She was angry. Roger had given her exactly one night off, after the leg and chest operations. Today she was supposed to sit on display already again, even if no one expected her to dance. Her canines still hurt from being ground and capped, and her claws felt weird weird as well, steel capped as they were now. Roger didn't care about that and she had to sit on her podium and 'just sit and look pretty' as he had ordered. And as usual, it was hard to protest a job that involved nothing but sitting for some hours, even if she didn't feel well.

  At least her capped fangs actually looked good. The metal caps had a slightly golden hue to them and had been advertised to be tougher than steel, which probably meant they wouldn't get damaged easily. Hopefully they also kept the shine.

  The claw caps were pure silver, polished stainless steel. No big issue, if she ever wanted a different look, the caps had to be replaced every few weeks anyway, so for little money she could get different caps. Silver looked good to her though, a nice contrast to the black dyed fur on her hands and forearms.

  Lost in thought and still grumpy for not getting another evening off at least, she hissed a warning when she felt a light touch at her left forearm, even before she looked to see whom had touched her. A petite, young looking woman with long blonde hair and blue eyes - at least blue to her sight - who seemed quite startled from her hiss, and still held her hand like frozen near her forearm.

  "Can you speak?" The woman had to shout to be understood over the loud music in the club.

  She nodded and shouted back, "Yes, I can speak, why?" Each word a carefully articulated hiss.

  The woman said something but over the loud music she couldn't understand her, so she hopped down from her podium to be on the same level as the petite woman. Her new extended legs took the impact without pain, and she remained in good balance. The medics had done quite good work as it seemed. Maybe she'd even be able to dance this night if she wanted? Just the pain in her canines kept being annoying.

  "Now we can talk better. I'm sorry, what did you just say?" She showed her freshly capped fangs in a toothy smile and they shone up golden, caught in a beam of light.

  "I said, I can understand you", the woman looked all baffled.

  She nodded and took a step closer, "Yeah, most people can understand me. Some just don't want to understand me." She pointed to a pair of empty bar stools, "Come, let's sit and talk a bit. I don't need to dance today, my legs aren't good. But some talk will be nice."

  She climbed the left bar stool and waited till the woman took seat as well. The bar area was dimly illuminated, lit up just occasionally when a beam from one of the big spot lights traveled over them.

  "What about your legs? And I heard some people calling you an animal", the woman started to explain.

  She showed a pained grin, "I had an operation on my legs yesterday, but they feel quite good already again. And animal? Would be nice if they said sapient animal, but I guess that's what I get."

  "How intelligent are you?", the woman asked.

  She looked at the woman, lost for words for more than just a moment.

  "How intelligent?" She eventually repeated, head lightly tilted to the right.

  "Yes, if you are some sort of animal?" The woman clarified the question.

  She put a steel capped claw to the woman's nose, "I used to be a human before this. Maybe not the most intelligent, but intelligent enough."

  The woman flinched and she took the claw away, her snout still wrinkled in annoyance about the question.

  "A human? But why did you do this?" The woman continued the train of unpleasant questions, and she regretted coming down from her podium. This talk wasn't any better than sitting up there with hurting canines. Now she had hurting canines and unpleasant talk in combination.

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  She hissed a sigh.

  "Shit happens. I don't want to talk about it. I'm intelligent enough that you can talk to me and I know how to open a fridge to get to the food", she explained.

  "But there are other furries who aren't ... animals", the woman tried to explain her point.

  "Not everyone's a winner. I expected some shit, but, eh, different shit. Sorry, bad choice of words", she tried to give an apologetic smile.

  "Do you want to be a human again?" The woman kept asking.

  She shrugged, "Not sure if I want to be a human again. I grew to like this body. It's pretty cool, I can do a lot of things which I couldn't do before. Well, there are some things which I'm quite bad at now. Human? Probably not. But I'd like to be a proper person again."

  There was a pause before the woman spoke up again and another wandering spotlight flashed them briefly, "How is it to be a sapient animal?"

  She looked at the woman, head slightly tilted once more, "Depends on what's important to you. If freedom is among it, then it's bad. If you just want food, a warm place to sleep and basic healthcare, it's good. It depends a whole lot on your caretaker. If you get an idiot, well, then you are some idiots pet and cannot do much about it. If your caretaker is cool and actually cares for you, it's nice."

  She paused a moment, "It's nothing though you want to become if you have a choice."

  "And your caretaker has you work here as dancer? Is that even legal?" The woman didn't relent on unpleasant questions.

  "He's the owner of the club. I'm kinda at home here, and so it's legal. He found a very clever loophole in the rules", she explained with a pained grin.

  The woman looked at her, "You don't seem to be particularly unhappy about your situation though."

  She shrugged lightly, "Sometimes it sucks. But I actually like to dance with people, so this here is the better part of my life. It's more the other things that I have to do, which I like less."

  Someone arranged a third bar stool at their side and took seat. She had met the guy before, danced with him, just there were so many names to remember. She tried a smile and nodded while a name came to her mind, "Peter, is it? Sorry, got so many names to remember."

  He nodded and gave a smile in return, "Hi Vivian. And yes, Peter is right." Then he looked at the smaller woman, "And who are you?"

  The woman hesitated a moment before she answered, "I'm Dara."

  Peter pointed at her, "You've changed some, what happened Vivian?"

  She chuckled, "Remember when I asked if you'll still dance with me if I stand taller? Got my leg extensions yesterday. Maybe we can try to dance later? My legs seem good enough, even it's only been a day since."

  "Oh", Peter seemed surprised, "No, that's not what I meant ..."

  A moment she was confused, then she grinned and gestured in front of her chest, "Ah right. You mean, more around here. Eh, well, rather less around here now?"

  He nodded, "Yes. Why did you do that?"

  She shrugged briefly, "Roger suggested it. I didn't like the idea at first, but now it actually feels alright. It's easier to stand all upright, easier on my spine", then she had to laugh, "So, new old question, will you still dance with me now that I look like this?"

  Dara interrupted before Peter could answer, "What do you mean, Roger suggested it?"

  "As I said he suggested it, and I think it came out alright", then she grinned and squinted an eye, "Well, unless Peter doesn't want to dance with me anymore." She looked at Peter, "But you won't skip out on me, will you?"

  Peter seemed to confirm, but Bruno's voice from the integrated speakers in her ear protectors made it hard to understand, "Night cat, this isn't looking good. If your legs are bad, no need to dance, but get up back to your post, alright? People want to see you."

  She tapped her collar to activate the mike and open the line, "Got it. I'll be back up there in a second."

  Now both looked at her and she explained, "Sorry, got a call, I need to get back up onto the podium. I'm at work, not supposed to chat. So, I wish you two a good time. If one of you wants to dance with me, just wave to get my attention and I'll bring you up on the podium too."

  Dara looked confused again but Peter seemed to understand, "It was nice to talk to you anyways. See you later!"

  She smiled, partly happy to have escaped Dara's stream of questions, partly unhappy not able to talk to pert some more, waved briefly at them and with a hop and some arm support she was up on the podium again, almost graceful given the circumstances. Her legs worked surprisingly well, even just one day after the operation. She just needed a bit more practice to aim jumps.

  She stood up, looked over the club once more and got into moving to the music. Her claws and the metal applications on her outfit lit up in the spotlight whenever the angle was right. A while she noticed no one looking at her, but then she managed to make eye contact with a apparently mid aged man on the dance floor and gave him a smile, nod and blinked her eyes. The man turned more towards her, and she rose her arms to show all of herself unobscured while she stepped and bent to the beat.

  She received a few hinted hip thrusts, laughed and imitated grabbing and thrusting back. The move earned her some hand clapping, which she could only see but not hear, but made her smile anyways.

  For a little while, the pain and anger were forgotten over the playful dance, even if so many meters separated them. Eventually the music changed and she gave a quick wave before she sat down to relax for a while. This was the part of the job that she liked, and once the music returned to inspire her, she'd dance again. Maybe someone would even dare and join her up here on her podium.