Chapter 4

Staying Behind?

Moving On?

The Weekend passed without any fanfare. The police questioned a few students but never asked any questions of the Drama Club, though the Police were told many times they were the ones most closely linked with Tem. The entire investigation put a sour taste in the stomachs of all those even tangentially connected to Tem's murder and left more than one furious animal seething once the Police had left.

Bill came to Room 701 of the Canid Feline Dorm in a massive huff and roared and growled relentlessly for hours after hearing what exactly the Police had asked the students. The Tiger, after being told to calm down or leave by the resident Wolf, took up residence in their common area.

The other canines of the seventh floor stayed clear of their door and made sure to keep quiet when the group would get into an argument about Tem's death.

"I know you want to go looking !" Legoshi growled lowly, fists entwined with Bills while the two strong-armed each other in the middle of the room. "I want to find out who killed him too! But getting so impassioned about it and losing our tempers will not endear us to the other students!"

Bill snarled and his grip tightened painfully for a moment before all the steam he had built up rushed out in a furious sigh.

"I know you're right… But dammit all! Those Cops didn't even investigate properly! They-!"

"I know Bill, Legoshi collapsed at the side of his bed and rested an arm on his propped-up leg. He looked up at Bill with a tired face and shook his head. "Cherryton Police have never been the best nor brightest city police in the country. Cherryton Academy might be the best in the nation for producing Beastars… But our city, this place we live, is broken," Bill looked away from the anguished look in the Wolf's eyes. "I have lived in this city for all my life Bill, I know how lambasted and broken parts of it all are. But to them? Tem is just another herbivore that got too close to a Carnivore and got eaten when he didn't use enough caution."

"Then why did you-!"

"Just because they won't look into Tem's murder the right way won't mean they wouldn't throw a bunch of vigilante Carnivores in Jail. As much as Vigilantism is used in this city, the Police do not take too well to people interfering in investigations, even when it's all half-assed." Legoshi slapped a hand against the floor. Bill flinched at the loud noise and looked away from Legoshi. The tired look the had been there Friday had yet to leave the Wolf and it made him look a hundred times more intimidating than he meant to, though no one had told him that yet. They were all torn up about Tem's death, but with Legoshi knowing he was most likely the last one to see the Alpaca alive, it made it so much worse for him.

"We need to be patient Bill, all of us. I know Els and the other girls have tried to ask questions and got turned away by the Police when they asked what kind of Carnivore could have done it. Kai was threatened with expulsion by the School staff when he brought it up with the Principle…," Bill puffed up his chest as if about to say something. "Bill, discretion is the better part of valor right now. I… I know how it feels, to do nothing and watch as the problem slips through your fingers." The Tiger deflated and lost all his bluster. Silence reigned for a while after that. Bill walked over and sat down across the room from Legoshi and stared at the floor. The silence slowly became too much for the Tiger and he looked up.

"What should we… I… do then?" He asked Jack and the others. They all gave him helpless looks and turned back to Legoshi. The Wolf was too busy drawing an imaginary image on the floor to take notice of the others looking at him.

Jack came over and knelt next to Legoshi and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Goshi? What should we do now?"

The Grey Wolf looked up and blinked slowly at his Best Friend. A tear began to build up in his eye before he chuffed and looked away.

"Monday is when School opens back up. Right?" he shot Bill and Jack a look.

"Yeah, Chief Mallard said we will be able to start our morning classes Monday."

"Then… I…," Legoshi closed his eyes and sighed. "I don't like it… But we have to go back to school. We can be suspicious of anyone we want and talk among ourselves about who we think did it… but we shouldn't say anything to anyone else. This is a Drama and Room 701 issue. One of ours was killed." Bill's head shot up and stared at Legoshi. There was a slight rumble at the end there that rattled something loose in his hind-brain, some long forgotten instinct that screamed at him to do something. It was too indistinct for him to really listen to, so he ignored it.

The other Canines in Room 701 were different however. Collot sat up straight from his position in front of the TV. Voss and Jack felt their skin crawl and a sharp sense prickled behind their eyes. Durham and Miguno both stopped playing their game of Shogi and froze. Each of them felt… Something. Something primal crawled up within them and settled behind their eyes, putting a pressure on their mind that felt both wholly natural and completely foreign at the same time.

What none of them could see, or chose to ignore, was this.

Their eyes had gone black. No color was left, their iris' having opened wide. They felt their hearts quicken and they could hear their blood pump in their ears. Something powerful and near ancient was born in that moment.

In the next moment, it was lost as the group snapped out of their fervor.

"I… I need to go back to my Dorm, Legoshi. But, thanks for talking with me, I think I would have done something stupid if I hadn't," Bill smiled awkwardly and stood up. He straightened his clothes and slowly walked out of the room.

"Take care of yourself, Bill," Legoshi called out to him. Bill turned back and offered a true, genuine, smile before walking out the door and picking up his shoes.

Monday morning came as a stark reminder and a rude awakening as the sun splashed across weary faces and caused a mass headache for the student population. Thousands of souls marched their still haggard bodies down several flights of stairs and into the school Cafeteria for the morning meal.

The Drama Club gathered and ate in silence with the men of Room 701 of the Canine Feline Tower.

Legoshi slumped forward and accidentally slammed his face into a bowl of porridge. His snores caused the group to lose their dreary demeanor and laugh uproariously at their friend's predicament. The Wolf shot up and cough-sneezed the offending goo out of his nose and held his muzzle firmly while his eyes watered up. The others calmed down and finally got into a better mood for the day.

"So," Jack sniffed as he tried to get his laughs under control. "What's the plan?"

"Go about our lives and hope we stumble across something?" Els whispered.

"We need to find Louis and see what he's been up to," Sanu the Pelican cut in as he sat down. The others students starred at him. The Pelican had not been at school when the news had broken out, but his response to Tem's death was not as emotional as the rest. It was like the Pelican had no real connection with Tem even though he had worked closely with the Alpaca for the last year. It struck the rest of the Drama Club as odd, but he was one of the most unassuming birds they all had ever met. None of them, from Legoshi to Bill, could even think of a way for Sanu to have killed Tem and gotten away with it especially for the fact he had no claws or sharp teeth for cutting into flesh.

"Why Louis?" Sheila asked.

"He hasn't been back to school yet after the last semester. He is our Lead Actor for Adler and he needs to be here so we can begin rehearsals!"

Much of the Drama Club agreed, if even for the simple fact that Louis missing the first week of school had them worried for his life. The Horns Conglomerate rarely made a statement about internal situations, and they all doubted that if anything happened to Louis they would utter a word.

Those not so concerned for the Red Deer were Bill and the boys of 701. they were more concerned with Legoshi trying to survive his impromptu dive into the porridge. Beyond that, both Bill and Legoshi knew that Louis could take care of himself. The Buck was a beast of a Deer and they had their own first-hand experience in seeing the Deer dole out his own brand of justice on some of the delinquents at the school.

The group talked and ate in a quick fashion before the first bell tolled. They quickly dispersed and cut off to their respective classes. The 701 boys had Math from 10:15 – 11:00, English from 11:05 to 12:05, lunch break from 12:05 – 12:50, History from 12:55 – 01:55, Free period from 02:00 – 02:45, Science 02:50 – 03:40, Club Activities 03:45 – 05:00.

They shuffled into the math class and numbed their minds with Algebra and mixed equations. They made sure to poke one another should they see them falling asleep. After nearly an hour of mind-numbing exercises that tried to refresh their minds from last year, the group left the class.

They meandered into English class and immediately found a warzone. The Teacher, a large White Rhinoceros, was waving a huge chair about threateningly while a lion student roared at them.

"Get in your seat Nolan! Now, before I break this fucker across your head!" The teacher jabbed the chair at the lion and growled at him.

The group of Canines stared, bewildered, at the scene. They were blatantly aware of the herbivores who were scared witless by their classmate's violent outbreak and the entrance of six new Carnivores ended up causing a few to faint.

Voss facepalmed hard enough to launch himself off Legoshi's shoulder, much to Durham and Miguno's secret humor.

"What should we do Legoshi?" Jack asked. Legoshi froze.

That simple question made him freeze because, this was it. Here was a Carnivore getting ready to attack a Herbivore, a teacher no less in front of a room full of Herbivores. They could let the teacher deal with it, being a Rhino gave them thick enough skin to deal with an adolescent Lion.

"I…," he stuttered. His heart wanted to take action and stop the fight before it happened. His mind however was stuck in a never-ending loop that pitted his anxiety against his morals.

Snnnap!

The Lion bit through the chair and snarled something unintelligible at the Teacher. There was no decision, no snap in his mind, no choice to be hand. Legoshi strode forward, long legs carrying him far. Collot and Jack followed quickly behind him. Durham and Miguno jogged to keep up. Voss lept after them and landed on Collot's leg which he quickly clambered up to sit on his shoulder.

The Lion smashed the chair out of the Teacher's hand and stepped forward menacingly. The Lion said something and swung at the Teacher with his claws outstretched.

The swing was stopped, though, when a Grey hand clamped around his wrist like a vice and held him firm. The Lion looked to the side sharply with a snarl on his lips. What he got instead was a face full of Grey fur when a fist met his face and knocked him to the floor.

The Lion could feel his incisor fall out and clatter to the floor. He looked up and snarled as, a split second later, another fist came crashing into his face. Consciousness fled and sleep took the Lion quickly.

Legoshi hissed and rubbed cradled his sore fist against his chest. The last punch he threw landed slightly wrong and he felt one of his knuckles crack painfully.

"Collot, can you and Durham get this dumb-ass tied up for the principal?" He asked with a hiss as his hand throbbed.

"Sophomore!" The Rhino gasped, just then getting over their shock at the situation. "Are you alright!?"

"I should be asking you that Teacher," the Wolf smiled awkwardly.

"I'm fine! But look at your hand!" the Teacher exclaimed. They all looked at his hand and Legoshi was surprised to see the bone sticking up. "That's a boxer's break if I ever saw one, boy! You need to get to the nurse right now!" The Teacher waved him off when he saw that Legoshi was going to make a fus. "Boy, you saved my life most likely. I won't hear it! Now, take this and get to Nurse Chiguna. She's a Melanistic Fox that just transferred in from one of the local Hospitals. Glowing recommendations!" The Teacher gushed as he wrote down a pass for the hall and his next class.

Collot and Durham found some rope in a nearby Janitor's closet and tied the lion up. They saw Legoshi's hand and shot him concerned looks. He explained that he was going to the Nurses office and that they shouldn't worry about him. He relented after getting told by the Teacher it would be okay for one of them to walk him there. The teacher wrote a hall pass for Jack and excused them both from the class.

Legoshi was quickly led out of the room while Collot and the other three canines kept the Lion firmly detained.

"Teacher?" Collot called out.

"Yes, Mr. Collot?"

"What happened here?" He asked, his brow furrowed and face firmly set in a frown. "Why did he attack you?"

The Teacher looked pensive and sighed. "There was an argument going on between a group of Herbivores and mister Nolan the Saharan Lion. They mentioned something I was not able to hear and he became overtly enraged by them. I tried to break up the fight and My Nolan here turned his anger on me. I was fine with that, I've dealt with angry Carnivores and herbivores for longer than many of you have been alive. But he turned violent and began to threaten physical harm. For me it's not a huge issue, I'm a Rhino, thick-skinned and all that."

Collot and the others nodded along, each a little bit less understanding of the situation than the last. None of them condoned the actions of the Lion, but they could at least see where things started.

"That's about when we got here, right?" Miguno asked while rubbing the back of his head.

"That's right," The teacher nodded their head sharply. "That Wolf friend of yours was quick about it too, I've never had someone step in so fast to help another!"

"That was Legoshi the Grey Wolf sir, he's in the Drama Club." One of the herbivores in the back shouted.

"Yeah! I heard he likes to stalk-"

"Listen here you little shits!" Durham snapped. "Lego-!"

"Enough, Durham, they aren't worth our time," Collot gently put a hand on the Coyote's shoulder. The Coyote looked back in shock at how he was letting Legoshi's name be dragged through the mud. The face he saw though was heart-stopping.

The usually calm and collected Sheepdog was glaring. His lips were partly pulled back exposing just the barest amount of fang needed to get a point across while also remaining civil. Though off-putting, it was the fact that his eyes were visible. Though a beautiful blue and the perfect hue, they were now stormy and filled with rage. Like the sea, they no longer held peace and beauty, but the storm that could rage upon the open ocean.

"If they want to talk about someone like they know them, then let them be as ignorant and unknowing as they want. Not like we will help them should they need it, thinking that such a kind animal was the one to eat his best friend."

The Herbivores recoiled as if struck from his harsh words. Not even the Teacher remained unaffected. The whole room felt a shift in the very air and they witnessed for the first time the calamity of the Peaceful Giant. They now knew, without a shadow of a doubt, Peaceful did not equate to Harmless.