Alejandro Vargas, contrary to popular belief, doesn't live on base. Yes, he's the Colonel of a large unit of soldiers but even the greatest need breaks from time to time, even when those breaks are few and far between deployment.

When he's not at base, he doesn't live in a big flashy house in the city, no, Alejandro never was a big city kinda guy. He lives off the beaten track, some cabin in the middle of the woods somewhere. It's incredibly peaceful, a break away from the stress of hearing guns firing and bombs exploding. Just... Birds singing and leaves whispering.

And the occasional wild animal.

Something Alejandro doesn't do well with is bears. He's not... scared of them, no way! It's just, they're big and could rip him apart if they wanted to. The predator of the forest, as they're called. So he has plenty of bear traps laid around his cabin and keeps a rifle nearby at all costs.

That's not to say he just catches bears. Some smaller animals sometimes fall victim to his traps and he hates that it happens but he can't get rid of the traps for his safety. Those small animals get killed and served for dinner. The ones he doesn't eat get buried because Alejandro isn't completely heartless. They deserve a burial.

It's quite a common occurrence. He checks the traps when he wakes up and just after lunch, often bringing a rabbit or hare back to his cabin.

But he's never, ever had a hybrid get caught in his traps. It's always a probability, he knows that but he also knows hybrids are smarter than usual animals and can figure out if a place is trapped or not. And even if they've ever been caught, they must have managed to free themselves before Alejandro could find them.

He does feel bad whenever he sees blood on the traps with no animal, knowing that it was most likely a hybrids ankle that fell victim to it. Hopefully they manage to get help for their injuries. Hybrids don't bother him, he tries to not bother them.

Until he actually finds a hybrid still stuck in his trap when he checks it.

Usually hybrids are more aware of their surroundings and manage to work out when there's a human or trap nearby and avoid it at all costs, keeping the barrier between human and hybrid interactions at a minimum. Despite hybrids being slowly integrated into human society, it's slow progress and hybrids are yet to trust humans, which isn't very surprising considering the way humans treat animals.

The seasons have slowly changed to a cooler wintery feel, autumnal months dipping merging into November. The leaves have fallen from the surrounding trees and the ground is cold, mushy, and muddy. Alejandro wakes up on his third day of leave in his cabin, feeling the chill set in quickly. He's on leave because he's just been on a bone shaking mission in which he had to save his sergeant major from a burning building and ended up being commanded medical leave from trained medics at base.

He gets up and goes to check his traps as his usual morning routine, still feeling the after effects of the fire licking at his skin, causing him to feel warm and full of adrenaline despite the colder temperatures. The first two traps he checks have nothing, he's not surprised. It's too cold, animals are hidden in their burrows.

But as he approaches the third trap, he notices something isn't right. There's something caught in it, unmoving and lifeless. He walks up to it slowly so he won't spook it if it's still alive. There's a halo of crimson surrounding the trap, a clear show that the animal has struggled for the grasp of freedom.

When he's only a yard away he looks a bit harder, squinting in the dim early morning light. It doesn't look to be a full animal, it looks more like a hybrid. Large, soft rabbit ears blending with a mop of human hair is an obvious sign that it's a half rabbit, half human hybrid.

Alejandro crouches down by the side of the trap, snapping a twig underfoot and causing the hybrid to startle, uncurling and revealing that the trap is clamped around it's ankle. He holds his hands out placatingly.

"Easy, conejito. I'm going to help."