[Silent_Wolf]

She shook her head. "Nope. I was a plain human. I don't remember my birth parents, but I remember the mountain lioness who raised me. She was Mom to me for..." She frowned. "... they said maybe ten years. Anyway, from her I learned real freedom. When I was found by some mountain rangers, they took me away. I was rehabilitated, they said, until my mid-twenties. I still... don't speak so well, but if I think before I talk, it's fine." She rubbed her neck, then pulled the side of her shirt over; there was a great, big bite on the back of her neck, mostly hidden by her blond hair. "I went to see Mom one day, as I was finally an adult and was able to function. I had a job, and a home. But I wanted to see her." She fell silent. "I don't remember who bit me. I don't believe they stayed. But being bitten was the best thing to ever happen to me. I felt... alive. For the first time since I'd been a child, I was free again."