The Maneater - A short story
NOTE: T he tiger uses they/them, but they're fine with he/him and she/her. When they did it, they knew there was no turning back. Humans had this nice, buffalo-like taste. As a cub, they’d heard stories of relatives who’d grown to relish people and ended up dead. The stories were supposed to put them off of eating humans, and it generally worked. But they just had to. The forest they grew up in was being cut down by humans for reasons they could never really understand. It was time for them to move to one of the hill-towns in search of more food. Unfortunately, their upper-left canine was cracked because of a misguided attack on a gaur. They spotted a herd of deer nearby. Attempting to latch their teeth onto one of the older ones was painful, and the old deer kicked them away, so they knew it was time for them to eat easier prey. They lay in the thick bush by the field, watching the grass-cutters work. There was one nearby. It seemed too simple, almost like a trap. But they ...