Serval and Sheep Prologue: Exhibition Match
Living beings are intrinsically bound to instinct.
Noah's Arc Academy is an acclaimed boarding school for both carnivore and herbivore alike. It is in these training grounds for society's brightest that one begins to make realizations, compromises, and new insights.
At the top of the school's political hierarchy are the student council members. Led by the president Hafsa, an ambitious serval who aims to be the school's most popular animal, and vice president Desmond, a Jacob sheep with a disagreeable personality and a heart set on total domination.
Ambition, popularity, power, acceptance, romance, facades, urges... In this society controlled by instinct, one must choose what mask to wear. It is up to these young animals to decide how to navigate the increasingly uncertain issues of society. If they even have a choice at all.
This work was originally published on AO3 as an original work inspired by Beastars. The story has 68 chapters, which I will figure out how to upload.
Living beings are intrinsically bound to instinct. The bird is driven to sing, the snake is driven to hiss, the wolf is driven to howl. Such behaviors need no introductions nor explanation, they are simply ingrained in one's innermost being. It is a part of all living creatures, much like the ribosome or the mitochondria. To deny instinct is to deny nature itself. For the predator, nature is to hunt. For the prey, it is to flee. Underneath every law, pleasantry and friendly smile, instinct pulses through them silently and powerfully, smothered by a conscious effort to silence what the body yearns to scream. Bound by the Law of the Jungle, both the killer and killed are forever melded yet sundered by the cosmic seal of nature. And what creature could ever hope to transcend nature?
"Things have been neck and neck between Kenneth of Wombell's Menagerie and Desmond of Noah's Arc and it looks like it could be anyone's game! Both fighters have been trying to find the right hold but now it seems like a matter of who's going to blow up first!"
The clacking of horns resounds through the gymnasium, even piercing the shrill cheers of the audience. Their gaze is entirely fixed on the two young bovids grappling at each other in the center of the mat-padded court. Horns interlocked, heads butted, and hands gripped on each other's arms, they silently struggle for dominance. The taller of the two, an ibex, slowly begins to force his opponent, a Jacob sheep, to lean back, overwhelmed by the force of the push.
"It's incredible stamina that's for sure, but that's to be expected with team captains! The first match of the year and not a trace of ring rust on them!" The commentators' voices echo throughout the clamorous area.
The only eyes not locked on the ensuing match are those entranced by the dances of the cheerleaders. Though they work on the sidelines, their performance is equally as taxing and competitive. The females adorned in dark green and white miniskirts, crop-tops, and pom-poms match the green singlet of the Jacob sheep, and sing his praises in rhymed cheers and flashy flips. A serval, stationed at the center of the display, nimbly jumps off the back of a larger panda cheerleader, twirls gracefully midair, and triumphantly lands in a flawless split. The deeper-voiced audience members roar and whistle wildly, but she continues to recite her cheer unfazed:
"Olive, olive, greatest team we all love! Olive, olive, we'll fry you like an omelet!"
The opposing red-clad cheerleaders on the other end of the court do their best to follow suit, but it's clear that their leader, an elk doe, lacks the flexibility of her feline counterpart.
"What's this, it seems like Desmond is going for a sudden head duck! Oh, a classic lover's lock, expertly done!"
Attention whips back to the mat. The Jacob sheep, snout now lowered into his chest, violently twists his head to the left, causing his tangled upper horns to steer the ibex's movements and throw him into a loss of balance. He flaps his arms in an attempt to remain standing, but the smaller male, taking advantage of the now loosened grip on his arms, forcefully completes the twisting movement, flipping the ibex on the ground in one fell "whoomph". Their shaky panting is completely drowned out by the uproarious applause from the audience.
"What a throw, that was absolutely unbelievable!" The narrator exclaims, "Kenneth didn't stand a chance against that lock! A clean bump to decidedly end the match! It's as the old saying goes 'it's not the size of the horns that counts, it's what you do with them'!"
"The impact made the whole building tremble! You'd think he was a carnie with that strength!" the second commentator adds. "This impressive win marks the end of the national spring exhibition match! The Noah's Arc Olives have conquered the preseason, so their spring season is looking bright! Congratulations to Jacob Sheep Desmond!"