Author's Note: Hello lads and ladies

I have been busy with setting up everything for my eventual departure for my clinical stay that his thundering towards me with alarming speeds. We have survived the snow storm 'Tristan' raging through my country. We discovered a few holes in the roof that caused the entire attic to be laminated in a layer of snow. So that was fun to clean up.

Little Nightmares 2 hit the stores, am thinking about buying it the very moment I write this author's note. Might just run to the store when i'm done. As a last thing I want to talk about for today is my favorite poem, that In some way represents the conundrum of feelings and self doubt that haunt me since I know I will be going away for a while, only being home on the weekends. But don't concern yourselves with that, i'll take care of it guys. You matter to me so much, hope you enjoy the new chapter.

'Tis True my form is something odd

but blaming me is blaming god

if I could create myself anew

I would not fail in pleasing you

If I could reach from pole to pole

or grasp the ocean with a span

I would be measured by the soul

the mind's the standard of the man'

- Joseph Merrick "The Elephant Man"

Editor: SuperAverageFoxyboy

Enjoy!

-Portal

Chapter 7: Bottle of Honey

Riz opened his eyes to complete darkness. He sighed, the same dream haunting his nights unlike any other. It had been months since the actual date of his murder, and still, Tem waltzed through his head, always bringing headaches and back pain the next morning. It hurt to think about it. He could barely remember the poor alpaca's voice, and yet he continued to wander through his mind like he was still around.

The large bear sat up, grabbing his neck in pain. It felt stiff and sore, a side effect of the medication that he took. All large breed carnivores taller than two meters were forced to take pills that decreased muscle mass. It was a safety measure to ensure that large breed carnivores held no more danger than smaller carnivores.

It was something that he, as well as most of his bear friends, had grown accustomed to. To feel like trash in the morning for the safety of your fellow classmates, co-workers, or friends of other species. They threw a whole lot of words at you just to avoid outright saying, "your biology was deemed too dangerous for society." But there was nothing to say against it. There were people that made the rules and the people that had to abide by them.

Riz opened the curtains, a few rays of sunshine shining into the room. Though daylight had started to arise, it was still not enough to awake his roommates. In fact, all were still snoring in their own dream-lands. The bear emerged from his bunk, beginning his morning routine with various stretching exercises. He had found out that morning activity lowered the severity of the side effects throughout the day.

Afterward, he went to the bathroom, taking a long and warm shower before anyone else awoke. It was a place where he could stop thinking for a while. The last few weeks had been exhausting, the side effects growing worse with each new dream. He first blamed the full moon, driving him wild because of instincts. Instincts that fought against the pills and angered his system. But after a few days, he appeared.

Tem started to appear frequently, talking with the bear in his dreams. They were conversations he never had and would never have with the alpaca. Like Tem was talking to him through the afterlife, worried about the bear's mental and physical state. The conversations began with just a few sentences between two acquaintances, memories of run-ins mixed with his subconsciousness.

Then, a few remarks turned to sentences. Sentences became paragraphs, and paragraphs turned into entire philosophical conversations. They turned so livid that Riz actually looked forward to the nightly visit of his friend. And yet still dreading the mornings after, which were always defined by even worse side effects. Tem always wanted to know how everyone was doing. How was Els, Ellen, Shira, Bill, and in the latest of dreams, how Legosi was doing. One night he even asked about Juno, a member that he had never interacted with before. Tem was always worried, caring about everything and everyone. Even those that weren't always the nicest to him. Riz found the notion to be heartwarming. A friend that even dead still worried about the people he spent most of his life with. He was lovely and caring even after his life ended prematurely.

The last few nights had been no different, the alpaca asking him what was going on in the club. Riz was happy to tell him that a new member was coming soon. A wooled animal just like him. A Dall sheep as he heard. Even though the bear was tall and frightening to most herbivores, his quiet personality made him almost invisible. How many things people talked about, just because they expected a large bear to be an imbecile, one that didn't talk much. Some of his friends had problems with that. They felt ignored and shunned by the general populous, coping with overt kindness. But Riz didn't mind. He liked to be quiet and just listened to others talk. He heard a lot in the day, many things that came into use one way or another.

Sanu was too friendly for his own good, if any member asked about any information that he should normally keep under closed tabs, he would say it without thinking twice. And while talking to Louis about a few management things, they discussed the new arrival. A thing that was in the hearing range of the bear helping with the scene preparation. He had to admit it, he enjoyed that others often saw him as an instinct lead, blind and stupid carnivore. It made them lower their guard, giving him information without even realizing it. It was glorious.

Riz left the shower, putting on his uniform, a slight headache bothering him. When he left the bathroom, the first of his friends were groggily leaving his bunk.

"Riz… early as always…" Riz smiled at Victor, the bear handling waking up much worse than Riz himself.

"I like it early. It's so calm and peaceful," replied Riz to his friend, Victor stretching his limbs, opening his mouth in a big yawn. Riz smirked.

"I'm going to take my morning walk. You wake up and drink some of that honey." Victor nodded at his words, still half asleep and walking towards the bathroom. Riz smiled after him and left the room, following the rest of his usual morning routine.

Riz ventured down the hall, drinking his bottle of honey. The sweet liquid being his main remedy against the aggressive side effects of his medication. He always bought a pallet of them, making sure that he and his friends were steadily supplied. It was a cliche, sure, but it helped immensely. A single bottle in the morning was immediate pain relief in the early hours of the day, and it counteracted the side effects in the late afternoon.

Some groups of herbivores were already out in the hallways, ready to make their way to classes or meeting up with friends, per their herding instincts. They all automatically took their distance, walking as close to the wall as they could. Riz didn't mind. He was more concentrated on drinking his honey. He just kept on walking along to the next destination of his morning routine.

The bear made his way outside. The morning sun was slightly peaking above the tree line, the buildings casting shadows on the dimly lit school grounds. Riz looked towards the main buildings, the blue sky behind the school looking idyllic. Like the murals in the lounge of the school. A beautiful scenery of big grass fields in the mountains. The same feel held the sight before him, civilization in the middle of nature. He took a deep breath, the fresh morning air invigorating him for the day's activities.

The fall weather had cooled the temperature down enough that it had started to become noticeable for short furred and the few bare-skinned animals. But to Riz, it was perfect, his fur shielding him from the temperatures and leaving the place to him alone. He liked to sit on the outdoor benches and watch others walk by undisturbed.

Maybe it pleased his carnivore senses, but he loved when people were unaware of his presence. It pleased a deep and primal need in him. He leaned back, a cool wind spreading the yellow and red leaves onto the pathway.

Riz closed his eyes. The different smells of forest ground flowing into his nose, sending him off into his head. He saw the bustling street life under him, as he saw himself standing on a building, one foot on the edge of the roof. The flashing lights of the billboards caught his eyes. Commercials of new flavors to taste, new things to see, and new sounds to hear. Animals of all origins, shapes, and kinds walking the streets. So much energy in one point of the city under the heel of his boot. The ground pulsating with rhythmic steps, the heartbeat of a thriving home to many.

He opened his eyes again, the sun now positioned above the tree line, bathing the grounds in warm morning daylight. The first groups of herbivores now started to make their way past him, only the fewest and most vigilant noticing the bear at all. Riz picked up their smells, different notes of perfumes, colognes, conditioners, and other smells of different kinds. He pulled out his phone and looked at the time.

7:16 AM.

With the confirmation that enough time had passed, he started making his way to classes, enjoying and seizing the day that seemed to open on a good note.


Half a day later, in Drama Club...

Per the usual routine, the group of members assembled in front of their pelican president, accompanied by Louis and a new member, one that the males of the club were quick to dislike based on his entrance only a few minutes earlier. The sheep looked smug, smirking at the various animals in front of him. Bill growled silently. To have someone bratty show up at times like these was typical, but it was more so the creeping foresight that this sheep would rile up others that annoyed him. To have a carnivore classmate somehow lose his cool and attack him would give them all bad rep. Even if the herbivore was the one provoking the attack, the carnivore always got the punishment. In a carnivore herbivore fight, the context was never important. If the carnivore did anything that physically resembled assault, they were at a disadvantage.

"Hello, everyone." Sanu greeted the club, pushing his glasses into his eye line.

"Today, we have a new member. Some of you might have met him before." The males collectively glared with disdain. But instead of showing any kind of remorse or regret, the Dall sheep winked at the group and smiled as his eyes jumped from one death glare to the next.

"This is Pina. He'll go and accompany you in your different activities until he decides-"

"Actually, I already decided to be part of the actor's team, but I'm still in my trial period, I suppose." The sheep cut off Sanu, the pelican wearing a slightly dumbfounded expression.

"We don't need a prick like that in the actor's team," Bill spoke from the group of carnivores, Aoba nodding behind him. Pina's eyes sparkled at the tiger's sudden and intense vigor.

"Look, kitty. The actor's team simply needs help. After you couldn't control yourself and made us lose that poor sweet alpaca, you don't have enough beautiful animals to fill your ranks anymore. Due to the simple build of the carnivore eye structure; they lack any complexity that the herbivore eyes hold. So in simpler terms, they can't be classified as beautiful. And we all know that carnivore physique is in the eye of the public, terrifying. It is scientifically proven that carnivores are simply not beautiful."

Legosi found himself awoken from his daydream as his friends around him had leaned forward, loudly arguing over the rudeness of the Dall sheep. The same sheep currently standing smugly at the front of the group, bathing in the attention. Sudden war had broken out around him, and he had no clue what it was about. His mind had pulled him back to last night with a gentle ease that had left him zoning out, even at the horrifying contents of said night.

"That's enough," Louis spoke out, loud enough for the group to fall silent, Bill still starring daggers at the new member. Pina turned around, pretending to pout.

"Oh, come on, you of all should know that I am right." Louis's face turned ice cold and serious. It was the face of a much more mature and seasoned life than what reached the surface. He slowly walked forward towards Pina, who was still smirking at the deer that he felt posed no real threat to him.

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Pina's confident boasting didn't break Louis's stride. His eyes bore into the cocksure sheep, still smirking with an overabundance of arrogance and carelessness.

"Your one to bathe in female attention, aren't you?" Louis spoke quiet and direct enough for the group behind them to only hear half of what the deer said. Pina began to laugh at the demonstration of dominance that still didn't affect him.

"I can't believe it. The great Louis, asking me to help him with females. I have a long list of tips if you need it." Pina resumed the conversation in his loud and judgmental tone.

"You're planning to be an actor, so even more females are to pay attention to you, am I right?"

"Well, it's only natural." Pina was a bit confused at what the deer was getting at but still didn't feel any kind of threat coming off the imposing buck. Pina had slept with a red deer before. And he found that when they got intimate, that they spilled so many secrets over their behavior. If you knew one herbivore of a species, you knew them all.

"Would be a shame if you were rejected by the actor's team. Made into a disgrace, even. A herbivore all so beautiful and self-absorbed rejected, by Louis himself." Pina's cocksure demeanor dropped. He hadn't expected that, not from Louis specifically. So much formality and tradition would usually bring with it, a sense of pride in his being a herbivore but he just protected carnivores not for the reason of keeping calm, but for the reason of keeping this a neutral space. Pina thought he knew what this club would act like. What the flagship's insides would sound like. Louis's behavior made this a lot more complicated.

"Are we clear on this matter?" Louis continued.

Pina's face remained neutral. He was baffled on the inside. He assumed to know how the club worked, in acting his own kind of control here, but the deer had set him straight for a loop in trying to think of a new tactic. He was so sure that he knew what the higher-ups were thinking. To be proven wrong like this was humiliating.

"Yes…" Pina forced the word out of his mouth, a small and pathetic whimper in comparison to his arrogant boasting just a little while before. Louis had seen right through him, stopping his plans right in their tracks before the sheep could really get started. He lowered his head a bit when Louis walked out of his line of sight, the club full of angry members still staring at him.

Sanu looked to Pina and then to Louis, making sure that all was dealt with. Conflict involving Louis was the one type of conflict that was hardest to control. He cleared his throat, laughing awkwardly. "Now that we have that out of our system-"

The hostility was palpable in the air, Pina's arrogant fit having caused almost every last member to glare at him with eyes filled with hate. With the exception of Legosi, that like before, was still lost about what was going on.

"-We can continue with the club's processes. First Pina will accompany the dance team-" Groans of dismay sounded through, which Sanu decided to ignore.

"-so I wish you all good luck in practice," Sanu concluded his speech, the various students standing up.

Legosi followed suit, only for his head to shoot upwards, the slithering noise returning. He shivered, in complete shock to the returning of the sudden noise. The last time he heard it was right before having the worst nightmare of his entire life. Nothing was speaking against the noise being linked to it somehow.

"Guys, did you hear that?" The stage-crew looked at the wolf, listening to the chattering of their club-mates.

"Hear what exactly?" Dom asked him, Legosi in response shivering again. He looked awfully pale, the tired but noticeable life behind his eyes seeming to be clouded in his state of semi shock.

"That… Noise… Like-... something slithering through the walls." Kibi, Fudge, Kai, and Dom all looked at the wolf with puzzled expressions. This wolf wasn't making any sense.

"Legosi, are you ok? You don't look so good," asked Dom. The wolf looked around him, seeing the confused and worried faces of his fellow stagehands. I must've sounded like a maniac. The wolf forced a smile on his face, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"I'm stressed… School's really messing with me the last couple d-days." Legosi could barely keep his tone up. It wavered, and his voices cracked as if he was about to cry. His smile didn't fool any of the fellow stagehands around him.

"Have you been suffering hallucinations?"

"W-well you know how stress can be…" Legosi answered Kai's question quickly, knowing just what the mongoose was getting at. First-time meat consumption can cause hallucinations to some young carnivores overwhelmed by the feeling of the satisfaction of their instincts.

"I didn't hear anything." Said Fudge in an oblivious tone. Whatever was going on with Legosi didn't concern him and wasn't any of his business anyway.

"Must be leaky pipes maybe, they wanted to renovate the irrigation system since forever now," Dom speculated, looking at the ceiling as if trying to spot the pipes within. He knew that Legosi was going through something, but he had rarely seen him in such a frightened state.

"Y-Yeah…"

"If you are feeling sick, don't feel bad for going to the nurse. We can cover for you." Legosi saw the worry in the face of the pea-fowl, worry he had seen with both Juno and Louis. I think I really am losing my mind...

"I'm fine… just a bit stressed." He tried his hardest to sound convincing this time. Whoever he talked to about this would have to be someone he trusts more than anything. Kai, Kibi, and Fudge seemed to have accepted the wolf's act, but Dom still looked at him a bit worried, which was unsurprising. The peacock was very vigilant and knew in his own way when things were going south.

"If anything's going on, just tell me." The two shared eye contact. If you were a bird... maybe…Dom pushed the thought away, seeing the wolf smile.

"Really, I'm alright. Thanks for the concern." Dom smiled at the charming carnivore, proceeding to follow the other members of the stage crew. Legosi followed as well, the memory of his mother still in his mind.


Louis looked across the table, staring at the middle-aged buck eating his dinner mannerly and completely calm. It had been the first meal he had with Oguma since Haru's rescue. Once a month, a limousine would park outside of the school's main gate, awaiting Louis's arrival. The same driver as always, a silent and obedient Donkey, would take the route away from the school into the upper district. Past most of the residences belonging to school directors, Bank Presidents, city officials, and occasional Actors and Artists, it leads down the center road of the district. A long stretch of road going around a small green field with a few fountains and a few flower patches, connecting into a roundabout as one had reached the end of a one-way road. This long roundabout was surrounded by mansions of various sizes and species specifications, housing the wealthiest and most influential people living in Edobutsu. One of the mansions belonging to Mr. Oguma, the CEO of the Horns Conglomerate.

The family of the Conglomerate had lived in the city way before even starting the business, moving to town as simple commoners during the early eighteen hundreds. Now, about two hundred years later, the family had established itself as one of the cornerstones of the city, the estate belonging to Oguma being the second largest.

Louis took a bite of one of the potatoes, roasted vegetables with a side of an expensive tasting sauce lining his plate. He hated these visits, but his complaining would lead him nowhere. Louis had more or less learned to just bear with most things that Oguma put him through. A long life of being his "son" had conditioned him to just accept most things thrown his way by the higher-ups. Life was a hierarchy ladder. You just had to sit still and endure for a while until you rise higher. In the end, you might even become the higher up of the people that used to boss you around. At least that was the hope that Louis had after he got out from that terrible place below the black market.

In a lot of ways, his worth never really changed. He was just a product that changed owners. From cattle for the slaughter to a pawn in someone's game. The iron bars in front of his windows were gone, but the feeling of being trapped didn't go away. He was still an object. Just now a very valuable and prized object.

As a fawn, Louis, of course, didn't care. He was simply happy to get out, even if by then he already felt bad for the friends he had there. He wrote the place a letter once or twice but never received any answers. When he was eight he had learned the abilities expected of an eight-year-old child. He could read and write, talk, and express his needs accordingly. And he had started to learn manners in line with the type of animal that Oguma needed Louis to be. By that point, Louis had forgotten what his friends looked like or what their species were. As much as the memory was burned into his head, his brain worked its hardest to forget all details it could. By the time Louis was ten, he only remembered the day that Oguma picked him and a few scary encounters like the time where he was nearly bought by a hyena that in the last second decided to buy another child that was bigger.

But even though his new life seemed a hundred times better than the life as life stock in the back alley basements, the stuff that most working-class herbivores had nightmares about, there was still a feeling that he couldn't define. It was creeping, cold, and didn't let go once it started. It was there most nights when he awoke in his new warm bed. The darkness of the room that his eyes were badly working in. The moonlight shining into the room drawing shadows of monsters with branches of the tree outside. Big clawed hands reaching out to get what was rightfully theirs, a good meal.

It wasn't until he turned fourteen years old that he first could fully grasp the lack of control over his life and what he truly yearned for.

Freedom.

He was a cog in a machine to facilitate the horns conglomerate. He was paid for with a large sum of cash, and what is expensive is supposed to work. He was sorting out to be a brilliant actor in the drama club, the type of hobby the son of a business magnate picked up. A high society trait that fits into the portfolio quite marvelously.

Over the years, as the expectations grew, Louis asked himself if this was what he wanted to be. If to be a part of another animal's plans with no voice of his own was the way he wanted to go. Now he had the freedom of choice if he wanted to go path his "father" had set his only child of mysterious origin on. Shackles of a different kind around his ankles was the unsettling analogy that came to Louis's mind, but the thought stuck around.Is this really the life I want to lead?

Louis wasn't stupid, and he knew what Oguma would do all that was necessary in order to set his legacy right. If he decided to rebel out of the blue, he could kiss goodbye all liberties he depended upon currently. So, he laid waiting and played by the rules. Waiting to climb the ladder until the cards were right. Because now he had someone to fight for. A white rabbit that stole his heart. A lovely female that he wanted to spend his life with.

Louis thought falling in love was a fool's act. Something only people weak enough to let themselves be bound to another let happen. But it was to no avail. He was as weak as the average Joe.

He didn't know for how long he hadn't let his emotions out until the day since that dwarf rabbit stepped into his life. How simple it was to get the deer to come out of his shell. A simple act of willingness to help that carried with it the force to rip off the armor that Louis had carefully crafted over his long life of servitude to Oguma. But it was the one liberty in pursuing that relationship that kept Louis from acting out against the lack of freedom he found himself in. That rabbit was too important to be gambled away with teenage rebellion.

"How are your grades and scores?" The question sounded first from the imposing buck that didn't raise his eyes from the paper beside his plate. Business was always taken care of first.

"High as usual, a bit shaky the last few-"

"Shaky?" Oguma looked up from the table, eyeing the younger deer suspiciously.

"Well, there were one or two days where I didn't feel so good," Louis answered, causing Oguma's eyes to dart to the left and to the right a few times.

"How did that affect your behavior?" Oguma's tone remained stoic. Louis looked away, trying to remember the specifics.

"I wasn't as… focused as I normally am, nothing else." Oguma leaned back, pure logic and calculation behind his eyes.

"Do you need to go to the psychiatrist again?" Oguma spoke with casual reflex, no real care or empathy in it. Louis sighed internally, the corner of his mouth faltering for a split second before it returned to the neutral position. The response you could expect from him. 'My heir model 3000 is not responding correctly, please have Mr. Shrink fix and correct all imperfections and flaws.'

"No." Louis sounded more defeated than he wanted to, but it was a defeat. To talk to Oguma was like talking to a rudimentary computer program. The same questions resulted in the same answers endlessly, no variation ever found.

"Can I trust you with that?" Their eyes met, visible irritation sparking in Louis.

"Yes." He bit down, trying his best to not show any sign of the buck's apathetic behavior getting to him. He didn't deserve that satisfaction.

"It's no good if you have a burnout. We can arrange a meeting with Dr. Waylon at any moment."

"No need," Louis spoke through gritted teeth. The tone Oguma spoke with showed how he saw him, nothing but a product. It made him furious. The pretending even though the real motivations and beliefs were as obvious as daylight in the morning.

"What was that?" He could almost swear that Oguma's tone was teasing him about it. About the utmost weakness of character that he had, so weak in his discipline and order.

"I don't need to go to a doctor, father," Louis answered with a neutral tone, just pulling himself together in the last second. Kiss my ass, 'papa.'

Oguma leaned back into his chair again, picking up his glass and sipping a bit of wine. The smile as he enjoyed It was a gesture that the old buck always did when drinking something of quality.

"Very well then. How else are you doing, anything we need to talk about?" Oguma picked up a piece of vegetable from his plate and lead his chopsticks to his mouth. Louis found his tone to be telling as if he knew what was on his mind.

"You know the story of how I lost my horns, and that was the most noteworthy thing the last month." answered the young deer. Oguma looked at the table, stuck in thought for a few moments.

"You used to tell me much more about your time at school." Louis wasn't strong enough to hide his reaction. A baffled expression accompanying his open mouth. It almost sounded as though he cared.

The buck on the other side of the table wiped his face with his handkerchief, wiping away any semblance of emotion with it. He poured the last of his drink down eagerly, no smile on his face.

"I'm sorry, but I have things to take care of." The buck quickly left the table. Louis looked down the hall after Oguma who had picked up the pace as if he forgot an important errand.

Louis lowered his chopsticks, looking at the table with shock. Oguma had for the smallest moment showed a hint of emotion that Louis had never seen before.

It was melancholy as blue as the sky by night. He had never seen him like that before. Something about it was frightening. In his eighteen years of life, Louis had been part of a few funerals, some of Oguma's acquaintances and family. Never once had he looked genuinely sad. Louis had at a certain point stopped hoping there was anything to touch the old deer. To anything besides the act he held on the outside. Any emotion he held towards the outside world was purely superficial. He did as he was expected to react, but not this time.

Not at home, not in a situation such as this. There was no playbook to go by here. Raising a child was the part of an adult's life that didn't have a plan for it. It was lead by subjective morals and beliefs, of which Oguma didn't seem to have any. He was distant and reserved. But today, Louis saw something else in the buck that called himself his father.

A small but clear sliver of guilt