The next day, Anne woke up. It was a little before dawn and she wanted to do some patrolling around Wartwood like she said yesterday. She stretched and smirked.
"Time for the wolf to howl." Anne said, walking out of the basement.
She stealthily walked to the door. She looked around to see Sasha and Grime sleeping/snoring loudly, sprawled over the couch.
'And she's not even a bear right now, yet she snores like one.' Anne thought with a smile.
Anne slowly moved past her. She didn't want to literally wake a sleeping bear. When the door closed, Sasha's eyes opened. Anne ran through the woods, feeling the wind against her fur. A nice morning run to go along with watching the perimeter of her territory of Wartwood. Her nose caught a familiar scent.
'The Scorpileo.' She thought, 'It's getting close to Wartwood!'
This would've been the second time Anne faced it and this time, she was going to make sure it stayed away or stayed DOWN for good. She ran after the scent hating that it tracked her down, but wanting to make sure it's going to be kept down this time. Anne growled as she rushed through the first before reaching the end if the trail. She saw it, and it saw her. It remembered her.
"Grrrrrrr!" They growled at each other, moving in a circle around each other.
Anne lunged at the Scorpileo.
"ROOOA!" The Scorpileo roared, jumping at Anne!
Anne took it out before, but she had both eyes at that point, so she was easily able to be blindsided. The Scorpileo dodged to the right, exactly where her blind eye is and claws into her side! Anne was knocked to the ground with blood dripping from the large cuts on her side.
'Ugh!' She thought, trying not to change back from the pain. 'Damnit, he got me!'
Anne powered through it and stood back up, growling at the Scorpileo as it prowled towards her. It was about to attack, when it got blind sided and bit down on by the jaws of a massive grizzly bear.
'SASHA?!' Anne thought in shock!
Sasha roared at the scorpileo. The Scorpileo roared back as it got up, aiming its stinger at Sasha but the bear dodging and used her metal arm to grab it!
"ROOOOAH!" Sasha roared before biting the tail and ripped it in half.
The scorpileo roared in pain and was about to attack Sasha, before Anne used the distraction to jump onto its back and began biting onto the back of its head.
"ROOOOAH!" The Scorpelia screamed in pain, trying to shake Anne off while Sasha kept tearing into it.
They both got an idea and began pulling in opposite directions, still hanging on to the Scorpileo. The scorpileo roared in pain as Sasha and Anne ripped it apart. Anne still having the head in her mouth while Sasha had the body in her paws. They both dropped the pieces before roaring/howling into the sky.
"ROOOOOOOAH!/HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!" They let out.
Two of North America's most powerful predators, working together, a sight to behold. Anne let out of bark, which Sasha seemed to understand. Anne wanted her to join the patrol.
The bear girl nodded to the wolf, especially since Anne was still injured on her side.
'Even when she's grown so much without me, I'm still looking out for her.' Sasha thought.
The two walked around the woods that covered the town. Anne took the lead and showed Sasha her usual route, walking around the while town. The two occasionally sniffed the ground, looking for any intruders. Anne found no new scents while Sasha was just sniffing around for something that wasn't frog or toad. She new what certain large insect smelled like but she wasn't smelling any of those either. With no possible intruders, the two began the trek back to the farm.
This time, they both changed back to humans as Anne held her side in pain.
"Another scar to add to your collection?" Sasha asked.
"Yeah, I try not to brag." Anne joked before Sasha gave her cape.
"Here, use this to wrap yourself until we get back to the house." Sasha said, "You know, most of the predators in North America are defined by their scars."
"Don't need to remind me." Anne said, wrapping the cape around her body to stop the bleeding. "I chose a specific set of armor from Newtopia because I didn't want to hide my scars."
"I don't really have that problem." Sasha said, looking at her arm.
'Though there probably has to be a limit on what counts as trophies and what counts as insane.' She thought, clenching and unclenching her robot arm.
The two made it back to the Farm.
"Morning, Anne….and Sasha?" Hop Pop asked in surprise, seeing Sasha coming back from patrol with Anne.
"Hey, HP." Sasha said, nodding to him.
"Hey, we were patrolling." Anne said.
"And you got injured AGAIN?" Hop Pop asked, seeing the blood.
"Yeah, the Scorpileo was prowling around the town until Sasha backed me up." Anne said.
"If it wasn't for the fact that you would bite my arm off, I would lock you in the house." Hop Pop said, "Come on, let's get you stitched up."
"I'm guessing you're used to this by now?" Sasha asked as they all walked inside.
"Very much and that scares me too. I'm too old to be desensitized by all this blood in my daily life." Hop Pop said.
"How this girl hasn't bled out yet is beyond me." Hop Pop grumbled.
"Wolves are resilient." Anne said.
"Not THAT resilient!" Hop Pop said.
"Bears on the other hand." Sasha said before Hop Pop pointed at her.
"Don't you start! I don't need to be sewing up TWO animal girls!" Hop Pop shouted at her.
Sasha put her hands up.
"Hey, I'm not the one covered in blood." Sasha said.
"Not yet." Anne said as a joke, nudging Sasha. "You could tear a mantis to pieces and bath in its blood."
"I never said it would be my blood." Sasha said with a smile.
"Oh, no, there's two of them now." Hop Pop said.
Anne went to sit on the couch as Hop Pop went to get the first aid/sewing kit. With Anne, it was practically one and the same now.
"So, how was the patrol?" Sprig asked, jumping to the couch.
"It was good. Ran into the Scorpileo but Sasha backed me up." Anne said before looking to Sasha. "Which reminds me, how-"
"I heard you leave." Sasha answered, "You aren't the only one with great hearing you know."
"I know but I thought my hearing would've picked up on you before hand." Anne said to her.
"I picked up a few tricks from the toads. They can be surprisingly stealthy when they want to be." Sasha said.
"She is right!" Grime said as he was doing pull ups at the back door frame.
"If we don't want you to know we're there, you won't." Grime said.
"Then why did I pick up a spy shortly after the tax toads?" Anne asked, smirking.
"... Well, I never expected a nose like yours."
'Sasha told us about wolves and their sense of smell but it's even stronger than she said!' Grime thought.
"Yeah, Anne told us dogs in her world have the BEST noises for tracking." Polly said, sitting at the breakfast table with Frobo.
"Well, it's hard to argue with that." Sasha said, "Bloodhounds are the best example of that."
"Wolves are the original bloodhounds." Anne said. "All dog species evolved or devolved as some would say, from wolves."
"With how some of those breeds look I'd argue with that." Sasha mumbled.
"What?" Anne asked.
"Nothing." Sasha said with a smile.
"Let's get you fixed up." Hop Pop said, arriving with the first aid/sewing kit.
Hop Pop began stitching Anne's wound closed, it would leave more scars, but what's one more to add to the collection?
'Damn... she's not even flinching... she's fucking smiling while getting a needle put into her side!' Sasha thought.
"Anne, don't smile. It's creepy." Hop Pop said to her.
"I can't help it, it tickles now." Anne said, giggling a bit.
"It does?" Sprig asked.
'What the hell, this is not the Anne I knew... this one could actually hurt me if she finds out about my plan.' Sasha thought.
Sasha subtly moved to grab her metal arm, remembering the fight they had back on Toad Tower as both humans and animals. Their skills had become completely different in their time here yet they were almost equals in that moment….no. Anne was STRONGER in sheer willpower alone. Sasha had to be held down as her arm was amputated, it hurt that much. Anne was laughing as she was getting stitched... if Anne wanted to, she could kill Sasha before Sasha could react.
"Sasha? You okay?" Anne asked her.
"Huh? What?" Sasha asked.
"You kind of spaced off there." Hop Pop said, having finished sewing up Anne. "I guess that happens when you see someone actually laugh at their own pain."
"Yes, that was a bit….unnerving." Grime said.
When even the toads, a group known for reviling in pain, find it disturbing, then it must be unnatural.
"Please tell me that's just a phase." Sasha said.
"Nope. It's not." Marcy said, walking in, "So, sounds like it's been an interesting morning."
"Yeah but now I'm curious." Anne said.
"About what?" Polly asked.
"How does a Scorpileo taste?" Anne said.
"I mean, we can go back and eat it." Sasha said, "And Marcy can join us, many birds pick the meat off carcasses."
"You do?" Hop Pop asked Marcy.
"Yep. All predatory birds do on Earth." Marcy said with a nod, "I'm game if you guys are."
"Then let's go." Anne said, standing up.
"What about the breakfast I was planning to make?" Hop Pop asked them.
"Sorry, HP, but a carcass can only stay so fresh for so long after dying. Plus, it's been a while since I ate out with my best friends." Anne said, gesturing to Sasha and Marcy before noticing Sprig. "Best HUMAN friends."
Sprig nodded, accepting that he was Anne's best frog friend.
"Besides, we can save your food for lunch, the old HP meal never goes bad." Anne said.
This made Hop Pop happier since Anne not only loved his cooking but was eager to have it at a later time instead of another insect carcass.
"Come on, let's go!" Anne said as her, Marcy, and Sasha ran/flew to the carcass.
"Bring me back the stinger!" Polly shouted last minute.
The three made it to the corpse with ease and the wolf and bear began devouring it, with the eagle taking small strips of it. It was a good meal.
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