Character: Mal
Rating: B

Disclaimer: The author makes no claim to owning the rights of anything to do with Terry Pratchett or Discworld.

Instinct to Fight
by Amazon Syren

     The first days are the hardest.
     This is what Ivan told her, after she came out of the cell.
     Learning to replace the natural – if unnecessary – craving for human blood with a craving for something else – anything else – was the hard part.
     She remembered it now, now that her substitute was gone and she was going through withdrawal all over again.
     She remembered the mantras that she’d spoken, during those first few weeks, every evening, sometimes every hour, to keep herself focussed.
     True control is control of the self,
     Mine is the path of true strength,
     Not the false path of the Beast.
     Sometimes it was hard to believe those words, yet she framed them anyway, her lips moving silently as she dangled from the tree branch.
     ”What happens if you join up but then decide you don’t want to?”
     “I think it’s called deserting and they cut your head off.”
     Mal bit her lip – and then stopped, because she knew she might bite through it.
     They might have to cut her head off after all...