"So messy" I muttered, pulling my knife from my old body. I saw my face and eyes, which were now lifeless and so dark green they appeared black. Blood had run everywhere because of the time it had taken me to regenerate, meaning I had some cleaning to do.

A growl from behind me had me slowly turning. Ares stood in the doorway with a small deer in his maul, slowly releasing his threatening rumble.

"Hey" I said, trying to be cheery but a little hesitant because of his attitude. His only response was a louder snarl as he dropped the kill.

"Hey it's-oh shit" I dropped my knife and held my hands up innocently. He didn't recognize me. For an animal as smart as he is, I could understand how bad this looked. "It's me, Ares. I changed my appearance. It's me" I tried to say reassuringly. Ares slowly circled toward me, smelling my old body on the ground, then standing over it defensively, baring his fangs at me.

"Ares. I regenerate. That's me. You know, you killed me once and ate me, you know I come back. Smell my hand" I said, knowing my genetic makeup was the same. When I offered Ares my hand he instantly bit me, ripping through the flesh and almost pulling my hand off. I clenched my teeth but knew this was necessary. As my blood poured into his mouth, I saw confusion and recognition hit his feline face simultaneously. His raised lip slowly lowered and he unclenched his teeth from my hand, thankfully, and it began healing. Ares stepped back and licked the bloody area of my knife wound, then looked back at me in more confusion.

"It's me" I said with a smile.

Still skeptical, he slowly backed away but went to retrieve his prized dead carcass. He brought the mauled creature toward me and placed it a few feet from my boots, never breaking eye act as he did so. He slowly nudged the deer toward me, not trusting me enough to actually place the kill in my hands.

Once Ares backed away, I bent down and picked up the animal. It had been jaggedly gutted and cleaned, as if Area had dragged the body through the water of a the trickling spring nearby after ripping out the insides.

"You are absurdly intelligent" I said in awe. All I had to do was strip the deer of its hide and and process it... of course there was no point in doing that since whatever I didn't eat should and would go to Ares. I decided to just cut off enough meat for my meal and gave the other three quarters of the deer to Ares. He wouldn't take the carcass from my hand, but when I placed the deer at my feet, he slowly grabbed it, taking it to the far corner where he proceeded to naw on it vigorously, eyeing my every move.

I felt his stare as I worked at my make-shift stove, a pit with a covered grate that vented into one of the sewage vents away from my home. I tried to work without making any jumpy moves, so that he wouldn't...you know...eat me. I grabbed my bottle of homeade sasoning and sprinkled a little on to the meat, making a delicious aroma spring around the room. The satisfying sizzle and crackle of grilling meat made my mouth water. While they cooked, I proceeded to drag my old body away from the pool of blood and onto a tarp. I then began cleaning up the thick blood, trying to soak it all up with an old rag. By the time I finished, my dinner was done cooking. I threw the rag away and washed my hands, then sat down to enjoy the meal that I didn't have to work for.

Ares continued to stare at me, and maybe it was my imagination, but he seemed less hostile.