"Tsk," Chanelle sighed. The disappointment stretched across her face, a burdensome canvas. "So even the rare few of us who're close to carnivores aren't safe." She hugged herself. It was like she'd been hurt in the same way, and was frightened by his story. But Cooper wasn't interested in her story, or any of their stories. He just wanted to get home. To leave this place would be to enter paradise. He could handle the grotesque pictures and troubling statistics, but a trip down trauma lane was not a path he would take with these strangers.

"Cooper, this is further reason for you to join us." A small paw stretched toward Cooper. It was strange to see a small paw. Most herbivores he knew had hooves. The skunk, however, did not. He'd only ever seen them on carnivores.

"Okay, look. I just don't want to put muzzles on animals. Not canines, felines, avians, uh, ursas- I don't want to muzzle any carnivore." Cooper huffed. He noticed Chanelle's smile grow. She looked as though in a dreamy daze, just for a moment. Any herbivore girl would moon over a man they knew had courage. It was so much more difficult for the weak to be brave.

Peony chortled. It was weird to hear her laugh. "Cooper, you misunderstand," She swatted the air in front of him. "We don't want to muzzle anybody. The movement was just a small baseline for our group."

That confused him. Why go over all that stuff with the canine confinement if it wasn't even what they wanted? "Then, what are you advocating for? Isn't there some cause that you want me to speak for?"

James stepped forward. He towered over the white-tailed deer. "Little dude, we just want to keep all carnivores from goin' 'grr' like that." It had been obvious for a while why this elk wasn't the speaker for the group, but that statement was hard to piece together.

"Feral prevention?" Cooper asked. He wasn't so sure that was what he meant. It sounded like a good idea, if there were any means to come about it.

"Yep! Mutually beneficial for every animal. Herbivores and carnivores alike. Pretty cool, huh?" Chanelle twirled over. She had so much energy, and so much grace. It was hard to tell whether she sucked energy from those around her, or supplied it to them.

"I... yes, but how would you do that? There's no way to stop it, is there? Before it happens?" Cooper rubbed his temples. He thought back to his previous statement; it was already illegal to eat each other. If carnivores intended to eat others alive, they would. If they didn't intend to, they wouldn't.

"Well, we'd have to start with a few awareness speeches. Just to get the animals here to get it in their heads." The gazelle explained. "It wouldn't take long to get to the next stage, we would jus-"

"Those speeches would get the herbivores riled up. It would enrage half the carnivores, and the other half would be chock-full of guilt, and it'd be unnecessary. That doesn't sound ideal to me." Cooper butted in. He wasn't sure how long the group had been planning this. He remembered when he met Chanelle, she said she originally just wanted an interview from the debate team leader. She hadn't even been looking for him. That only proved this wasn't as well thought-out as they wanted it to be.

Peony interjected quickly. The intelligent skunk looked focused. She had prepared for questions like this. In fact, she respected that he asked them at all. Maybe he could be more than a pretty face for the team, if need be. "That's why phase two would involve talking specifically to the carnivores. Nothing looks better to them than a frail herbivore being brave enough to care about them." It sounded nice, but it was still an 'us... and them' situation.

"You'd basically tell them that it'd suck to eat their buds, bro." Maybe James was just the comic relief in this group. He didn't contribute anything intelligent. Or maybe he was only here because of Chanelle.

The gazelle translated. "He means you'll tel- you'll inform them of the risks for them. When they go feral. Herbivores aren't the only ones who have it tough when that happens. Supposedly, carnivores remember nothing from when they've gone feral. It's like... it's like blacking out when you're drunk."

"Coming from someone especially who was brave enough to just casually stand up against a big cat, of all carnivores," She adorned a proud grin, as though the deer were her child who had accomplished a big feat. "No less a jaguar, since they have one of the strongest bite strengths on the planet, they wouldn't just hear noise when you speak. They'd listen to you. All of them."

Cooper was deep in thought. He pictured Noah. His friend was practically harmless. Sure, he was loud, rambunctious, in-your-face, but he was so extroverted that it was his nature. Plenty of herbivores were like that. He supposed perhaps it was just more intimidating from a big cat.

"Nobody wants to black out," Chanelle's voice brought new pictures to his mind. "Then suddenly wake up in a cell with blood on their paws." The image of Noah behind bars with frightened eyes and creamy red blood covering his muzzle filled in Cooper's mind. It would've been a nightmare, for everybody. Noah would be an incarcerated criminal, and Cooper's family would berate him for putting himself in so much risk- though he would never be the one who was killed.

"I'll think about it. When's my deadline?" The buck never wanted that image to become a reality. If the only thing that really caused a carnivore to go 'feral' was to eat part of a living herbivore, it wasn't likely. But the chances were never zero. Not even for Noah. Even Cooper knew that. He didn't deny nature itself, after all. He just knew that his friend had excellent self-control.