Lily’s perspective.

----

Lily couldn’t stop twitching at every sound nearby. Every snapped twig, bird song, or even just rustle of the wind seemed to set her off. Lily tried to just keep walking, but it was getting a bit much. "Look Lily, I know you aren’t the biggest fan of the outdoors, but I thought this could be a nice way to bond. Nobody is around to overhear us, your dad is off with his buddies watching sports reruns. So I thought we’d be able to talk a bit… instead you look like you’re freaking out. Did I do something wrong?"

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Lily swallowed the drool pooling at the edge of her lips. "No, sorry mum. It’s nothing you did. It’s just… ever since those birds tried to swoop at us my feline instincts are freaking out a bit. It makes me want to catch one of the birds and eat them, or anything else wandering around the area. I’m trying to supress it, but when I reflexively summoned my claws to strike back at those birds, I think I got my nose as well, and now I can’t stop smelling… well basically food,"

"Oh," said Evaline not really sure how else to respond.

"Yeah… sorry if that’s rude… and it’s not like I didn’t have breakfast… maybe I’ve been suppressing my instincts too much? Or perhaps indulging? I’ve been sleeping a lot… then again, it might just be that I’m not eating enough. Could be anything really," said Lily.

"Do you need a break to… what chase birds or something?" asked Evaline.

Lily shook her head, "No, I’m not hungry and despite what my Memphis side is saying I have no desire to eat raw bird," said Lily firmly. "What did you want to talk about anyway?"

"Just whatever," said Evaline. Which was a bit of a lie. Evaline had planned this outing in the woods mostly for the chance to see how Kat and Lily’s relationship was going. If her daughter was going to be stuck with Kat for the rest of her life, Evaline was damn sure she was going to ensure Lily was happy with it.

Evaline had picked a less well known trail in the area. It wasn’t popular for anything, and wasn’t all that regularly maintained by the council either. It did mean there were parts the path had overgrown or mudslides that had taken out sections as well, but Evaline had enough experience with mountain trails to be fine, and Lily’s Memphis instincts kept her even safer.

Though it was causing those urges. Lily was fighting the desire to just run into the trees and take what she wanted. *But what I want is NOTHING thank you very much. Dead bird does not sound appetising right now, not even normal chicken. I’m not hungry, and the idea of hunting something doesn’t appeal to me right now. Sure I know I can eat raw meat, and that one time I hunted with Kat during that trip with Xiang was great, but not now please.

What’s even causing this? Is it nerves or something? Wait… no that could be it. Is something here triggering my flight or fight response? I guess I want to fight it… but I can’t sense anything like that around, certainly nothing big enough to threaten me. So why am I panicking?*

Lily would later learn that a tiger had escaped from the transport truck while it was being moved between zoos and was camping out nearby. A Memphis certainly isn’t going to be scared of a normal tiger, but Lily did feel the need to show it whose boss. Sadly, Lily didn’t recognise the scent, and likely wouldn’t have guessed even if she did recognise it. The tiger on the other hand, had booked it, and was currently trying to get as far away from Lily as possible.

"Soooo…" Lily kept the word going as she searched for a topic. "What have you been up to recently?"

"Really? I should be asking you that. There was the science fair, and of course, your off-world adventures. Compared to that, my life has been rather stale," said Evaline.

"Yeah but I mean, I’ve already told you about those, and you haven’t really mentioned what you’ve been doing. So… what have you been up to?" asked Lily.

"Oh nothing of consequence. I got together to have lunch with a few friends, except it was cancelled because two of them got sick, the third was in a car accident, and the fourth just forgot so I called lunch off," said Evaline.

"Wait… who got into a car accident! Are they ok!" said Lily.

"Oh it was nothing too serious," said Evaline with a dismissive wave, "It was my friend Julie and she was fine. Just had somebody rearend her car. It wasn’t a big accident, Julie was completely unharmed and so was the jackass that rammed her. The real issue was that it took out her back tires, and it was a busy road. So the cops were called, and it took a bit of time to extract the other woman’s details. Like pulling teeth apparently,"

Lily nodded along, until a thought struck her. "Wait… does that mean you ended up at lunch all by yourself before calling it off?"

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"Ah, I didn’t think you’d pick up on that little detail… but yes, that’s exactly what happened. I did know beforehand about the two that had to call off because they were sick, but I’d expected Julie and Becca to show up… though with Becca I should’ve known better," said Evaline.

"She’s the one who works night shift right?" asked Lily.

Evaline nodded, "Exactly, and she had work the night before. I’m not sure why she even agreed to it, but I was looking forward to seeing her despite that. So… when she didn’t turn up I wasn’t surprised. I don’t know if she just forgot to put on an alarm, or if she slept through it, but when I called to see what was going on, she had clearly been woken up by my phone call.

"So I just said that Julie was in a minor car accident and lunch had been called off before she could realise that she was meant to be there ten minutes ago. In fact, I’m not entirely sure if Becca realises that she was late, or if she just went back to sleep straight away without thinking about it," explained Evaline.

Lily bit her lip and then winced. *Note to self. Don’t bite your lips when you’ve got fangs designed to tear through meat.* "Does it bother you that nobody turned up?" asked Lily, ignoring the blood in her mouth. It would hopefully heal quickly.

Evaline chuckled, "Lily, when you get to my age, something like that is just an unfortunate coincidence. Sure it’s annoying I wasted a bit of time, but compared to my friends, I got off lightly. I just lost a bit of time. Two were bedridden, one needs to waste even more time dealing with insurance companies, and the fourth… well I suppose Becca got off easy, but I don’t begrudge her that. Becca a night-shift nurse trying to become a real doctor. A bit late perhaps, but she’s trying.

"Plus, this is just one of many lunches we’ve had. Most of the time everyone shows up, and we have them about once a month. Granted, Becca misses them often enough that I’m not really surprised, but once again, Becca is forced to keep bad hours and she’s really giving her career her all. It’s just life, it happens sometimes,"

Evaline jumped around a large root sticking out of the ground, watching as Lily did the same, before jokingly asking "Hasn’t Kat ever stood you up?"

"No!" yelled Lily. "Kat would never do that to me,"

Evaline’s eyes widened in surprise, "Really? Kat’s never missed a single appointment with you?"

"Um… no?" said Lily, "At least… I don’t think so? Nothing is coming to mind when I go over my memories,"

"Huh… I guess I really misjudged that girl," said Evaline.

"Yeah, I realised that a long time ago mum," huffed Lily.

"I do suppose you’ll never let me live that down?" asked Evaline.

"I doubt it… well no, I’m immortal so I guess I probably will, but it’s going to take centuries! You had all these problems with my girlfriend, and they turned out to be nothing," said Lily.

"I will point out that she wasn’t your girlfriend at the time, and I had valid reasons for my concern," said Evaline.

"Hmm…" hummed Lily in slight agreement. "Do… do you think you’ll accept a way to become immortal, or at least… to stick around a bit longer?"

"I don’t know Lily. That’s a big ask for me and your father. I’m not necessarily opposed in principle… but I don’t think it’s something I particularly want. I might accept for your sake, but likely not for my own," said Evaline.

Lily sighed. *I’m not sure what I expected as mum’s answer, but I can’t say I particularly like the one I got.*

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