Illustration by Nina Hartman
The word-users came in their machine, “van” they called it. I do not know why they chose
this place to stop. Their reasons are often confused, even to them. My reasons are simple,
I am hungry.
“Kitten” is what they called me; they gave me food. It did not have the mana of live flesh,
but it was sustenance and made me stronger.
The bodies I live in, they are mine and not mine. I control them, but they retain
memories and sometimes act on reflexes and instinct. This body made a noise as it was
fed. “Yum Yum” the loudest of the word-users said, “It sounds like it is saying Yum Yum.”
They left and I was again alone by the river, the river that had brought me here. Before
the river I was buried in ice, trapped in a body that died in the cold. The ice melted and I
woke in water, then moved into this kitten as it came to eat the thawed body.
Darkness came and went, then the loud one came back. “Yum Yum” it called. It offered
more sustenance, but I needed meat that was alive to again do the trick of moving to a
new body.
I have hunted since long before the time of the word-users. If there is a way to kill, I
know it. I walked towards the water, the loud one followed, it did not know I was hunting.
At the edge of the river the land was wet and slick. The teeth and claws of my body are
small, but big enough, I attacked and the loud one slipped into the rushing water.
The loud one believed the water was more dangerous than me. It tried to keep from
drowning, distracted, while I bit hard and drank deep. I cannot become the ones I eat, but
feeding on them lets me know their essence. This one cared about others. It is often the
way of things; the kind are easier to kill. I swam to the shore, powerful and filled with the
life force of the loud one.
Word-users find this kitten interesting. One will come to me and I will take its body.
They are my favorite food and hunting them is easiest using their form.
In my countless years I have been called many things: lycanthrope, shape shifter, skin-
walker. These words never mattered to me, but after eating from the loud one I
understand what it meant when it called me Yum Yum.
I am hungry, I have always been hungry, and will always be hungry. Now that hunger has
a name.
