I returned to Bandhavgarh Cabin with the bull Elk that I had killed and moved it into the garage, was now complete for the most part. It was a sturdy structure that had been scaled up to fit both Molly's height and mine. Much of the space, instead of working for housing the Ford Ranger that I still owned, was devoted to butchering the kills that Molly and I would make during the hunting season. It contained a fair number of pulleys and strong metal framework with the wooden frame to provide it with the structural strength to support even the largest kills Molly and I could make, which would include bull Elk such as the one I had with me. Something the weight of cattle would be too heavy, but the cattle that were now part of Bandhavgarh Ranch and Preserve, were to provide Molly's Uncle with a livelihood. Neither Molly nor I had any intention of eating them.
Once inside the garage I set about the work related to butchering the bull Elk. It probably wasn't the way a professional butcher would, but then, Molly and I weren't professional. From a book I'd read on butchery, though mostly on butchering beef and pork, the cuts that were most commonly done were in the front shoulders, ribs, and rear flanks. Excess meat in large scale professional butchery operations was commonly ground up and put into things like hot dogs, processed meats, ground beef or pork, and things like that. Smaller operations threw those excess pieces away. Molly and I wouldn't throw away excess. We needed all the meat we could get.
I started with securing a heavy cable around the rear legs of the dead bull Elk and using both my own strength and the system of pulleys installed for the very purpose of butchering large game, lifted the body, rear legs first into the air. The bull Elk's size was enough that his head and neck and his forelimbs still rested on the concrete floor. They would need to be dismembered off of the carcass before I could focus on the rest of job.
To prepare for that, I moved to a large workbench and a couple of sealed plastic containers next to it. The bench was really a jerry-rigged operation, but the surface held no splinters, no dust, and was smooth and strong enough to work with the project. The largest plastic containers were large enough to hold several large cutting boards and a piece of white cloth. These were there for the purposes of keeping things as clean as possible. I laid the white cloth over the work bench and then began placing the cutting boards on top of the cloth. With that done, the tabletop space for processing the smaller pieces and things that had to be cut off the bull Elk was ready.
The next task was to begin dismembering the carcass and removing its fur. Collecting a large wooden box that contained all the tools that I'd used the previous hunting season to butcher Molly's kills. The first thing was to take a saw and saw off the Elk's antlers. Molly and I had no need for them, and they would only interfere in the rest of the butchering process. That was done with a saw likely more appropriate for a carpenter's shop then a butchers, but since Molly and I weren't going to eat bone, there was no problem.
The work progressed slowly and steadily. Removing the head and neck and the forelimbs was done with a combination of a knife and a specialized saw that was designed to cut bone. Once they were removed from the carcass, they were moved to the work table where the fur was removed and the meat carefully wrapped and placed in the deep freeze, which had been moved into the garage. There wasn't much meat on the lower part of the legs, but I figured scrapping the meat off of them would be akin to people eating chicken wings. There really wasn't much meat on those either.
The fur was stretched and hung in a different section of the garage, as Molly and I had made a few bucks the previous fall selling the hides from Molly's kills to a few local companies that actually processed the hides for rugs and clothing made from the hides of things like deer, elk and other animals people hunted. The rest of the meat was then wrapped and placed in the deep freeze with the date on it so that way we would know how old the kill was. Once that was done, I took all of the implements and tools that would need to be cleaned into the kitchen to make sure that when it came time for the next kill to be butchered they would be clean and not contaminated with blood or flesh from the previous kill.
By that time, it was lunch time, and I settled to have lunch. I saved the fresh Elk meat, however, as I figured that would be something Molly would like.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I managed to make two more hunting attempts before Molly returned home, though the success of my first attempt was not repeated. On the first, I'd actually stumbled into a Mule Deer buck that was laying down among a bunch of bushes. At the time I was actually moving to set the baited scent when the deer suddenly leaped up and began to bound away. The sudden movement startled even me, and by the time I began to pursue the fleeing deer, it had gained enough distance to get away. The second failed attempt occurred a little while later in the area that was solid pine/spruce forest.
I had set the bait to attract a deer and moved to where the wind wouldn't blow my scent to the deer, but also at a point where I could move around behind it. The deer that came to investigate the scent was another mule deer buck. I managed to get around behind the deer, but as I got ready to move, I stepped on a pine cone that was buried under the fallen pine needles. It made a cracking noise, and I gave a low grunting growl as the edges of the pine cone did poke into the pad on that foot. The deer immediately bounded away without even looking to see where I was, and this time I didn't bother to chase it, and slowly rubbed the bottom of the foot that stepped on the pine cone. It wasn't hurt or at risk for going lame or anything. It was more like stubbing your toe then anything else.
With the deer fleeing, I sighed and returned to the cabin. Molly was coming up as I returned, and as she came in through the front door, I came in through the back door.
"Hello, George," Molly spoke with a soft smile, "Any luck?"
"Some good, some bad," I managed, "Three attempts, one successful."
"One out of three isn't too bad," Molly commented, "better then the normal average for a tiger's hunts which is about one in ten."
I nodded, "and it gets better."
That perked her interest. I could tell by the way the tip of her tail twitched.
"Better?"
"The kill was a bull Elk," I answered, "fairly big... though I can't tell you how old it is beyond being a mature male."
"An Elk?" Molly asked, sounding excited.
I nodded and began to recount the hunt in which I had caught the Elk. As I got to the end, I did voice my concerns and puzzlement at how it ended as it did. That left Molly thinking for a moment before she spoke.
"You probably just gripped it to hard when you went for the killing bite," Molly commented, "we can control our muscle power... even when we were human. Did you go "all out" at everything? Like putting all your muscle power to throw a ball a couple of yards?"
"No," I answered, "but what does that have to do with this? Their skin is pretty tough... I mean my canines did sink in, but that was all full strength."
"Their skin has good tensile strength in that it's somewhat difficult to puncture, but the main veins, arteries, and its bronchial tube in the neck is still surrounded by soft tissue," Molly answered, "I found last year that I didn't need to grip everything at full force. I could do the job using only half the total jaw strength that I have. It leaves a fairly clean scene."
"Only half the strength?" I asked.
"And it still clamps down hard enough to restrain its breathing and all that," Molly nodded.
"And what about the lack of struggle?" I wondered, guessing that Molly's experience counted for more then what I'd researched, "there were still spurts of blood going when it stopped struggling. It was still alive at that point."
"That I'm not one hundred percent sure of," Molly shrugged, "every documentary and book has called it a suffocation hold. That when we bite down, we strangulate the animal..."
"Yes, but anything dying from strangulation will struggle for awhile," I answered, "It's partially why we don't hang people anymore when it comes to capital punishment. If the neck isn't broken, the person spends a relatively long time kicking and doesn't die quickly."
"Again, that's where I'm not entirely sure," Molly answered, "I think I saw something on the National Geographic Chanel once that talked about a lot of these things while we were in college."
"Pre or Post transformation?" I asked.
"I think it was actually just before the break we were on that involved my transformation, but anyway, it followed some guys that were following Lions, Leopards, and Tigers," Molly continued, "and they seemed to notice the same thing. The prey animals quit struggling fairly quickly. Their conclusion was that when we bite down, the blood vessels that carry blood to the brain are actually squeezed shut and the animal actually passes out from lack of blood going to its brain..."
There was a brief silence before Molly continued.
"And I'm not entirely sure how that is the actual cause of death," Molly sighed, "it may explain why they stop struggling quickly, but if we only limited the flow of blood to the brain and the animal was able to breathe, you could hold it for awhile and the release it and once the blood flow returned, it would revive... probably brain damaged but still alive. I'd still tend to think that suffocation is the actual cause of death."
"Might be something to ask Leon about on the phone or through E-Mail," I commented.
"That I don't know," Molly answered, "I'd think her field for the creation of the Animatrix Serum and anti-cancer research is more a biological-chemistry and organic-chemistry. Much of what she... he, excuse me, knows about biology and animal behavior came after Changes made him... then her... become a Lion-person."
"Couldn't hurt," I shrugged.
Molly nodded, "anyway, I'll need to get changed. It is my turn to hunt."
I nodded, "I'll be ready to butcher whatever you catch."
Molly nodded and went upstairs to change into her own hunting clothes. I followed her to change out of mine. Both of them would be specially washed later that evening.
"So, how did the hunting clothes work?" Molly asked after a moment, "did they work well... or did you have to revert to going commando?"
"They seemed to work well for me," I answered, "My failed hunts were the result of either surprise or making a sudden noise."
"Surprise?"
"A Mule Deer buck was laying down, not moving and when I went to place the scented bait down, it jumped and spooked me," I explained, "I wasn't even trying to stalk anywhere at that time... And the second failure came when I stepped on a dry pine cone."
"Ah," Molly answered as she finished changing, "wish me luck?"
I smiled and nuzzled her, "Good luck."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The rest of the hunting season went well, and with practice I managed to get better at it. Experience was the best teacher. Both Molly and I failed more often then we succeeded, but we still managed to fill our tags... mostly. While I had managed to fill my one Elk tag on the first day, Molly never could. She did find one bull Elk, but when Molly returned to the Cabin, she told me she didn't even bother. She told me it looked sick or ridden with parasites, and let it go. I couldn't really blame her. Those things could be nasty, and while our stomach juices could probably digest the raw meat and bacteria on them, most parasites seemed to be able to adapt to those sorts of things.
Our instincts were inclined to raw meat, and there were times when I thought that they might actually prefer it, but neither Molly and I wanted to deal with parasites. It is primarily why we also didn't eat the meat fresh. The meat killed went straight into the deep freeze and we'd hope the cold would kill the parasites that might be in the meat. It was another reason why we also cooked our meat, even if it was only to a rare level. If any survived the cold, they wouldn't survive the heat.
Most of the kills Molly and I made were either White Tailed Deer or Mule Deer, with White Tails being the majority of those kills. Both species were way smaller then Elk and a species of deer the Bengal Tiger in the wild hunted called Sambar, but they would provide us with plenty of meat that reduced the amount of money we'd have to spend on buying meat... and since it included kills from two sets of tags, that made our situation even better.
But after the hunting season and my time off for it ended, I had to return to my work with Officer Barnes. And still doing the DARE work.
"How'd your hunting go?" Officer Barnes asked as we met at our "private" entrance near the back of the high school, "catch anything good?"
"A bull Elk, a couple of Mule Deer, and some White Tails," I answered, "enough to eat like a tiger for a quite awhile."
Officer Barnes shook his head, "You ARE a tiger."
"Then it's good I eat like one," I quipped, "Would you rather I be a tiger that eats like a chicken?"
"No," Officer Barnes only chuckled.
"So how have things gone, here?" I asked.
"Fairly quiet," Officer Barnes answered, "no real trouble. They've had some trouble trying to get the next debate set for a date... They want to have it in the high school gym again, but as far as I can tell, the guys scheduling it run into Volleyball practice, matches, and other things related to the school schedule that can't be postponed. I haven't been able to see if they have been able to get a formal schedule yet."
"Ah..." I answered and nodded and followed him in.
And the first day back went fairly quietly with no real trouble. The only "action" I ended up getting was one I had wanted to avoid. It occurred shortly after lunch and I had gone out to a nearby water fountain and was lapping up some water when I heard a teenage voice speak to me.
"Mr. Wayne, can I talk to you?"
I paused from my drink and looked to see a female teenager there. It was the same teen that I had been called to investigate shortly after MacClure's conviction. The object of Marcella's affection and likely Marcella's decision to take the Animatrix Serum. This revived the fear that I was to be used as a sort of relationship councilor, which wasn't my plan in life. Relations of the heart were highly personal and weren't my place to meddle. It's why "helping" Officer Jenkins get Officer Barnes to realize she liked him romantically made me uneasy. But what was I to do, tell her to go away?
"Sure," I sighed slowly, "If you have time."
I hoped she had class in a few minutes.
"I do," she nodded, "this is my free period. We have about forty five minutes."
I nodded and lead her back to the office that Officer Barnes and I used.
"Would you mind my partner being here?" I asked her, "this is the only area we're really allowed to be when not conducting official business."
"I suppose," she said somewhat nervously, "he won't reject me, will he?"
"I'd hope not," I answered.
Officer Barnes looked up as I lead her into the office.
"An arrest? With the school we're supposed to take them to the office if we catch them with anything minor and at least inform the office if it's something bigger," Officer Barnes commented.
"This is a counseling visit," I explained, "one she wishes to talk with me about."
Officer Barnes gave me a look like I'd grown another tail, and slowly said, "okay..."
"Do you mind?" the girl asked.
"I suppose not," Officer Barnes shrugged after a moment and offered her a chair. She took it.
"So, what's the problem that you think I can help you with?" I asked her.
"Do you remember our last conversation?" she asked.
"About this boy that your friends with being attracted to you... but you weren't attracted back to..." I sighed, "yes."
"Well, I told him the truth," she said weakly, "told him that I'm..." she glanced at Officer Barnes, "...different."
"How did that go?" I asked, fairly certain that I'd know the answer.
"I don't think that ended his romantic notions," she said weakly, "have you seen Marcella?"
Officer Barnes then blinked at the name. For the moment I ignored him and nodded. I had seen Marcella on occasion with this teen. Walking in the hall or in a small student center that was near our office. She was wearing more appropriate clothing then bikini bottoms, and from what I could see getting along fairly well. Though the two of them were in a group of other female teens from time to time. From what I could see, they didn't seem to mind Marcella's transformation. On occasion I'd seen them pet Marcella, almost they way they'd pet a pet cat. Marcella seemed to purr in response when she liked the attention, and scooted away when she didn't want the attention. And on at least one occasion, I had noticed Marcella's changing instincts and leanings. Occasionally when a male teen walked by that the human teens found "cute", Marcella turned her head and occasionally I heard her voice agreement with that.
Using the Animatrix Serum to only change gender might have left Marcella as a Lesbian and thus interested in the teen now before Officer Barnes and I, but the addition of Maine Coon breed of the Domestic Cat changed that. Her feline instincts would be geared, ultimately to raise kittens. Just as Molly felt the want to have cubs, and Jacki found herself attracted to Leon's male form after become female herself, Marcella was becoming or had become a heterosexual female Maine Coon.
"She is him," the teen answered.
"Transgendered?" Officer Barnes asked.
"Through the Animatrix Serum," I told him, "likely the same dosage that allowed his species to change. Marcella is a fully functional female Maine Coon."
Officer Barnes blinked again for a moment and then asked, "So what is the problem? He took the Serum to be with you and is now what you like... a pretty romantic move..."
"Yes, Marcella did take the Serum for me," the teen replied, "she told me so... but... lately... it's not working right. We hang out. I kiss her... she nuzzles me... but..."
"It doesn't feel romantic in nature?" I asked her.
"Yes," the teen nodded, "I mean she talks with my friends... who don't know I'm gay... about what boys are cute almost as much as they talked with each other before. It scares me. It scares her too, though you'll never get her to admit it... to you anyway. She did admit it to me. What do I do? You're a cat-person too, Mr. Wayne. Surely you know something that can help?"
"Miss..." I began.
"Amanda, Amy for short."
"Miss Amy," I sighed, deciding to ignore the fact that while I was on duty the "title" I was to be addressed as was "Officer", "What Marcella is dealing with is instinctual. It has nothing to do with her personality. I'm sure that she still loves you every bit as much as she did when she was a he."
"But how do I help her get past these instincts... like you and your wife got over yours," Amy asked.
And this was a tough one. Molly and I weren't truly "past" our instincts. We had control over them and they didn't inhibit our functioning in society, but they always remained there.
"I am afraid she can not get past what are now her instincts," I sighed, "she can control them, but they do not go away, ever. They will always be there."
"But she started as a heterosexual boy," Amy protested, "she liked girls, which would make her continue to like girls even after transforming."
"That might only apply if she hadn't added in the Maine Coon DNA to the dosage she received," I explained, "to my knowledge, humans are the only animals that engage in sexual activity with no intention or desire to conceive children. Human sexuality is geared to feel the pleasures of the flesh. That is not so in the rest of the Animal Kingdom. As far as I know, every other animal's sexuality is geared to only one thing, siring and raising the next generation. Outside of Lions, male cats almost never have any interaction with their offspring and generally do not interact with females outside of the mating season. Sex between cats is solely for the birth of future kittens or cubs, depending on the size of the cat. And mating between cats can actually be painful for the female, and that is common throughout the cat family... be they Lions, Tigers, Cheetahs, Bobcats, Lynx, or Domestic House Cats."
"You mean..." Amy gasped.
"Marcella is gaining the instincts of any female Maine Coon," I nodded, "she will want to conceive and carry kittens, ultimately. She may love you emotionally... but as you are... your relationship would be strained as you can not give her what her biology will tell her she needs..."
"How do you deal with this?" Amy almost whimpered.
"His love interest is female and he wants his own cubs as well," Officer Barnes spoke up trying to sound sympathetic, "Officer Wayne is waiting for his wife to come into season."
"Oh," Amy whimpered, "and what am I to do? I love Marcella... and I actually think she's very cute as a cat... even if her boobs are small..."
"We don't need to go there!" I blurted, and then regained myself, "I understand that you love her and find her attractive."
"What am I to do?" Amy asked, "I want Marcella to love me in return... not go chasing after boys because she wants kittens..."
"She probably does love you," I sighed, "as I said, the thing with her sexuality is instinctual. If you two stay together and marry... or do the equivalent... I don't know if Montana allows for gay marriage or not... she might involve you in any decision she has about children. Any couplings to conceive them would be nothing but biology. No emotion behind it... though with modern technology, artificial insemination might work if you have the money for it... but as I said this option could put strain on your relationship and you would need to be accepting of her decision."
"Is there any other option?" Amy asked, almost sounding desperate.
"The Animatrix Serum," Officer Barnes spoke after a moment.
"What?" Amy and I both gasped.
"Take the Serum and become Marcella's "tomcat"," Officer Barnes spoke, "as George has said, the reproductive problems is largely instinctual... if you don't want the strain of dating one who's instincts to mate are leading her away from you... become a male cat, a tomcat..."
"But what if I stay gay?" Amy asked, "what if I go looking for another man?"
"Animal instinct wouldn't lean that way," I sighed. This was a solution, I'd hoped to avoid, but then again, it might actually be the only one, "you would remain attracted to females. As a male, you would be geared to sire your next generation just as Marcella is discovering her instincts are driving her to carry her next generation."
"So, I'd go from a homosexual girl to a heterosexual tomcat?" Amy asked.
"Essentially," I nodded, "It simplify your relationship with Marcella... though again, I'd advise that you talk with Marcella first before you do anything with the Serum... and given what you've told me about your family, I'd wait until you turn eighteen when the decision is yours."
"That's only a month away," Amy commented.
"So, that'll help," Officer Barnes commented.
"Do I need to be a Maine Coon?" Amy asked.
"I do not believe so," I answered, "though I'd try to stick with a domestic breed of cat, and not some designer breed..."
"Designer?"
"There are a couple of breeds of cat that are the result of crossbreeding between house cats and various wild cats," I sighed, "while both are of the Genus Felis and can crossbreed, the resulting offspring are truly unpredictable..."
"What would you suggest?" Amy asked, sounding hopeful.
"It can vary," I sighed, "there are various long haired breeds, which might do better in the winter here... but there are short haired breeds that might fit clothing easier. It's not my choice... and I wouldn't know what Marcella finds attractive, and I do not wish to find out. I'm sure that if she loves you, whatever breed you choose, Marcella will approve."
"Thank you," Amy spoke and hoped up to give me a hug, "thank you."