Song of the Beasts (Beastars)

When All Seems Lost

'Of all the insane things to happen, it had to be this.' Mari thought angrily as sat on the floor, surrounded by lions. 

"I mean, I arranged the blackout for a reason, but who knew we would score this big. Do you think this is enough for the boss' dinner?" One of them said.

'Screw these guys. Talking about me like I'm not here.' 

"We did our best. Humans are hard to come by, especially females." 

"Hey, face up!" One said and grabbed her hair, forcing the girl to look at her captors, and they are not all that pleasant to look at. A pained yelp escaped her lips and her eyes watered from the pain.  She glared at the three males, not caring if it pissed them off. She gladly let them know how she felt about them. 

"I heard that human meat is unlike any herbivore meat out there." One lion with sunglasses said.  "You're are going to be a delicious dinner!" He laughed at her scared expression. 

Mari could feel her heart rate increase as the fear and panic raced through her veins. Her natural instincts as a human would be to either flee or fight back, and after being raised by a carnivore, fighting was always her first go to. Thankful that she kept her nails slightly long, she swiped at the lions face. She got him good enough to draw little blood and get him to let go of her hair. She ran for the first door she saw, unfortunately it was locked.

"Damnit to hell!"

"You little bitch!" A clawed hand grabbed her shoulder and threw her on the ground face first. The shine of a knife blade caught her eye as the lion held it to her face. "Wanna try that again? You make it so much easier for us." He sneered as he pushed her face to the ground. Just when she thought that she was actually going to kill her, the sound of a door opening caught everyone's attention. 

In walked an older looking lion, quite possibly the boss. 

"What are you idiots doing?" His raspy voice said as he kept hold of the cigar in his mouth. "Does it really take three full grown lions to handle one little human girl?" 

"Boss," All three greeted him, suddenly going from aggressive to submissive quickly. This made Mari even more scared seeing how these three cower just from his presence alone. 

"Poor thing," He mumbled as he walked closer, holding his paw out to her. Mari cowered away from him. "I'm sorry if my boys treated you poorly. Are you injured at all?" 

Mari was amazed yet terrified by how much power and authority this lion held over the others. This was one man she was not to piss off. 

"N-No,sir." She stuttered, her voice barely audile to hear. Her eyes began to burn with tears as the reality of her situation began to set in. He glanced at the other lions and chuckled. 

"I see you even managed to land a hit on one of my men. You're a fighter." Mari only stares at him, unable to respond due to the fear paralyzing her, even her voice. He smiles at her, a smile that is far from friendly or genuine. He motioned her to follow him as the other lions leave the room, taking one last glance at her. 

As Mari walked, only one thought kept going through her head.

'Someone, anyone, get me the hell out of here!!'

At the Festival Grounds

Meanwhile, Haru was frantic looking for her friend. Mari had left the booth but never came back. She was getting worried. She knew Mari wouldn't just leave without saying anything to her, would she? She swore she had walked the entire plaza and yet no sign of the human girl. Her instincts were screaming at her, telling her that something wasn't right.

She started back at where the wolf, Legoshi had been talking to Mari and started her search back from there. She decided to check last minute in the tree line outside where the booths were. It was there that her fears were indeed confirmed. Almost hidden in the grass, was Mari's red ribbon and next to it, a black card with a white symbol in it.

"No, no, no! Please don't let this be true." Haru panicked as tears pricked at her eyes. This had to be some sick joke, right? There's no way that this was actually real. Haru quickly got up, knowing that sitting around crying wasn't gonna do any good. "I need to tell someone, hopefully someone who will listen."

*****

"I'm sure of it!" Haru said as she spoke to a male zebra who a staff member for the festival. "This is her ribbon.It belongs to Mari!"

"Are you sure?" The Zebra asked. 

"Yes, she's the only one who wears one! The only human! Please, she was working with me in the garden booth and now she just disappeared. She would never do that, something happened to her."

"The human, you say?" The zebra said as he examined the ribbon. He too, was starting to worry. He had met her on a few occasions and hated to think that anything had happened to her. "You're right. This needs to be reported. She's a special case since she's only known one of her species and because of who her father is. He needs to be alerted."

"Also, I found this next to it." She handed him the card, her heart beating painfully in her chest. 

"Huh? The Shishigumi?" His eyes went wide with fear as he recognized the symbol. "If they're involved, then I don't think the police are going to be of any help." 

"What? Why?" She asked irritated by that fact. "What's the Shishigumi?"

A new voice soon joined their conversation.

"No more questions." 

"Huh?" They both turned to see the mayor join them.

"Mr. Mayor." They said at the same time. 

"Leave this to me." He said, almost too confidently. "Don't mention this to anyone else, understand? My people will look into the matter and I will contact the necessary authorities. We'll save her, don't worry." 

'I don't trust this guy.'

"Thank you so much, sir. I know she's in good hands now." Haru said with as much fake relief she could muster in her voice. She quickly left the tent, knowing that stupid wont do shit. 

'I don't trust that lion as far as I can throw him. I'm pretty sure he's not gonna do a damn thing to find her. I need to find someone I know will help her. Mari, please, just hang on a bit longer.' 

That's when she saw who she was looking for. She knew that if anyone could save Mari, it was that wolf. 

 So, SURPRISE!! I'm not dead but Im close to it. This semester has been hella stressful for me and im not done yet. I had some for once and decided to treat both myself and you guys with an update! I also have some news for all of my furry friends out there, I started a new story that will be done pretty quickly if I time myself write. 

For anyone who remembers the 2002 Disney movie The Country Bears then you are in luck. I had loved the movie as a kid and fell back in love with it after I found it again on Disney plus. I already have the first four chapters done! I decided to write it mostly because I personally love the movie and its characters and I think that its very underrated, so if you or anyone you know loved this movie too, then spread the word! 

Thanks again for all the love and support that I've been shown for this story and all of my others. Love you guys!!!