to torture. However, those attitudes were changing before
his very eyes with each buck he brought down. He knew rational, logically, and very much
inevitably, that once their mass vacation was over, and their ultimately returned to collage,
Lance would make Jeremy's life Hell for this humiliation. But at this moment in time,
Jeremy realized he just didn't care.
"I hope you enjoyed your time as a rising star." Said Spike too calmly. Pulling Jeremy out of
his introspection. "Because this is where you call in line with the rest. All the same, thank
you for shutting up that blow hard Lance. Summit now, and you'll save yourself a lot of
hurt."
"No way." Jeremy said on reaction alone. "I never thought I'd get this far, I'm going to see
how far I can get!"
Spike put one hooved foot in front of another and hunched over lowering himself, not
trying to use his size to intimidate Jeremy like Jeremy thought Spike would.
"If that's the way you want it. Then let's begin." Spike lowered his head, as did Jeremy and
they charged.
The scarred rival was intense, as the younger buck felt himself being pushed back each
time their antlers made contact, his heart pounded. His armored fingers and 'toes' left
deep ruts in the dirt.
The younger buck realized the scarred rival's pattern was predictable. While the younger
buck knew he couldn't match him in strength, and the younger buck didn't have the size
to throw the scarred rival like the no-longer-doe had that rival, each attack was the same.
And unlike the four leg bucks, the younger buck was two legs, and thus was quite a bit
better at learning quickly.
When the scarred rival charged next, the younger buck dropped as low he could, and stuck
his antlers upwards.
The younger buck's antlers stabbed past the skin of the larger buck, the force letting him
stab deeply. However, the scarred rival didn't cry out. Jeremy almost shook his head, had
he, had he killed him?! Oh no, oh-'
Jeremy felt two muscular hands with armored finger tips grab him by the shoulders, which
pulled his antlers away from the bleeding holes in the larger buck's chest, giving him a full
view of something he'd rather never see close up.
"Bout time you noticed." He heard Spike whisper, just as Jeremy felt his body being lifted
off the ground.
'He, he -let- me stab him, just so he could get close enough to grab me!'
Spike was dangerous. He must have predicted, or gambled, on how Jeremy would place his
antlers to intercept! Spike was willing to gamble everything to gain everything, this make
him incredibly dangerous.
"How." Jeremy had just enough time to get out.
"Behold the wonders of nature's invention the rib cage."
And Jeremy was throw heads over hooves, hearing the slightest crack in one of his antlers
as he hit the ground, kicking up dirt and grass. Somehow safely landing on his back,
feeling none too comfortable on his tail, he looked up at the sky, and soon enough was
staring up into Spike's eyes. "That Kung-Fu?"
"Kenpo. Get up." Spike said simply.
Without a second thought, Jeremy obeyed, in a heart beat Lance was his side helping him
stand and letting the superior buck lean on him as Jeremy got his bearings.
Jeremy kept looking into Spike's eyes, and finally, just lowered his head. Lance helped him
over to the group of the bucks who had been beaten by both Jeremy and Spike accepting
him with open arms. Jeremy knew what he was feeling, as far as the frat, no, the HERD was
concerned, Spike was his superior.
Spike looked at Sam. Then Spike looked at his own chest and the holes in his skin left by
Jeremy. He looked at Sam again. "Looks like you're at an advantage." For some reason,
Sam didn't believe that. "We shouldn't keep the does waiting. Shall we begin?" Still in that
cool, calm voice. He truly did act more like a buck on two legs than a human given half a
deer's DNA.
This was it, Sam and Spike were now the most highest ranking bucks in the herd. The
group mentality of the deer combined with the sociological habits of the primate. They
effective now had an equal amount of respect and loyalty from the rest. But there was
room for only one at the top.