Nail and Tooth

Leena is different. In fact, everyone she lives with is different as well. When humans were first developing from evolutionary ancestors, a couple mutations gave people a leg up on other creatures in nature. Met by opposition at every corner, this is the story of the animal-mutants, told from the perspective of a female half-panther orphan.


I was there the day Nail and Tooth fell. Of course, I was watching the epic battle from the sides, I was only a young girl and our leader was killed by our full human opponents. To be more specific it was the full human leader who killed ours. I had not yet received my animal gift yet, and like the younger boys, I was ready and just itching to join in the fight; but after our leader died, my hopes and dreams for a life equal to that of humans were completely dashed. All the myths about vampires and werewolves originated from our branch, which was branched from off of the homo genus. And let me tell you, the humans did not like us one bit. Their newly discovered guns kept us at bay in the city, though our gang Nail and Tooth was formed only to be a safe haven from the scared hatred of the humans. If and when they found out a person was an “Animbling” as we aptly named ourselves, (mixture of animal and resembling) we would be beaten or enslaved to serve the fully human purpose. However, it was confirmed that the humans were just scared, since some of us could smell fear.
We supposed that nature decided to give humans traits like animals back in the stone ages. Some cavemen were dying, since the human body is inferior to many top predators (no matter what some people will say). Perhaps it was natural selection kicking in, if you do, in fact believe was Charles Darwin has made claim to over the past few years. His theory was a huge break through point in our history, since many things seem to match up. First is the realization that the human body is inferior to that of our wild animal counter-parts. Second is the possibility of evolution, and if nature ran its course with our species, it would make sense, considering that the human species needed a little help before cavemen realized they could pick up a stick and bash something over the head with it. (And who knows how long that epiphany took…) So perhaps nature decided to help us out a little (figuratively speaking), ensuring the survival of our species with mutations that resembled that of many animals found in nature. The members of our species have different characteristics, which can sometimes be very inconvenient. I bet people wonder why we allow ourselves to be enslaved. However, if we could, we would not allow it. After members of our species pass puberty we develop our own unique animal like characteristics. Many of our characteristics are noticeable and pertaining to advantages certain animals have. So many humans owning and operating artillery shops would never sell to us, nor let any of us work there. We had no way to obtaining weapons. We only used our natural gifts. Even if two people receive characteristics from the same animal, which is often the case, those two people do not get the same characteristics most of the time. Also, even if they do develop the same characteristics, sometimes the traits can be stronger in one “person” than the other, or certain traits can be stronger in one “person”, and other traits can be stronger in the opposite being. So, in other words, everyone in our species is different; though many people in the same family can traditionally develop traits from the same animal. However, I never knew my family; I was dropped off at the Nail and Tooth’s headquarters when I was a baby. That is why the fall of Nail and Tooth affected my life so heavily; the people there were all my family.