A tragedy could always shake up a person's life.

It could shake many peoples' lives.

Especially a tragedy that you would never expect could ever even happen in the first place.

Cherryton was a credited and elite institution. An inclusive institution of education that boasted being a place where carnivore and herbivore students could all gather and learn together since their teenage years how to live together in society, accept each other and work for a better future and society side-by-side.

You certainly don't expect for a predation crime to happen in a place like that.

Which was why Tem's murder shook the entire school to the very core. It had been terrible when his corpse, mauled and half-eaten, was found on one of the auditoriums for audiovisual lectures by a few students who had came in there to prepare for the lesson they were going to have.

One of the girls screamed so loud it could be heard in another building, and she fainted right after.

As soon as the teachers caught wind of it, they suspended all classes as the police was immediately call. All of the students were send back to their dorms and told not to leave under any circumstances, unless they were call by Principal Gon himself.

While many were confused at first, soon the news started to fly thanks to the social platforms all over the internet. The students who found the corpse spoke about it with their friends. One of them, who had taken a picture, even shared it online. From there, it spread like wildfire.

By the time the first police cars had arrived in the front gate of the school, every single one of the students knew what had happened. They all knew that one of the herbivore students had been devoured.

From there, it was only a matter of time before they found details about it. They confirmed it was an alpaca. Then, they confirmed the identity of the unfortunate victim: Tem, of the Drama Club.

The school remained in lockdown for the three following days, with all classes and club activities suspended while the police continued their investigation. Students and teachers alike were call to have their testimonies taken by the cops. One of the threads the students started online even said that they had talked to the school's security guard.

Wait, did the school had a security guard?

However, despite the three days of investigation, no culprit was found. The body had been so mauled and desecrated that it was nearly impossible to get precise molds of the bite-marks left on the flesh. They even took DNA samples, but they seemed to have degraded so much it was hard to point out who exactly it belonged to. Also, the DNA they got would not be too useful without a suspect to compare.

As a result, the investigation hit a stand-still after the third day, and then the police went on to deal with other crimes that were happening on the opposite side of the city, and which were apparently much more urgent than the death of a teenage alpaca.

With this, it meant that the school admins were ready to move on and resume their regular lives.

Of course, the same could not be said about the students...

"So, going back to classes after three days." Durham said, "Kinda glad I had the extra time to finish my history assignment." The coyote spoke, but no one laughed at his words. No one seemed amused.

"Too soon?" The canine said as he looked at his fellow dogs. All of them could feel the tense atmosphere that took place after their all learned of the incident, and which was yet to dissipate. Jack, on his end, tried his best to be positive, but even he found it hard to be positive with this tense and negative atmosphere that had reigned on their dorm for the past three days.

And most of it came from their resident hybrid.

Legoshi was sitting on his bed, looking down and not saying a word. He had been mostly like that for the last three days. It was not the fact that the lockdown on the school made him unable to go out and exercise every morning like it was part of his routine. No, the lifelessness the lion/wolf/Komodo dragon was showing went far beyond that.

He had been like that since he found out the name of the predation victim.

That was how the rest of the dorm found out how close Legoshi had gotten to that alpaca. The way the news of his death affected him was a huge giveaway, even before Legoshi started telling them about Tem, in a way that Legoshi never talked to them about what happened in Drama Club before.

"I was going to ask him to meet after club... maybe have lunch together..."

Jack felt awful for seeing Legoshi like that. He knew how much it sucked to lose a friend. He lost more than a few friends during his years, either because they moved away or just grew distant, unlike Legoshi, who remained by his side all along.

He couldn't imagine what it was like to find out a friend got killed.

Legoshi had been pretty much a zombie for the last three days, and it seemed nothing the other members of Dorm 701 did could snap him out of it. Not even his favorite egg sandwiches were able to improve the hybrids mood.

And now, it was time for them to go back to classes, and Legoshi still looked as much of a zombie as he was when he first heard of Tem's death.

"Legoshi?" Jack asked softly, placing a hand on the hybrid's knee, and making Legoshi look him way.

"Hm?"

"Do you want to stay here today?" Jack asked the wolf. "I can tell the teachers you got food poisoning and had to stay in bed because you were feverish. I can make notes and pass them to you later."

Legoshi felt tempted to accept.

He didn't wanted to go out to class. He didn't wanted to go anywhere. He just wanted to stay on their dorm, lay on his bed and stay there, with only his thoughts and little Gabu on his little enclosure to make him company.

However...

"If you are trying to hide from your problems forever, it is not going to work. You might hide as much as you want, but your problems won't go away. If anything, they will only be all the more riled up when you finally work the courage to step out and face them. Laying on your bed and pretending nothing bad is happening definitely doesn't works. Believe me. So, you better man up, get out of that bed and get ready to face whatever problems you have before I go in there and drag your tail out myself."

Yeah, hiding on his bedroom was not an option for Legoshi either. His father would not allow him to run from his problems by hiding from them forever.

He would not allow Legoshi to close himself on his shell and never come out again.

He didn't wanted the hybrid to even think that was an option.

Hiding from everything was not an option. Even though Legoshi sometimes would sometimes wish it was.

"I'll be fine." Legoshi said, getting up from his bed, picking his hoodie and putting it.

"Okay." Legoshi said, as he pulled the hood over his head to hide his mane, which was uncharacteristically disheveled today. "Let's go have breakfast."

After a quick breakfast, they were all off to classes. Once more, Legoshi and Jack had all the same classes during the day, what meant that Jack was there for Legoshi at any time he needed. Legoshi did felt safe for having a friend by his side during this hard time.

And it was a hard time.

The death of an herbivore by the hands, and maws, of a carnivore was no small business. The school always got tense when news reached the students about a predation incident that happened back in the city.

This time, however, this all hit far closer to home than in all the previous times.

This time the predation incident happened on the school grounds. A student of their school had been eaten. And the culprit could be another student, as far as everyone knew.

The school's newspaper was pretty sure to point all of it on their first edition after three full days of inactivity, in which they covered the whole "Bloody Cherryton's Incident" for all of the other students to read.

So, it was, from that perspective, understandable that the herbivores were more than just a little jumpy.

In some of the classrooms, the tension was so strong, so dense, that you could carve a piece of it with your claws if you tried. Of course, showing your claws would make the tension on the room grown to the point where you could actually suffocate in it.

At least, that was the feeling Legoshi had, as he tried to power through his lectures as he did nearly every other day, and finding out that it was much harder than usual.

Legoshi could feel as if the herbivores of that room were practically boring holes on him as they looked at him through the corners of their eyes. Not with malice or anger, but with pure, unaltered fear.

They were scared.

They were scared of carnivores. They were scared that they could be the next one to end up being devour by a carnivore. They were scared that the killer could be a carnivore who was currently sitting right by their side as they tried to pay attention to the biology lesson.

They were afraid that the giant wolf in a hoodie could be the killer, and that he could want to taste blood again when you least expected it.

Of course, Legoshi knew that he was not the only carnivore being a target of mistrust by the herbivores. He knew that, across the school, other carnivores were going through the same thing. It was usually what happened when everyone heard about a predation incident. They got scared and avoided the carnivore students like the plague.

However, since the herbivores always seemed to have a problem with him due to his size and to how he behaved, Legoshi couldn't help but think they were paying close attention to him over all of the other carnivores.

That they all mistrusted him.

That they all suspected something about him.

That they could know his secret.

Do they know? Do they at least suspect?

"I knew there was something weird about him!"

"What a creep!"

"He is so strange."

"And he was pretending to be normal all this time!"

"He is ugly."

"He is a weirdo!"

"Legoshi is a weirdo!"

"Weirdo, weirdo!~"

The hybrid found it hard to get through his day with the added tension that came from perceived extra attention. Legoshi was used to the mistrust and the weariness of the herbivores, and even from some of the carnivores. However, now it felt like it was coming to him in double. Maybe even triple.

Legoshi was starting to regret having left his dorm.

However, there was another thing that kept Legoshi from focusing properly. Something that took his mind off the tension of having the other students casting those glances his way as if he was a ticking time bomb. However, there was something else, something just as bad...

"I'll keep your secret." Those had been the words that Tem said to him on the day he found out he was a hybrid. "Don't worry, I won't let anyone find out."

The smile on his face was so genuine and kind as he said that. Legoshi felt his chest tightening when he remembered he would never see Tem's smile again.

Between his worry towards all of the other students looking his way (or at least the herbivores) and the grief he still felt as he processed the death of his friend Tem, Legoshi felt like he could barely focus enough on the lectures to actually learn anything.

Legoshi sometimes nearly lost the bell that meant a class ended and that he needed to go to another place next.

It was thanks to Jack that he was able to move from one class to the other, as the Labrador was sure to let Legoshi know it was the end of the lecture and that they had another place to go.

Legoshi thought the only reason he was able to power through this way was Jack, who was by his side to offer him emotional and mental support like only a dog like himself could.

Legoshi was, once more, glad that he had a friend like Jack on his life.

He certainly would always be there for him.

How Legoshi wished that he could have also formed this kind of friendship with Tem, who seemed as nice and kind as Jack. However, he was gone now, and there was nothing Legoshi could do about it.

Legoshi almost felt like not going to Drama Club today. However, he had a duty with the club he was part of. Clubs had resumed activity as well, and Legoshi, as a member of the club, had to appear and do his job. He could not skip it without a good reason, for the rest of the club was counting on him to do his part and make that machine work.

However, Legoshi already knew that Drama Club would be even duller now that his one actual friend in there was gone.

Legoshi could still not believe it.

It was unfair.

Tem was around his age. He had so much to live and look forward to. He wanted to make a good job playing Ollie on the Adler play. He wanted to be with the guys bowing to the audience by the side of all of his friends from club in the acting team. Especially Els, the one girl whom he liked and to whom he was planning to confess his feelings...

All of a sudden, the world came to a stop.

Legoshi, who was on his way to Drama Club, all of a sudden from in place, his eyes widening as a realization damned on him. One that he had completely overlooked during the last three days of grieving the death of his friend Tem.

Tem... never confessed his feelings of Els.

He never gave her the letter!

"Why do we have to wait until the herbivores have finished changing to change now?" Bill asked as he finished putting his clothes. "What, do they think we will attack them or something?"

A lot of the carnivores on the lockers agreed with it. They had been barr from entering the changing rooms just minutes before, with the other herbivores ordering them to wait outside until they finished changing.

That did struck some of them the wrong way, especially Bill, who was still in a bad mood as he put on his clothes and then moved out of the lockers. He didn't even stopped to tease Legoshi like usual, as the hybrid once more stayed sitting in a corner waiting until everyone was gone so he could change himself.

This time, however, there was another reason besides "shyness" for which Legoshi waited until everyone was gone.

As soon as he was completely alone, instead of going to his own locker to get his sport clothes, Legoshi instead rushed to Tem's.

None of the lockers actually had locks on that changing room. Apparently there was a general consensus that the members of the club would respect the privacy of their colleagues and don't go poking on their lockers once they were not around, so there were no actual locks on those doors.

That certainly worked for Legoshi, who didn't had to go through the trouble of breaking anything so he could get to Tem's locker. All he needed to do was turn the knob and swing it open.

He didn't even needed to look too much to find what he was looking for.

It was still there, right in plain sight. The letter that Tem had planned to give Els, but never got to before he died.

Legoshi picked the letter from the locker and then closed it again.

Just like the rest of the school, Drama Club was feeling the ripples of Tem's death.

Sano has arrived to find herbivores on one side of the room and carnivores on the other, almost looking like two separate sides of a war about to break.

And then the accusations began.

Ellie, the zebra from the acting team, was the one who lead the accusations, as she accused one of the carnivores of the club of having killed Tem out of envy for him having gotten a role on the play while most of them didn't. Bill was quick to answer in a traditional Bill fashion: speaking loud and rough. Ellie, not intimidated, answered with the very same ferocity.

Legoshi remained up there, looking at it all transpiring, and he could not help but think on how Ellie and Bill actually were pretty similar in personality, despite being, respectively, a herbivore girl and a carnivore boy.

He also couldn't help but think: what if Ellen was right?

What if it had been one of the carnivores of Drama Club the one who killed Tem?

The idea was unsettling, and Legoshi, like many, preferred to believe this was not true. However, he couldn't help but wonder...

Could it have been Bill? He was a pain in the butt and a real jerk sometimes, but he didn't stroke Legoshi as a murderer. That seemed a step to far, as far as he knew.

Tao was even more unlikely. He was nicer than Bill.

Kai was pretty loud and rude, but he didn't seemed all that bad. He didn't seemed like a killer in Legoshi's eyes either.

It definitely wasn't Aoba. According to what Legoshi heard, the police had confirmed that whoever killed Tem and bit out chunks of his flesh definitely had teeth, although they couldn't precise the shape of said teeth with any accuracy, what ruled out birds.

Legoshi caught himself wondering if any of the carnivores down there could actually have been the one who murdered Tem. And all the herbivores seemed to be wondering the same thing, as Ellie's accusations became harsher, and Bill was starting to lose his temper as the zebra continued with the barrage of harsh words.

Sano-sensei was desperately trying to get all of the students to call down, with the help of the older members, like Dom and Sheila-senpai. Those two were pretty reasonable, as Legoshi knew from his time on the club.

However, the one who stepped in between them and made all of those animals stop fighting was no other than Louis-senpai himself.

"Do you think this will solve anything?" Louis said to everyone, a hard expression on his face. "Do you really think that accusing the carnivores of this club without any proof will prevent any further incidents from happening? Or bring Tem back? Do you think that baring your fangs at herbivores while they are nervous will make them feel safer and stop accusing you? Do you think any of that is a reasonable course of action?"

He was talking to Ellie and Bill as he said those words, and neither of the stripped animals could say anything in return. They only looked down, and then Louis continued:

"This club is supposed to be an example for the rest of Cherryton. An example that herbivores a carnivores should be able to coexist in harmony, both in school and in society as a whole. We need to uphold this image in moments like this more than ever. That is why we cannot afford to be divide now. We must stand together as a whole, and show to the school that, even in the face of such a tragedy, we cannot let our fear and mistrust overwhelm our reason. This club will not fall apart. I will not allow it, and neither I'll allow you to allow it! So, for the sake of this club and the whole school, you need to stop your whining and tough it up. It might seems harsh to say this, but we must continue the work we have been doing. For the school, for ourselves, and for Tem."

Those words seemed to reach everyone, and soon, under Louis command, all of them were going back to their business for the day, each one of them going back to the task they were suppose to be doing, be it rehearsing their lines or practicing with the wooden swords for the fighting scenes of the play.

All the while, Legoshi watched from his advantageous position from above, looking at how those animals who were, just a few minutes before, mistrusting and glaring at each other, now were working side by side for the sake of the play they were going to play in a few weeks from there.

And it was all thanks to the words of that one deer who was their main actor.

The way that he just stood before all of those people and said exactly the right words to defuse the situation.

Legoshi knew that he would never be able to do that. He wasn't capable of standing before of a crowd like the deer just did, let alone speak to everyone with the same confidence the deer just did.

It was as if they were each the complete opposite of the other.

Louis was a small herbivore, Legoshi was a big carnivore. Louis was a popular and influent figure, Legoshi was a socially awkward loner. Louis was a beloved purebred, Legoshi was...

"Weirdo!~"

Legoshi once more shivered, trying hard to push back those thoughts back into the depths of the back of his mind.

He would not go down that path. It would distract him. He could not afford to lose his focus now. He had a mission that he needed to fulfil.

Turning his gaze away from Louis, he focused on the other herbivore who he needed to: Els.

The Angora goat also had work to do as part of the acting team, and she was focusing on it while Legoshi looked at her from above. All the while, he was wondering the best approach to go to her about the letter.

He could not simply go and give her the letter, saying it was from Tem. It was not that he looked into the locker of the deceased herbivore, what some could see as a great disrespect, but it was the fact that Tem didn't wanted for wanted everyone to know he liked Els. That was one of the reasons why he took so long to give her the letter on the first place. He was embarrassed about her being his first love, and he was waiting for the chance when he could give the letter to her once they were all alone.

He thought of asking her to come with him to a secluded place so he could give her the letter away from everyone's eyes. However, with what happened recently, he was afraid that asking her to come with him to a secluded place could sound the wrong way and scare her.

As he looked at her, Legoshi decided that the best to do would be to wait until everyone else was gone. Today was Els' turn to close everything, so she would be the last one to leave as she would be locking the room and the auditorium before returning to her dorm. Even Louis-senpai and Sano-sensei would be leaving before she did, what meant that, if he stayed behind, he could give her the letter without anyone else knowing.

Yes, that was a plan that could work. Legoshi would do it, and he would give her Tem's letter.

As the hybrid formulated this plan, the goat down there with the others looked over her shoulder, at the great, shadowy wolf who looked at her eerily from the darkness up above, with more interest than a carnivore should normally have on an herbivore...

Legoshi had to wait a lot to have his chance to speak to Els alone. It seemed that Sano and Louis both had decided to do overtime at the club.

The deer made everyone work twice as hard as normal, as they repassed the scenes, in particular those of Tem, and he went through the possible replacements who would take his place playing Ollie. He even stayed after everyone was gone, as if to check on the stage himself, to be sure everything was left perfectly by the stagehands. Legoshi thought he was going to catch up to him when he hid behind a few cords in the dark, and hoped that Louis was like most herbivores, who didn't had a good night vision like carnivores.

Luckily, he didn't, and he passed right by Legoshi when he made his way down and out, stopping only to talk with Sano before going back to his own dorm to tuck in for the night.

Legoshi heard their conversation, and he heard they speak something regarding Zoe not being able to memorize his lines, and then something about how the auditorium would be close during the night from there on, as the school would be implementing a stricter curfew after Tem's death.

With this, Louis left, leaving only Sano and Els, as Legoshi sneaked into the shadows of the big auditorium, and waited as he watched from a distance.

Sano looked like he was talking to Els. Was he asking if she would be closing the auditorium by herself? Would he offer to help her do it and escort her back to her dorms? Oh, boy. Legoshi hoped he didn't. He couldn't give her the letter in front of a teacher, he was pretty sure that this would not be how Tem wanted her to receive it.

Luckily, for the wolf, their bird supervisor was soon leaving, wishing Els a good night, as she finished everything that was left to do for the night and then... she stood in the middle of the stage.

What was she doing?

She stood there for a few moments, and then she placed her hands together and lowered her head. It looked like she was praying.

Legoshi realized she was praying for Tem.

Soon, she was making her way out of the stage, turning the lights on her way out and making it to the exit.

She is leaving. Legoshi thought. I have to give her the letter. It's now or never.

With this, Legoshi got up from his crouching position and walked on the same direction she was going.

Els perceived his presence, due to some herbivore instinct, and slowed her movements to a standstill as the second biggest carnivore of Drama Club made his way out of the shadows and stood between her and the exit.

"Els..." Legoshi asked her, as he made his way into her field of view, the few lights in the auditorium that were still on shining on him with a weak, eyrie light as he stood there on his full height, with his hood pulled all the way over his head, leaving only his muzzle sticking out. "You know me, right? Legoshi, of the stagehands. We never really talked, did we?"

The goat didn't answered, and just looked at Legoshi with a uneasy expression, which Legoshi was used to receive from herbivores. That was why he didn't gave it the amount of attention he probably should have...

"I had to wait for a while until everyone was gone." Legoshi explained to her, "I really needed to get you alone."

The hybrid should have chosen his words more carefully. However, reading room mood was never a thing that Legoshi was good at. Neither he was all that god in reading the emotions of others, in which case he would have perceived the growing apprehension and dread on the goat's face as he slowly walked to her.

"Well, I better just get going to it, right?" Legoshi said to her, as he reached on the pocket of his jacket, where Tem's letter was. "It is almost curfew time, and I didn't even had dinner yet..."

Legoshi really should have chosen his words more carefully.

Els gave a step back.

"I know you..." Els said to the big carnivore. "You're always in the corner, not talking with anyone. But, Tem did talked to you. Almost every day, and he was always smiling when he talked to you..."

"Yes, he did..." Legoshi said, his hand clutching a little tighter on the letter inside of his pocket. "He was a good friend..."

"A good friend until you were hungry." Els said, her voice showing alarm. "Then he was just food?"

Legoshi blinked, confused.

"Eh?"

"Just like me!?" Els demanded, and then she pulled something from her own pocket.

Legoshi's own eyes widened as the goat now pointed a pair of scissors at him.

Scissors...

"Don't you think you can just come and do as you want!" Els demanded as she pointed the scissors at him as if they were a knife. "Tem and I are much more than just food for carnivores like you! So don't you dare look down on us!"

Legoshi was in shock.

"W-wait..." Legoshi said, walking to her, trying to tranquilize her. "Wait a minute, Els..."

However, the goat interpreted this as a threat, and she yelled as she tried to stab him. Legoshi's years of training allowed him to dodge the incoming blade easily. However, the suddenness of the attack was enough to throw the hybrid off balance enough for Els to use this chance to run.

Legoshi took a few moments to recover from the scare, and then he went after Els, calling her name. His voice echoed in the empty auditorium as he rushed after the runaway goat all the back to the stage.

The lights went back up. Els must have turned them back. The sudden glare blinded Legoshi for a moment, as the hybrid continued to follow Els to the stage.

He was able to reach her, and he had to, once more, dodge a stab from her scissors.

"Leave me alone!" Els yelled at the hybrid, as she held the scissors like a sword, pointing at the wolf, who stood a few feet away from her.

"Els!" Legoshi said to the goat. "Els, please hear me out! It is a misunderstanding! I just want you to..."

"No!" Els yelled at him. "You ate Tem!"

"No!"

"You did!" Els said to him, a few tears leaking from her eyes as she looked at the carnivore in fear. "You pretended to be his friend and then you ate him! You pretend to be harmless to make others trust you and you attack when they least expect! You are the worst kind of carnivore! The one who deceives others! I won't fall for your lies, you monster!"

Now it were Els words that affected Legoshi.

The goat didn't realized, but the words she said, coupled with the scissors the she was pointing at him, sparked a memory from the back of the hybrid's mind...

"I'm not lying!" Legoshi yelled, as he was surround by all of the other carnivores of his class. "I didn't stole the pen, I swear!"

"I saw you looking at the pen! And it was gone right after you passed by my desk!"

"We know it was you, why don't you just stop lying and confess?

"I'm not lying!" Legoshi was crying now. "Why don you believe me!? I didn't stole it!"

"Like we'll believe your word!" Said a student who Legoshi knew was the ringleader. He was a leopard boy who looked down at the hybrid as the others held him down. "You spent weeks lying to us and saying you were a wolf when you are actually a weirdo."

"I didn't lied!" Legoshi said to them, "I'm part wolf because of my mother!"

"Oh, shut up!" Said the leopard. "Now, where is the pen? Give us back and we'll let you go!"

"I don't have it!" Legoshi said once more, tears leaking freely from his eyes as they held him down painfully. "I didn't stole it!"

This answer was not what they all wanted to hear.

"You know, lying is almost as bad as stealing." The leopard said, as he pulled something out of his bag. "Guess we will have to punish you."

Legoshi looked at him in fear, as the leopard pulled a pair of scissors, snipping them menacingly as he looked at the hybrid.

"I guess that cutting that mane of yours off will teach you not to steal things and lie." The leopard said o him. "You say you are a wolf, so wolves should not have manes anyway, right?"

"That's right!"

"Wolves don't have manes!"

"Cut it all off!"

Legoshi squirmed as they held him down. A tiger and a crocodile held his legs, while a condor and a bear held his arms. There was even a lion holding his head in place.

"This is what you get for being a liar and a thief." The leopard said as he approached, the blades of the scissors glistening in the light as they approached the face of the terrified young hybrid.

"Who knows, I might actually be doing a favor to you. Maybe this way you will look less like a monster."

Legoshi's pupils contracted, turning into vertical slits, his nostrils flared, his fur all stood on end. His lips curled, letting his pearly-white fangs glisten as much as the blades of the scissors in the light shining over the stage.

Legoshi lunged forward before he even knew what he was doing. His mouth opening as a sound came from his throat and echoed in the empty auditorium.

Els didn't had time to react, as the carnivore grabbed her wrist, making her drop the scissors, which clank in the ground.

For a long moment, they both remain froze in the position. Els looking up at Legoshi, with her eyes welling up with tears. Legoshi's eyes were also welling up. His body was shivering as he took deep, ragged breaths, his lips still curled back in a snarl as his teeth were all in full view.

Then, something fell out of his pocket and landed on the ground between the two of them, causing them both to blink and look down.

They both looked at Tem's letter, and then back at each other.

Just like that, it was as if a spell had been broken. Legoshi let go of Els' wrist, apologizing profusely, while the goat looked back at him in confusion.

After everything was clarify, the two of them, quite awkwardly, finished closing the auditorium together, and now they sat together on the stairs, both looking down. Legoshi at his own knees, and Els at Tem's letter, which she held on her hands.

"Tem didn't wanted anyone to find out that you were his first love, so I didn't wanted to give the letter to you in front of everyone." Legoshi explained to her, "I'm sorry for scaring you... and also sorry for baring my fangs, is juts that... when you pointed the scissor at me it... it reminded me of a time on my childhood when other animals did the same thing. I panicked."

Els accepted his apology, and she was also asking about something else, but that question made Legoshi uncomfortable. The wolf said it was late and that he needed to go back to his dorm and maybe eat something before bed.

As he was walking away, Els stood and said:

"I'm sorry too." This made Legoshi stop and turn around to look at her. "I thought horrible things of you and none of them were true. I'll clarify it with the members of the club tomorrow."

Legoshi shook his head, saying that she didn't needed to. Els said that she should, because some other animals of club thought bad of him when he was so kind and gentle. Legoshi, however, insisted that there was no need.

"I'm used to it." Legoshi said to her, "Being feared, being hated, being called a monster... none of those are news to me."

Those words came out much more sincere than Legoshi initially intended, and they left Els looking at him.

"Well, I better go now." He said to her, "Good night. See you at club tomorrow."

With this, Legoshi left, leaving Els to look at his departing form, before she looked down on the letter that she now held on her hands.

From Tem

What a strange wolf... Els couldn't help but think.

Meanwhile, Legoshi was walking back to his dorm. He was thinking of what he would say to his roommates as to why he had been out until so late. He was trying to come up with an excuse.

All the while, he was still recovering mentally from what just happened.

That was just Legoshi's luck. What was supposed to be just him giving a girl a letter turned into a fight between a carnivore and an herbivore with a pair of scissors, and Legoshi then having a panic attack due to the memory of one of the many points of his childhood when he was bullied due to being a hybrid...

Those kids were all so mean to him... and the teachers had no interest in helping at all. Legoshi wondered if it would be the same in Cherryton if people found out his secret. The thought terrified him...

Suddenly, Legoshi was interrupt from his thoughts by the ringtone of his phone.

Reaching for the pocket of his hoodie, Legoshi pulled the phone out and checked to see who was calling him so late...

Dad

This caused Legoshi to pause. The hybrid looked to the sides, seeing if the coast was clear. He then pulled back his hoodie, allowing his mane to flow in the cold night breeze. With a press of a button, Legoshi's phone expanded, with the phone part becoming longer to accommodate the length of his muzzle, while the speaker reached up so Legoshi could position it on his ear.

"Hey, dad." Legoshi said, and soon, the voice of his father was coming from the other end of the phone.

"Hey, Legoshi. I wanted to talk to you. Are you on your dorm?"

"I'm out." Legoshi said to him, "Had to do a thing tonight. Drama Club stuff."

"I see." The lion asked, to what Legoshi said that he was doing fine, and asking his dad if something happened.

"I heard about the news." The lion said, "About the student who was devoured there in Cherryton."

Legoshi understood, and his father proceeded to ask Legoshi if everything was okay, and if the herbivores on the school were not giving him a hard time.

"They are scared." Legoshi said, "They always get like that when there's the news of a predation incident. I'm used to it by now. They'll calm down after a while. I'll just though it up for a few weeks. I can deal with it."

"Yes, that's good. And, Legoshi?" The hybrid's father said, "That alpaca who was eaten... he was a member of your club, right?"

Legoshi was silent for a few moments, and then he confirmed that he was.

"Were you two close?" He asked, and Legoshi took a moment before answering:

"Yes."

There was silence from the other end for a moment as well.

"Will you be okay?" Legoshi's dad asked. "You want to talk about it? I can listen."

Legoshi kind of wanted to talk, but he did said to his dad it was okay. He reassured the animal on the other end of the phone that he was going to be okay, and that he didn't needed to worry. Legoshi even said that he felt a little better now that he did something for his deceased friend, not giving any details.

"Well, that's good to know." The lion on the other end said, sounding happy for hearing this. "I'll let your mother and grandfather know, they have been worried since they heard about the incident. Your sisters will also like to know how their big brother is doing."

"Yeah, I bet." Legoshi said to his father. "Tell all of them I'm fine and I miss them."

"I will." The lion said, "Good night, Legoshi. Remember to stay out of trouble."

"I will. Love you, dad."

"See you, son."

And, with that, the call between father and son ended. Legoshi looked at his father for a while, and he wondered if he should have told him about the panic attack he had...

No. That would only make him worry. Besides, his father would not like to hear that Legoshi bared his fangs to an herbivore. Let alone a girl.

It was just one time. It was nothing to worry about. Even though it was the first time in years that Legoshi had a panic attack.

The hybrid shook his head.

It was only one time. Only one.

It would not happen again.

With this, Legoshi pulled his hoodie back over his head and made his way to his dorm, wanting nothing more than to eat and then fall into a dreamless slumber.

So, this is the second chapter. Thanks to everyone who follows and enjoys this story, and I ask you to leave reviews.

I'd like to announce that, from here on, the updates will not be the more regular ones. That's the consequence of having as many stories and ideas as myself, you end up wanting to work on all of them but have to choose in which ones to work the most. Anyways, I'll focus on a few other stories now, and I'll be back to this one eventually, hope you guys can be patient.

Also, about the story, as you got it from the conversation Legoshi had with his dad at the end, Legoshi's mother is alive in this alternate universe. She never killed herself. As a result of this, Legoshi's relationship with his grandpa is not strained as, in the original timeline, the reason why Legoshi and his grandpa grew apart was because the wolf blamed him for his mother's suicide. Legoshi's relationship with his family is, however, not without a few hiccups...

Also, I gave Legoshi sisters, just because.