Silent Heroes: Wildcat

Chapter 15: Diverging Perspectives

"Geez, what was up her ass?"

"There's no need for language, Eve," Deanna said in a dignified tone as we left the office.

"Yeah, but did you hear the way she talked to you? And I only said "ass."  That doesn't even count."

"It most certainly does, young lady.  More to the point, I do not advise using it in reference to your new headmistress."

I felt my jaw drop open in horror.  "My what?  You've got to be kidding me!"

"Unfortunately, she's not," Shane said.  "Kerry's been running the school for about three years now."

"And she does a very good job of it," Deanna said fairly.  "But she's a stickler for the rules and she has pretty much zero sense of humor.  Especially when it comes to breaking said rules."

"She also favors the horse shifters," Shane added.

"Oh, no she doesn't, Shane.  Don't be silly."

"I'm telling you, De, the woman is completely bias.  She lets all that inter-species tension spill into her job."

"What interspecies ten-?"

A loud snort cut me off in mid-sentence.  I leapt backwards in surprise, my shoulder hitting the railing behind me.  A huge, silver-black horse with fiery blue eyes stood over me.  The creature's head was lowered to within an inch of mine, ears plastered down against its skull.  I had never seen a horse glare before, but this thing was glaring like it would love nothing more than to trample right overtop of me.

Sweat broke out on my palms.  Very slowly, I slid along the railing in and attempt to side-step around the monstrous beast.  The horse snorted and pawed the ground angrily, following my movements.  I could feel the heat radiating from its body.  Feel its breath on my face.  I could see every hair on the end of its nose.

And—oh crap—now the animal inside of me was sitting up, taking note of the situation.  And it did not appreciate being cornered like this.  Particularly by something it perceived as prey.  It growled menacingly and I found myself doing the same, baring my blunt, human teeth at the horse as if they were the inch-long canines I wore in cat-form.  The horse stamped the ground again and my muscles clenched.  I was fighting an urge to hurl myself forward and bite into it's jugular.

Deanna's hand came in out of nowhere and slapped the horse sharply on its muscular flank.  "Down, boy.  Stop terrorizing my student."

The horse flinched and swung around to face her, blowing a huge gust of air from its nostrils.  I wouldn't have been surprised to see flames coming out along with it. 

"Go on, get!" Deanna made a shooing motion with her hands.  The horse tossed its massive head defiantly, then turned sharply on its hooves and trotted away, neck arched and tail raised high into the air.

I watched it go, hands shaking, heart pounding in my chest.  My inner animal was settling back down, though it still grumbled like an angry cat.  "What the heck was that all about?"

"He was just testing you," Deanna said, glaring after the horse along with me.   "Wanted to see if he could intimidate you.  Pointless exercise if you ask me.  Come on.  Don't worry about it."

I gave my head a shake, trying to banish the incident from my mind, and fell in line behind Deanna and Shane.

I felt a little better as we stepped out into the warm sunlight of the courtyard.  We were approaching a series of aerial boardwalks that crisscrossed their way through the building, connecting one side to the other and one floor to the next.  A big spiral staircase rose up straight from the middle of the courtyard and intersected with many of them in midair.  The walkways were nearly empty at the moment, but I could imagine them during school, teeming with students all running between classes.