All too late, Hunter had realized why Arizona seemed so surprised upon seeing him. "U-uh... I... I can explain!" he sputtered, his mind racing with excuses that he could use as to why those ears and tail were on him.

"You're a shifter..." Arizona muttered in a dazed, disbelieving tone.

"S-so what if I am...?" Hunter responded in a shaky voice, trying his best to make himself seem like he was confident and willing to fight if needed, though he wasn't even convincing himself at the moment.

Much to Hunter's surprise, Arizona grinned widely. "You really are a shifter! This is so awesome! What kind of shifter are you? And can I touch your ears? They look so soft!" she inquired, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

Hunter blinked in confusion in response to Arizona's reaction to what he was. "You... you aren't going to kick me out...? But... you're a human..."

Arizona let out a soft laugh. "I was born and spent most of my childhood in Honimress. Sorry if my thoughts on shifters don't exactly match up with the ideals of most of the humans here." she responded, an amused smile upon her lips.

"Honimress? Why would you want to move here from a country like that? That place is paradise compared to here!"

"Hey, it wasn't my decision. My parents wanted a change of scenery and my dad's brother lived here and was practically begging the two to move closer so we could see him more often, so we ended up here. Of course, we didn't think the country was going to be this bad. We only heard things from my uncle and he always raved about how amazing it was. My parents already had bought the house and we'd already gotten here by the time we saw how bad things were." Arizona said with a shrug, beginning to clean the glass on the floor.

"Well... why didn't you move out of here once you were old enough? It was probably pretty difficult for you to get a house without being married or in a relationship."

"You really think I didn't try that? I tried looking for housing in every country I could think of. Unfortunately, getting a citizenship, much less a home to those countries from here is so damn expensive. I just couldn't afford it. Besides, not many other countries are all that fond of the people here. I would love to get out of here some day, though. I've actually been saving up money to do so. I'm thinking Tirithill would be a nice place to live." Arizona shrugged.

Hunter was about to respond, though a knock on the door had caught his attention. Arizona swore under her breath. "I forgot the meeting was going to be at my place this time..." she muttered before turning to Hunter. "You might wanna go get your cloak and cover your ears and tail. I'm not really sure how the others'll react to your ears and tail and I'd rather there not be any violence around here." she said before heading towards the door.

Hunter nodded in understanding and rushed towards the guest room, quickly pulling on his cloak and making sure it covered what it needed to before re-emerging just as Arizona let in the guests at the door. There were only four people, all of them being female.

Hunter immediately blushed upon seeing the last woman in the group. Her beauty was almost other-wordly and she held herself with a grace she didn't seem to know she had. Hunter couldn't help but stare, though his attention was soon captured by Arizona speaking up near him.

"She's pretty, isn't she?" she asked, subtly gesturing to the woman Hunter had been staring at. Hunter tentatively nodded in response. Arizona let out a small laugh. "Pretty much everyone seems to think that about Melody. Though, not many people know that much about her and she doesn't really seem interested in any romantic advances. Still, she's a great member of our club. She's pretty quiet, but she's really nice."

Hunter perked slightly. "Club? You run a club?"

"Ah, no, not really... I'm not even the person who came up with the idea, that was Fae. Other than that, there really isn't a leader or anything. We don't even really have an official name. We just kinda gather a couple times every month and just talk. It's pretty nice."

"What exactly do you talk about...?"

"Oh nothing much, mostly just ways to stop all the discrimination and violence that goes on here. It's been going good so far. No one in our group's gotten arrested, at least, though there have been some threats. But, they couldn't really do too much seeing as how we weren't breaking any laws. We've been very careful with that." Arizona spoke with a confident smirk.

"So...um... how exactly do you all go through with trying to stop that? I mean, it sounds like a great premise, but isn't your group a little... small to make much of a difference?"

"Oh, we aren't the only group. There are a few others like us and we gather up with them sometimes. Besides, just because we're a small group doesn't mean we can't try our best to have our voices heard, even if it's only by a handful of people." Arizona shrugged.

Hunter was about to respond, though he was cut off by one of the women calling out "Hey Ari, you gonna join the group?"

Arizona jolted slightly. "Ah, yeah! Sorry, got a bit sidetracked!" she responded before heading over to the group. Hunter watched a little ways away, not really sure of what to do at the moment. Though, he was spared having to figure out something to do as he was waved over by Arizona. Tentatively, he approached the group.

"Everyone, this is Hunter. Hunter, this is Melody, Fae, Luna, and Mercy." Arizona said in a cheery tone, gesturing to each woman as she introduced them. Hunter gave a soft, nervous greeting. The woman Arizona introduced as Luna seemed to scrutinize him with suspicion.

"Ari, why exactly is there a guy in your house? Are you trying to get yourself hurt? You know how guys are around here." Luna spoke, that suspicious gaze not once leaving her face as she glared towards Hunter. Hunter shrunk back slightly in response to the glare, unsure of what he could say to remedy the situation.

Luckily, the situation was saved by Arizona. "Oh come on, Luna. Hunter's not out to get me. He was here throughout the night and as far as I know, he didn't do anything to me." she sighed.

"Wait, he was here with you alone at night? Are you serious, Ari? I know you can handle yourself, but you can't just go inviting strangers over for the night, especially if they're guys! Who knows what could have happened to you!" Luna shouted. Hunter could have sworn he saw something twitch underneath the bandanna she wore.

The two women argued for a little while until Fae spoke up. "Okay, that's enough you two! Luna, I get that you want to make sure Ari's safe, but she's an adult and can make her own decisions. And Ari, I know you can handle yourself, but you do need to be careful about having people over at your house, especially overnight." she spoke, eyeing the both of them in a manner that suggested that she didn't want to be argued with. Both women grumbled a bit, but didn't argue any further.

Once the two had quieted down, Fae spoke again. "Well, now that that's settled, let's move on to what this meeting is about, yeah? First things first; does anyone have any ideas as to events we could hold that could help stop the war going on here? Or just anything to help improve the country in general?"

"I still vote that we just send all the men off to a deserted island and just start over without them. They're not good for anything except hurting women." Luna muttered, shooting a subtle glare towards Hunter as she spoke.

Mercy sighed and spoke up. "That won't solve anything, Luna. There are plenty of guys here who don't like the state this country's in. We need to team up with them and help them change this place. They've got more of a voice than we do as it stands right now." she responded. Melody, Fae, and Arizona nodded in agreement with what she said.

"Oh come on, you can't possibly believe those men want to change the state of a country where they're pretty much in charge of everything. They're probably just saying they don't like it because they want to get into a girl's pants by acting like they want to change things." Luna retorted with an eye roll as she rose. "Just forget this. I'm out of here. You girls obviously won't believe a thing I say, so don't come crying to me when the guys you try to get to help you end up turning on you because you won't sleep with them." she added before heading out, slamming the door as she went.

This time, Melody spoke up. "I'll go talk to her." she said, standing and exiting as well. Fae let out another soft sigh as she watched the two go.

"Well, I suppose that concludes this month's meeting, as short as it is... I'll see you girls at my place next week. It was nice meeting you, Hunter." Fae spoke, shooting a small smile towards Hunter as she said the last part, before exiting as well, followed by Mercy. Hunter quietly nodded and responded "Nice meeting you too." in a soft tone.

As the two left Arizona sighed as she shut the door. "Well, that went about as well as trying to get honey from a wasp's nest." she grumbled. "Sorry about that, Luna just really isn't fond of guys for whatever reason. Didn't think she'd react like that, though... at least the other girls seem alright with you."

"It's alright... she did have a point about you letting me stay here for the night." Hunter responded quietly.

"Yeah, but you seemed harmless enough and you didn't do anything to me that I know of. Besides, it was my decision. Maybe not a smart one, but it wasn't like you forced me to let you stay." Arizona responded with a shrug. "Anyways, how about we go find you some clothes? And maybe a bandanna or something to cover those ears of yours." she added. Hunter nodded in response.