Feral High (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 4, Love not Honus

Anon sagged onto the gymnasium bleachers, completely wiped out.  Feral High Phys. Ed was much more intensive than his old Human schools had been.  Alongside the normal run, stretch, warm-up exercises, Anthro students also had to partake in basic lifting, pull-ups, yoga, and a form of hand-to-hand grappling.  Being Human, he had been exempt for the most part from the last one except with the smaller Breeds.  Even those had easily overpowered him, but almost all of them had immediately helped him up.  The teacher, the same Rhino who had escorted him before, kept a close eye on every single student in case of flare-ups of Aggression.  It wasn't just the Predator species who suffered from it either, every single kind of Anthro apparently had issues with it.

That being said, there were various reactions characteristic of certain species.  Predators became more on edge or aggressive,  Prey became flighty or defensive.  For his part, Anon had learned to just give whoever was having a hard time their space.  Everyone around had eventually grown used to a Human being around and stopped treating him like such an oddity.  However, as he noticed was happening even now, a lanky Canine beside him as the culprit, he was still sniffed on a regular basis.

Turning his gaze forward, having gotten mostly used to the scent-taking, he observed a volleyball game currently in session.  When the basic workouts were complete, class had become a bit more normal, with games and group sports being partaken in.  Anthros approached all physical activity with general optimism and excitement, as opposed to the dread and lacklustre boredom of Human schools.  Not to mention, when they did compete, Anthros took everything seriously.  They wore much different kinds of protective equipment than Humans did, even for lightweight or low contact sports.  Their elbow pads, knee pads, gloves, and padded helmets looked more akin to combat-grade armor, and for good reason.

The ball arced up over the net, colored black and yellow, sailing towards an unoccupied section of field.  "Mine!" snarled a Bovine, hefty around the middle but with arms like tree trunks, who slid forward on his knees and bounced it back up.

"Nice save!" cried his nearest teammate, hopping back several steps on her hooves.  The Cervine set the ball back and up over her head towards the next player in line.  "Prydel!"

Right on queue, the Lioness beside her, nearly tall enough to not even to jump to reach over the net, took a step back and then leapt into the air like a rocket.  Her ferocious face was contorted in a snarl of concentration as she slammed her padded and gloved paw right into the ball.  The resulting slap actually echoed around the room.  The spiked ball did not so much sail as it did shoot as if fired from a cannon, straight past the awaiting receiver on the other side of the net, and smacked into the floor.  Anon winced, half-expecting to see a crater from the point of impact.

"Point, Red team," announced the Coach.  "That's game."

The resulting chorus of howls and cheers from the winning team set the entire gym to ringing.  Both teams then crossed to the net and shook paws.  Everyone was smiling, strangely.

'Maybe Anthros like sports so much because it lets them vent their Aggression more naturally,' speculated Anon, currently reading up in a coursebook for his Astrology class.  Anthros had different names for the constellations, and while his teacher, a glasses-wearing Owl, had been overly excited to hear all about Human versions, it was still important to learn theirs as well.  Religion, culture, mythology, all of it varied drastically from Human versions but all of it was utterly fascinating.

The bench creaked as the Canine from before got up to join the waiting queue for the next activity and the others helped take down the net and put away the balls for the previous.  Anon saw that the next game was to be basketball, once again on his list of activities, he could be exempt from due to size.  It wasn't a problem to him, he still participated in plenty of activities, even if he wasn't anywhere near as physically fit as even the smaller breeds of Anthros.