The artist has stated here on FA, on previous pages, that all of the characters are intentionally drawn to be gender ambiguous. You don't need to be a patron to know this.

Here, in case you don't believe me:
https://www.furaffinity.net/full/32.....#cid:139510931

What were you expecting? Eyelashes and boobs?? They’re animals

imagine being so fragile that just being corrected about a character's gender sets you off like this lmao

"Sets you off"?



Um. The guy's like, "Whatever, dude".

Would have guessed on male as well, but, hey, whatever dude.

You were told the character was a girl, but you responded "nah it's a boy". You were corrected by someone who knew, but you told them they were wrong. I'd say the responses you got were pretty normal. I don't see anyone in this conversation losing their minds, so I'd say it's probably best to not create drama where there isn't really any. I'm not as invested as you claim I am either, I'm just a casual reader who occasionally reads the comments.

That being said, maybe everyone should just chill out?

I mean I did just say everyone should chill out.

lmao he blocked me

A little too fragile to admit he was wrong I see

Well, he got pretty much swarm-jumped for simply going like: "Naaaah you're kidding me.". What do you expect.

Like, with that attitude I don't know what you expected the responses to be? He could literally have said "Oh alright" and that would have been the end. He insisted on how others (better informed) were wrong with the gender while he was completely ignorant on the topic. *shrugs*

I don't really think what he said and how he said it warranted this. To me the reaction was overboard. And a bit like mob mentality. As if he really had said something to just troll, though we can see he didn't.
People get worked up so quick, that when the word fragile was thrown at this guy, it felt like really tone deaf irony to me.

Hey, I could be wrong, but looking over this yet again, this is how I feel. Let's not continue this anymore, if it's alright with you. He clearly moved on, anyway.

I just wanted to say since I didn't realize there were more responses, but I don't think 3 people saying something to him counts as a mob mentality/overreaction. It was a pretty natural reaction to what was simply a dumb comment, and what little conversation there was remained civil and it really didn't go very far. It could've gone very differently if he just went 'whoops my bad' and dropped it, but his reaction was to block everyone instead. So I'll let you figure out who overreacted.

Anyways, that's all.

That is one intense hare....

Who hurt you, Hemlock

Predators that killed and ate Hemlock's loved ones, I assume.

dudes literally becoming what he hates the most never seen a bunny with claws like that

Bruhh rabbits have Super sharp claws, scary stuff!

They're for digging for the most part I believe.

It kinda sounds like that's the only path Hemlock knows

Huh. Good to know, Hemlock.

Says the bunny who HAS drawn blood just this same day!

Hemlock has the attitude of someone who would arrange for Oren to be injured, or worse just to make his point.

My thoughts as well.
Will Hemlock somehow bring the Wolves into the sanctuary just to prove a point?

I'm curious if something big happened to her in the past o:

Remember what I said about him losing someone? Yeah...

Yep. Hemlock is going to become a predator and eat Rask. Then he will find an excuse to eat Oren, Sybil, and Egg for not agreeing with him. Then he will make everyone die in a failed revenge plot against all predators. Then after coming back to his senses, he jump off a cliff. The end.
(Probably not exactly like this but I am sure I am close! XD)

Humor aside, I sense Hem will plot against Rask to evict him. And his pure hate might even push him to murder. Poor Rask is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And speaking of food, we have yet to see Rask eat. I wonder what he eats to survive. Fish maybe? Bugs? Fruits from trees?

And awesome page as always!

I bet eggs

Martens are omnivorous so I imagine to start with at least he'll be sticking to the fruits, nuts and berries end of things.

Being that the locals he's trying to integrate in with have spears it wouldn't be too much of a leap to see him figuring out a fish gig. Whether or not everyone else would be okay with that is yet to be seen, as I could imagine some of the others here freaking out and being all like, "HE KILLED SOMETHING! AHHH! IT'S STILL MURDER! MURDER BEAST IS MURDERING AGAIN! PURGE HIM!"

Also, Egg apparently has eggs, but where do the eggs come from? You can't nest rob all year.

...

I wonder how this is going to all work out big picture in the long run. If the prey species arm up and band together that's going to look really ugly for all of the obligate carnivores. Even if you convince them to want peace and all of that, well, they still gotta eat. Yeah sure some species like wolves can eat some plant matter, but it's not enough to sustain them. This leaves an uncomfortable ??? period in-between now and whenever someone manages to invent protein farming agriculture, whether that be farmed fish in ponds, bugs, or convincing the prey species to be okay with the killing and eating of birds.

Ooo, here's a darker thought. Maybe an arrangement can be made where the predators in exchange for not hunting prey species and limiting their numbers to what this could sustain will in return be given the bodies of prey when they die of old age or whatever.

That could form the backbone of some interesting cultural traditions in the future. Like when, I don't know, lets say Amber the beaver dies they have a little mourning ceremony/funeral and then her body would be left on an altar at the edge of town for the local predators to come and collect.

Like a sky burial with treaty detente implications.

Oh! It could be part of the severe punishment end of a proto-legal system! "Prey has killed prey! Prey has killed prey! Give them to wolves!"

---

Edit: Fixed links and junk.

Well, here’s a “let’s murder someone and frame the Marten for it” stew in the making.

Let's make Hemlock the sacrifice.

Hypocrite. He condemns carnivores for killing to eat, yet he would kill someone who hasn’t aggressed against him. Not to mention he proudly wears the skin of someone he killed.

So seeing on the reactions Hemlock keeps getting, congratulations! You series officially has it's very own Olly.

Interesting assumptions being made about the Marten's past

That was intense.

I dont care how much or how many he lost. What the leader need to see and SOON what one prey with a weapon is a HUNTER now. A hunter with lots of issues.... and with very blurred boundaries for many ideas and ideals = PROBLEM

This rabbit should urgently visit a good psychiatrist.

Or two. Or three.

For someone so against killers, bunny sure likes killing.

Speaking from your own experience as a 'hunter', rabbit?

I really enjoy Hemlock despite the hostility. She’s just protecting herself as best she can. You just know something happened. And while morally I don’t approve of what she’s doing, I understand and empathize with her feelings and actions.
I definitely can’t excuse the behavior — to treat anyone that way is awful, but I can understand being there, being angry and scared and lashing out after something traumatic happened.

She definitely needs some mental help in learning to cope with whatever happened.

..hmmm.. saying the "killers" cant change ... when you are wearing the skin of a slain enemy...?

Makes me think about what Nietzche said : The eagles and the lamps.
U should read it it could interesting u

Says the rabbit wearing the pelt of a wolf, who's literal first action was to attack a defenseless and half-starved marten...when she has a spear, and Rask has a bundle of sticks and wood shavings. Such a threat, clearly.

Well said. It's almost as though she wants him to be a threat to be justified in killing/mutilating him. I wonder if that's so she doesn't have to address the little issue of her being more of a psychopathic predator than the actual predators.

Takes a predator to know one who's lost their way.

Still can't blame Hemlock.

She's living in a world where predators literally chase you down and eat you alive. The sheer horror and fear of what living like that must be like is something I hope I never come close to understanding. Everyone being afraid the pine marten will end up trying to eat them is entirely reasonable.

Agreed, people seem very quick to gloss over this.

Imo (and I could be being a complete, long-winded ponce, about all this lol) They're seeing the situation as humans or retaining their world's realities while they read the story as opposed to internalizing the realities the story has presented and the pov of the characters, which are:

1) in this world, (most) animals seem to be fully sentient and capable of speech, fear, laughter, etc. And inventiveness, as we see in fire, spears and clothing.
2) in this world, the pred/prey relation from OUR world remains the same: Predators chase and eat prey. Prey band together for protection, etc.
3) there are some language barriers, it seems carnivores<omnivores<herbivores can understand each other in that order only.

Preds so far have shown that they are entirely unconcerned that the animals they chase down to eat are as sentient as they are. They dont mourn for them or regret their actions, and this isnt a critique on them, after all, how could they? if they felt bad for their food then they'd have starved.

This all leads to prey essentially getting the short end of the stick in this world. Which means that for unknown millions of years of evolution, this was the status quo. We havent seen enough predators other than wolves, but so far it seems prey is more inventive, given Oren's group starting to master fire. And this is shown as a NEW development

Heck, do the readers think that pine marten and his uncle lived their entire lives eating nothing but grass? It is quite likely, perhaps even necessary, that they ate meat at some point. Aka someone else. Sure we can streeeetch things and say they only ever ate bugs. (which I am assuming arent sentient?) And -they- have the advantage of being omnivorous. But already we are stretching assumptions just to make sure the martens remain "pure" in our eyes.

And what do you do with obligate carnivores? How could they join in on this little experiment even if they wanted to (tho chances are their opinion of it all would be of food just acting silly and getting ideas above their place...)

Basically im saying that all this is new. What Oren is trying out. And that while not we know that Hawthorn is, in this particular case, wrong. Hawthorn and other's fear and hate over preds is entirely understandable AND justified. This isnt a case of prejudice or misunderstanding like in OUR world.

Oren's plan and fire might change things drastically however and open up new and more peaceful ways, hopefully.

(also sorry for pelting you with a huge wall of text bud XD the writer/rant bug bit me and i was down to the end before i realized, heh, cheers!)

All good! Interesting to read.

Also they've been messing with fire for a long time now if they've been making metal spearheads. If anything it's a matter of time before they figure bows out and make arrowheads.

What i find interesting is it took me this long to realize she is wearing the skin of a white leopard kit? Or others. I understand her fear but for her own survival has she not done the same but without the need for meat? It's a dark hole in the new warren, the nothing is always darker without the hope of light

God, going back and reading this is so uncomfortable once you know Hem's story. [No spoilers]
It's no wonder she reacted so badly to someone basically saying 'it's okay just give the predators a chance, even tho we have no reason to trust them.'

It's gonna be a trip to read this all through later on.