-- Vivian POV, New Fairhagen --

  The door bell rang and her ears perked up and swiveled to locate the origin of the sound. These things sure had a life of their own. She eyed the door anyways from her place on the couch. She had been waiting for this moment.

  Tom came in from his office to open the door and she sat up.

  A young, athletic man stood in front of the door, blonde hair, maybe bleached, wearing casual street wear.

  "Mr. Morgan, is that right?" The man asked.

  Tom nodded, "Yes, that is right. So, you're Frank Ewan?"

  The man imitated a salute, "Yes, that's me."

  Tom stepped to the side so their visitor could enter the room, "Come in Frank, we've been waiting for you."

  She bounced up from the couch and was at the door with a quick sprint, "Hello Frank!"

  He almost jumped back to the corridor, but quickly pulled himself together, "Whoa! So, you must be Vivian then?"

  She nodded, "Indeed. I've been waiting! Come in!" She made an inviting gesture.

  A bit hesitantly he came in and the door closed behind him, "A moment I thought a lion comes to eat me. You sure have a way to move."

  She tried to give an apologetic smile and shrugged, "Cannot do much about that. Thanks for offering to pick me up!"

  He laughed for a moment, "Well, now I understand why they don't let you walk around alone. You'll give people heart attacks if you run up to them like that."

  "I only bite mean people", she tried to reassure him but quickly added, "Just kidding. I haven't bitten anyone yet."

  He stared at her. She smiled back. Tom chimed in, "Don't worry Frank, she's a really nice person. She just needs someone to get her to the sports club and back again after training. I'd go with her, but for one thing track and field isn't my favorite pastime and for another, quite often I'm just too busy. So thanks for your offer to help out."

  Frank had meanwhile regained his composure, "No problem, I'm there almost every day anyways and your apartment isn't far off. So no issue to pick Vivian up and bring her back."

  Frank looked at her, "So, you're ready to go?"

  "Yep, just let me get my sports bag", with a few steps she was at the couch to fetch the bag and with a jump against the wall and a flip at his side again, "Ready!"

  Frank took a step back again, "You're a crazy cat!"

  She shrugged, "I'm just happy to get moving for once again. Been a while that I had a proper chance to run."

  Tom lifted a hand to get Frank's attention, "Frank, one thing before you leave ..." He pulled the stun gun from the holster under his jacket, "Police wants you to carry this while you look over Vivian."

  Frank shook his head, "You can't be serious, man. That's a stun gun!"

  She interfered quickly, "Just take the thing and let us go. I want to run."

  Frank took the gun a bit hesitantly while Tom explained, "Just keep it somewhere, in the car or your sports bag. Just so you can show you have one with you if the police stops you."

  Frank didn't look very convinced, "I didn't expect to become an animal tamer when I offered to take Vivian to the club."

  She opened the door and tried to shove Frank towards the open door, "You can think about that later. Let's get going!", before she briefly waved to Tom, "Bye Tom, see you later!"

  Soon there were down and outside the apartment complex. Frank led her to his hovercar and opened the passenger door, "Alright Vivian, get in and we can start. It'll be just a few minutes."

  She slid into the seat and smiled at him, "I can't wait!"

  He closed the door, walked around the hovercar, opened the drivers door, got into the drivers seat and stashed the gun in the glove box, "I still can't believe that I need a gun while I'm with you."

  She shrugged, "Don't think about it. I'll do my best not to cause troubles."

  He entered the destination in the autopilot and set the car on automatic, "So what do you want to do?"

  "Some running, long jump, high jump, that sort of things. If there aren't too many people on the field I'd like to practice throwing and catching too. A rugby ball should be alright. I need something to do with my arms too."

  Frank nodded, "I'm good at passing, that suits just fine."

  The ride didn't take long, just as Frank had promised and the sports club turned out to be a rather huge area with at least two track and field arenas visible, greens in between and the club house, which was actually a three story building. Some more utilitarian buildings and trees completed the ensemble. She could even hear a few birds and her ears swiveled to pin down their locations.

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  She found herself looking at the trees. Not only there were birds in them, but they were quite inviting to climb. Then she felt a nudge, "Come Vivian, let's get changed into our sports clothes and then we can do some warm-up together."

  She nodded, "Frank, do you like climbing trees?"

  He shook his head, "Guess as child I did, but no. Why do you ask?"

  "I suddenly think it will be a lot of fun. But I never climbed any trees and it's weird that it suddenly seems to be fun", she followed him on their way to the club house.

  It didn't take long to get into her sports clothes, put her bag and stuff into a locker and now she was out and waiting for Frank, who soon arrived too.

  "How about some laps to warm up?" Frank suggested.

  "Sure" She agreed, and soon they were jogging the running track around the field. The track's surface turned out to work very well with her claws, likely made for sprinting with spikes. She tested that for a few steps, and with each she grew more certain, this was finally a track where she could use all the force of her legs without slipping. Without a second thought she took off to run a whole lap with all she had till she caught Frank again, but she had to stop right there to catch breath and give her legs a chance to cool. But it felt good, even that her legs and lungs burned, the weight of the world felt easier and genuine happiness flooded her.

  "Vivian, that's not good to run like that while your body isn't warmed up", she heard Frank's voice, but rather wanted to enjoy her happiness.

  "Now I'm warm", she managed to say between frantic breaths.

  "That was a crazy sprint for sure", he agreed, "but be careful about your heart."

  She felt fear like an icy spike in her chest for a moment and nodded, "Guess so. But it still felt good."

  No way she wanted to be back in the mind bank already just after being alive for a weeks. She had to be more careful indeed.

  She began to jog at a rather slow pace again, Frank at her side, both quiet for a while until he spoke up, "So how's it to be a big cat?"

  She leered at him for a moment trying to find out about the thoughts behind his words, "Some things are good, some bad. A while I was sad about the bad things, now I try to enjoy the good ones and forget the rest", and after a while she added, "There's quite a lot to enjoy actually. I like sports a lot more now than I did before. Yeah. And water and meat, if that means something. And the runners high. Never had that before. Also there is a whole new world of scents and smells that I never knew about before."

  He didn't answer immediately and she looked at him, "Want to race me for another lap?"

  He shook his head and laughed, "You just sprinted a world record lap and want to do another one?"

  She nodded and smiled at him, "You might actually have a chance."

  "Flying start next time we cross the line?" He suggested.

  "Alright", she confirmed. Not even one hundred meters till the line, maybe seventy.

  They both jogged at an even pace and once they crossed the line the race was on. She definitely had him on the first fifty meters, the first one hundred and two hundred. But then he caught up and she just didn't have enough left to counter. Now both were standing, bent forward with their hands on their knees, her tail hanging rather limply. "You won", she had to admit.

  "But only just. And you ran the lap just a minute before", he was trying to be a good sport. She stumbled more than she walked over to him and leaned in to press her forehead against his, "Thank you for the race, Frank."

  "Sure thing, Vivian", he let her know between deep breathes.

  "Do you think we can get a rugby ball for some throw and catch?" She asked and felt how he tried to shake his head while she still had her forehead against his, "Sure. Just need to ask the kit man for the key to the equipment shed."

  Frank knew the man, and so it was quickly achieved. They had a rugby ball now, were on the field and Frank was ready to throw.

  "Go long, Vivian!" She heard Frank's shout and was already running while she looked over her shoulder to see where the ball was going to. A good throw, the ball was flying steady and she had to run it up. Frank knew how to do that right. She was running towards the point where she hoped, she could jump and catch the ball from the air. And they both were closing in fast.

  One, two, three more steps then she felt it, it was the right moment and she jumped from the next step with all force, flying towards the ball, which had come in high. A good jump and she caught the ball with both hands, pulled it towards her chest and felt an incredible urge to secure the catch with her snout.

  The ball popped with a loud bang between her fangs.

  Shit.

  She didn't bother to land on her feet, just hit the ground and rolled over a few times to use up her momentum before she stood up and picked the limp ball from her fangs.

  Shit.

  Frank came running to her, "Vivian, what are you doing?"

  She sighed a little hiss and held the limp ball up, "I've caught the ball. Then the thing exploded."

  "You are not supposed to bite ball!" Frank shouted at her and her ears rang a little. That was too loud.

  "Tell that to my instincts", she shrugged, "I knew that right until I caught it and held it tight. Then all I wanted was to bite the thing and secure the catch."

  "Yeah that ball won't go anywhere anymore. Well done! But now we have to pay for the ball!" Frank was still shouting and she tried to fold her ears some to lower the incoming volume.

  She sigh-hissed once more and shrugged, "Yeah. Guess we need to find something more bite resistant for me to catch."

  "Bite resistant, ey? You do have hands! Use them!", he was still shouting and gesturing frantically.

  "I did! At least at first! Then it triggered some sort of hunting instinct. Can't do much about that. Probably I'll bite the next one as well. We need something tougher to throw and catch", she suggested.

  "Hunting instinct?" He was asking in a more normal voice.

  "Yeah. I'm bad at instinct control. That really gets me again and again, and that's why I need someone like you to pick me up and bring me home safely again. Can't do much about it", she tried to explain and shrugged.

  "Hey you!" Someone shouted and her ears quickly told her from where the shout had come. She spotted the kit man approaching. Shit again.

  "Sorry, man", she shouted in his direction.

  "You'll pay for that ball right now!" He emphasized every word while he was coming closer with quick steps, pointing at her.

  "Can't, I don't have money. But you can call my guardian if you want. He can pay", she offered

  Now she faced a hologram of Tom, yelling at her, "You jumped and killed the ball?"

  She sigh-hissed and shrugged, "It triggered some hunting instinct! Not my fault. I didn't even know a ball can do that. Not till now. I never caught a ball before."

  He facepalmed and was silent for a moment before his hologram faced the kit man, "Alright Mister, I'll pay for the damn thing."

  The kit man nodded and pointed at Tom's hologram, "Very well, but one thing Mister Morgan! Make sure she stays away from any balls from now and anyone practicing ball sports."

  She nodded in Frank's direction, "That'll be his job, actually."

  Frank looked shocked for a moment, then his eyes lit up and he spoke slowly, "So that is why Mr. Morgan gave me the stun gun."