I stopped in the act of bringing the cup to my mouth, and I had to ask:
“…you said it was a jaguar.”
“Excuse me?” He raised his eyebrows, confused.
“The animal… I mean, this creature that’s chasing you—you said it was a jaguar. Now you say it’s a panther. It’s a ‘he,’ right? If he transforms like you, and according to what you told me, it’s a ‘he,’ not a ‘she’…”
“The black melanistic jaguar is colloquially known as a ‘black panther.’”
“…Jaguar what?”
Alexander smiled a little again; I want to believe he wasn’t mocking my ignorance.
“Melanistic. It means that because of a genetic anomaly its coat isn’t black-and-gold spotted like that of a jaguar or a leopard, but mostly black. In the case of wild animals, it happens at random; but as far as I know, among feline hybrids it’s a charac
