A forest of matted plant cover and towering monoliths muffled the light that managed to make it past their branches. Below, where the brush had been eaten away by various creatures searching desperately for some form of sustenance, rested a predacon. She was not large, no veracious teeth, but she had horns twice the size of any other. They aimed forward, standing sharply at attention, even as she slept. They were a formidable weapon, but only if she was alert to use them. Her pack would surely wake her at the approach of danger. But wait, this predacon was alone. The pack had moved on hours ago. She had no choice, she tried to follow, but with the wound on her leg, she was too slow.

She was exhausted, low on coolant and leaking what little energon she had left. When the pack finally left her view it took her two full days to give up. Two full days of hindered stumbling to realize she would never catch them. She was too tired to continue trying. So she settled among the brambles and fell into a heavy sleep. Never the kind of thing one should do when they are alone. Worse still when they are alone and leaking.

Many of the beasts on cybertron were passive, they traveled from place to place searching for energon. When they were fortunate enough to happen upon a deposit or reach a place suitable for digging they would den up and stay until they had run the deposit dry. Once they had done so, they'd rise and move on. However, many is not all. Not all creatures on cybertron were passive pack animals. In the brush but moving just slow enough to keep it from rustling was a predator. One of the many creatures who chose a simpler, but far bloodier path. There were places on cybertron to find energon, where it occurred naturally, but there was just as edible fuel within the other predacons.

Its quarry shuttered slightly in her sleep and the hunter froze as her eyes opened slowly. She managed to pull herself upright and began towards the stream of coolant. There was little fuel but there was plenty of coolant to keep from overheating at least. She let her head down low, and drank. She would need months to recover from this, if she could last that long in a forest that had clearly been occupied and stripped of fuel already.

She was moments from bringing her head back up when there was a crash of foliage and teeth sinking deep into her neck. She thrashed, whipping her tail and trying to pull her head free. Her tail connected with her attacker and she tried to make it count, but she could feel her muscle control falling away. The predator wrapped one forelimb up and over her back, hooking its claws in and taking more control. Teeth sunk in through plating, the force of the jaws cutting and crushing, further and further until they hit something lethal. The prey dropped down, trying for one more lash of her tail, but it was far too late for that to save her.

The predator felt her prey go limp, she had known her fair share of tricks, so she gave one last deep bite before she was willing to let go. She released her grip on the being she had made a carcass and looked down at it. Blue began trickling from where she had bitten, she lapped it up quickly, before picking a spot at the base of the neck and got a good grip. She stood and began to half carry half drag her prize home. She wasn't at her strongest, times were lean, she got by on half the fuel she should have. But she was still by far strong enough to carry something just over half her size. On the other hand, with some of her visibility taken up by the carcass, she wasn't keen on getting jumped. She was wiry of having to travel far with a fresh and leaking carcass, there were many a desperate rogue in these forests, she was just one of them. Thought the brush and out onto the planes, she just had to make it to the cave without-

She dropped it and looked up, making fierce eye contact with another rogue several years her junior, and physically smaller. He was full grown, a rather unimpressive male who had likely over stepped his place in his pack and been exiled, at least from the look of those injuries. He was thin, lanky, and looking at her prey with desperate eyes.

She was tempted to move on like he wasn't there, but she had learned not to underestimate anything, or risk leaving yourself open to all kinds of trouble. No, she wouldn't move until she was sure he knew his place. She stepped hard in front of her meal and gave him a nice view of her teeth, soaked in blue from her recent kill. She growled, deep not loud, a heavy sound that made the ground rattle. She would be leaving here with one or two carcasses, she didn't care if he knew that going into this.

He seemed like he wanted to run, she could smell the fear. It rose sticky, misty, kind of like juice sprayed in the air. Beneath his thin and brittle armor, so many cracks in it already she could see the corded muscles beneath trying to twitch into a run. At the same time she could hear his tanks rumbling, machinery was grinding against itself in a way that it wasn't supposed to. She could see his weakened state in the unintentionally lose movements. He needed fuel. She knew starvation like that. Wandering hopelessly in any direction hoping to run into something, pred, scrap, biomass. It killed slowly, unless someone stronger found you first. She had been able to overcome it because of her biology, but he was built like a grazer not a hunter. No large teeth, no dangerous claws, his horns weren't very impressive, but he had wings, and a large tail. He would have no problem defending what was his, but taking it was the hard part.

He looked ready to try his luck when there was a sharp sound like a bark crossed with an eagle cry. The call was accompanied by heavy running, and he withdrew immediately to the forest she had just come from as two more beasts joined her. The larger of her two companions, Ackerus, followed the rogue into the forest a little ways. He wasn't as kind as her, he would make sure the rogue knew not to come back, and had a reminder.

"Didn't know you were out hunting Al." The shorter of the two had stayed, Teraria, she was getting a good look at the carcass.

"I wasn't intending to, but opportunity arose and I took it." Alpha was mildly distracted as she answered. She knew her friend's smell like she knew her own, years and years of sleeping close, and hunting closer. There was something vaguely different about it. She had noticed it before, but it had been so faint a change that she was almost sure she was imagining it. This time it was stronger. There were many things a change in smell could mean. Commonly it was associated with sickness or...

Alpha studied Teraria closely, looking for any signs of what she silently feared. Teraria was smaller than her, by a large margin, but was also built much different. Instead of being built for raw power, she was long, weasel like. She was feline in her limbs, grace, and claws. but somehow still had bull's horns that made it seem like she could gore you to death instead of coil around you and suffocate you like a snake. She was a tunneling pred, built to slide and squeeze through holes and dens belonging to other preds. What Alpha was looking for was any sign that Teraria's lean form was getting larger.

Just as she was about to ask Ackerus returned. He was far more similar to Alpha, not quite as large, but he made up for his lack of strength in his cutting claws and angular head that could slice through a tree, or another pred. A forest pred. It was strange to see them without packs of similar looking others. He had broken off to follow them when he had backed his old pack leader instead of the new challenger. The new leader hadn't kept traitors.

"He won't be bothering us again." Ackerus announced with, what was to Alpha, an obnoxious level of confidence. Like he was some sort of hero for running off a scrawny runt that she could have put down with one swift snap. She noted the blue staining the peak of his head's sharp edge. Ackerus wasn't usually that testy...

Teraria must have sensed the unease suspicion hybrid growing, "Well, let's get this back to the cave. I'm starved!" She sunk her teeth into a spot on the tail and started trying to drag the carcass. She didn't make much headway, as the pred was easily as large as her, and probably made up twice her weight.

Alpha shook her head and reached down to help, but Ackerus slid between her and where she was going to bite. Bold, even for a predacon in the same group as her, still she didn't bite him.

"I've got this, why don't you go on ahead." He offered.

She would have grabbed somewhere else and tore it away from him, just to show him how little she thought of him and his help when Teraria dropped the tail. She took a couple steps before she looked back said, "Ok! Come on Ally! Let's leave him too it."

She smirked, stepped over the carcass and joined Teraria. She glanced back, relishing the look of irritation as Ackerus realized he wasn't going to get that alone time with Teraria he'd been pining for.

The two set off down the hill at an even jaunt. It turned into a race before either of them could verbally challenge the other. However it was just as much about keeping up with the momentum they picked up as it was about keeping up with each other. She may not have started out faster than Teraria but once she was able to really open up her strides she flew past. Alpha was larger, she had a smooth lion like run, but she traveled like a freight train. Heavy and fast, behind that all the raw power to move all that mass at those speeds and with that grace. However Teraria was a sore loser. She threw everything she had into a single spint and trounced Alpha from behind, throwing a disproportional amount of weight into Alpha's front half, starting them both tumbling.

They crashed at the bottom of the hill, twisted up together both laughing. Alpha had wound up on her back, Teraria landed a top her, her long muscular tail coiled up and into Alpha's legs and tail. She wasn't heavy, Alpha could have just rolled over. Teraria half stood on Alpha's chest plate, looking down at her. It was a hard to understand moment, for Alpha at least. There was much she didn't understand about herself that everyone else had already seemed to have sorted out. But it wasn't an unpleasant moment. The closeness, the cool of her armor, taking in Teraria's scent. Cinnamon and sweet with muddy undertones, but there was something new, something almost oaky to it. That odd oakyness made her pause.

"You smell different."

"Is it a bad different?"

"I dunno, is it something I should worry about?"

"No."

"Then it's a good different."

"Wanna know what you should worry about?"

"What?"

"That I'm going to beat you to the cave!" Teraria bounded off Alpha's chest, she had apparently been uncoiling her tail in preparation, and hit the ground running.

"Oh I'm not worried about that." She laughed and rolled to her feet.

Teraria was just about to cross the sort of invisible line that always seemed to be traced by the shadow of the cave mouth when Alpha returned the pounce on the hill. She was careful in how she tackled Teraria. There was more than one reason she worried about but the main one was the size difference. Alpha was a very large pred, not the biggest, but far larger than any of the common preds. She didn't want to crush her friend.

This time Alpha wound up on top, their fore limps twisted a little, almost nose to nose, "I win."

Teraria sneered, "Hah, no way. I was in here first."

"Nope, not a chance, my horns made it in here before you did."

"Oh reeaaalllly?"

"Yeah reeaaalllly." Alpha copied jokingly.

Before she had a chance to defend her call something rammed her in the shoulder. It didn't do much, but running on half her reserves she stumbled to the side a bit.

"GET OFF OF HER!"

Alpha took a step back, then glanced at her shoulder. The plate had split slightly, not from the impact, but from the serration. Ackerus was standing defensively and huffing, clearly having thrown all his might into the one strike. Alpha felt the tangling anxiety settle into painful confidence, no more guessing, no more hoping she was seeing things. The truth had just hit her in the shoulder. "You're mated."

"Damn right, don't touch her ever again." Ackerus snarled, half lunging to make his point.

Alpha didn't flinch, didn't even blink. She wasn't scared of him, but she didn't want to hurt him. Not really, because this wasn't him. He had been on an arrogant streak lately, she had thought it was rut, making him act up for any females watching. It had been, she just hadn't thought the female watching would be Teraria. There were night and day difference in mating practices between forest types and diggers.

Alpha shook her head, looking to Teraria, "Nothing to worry about, huh?"

Teraria stepped past Ackerus, who was starting to relax, "We can still stay together, this will all settle down in a couple months. Things will go back to how they were..."

"No, they won't. He's not going to stop this, I'm too close to a competitor."

"You don't have to talk about me like I'm not here." Ackerus rumbled.

"Well you're not acting sane enough to talk to." Alpha snapped, leaving the cave.

Alpha headed for the hill. She shouldn't have been mad, she was trying not to be. This wasn't their fault, it was their right to start a family if they wanted, but neither of them warned her, neither of them even thought to bring it up. They just dumped it on her when it was too late to do anything other than leave!

Teraria chased her, "Al! Alpha wait, please talk to me!" She ran just past Alpha and skidded to a halt in front of her. "Why won't you stay?"

"You know why." Her tone had turned dangerously low.

"You could make him leave."

"He'll protect you and your offspring, provide for you. But Ter, more important than that he loves you."

"But you love me too, don't you?"

"I don't know what that word means, I don't know what I feel for you. But I know I feel enough that I want you to be happy."

They held a deep and painful eye contact for as long as Alpha could stand it. She loved Teraria's optics, they were glassy, shiny, a cyclone of teal gray and some kind of gold. They made her think of a change in seasons. Always changing, already ready for the next thing and never holding back. She loved it, it hurt. She didn't feel right, she heard how she was supposed to feel about a mate. She knew she didn't feel that way. She didn't feel the right way. She'd only found one bot like her, and she'd lost them. That had been hell, she had to shut this down before it went the same way.

"Al-"

"No. Live your life with him, be happy. Forget about me Ter, I'm sorry I made this so hard." She shook her head and stepped past. Her chest ached and it trailed up and down her spine, but she didn't stop.

Goodbye Ter.