This week is a rewrite of Aardvark. Link here! The first time I wrote it I was in a very 'human' head space, and since SoFurry has rules about strictly human stories (for now -- this may change) I decided to bring out the furry in it. I probably could have posted the original, but I really wanted to give it a try.
Word to the wise -- it's complicated. I wanted to maintain the same feel of the original, but have it make sense in an animal-centric universe. I decided to go with hybrids, because I haven't written much about them and thought it would be an interesting exercise. It required a bit of world building, but it's something I'm sure I can use for future stories.
For this, I took a queue from the English concept of degeneration which suggests that a person's value can go up or down depending on who and how they marry. For my world, a creature's status is determined by the types of species they display. Birds are the genetically untrustworthy ones, because, if you've ever worked or be...