ã€ŠNature of Predators: Death of a Monsterã€‹


 Chapter 1: A plan is formed.

    Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Prestige Exterminator, current predator.

    Date [standardised human time]: November 15, 2136

    I am a monster.

    I have spent my life doing everything I could to further the graces of Inatala, to stop the rot of predators everywhere they could be found, and to protect noble herbivores from a universe filled with danger and death. To stop anyone else from suffering like I did.

    I joined the Exterminators at the young age of 12, straight out of the orphanage and into my purpose in life. My general short stature made me a poor fit for the military, but very useful for crawling through holes to purge the despicable beasts from their dens of evil.

    I became good at it, learning my craft and every Federation protocol, unwavering in my dedication to protecting the galaxy. I learned to suppress the fear responses of the eyes and teeth that glinted in the dark, I made the universe a better place.

    I did my duty under the kind eyes of Inatala for ten years, before moving to Venlil prime as part of a wider federation movement. To help our more skittish allies who had not been gifted the resolve of Inatala to do what must be done, to teach them how to fight, how to win. I trained them, taught them to channel their fear and hate, to fight back against the unnatural order of those who would hunt us.

    Then the predators, the humans arrived.

    They came bearing not sharp claws, but a sharp tongue, quickly entrapping the poor empathetic Venlil under their spell. I remained silent, knowing when to fight my battles. The predators came proclaiming peace and friendship, but their forwards-facing eyes and constant baring of teeth stated otherwise.

    I stayed on Venlil Prime, even as the noble Federation fleet was sent to deal with this new scourge. Eventually, the predators would drop the mask and start their wholesale evil, and I would be ready to help the Venlil, those I now consider my kin, protect them from this new danger.

    Then the news broke, about the statements from the Kolshian Chief. Predators were more common than we thought, their evil had spread deep.

    And I am one of them.

    We Krakotl were affected deeply by this, as it turned out we were nothing more than the rot we swore to destroy. Suicides skyrocketed as many chose to destroy predators with one final act of self-destruction. Others more noble and brave went out in a literal blaze of glory, attacking the humans that infested our streets, trying to take out other predators with suicidal charges.

    Some disgraced themselves, choosing to side with the predators, with their own newly discovered evil. A minority went even further, although that problem soon solved itself. I couldn¡¯t help feeling sorry for those few, no matter how despicable you were dying from a meat allergy did not look like a fun death.

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    I originally had intended to join the more noble of my kind when the news of my condition broke, a final fiery charge to try and remove as much evil from the universe as possible. But before I could, a better idea came to me.

    I could both remove my own despicable taint from the universe, as well as warn the innocent Venlil of the destruction they were playing with. Using a predatory saying from these humans: To kill two birds with one stone.

    I would get a human to eat me. I would show the world the true nature of humanity.

    The first step of this attempt had been both successful and unsuccessful. Swiping a predator¡¯s communication device had been something even a chick could do, their lack of peripheral vision making sneaking up on them simple.

    Reading the information had been a bit harder, but through convincing a Venlil with my predatory deception to consult their ¡°human partner¡±, I had been given a set of instructions to cause the device to speak any words on the screen out loud, at which point the translator embedded in my brain would do its work.

    This is where the success of my first stage fell apart. I had expected to see the unfiltered communications of the predators. Instead, I saw what was clearly a decoy. Sure it had shocking depictions: instructions for the vile act of eating meat, violent actions humans had taken and strange anatomically incorrect drawings of federation species.

    But it lacked the evil a real predator information-sharing system would have: Their end plan for those on Venlil prime and other federation species. Clearly, they had expected a federation citizen like myself to gain access and had planted this fake network with just enough predatory bait to make it believable, without giving up their actual plan.

    This led me to have to guess my next move. Humans were clearly social predators, their lack of claws or strong jaws requiring them to trick their prey. They presumably would also only feast when they were certain to be alone, otherwise their predatory deception would only work once. This means I would need to find a way to be alone with the predators, in order to play the part of ¡°trusting prey¡±.

    I purchased a set of long-range monitoring equipment: battery-powered, wireless uplink, waterproof and nearly indestructible. This would then continuously upload to my personal device at home. A dead man''s switch was created, where if I didn¡¯t cancel the program every 4 paws, it would upload all video and audio to every news outlet and network I could think of. It was strange to think that if any of it ever went off, it would be because I¡¯d been torn apart by an evil predator.

    Of course that meant my own predatory influence on the world would also be gone, so every cloud has a silver lining.

    All I needed now was a mark, a predator who would be both my executioner and my salvation. I knew I was no longer under the graces of Inatala, I knew that I was the embodiment of despicable destruction that the god of noble herbivores reined against. But the human I found was practically perfect for my needs and was heaven-sent for my purpose.

    I was in the middle of nowhere when I heard the predatory scream for the first time. I had been spending less and less time near ¡®civilised¡¯ people, preferring to avoid those I was no longer fit to be around. So hearing the shout this far into the woods, half a claw¡¯s flight away from the capital, had been shocking and confusing.

    Even more confusing was finding out, upon further investigation, that the sound had come from a male human. Most people wouldn¡¯t venture this far from civilization, simply because of the danger posed by predators, not that a human would have to worry about such things.

    But the strange thing was this human was just sitting in a clearing, screaming out into nothingness for a good ten minutes. Then the predator would sit there for another hour, doing nothing apart from occasionally eating and drinking from food it had brought with them, before heading back the way it had come.

    This behaviour was both shocking and confusing, and even more confusingly, this wasn¡¯t the last time I would see the predator do this. Every ten paws, without fail, the human would come to the same clearing, scream for a while, then leave. Clearly, this was a predator finally cracking under the stress of their deception. It was almost too good to be true.

    I hooked up the recording equipment, tested and retested the quality of the shots it would store, and made sure that it was well hidden from even a predator¡¯s forwards facing eyes. The sound quality was good, visual quality was good, as I captured the test footage I could see every moment of the human shouting into the void. Backups were put in place in place. Everything had to be perfect: I would only get one shot to record this after all.

    The only task left was to actually execute the plan. Today I hid in the trees at the correct time, heart pounding as I waited for the predatory shouting to start; which it did, perfectly on time just like clockwork, just as the predator had done so for the last three times. I moved along the ground towards the sound: I knew where the human would be, I knew which direction to go.

    Towards my inevitable death.

    The only thing a predatory monster like me deserved.

 Chapter 2: A first Meeting.

    Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Krakotl to Venlil Extermination training leader.

    Date [standardised human time]: November 15, 2136

    ¡°What are you doing, human?¡±

    I could see the predator in front of me, clearly the bloodlust and instinct taking over as it screamed its feral cry into the forest. I stepped out of the trees as I made myself known to the beast, instantly stopping its cry as it fixed its predatory gaze on me.

    Inatala¡¯s Talons¡­

    It might have been the exact reason I was here, but seeing its eyes lock onto my figure filled me with a pure icy terror. Even with my training, being alone with the intelligent predator caused fear to paralyse me. I may not be a noble herbivore worthy of life, but I was still prey; every feather from my legs to the top of my head screamed at me to run, to fly, to flee.

    But that wouldn¡¯t do now, would it?

    The thing stared at me, confusion and hate emanating from its forward facing eyes, murmuring to itself as it looked at me hungrily.

    ¡°What the¡­ hell?¡±

    The predator was probably confused that a free meal was presenting itself so easily. Not that where I was currently standing would do: In order for the predator to devour me in front of the recording device I¡¯d have to get closer.

    I focused entirely on the action of moving forwards. One step at a time, one foot over the other, just focusing on closing the distance.

    Then the federation would no longer have the problem of human¡¯s sweet words causing herbivore to go against herbivore. The Venlil would no longer have the problem of predators in their midst.

    They would no longer have the problem of my corrupting presence.

    ¡°Whoa whoa whoa!¡± The predator''s eyes widened as I started to move forwards, panic filling his voice. ¡°What are you doing?¡±

    I watched as the human slowly bent over, its eyes never leaving me as it slowly fumbled around on the ground with one of its hands before standing back up now carrying a large rock, the action of arming himself being done with all the subtlety of a tree branch to the beak.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on? Stay where you are!¡±

    Was that¡­ fear? From a predator? Because of me? I stopped for a moment, confused, before a thought entered my mind.

    I could kill this human.

    Humans for all their evil and deception were surprisingly weak when unarmed. They had no claws, no teeth, no armour to protect themselves. If they could use their tools or their silver tongue to entrap you they were deadly, but completely alone out here?

    A single slice of the talons through soft skin would be enough.

    A few other Krakotl had even managed it during their suicidal attacks, severely injuring and in two cases even killing a human. I was still technically an exterminator after all, and killing things¡­ killing predators was my job, was my duty under the guidance of Inatala.

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    But what would that actually accomplish? One dead predator out of millions? The original plan was far better, and I might not find another opportunity like this again.

    I slumped into a sitting position, just a few feet away from the predator, my eyes lowered to the ground as I repeated in my head exactly how I needed to act.

    I am prey. I am just trusting naive prey. Nothing more than just an easy meal, completely comfortable around this vicious predator. I have no idea about its true evil. Just normal trusting prey.

    ¡°I just wanted to know why you were shouting, alone and with nobody around.¡±

    I waited, hoping that the combination of reminding the predator that we were completely alone, and the sight of a prey just sitting there in front of them would be enough to tip them over the edge.

    It seemed to be working, as the expression on the human¡¯s face turned from the worried anger, to a softer expression as its piercing eyes studied me for any weakness.

    ¡°Are you OK?¡±

    Those were not the three words I expected to hear from the predator. I tried to work out the angle of attack those words signified, cocking my head in confusion as I looked up at the beast.

    ¡°Your feathers are¡­ You OK?¡±

    I looked down at myself. Plumage that was normally a shiny iridescent blue was instead dulled and dishevelled. I hadn¡¯t properly groomed myself since the news about my true condition broke, and large patches were missing from where I¡¯d pulled them out due to stress. Any other Krakotl and most federation species would know something was wrong, but how would a predator lacking empathy know? Or care for that matter?

    ¡°I am fine, I am disease free and healthy.¡±

    I took a wild guess as to the human¡¯s inquiry. Perhaps he was worried that my physical condition represented something wrong with my flesh. Humans cooked their meat, didn¡¯t they, so maybe they had less tolerance than other predators for lower quality food?

    The human narrowed his eyes for a moment, that predator gaze filled with faux concern, slowly lowering themselves to the ground and sitting across from me before responding.

    ¡°If I tell you why I¡¯m shouting, will you tell me what¡¯s wrong?¡±

    I didn¡¯t know how to respond to that. I didn¡¯t really have any plan for talking with the predator aside from making myself known, as I expected to have been killed already. Seconds turned to minutes, the human¡¯s eyes never leaving me, patiently waiting for my response. It was an excellent performance, many others would have undoubtedly fallen for the fake empathy.

    Still, I had no idea how to progress this further, so I gave a slight nod, causing the predator to give a small teeth filled snarl.

    ¡°I¡¯m tired. Don¡¯t get me wrong, I love the Venlil and they¡¯re adorable, but having to watch every movement every turn of phrase¡­ seeing them jump or shudder because I moved too fast or used a metaphor. It¡¯s tiring. I¡¯m tired of everyone being scared of me, I¡¯m tired of hearing about Earth, not knowing if¡­¡±

    The human gave a sigh as it lamented about how difficult it was to keep its predatory ruse going.

    ¡°I broke a dude''s leg 3 weeks [21 paws] ago.¡±

    Now this sounded more like the truth. I could imagine the predator grabbing a poor Venlil, breaking open its legs with those strong hands to get at the bone marrow inside. I wondered why it was confessing to such an action, before remembering that if it was about to eat me it would make no difference whether I knew or not.

    ¡°I went to the library, caused a stampede because I fucking sneezed. I just wanted to get some Venlil myths translated, and ended up breaking someone''s leg because it was all a bit dusty.¡±

    To be fair to the predator, that also didn¡¯t sound unlikely. The Venlil were skittish at the best of times and stampeding was a legitimate problem, human or no human.

    ¡°Heck I¡¯m literally tired, this gravity is no joke and the lack of night is messing with my sleep pattern. It¡¯s nice to just come out here, and be able to scream and shout as much as I want without worrying about giving the Venlil a heart attack.¡±

    The predator stopped, staring at me intently as it finished its explanation, it taking a moment for me to realise that it was waiting for me to respond in kind. I desperately wracked my brain for a lie: I couldn¡¯t exactly tell the predator of my plan.

    How did humans constantly come up with the correct lie to say so easily?

    ¡°I¡­ uh. Since the news broke, about the¡­ uh from Cilany, I can¡¯t¡­ do¡­¡±

    I trailed off lamely as my brain failed to work out a believable lie. Somehow, it seemed to satisfy the predator however, as he gave a slight growling sound indicative of light amusement.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, if you¡¯re really not ready to tell me you don¡¯t have to. I¡¯m Joseph by the way, and you¡¯re more than welcome to sit here with me if you want.¡±

    I couldn¡¯t work out what its goal was, why it just wasn¡¯t taking this clear opportunity, what exactly this hunting strategy could be. Still, it wasn¡¯t like I had any other ideas.

    ¡°I¡¯m Estala¡±.

 Chapter 3: A kind of therapy

    Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Krakotl to Venlil Extermination training leader.

    Date [standardised human time]: November 22, 2136

    I quickly realised I didn¡¯t have a plan.

    Nothing else had happened during that first meeting with the predator, forcing me to return back home and replan my attempt. It had been a strange trip home, I hadn¡¯t expected to return and by any rational measure I should already be dead. Disabling the dead man''s switch had almost felt disappointing, an absolute failure.

    I was just glad I had enough savings in general from my many years as an exterminator to not have to rush this, I hadn¡¯t planned only for fair winds during a storm.

    Later, when the human had gone, I double checked that the recording device was correctly hidden: It was. If the predator could see that small of a device nearly a mile out, then I had no chance of success regardless of what I did.

    Next I cleaned myself up, grooming myself and ensuring I looked the best I could possibly be. I couldn¡¯t do much about the patches of missing feathers, but the rest of me would gleam. Perhaps my unkempt appearance had put the predator off?

    I had also made sure to arrive earlier than the predator would this time, lying in the middle of the clearing, eyes closed. It was a risk: Other predators did exist. It also went against every instinct in my body, filling me with a terror and desire to get to higher ground. But then again they were the instincts of a secret meat eater, so what did I know?

    Unfortunately attempt number two had also been unsuccessful: The predator had arrived roughly on time, but instead of devouring the easily accessible and defenceless prey, had instead just sat down in the clearing with me.

    I had nothing I wanted to talk to a predator about and no real plan outside of getting eaten without being too obvious. It should have been a simple process, yet there I was, lying in silence next to a predator that very much wasn¡¯t eating me.

    Somehow I¡¯m so worthless and incompetent that I can¡¯t even do this simple thing right.

    ¡°Have you ever tried just screaming? It¡¯s really very freeing¡±

    I sat up as the human spoke, my seemingly poor imitation of easy prey being replaced with my far better impression of a very confused Krakotl, a confusion the predator clearly picked up on.

    ¡°What? Did you expect me to sit in silence for the next hour [? claw]?¡±

    The absolute absurdity of the suggestion left me disorientated. Scream like someone afflicted with predator disease?

    ¡°Why would I do that?¡± I responded, feeling the probing stare of the predator once again practically boring a hole through my skull.

    ¡°Because there¡¯s something up with you¡± the predator said it matter of factly, not accusatory, just simply stating what was and what wasn¡¯t. ¡°For starters you came back¡±.

    ¡°I merely wish to learn about predators after the revelation regarding the Krakotl history, and being here alone where nobody is watching seemed to be the best idea.¡±

    One of the things I had done with the last 2 paws of time was to fabricate a reason for interacting with the human. Lying was much easier when you had time to think.

    ¡°Suuuure. That¡¯s why you¡¯ve asked me nothing so far and every time I glance in your direction you become a tense bundle of feathers, as if waiting for something to happen.¡±

    Wait, did the predator know of my plan? How else would it discard my reasoning so easily? I¡¯d spent an entire claw coming up with the false reasoning to keep interacting with the predator, but somehow it had instantly discarded my lie.

    I almost felt an envy for the humans at that moment: They were able to so effortlessly keep up their deception regardless of what statements were thrown at them. Yet here I was, unable to convince one predator as to a reasonable reason why I¡¯d be willing to follow them around.

    ¡°Regardless, whatever is going on with you, shouting about it might help? Just think about whatever is bothering you, close your eyes, and release the problem with all your might¡±

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    I gave a startled jump as the predator closed its eyes and released another beastly roar, the sound echoing between the trees as it then stopped to look at me expectantly.

    Do predators get predator disease? The idea was silly and stupid, but so was the idea of screaming like some feral beast. That was the kind of behaviour that got you locked up in a facility before you became a danger to others.

    Although that¡¯s what I am. A danger. A disgrace, a creature that once had the capability to eat meat.

    A monster.

    I didn¡¯t know what the predator¡¯s end game was, but playing along with the human would be the fastest way to get to that grizzly end that I deserved and my plan required.

    I turned my back to the human while closing my eyes and gave a half hearted cry, expecting to feel the predator''s cruel grasp on my unprotected neck as I did so.

    ¡°Come on, that¡¯s not a shout.¡±

    The chiding of the predator annoyed me, did he expect me to scream like him, to lose all control like an evil beast? I gave another, louder this time, enough to startle a Venlil at least.

    ¡°I¡¯ve heard louder sparrows [A small seed eating avian found on Earth ].¡±

    I felt the annoyance simmer and bubble over into anger. I didn¡¯t know what a Sparrow was, but context was easy to recognize. This annoying, stupid, Inatala cursed predator. He couldn¡¯t even do the one thing predators were known for, being so cautious as to make my task harder.

    This time I gave a full piercing screech, the sound echoing through the trees as a representation of my anger, bouncing around the otherwise empty forest.

    ¡°There we go Estala! Now how to do you-¡±

    I interrupted the human with another cry, every single thing wrong bubbling up into a scream, one after the other.

    One for fact that the Venlil I¡¯d grown to care for were forced to deal with these predators in their midst.

    One for the failure of the federation fleet to solve this problem.

    One for my own treachery of existence, my own evil in this galaxy.

    One for a mother I never knew.

    One for a father found murdered

    Eventually I ran out of breath and anger, just sitting there panting and feeling drained, seconds turning to minutes until a growl from the human caused me to focus on him instead. The human had that snarl plastered on his face, the one they claim means enjoyment or happiness. How such a teeth baring smile could ever be for joy I have no idea.

    ¡°Sounds like you needed that. Are you feeling better now?¡±

    To be fair to the human, I did. If I¡¯d have seen any Krakotl making such a predatory display I would have assumed they were under the influence of predator disease, but somehow after shouting I felt¡­ calmer¡­ almost as if some of my issues had drained away with the noise I had made. They were still there, they weren¡¯t gone, but for the first time in a while they were just a little bit smaller.

    ¡°Yes.¡± I replied, answering honestly. ¡°That was surprisingly effective.¡±

    We sat there in silence for a few more moments as I continued to bask in the afterglow of my feral shouting, until the human broke the silence again.

    ¡°Who¡¯s Talasim?¡±

    I instantly looked up with shock. How did the predator know that name?

    ¡°You were shouting it at the end.¡± The human answered my unasked question.

    I knew I should make something up, deflect, lie, go back to the original reason I was here. But I just didn¡¯t have the mental energy right now to lie.

    ¡°Talasim was my father, he was killed by a predator. It¡¯s why I¡¯m a... why I''m here on Venlil prime.¡±

    The human''s face fell in an exceptionally convincing display of empathy.

    "I''m sorry, that sucks. We don''t have to talk about it if you don''t want to."

    Joseph''s reaction was exactly as I''d expect any reasonable prey with the ability to feel empathy to act, from the facial expressions to the tone of voice. Of course, the predators had to be good enough to fake such emotions since they had managed to fool the entire Venlil scientific community.

    The scientific proof of said human empathy had been trotted out by the Venlil government repeatedly, not that I was fooled by such predator trickery.

    What if it wasn''t a trick?

    I pushed that stupid idea out of my mind as the human continued to speak.

    "My story about why I¡¯m here isn''t as bad. Signed up for the exchange program along with what seemed to be the entire world, didn''t get in. However, then they started offering permanent relocation to anyone willing, something about these weird alien birds trying to blow up the planet. You may have heard of them."

    I couldn''t help but give a short laugh at the absurdity of the human''s statement asking if I knew of the Krakotl, even through my distrust.

    "So now I''m here, staying at the refugee centre. Which is for the best in retrospect, considering that my apartment no longer exists. Miss a few people from earth, but exploring Venlil prime has been exciting."

    It all sounded so¡­ genuine. I couldn''t help but want to like Joseph, that enthusiasm was infectious. If it was any other being on the planet¡­

    Was this how they entrapped their prey? How they''d managed to win the Venlil over so quickly? Even with my exterminator training I could feel myself caring about the problems of this human. Which is why I found myself asking the next question.

    "Are those you left behind ok?"

    The human''s face dropped as I feared I had asked the wrong question. The predator''s voice turned more solemn.

    "Everyone lost someone, some made it, some didn''t. The worst ones are where there''s no information. Earth is kinda a shitshow right now, so there''s a lot of people just unconfirmed."

    The human gave a sigh that filled me with a sudden pang of guilt for an unknown reason.

    "I''m still waiting for news on my parents and little sister. No news is good news right? I''m sure they''re fine."

    I wanted to tell myself that the invasion was for a good reason, that the fate of all good herbivores hung in the balance. But¡­ the human just looked so sad.

    "I hope they''re fine as well."

    I was surprised that I didn''t have to lie about that statement.

 Chapter 4: Mangos and Pets

    Memory transcription subject: Estala,  Ex-Prestige Exterminator, current predator.

    Date [standardised human time]: December 6, 2136

    I wasn¡¯t sure why I was still coming to these meetings.

    Three attempts, three failures. Each time the human seemingly did everything else but devour me: Deciding to spend the time talking instead. How much ¡°preparation¡± did one prey need? I was already sitting within his reach each time, completely ¡°trusting¡±, yet somehow the predator just consistently continued with their charisma-based hunt.

    I half wonder how this species didn¡¯t starve to death if this was the effort placed into every meal.

    This time the human had beaten me to the meeting spot, although strangely there were none of the normal primal shouts that we had both taken to doing. It took me a moment to realise what I was seeing: The human was hunting.

    Joseph was sitting in a crouched position, looking steadily at his slowly approaching prey: a bright Red Flowerbird. He was luring it closer by tossing small morsels of food that the unwitting avian was greedily eating up.

    Flowerbirds were not known to be the smartest creatures, the generally safe predator-free environment of the inhabited band of Venlil Prime meant that the little red birds were entirely trusting. They were well known to simply walk up to where food was stored, and it wasn¡¯t that uncommon to see one having walked to its own death, having been crushed by machinery as they discarded any stimuli that weren¡¯t directly linked to eating.

    I felt myself tense up as the poor creature got closer and closer to the predator. Part of me wanted to shout out, to scare the dumb thing away, but I knew that while not enough evidence on its own, the footage of seeing a human hunt for the first time would be insightful and useful.

    The human had stopped tossing food at this point, much to the bird''s annoyance, holding out a meaty palm full of seeds, as I could hear Joseph whispering softly under his breath.

    ¡°Come on¡­ I got some nice food.¡±

    With a flutter it hopped up to its doom, landing right in the predator''s grasp, unknowing of the danger as it continued to contentedly eat. I could see the human¡¯s teeth on full display, mouth open the widest I¡¯d ever seen it. Seconds turned to minutes as I held my breath, waiting for the human to make the next move.

    I hardly spotted it at first, his right hand slowly and stealthily moving closer to the unknowing red bird, the movements precise and deadly. I saw the fingers get closer as I tensed in anticipation¡­

    As they gently touched the Bird, running a single finger softly along the top of its head. The Flower Bird stopped for a moment before deciding that if the action wasn¡¯t stopping it from eating, it was cool with it.

    Why would he do that¡­

    I let out a breath I didn¡¯t realise I¡¯d been holding in, a loud snapping sound of a twig echoing through the trees as I temporarily lost my balance. Joseph spun around to lock his eyes on me, causing the bird and the food to be dumped onto the ground, the former of which gave an angry chip before resuming its ever-important task of eating.

    I expected the Human to be angry with me for disrupting his hunt, but instead, he gave me a large beaming smile.

    ¡°Hey Estala! Come over here, I got you something!¡±

    I slowly hopped over to the predator. I had long resigned myself to the plan of just going along with whatever the human wanted. Clearly, I wasn¡¯t able to predict what made the predator hunt, so just following ¡®trustingly¡¯ with whatever idea Joseph had was probably my fastest and best choice.

    ¡°What were you doing human?¡±

    ¡°Never mind that! I had an idea for something interesting. There¡¯s this Venlil food stall thing next to the Library, and I finally got the courage to pick up some of these things.¡±

    The human reached into his backpack and pulled out a bag of prepared Yatcha root; the dried then baked slices were a popular Venlil snack.

    ¡°Which officially blew my mind by the way. So crispy and tangy. I really hope whatever these things are, that they aren¡¯t bad for me.¡±

    Now that was interesting to hear, the predator positively talking about non-meat-based food. I could feel my interest peaking as he continued to pull containers and other packaging out of his backpack.

    ¡°So then I thought about Mrs Birdie, and whether you¡¯d like to try some human food.¡±

    Was the human insane? Actually, scratch that, was the human more insane than normal? Eating predator food would be a death sentence due to the cure.

    ¡°You do realise I can¡¯t eat meat right? Fruit only.¡± I responded suspiciously. I guess being fed something by the predator that would kill me mostly fulfilled the criteria of what I wanted from these meetings, but¡­

    ¡°That¡¯s fine, I only brought fruit and seeds, and I kinda fed the seeds I brought to that adorably tame little red bird.¡±

    Almost in response, the Red Flower Bird gave a small chirp, before going back to the far more pressing issue of eating as many human seeds as possible.

    ¡°In addition, I¡¯ve got an EpiPen, just in case you¡¯re allergic to anything. The UN handed a bunch of these out after that guy almost died walking through a field.¡±

    Joseph turned to look at me, that snarl I had come to understand as a smile plastered across his face.

    ¡°What do you say?¡±

    It was hard to turn the human down, his excitement was infectious and made me curious about the fruits he had brought from his strange home world. Part of me wondered if the predator was just trying to fatten me up, but I had heard good things about human food from the Venlil, in particular apples.

    ¡°I guess I could try some.¡±

    ¡ª------------

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    The food was a mixed bag.

    Some of it literally hurt, a food in particular called ¡°pineapple¡± felt like drinking cleaning fluid, having to spit out the fruit and wash my mouth out with water as Joseph desperately apologised.

    Others were disappointing. ¡°Apples¡± and ¡°Bananas¡± were ok, but hard to eat, not suited to the softer fruit part of a Krakotl¡¯s normal diet. The predator laughed at me when I ate the Bananas for some reason.

    The berries of various bright colours were all fantastic, making it hard to believe that such a delicious variety of foods could be found on a predator planet. I would have been more than happy to snack on those alone.

    But then the human gave me a ¡°Mango¡±.

    He held it out like the others as if he wasn¡¯t offering me the food of the gods and after the first bite: The absolute divine taste hit my brain. It wasn¡¯t one of the best things I¡¯d eaten, it was the best thing I¡¯d eaten by far. Nothing in federation space compared to the sweet complex flavours and refreshment that hit my tongue. It was as if Inatala herself had swooped down and deposited this gift from the heavens.

    I practically attacked it, Joseph pulling his hands back quickly as I gave no thought to manners as I devoured the fruit, ending with a beak covered in sticky fruit juice and eyes wide open with enjoyment.

    ¡°More¡±

    This caused the human to laugh at me, my feather bristling as my sudden complete lack of decorum caught up with me.

    ¡°I only brought one I¡¯m afraid, I¡¯ll bring a lot more next time. Space birds like mangos, noted. Also, you got a bit of mango on your¡­¡±

    The human made a waving motion towards his everywhere before breaking into laughter again.

    ¡°It¡¯s not like it matters¡± I retorted, feeling the embarrassment start to take hold. ¡°We¡¯re all alone out here, nobody can see us.¡±

    This for some reason this causes Joseph to stop laughing, the human staring at me thoughtfully for a moment.

    ¡°Why do you keep mentioning that we¡¯re all alone? It¡¯s weird.¡±

    I froze, my brain screeching to a halt. How did the predator notice that? Was it really that obvious? I thought I was being quite coy in reminding the predator that there would be nobody else watching us.

    Come on brain, speak some words, what would a completely trusting prey say?

    ¡°I don¡¯t want you to act differently than how you normally would, it¡¯s not fair to have to hide yourself.¡±

    I almost looked shocked at my own answer as I waited to see if this was an acceptable response. Where did a lie like that come from?

    The best lies are ones based mostly in truth.

    ¡°Oh. I was worried it was something else. I¡¯ve seen some federation websites¡­ now that I notice them, there are way too many Venlil wearing rainbow socks¡­¡± Joseph gave a small smile as he trailed off for some unknown reason. ¡°That¡¯s actually very sweet though. Not that there¡¯s anything I want to do¡­ well¡­ except one thing.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    It was now the human''s turn to act nervous and embarrassed as he started to fidget, tapping his fingers together nervously and starting to speak in a less assured way.

    ¡°Look, practically every federation species triggers a nurturing response in humans because you¡¯re all adorable. The Venlil are basically sheep, the Gojid giant pangolins, Dossur precious little hamsters. Even you are basically a toucan but poofier¡°

    I didn¡¯t know what many of those words were, but I could get the gist from context. I had read many humans claiming a similar protective and nurturing instinct: I had assumed those to be predatory lies in order to get the federation members to let their guard down.

    But¡­

    The way Joseph spoke, it was hard to imagine this being a lie. The way he spoke with pure enthusiastic candour¡­ made it hard not to trust him

    Not even a predator could lie that well.

    ¡°Logically I know you''re a person¡± The human continued, pausing a moment as Joseph seemed to struggle to find his words. ¡°You¡¯re a sapient being deserving of respect and all that¡­ but¡­ a not insignificant part of my brain wants to¡­ you know¡­ pet you because you¡¯re adorable.¡±

    I just stared at the human for a moment. Why? What? I could have understood if Joseph had said he wanted to eat me or hurt me, or any other logical thing a predator would wish to do. But this made no sense. The idea of letting a predator willingly touch me made no sense.

    One of the few complaints that had been widely talked about was the tendency for humans to touch the fleece of Venlil unprovoked. It had to be a predator trick, there had to be some reason for doing this.

    Maybe the reason is as simple as the human states it is.

    ¡°Just forget it.¡± Joseph seemed to take my silence as a negative response, scrambling to backtrack his statement. ¡°It¡¯s dumb I know, it¡¯s stupid and weird. We¡¯ll talk about something else and-¡±

    ¡°Sure¡±.

    Wasn¡¯t my entire goal here to trigger the predator''s trap? To show the universe the true face of humanity? What better way to do that than to literally place myself in the grasp of a predator?

    "Wait, really?" Joseph looked legitimately surprised at my positive assent. "You don''t have to. I know you''re scared of me."

    I just gave a nod of confirmation, causing the human to break out into a smile. I could feel my heart beat faster as the predator reached towards me, much like he had done for the Flowerbird.

    Everything in my body told me to run, to flee to-

    By Inatala¡¯s Talon¡¯s¡­

    I had expected it to hurt, for the human¡¯s fingers to be scratchy, rough, painful. For there to be a lack of empathy and care. I had half expected the predator to finally use this opportunity to strike. But instead¡­

    I had once paid for a full professional groom when I originally got the job on Venlil Prime. It had cost a significant portion of my paycheck, but I had considered it one of the most relaxing and enjoyable experiences I¡¯d ever had.

    This blew that away like a leaf in a storm.

    The human¡¯s digits seemed to know exactly where to go, magically ripping the stress right out of my body, as if scratching an itch that I didn¡¯t know existed, like stretching your wings first thing in the morning. For the first time in a while, everything just seemed like it was going to be ok.

    I closed my eyes and pressed my head into the feeling, causing Joseph to give a small giggle of innocent glee and continue stroking my head with more enthusiasm. The exterminator part of my brain suggested that might be the ¡°tenderization¡± that I had read about on the human internet, but I pushed that thought away, too relaxed and happy to care.

    The universe had become a far darker place over the last six months, predators were everywhere and with the gains they were making there was a very good chance every noble herbivore would end up devoured by them. Frankly, if the human¡¯s hunting methods involved feeding us ¡°Mangos¡± and applying ¡°Pets¡±, compared with the Axrur there were far worse ways to go.

    I felt drops of liquid hit my chest, causing me to snap out of my relaxed haze and jump back, confusedly looking around for the source. It didn¡¯t take me long to see that it was coming from the human, tears streaming from Joseph''s face as he started to sob.

    ¡°Why can¡¯t it always be like this? It¡¯s not fair!¡± Joseph looked despondent, tears continuing to drip from those terrifying forward-facing eyes. ¡°Why do I have to be worried about people hurting themselves because they¡¯re scared of me? Why do I keep having to hear the stuff people say when they think I can¡¯t hear? Why do I have to spend every night looking through new lists of the confirmed dead every week to see if my family''s names are on there? Why can¡¯t it just be this!¡±

    I didn¡¯t know what to do. I just wanted the human to stop crying, in that brief moment he wasn¡¯t a predator, he was just any other social herbivore being rejected from the herd. I did the only thing I could think of and sat down again next to him, pushing myself into his side.

    This seemed to work, as the human broke into a small sniffle-filled laughter, resuming scratching the back of my neck.

    ¡°It¡¯s funny, out of all the people on this planet it¡¯s a Krakotl who made an effort to get to know me¡± Joseph gave a confused shake of his head, before focusing entirely on me. ¡°Thank you.¡±

    The pang of sudden guilt hurt more than if the predator had ripped me limb from limb with its teeth, as my mind wandered back to the recording device safely hidden among the trees and the real reason I was here.

    Out of the both of us, why did I feel like the predatory one?

 Chapter 5: A good day

    Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Prestige Exterminator, current predator.

    Date [standardised human time]: ?????

    Today was a good day.

    School had been enjoyable. I¡¯d aced the history quiz: I did well at remembering facts and figures, I could recite off the tip of my beak the dates and events that led to the formation of the federation, the events of a better time before the great mistake of the Arxur was made. Tarvas said I was a nerd, but he was just jealous.

    Lunch had been Kychuee fruit, which was my favourite, and even the weather was perfect: That fantastic kind of sunny day that caused the air to be filled with updrafts, letting you easily glide and soar between the large spiraling wood and stone architecture that made up the cities of Nishtal.

    I waved goodbye to Tarvas with a final flap of my wings, as I descended down to the lower levels where I lived with my dad. We lived quite close to the ground, generally reserved for those less useful to the overall war effort against the evil Arxur, which made sense as a single father and his daughter were less important than a breeding couple. Once upon a time your vertical position mattered, as the further up you were meant you were the further away from predators. Now though, predator attacks were rare on Nishtal, meaning it was more of a cultural relic than an actual danger.

    As I landed at my front door and carefully placed my school bag where it belonged, my thoughts were drawn to why it was just me and my father. I never knew my mother, having been taken in an Aruxr raid before I was hatched, my egg the only one of the clutch that my father had managed to grab on that fateful day. My dad talked about my mother often and I wish I could have met her: she sounded nice.

    ¡°Dad! I¡¯m home!¡±

    I pushed those thoughts away from my head as I entered my home. There were far more pressing things to be thinking of, for instance the next episode of The Exterminators was on today. The last episode had seen the Harchen Exterminator Duliny trapped in a predator¡¯s den, and I couldn¡¯t wait to see how she was going to make it out.

    Unlike a lot of Krakotl my age I had no desire or fantasy to become an exterminator. While they were heroic figures, I was under no delusion that I would make a good one. The idea of facing down predators, climbing into dens of evil and being the first line of defence against the Arxur filled me with terror. I much prefer the maths and science classes.

    ¡°Dad? I¡¯m home, you there?¡±

    That was strange, dad always greeted me at the door, understandably protective of his only daughter. He¡¯d been stressed recently, something about work, so maybe he was still there. Even weirder the living room was also a mess, as if a stampede of Venlil had run through our home; tables and perches upended and strewn haphazardly around the room. Weird¡­

    Then I smelled it, a scent that caused a surge of fear to run through my brain. Of danger, of pain.

    Blood.

    ¡°Dad!?¡±

    I rushed forwards filled with terror, following the smell and opening the door to my fathers bedroom, opening the door to the horror scene in front of me. Purple blood covered the walls and furniture, drying and dripping into an horrific mess. The window lay flung open, drapes fluttering in the simple summer breeze, doing very little to air out the smell of gore. Until this point I had thought the violence and blood on The Exterminators to be super realistic, but it didn¡¯t hold a candle to the devastation in front of me.

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    In the centre of it all, lay my father, his belly was sliced open, intestines splayed out across the ground. Scratches in the wooden floor told the tale of someone trying to drag their broken body to safety before something had sliced his throat open. He stared blankly up at the ceiling, eyes devoid of any life as the pool of coagulating blood surrounded him like a final dash of colour in this destructive canvas of death.

    I rushed over to his side, grabbing hold of my fathers wing: Bone cold, he¡¯d been dead for a while. Tears started to form in my eyes as I stared down at the dead Krakotl, softly whispering the next word as if he could still hear me.

    ¡°Dad?¡±

    I don¡¯t know how long I stayed there holding onto my fathers wing, silent tears falling to the ground as the beautiful day outside continued on as if nothing had happened. As if somehow just staying still and doing nothing would fix the problem, as if you could put the pieces back together from a cracked egg by just wishing hard enough.

    But eventually I had to do something, shakily getting up from my position. The exterminators, I had to call the exterminators. That¡¯s what they said at school, that if there was a predator attack they were the first ones you contacted for help. I started towards the communicator, shaking like a leaf in the wind, before a sound caused my focus to snap back to my fathers body. The sound of cracking bone and twisting sinew rang out as my dad turned to look at me, his eyes still blank and unseeing, his head twisting at an unnatural angle to stare directly in my direction, as if he was a predator. What? This wasn¡¯t possible, this couldn¡¯t be happening!

    ¡°You did this.¡±

    My dad¡¯s voice was filled with anger, filled with accusation as I stood there shivering, feathers on end as my father continued to watch me with hate filled dead eyes.

    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t. I tried to stop this, I tried to stop this from ever happening again!¡±

    My father dragged himself forwards in my direction as I stumbled back in fear, his guts and insides trailing and slithering along besides him, before he lifted a single wing to point at me.

    ¡°Predator. Meat Eater. Evil.¡±

    I looked down at my talons, at the end of my beak, the implements originally designed to eat meat were covered in my fathers purple blood, dripping onto the floor as I tried to wipe the mess away.

    ¡°No, I¡¯m trying to fix it, I¡¯m trying to make it better!¡±

    More sounds of cracking bone as the Krakotl¡¯s head twisted to the side in another unnatural movement, as if looking at me inquisitively, questioningly.

    ¡°By becoming friends with a predator? By cavorting with the enemy?¡±

    I took another step back, covering my face with my wings and shaking my head back and forth as the accusations rained down.

    ¡°No. I just need more time! I just need to work out the human¡¯s trick! I can save the Venlil! I can save everyone!¡±

    ¡°Wow this officially blew my mind by the way. So crispy and tangy.¡±

    The sound of the human caused me to stop hiding behind my wings, looking up at the horror abovce. Noises of tearing flesh and grinding teeth filled the room as Joseph sat like an animal over my father, devouring and eating like the predator he is.

    ¡°I really hope whatever these things are, that they aren¡¯t bad for me.¡±

    I watched as Joseph tore into the corpse, covered head to toe in purple blood, ripping and tearing flesh and bone alike, as if it was nothing more than paper. Grunting and growling as he ate, tearing the body apart wing by wing, limb by limb, greedily shoving each appendage into his gaping mouth.

    With a final movement it drove both hands into my fathers ribcage, breaking the bone apart with ease and rummaging inside the body before retrieving its terrible prize: A still beating heart. Joseph looked up at me, piercing eyes crazed and drilling deep into my soul, teeth bared in a wild blood covered grin. It then raised up the heart towards me in offering.

    ¡°Hey Estala, wanna try some human food?¡±

    ¡ª------------------

    I woke up screaming, falling off my perch with a clatter, fear and terror clouding my judgement. It took a few moments to realise where I was through my ever beating heart. I was still on Venlil Prime, back home. I was safe, it was just a nightmare.

    Still I couldn¡¯t stop thinking about the sight of Joseph covered in blood, of the blame of my predatory ancestry. I lay there shivering on the floor, seconds turning to minutes turning to hours.

    Hating the monster that I was.

 Chapter 6: Of Evil and Choices

    Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Prestige Exterminator, current predator.

    Date [standardised human time]: December 13, 2136

    ¡°Look, Yegela is best girl and all, but honestly I ship Kalam and Raphial.¡±

    I stared at Joseph incredulously as the human said the most insane thing. Maybe he did have predator disease, how could any rational person take that opinion?

    ¡°You¡¯re joking right? Their entire relationship is based around how much they hate each other!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not saying it would be a healthy relationship, but it would be an interesting one. Heck maybe a good hate fuck would stop Kalam from being such a whiny bitch half the time.¡±

    I had decided to change my approach to speed things along. Perhaps if I reminded Joseph of things the Federation liked that a predator would naturally find offensive, it would cause him to snap?

    Even you know that¡¯s a long shot

    I had decided to steer today''s conversation to the ever popular Exterminators show. What I hadn¡¯t planned around that not only was the show super popular with Federation species, but it was also super popular with humans, having gained a cult following. Joseph seemingly being one of those who had taken a liking to the show.

    The human was sitting on the ground, surrounded by a flock of Flower Birds of varying colours. Seemingly word had spread among the bird world that this particular predator expelled tasty seeds if you chirped at them enough. The same predator who had handed me a bag of mangos bigger than I was as soon as he saw me, the look of joy when he did so was almost¡­ adorable.

    Seeing Joseph sitting there in the daylight, surrounded by birds with a dumb grin on his face as he discussed my favourite show¡­ it all made my previous nightmare seem silly. If I closed my eyes it was almost as if he was just another Venlil or Krakotl back at work discussing the most popular show in Federation space. Of course if I closed my eyes I also saw the blood filled vision of the human that haunted my dreams.

    Nightmares are nothing more than bad dreams.

    What also didn¡¯t help was these random errant thoughts, which had seemingly gotten worse and more insistent. I half wondered if being around a predator for so long had given me predator disease.

    ¡°I¡¯m still surprised you enjoy the show, considering what it¡¯s about.¡±

    My statement caused the human to shrug.

    ¡°It¡¯s got fun character development, why wouldn¡¯t I like it? Apart from season 9 it¡¯s a very enjoyable, if at times flawed show.¡±

    ¡°Season 9 is the one with humans right? Makes sense you wouldn¡¯t be fond of that.¡±

    Season 9 of the Exterminators had been the latest season, dealing with the ¡°disappearance¡± of Venlil prime and the appearance of humans. It would also probably be the last season for quite some time, considering that the Harchen government had basically been destroyed in the aftermath of the battle for Earth.

    ¡°Nah it was mostly the Venlil Prime stuff. They used actual people¡¯s likenesses, actual CGI¡¯d locations. Was.. too real. Seeing the nice Venlil Librarian I occasionally see get torn apart by Noah was¡­ too much. It stopped being a story and felt more like blatant lies.¡±

    Joseph started frowning as he spoke, before finally brightening back up again.

    ¡°Honestly the humans were the best part. Most villains in the series are boring and have basically been beaten repeatedly with the stupid stick, but the humans were super engaging. Honestly I wish I was that clever, would make life way easier.¡±

    A look of confusion covered my face. Surely the predator hadn¡¯t misunderstood the show that badly right?

    ¡°You do know that humans are the villains in the show right?¡±

    ¡°Yea, so?¡± The human returned my confused look in turn, as if the question was silly. ¡°A good villain can be just as entertaining as a good hero. We¡¯ve only known about aliens for what, six months now? Most of our villains and heroes are human. I know it¡¯s unintentional but half the enjoyment of the show is the fact that the main ¡®heroes¡¯ do evil shit like burning babies or supporting genocide, while at the same time being sympathetic characters.¡±

    I felt my heart drop at that statement. Having my job, my desire to help people summed up as just ¡°evil shit¡± was like an ice cold dagger to my heart. I know I shouldn¡¯t care about the inclinations of predators, but hearing the person who was currently carefully feeding a bunch of flower birds inadvertently call me evil¡­ hurt.

    There¡¯s a reason you don¡¯t talk about that part of your job. There¡¯s a reason you lock those mewling screams of cubs deep inside your brain where nobody can find them.

    ¡°That is- was my job.¡± I paused for a moment, gathering the strength to continue the sentence.

    ¡±If I wasn¡¯t here on Venlil prime I would have probably been part of Kalsim¡¯s fleet.¡±

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    ¡°Oh.¡±

    The mood trend sombre, a contrast to the nice sunny day that it was. Joseph just looked sad, disappointed almost. Had I messed up? Would the human want nothing to do with me now? Or maybe he would finally attack me in anger?

    Somehow Joseph abandoning you is a worse prospect than him attacking you, isn¡¯t it?

    ¡°Would you do it now?¡± the human finally broke the silence, almost seeming to internally decide a course of action. ¡°Knowing what you know, if you could do it now without consequences, would you?¡±

    The correct answer was obviously yes, the correct answer was to aid the federation for the good of all herbivores. But¡­ that would mean specifically taking actions to hurt Joseph, hurt his family. I¡¯d be the one making him cry this time.

    Just tell him the truth.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°Not quite the answer I was hoping for, but at least you¡¯re honest.¡±

    The human gave a sigh and shook his head, taking the time to push some of the more adventurous Flower birds away and focusing entirely on me.

    ¡°I know the federation has messed you up, so let''s start with the basics since I don¡¯t think you¡¯re a bad person: Evil requires choice.¡±

    That most definitely wasn¡¯t right. Some things were just wrong, that¡¯s why every species checked their children for predator disease, to remove evil before it would inevitably do harm to others.

    ¡°No, some things are just wrong, evil is evil. Predators are evil because they kill people.¡±

    It took a few moments before I realised what I had said. I desperately covered my beak with my wings as my brain caught up with the words I spoke, panic coursing through my body as I quickly understood what I¡¯d just implied. I did not mean to say that out loud.

    ¡°Not that I mean you- it¡¯s just- the case is with-¡±

    ¡°Does that mean you¡¯re evil as well, since you¡¯re a potential predator remember?¡±

    Joseph interrupted my feeble attempts to take back my ill advised sentence, providing me with a far easier question to answer, one I could answer in an instant without even thinking.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    I had expected anger considering that I had just logically implied that he was evil, but instead surprise and shock flashed over the human¡¯s face for a moment, before giving away to a sad pity.

    ¡°Wow, they really fucked you up didn¡¯t they? You need a therapist, but until then¡­ Jesus. Ok, apart from predators what¡¯s the most dangerous thing on your home planet?¡±

    That took me a few moments to work out. Nishtal was mostly a safe and happy place, everything that was right with the Federation in one place. But there was one thing that was always a danger.

    ¡°Storms. If you get caught in one they can be dangerous, a few people each year will die from getting caught in one.¡±

    ¡°So storms are evil right, because they kill people?¡±

    I scoffed at that silly idea. Where was Joseph going with this?

    ¡°No of course not, they¡¯re just storms.¡±

    ¡°Exactly, because there¡¯s no ¡®choice¡¯ in the matter. A storm doesn¡¯t ¡®choose¡¯ where it blows, it just is. In the same way that I have no choice about the placement of my eyes or you have no choice about your ancestral ability to eat meat. Of course unlike a storm you have free will, you have choices about other things. Since you learned of your history have you had any desire to hurt people?¡±

    What kind of question was that? Of course I hadn¡¯t!

    ¡°No?¡±

    ¡°You made any plans hunt a Venlil or a Dossier, I¡¯m sure you could take one in a fight.¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Are you going to eat somebody?¡±

    ¡°No!¡±

    ¡°I mean if you¡¯re worried about the meat allergy I can lend you an Epipen, would fix the logistics of doing such an act right-¡±

    ¡°No! I¡¯m not going to do something as vile as eating someone!¡±

    Where had this side of the human suddenly come from? Why was Joseph suddenly advocating for me to do such a terrible act? Was that the definition of a pack predator, one who was trying to get me to be part of his pack? Was that the predator''s final plan?

    ¡°Because regardless of your biology, you have the ¡®choice¡¯ of harming someone else. While it¡¯s hardly a difficult choice, it is still a choice. That¡¯s why the Arxur are evil, because they choose to be child murdering psychopaths. Evil requires choice.¡±

    I felt myself calm down a little as I followed the human¡¯s logic. I wasn¡¯t sure if I accepted it but¡­ I had to admit it made sense.

    You haven¡¯t felt any different since you learned the truth, have you?

    Still there was one flaw in my supposed innocence. The original statement that triggered this conversation.

    ¡°I still chose to become an exterminator.¡±

    ¡°Why? Why did you become an exterminator?¡±

    The question from the human brought my thoughts back to the nightmare, of that day my entire life had been upturned. That sickening smell of blood that I couldn¡¯t forget.

    ¡°When I was ten I found my father¡¯s body after a predator attack. I wanted nobody else to feel the pain like I did. So two years later when the Exterminators offered me a chance to leave the orphanage and help people, I did.¡±

    ¡°Wait wait wait wait, hold on. They hired you at 12 years old from a fucking orphanage?!¡±

    There was a look of shock and anger on Joseph¡¯s face, a sudden change that caused me to instinctively lean back in fear. How was this the statement that caused the predator to go into a rage, out of everything else I¡¯d said today?

    ¡°Many soldiers and exterminators are hired from orphanages. It¡¯s a good way for us to aid against the Arxur, for those who otherwise couldn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°What the- That¡¯s- I- What is wrong with the Federation!¡±

    The human seemed to struggle to get the words out, emotions seemingly overriding any real sense of sentence structure and logical thought. A look of confusion washed over my face at his reaction. Why was he making this such a big deal?

    ¡°Ok, we¡¯re going to circle back to that later, since it seems if I get distracted by every atrocity the Federation has done I¡¯m never going to finish my point. Ironically it does however reinforce what I was going to say.¡±

    Joseph took a few moments to take a deep breath, regaining his composure as he continued. I was entirely curious about what he was going to say now.

    ¡°The fact is the messed up viewpoint against predators is everywhere in your culture, to the point that there are basically zero voices against it. As much as people want to believe that they are special, brainwashing and propaganda works. While presumably you¡¯ve done messed up things, the simple fact is if you took an average human and placed them in that environment all their life, they¡¯d come to the same conclusion.¡±

    The anger was all gone now from the predator, replaced with a sad melancholy

    ¡°Those who chose to lie to you, to remove any chance of finding the truth, tell you doing bad things will help people. Those who decided it was fine to give a 12 year old orphan a flame thrower. Those people are evil, they removed your choice. Of course, this no longer applies.¡±

    A smile widened over Joseph¡¯s face again: I far preferred that to the anger or sadness of before.

    ¡°You now have the choice to find the truth. Humans exist, and you have access to the information you need. Whether you decide to open up a puppy sanctuary or burn down the entire forest, that choice is now on you and you alone. The fact that you decided to talk with me when given the opportunity gives me optimism that you¡¯ll make the right ones.¡±

    A lump appeared in my throat at the human¡¯s last sentence. Would he still think that if he knew why I was actually here, if he could see the recording device, if he could see my goal to ¡®reveal the humans evil plan¡¯?

    Why do you feel as if you¡¯re making the wrong choice?

 Chapter 7: A minor problem with the Federation.

    Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Prestige Exterminator, current predator.

    Date [standardised human time]: December 20, 2136

    ¡°What about the economy? When Humans arrived the economy on Venlil Prime tanked.¡±

    ¡°Last time I checked that was the Federation¡¯s fault for cancelling trade with the Venlil. Really not our fault that the Federation is so messed up.¡±

    I was officially out of ideas. I had tried being easy prey, I had tried listening to the human, I had tried being combative. What should have been an easy task had somehow spiralled into meeting after meeting. I should at this point just call the entire thing off, because clearly this predator was defective.

    Here I was explaining everything negative with humanities contact with the Federation and Joseph just took it as a challenge, because of course he did. We fell into a routine where I provided a negative, then Joseph argued against the point, after which he then attempted to provide a counter positive that humans had brought along with them.

    I was within arms reach, and the only move Joseph ever made was to occasionally provide an absent minded glorious scratch to the back of my neck, just in the right position to provide that relaxing feeling of joy.

    Did you really believe that something as minor as a discussion would cause Joseph to harm you?

    No, I had to admit that deep down I no longer believed that Joseph would hurt me. Maybe another human, maybe another predator, but not this one. The only time he¡¯d even shown the slightest anger had been when he¡¯d learned of my past.

    Learning of my ¡°Abruptly cancled childhood¡± as he called it, had caused him to spiral into an hour long anger filled rant involving repeated use of the phrases ¡°What the fuck¡± and ¡°Seriously whoever did this to you needs to be punched in the throat¡±.

    I didn¡¯t feel harmed having the opportunity to help people at such a young age, I couldn¡¯t understand why Joseph hated something that let me save lives, or seemingly was filled with anger on my behalf.

    Regardless I still had to try towards my original plan, because otherwise what was the point of me coming to these meetings? Really I should be on the lookout for a new target.

    But you don¡¯t want to do that do you?

    No, I wanted to keep coming to these meetings, so I had to keep trying. Since the revelations about the Krakotl¡¯s past they were the only stabilising feature of my life right now. It¡¯s strange to think that I would describe actively being face to face with a predator in such a manner.

    Have you considered just meeting with Joseph because you enjoy his company?

    ¡°The fact is in a perfect universe Humanity meeting the Venlil would have had huge economic boons due to tourism and general trade. It¡¯s actually a little sad to think about to be honest. So next is my turn to provide a positive about human and Venlil interactions, let me think¡­¡±

    Joseph took a moment to stroke his chin thoughtfully, before twisting his fingers into a painful looking set of movements, providing a loud snapping sound as he perked up.

    ¡°Video games! Our interactive media has been a huge hit with the Venlil, Tetris has basically become a new niche sport in the bigger cities, things like minecraft and other building sims are obviously super popular, and there¡¯s even a rumour that one of the guys on the Starcraft leaderboards is a Venlil who is currently on Earth.¡±

    Joseph broke into a large smile, a move that once would have filled me with fear and dread, now instead warmed my heart to see the human happy. Did I really have to keep having a reason to come to these meetings? Wanting to actively meet with a predator for no reason sounded like a symptom of predator disease, so for now I focused on the goal of the conversation.

    It was my turn to provide a negative.

    ¡°Humans have brought along a feline non-sapient predator with them, with many reports of destruction of innocent wildlife.¡±

    This caused the face of the human to fall in defeat, seeming to think for a moment and giving a resigned shrug in response.

    ¡°Yea I got nothing for that. The people who brought their cats are idiots, I get it, but idiots. Seriously one of the alien species is literally a space hamster, that is going to end really badly.¡±

    I frowned, the outright admittance to the negativity of Human¡¯s actions was strange.

    ¡°Why would humans knowingly keep around predators they know are dangerous and harmful?¡±

    Surprisingly this caused Joseph to laugh, giving yet another shrug as he tossed another handful of seeds to the flock of birds that followed him around.

    ¡°Because humans are idiots! It¡¯s always hilarious reading about our supposed 5D chess ¡®predator trickery¡¯ on the federation internet, because humans are dumb. Especially me! We see something cute and small and want to nurture it regardless of the consequences. Take a look at this Earth animal.¡±

    Joseph fiddled around with his Holopad device for a few moments, before holding it out to me to show what looked like a predatorial nightmare of a Zurilian. My immediate reaction was of fear from a clear predator. Having said that, I had also seen videos where humans showed off Earth¡¯s twisted and broken biology that didn¡¯t follow normal rules.

    ¡°Let me guess, this is a prey animal?¡±

    ¡°God no! That is an apex predator that would very much eat me if given the chance, you¡¯d be fine as you can fly away. Even though logically I know that they are super dangerous, when I see a bear a not insignificant part of my brain suggests ¡®Hey, that apex predator is fluffy and friend shaped. You should go pet the friend¡¯¡±

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    I just stared at Joseph for a moment, confusion running through me at the revelation that all humans seemingly had a deathwish. Why would you even allow something dangerous to remain on your planet?

    ¡°How did you manage to survive long enough to get to space?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not sure. Still if I had choose between the flaws of wanting to protect things that are cute, and the messed up situation that is fucking child soldiers, then frankly we can-¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s your turn.¡±

    I desperately interrupted Joseph: I did not want to go through another version of the rant, hearing it two times already was more than enough. Luckily for me that seemed to work, as the fury that was starting to build up again instantly derailed into the human¡¯s more normal happy self.

    ¡°Next one is easy. Food. Even you have to admit to the power of human food.¡±

    I took that moment to glance at the newest bag of mangos Joseph had handed me on this meeting, forlornly realising that I was going to have to leave some of them behind simply because I literally couldn¡¯t fly with that many.

    ¡°But even our cooking seems to have taken root. The other day at the Library I heard a group talking about curry as if it was a religious experience.¡±

    Wait, was Joseph saying that curry was human? Even in my self isolation I had heard of the new food that had been created in the Sweetwater region; it was practically impossible not to. Anyone who had tried the meal had quickly become an apostle for the dish, desperately trying to convert anyone they found to the glories of the new Venlil craze.

    ¡°That can¡¯t be right, would it even be legal to sell human food?¡±

    The human gave a shrug.

    ¡°I dunno, maybe it¡¯s a Venlil from the exchange program who decided to adapt the recipe. Honestly, checking out a curry made with Venlil ingredients sounds like an interesting field trip. Anyways it¡¯s your turn.``

    I struggled for a moment. I had to admit that when you actually went through them, there were very few actual negatives the humans had caused. Sure people were terrified, but when you went through the claims one by one, so far there had been no reports of humans actually doing anything to justify said fear.

    Well apart from maybe one thing.

    ¡°How about the uptick in prey on prey violence. Before humans arrived on Venlil prime there were practically no cases of such predator disease, but after humans started being integrated there have been two cases of prey killing prey alone.¡±

    There had been a lot of discussion as to what had caused the sharp increase. The leading theory had been of human¡¯s aggressive nature rubbing off on the Venlil. Even the most pro-predator voices had to admit that humans were far more willing to use violence than federation species. That¡¯s what theoretically made them such a potentially good weapon against the Axrur.

    But me bringing this up caused Joseph to point at me and smile, not his normal happy smile, but a wicked predatory one, one that caused a shiver to go down my spine and my feathers to ruffle up. As if I was an innocent creature suddenly caught in a trap.

    ¡°That¡¯s because you¡¯ve been measuring the wrong thing. Give me a second.¡±

    He fiddled around on his holopad for a few moments, that smile not leaving his face, before handing it over to me.

    ¡°You¡¯re an Exterminator right? So for the honour of the Federation and all that jazz, what¡¯s the difference between these two cases.¡±

    I looked down at what had been handed to me, two predator attack files placed side by side, heavily redacted from what I could tell, with the names replaced with a number and the photos of the events replaced with text descriptions. It took me a moment before I asked the obvious question.

    ¡°Wait, how do you have these!¡±

    ¡°For legal reasons any files that get uploaded to this community were ¡®found¡¯. For actual reasons the Federation sucks at cyber security. I think someone did a password dump of every Exterminator account and like 40% of the passwords were just ¡®Inatala¡¯...¡±

    I felt a little smug at that revelation. I had always pushed for better password security in-

    ¡°... with an additional 40% just being ¡®Inatala¡¯ with the first letter replaced with a number.¡±

    I felt less smug.

    Still I decided to ignore the terrifying conclusion that any human could get access to any government system they wanted, and instead focused on the task I¡¯d been given. Even though they were redacted I could still remember both of these cases, both had been placed on my desk at some point.

    The first had been a Venlil called ¡®Vaski¡¯, killed by a predator in the dark side bordering town of Endwood on July 17th 2136. The second was also a Venlil, named Regven killed in the city of Dawn Creek on August 6th. I stared at both for a while, before shrugging and giving up.

    ¡°They¡¯re both the same, aren¡¯t they both predator attacks?¡±

    ¡°You see, this is the problem, you see a murder and instantly think only a predator could do such a thing. The first one has multiple injuries, claw marks, obvious signs of being eaten and had multiple witnesses reporting a predator that could do such a thing in the area. It¡¯s a remote location, so you are more likely to be in contact with wild animals. Basically a textbook case of someone being killed by wildlife.¡±

    Joseph stopped for a moment to breathe and shoo away a few birds who had gotten too close.

    ¡°The second has only two precise wounds, with no other signs of injury. Only one part of the body was missing, the heart. Nobody saw anything that could do such a thing, and while the area is suspiciously lacking cameras, none of the recorded areas around the death have signs of a predator. Dawn Creek is way too industrialised to harbour a creature strong enough toliterally break open a ribcage. The logical conclusion is that the attack required intelligence and was done for a none eating reason: it¡¯s a murder.¡±

    Well that couldn¡¯t be right¡­ a prey would never do such a thing. But the human made a good point.

    ¡°What about if someone had disturbed the predator before it could eat? Maybe the predator couldn¡¯t be seen on cameras?¡±

    ¡°So the first thing a hungry animal does is get to the hardest to reach areas first? Then only does damage to one organ? Also unless your wildlife is terrifying, animals can¡¯t go invisible or teleport into and out of existence.¡±

    Joseph was right, there had to be another reason. Maybe it was a¡­ or perhaps it could have¡­ How could this have happened? Even worse, how did I not see this, how did I not question this? Now it had been pointed out it was obvious. This was literally my job, did that mean that I¡¯d missed at least one diseased Venlil, who now free to roam about with predator disease killing others?

    ¡°There¡¯s also been two other murders that follow the same MO, same method of death and removing the heart. A medical worker on October 23 and a general farm hand on December 4th. I used that one as an example because it¡¯s not just a murder, it¡¯s a serial killer. The internet has dubbed them the ¡®Heartbreak killer¡¯¡±

    My head was spinning. This couldn¡¯t be the case, but the human¡¯s logic made sense. Why would a beast only interested in feasting on flesh take the time to only remove one organ? What would be the chance that such a thing happened three times? Why did I never see this before, how many more had I missed?

    ¡°If you want to look, search on the human internet for ¡®FederationColdCases¡¯, about 30% of all supposed predator deaths, aren¡¯t. General rule is, if a predator species is never officially mentioned in the death, it¡¯s probably something else.¡±

    I felt a wave of calm wash over me as Joseph scratched the base of my neck once again.

    ¡°I¡¯ll stop talking about this now because you look a little shell shocked.¡±

    Shellshocked: ¡®shocked or confused because of a sudden alarming experience¡¯ as my translator helpfully informed me. That rather did explain my current mindset as I tried to push away what I¡¯d just learnt and its implications, choosing instead to focus on the relaxing effect of the human¡¯s touch.

    But not before my errant thoughts had one last barb to leave behind.

    They never did state which predator killed your father.

 Chapter 8: Predators, Prey, and Murder

    Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Prestige Exterminator, current predator.

    Date [standardised human time]: December 24, 2136

    I stood next to the computer back at my apartment, giving a full body stretch as I sat on my perch. I couldn¡¯t stop thinking about what Joseph had said, the claim of so many predator attacks actually being done by those with predator disease. It couldn¡¯t be true, Joseph obviously had to be mistaken. Being a predator from a more violent upbringing would presumably have had a mental effect, causing humans to see aggression and danger from others where it didn¡¯t exist.

    30%. That number couldn¡¯t be correct, even if you assumed a high number of people with predator disease managed to slip past the Federation¡¯s well oiled systems, it wouldn¡¯t account for that many murders. Predators killed people, Prey didn¡¯t. That was the difference. Even if you assumed that people like myself had the capability to be predatorial and evil, the Venlil most clearly were not, and they made up the vast majority of the residents of Venlil prime.

    But Joseph had given me enough information to trigger my curiosity, that this was something I had to check. For the cases given his logic had been sound and it wasn¡¯t outside the scope of rationality that the Exterminators had missed a few cases of predator disease, cases that the new perspective of humanity could have found. If we were missing cases, then it was literally my job to work out why.

    I logged into my exterminator account, which obviously still worked. I¡¯d never actually been fired or quit, after the revelations regarding the Krakotl¡¯s true nature I just stopped coming into work. Could I even be fired? As an external advisor my boss was technically the Federation Exterminators Guild of Nishtal, who right now were not returning calls. A court would probably find my contract to be moved under the Venlil exterminator¡¯s guild due to extenuating circumstances, but everyone had more important things to think about right now.

    Step one: Change my password. I decided to go even further than my normal method, to something no predator or prey could guess. I replaced the first two letters of Intalala with random numbers, and then added two additional numbers onto the end of that. 16talala93. Ten whole characters of protection, I¡¯d like to see a human try to guess that!

    After that it was time to get to work, swallowing a mouthful of mango I turned on the human communication device I had stolen so long ago and browsed to the website I¡¯d been given by Joseph. To think, my original failed attempt to discover the evil plan of humans would now be useful again. All that was left was to match up the anonymized records this website contained with the actual Exterminator records, and see if I can gather any useful insights from the humans.

    FederationColdCases. It was like everything else human, aggressive and chaotic. I was no stranger to social media applications: Every federation species had them considering our natural social proclivities, but most were more heavily moderated in order to prevent predator disease from spreading. This was¡­

    Detailed essays stood side by side with immature humour and random inane discussion. A sourced and highly researched five thousand word analysis of a single blood splatter would be followed by a fart joke. The general vibe was immature yet serious. There was a huge anti-federation slant to most information, yet a clear empathy for the federation citizens who had been killed.

    I made a note to look up what ¡°KFC¡± referred to, as many posts decrying the exterminator''s efforts used those letters.

    I couldn¡¯t help but be impressed by what I saw. The vast majority of recent communications were around the ¡°Heartbreak Killer¡± as the humans had dubbed the possible predator disease afflicted individual. Timelines, theories, pages upon pages of analysis. These people must be the human experts in this field of catching those with predator disease. It made sense, considering that being a predatory species they must have far more experience with such things.

    Why have you never done any of this? How many others have flown past your wings?

    One piece of text in particular caught my attention, in a conversation about potential suspects for the ¡°Heartbreak Killer¡±. Some of them were people I vaguely knew: exterminators, politicians, well known members of the community, but this one in particular¡­ angered me.

    -------------------------

    <blockquote>

    ? Jesterra54 posted: Estala. An external consultant to the Exterminators guild, disliked but mostly competent at their job, or at least as competent as a federation member can be. Fits the criteria of being rabidly anti-human, not a native part of the community, and would have access to the fire required in disposing of the heart in each of the killings. Has seemingly gone AWOL around the time of the second and third murders, which match up with when they get ¡®Sloppy¡¯. Would have the knowledge and ability to commit the first murder through bypassing cameras, although the timing doesn¡¯t quite match up. 7/10

    ? Acceptable_Egg5560 replied: Honestly gotta disagree with the idea that this is likely to be done by an external party. Removing and burning the heart seems personal. My money is on one of the ex-employees of the Dawncreek facility, when it got shut down for being too horrific even for Federation standards (I¡¯ll let your imagination fill in those details). Almost as if they¡¯re trying to say ¡°This is what happens when you don¡¯t let us do messed up things to people with ¡®predator disease''¡¯¡±

    </blockquote>

    ---------------------------

    I could feel a fury enter my heart at the accusation. How dare they! To suggest I would do such a thing! While I may not be native to Venlil prime I still care about the Venlil. Still, maybe I shouldn¡¯t take it so personally, clearly not all of these theories were serious. One human repeatedly suggested that Governor Tarva was a prime suspect, even through multiple people explaining the impossibility of such a theory.

    How did they know my anti-human views?

    I hadn¡¯t actually told anyone, at least before the revelations. Unless¡­ if they had access to my Exterminator account that¡¯s where I¡¯d stored my plans for when the humans inevitably would turn on the Venlil, back before I knew the Krakotl¡¯s true nature. Back before all of that had become meaningless. If they had access to that¡­

    I could feel the rage turn to an icey cold horror. Did Joseph also know? If he didn¡¯t, would he still want anything to do with me? Would he understand? I didn¡¯t mean him, I obviously didn¡¯t mean him, I meant the humans that would attack the Venlil. When they would attack? If? When? If?

    I honestly don¡¯t know anymore.

    I pushed that potential storm to the back of my mind: I couldn¡¯t do anything about it and I had another job to do. I continued reading, trying to find information not associated with the main topic being discussed. Two cases caught my eye due to the sheer amount of discussion around them.

    ---------------------

    <blockquote>

    Case Subject X66

    ? MalachitePyrrhuloxia posted: I¡¯m right in saying that this isn¡¯t a murder or a predator attack right? This Venlil just fell over and brained himself on the stairs¡­

    ? cartoon_Dinosaur replied: No, the Kentucky Fried moron squad got this entirely right, clearly an evil predator made the stairs slippery in order to take out this prey!

    ?? Inkanyamba replied: Don¡¯t you see, a human went back in time, iced up those stairs so they could devour them whole three years later! By mutilating the body in fire they stopped humanity''s dastardly plan!

    ??? ThePurpleZoroark replied: It was the perfect crime! That¡¯s why the bargain bucket fascists get paid the big bucks!

    </blockquote>

    -----------------------

    <blockquote>

    Case Subject AY994

    ? Cooldude101013 posted: Verdict: Accidental death. The guy just fell off a balcony.

    ? ImaginationSea3679 replied: Or maybe a predator teleported their prey 50ft into the air! Gotta watch out for those sneaky sneaky predators!

    </blockquote>

    ---------------------

    I frowned. I didn¡¯t remember either of those cases, making them at least two years old. Even on initial glance I had no idea who or why these clearly accidental deaths had been filed as predator attacks. I quickly cross referenced those to the actual Exterminator files and felt my blood pressure spike when I saw who had been the one behind the mistakes.

    Of course it was Spehing Treven. For some reason in her wisdom when Intalala had made that Venlil, she had replaced his blood with incompetence. I¡¯d only had the misfortune to work with the Exterminator for around 90 paws [three months], 90 stressful paws. With the introduction of the humans every suspended and part time Exterminator had been placed back into full time duty, an action I had strongly advised against. I¡¯d rather have 10 competent people than 100 incompetent ones.

    The Venlil Exterminator¡¯s Guild was not known for high quality applicants at the best of times, so the ones bad enough to get suspended were really scraping the bottom of the nest. And Treven¡­ Treven was the Spehing worst.

    In the mere 90 paws he alone had caused 7 unnecessary stampedes through claiming predator attacks and had filed 49 separate potential predator incidences. Your average exterminator would do maybe 10 at most. Each of those required a fully armed three man squad in response as procedure demanded.

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    I have no idea why someone that skittish became an exterminator¡­ Thinking about it, in my desk back at the office a half finished report was still waiting to be tallied where I¡¯d started putting together the case that the Venlil was more harmful in the Exterminators guild then outside of it simply due to man hour requirements his constant fear provided.

    Still, I guess the idiot had technically saved my life. The entire reason I was here on Venlil prime was because of him and the Marklen-Jauntes Syndrome case. A medical condition had been falsely attributed to predator disease through serious amounts of incompetence and not following procedure. The Exterminators guild had lost big time in court, so I had been brought in as a model example of the Nishtal Exterminators guild in order to help fix these issues.

    Without that I would have been in Kalsim¡¯s fleet, which would have more than likely seen me dead or captured in the hands of vengeful predators. Maybe I should get Treven a gift.

    And you would have been the one to make Joseph cry.

    I took another bite of mango, feeling rather good about myself. So far I¡¯d only seen one case of missed predator disease, this ¡°heartbreak killer¡±, and confirmation that Treven is still an idiot. If this was the best humanity could find so far, then it looked rather good for the federation. Still I had a bag of mangos, plenty of water and enough time to go through the rest.

    Because this was my job and I was good at it.

    ---------------------

    Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Prestige Exterminator, failure, monster.

    Date [standardised human time]: December ????, ??????

    [WARNING: Memory transcription may be invalid or missing pieces due to the following error codes

    X0GG1: Extreme emotional distress.

    X0GW3: Sleep deprivation.

    For more information on error codes and fixing them, visit:

    fctp://fwn.memory-tek.fs.fed/Memory-Tek-5000-error-codes#howToFix]

    IMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorseIMadeItWorse

    I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to stop people feeling the pain that I felt, I just wanted to help. That¡¯s all I wanted, that¡¯s why I did my job.

    Yet I had made it worse.

    ------------------------------

    Case Subject G97X:

    <blockquote>

    ? A_Tank_With_Internet posted: Verdict: Murder. Potential suspect: Business partner [Moderator: Removed identifying information]

    If you go check the unredacted images, the single wound to the back is most likely done using a serrated blade, probably a strayu knife. Based on CCTV evidence the business partner can both be seen buying such a weapon and was caught in the area at the time. [Moderator: Removed CCTV video link, please stop linking identifying information]

    They also had motive, as the death of G97X allowed the partner to take full control of the business.

    ? Temporary-Coyote8553 - [Moderator] Replied: Reminder: We require people to only post redacted information here. Half for the victims'' sanctity and half to stop a witch hunt.

    ? oniris1 Replied: Good work! Is there anything we can do for this considering we¡¯ve got presumably video evidence.

    ?? **Clown_Torres Replied:**Unfortunately thanks to the Finger Lickin Fucks proving it will be difficult. If we had the body or even a proper autopsy we could maybe prove this past circumstantial evidence.

    ??? furexfurex Replied: Remove all Evidence of a crime. Give my moronic self a pat on the back for stopping the evil predators from *Checks notes* bringing a murderer to justice. Leaves.

    </blockquote>

    ¡ª------------------------

    I had been that ¡°Moronic Exterminator¡±. I remembered burning away the body, that¡¯s what you did, that was what procedure called for to remove the predatorial taint. Then right after that I went to his grieving mother and told her I¡¯d do everything I could to find the predator that did this. Which had been a lie, if I wasn¡¯t lying I would have caught the obvious signs, I wouldn¡¯t have destroyed the evidence required.

    StupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupidStupid

    ------------------------

    <blockquote>

    Case Subject G97X:

    ? West-Armadillo286 posted: Verdict: Murder. Possible suspect: Already apprehended.

    So this one gets a special mention because the murderer in this case would go on to kill 3 other people (See P03S, FF91 and FF33), and while did eventually get caught in the act, any rational person (So already we¡¯re discounting most federation members) would have caught the killer during his first kill.

    While the injuries are indicative of someone using tooth and claw, the murderer in this case was literally found at the crime scene, covered in blood, and offering a vague excuse of a predator attack.

    ? TheLastKerbal replied: Wait, what the fuck, you¡¯re fucking joking right? They find a guy covered in the blood of his victim and the reaction of the bird shaped blackholes is to go ¡°This seems fine¡±

    ?? Lunamkardas replied: Yes but clearly the blood soaked maniac is safe because they have side facing eyes.

    ?? YakiTapioca replied: They¡¯re all too busy committing genocide and being Space Nazi fucks to actually catch murderers.

    ??? NWOIT_93 replied: [Removed by Moderator: We¡¯re all angry, but please don¡¯t call for actual genocide and Humanity First shit]

    </blockquote>

    ----------------------------

    Three people. Three people were dead because I was too dense to realise what humans spotted easily. I could have made a difference, I could have stopped three families from feeling my pain. But I didn¡¯t. I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people, I just wanted to help people.

    But I didn¡¯t

    Case after case that I¡¯d touched had these hidden details, as obvious as a tree branch to the beak yet I had missed all of them. Simple logical ideals that I¡¯d just ignored. Why?

    ---------------------------

    <blockquote>

    ? potatos-in-space posted: Of course the black hole of stupid missed the murder weapon. God reading half of these are just infuriating, same dumb mistakes over and over

    ? Away-Location-4756 replied: Well when you¡¯re a fascist fuck, being a moron kinda comes with the territory.

    ? Zoulles replied: I¡¯m just here because seeing incompetence is sexy.

    </blockquote>

    ¡ª------------------------

    More mistakes. More opportunities to make a difference are missed. More and more cases where I failed to protect people. I dug through my cupboard, scattering items and documents over the floor, uncaring about the mess and only looking for one file in particular. One file that I had read over more times than any other, the one file that I brought with me from Nishtal.

    The death of my father.

    ----------------------------------

    <blockquote>

    ? Orange_TG5 posted: If we stuck fake side-facing eyes on our military fleet then they probably wouldn¡¯t fire back and just assume that there were invisible predators shooting at them behind those nice peaceful prey.

    ? LuxTheAvali replied: All cars are banned because forward facing headlights are predatory.

    ?? Bane-of-california replied: No all cars in the federation have side facing headlights. There are a lot of nighttime car crashes but at least everyone is safe from the evil predators!

    ??? Bushbacon69 replied: How the hell did the Kentucky Fried Morons even get to space?

    </blockquote>

    -----------------------------------

    Two clean wounds, no signs of being eaten, we lived in a safe heavily industrialised town.

    He was murdered.

    This wasn¡¯t just a Venlil prime thing, this was everywhere, thousands, millions of prey murdering each other without being caught because we¡¯re all too spehing stupid to see it.

    And if Prey were killing Prey, if Prey by default acted predatory¡­.

    There are No Predators or Prey in the Galaxy.

    Only people.

    And monsters.

    I¡¯d known this deep down for a while, ever since humanity had arrived and broken every known rule in the galaxy, but I¡¯d pushed those thoughts away, searching desperately for a predator trick which would make everything make sense.

    That would make what I did ok.

    The taste of bile filled my mouth as I threw up, every single scream of every single predator cub I¡¯d burned alive ringing in my ear, every thought of killing humans, of taking them down. Every internal cheer I gave in support of the genocidal Kalsim¡¯s attempt to exterminate innocent people. I had only really been right about one thing, but for the wrong reason:

    IAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonsterIAmAMonster.

    BZZZZZZZZT

    The sound of the alarm snapped me out of my thoughts as I lay on the floor curled up in a ball, confusion entering my sleep deprived mind as I gathered my wits about me. I hadn¡¯t slept in three paws, choosing instead to continue researching the horror unfolding in front of me, only pausing to reset the deadman¡¯s switch I¡¯d setup so long ago.

    My apartment was a mess, documents and feathers I¡¯d ripped out of my chest and legs covered the floor.

    BZZZZZZZZT

    The alarm went off again, demanding I do something about it. That alarm¡­ was the one I set to tell me it was time to meet the predator. To meet Joseph. Joseph! He¡¯d know what to do, he¡¯d know how to fix this. I didn¡¯t know why he would: I didn¡¯t deserve it, but I knew he would regardless. Because that¡¯s just how he was.

    In a flurry I turned off the alarm, picked up my fathers file and headed out the door.

    Joseph would know what to do.

    ----------------------------

    Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Prestige Exterminator, failure, monster.

    Date [standardised human time]: December 27, 2136

    ¡°Hey Estala, how are you- Holy Jesus Fuck did someone attack you! Are you ok!? Who did this?!¡±

    Joseph¡¯s face went through a range of emotions as he spotted me, starting from excited, turning to anger, shock, and concern at the end. It took a moment for me to realise why, I looked worse than our first meeting. Large chunks of missing feathers, I hadn¡¯t groomed and the twitches from sleep deprivation were obvious.

    But none of that mattered. I just handed over the file, hoping that even though I didn¡¯t deserve it, the human would help me.

    ¡°I can¡¯t fix this, I can¡¯t fix any of it, I- I just wanted to help people but everything I¡¯ve done i-is wrong. I don¡¯t deserve it but I need your help and I-¡±

    ¡°Estala, I¡¯ll help you because you¡¯re my friend.¡± Joseph softly interrupted me. ¡°But you need to calm down and tell me what¡¯s wrong.¡±

    Of course he wanted to help, that¡¯s all he ever had wanted to do. How could I have ever thought that the human in front of me was dangerous?

    ¡°Why? I¡¯ve burned predator cubs alive, I supported Kalsim, I would have hurt humans if I had the chance, I-¡±

    I was interrupted once again as Joseph wrapped his arms around me, silencing my rambling. Once upon a time I would have freaked out or considered this a predatory attack, but now¡­ now I felt myself calm down, pushing myself deeper into the human¡¯s grasp as my lack of sleep started to take effect.

    ¡°Because that¡¯s not the Estala that I met.¡±

    ¡°But it is. I made those choices, I made those choices and did those things and now people are dead and-¡±

    ¡°Shhhhhh, it going to be fine¡±

    I felt myself being lifted off the ground and swaddled as the human whispered calming noise and gently stroked my head. It was then I realised just how tired I felt, the lack of sleep and three paws of panic and guilt catching up with me in one go. I just wanted to sleep, it was going to be fine.

    ¡°But I-¡±

    ¡°No buts. It¡¯s OK. It¡¯s not your fault, it¡¯s going to be OK.¡±

    In that moment, as I lay in the grasp of a predator, feeling sleep take over my mind, I believed him.

    Everything was going to be OK.

    I was safe here. Safe from what I had done

 Chapter 9: The Calm before the storm.

    Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Prestige Exterminator.

    Date [standardised human time]: January 3rd, 2137

    ¡°So what is Earth like?¡±

    Joseph and I lay on our backs, staring up at the clear blue sky above and enjoying such a beautiful day. As I lay nestled in his arm I felt safe, I felt like all the issues in the world didn¡¯t matter right now. Back at home there would be self loathing, hatred, nightmares. But here, right now, they are gone.

    ¡°In what way?¡±

    Joseph took a few moments to push a particularly pushy blue flowerbird out of the way as he responded, the avian had been chirping angrily at the audacity of the human who was not currently dispensing food. Based on what Joseph had told me, flowerbirds had actually started to become a problem around the refuge camp. The birds had quickly learned that if you annoyed the ¡°predators¡± enough, they generally dispensed tasty seeds.

    ¡°In any way? It is hot, cold. Marshy, dry? What¡¯s life on Earth like?¡± I asked.

    The nightmares had been getting worse. The self hatred of being a potential predator was nothing compared with the loathing caused by knowing the effect of the choices I had made. Sometimes it was the families of victims I had failed screaming at me, asking why I didn¡¯t save their loved ones. Others I was in Kalsim¡¯s fleet, destroying Earth while Joseph begged for me to stop. All of them left me shaking as I awoke each paw.

    ¡°The answer to that is Yes. Based on what I¡¯ve seen, Earth has one of the most varied environments as the Federation tends to homogenise everything. Snow covered vistas, sprawling forests, vast deserts, massive oceans. It¡¯s actually what I was studying, a degree in Ecology [???].¡±

    My translator failed to give meaning to the last word, giving up halfway through an explanation of colonising a new planet to live on. I decided not to ask, as from my experience such questions caused more painful revelations: I had enough of those to deal with as it is.

    ¡°This also means the wildlife varies wildly. Each biome has its own specialised species and adaptations to fit into the environment in exciting ways. Species will literally travel thousands miles in order to follow warm weather around the world. Entire forms of life only found and adapted to one single island or section of the world.¡±

    I didn¡¯t get why Joseph seemed to care about my wellbeing. I most definitely didn¡¯t deserve it. I had met him under false pretences, and even now the camera was still recording. I just couldn¡¯t¡­ stop it. Three times I¡¯d attempted to remove the device, being physically unable to do so each time. It was the last desperate connection I had to a world where I wasn¡¯t a monster. A small part of me that wanted so badly to be right, to make everything I did be ok.

    Not that it ever would be.

    ¡°Human culture and lifestyle are similar. There are over two hundred countries, all of them have their own cultures and way of life. Vast cities that spread up to the sky, small hamlets in the middle of nature. The answer to ¡®What is Earth like¡¯ is basically ¡®Yes¡¯.¡±

    I had at least found the strength to disable the dead man¡¯s switch. I remembered rushing back as fast I could after falling asleep in the humans calming embrace, only barely triggering the reset in time. I didn¡¯t have to worry about accidentally releasing a video to the world. Now I only had to worry about Joseph finding out about my original intentions.

    ¡°What about where you lived, what was that like?¡± I asked, purposefully pushing my thoughts away, to just enjoy the calm for now. Joseph had suggested meeting here twice as often, every three paws instead of the seven we previously had an unspoken agreement for, an idea I very greatly appreciated. The human had also suggested meeting outside of this clearing, something I wasn¡¯t ready for.

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    ¡°Well I come from a country called England. It¡¯s an Island, lots of rolling hilly countryside, fields, forests, farmland. Very green. Rather mild as weather on Earth goes, although it does rain a lot. I was studying in London, which is¡­ was. Was a city of old and new, of modern skyscrapers reaching to the sky next to small buildings of wood made half a millennia ago. Family lives far further north than that though, in the countryside. I¡¯ve got pictures if you want to see.¡±

    Joseph took a moment to fish out his holopad, navigating through the menus before showing me pictures of his life before Venlil prime. Of buildings shining with bright lights, of picturesque countryside that looked like they could come from the Gojid cradle. I felt a bitter sadness that a lot of the places I was being shown didn¡¯t exist anymore because of the federation.

    Because of people like you.

    Eventually the pictures stopped on an image of a large rolling countryside providing the backdrop to four humans. One of them was clearly a younger Joseph. Not that long ago seeing such an image would have initiated a fear response, of worry from seeing so many forward facing eyes. But now¡­ now I just felt numb to the entire thing.

    ¡°Is that your family?¡± I asked, guessing the answer already.

    ¡°Yea. That¡¯s Me, Mom, Dad and my older sister Vanessa. Vanessa would love you, always been into birds, parrots especially. There¡¯s a parrot sanctuary nearby that we¡¯d visit every open day, so meeting someone like you would blow her mind.¡±

    I focused on the last figure, who seemed to be covered in strange braces and holding into what looks like some form of crutch. Clearly an injury of some kind from living on the more dangerous Earth.

    ¡°Was this Vanessa injured by a wild predator before this picture? A bear perhaps?¡±

    This caused Joseph to giggle slightly before responding.

    ¡°No. England is rather safe, it¡¯s not like bear attacks are a regular risk. No Vanny has a long term condition. Myotonic dystrophy. Basically her muscles aren¡¯t strong enough so need some extra help.¡± Joseph¡¯s tone seemed to darken as he spoke, sadness replacing the excitement of before ¡°It¡¯s why they stayed on Earth. Stronger gravity here, probably not a good mix. I only came because mom convinced me not to give up the opportunity on their behalf.¡±

    I could see the emotions etched into his face: worry, guilt, fear. These sparked my own similar feelings, knowing that in my own small way I had contributed to why the human who was careful with me was in such a state. I didn¡¯t want to ask the next question, but I knew I had to anyway.

    ¡°Have you had any news?¡±

    ¡°I should get some soon. With London and Glasgow getting hit, federation forces running around and just the general clusterfuck that is Earth, checking on a shelter that¡¯s out in the countryside hasn¡¯t been a high priority. The things are designed to hold people for years, so anyone who got to a shelter has just been bunkering down while everyone else gets control of the chaos.¡±

    Joseph gave a sigh, before perking back up again in almost a forced motion.

    ¡°Anyway, enough about that. What¡¯s Nishtal like?¡±

    Bad memories. Pain. Loneliness. Filled with genocidal assholes who would hurt this human for nothing more than just existing. Still I gathered it wasn¡¯t the answer that Joseph was looking for.

    ¡°Warmer than here, a lot warmer. Lower gravity as well which makes flying wonderful, soaring for miles on updrafts. Mostly marsh land apart from near the equator, which is this network of hilly rocky canyons¡±

    Nishtal had become a hot topic on the human FederationColdCases site, after Joseph had uploaded the details of my fathers now presumed murder. It being the only exterminator case from Nishtal had caused a lot of interest in solving the case, although most humans had hit a dead end simply due to the lack of access to information on Nishtal: Communications with Venlil prime had been cut months ago.

    ¡°While a few groups live in the marshes and hillsides, most of us live in the giant sky cities that line the sky. Massive chunks of rock suspended through antigravity, atop which giant cities of glass and vines lie.¡±

    I did miss it, at least a little bit. I liked Venlil prime, I liked the Venlil, but there was something about the way the sun hit the horizon just right each morning that created a sight just like no other.

    ¡°Sounds awesome!¡± Joseph''s enthusiasm dripped from every word. ¡°I know right now it¡¯s not a possibility, but I¡¯d love to visit, I¡¯d love to just see everything the universe has to offer.¡±

    Did Nishtal even still exist? In between the self-destruction of the federation and the Arxur attacks, was there even a Nishtal to go back to? I decided to ignore that question and just think of a potentially happier future.

    ¡°Only if I get to visit earth at some point!¡±

    Joseph gave me a scratch on the neck, still grinning from ear to ear in a weirdly adorable way. It was strange considering a predator slightly adorable, but it was hard not to get sucked into his general enthusiasm for life.

    ¡°It¡¯s a deal! Once all this stupidity has died down, you show me Nishtal and I¡¯ll show you Earth!¡±

    Against all odds I didn¡¯t have to lie about my next statement, I said it with all the truth and honesty I could muster.

    ¡°I¡¯d like that a lot.¡±

 Chapter 10: The storm

    Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Prestige Exterminator.

    Date [standardised human time]: January 4th, 2137

    I was awoken by the sound of screaming. A pure predatory noise, one that startled me awake and sent me clattering off my sleeping perch and onto the floor. My feathers bristled outwards as I confusedly looked around, heart pounding as I tried to work out what had happened. I waited a few moments, feeling my breathing starting to slow back down as silence returned to my apartment, nothing but the sound of the storm that was raging outside.

    I started to believe I¡¯d just imagined it, when the sound echoed through my apartment once again, causing me to jump and desperately look around for the source, my mind imagining hidden predators in the darkness of the room.

    Wait, was that from the computer?

    The third time it sounded out confirmed my suspicions as I got up off the floor and turned the screen on, the room lighting up as the display now showed the same thing it had been recording for the past¡­ how long had it been now? The clearing where I met with Joseph.

    It should be showing nothing but trees and grass as the storm outside continued on. Normally Venlil prime had nice weather, but the tidally locked nature of the planet meant that whenever the conditions allowed for the dark and light sides atmospheres to mix, the storms it created were legendary. Nothing should be out there in the pouring rain and wind, yet¡­

    Is that Joseph?

    Yes it was, the human was soaked through and screaming into the storm, but a scream that was nothing like I¡¯d heard before. I thought I knew what a predatory sound was, but this¡­ this was out of control, of pure anger, of emotion, of rage and grief. Even more strangely with each scream Joseph would strike a tree with his fist. I half expected the predator to punch a hole through the bark, as if anything on this planet could stand against the force of a human. But stand it did, the punches seeming to have no effect.

    I was out the window without even thinking twice, flapping hard against the freezing rain and winds that threatened to throw me around. This wasn¡¯t normal, this wasn¡¯t the Joseph I knew. Something was wrong, and storm or no storm I wasn¡¯t going to let the human face it alone. Whatever disease or infliction was causing this behaviour, Joseph had shown too much care, too much empathy for me to just ignore it.

    ------------------------

    Memory transcription subject: Estala, Ex-Prestige Exterminator.

    Date [standardised human time]: January 4th, 2137

    I was exhausted. I was soaked to the bone and at this point I don¡¯t think I could have flown another wing beat as I almost crashed into the clearing with a spray of water. What normally would have been almost a claw of travelling had been done in half that as I¡¯d pushed myself as hard as I could fly. Angry clouds blocked the entire sky, shrouding the forest in the closest thing to ¡°night¡± that Venlil prime could have

    Joseph was still here and seemingly didn¡¯t react to my entrance, either because of the storm or whatever strange thing was going on. The human was knelt down, staring aimlessly up at the tree he had been striking previously. Joseph was thankfully no longer attacking the foliage, but the evidence of his actions had been left behind: the bright red blood of a human was smeared across the trunk and splattered across the grass. In his actions Joseph had clearly done some damage to himself.

    ¡°Joseph, what¡¯s going on? Are you ok?¡±

    That got the human¡¯s attention, his body almost seeming to jolt awake at the sound of my voice. It took him a moment to respond, his voice wavering and tired as it interrupted the sound of the rain, as if the only reason he hadn¡¯t broken down into screaming again was because Joseph lacked the energy to do so.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry Estala, I really don¡¯t want to talk with you today. I can¡¯t handle talking with you today, I-¡±

    Joseph stopped halfway through his sentence, head tilting to the side momentarily before slowly the human got up, and turned to look at me. I had thought that many things the human had done before was predatory, but now I knew that I was wrong, because this look, this look right here was predatory.

    It was a crazed look of distrust, of anger, of grief, all given through eyes still red from crying and filled with tears. I felt myself squirm and as the terror of being under such a gaze ran through every sodden feather on my body.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Why are you here Estala?¡±

    The voice had turned colder, accusatory as he stared down at me as I shivered

    half from the rain and half from this sudden change from Joseph.

    ¡°I heard you screaming, what¡¯s wrong? What¡¯s happened? How can I-¡±

    ¡°Sorry. I apologise. I misspoke.¡± Joseph interrupted me, each sentence ending harshly and anger starting to creep in with each word. ¡°What I meant to say is. How. The fuck. Are you here? Because the Krakotl must have some serious hearing for you to have heard me from town.¡±

    Oh no, that was a good question, one that I didn¡¯t have a good answer for. I stuttered and stumbled as my exhausted brain tried to work out some good reason for my presence here that didn¡¯t involve the recording device. I couldn¡¯t tell Joseph the truth now, not when something else was clearly wrong, not when the human was in this state.

    Joseph however seemed to notice my silence.

    ¡°I thought so. Why the fuck have you been following me?¡± The human spread his arms out wide, taking a few steps towards me. ¡°You here to finish the job, do your duty as an exterminator and kill a vicious predator? I¡¯m right here! It¡¯s a bit wet but it turns out that when you¡¯re a ¡®civilised prey¡¯ that means you put all your focus into learning how to burn things alive, so I¡¯m sure your technology can handle such a noble task! Or maybe you¡¯re thinking bigger, you want to use me to get access to refugee shelter? So you can creep in and burn everyone alive, because it turns out you¡¯re really fucking good at that! Why are you here!?¡±

    His words were filled with venom, being spat out with pure anger as those eyes bore hate deep into my skull. That human red blood mixing with the rain and dripping from the ends of his fingertips as he held them out by his side, almost begging me to make whatever move he believed I was going to make. This wasn¡¯t the Joseph I knew, something had changed in the mere paw since I¡¯d seen him last. Something terrible had happened.

    ¡°I¡¯m not here to hurt you. I¡¯m here because I¡¯m worried. What¡¯s happened, what¡¯s wrong?¡±

    ¡°You are what¡¯s wrong! You and your entire fascist species and this stupid fascist galaxy!¡± Joseph was practically baring his teeth as he spoke, fury punctuating each word as he screamed at me, only my exhaustion of sprinting through this storm stopping me from fleeing from his words.

    ¡°No, you¡¯re worse than that! Even the Nazi¡¯s at the end knew when to fucking quit! You¡¯d have thought that having your extermination fleet destroyed would be a sign that maybe it¡¯s over. But not the Federation, no! Turns out that anyone who managed to get onto Earth spent their time burning and murdering anyone they could find.¡±

    I was still confused, what did any of this have to do with anything? Unless¡­

    Oh Inatala¡­

    Joseph¡¯s sudden change, his pain, anger, why he was out here in the first place. Of course Kalsim¡¯s fleet wouldn¡¯t have given up on their genocidal campaign, they would have attempted to continue their extermination at all costs, even on the planet¡¯s surface. Had they come across a shelter, such as the one Joseph¡¯s family had been riding out the invasion in¡­

    I knew what had happened, I knew that the remnants of Kalsim¡¯s fleet had found Joseph¡¯s family, the ones he had so excitedly shown me a mere paw ago. And then they had done their terrible terrible job.

    ¡°I am so sorry Joseph, I really am.¡±

    The human rushed forward, startling me as I fell over, teeth bared as he shoved an outstretched finger into my beak. From here I could see the damage to his hand from striking the tree, the signs of bruising and at least one broken knuckle clearly visible.

    ¡°No! You don¡¯t get to say that! You don¡¯t get to pretend that you give a shit about me or my family, not when you¡¯ve been lying to me for whatever fucked up reason you have! I thought you were my friend Estala, but I guess I¡¯m just too much of a ¡®predator¡¯ for that?¡±

    I look up at the anger in Joseph¡¯s tear filled eyes, feeling the guilt and shame that must be showing from mine.I should have told him the truth paws ago. I should have never even started this stupid attempt at revealing humanity''s ¡°true plan¡±. Yet here I was, a blatant reminder of the Federation that had done so much damage to this innocent human.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡­ I just thought that¡­ By the time I realised I was wrong I thought that¡­ if you found out why I was here you¡¯d hate me. I¡¯ll tell you everything, I never planned on hurting anyone.¡±

    The human¡¯s face softened a little bit as I spoke, as I hoped my sincerity came through in my voice and face. I hoped I hadn¡¯t left this too late, to not permanently lose Joseph¡¯s trust. The anger had drained from his face, replaced with a despondent sad tiredness.

    ¡°Just leave Estala. Just leave and don¡¯t come back.¡±

    It felt like I¡¯d been punched in the chest. I could see his pain, I knew his pain, and knowing I was responsible for at least some of it¡­ I should just leave, the human would be better off without me anyway.

    What would Joseph do?

    If I was in this situation, would Joseph leave me?

    I stood up as tall as I could go, and looked the predator in the eye.

    ¡°You once told me that good and evil is all about choice. I¡¯m choosing not to leave you. You¡¯re hurt, so if you need to shout at me, scream at me, hurt me, kill me, I don¡¯t care. You¡¯re my friend and I¡¯m not leaving you.¡±

    I watched Joseph¡¯s face soften as he stared at me, as I held my breath hoping that I said the right thing as I held my ground. Then the human lunged at me, for a moment fear consumed me as I thought Joseph was finally taking the action I¡¯d been trying to show the world from the beginning, before he simply buried his face in what remained of my chest feathers, and began to weep.

    Joseph was over twice my size and could have snapped me in half if he wanted to. But in this moment he simply held on tight as he continued to sob, as if he was a fledgling clinging to his mother during a storm. The rain and wind continued to buffet us both as I could do nothing but just stand there as the human gripped onto me, as if he¡¯d float away without my anchor.

    ¡°Why?¡± Joseph choked out the words between sobs, continuing to wrap his arms around me as tight as he could. ¡°We just wanted to explore the universe. We just wanted to find friends. We just wanted to be friends. Why?!¡±

    That was a question that I didn¡¯t have a good answer for.

 Chapter FINAL: The Death of a Monster

    Memory transcription subject: Estala, Human Methods Advisor to the Exterminators.

    Date [standardised human time]: Feb 1st, 2137

    I came clean after that.

    I showed Joseph everything: the cameras, my setup, the dead man switch. Every plan, every reason for what I did. I even showed him the files on my exterminator account, the plans I made to rise up against humanity when they ''inevitably enacted their evil predatory plan''. For an hour I did nothing but lay all my secrets bare for the human to see, to judge. I don¡¯t know what I expected. Anger? For him to hate me? For him to attack me? I know I would have deserved it. I would never have guessed his actual response however.

    He laughed.

    A deep uncontrollable sound, rising up from his belly in a cascade of noise.

    "Oh my god, so that''s what you were doing!" The laughter continued as Joseph tried to speak through his mocking joy. "I knew something was up, but I would never have guessed that! I thought it was either curiosity or a sex thing. But trying to be eaten?"

    The human launched into more laughter, leaving me feeling confused.

    "So you''re not angry? You''re not upset? I thought if you knew you''d never want to see me again."

    "Don''t get me wrong, I''m slightly annoyed at you breaching my privacy, which we will talk about later. But¡­ It''s hard to be mad at a reason that is this dumb!"

    Joseph continued the bouts of laughter, doubling over once again, the sound echoing around my apartment. I briefly wondered what the neighbours would think, before realising I frankly didn¡¯t care.

    "This explains so much. Day one I was just glad you weren''t there to kill me, as I suddenly realised how dumb wandering around an alien forest on my own was. But after that¡­"

    Joseph continued his mirthful realisation, a smile plastered over his face.

    "The way you kept edging closer while looking terrified, or how you kept mentioning how alone we were. Or that way you kept thrusting your chest out occasionally. You must have been so annoyed with me. ''why does this predator not desire the taste of my flesh''!"

    Fear of losing Joseph had given away now to the feeling of embarrassment, as I mumbled a small counter to his mocking.

    "I thought it was a good idea at the time¡­"

    "What was the next stage of this plan? Was I going to arrive at our meeting one day to find you all like ''Oh no, I seem to have gotten stuck in this bucket of 11 secret herbs and spices. Help me step-predator!''¡±

    I could feel my skin turning purple with embarrassment under my feathers as Joseph once again doubled over with loud bellows of laughter. Still, I was glad that not only did the human not hate me for my deception, but seeing him so happy was nice. Ever since he had gotten the terrible news something had been missing from Joseph, that inherent joy and enthusiasm.

    Things moved quickly after that. I had demanded that Joseph stay with me, to move out of the shelter. I had seen the PSA¡¯s and various warnings of what a human in despair could do to themselves. Prey disease they were calling it. When a human found themselves without a herd there had been reports of self harm, the gouging and removal of the teeth and eyes, and in some circumstances¡­ worse.

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    This had required me to officially sign up for the exchange program, which had forced me to go up against something more terrible and terrifying than a million predators hunting me with piercing eyes and blood covered fangs: bureaucracy.

    It turns out my legal situation is¡­ weird. Technically I am not a citizen of Venlil Prime, but instead a member of the federation, the same one they were at war with. In addition there had been a grand total of zero Krakotl who had tried to sign up to the exchange program, my job made this application even more ''suspicious''. Nobody knew what to do with such a request.

    I didn''t give up however, eventually getting the necessary paperwork and support, although it did involve certain actions on my part. I would never admit it, but some may say there had been screaming and shouting at the poor Venlil government employee. Some rumours would call such actions downright predatory.

    There had been a memorial service for Joseph''s family, a group service for the latest batch of confirmed casualties. It was estimated that these would be running on Venlil prime for years as death''s of loved ones were officially confirmed. Too many services for too many deaths.

    Joseph had wanted me to come, an invitation I had declined. I gathered that showing up at such an event would be¡­ inconsiderate of the situation. When he made his way back however we spent the rest of the paw just talking. The human telling tale after tale about his family, of the exceptional and the mundane, of memories fondly held.

    Some paws were better than others, sometimes the Joseph I knew would be almost there, excitedly babbling on about some piece of human history or watching with glee some part of Venlil Prime I showed him. Others he barely moved, every piece of joy gone, replaced with empty grief. Still, as time heals all wounds, the good days begin to outnumber the bad.

    My own guilt was still there, although that had been pushed aside. Partly because wallowing in my own self created misery seemed selfish when Joseph was hurting as he did. I had chosen to take the actions I did, while the human had done nothing more than just want to make friends in a universe that hated him.

    Dr Landers was the other reason for that. While originally supplied for Joseph in the wake of his families deaths, I had been invited to attend the human concept of ''therapy''. The job role didn''t really translate, the closest that existed was an assessor: someone who was trained to recognise predator disease. This human however just talked with me, about what I had done, about what I felt, completely free of the judgement I deserved. Somehow doing this just¡­ made it all better.

    Which is why I eventually went back to work, much to the exterminator guild¡¯s surprise when I just walked back in one paw. They had been happy to have me back, considering the reduction in workforce the guild had suffered. My job was basically the same, but instead of teaching them about federation standards, I now taught them about human ones.

    The human study of investigation was overwhelming, with major branches of science and study being dedicated to the craft. I have no idea how I ever considered the federation to be superior to the "primitive predators". Trying to convince some of the exterminators was an uphill battle, which was kind of ironic. Those I had thought of as my most trusted trainees, those who I would have to lead once humans "removed their mask", were now some of my biggest problems.

    On the other hand, the human exterminators I had once been so terrified of and reluctant to hire were now my biggest forces for change. An idea had started to form in splitting up the exterminators into two groups. As Joseph had so bluntly told me "Maybe the jobs of pest control and murder investigator should be two different things?"

    Well there was one thing that had remained a constant: Treven was still a spehing idiot. Somehow he''d become even more stupid and drug addled during my sabatical.

    All of this had led to Joseph making a suggestion. What if we released the video I had recorded? Would an honest conversation with a "predator" that didn''t know he was being recorded change even one person''s mind?

    My human had suggested giving the videos a shocking title and descriptions, as if my original dead man''s switch was triggered. Clickbait he called it. Of course that''s what he called it, humans couldn''t help but to use predatory terms for the simplest of things.

    But it was this suggestion that saw me rewatching that original footage, that first meeting we had had so long ago. It was strange seeing myself in such a way, almost like I was watching someone else. So distrusting, with stupid terrible ideas filling her stupid bird brain. That Krakotl also was not as smooth at hiding her emotions as she thought she was.

    It was a person that didn¡¯t exist anymore, a monster formed of federation propaganda, guilt and ignorance.

    A monster that I was very glad to declare as dead.

 A Nature Of Peace bonus chapter

    Memory transcription subject: Estala, ??? Ecologist?

    Date [standardised human time]: October ???, 2136

    I am a monster.

    Of course, that was the entire point of this endeavour.

    I had spent a lot of time getting the effect ready. Fake feathers of a dull broken colour had been inserted as well as a few of my less important real ones cut away haphazardly. Dirt and fake blood were smeared on top of the feathers. Makeup had been applied to give the small amount of exposed skin around my eyes a rotten dead appearance, with two pure white contacts worn to give them that dead look. I¡¯d even done some rather clever trickery to give my beak a broken off cracked end.

    The only thing normal about me was the bandolier I wore, of woven grass and feathers. My mother had given it to me before I¡¯d left for Venlil prime, and I had decided to wear it for luck.

    I looked absolutely monstrous: exactly what I needed for this plan to work.

    It was part of a charming tradition for the new species called ¡°humans''''. Humans were a species of omnivore primates, nothing really special in the long scheme of things. The universe was filled with all kinds of people: herbivores like the Venlil, omnivores like the Krakotl or Gojid, or even Arxur, the single known instance of a sapient obligate carnivore.

    Not that any of that mattered. ¡°There are no prey or predators in the galaxy¡±. That was the Federation¡¯s mantra.

    Technically humans weren¡¯t a ¡°new¡± species. The Federation had found them over a hundred years ago, but had assumed them to be destroyed once evidence of nuclear warfare became apparent on their home planet. It was unfortunate and a sad moment for the Federation, but not uncommon. One of the reasons we try to uplift species as fast as we can is to avoid new friends from falling foul to one of civilization¡¯s great filters.

    That sadness however had turned to joy when we discovered that not only had humans survived, but they¡¯d managed to uplift themselves! While they weren¡¯t anything special on a galactic scale, any new contact with a sapient species was one to be cherished.

    Well not special apart from for one thing; the reason I was here. Most of the other members of Venlil prime who were attending this human tradition of a ¡°Halloween party¡± were simply here to meet humans. A few had taken the leap to visit and live on Venlil prime as part of an exchange program. But I, I was here for other reasons.

    ¡°You see, while most people would normally think that Venlil Prime only has three ecological zones, in reality the correct number is five, or seven if you take the Planak model including the poles as their own systems¡±.

    I stood there with a glass of water in one wing, talking the ear off a Gojid dressed in an Arxur costume; the poor guy had the clear expression of someone who most definitely didn¡¯t want to be in this conversation. Unfortunately for the Gojid, I was far too nervous to stop, I needed an outlet of my nervous energy.

    I wasn¡¯t here to make friends or meet humans. I was here to get on Earth. I desperately wanted to get a trip to the human¡¯s cradle planet, along with basically the entire Federation. But as an ecologist Earth in particular fascinated me. Most planets have maybe one or two clearly defined ecological systems. I originally moved to Venlil prime due to a grant from Nishtal¡¯s ecological guild to study the rarity that is the tidally locked planet: Venlil prime had a total of seven unique ecological systems, which until recently was one of the highest numbers.

    Earth had hundreds. All staggeringly different and overlapping. If even half the stories were real you could spend an entire lifetime studying just a single island on the planet. I desperately wanted to get a trip to Earth, so my plan was simple: Befriend a human, use that to get onto Earth.

    ¡°You see, the Dusk and Dawn sides of Venlil prime actually have their own unique ecosystems, where the habitable band intersects with the dark and light sides, although there are a few models that suggest it¡¯s less of a set of ecological systems and more of a wide band.¡±

    I swung my wings outwards to emphasise my point, a sudden feeling of pain in my wing as it collided with something. Or someone. Both of us gave a cry of surprise as the sound of breaking ceramics clattered along the floor. I spun around, turning to see who or what I had hit, and came face to face with my first human.

    Bipedal, primate, two forwards facing eyes, nearly twice my size. No feathers or fur apart from a small amount on their head. While the eyes were slightly worrying, triggering a feeling of instinctual unease from some unknown now extinct predator, the rest of them were¡­ slightly adorable if I was being honest. The lack of feathers and weird fleshy hands gave the overall impression of a giant newly hatched chick.

    This one that had the remains of his smoothie splattered down his chest, the rest of his drink now covering the floor along with shards of broken cup. He seemed to look forlornly between himself and his now floor based meal, as if trying to turn back time before his snack was no more.

    Absolutely fantastic job idiot! Your first human and you assault them!

    However the sad look on the human¡¯s face quickly turned to worry as his eyes spotted me cradling my now throbbing left wing, quickling kneeling to take a closer look.

    ¡°Oh god I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t see you there! Are you ok, it¡¯s not broken is it?¡±

    Of course, that¡¯s the one thing that had become apparent from every single test and interaction with humans: Their empathy. I had basically attacked this person and the first thing he was worried about my dumb self.

    ¡°No It¡¯s fine, was my fault really not looking where I was going while talking with¡­¡±

    I trailed off as I realised the Gojid I¡¯d been nervously rambling to had taken this opportunity to escape the grasp of my nerdy conversation. The human however just looked relieved, placing a hand over his heart as he gave a sigh.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°Well that¡¯s a relief! Spent the last two months basically having it beaten into my skull ¡®don¡¯t cause a diplomatic incident¡¯, then the first week here might have broken the wing of a¡­ a¡­.¡± the human trailed off for a moment, his face scrunching up with mental strain before giving up. ¡°Sorry I can¡¯t remember what you are, there¡¯s so many aliens I¡¯m trying to remember them all.¡±

    I held out my wing in what I had read was the standard human greeting. ¡°Krakotl. I¡¯m Estala.¡±

    ¡°Human. Joseph.¡± he had a large smile on his face as the human took my wing with one of its hands and gave a small mock shake, before turning to the mess of broken pottery and yellow slush covering the floor. ¡°We should probably clean this mess up.¡±

    I bent over to start helping Joseph clean up the strange food, some kind of sweet smelling fruit of presumably human origin. I¡¯d not had the courage to try any of the human cuisine yet, although many people had raved about it.

    ¡°So how are you finding Venlil prime?¡± I asked, trying to break up the silence.

    ¡°It¡¯s been fantastic! Everyone¡¯s so friendly and well¡­ I¡¯m on a bloody alien planet! With aliens! It¡¯s like a dream come true. Although¡­¡± Joseph trailed off for a moment, a small frown appearing on his face as his voice dropped from the over enthusiastic excitement to a whisper. ¡°As someone who is not a Venlil, does the entire sun always up and high gravity thing get better? Because I am so fucking tired right now.¡±

    I laughed. I remembered when I originally moved to Venlil prime two years ago, the adjustment period had me almost flying into a tree during my first month. ¡°It gets better. Invest in some automatic blackout blinds, they help with the tidally locked thing.¡±

    Eventually the floor was cleaned, Joseph standing up with his still food-splattered clothing adorning his front.

    ¡°So I¡¯m going to go get a refill, you want to join me Estala? There¡¯s a human food called mangos that I think you¡¯ll love¡­¡±

    ¡ª-----------------------

    Memory transcription subject: Estala, Venlil Extermination consultant.

    Date [standardised human time]: February 18th, 2137

    Confusion ran through my mind as I felt the headset get lifted from my skull, the sudden bright lights of the facility causing me to squeeze my eyes shut as my head pounded with memories new and old. Everything seemed to spin as reality recentered itself.

    My name was still Estala, but I wasn¡¯t an ecologist, or whatever that was. I didn¡¯t have two loving living parents, and I didn¡¯t meet Joseph at a human gathering. The Federation didn¡¯t accept humanity with open arms, and billions of people around the galaxy were currently dying in a war.

    I could feel the fake memories start to dissipate. The general memories of growing up with my parents, studying ecology, living in a federation not based on bigotry and lies. It had all felt so real, so... happy. Everything I ever wanted was in those false memories, and I forlornly tried to hold onto anything that wasn¡¯t the false meeting with Joseph, desperately trying to get that feeling back in the seconds as they started to fade away.

    ¡°Hey, are you ok after that? Can you tell me your name and who you are?¡±

    It was the voice of Wally, one of the humans in charge of this experiment, standing in front of me with a clipboard in hand. The humans had started tinkering with the memory transcription technology and had figured out how to generate false realities, false memories, false experiences. The hope was it could speed up ¡°predator desensitisation¡± though providing experiences without the federation¡¯s harmful propaganda.

    ¡°My name is Estala, and I¡¯m a special consultant for the Exterminators guild of Venlil prime.¡±

    I just hadn¡¯t expected it to¡­ feel so real, feel as if there was an entire lifetime of lived experiences that previously hadn¡¯t existed before. The system worked by using the memories you already had to fill in the gaps and for those brief moments I couldn¡¯t tell the difference between reality and fiction.

    ¡°So, what are your overall thoughts, especially as a training tool for getting used to humans?¡±

    Wally looked down at his clipboard of questions as I thought back to my experiences, normalcy slowly returning.

    ¡°It¡¯s hard to tell as I¡¯ve already gotten used to humans, but it felt real. Almost too real.¡±

    I saw the humans in front of me give a frown as I said that

    ¡°What do you mean ¡®too real¡¯?¡±

    I paused for a moment, wondering if I should say what I was actually feeling. The feeling of loss and longing for a world that didn¡¯t exist and never could. It felt like a cruel trick, a glimpse of a better world that could never be reached.

    ¡°I¡­ I kinda want to go back.¡±

    ¡°Oh. I will make note of that. We really don¡¯t want a Matrix situation for this.¡±

    There was a brief moment of awkwardness as the researcher clearly didn¡¯t know how to deal with this information. We were both saved the awkward silence by my phone going off, Wally deciding now was a good time to leave me alone to think. It was just Joseph sending me a message, checking in with how my ¡°Crazy science experiment¡± was going. As I quickly responded with my own message, I heard a voice call out from the back of the room.

    ¡°Wait, Is that my phone?¡±

    I glanced up to see the source of the voice, one of the humans who had been doing maintenance on the machine I¡¯d been strapped to not that long ago. He was now staring at me with a confused look that matched my own. My confusion however quickly turned to panic as I realised I recognized this person.

    The human made device I was using to communicate with Joseph had been so useful for research, that I had long forgotten that this item wasn¡¯t actually mine. I had stolen the item, and its brightly coloured yellow case, right at the beginning of my journey. From the human who was now staring at me with a confused expression.

    The correct thing to do would be to return the device, but¡­ this device now had my search history on it. Including all my anti-human research. Including when I looked for the phrase ¡°Venlil Flesh¡± and got some eye meltingly cursed images in response, instead of the ¡°secret predator plan¡± I had hoped to see.

    I panicked once again, throwing the phone to the floor and ferociously stamping on the device, the glass metal and plastic shattering under the strength of my talons. I carried on attacking until I knew the phone and all its shameful data was destroyed.

    ¡°Duuuuude¡­.¡±

    The human looked half shocked and half disappointed at the mass of broken pieces that used to be the phone. A small sliver of guilt ran through me, but it was far better than anyone seeing what was on that device.

    ¡°Look, I¡¯ll buy you a new one.¡±

    ¡ª-------------

    I eventually entered through my apartment¡¯s window once again, setting my bag down and just slumping against a wall. I still felt the forlorn melancholy for a life and world that didn¡¯t exist. While I knew the humans didn¡¯t mean it that way, the entire thing felt like a mean trick. A lie, a bitter sweet reminder of everything that could and should be if the galaxy just wasn¡¯t so messed up.

    Everything but the fake meeting with Joseph was gone, but the idea, the feelings of contentment and peace still remained, leaving a gaping empty hole behind that reality might not be able to fill.

    It was then that I looked around, and I couldn¡¯t help but puff by feathers up with joy. Joseph was sprawled asleep in the chair, a book of Krakotl myths and legends on his chest as he slept. I had to agree with fake Estala: When you stopped thinking of them as scary predators, humans did have a touch of adorableness to them.

    How far had I come since the Humans had arrived? If you¡¯d have told me half a year ago that I¡¯d consider a ¡°predator¡± a friend, that I¡¯d be willing to host one in my home¡­ well I would have diagnosed you with predator disease. But now I couldn¡¯t imagine doing anything else.

    Maybe that happy world I had been a part of for such a small time wasn¡¯t a cruel lie. Maybe it was something else. Maybe with just a little bit of effort from people, a little bit of empathy and understanding¡­

    It could be a vision of a better future, a happy ending.