Side - Beast (1)

My child is strange.

When she was just born, she immediately stopped moving even though I was sure that her body was completely fine.

Then, she wake me up deep in the night with her loud cries. I thought she was in danger, so I carried her and prepared to run if there was truly something dangerous, but there was none.

Also, she somehow immediately stopped crying when I carried her. Worried, I put her on the ground to check on her, but she was unconscious again.

At that time, I have a thought to eat her.

Clearly, something was off with her. She felt very different than other children that I had until now.

I should eat her now to spare her from suffering later when she was trying to survive without me.

But when I was about to do it, I noticed something.

She didn't have stripes.

No, when I looked closer I noticed that she did have stripes, but they were faint. Their color was almost as white as her furs.

One needs to look truly closely to see them.

Those furs...

The time I ever see that kind of furs was only once.

It was the time when I was at my prime when power was still rushing through my blood and I thought nothing could hurt me.

One day while chasing my favorite food, a glowing rabbit, I noticed a pure white silhouette moving extremely fast in the distance, it was moving toward me.

That day was the day I mate for the first time.

She has the same color as him.

I hesitated.

After thinking for a while, I decided to let her be temporarily and wait to see what she would do.

Afterward, she keeps showing strange actions, such as always trying to move away from me and refusing to drink my milk.

However, what shocked me was that she's still alive even though she always sleeping in cold and not eat anything for days.

I was planning to eat her after she becomes weak, but days without food seemed to have no effect on her as she was alive enough to avoid my legs when I tried to touch her.

How did she still alive?

I was puzzled.

One day, I was woken up by her, who surprisingly managed to come close at me and cling to my face when I was asleep.

Did I let my guard down?

No way, I just have a child so I never lowered my guard to prevent any accident ever happen to her.

Even though she was such a strange child, I have pride as her mother.

I will always look after her as long as she still has the will to live.

So, I wouldn't let anything happen to her until then.

After a while, she stirred.

She seemed to wake up but then stiffened when she noticed that I was looking at her.

She looked like prey that was caught.

Why did she look at me like that?

Puzzled, I just put her on my stomach then began to think about what did her expression meant.

She knows I'm her mother, right? If so, she should've known that I wouldn't hurt her...

But...why?

My previous children never look at me like that, at least not this early.

...This feels unpleasant, it's like...my pride as her mother was challenged.

This...can't be allowed. I will decide what to do with her quickly.

The next day, she surprised me by taking the initiative to get closer to me.

But she was moving so slowly that I almost lost my patience, but in the end, she managed to touch my paw.

I didn't know how to express what I felt at that moment. There was confusion, surprise, and frustration but at the same time, I also felt elated, happy, relieved, and also...proud.

I feel proud of her.

So, I decided to follow along with her whim for a while and see if she show any improvement again.

The next day, she surprised me again when she moved closer to my stomach and finally begin to drink my milk.

When I was looking at her, I noticed that she seemed to be surprised by something.

This child...she's so expressive.

She almost looks like a human.

I even had a ridiculous thought that maybe there was human inside her, but I immediately shook off such thought because at that time she was much smaller than any human I had seen.

Also, when I was licking her, she reacted very differently than my previous children who always seemed to dislike it very much. She looks like she was enjoying it. She even falls asleep right after I was done.

What a strange child.

The days afterward were almost boring, she didn't make any more strange actions which made me relieved but also somehow disappointed, those two emotions mixed inside me make me wondering if being close with her also made me strange.

However, one day when I just went back from a hunt, I saw she did something strange again.

She was eating rocks.

She picked a rock and put it inside her mouth then began to chew it.

I could see pieces of rock fall out of her mouth as she put on a hard-to-understand expression on her face.

Fortunately, she spat them out after a little while, because I was about to make her vomit it out if she swallowed them.

However, she shocked me again by taking a bigger rock and put it in her mouth.

...did I eat something strange when I had her?

I tried to remember what I did wrong that makes her like that while watching her chewing rocks with a disgusted expression on her face.

...

After thinking for a long time, I decided that the best course of action to not let her become any more strange was to give her something else to focus on.

So, I give her what I always enjoy, and that is meat.

It was a bit earlier than usual, but she had proven herself to be a very exceptional child.

My previous children never eat rocks.

So, while she was playing alone, I brought a piece of what I hunted. It was the right hind leg of a deer, the most delicious part. At first, I tried to find a glowing rabbit, but I can't find any even after I swept over the forest, so I decided to give her my second favorite food.

If she tastes this, then she would not eat rocks again for sure.

I put it down in front of her and watched as her gaze landed at it.

She keeps silently staring at it with a complicated expression on her face. After a while, she sniffed it once, almost making me jump.

But then she recoil from it as if she just smelled something bad.

This child...she wouldn't refuse to eat this...right?

After a 'little' push, she finally ate it.

I almost can't believe what I saw.

The leg disappeared in a few moments.

She even eat- no, devoured the bones.

Only bloodstains that were left on the place that indicate that the meat was just on there a few moments ago.

I looked at my child, she seemed to about to lick the blood off the ground but stopped after noticing my gaze.

She sat down and looked straight at me in the eye.

I turn my head to the side, avoiding her gaze.

There was enough prey in the forest, right? I hope that was the case.

I didn't know what she would do when there wasn't any left.

...well, at least she wouldn't eat rocks again. So that's alright, I...think?