Squinting through the day's last rays of autumn sunlight, Desmond scrolls through his text conversation he had with Hafsa the previous night.

"Hey."

"Hey! Ready to go back to school tomorrow?"

He winces at this. What a phony reply. As expected of Hafsa.

"Meet me at the bench outside of Emzara tomorrow after class."

"? Why?"

"I know who the predator is."

She hadn't replied to that despite the icon that clearly states she read it. He rereads his last text with a weary expression. That may have been an exaggeration: he didn't really know who the Kin of Luca were, much less if they were actually responsible for the deaths of Isaac and Jasmine. But he needed to say something convincing enough to persuade Hafsa to actually have a real conversation with him. 'I maybe think a cult I know barely anything about maybe may have had something to do with it. maybe' simply wasn't gonna cut it.

Should he even be telling her all of this? At the very least, he's going to have to admit he patronized a black market. He even took Priya instead of her so that he wouldn't bother her with this whole messy ordeal. But it looks like he's incapable of not bothering her now. He's ready to just bite the bullet. If anyone can help him figure out the truth, it's her. The student council president, the ace student. His Sherlock.

"Desmond?" Her voice rings behind him. He instinctively gets up, shoving his phone into his pocket and turns to face her. Despite the serval's best attempt to wear a composed face, her unease is all too evident.

But… there she is. Desmond thanks his lucky stars that his stubby tail is safely tucked within his pants. It'd be embarrassing if she saw it wagging.

"…Hi."

"Hi."

They automatically take their seats on the bench and gaze out onto the lawn, now speckled with the warm hues of fallen leaves.

"So…" Hafsa begins awkwardly. "How was your break?"

The sheep scoffs. "Is that really what you're opening with? Small talk?"

Hafsa's ears flatten. "Do you have a better idea?"

Desmond pauses. "Yes."

He reaches for her hand, taking it into his.

"Wha-!" Hafsa sputters, her tail swishing wildly behind her.

He brings her hand up to his lips.

And proceeds to chomp down hard.

The serval lets out a screech of pain and swipes her hand back.

"What the hell is your problem, you freak?!" She shrieks.

"Good, that's the Hafsa I'm used to seeing."

Her jaw freezes as she registers the sentence before bitterly clenching shut once more. "You're a real piece of work."

He sniggers. "Fine with me. I thought you were gonna call me a piece of something else."

Even the serval can't help but let out a quick smile before returning to her pouty disposition. She clears her throat and returns to look at the scenery in front of them. "So. Out with it."

"It's an incredibly long story."

"Well, get started, then."

Hafsa blinks. She blinks again. And she blinks once more.

"A cult?" She repeats dumbly.

"Listen, I know it sounds crazy," The sheep says hurriedly. "And I'm not 100% sure they're the ones in Noah's Arc. But it's a real possibility. Especially considering they're having this big… ritual in a month."

The female slumps over, resting her elbows on her thighs and burying her face in her interlaced fingers. Desmond leans forward in an attempt to glean her expression, but to no avail. All he can see is her trembling shoulders. Is she… crying?

"Haf—"

"YOU FUCKING MORON!"

A pathetic squeak is the last thing he musters before paralyzing entirely. The carnivore jumps to her feet. The evening light is completely blocked by her towering figure, causing the ram to shrink further into his seat, practically sliding off entirely. Hafsa grips the bench's back rail with enough force to splinter it. While she is normally a good foot taller than him, all of her fur standing on end makes her seem even more imposing.

"You went to a black market?!" She roared. "To go hunting for some cannibalistic cult?! Are you insane?!"

"…It all worked out in the end." He bleated weakly.

"You could've been eaten! HOW did you not get eaten?!"

"I… went with a carnie. For protection."

"Which carnie?! You don't have any carnie friends besides me!"

"W-we're still friends?"

"DESMOND!"

"I went with Priya!"

Hafsa's pupil shrink to the size of paper cuts. "You… what?"

"Please don't get her in trouble for it!" The ram pleaded hastily. "She was doing me a favor, I totally coaxed her into it and I know it was irresponsible of me—!"

"This cannot be happening."

The serval's expression changed from furious to horrified. She finally retracts her claws from the bench and goes to slump herself next to Desmond once more.

"H-hey," He places a still trembling hand on her shoulder. "Nobody got hurt and there's no way either of us are going back, so don't—"

"Desmond." The gravity of her voice silences him immediately. "Do you know why I even showed up here?"

Hafsa finally raises her head, staring into Desmond's eyes with a fierce intensity. "It was to warn you. I don't know how you got the idea that some random cult is behind all of this, but I actually know who is. And I'm a lot more confident about my hypothesis than you are."

She inches closer to him. Now her clawed hand overtakes his.

"Stay away from Priya."

"Wha…?"

"Please just trust me on this one. You shouldn't have gotten involved in this whole mess in the first place. So just… please be careful."

Desmond shakes his head. "I… I don't understand. Are you saying Priya is the predator? That… doesn't make sense. She… She had every opportunity to eat me in the market but didn't. She helped me out even though there was nothing in it for her."

"I don't get why she agreed to go with you either…" Hafsa mumbles. "But I'm almost certain it's her. She killed Isaac and Jasmine. Say you believe me. Say you'll keep your distance."

"Even if that were true… What are we gonna do about her?"

"I'm handling it." She replies with firmness. "What you need to do is somehow want the other rams to stay away from her without raising alarm. Especially Peter."

Neither of them speak for a while. If must have only been a minute at most, but to them, it feels like 100 years. All they could do is look at each other, desperately inspecting every detail of their faces in a silent conversation.

"I will." Desmond breaks the silence, his voice firm. "I trust your judgement. But… you really think the Kin of Luca has nothing to do with this?"

"The 'Kin'…" Hafsa repeats the name, which suddenly sounds familiar to her. It was only a few weeks ago that a crazy old ewe who called herself Granny was babbling something about some god named Luca. Could she have been…?

"You said that cult was for sheep, right? As it stands, it's impossible for a sheep to be the Noah's Arc culprit. This Kin thing may very well be responsible for the spike in sheep predation, and a whole bunch of other weird stuff, but the predator here has to be someone with access to the garden shed. As it stands, that can only be Priya."

The ram frowns. "There is still no motive, though."

"Yeah, there's that…" Hafa's brows furrow in frustration. "The best I have is something about her hybridity…"

"Her hybridity…" Desmond's eyes suddenly widen. "What if… what if she's a sheep hybrid?"

"What?"

"Then… it's totally possible for her to be a member of the Kin, couldn't it?"

"I don't know… Ugh, I'm getting a migraine." The serval throws her head back with a grunt, now languidly leaning against the bench's railing. Her eyes scan the clouded sky above, searching for any potential clues in between the white puffs. "As if the albino tiger wasn't enough… now there's gotta be a cult…" She grumbles.

"Priya, huh…" The ram ponders aloud. "Told you she was creepy. Right from the very start."

"You think all carnies are creepy."

"Not you. I think you're annoying."

"How flattering."

'You know… I missed this."

"You missed accusing a fellow student of predation and conspiring about a cult infiltration within our school?"

"No, I mean… I missed this. Talking to you, having open discussions, calling each other names… I missed you."

"…I missed you too."

Desmond coughs. "What a shitty set of circumstances to bond over."

"Well, what did you expect? Sherlock didn't meet Watson at a bar."

"How… did they meet?"

"I dunno. I never actually read the books."

"Wow. Our entire friendship is built on a lie."

"Nah, it was built on me nearly having you for dinner."

"Good times."

Desmond nearly skipped back to his dorm. Objectively, the situation has never been worse. If their hypothesis is true, that means that a student of this academy is part of a murder cult that plans to have some kind of ritualistic ceremony in less than a month. Meaning the worse could be yet to come. Furthermore, they have no physical evidence to present to authority figures. Not that it would matter, because according to that damn vulture, the police have no intention of seriously stopping the Kin. Objectively, this is a bleak situation at best, and a life threatening one at worst.

But god damnit, Sherlock and Watson are back in business. And the only thing his foolish heart is saying is "everything will work out".

It's not like they have no plan whatsoever.

The serval told Desmond that Solomon was also in the know regarding Priya's potential guilt (which annoyed him to no end that she went to him first), adding an intelligent and strong ally in this operation. While the idea of Hafsa confronting a potential killer did not sit right with him at all, she insisted it would be fine. As for Jacob sheep, he had to think of how to approach the ram fighting club. They are the most at risk considering the tigress's fascination with them. Could she have been simply stalking out her future prey the entire time…?

The thought makes him want to vomit. Why is it that the most innocent looking carnies hide the most darkness inside? Long ago, he had also fallen prey to this old hat trick. Even after all these years it seems that he's still as much of a sucker as he was back then. Felines seem to be his blind spot.

No. Now is not the time for rolling around in self pity. Pieces of the puzzle, slowly, messily, are finally beginning to fit into place. It feels like they are so close to finally seeing the entire picture.

AN: Hello, all. It's been a while no? Rest assured, I'm back, and with big news to boot.
As of writing this, Serval and Sheep is complete! I decided to write the rest in one go, and post the remaining chapters daily. The reason for this is that soon, I will be very busy with life things, and I fear that this story will bog me down if I continued working on it as I normally did. I thought it made more sense to bite the bullet, finish this story arc, and lay it to rest for a bit as I worked on other projects.
I have no intention of leaving it alone forever, after all, I still want to write more about the adventures of Hafsa, Desmond and the rest. So you could say that after this "season" is complete, I'll take a extended hiatus and return someday once my life is more routine.
I'm very sorry to make you guys wait for so long. New chapter tomorrow. Take it easy and stay safe.