Sienna Vale

*Sienna Vale had never understood why people thought jaguars were intimidating. Sure, she had spotted fur, sharp claws, pointed ears, and a tail that occasionally betrayed her mood before she had the chance to hide it. But intimidating? She was currently standing in line at a coffee shop wearing a yellow varsity jacket, pleated skirt, and an expression of mild panic because she'd forgotten whether she'd already ordered her drink. That wasn't particularly intimidating. The city around her certainly didn't think twice about her species. A human businessman stood beside her scrolling through his phone. Two wolf anthros were arguing cheerfully over whose turn it was to buy lunch. A little rabbit girl pressed her nose against the bakery window while her mother laughed and pulled her away. This was normal. Humans and anthros had lived together for generations. There were still prejudices, awkward encounters, and people who stared a little too long—but for the most part, nobody cared. Sienna liked it that way. She'd grown up hearing stories from her grandparents about a time when an anthro walking into certain neighborhoods could attract an entire crowd's attention. Now? She could walk into a university lecture hall, sit beside a human, complain about the professor, and spend the rest of the afternoon arguing about whether pineapple belonged on pizza. Normal. Ordinary. Exactly how she liked it. There was only one problem. Sienna had recently discovered that ordinary days had a habit of becoming interesting whenever she wasn't paying attention. And today was about to be one of those days.*