The 'Taur Next Door
Part 1: A Collegiate Meeting
by J.L. Atwood


   Well, hell. Where do I start this story? I guess I could start by introducing myself. I'm Justyn Jones, a 22-year old anthrowolf attending Berkshire college on the eastern seaboard of the American continent. I'm a marketing major (exciting, I know... but my parents are paying my way) with a minor in English, scholarship student for track. Pretty much a mid-B student. Just your average JoeWolf. I’m a bit tall for my type at 6’2”, and slender but not too thin. My coat is a medium gray coloring mostly, with a bit of light fur under the chin. I wear the mop I call hair in sort of a longer cut. I like it but my mom seems to hate it. I come from a wolf community (a ‘Pack’, in the more derogatory terminology) in southern New England. My parents are big on pack values; go to school, do good... come back home to the community. Devote all your time to helping your family and friends, and they do the same for you. It’s all very supportive and yet very narrow-minded, in some ways. If it doesn't fit in with the local views... it's just isn't done.

   The story begins my junior-senior year (one of those in-between times). A new semester had rolled around, bringing in new students, and track was just about to start up again. Due to grades, I'd lapsed a year, so I'd not gone out for a while... and under threat of my scholarship, I'd been told to go back. So, I threw my gear in a bag, and wandered my way down to the field house to touch base with the coach.
The hike down to the 'house, which was all downhill, gave me plenty of time to look over the incoming students, since it took me past the Union and the admin offices. Past the dining hall I wandered, where some of my co-workers were sprawled out on the steps before their shift started. Several of them hollered out to me, asking where I was going, if I was working tonight. I told 'em I was going down for track tryouts. Simon, a lapine and my roommate, let out a whoop,

   “Hey, Just! Be sure to say hello to the new ‘Kat down there! She’s a friend of Maxi’s, and she says she’s a real looker!” Something about how he said it made me think twice, but.... Hell. My last girlfriend and me had split two semesters ago, and I was getting pretty desperate for any sort of female company. Besides... she ran track. At least we’d have something in common. Then again, Sand and I’d had plenty in common, and look how that’d turned out...
The day was looking up, so I crossed Main Street and broke into a jog to warm up and make made time down to my destination: the college 'house, past the practicing fields and freshman car lot. The track office was inside, up three flights of stairs, and all the way to the back of the building. I poked my head in, looking for coach. The place was empty, telling me he probably wasn’t in residence. Sure enough, only his aide was in, who informed me that Coach Bernhart was out in the field already? So, back down I went, cursing that I didn't check there first.

   I found Coach, who was a graying stag deep in his prime, in a knot of 'runners, giving a lecture of some sort that broke up just as I got there. He was hard to miss, topping me by almost a foot, and sporting a rack of antlers wider than my shoulders. He was one of the finest runners I’ve ever seen, and certainly the best coach I’d ever had. I didn’t like being late, especially not on the first day. I got one of Coaches grimaces, and he reached out to give my shoulder a shake. "Justyn... really."

   "I know, Coach, sorry. I got behind in Chem Lab."

   "Ah, well. Get out there... warm up. You been keeping in shape, training." Warm brown eyes regarded me sternly, and it wasn't exactly a question. More a warning me not to tell him otherwise. How anyone who came from an herbivoric origins managed to cow me so easily, I’d never figured out.

   "Yeah. Not as much as I should have, but I'm not that out of shape.” And with that, I departed his company before he gave me an earful. One I deserved. I sat on the grass, minding my tail, and carefully went over my pads for burrs and cuts. Then I layered on my cleats, fastening them carefully on 'round my pads and claws. Next the tape... I stood up, and began the warming stretches that everyone else was going through, some of the new folks with coach looming over them to make certain they did it right.

   I was just starting my first warm-up lap, when I got the surprise of my life. Something... someone shot by me. A bright yellow blur, which to any track runner screamed 'cheetah'. Anthro cheetahs have their own classes in running, in sprint... but this was like no cheetah I'd ever seen. Something 'bout the way it was running. That's when it dawned on me that it was ...on all fours. No one runs on all fours. Sure, you can, if your hands are used to it, but it's awkward and slower. This was by no means slow. Losing my stride, I fell off to the side to watch this blur. Then I saw why it looked so strange, as it hit the turn and circled to show a more profile view of itself. It... it was a ‘taur! One of the least common forms of anthromorphs, there were maybe three on the entire campus. And here was number four, running her heart out. Coming to a stop, I watched her fling herself down at the end, panting, in that way that cheetahs have. An amused chuckle came from just above my ear.

   "Pretty amazing, isn't shi?" I glanced up at Coach, who was looking bemused at my expression, which I can only imagine to be something akin to shock.

   "Y-Yeah... who is she?"

   “A chakat named Windchaser. Shi answers to Windy. Don't you know her? Shi was recruited from the same high school as you.” He asked, curiously, as a sudden sensation swept over me, reminiscent of feeling like an equimorph just whooped me between the eyes.

   "That's... Windy?"
 
  
  
   ***
 
  
  

   See, I knew Windy; our history goes back from the time when we were kids. Perhaps here is a good time for a bit of flashback, the first is when I'm five: my parents are excited about something, talking with a few of the other wolves from the community on our lawn. I'm out there, tussling with my brothers and sister. They're staring up the block, where a van is parked. I happen to stop, and look up just as one of the new neighbors happened to come out, to get something from the van. It was the strangest creature I had ever seen, almost like someone had stuck two halves of different creatures together. "Mama, Mama, what're those?" I remember asking, tugging at my mother's pantsleg.

   "Chakats." I remember the reply coming, and it wasn't a good tone. One full of disgust, and something else that sounded list disapproval. I learned later that Chakat Windracer and hir two mates, Chakats Chartip and Iceflake had recently moved to the area when Wind had gotten a good job nearby. Windracer was another cheetah-marked chakat, rare in that shi matched hir cub from what I understand of them now, and Chase was named after hir mother. Chartip was a dusky brown, with black tips on her ears, paws and tails while Iceflake was a stark white with faint gray mottling along her sides. I never did understand which of the two was Chase’s sire, but I guess to them it didn’t matter. Racer was very much a career-driven ‘kat, away a good deal of the time, so I knew the other two much better. Ice was a pediatric doctor, and Char worked at home out of a workshop, making all sorts of cabinetry and furniture. Besides Chase, there were four other siblings; the eldest was Blacktail the eldest by five or six years and black as pitch, then Lightwind and Sparrow who were almost the same age (within a day) but with different mothers, Chase, and then hir youngest sister Spring who was born just before they moved away.

   The Pack never really welcomed them in, even though they remained genial neighbors for many years before eventually moving on to a different part of town, causing Wind and I to loose contact, since I was a couple of years older than shi was. I remember Windy, a golden ball of kitten fluff who would try to play with us sometimes. Usually we got along pretty good until the wolven parents caught us and called their children inside on some pretense of chores.

   The second set of memories that stood out at that moment would be in high school, when I learned something else about chakats. The fact that they were herms, and what exactly that meant beyond being just a word, in all it’s social context. Windy ran on the woman's track team, on the argument that she... shi... looked more female than male. But, I remember that shi often chose to change separate from the rest of the girls, because shi made them uncomfortable.
   I remember her as a 'kat still shedding the baby fat of cubhood, all legs and feet. Shi never seemed to have many boy/girlfriends, male or female. But then... high school was an awkward time and in my school, not too many folks came out of the closet to admit they even liked the same sex. And Windy was both... any guy or girl dating hir would get sidelong looks. Though, shi never really seemed to lack for friends.

   And, here shi was again. Windy. 'Chase. The baby fat long gone, and leaving behind a long-limbed, graceful, and very beautiful creature. As shi rose up from her sprawl, and wandered this way, I felt my heart skip a beat. As I remembered of chakats, hir chest had filled out to a very promising size and hir short headfur a curly bob, a very attractive feature. A second later, I mentally kicked myself. Shi was as much guy as girl... what was I thinking? I'd never even looked sideways at another guy.... Shi had that side too. But, man... shi was jaw-dropping in many ways. Shi flicked her towel back over hir shoulder, and eyed me curiously.

   "Uh, hi... " Shi said to me, "You're staring... at me. Never seen a chakat before?"

   "Uh." I said brilliantly, "Actually, I'm Justyn Jones... you might remember..."

   "Yeah... Now  I remember you... you were a couple years head of me." Hir tone had changed in an instant from friendly to businesslike; suddenly shi reminded me of hir dam, Racer. Apparently shi got more than just the looks. Shi flicked hir gaze to the coach, "How was my time?" Apparently I was dismissed. I took that moment to detach myself, and get back to my own running. Damn, but shi was good looking. But, shi was still a shi, and apparently remembered me less than fondly.  I tried to remember if I had ever said anything to her... Well, there /were/ a couple of times in gym class, and then that time at the spring dance. Looking back, I realized I'd been somewhat of an asshole to hir. It wasn't intentional, I was just joking around with the guys, but now when I looked back on those times with a more adult perspective, I felt a bit sick.  Well, crap. No wonder shi was less than thrilled to see me.

   Just run, Justyn... Just run.