What is She? What is She doing that is so Strange?

What is She? What is She doing that is so Strange?

Her problems all started one morning when she was young and completely by herself. She did not know why she made the decision that she did. There was no one older around to indicate that what she was doing was seriously wrong for one of her species.  She did it initially just on a whim, something she just wanted to try. She was curious about what it would be like to experience the sensations it involved.  She enjoyed it more than she thought she would. So it was not very long before that indulged whim became as firmly entrenched habit for her. It was only a short time afterwards when others witnessed her doing it. It was then that the habit became a source of utter disgrace for her. Her family were the first to disown her, which they demonstrated in no uncertain terms by just drifting away from her. She was then shunned by almost all of the others that she had known practically from birth. When they saw her go by, they just shook their heads in disbelief. How could she act in such a strange way? Why did she do that? No one had any explanation. Maybe she was just born strange. They treated her like what she did was contagious somehow, that they would catch it and never be normal again. She might threaten the frenzy with that kind of behaviour if she kept it up. She might influence others younger and smaller than her. That would not do. That would simply not do.

Her species were not essentially loners by nature, so she was experiencing something others could not identify with easily. She felt that she had no choice. Well she did, but she did not want to make that choice. She was into her pattern now, and she was not willing to change to conform to what the others did. There was a strong streak of stubborn in her. Apparently members of her family had been that way for generations.

Moving On

She was moving, constantly moving, almost never stopping for even a short period of rest. That of course was not unique to her, as it was common among her species to act in that way. They rarely ever stopped.  Only she was taking this trait to an extreme that most of her species would not try, except in desperate circumstances of starvation or human threat. One day she decided that she had to travel far away from the others in her group, far from those that kept rejecting her when she came near. Maybe elsewhere there would be others that were like her, others that had made the same very strange choice, so would not judge her for what she did. Her species did not live alone, but preferred to live and, in particular, eat in groups. But she did not want to stay with the group into which she was been born. There must be another group somewhere into which she could fit more easily. There must be.

So on and on she travelled south, far away from the area that had been home for her and all those that she had once been happy with. She passed by other groups like those she had been raised with, not that her parents did much raising., but they were doing what she did not want to do, so she did not stop to join them. They would have expectations of her that she could not fulfill.  She might again be thought of as dangerously strange. So she kept on moving south. Finally she found a place where she thought she could be alone, without any others to judge negatively her major difference from what was thought to be normal for her kind. Her species, like so many, particularly humans, craved the normal.

Although she had been an outcast before, alone in that others shunned her, she had never been this alone before, never felt the loneliness that she now covered her like a second skin. Only this skin was far darker than the pale one she had grown.  If she had been of a far different species, she would have been called a lone wolf in this part of her life. But she was no wolf. Fortunately, she did not lose any sleep over the matter. That was not possible for her.

Then she saw a small group of travellers coming her way. They were young ones, a fair bit younger than herself. They approached her tentatively, careful to treat her with the respect her age and size deserved. Most of them were young males, so they were a lot smaller than she was.  She had never felt that respected before. She also had a sense that like they were lost too, and were looking for others of their kind. She realized that they had been watching her do what she was usually alone in doing. What was remarkable was that they did not shun her for doing it. They approached her slowly and carefully, watched her intently.

They did not yet know much about all of the ways of their species, but they were aware that what she was doing was highly unusual for their kind. They wondered whether there were others that were like her, that for some somewhere it was normal. A few of the bolder ones moved forward and tried to do what she was doing. But all but one found it to be disgusting, unnatural. They moved away and encouraged the others to do likewise. But there was one young male who stayed near her. He had decided to be like her and be with her.

So now there were two of them. She felt a little better about that. True, he was younger than her, and it would be many years before both of them were sexually mature, but at least it might gave her something of a future as a breeding member of her kind. 

They were going to have to find a way to attract others to their unusual lifestyle. But they had plenty of time. It was not easy being a vegan Great White Shark. That was for sure.