Ren froze. The word hung in the cold night air like a suspended raindrop.
Human.
She was so used to the beastmen referring to her as a "mammal"—a biological classification that made her feel like a specimen in a zoo—that hearing Vex call her a "human" sounded alien in her ears.
For weeks, she had just assumed that maybe there weren't any humans in this strange, chaotic world. She had accepted her lot in life as the exotic "hairless monkey" species and rolled with being called a "female" instead of a woman.
But Vex knew the word.
Ren's eyes widened, the pupils dilating with sudden, desperate hope.
'Wait,' she thought, her heart skipping a beat. 'Does he know the word because there are others? Is there a secret colony of humans somewhere? Is there a civilization with paved roads, coffee shops, and indoor plumbing?'
She had only seen this forest and the swamp. The Beast World must be vast! Surely she wasn't the only one?
