Conner had always enjoyed hide-and-seek when he was a kid; but he was indisputably better as a seeker than as a hider. The anticipation of being found always made him giggly, which would quickly give him away. But when it came to seeking, it was like something just clicked in his mind and sharpened his alertness. It got to the point where most of his friends never picked him to be seeker. Or one of the moms would 'assign' him to seek out their wayward sons and daughters and tell them playtime was over. There were fewer giggles then.

Conner now hid in a wooded copse deep within the Barrens in search of his first meal. The anticipation was still there, but the giggles were no more. Now there was the faint rumbling of Bestial hunger that ached in his stomach and echoed in his head. Just sneak back into town and find some wandering drunk. It'll be easy. Easy? Maybe, at least the hunting bit. Conner had always been a social predator and Sacramento had no shortage of people who could be caught unawares. But he wasn't here by choice; he had a sentence to serve out. And the Prince would be the last person to appreciate bold defiance. Conner shuddered, the last Court still fresh in his mind.

A pity he lacked the exact skillset to charm the beasts to his hiding place. There had been the odd birds and squirrels, but he wasn't quite that desperate yet. He was aiming for bigger prey. Without the Blush of life coursing through him, he was almost perfectly still. Of course NOW you're better at hide-and-seek. A wry grin; if only that was the greatest irony to be found here.

Finally, after hours of watchfulness, a sizeable prey entered his sights: a deer. For a moment Conner almost thought he felt the Beast react with distaste, as if such prey was beneath it. But that lasted for all of a millisecond before the familiar rush of HUNGRY!!! filled his ears and brain. He preps for a lunge...

And suddenly there's an explosion of grey fur and the deer bucked wildly. SHIT!!! There was no gunshot; but the deer was twisting to avoid the catching claws of a bobcat. Fury rose in Conner's breast, and the Beast finally wrested control of Conner's faculties, propelling him forward with a snarl.

The result was an absolute free-for-all. Conner threw himself into the deer's front haunches to try and bring it down, but the collision put him in range of the bobcat. Claws raked across Conner's face as the deer fell, and the Shadow briefly released his intended target to lunge at the feline. Before the Beast was hungry, now it was just pissed. Conner's vision went red as fang and claw went to town in a twisted flurry of dodges, strikes, and parries. Then, in the blink of an eye, it was over. The cat was bolting out of Conner's reach and into the underbrush. Conner's nostrils flared. Coward! Get back here so I can... But the Beast's inner tirade was interrupted by Human disgust as Conner realized that he was holding the bobcat's ear in his mouth. Spitting it out, he pushed himself back up to standing, the beast's blood fresh in his nostrils and marring his fangs. But even as he reached out with his heightened sense of smell, he caught something much closer than the fleeing bobcat.

Turning around, Conner saw the deer. Its neck was at an odd angle and its breath was staggered. In his haste to confront the bobcat and secure his kill, Conner's furious shove had caused the beast to hit a rock...hard. A brief surge of horror at the wanton act of violence crippled Conner's instincts. What if that had been a person? If it had, you'd be back in the city probably getting something extra with your meal. But noooo! You had to go and blow all your chances on some blue-haired...

A wordless, frustrated roar escaped Conner's lips as he dropped to the deer and sunk his teeth in. Shut up! SHUT UP! The blood pulsed through his throat and finally satiated his starving bosom partner-in-crime. He would not let this place, this reverse-Eden break him! He felt the deer's heartbeat briefly quicken from his bite...then flutter...then stop.

The hunger abated, Conner pulled up and out of reflex began to wipe the blood from his mouth. Then his fingers brushed the slash marks the bobcat had left on him. A searing tribute to his reckless anger. How easy would it be to burn some of that precious blood to erase whatever effect that dumb cat had on him. Then he could hunt it down, break it in pieces, scatter its guts to...

But Conner forces the urge to squander his Vitae down, even as his skin ripples in rebellion. "No." He says with none but the woods and God as his witness. "Not like this." He'd been sent to the Barrens to learn humility, hadn't he? To learn that his actions had consequences? He picks himself back up, then stops and takes the deer carcass with him, dragging it back to the copse where his weapon and coat remained untouched. This wasn't just about punishing the Beast. It was about returning to the Man. And Men live with their scars.

He would return to his Clan. And he would change, even if he had to bleed to do so.